Sermons of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon

Volume 5

Chapter 1: God’s Possession and Our Possession

Matthew 6:16-34
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea
November 9, 1958

Prayer

Father, the time is approaching when we must direct our steps toward Heaven and run. We have begun to know the great hardships the Father has suffered and learned about His Will. We have also come to know how difficult is the children’s responsibility, which the Father wishes us to fulfill.

A person who understands the Father’s Will, a person who is to live in the garden the Father grants, understands that he will have to shed tears ceaselessly before the Father. He understands that he will not be able to avoid sustaining an injury as he attempts to go toward the Father. He understands that he will have to go in company with the Father. That person’s body will have to bear the marks of all this. He will have deep regret and endless, bitter grief in his heart. He must appeal to Heaven in preparation for the day of the Father’s judgment. We know that we must make eternal ties with the Father who seeks such sons and daughters. Please guide us not to stand in a position where we feel we already belong to the Father. Let us not forget that we are too ashamed to speak, too ashamed to act, and too ashamed to even lift our faces.

If there is a person among us who has opened up his mind to the heavenly anxiety and who has experienced the shimjung of the Father in his heart, he will become a friend who cannot help weeping bitterly in sorrow, representing the Father and the people of this nation. We know that he will mourn bitterly in sorrow, representing humankind and will share in the grief that pierced the depth of Heaven and earth and all of the spiritual world.

As we ponder whether we ourselves are in such a position today, Father, please let us become people who at least feel greatly indebted, if we are unable to face the Father who toiled, the Father who was concerned for us, the Father who walked the path of tribulation. My Father, I pray this from the bottom of my heart.

Father, what great sorrow You went through to command and lead the chosen people into the holy castle, the gates of Jerusalem. How great Your suffering has been as You have tried to take care of us and lead us into goodness! Nevertheless, we have forgotten the Father’s toilsome effort; we have forgotten the Father’s concern. We have forgotten to follow in the Father’s footprints as He guides us. Now, since Heaven’s elite soldiers are taking action, please allow those actions to follow in the Father’s footprints. Allow them to be actions of dignity.

Humankind is unwilling to walk this path. We know that many people today and tomorrow may wish to go this path mentally, but they are not able to put their thoughts into action. Please awaken us to the fact that the responsibility to solve this is not only the Father’s responsibility or some leader’s responsibility, it is ours.

However, since we have realized that there is an extremely small number of people willing to be responsible for this stark reality, please let the Father’s ardent passion overflow our idle minds. Let the Father’s sorrowful shimjung overflow in us, thereby allowing us to be righteous people who can step forth seeking the path of Heaven’s Will. Father, I ardently wish and desire this.

There are many people who wish for Heaven’s blessing, and many people are exerting themselves to the utmost to become the Father’s children. However, we know that today, after 6,000 years of history have elapsed, it is still difficult to find the Father’s true sons and daughters: devoted people who are willing to be sacrificial offerings before the Father.

We are extremely fearful of becoming a pitiful throng of people who disrupt the Father’s providential course. Please allow us to be concerned about the fact that we cannot guarantee that will not happen any more than the ancient Israelites could. Father, I sincerely wish and desire You to guide us to become sons and daughters who, feeling concern about our inadequacies, make exhaustive efforts not to be shameful, anxiety-causing children in the presence of the Father.

Now, when the bitter resentment of our ancestors is blocking our way, when billions of satans of distrust are leading us into temptation, Father, I sincerely wish and desire that You will allow us to be found to be persons of value who can be fully proud in the presence of the Father.

Since we came forth on this day to bow respectfully before You, please allow us to stand in such a position where, by reflecting upon our minds and bodies, we can set up the condition of being able to unite into one, the condition of goodness.

Father, who are these people who pray with concern for You this day? Who are these people who shed tears? Who are these people who grieve on behalf of Heaven and earth? Please bless them and allow the day of glory to come upon them as quickly as possible.

Father, please allow Your sons and daughters gathered here to be responsible, on their own, for what many other people have not fulfilled. Father, I pray from the bottom of my heart that You will allow us to be the sons and daughters who are truthful before the mission that has been left to us, honest and trustworthy before the Will, who can fight on, giving their all for the sake of the one Will of the Father.

Please allow us to analyze, of our accord, how far our paths and positions are from the original ideal garden. I sincerely wish You will guide us to be able to win victory in the fight to dash past that concern.

Please materialize everything this day according to Your Will. If there is a person who is equipped with the heart that can receive the grace of happiness, please work through him and manifest Yourself as he relates to You. I sincerely implore and desire that You bless him according to the devoted efforts he makes for the Father.

Since we entrusted everything to You, Father, please take charge of it all. Ardently soliciting that You will not allow this hour to be one of which Satan takes advantage, we pray all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.

I will speak briefly on the topic “God’s Possession and Our Possession.”

The Created Things Lost Their Master

We know that the created things have lost their master. We know very well that this is true of us as well. Due to the fall, human beings cannot belong to God in any absolute sense. They cannot own the created things and this world in an absolute sense either. We should know the sorrowful fact that until today, even God, the Absolute Being, has not been able to take charge confidently, asserting that all His created things belong to Him.

For this reason, the historic course until today has been for the purpose of belonging to one master. We must keep in mind that until today, human beings have come through a history of struggle, full of ups and downs, to achieve this purpose, having passed through ages and centuries.

We cannot deny that all created things exist. Therefore, there must be a master who is in charge of these created things, an absolute being. Unless we find an absolute, stable point under the management of that absolute being against whom no one can make a false charge, this world cannot escape the history of struggle.

Believers today know very well that God is unable to assert that all of His creation belongs to Him. In other words, God is in a position where He cannot manage all that He Himself devoted His complete energy to and created according to His Will. He cannot use them as He wishes. That is why God’s providential history to restore the original position came into being. That is why religious people have sought God’s Will, even as they arrived at unjust death and undeserved persecution.

Heaven cannot directly supervise the numerous children who come forth fighting to attain the one Will, devoting their efforts and risking their lives for the sake of Heaven, centered on goodness and the glory of victory. This is also God’s sorrow. You must understand that this is also the grief of righteous people who try to walk the truthful course of faith.

You must realize that the day God is able to boast of His own existential value of possession before the whole cosmos is the day all the accounts of God’s providence are settled. It is the focal point of the whole creation’s desire, the basic point that Jesus and all the sages, who came and left, idealized.

Look carefully at yourselves and the living environment in which you are. To whom do the things in your possession, you, your family, your society, state and world belong? Can you affirm that they belong to Heaven? You cannot say they belong to Heaven nor can you say they are yours. You must realize that this has been the greatest sorrow of sorrows for fallen humankind. Having set up providential salvation, God could not tell the people following Him to keep all their worldly things and take care of themselves. We have to feel and experience this situation of God’s. It is an appalling situation. God was to put human beings in the position of the lords of all things, yet He cannot command them to keep the things they have and still follow Him.

Therefore, he who goes forth on the course of seeking truth will have to realize keenly and feel the sorrowful shimjung of God, from the bottom of his heart, who must tell him to cut off from all the belongings he has and follow Him. He who cannot do that will have no connection whatsoever with God when the time of the restoration of God’s right of possession comes.

Religious people today speak of receiving salvation. They speak of their wish to become heavenly people. What is more, they wish to step forth as the chosen third Israel. You must understand that while it is good to have such a mind, the question is whether I, as an individual, have the standard and qualification to become so. This will become a matter for concern. Because Heaven is in a situation where it cannot manage all of creation, we must understand that regardless of how many great people have come and gone on this earth, no brave person has appeared who could completely manage this earth and call it his own.

Until when will this historic course continue? It will continue until the day when the one central figure comes who can assert that this earth belongs eternally to him. Until then, history will go through a course of ups and downs. Some human beings have come forth boasting of their cultures or their political influence and religion as if they belonged to them. However, the center of culture has been transferred to different places according to changes in the stream of thought. Political influence, centered on certain doctrines and assertions, has also taken new turns. Religions have undergone changes. We can see such facts very clearly as we research history. That is, as we look back on the historic course, we can understand that no movement has ever stood in the position to have the decisive right of possession.

The Standard of Moral Doctrine by Which Human Beings Must Abide

The beginning of the fall was when human beings acted at their discretion during the time when God could not completely manage things. If they had acted after welcoming the time when God could completely manage things, they would not have fallen. Ever since the creation of the world, God could not exercise His managerial authority. Incidentally, although numerous people throughout history tried to move a race, tried to move a state, or tried to move the world, no one was able to stand as one totally responsible for his particular age.

The time must come when God manages not only individuals but also the clan, the tribe and the state. Beyond that, He must manage even heaven and earth. Therefore, if Heaven, the earth and the spirit world exist, the ideology of the whole cannot be actualized unless the inevitable movement of God coming to manage them appears in the closing age of history.

That is why Heaven is asking us to give up all the material things we possess, to lay down our lives, to abandon our ideologies and forsake even the feelings of affection we may enjoy on this earth. This is the standard of moral doctrine (truth) upon which God insists.

Why did God set up such a demanding condition as this? Since the time is surely coming when the authority of His possession will be made manifest, God wanted to make us qualified to stand in full measure before Him when that time comes. That is why it has been the indispensable condition by which the people who follow God and seek the Will of goodness must abide.

Looking back on the history of Christianity, we see that God made human beings suffer before giving them happiness. He made them suffer persecution before allowing them to boast. He commanded them to pray ceaselessly, keeping away from environments of enjoyment. The reason God raised this sort of moral standard or truth before human beings was to make them belong fully to Him.

A major directive of the Bible is, You must give up everything and seek His kingdom and His righteousness. Where then will be the Kingdom of God and God’s righteousness? Where will be the person who can claim himself as a person of God? What kind of nation will be God’s nation? It will be a nation of goodness. It will be a nation that transcends religion, a nation uninterested in nationalistic viewpoints, a nation that stands aloof from discriminating human beings and which rises above sovereign power, beyond any culture or thought.

For that reason, the Kingdom of Heaven is the kingdom that good people, without distinction of East and West, contend is their ideal kingdom. It is the place where they would like to live. Furthermore, the Kingdom of Heaven is the place where one can freely lay claim to his possessions, where one can set forth the notion of truly owning. This is the Kingdom of Heaven for which we yearn.

If there are people within Christianity or in some religious denomination who are immersed in a self-centered or denominationally limited notion of owning, the time will come when those people will surely be struck. The time will definitely come when any doctrine that tries to draw and rally the whole, centered on a single nation, will be struck. It is an ironclad rule.

God forgives even Satan. Why does God forgive Satan, unable to strike him? In the name of what goodness does God listen to Satan’s pleas and accept the conditions of Satan’s false charges? It is because, although Satan stands against the Will of God and does not follow Him, Satan does not dislike God. Although he does not follow the Will of God, in his mind, he respects and likes God. Satan is earnestly requesting, “Oh, God, I will offer You this world that is in my possession. Please put aside Adam and raise me in his place. If only You will do that, I will then serve and minister to You more than any human being.” That means that Satan will attend God in a better fashion than human beings, if God puts him in such a position. Thus, God is put in an awkward position.

God’s Possession and Satan’s Possession

What did Heaven wish to do by sending numerous prophets and sages and by sending Jesus? It was to exercise the right of possession against Satan by raising a person who knows God’s situation more than Satan and who cares for God more than Satan. Accomplishing this task is the purpose of the history of the Second Advent.

What was Satan’s motive for becoming Satan? What was the motive that destroyed the heavenly principles? He wanted to receive more love than Adam and Eve. If he had tried to love Adam and Eve more than God loved Adam and Eve, if he had tried to love God more than Adam and Eve loved God, he would not have fallen. Here was the condition in which he was caught. What is evil? Evil is being unable to care for others, rather than oneself. Evil is being unable to serve goodness. Fallen human beings today all are caught in this condition.

What kind of nation is the nation of goodness? What kind of nation is the nation which God can possess? What kind of person can belong to God? What are the created things that can belong to God? What will be the point of conclusion? Whatever is centered on oneself cannot be possessed by God. The being who is centered on God can be absorbed into God. God can possess such a being.

The law in the satanic world demands that one serve and care for oneself. Therefore, people in the satanic world have the notion that the family, the society, the state, the world, and heaven and earth should all exist for their sakes. This is the point of departure from God’s law of goodness. What kind of person then is a good person? He is the person who knows how to use all things that he owns, including his ideas, for the sake of others, feeling they all belong to others. He uses them for the sake of the whole, feeling that they belong to the whole.

What kind of phenomena surround being fallen? The phenomena of attempting to draw all created things and the world, even God, into one’s self-centered life are fallen phenomena. This happened due to Satan’s work.

What is the history of goodness? It is the history of carrying out a revolution within oneself which goes on to pioneer the course of a new direction for the sake of God, the world and others. This is the very purpose of religion.

Looking back on the history of Christianity, we see no one among the people who followed the Will and mission of God who lived for the good of themselves, regardless of their era. The great men who commanded and attached importance to themselves, served and cared for themselves all have disappeared. All such people will face criticism after the lapse of time in history.

The Doctrine Which Jesus Promulgated

What was the purpose of Jesus’ coming to this earth? The purpose was to restore a nation God could own, a man whom God could own and to restore all created things. What doctrine did Jesus promulgate? His principle was to sacrifice himself and serve the nation, the world and the cosmos. The person who serves and sacrifices for the sake of the cosmos becomes the central figure of the cosmos.

We can see many such people, even in the evil world today. We can understand that the people who give devoted service and sacrifice in silence will become the central figures wherever they go, in their nation, their society, anywhere.

Now we must feel we have the responsibility to restore God’s authority to own our individual selves, our families, our society, our nation, the world and the cosmos. This kind of right of ownership is not for God Himself to set up; it is for human beings to establish and resolve for Him. Because this very important duty has been left unfulfilled, the numerous sages and wise men who represented the historic providence could not but go forward, even at the price of beheading and death, to fulfill this duty.

Jesus could not claim to be the son of God while working for thirty years in the house of Joseph. He could not claim that he was the heavenly ambassador plenipotentiary. Jesus knew that even God had not been able to make such a claim throughout the long history. That is why even in the moment of his last prayer in sight of the cross in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus could not center on his will. Rather, he prayed, “Father! Not according to my will but according to Your Will.”

The more strongly Jesus felt a sense of mission and responsibility toward the earth as the Savior, the stronger and greater grew his awareness of his existence and ownership. Yet Jesus knew only too well he should not live for his own sake. Furthermore, Jesus knew that he had to be owned by God, be God’s possession to the furthest degree. He knew how to experience God’s heart and, at the same time, how to seek the Will of God. Therefore, he was able to substitute his heart for God’s heart, and he came to stand in a position where he could substitute his will for God’s Will. Furthermore, you must know that he was able to equip himself with the qualifications of the Savior before all created things and before humankind as the one who must follow the Will and heart of God.

The Qualifications of the People of the Heavenly Kingdom

What kind of people would the people of the heavenly kingdom be? They are the throng who steps forth under the flag of service. For that reason, to save a certain race today, we must distribute everything we own for that race. If that is not enough, we must become the people who know how to give even their lives. These are the very people of the heavenly kingdom. God is in a situation where He has to gather this kind of person and accomplish the ideology of the heavenly kingdom.

Since you have come to know that Jesus wishes to fix the value of true ownership upon this earth, you should think about yourselves. Jesus said, “Do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat?' or What shall we drink?’ or `What shall we wear?'” (Matthew 6:31) This was the word of warning that seemed contradictory to the people of that age.

Why did Jesus speak such words? The heavenly ideology of ownership remained to be restored even at the cost of not eating, drinking and dressing well for 6,000 years.

If there is a certain race that is starving and miserable, God is in a more miserable situation than that race. If a certain race feels mortified, God is in a situation where He feels more mortified.

Nevertheless, God is more concerned about us than we are. When Jesus saw that the people who should have understood this could not understand it and worried only about themselves, he spoke such words. Accordingly, if there is a person today who seeks His kingdom and His righteousness as the word of Jesus said to do, he should lay aside his hunger and anxiously appeal to Heaven, saying, “How many good people are subjected to starvation like myself on the earth?” It is not strange for one who cannot stand in a position of goodness to be subjected to starvation, but people who are in a position of goodness should not face starvation. We must feel concern for the sake of such people. We must realize that we are saddled with this kind of fate. That is why Jesus spoke such words, willing that even if one is not able to wear things and eat, one can still make effort to build the kingdom and the people God can own.

Since it is said that God exists, what kind of people would He then choose? What kind of people would He choose to keep as His children? He would look for the person who goes beyond his hunger and his difficulties, who is able to give his blessing for the sake of others with uplifted hands. He would look for a person who knows how to go beyond his vexation and sorrow and cry out of concern for God’s vexation and sorrow.

Therefore, looking at his enemies from the top of the cross where his own fate hung in the balance, Jesus was unable to say, “Oh, Heaven! Eternal Heaven! Please administer divine punishment upon them.” Instead, he lifted his hands and invoked blessing upon them. You must know that such a heart is the heart of the heavenly kingdom. It is none other than the heart of God.

On the basis of this principle then, when we look carefully at our own religious life and Christianity, which is said to believe in God, how many people are there who are worthy of the heavenly kingdom? Going farther, where is the race that God can eternally claim as His own? Where is the land that God can claim as His kingdom? Where are such things, such a person?

You all wish to go to the Kingdom of Heaven. Not only that, from time to time we happen to see people who confidently claim, “Ah! The Kingdom of Heaven is mine.” When we see such people, we come to wonder how anyone could declare that so confidently, more certain of the aspect of ownership than God Himself.

Since even God Himself cannot stand in a position where He claims that the heavenly kingdom belongs to Him, and since Jesus also cannot stand in a position where he claims that the heavenly kingdom belongs to him, how can they do so? Jesus is still in a position where he prays to Heaven. God also is making effort as of this moment.

What is the reason billions of people in the spirit world are cooperating for the sake of the earth and are unable to lead a joyful life in the seat of liberation, the seat of glory? Why would they have to stand in such a place? From the time of the creation of the world to the present, God has been unable to stand in a position in which He could realize the heavenly kingdom and claim it as His own. In spite of God being in such a situation, some faithful believers on the earth today are speaking so, contrary to the principles of the heavenly way.

The Reason the Faithful Believers Must Walk the Path of Hardship

The closer you walk toward Heaven, the more you dissolve Heaven’s bitter resentment, and the more deeply indebted you feel. For 6,000 years, God has been seeking His kingdom and people on this earth. Consequently, the historic debt of the toil of His seeking has accumulated for 6,000 years. Therefore, even if my individual self has satisfaction and happiness, I cannot say I own the heavenly kingdom.

If one is a son or a daughter of Heaven, he or she is left with the earth and the world for which he or she is responsible and for which he or she must be concerned and offer protection in God’s place. In other words, as long as anything that God cannot own remains, he or she should feel that he or she cannot have confidence in himself or herself.

For that reason, although Jesus came to this earth with the privileges of the Prince of Heaven, he could not exercise them, not even once. Everywhere he went, he washed the feet of his disciples and aided people. Jesus did not live even one day of his life for his purpose.

Looking back on Jesus’ life, we realize that he lived only for the good of others. His was a life of grief in which he struggled hard for the sake of others; he shed tears for the good of others; he was abused for the benefit of others; he was torn in the interest of others and he faced death for the good of others.

If God cannot dissolve this sorrow of Jesus, then God is useless. For that reason, we must liberate God from this iron chain of sorrow. Until the day He can claim that the whole of heaven and earth are His with uplifted hands and say to all humankind, “Let’s rejoice together!” we cannot make a case for ourselves. Because these vicissitudes existed, Christianity put emphasis on love, sacrifice and service and made an emphatic point out of living a life of persecution and contemptible treatment.

What do we have to do to be owned by God? We have to be able to shed many tears for God’s sake. You will be God’s possession as much as you have the mind to grieve for God’s sorrow in His place. You will be God’s possessions as much as you shoulder God’s hardships in His place. You will be God’s possession as much as you take false accusations from Satan in God’s place.

Therefore, you will become God’s possessions as much as you have rendered devoted service. That is not realized in a fair place; it is realized when human beings cling to sorrow or pain that all others have shunted aside, detesting them, and when they give devoted service. This is the path of Principle which Christians must walk.

The reason Korean Christianity caught fire was that Christians in the early days walked this kind of course. If a throng of people had appeared denying this, saying, “Since we are the people of the heavenly kingdom, why do we have to die?” God’s providential Will would not have spread throughout Korea.

If Jesus himself had denied this, saying, “Since I am the Son of God, why do I have to die? Why do I have to be abused and receive contemptuous treatment?” the course of salvation that you believe in today would not have been possible in human history.

What was the reason that all nations educate their people as patriots or in devoted service? Some patriots deserted their families, abandoned their desires and their honors to represent the will of their nation. You must know that they were people who took upon themselves the pain of their nations. They took upon themselves the sorrow of their nations and grieved. They tried to take responsibility for everything in their nation, representing the central figure. You must know that this is the right attitude to have in abiding by the laws of Heaven.

In this confused world today, numerous people insist upon having a high opinion of themselves and try to manifest their authority. It is difficult to find a truthful Christian. It is even more difficult to meet true sons and daughters of God, truthful people whom God can own. Now we should usher in a friend of ours, become people of the heavenly kingdom and organize a tribe by forming a religious order.

Where in Korea is one saint or faithful believer who has been claimed as the possession of God? Where is that one religious order? Where is that one race? We must shout, pouring out all the strength that is in us, until we are completely exhausted. We must realize that the time has arrived when we must seek, running until we fall.

The Youth Who Must Save the Race and the World

The mind that desires to serve the thirty million Korean people before you serve yourselves, the mind that tends to think of all humankind on this earth before you think of yourselves, must seep out of you today. Going further, the mind that can cry, holding onto even one blade of grass, should be unconsciously exploding in the midst of your mind. Unless you have this shimjung, you cannot become God’s complete sons and daughters.

Such human beings are the fruit of God’s tears, the fruit of God’s pains. They are also the sacrificial offering on God’s bloody altar. In spite of this, human beings do not think about this and step forth asserting themselves shamelessly. The same goes on with all created things.

Who is the person to pioneer the path for these Korean people to walk? The people who beat the ground and weep bitterly, beating their chests for the sake of these people, must emerge. Who is to straighten up this fragmented religious scene? The young men and women who have burning a passion to grab hold of the religious scene should come forth prepared for a bloody battle, beating the ground and appealing to fight against the hypocrites.

Who are the people who will save this world? They are none other than you young men and women. You must think about this again.

Today’s Western material civilization is highly developed. With the continent of Egypt as the starting point, Western civilization has been shaped until now by going through the Assyrian, Babylonian, Greek and Roman civilizations.

Upon what did Egypt, which boasted of its civilization of more than 3,000 years at the time of Jesus, build its civilization? This is part of the history of religion.

The Egyptians worshipped a sun god and believed in a god called Osiris. They armed themselves with this faith and thought. With unified energy, they built a powerful nation and civilization. By adopting this religion as their policy and ideology, they consolidated an established format, and by leading the people toward that ideal standard, they created the Egyptian civilization.

The Lesson Learned in the Process of the Development of History, Centering on Religion

Thus, the Egyptians established a standard they could maintain as a nation. Through that, they held sway over the world. Yet beyond their own people, they should have absorbed any good points that existed in other nations. If they had changed by sacrificing whatever they needed and accepting the better standard, they would not have perished.

Although that nation perished, civilization continued to develop with the progress of history. While the Assyrian and Babylonian civilizations developed in the Orient, Hebraism, centered on Judaism, was formed in Palestine, and a God-centered civilization developed.

In Greece, civilization centered on the ideology of an external god. This developed and later harmonized with various trends of thought and worship of the arts. The realm of knowledge is the unique religious ideology founded by the Greeks.

The worldwide sphere of civilization was formed in such a manner. While passing through a period of confusion, it merged with Christian thought. This later traversed Rome and Christian civilization was thus established.

In medieval times, Christianity absorbed everyone under it indiscriminately and brought about homogeneity. However, because it could not actualize its purpose and became very worldly, God had to strike medieval Christianity.

If the papal court at Rome had not been corrupt and had a sense of mission to exist for the sake of the world and the good of the humankind, subscribing to and promulgating the thought of putting the benefit of others before one’s own benefit, it would not have collapsed.

Since the Roman papal court could not do thus, God deemed it too reprehensible to be left alone. He struck it externally by bringing about the Renaissance and internally by bringing about the Reformation. After that, the Puritans crossed over to the American continent, and came to build a nation there centering on Christian ideology. The political ideology of Rome, the religious ideology of Christianity, and the intellectualism of Greece all blended into one and led to the formation of Pan-Americanism, which controls the democratic world today.

Now, to fulfill its national responsibility and mission and to be able to exercise the authority of ownership until today’s democracy can be connected to the heavenly principles, what kind of thought must America have? First, it must discard its “America First” policy. This is the most important thing, above all else, for the American people.

If America insists that its economy, culture, technology, scientific advancement and political system exist only for the sake of its people, America will be struck. That was why the Renaissance sprang up to awaken people. Today communism has appeared and has been awakening people. From now on, ideologies and religions will be invaded by a movement. In times like these, we must discern heavenly movements with the mind of a seer.

From where will the religious ideology that can land America a blow emerge? People will have to consider this with an open mind.

This is a processional phenomenon of the development of history that takes place because human beings could not recover the authority of the Absolute Being’s ownership. This takes place to lead them to that position, even if they must be struck.

What was the Renaissance? It was the restoration of Hellenism; that is, it was a movement to restore the original human nature, based on the Greek ethos, emphasizing human consciousness. Similarly, within the domain of today’s America-centered democracy, Christianity must return to the original Christian spirit. A movement must take place in which people believe, not only in the words already revealed, but find the thoughts contained in the words and re-arm themselves centering on that. If the present Christianity cannot do so, it will end up in the same position as Roman Catholicism in the Middle Ages.

Why is that? What is required is not God’s Word, but God’s person, God’s people and God’s nation. The words emerge for that purpose.

What God Wishes to Own

Now the time must come when, having passed the absolute age of the Word, we will have to build the absolute age of substance. Therefore, after going through the Word transit age, the final historic age of the substance transit age will come. This age is the so-called “age of judgment.”

When we consider this, we see that history is ringing an alarm for us today. The steps of the prophets and sages of the past are guiding our lives and their spirits are governing the trend of our thoughts in the background. For that reason, people who drift away will definitely see the day when heavenly laws will judge them.

What then will happen after God has reclaimed the earth, having restored an earthly person and made him Heaven’s? That person must recognize the day when he can boast that God’s life is his own. He must recognize the day when he can boast of God’s ideology and love before the whole universe and humankind.

Is there anyone among you today who can boast thus? If there is, please come out. Is there anyone who has wanted to risk even his life in trying to realize the heavenly kingdom of glory? If there is, please come out. Furthermore, is there anyone who can step forth saying that he will become God’s own and build the heavenly kingdom on this earth?

Many people in the process of restoration may have tasted the heavenly kingdom while still in the domain of Satan’s accusations. Yet there is no one who has truly experienced the taste of the fatherland of eternal peace, the heavenly kingdom, having eliminated Satan. He who has experienced the taste of the true heavenly kingdom and felt the love of God will receive the impetus to fight with Satan. Once a person experiences the taste of the true heavenly kingdom and receives the love of God, he will never leave God again. A man who has experienced the love of God must appear on this earth.

What must belong to God? It begins from a clump of grass, from a pyung of land, from a man and from the smallest unit. It includes everything up to the heavenly kingdom; going further, it includes the world of God’s shimjung. That ownership should not be relative or conceptual. It should be subjective. Only if such a world is built will God rest for the first time.

Human beings cannot help liking what God likes. For that reason, God decided upon the seventh day as the Sabbath and told man to rest. Did you know that God has not been able to rest on a Sabbath day even now, after 6,000 years of history?

Jesus emphasized the Word of God and came forth inheriting the vicissitudes of 2,000 years of providential history, during which the Sabbath was upheld as most important. However, has the day of triumphant glory come when Jesus could vaunt himself to the Father and say for Him to take a rest, together with humankind? No, there has not. Since God and Jesus are not in a situation where they can rest, neither can we.

Before the time of rest comes, there will be a war; before the time of rest comes, there will be suffering and death. When we steel ourselves and pass over this, we will then enable ourselves to taste rest for the first time. Jesus tasted one aspect of resting after his crucifixion. That was after he had passed through such a path.

What must we possess? We must possess the garden of rest, the garden of happiness, the garden of goodness, the garden of love and the ideal. However, before we possess these, we will have to be hit by Satan, as well as by Heaven. Jesus was hit by Satan and by Heaven. The Pharisees chased Jesus out, and at the same time, the Romans chased him out. In view of the fact that Jesus ardently prayed at the crucifixion, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46) we can see that God had abandoned him too.

Therefore, he who will possess and be possessed by the Kingdom of Heaven is one who will be put in a most miserable situation in the course of seeking God. Among the races of the world, which will be the one that will own God? The most miserable race will possess God. The closer a race is to such misery, the nearer it is to God.

The Man and Race God Can Own and Their Responsibility

Consequently, a great tribulation will come in the last days. What does this mean? The one who is strongly minded to own things centered on himself, the one who works to ensure his own self centered comfort, will receive a strike in the face. This is the great tribulation. Still, considering that the Father is trying to awaken human beings by allowing them to pass through such tribulations, we must return thanks to Him.

People who try to live and die for the sake of truth will become miserable. Therefore, we must understand that the group of people who are saved from the grave of death will become the central figures in the garden of rest. He who holds onto and lives according to the truth to which Jesus attested will become Jesus’ and God’s possession, even if he casts away the rest of the Bible.

A person who says he is in charge based on who he was in the past, or who complains that people do not recognize him even though he has done such and such, should pack his bag and leave. Such a group of people will eventually be cleared away.

Suppose you have a mind aglow with righteousness, eager to build the new garden of ideology. Your every movement should then be for the purpose of attaining the Will and authority of God’s ownership. Accordingly, you will now rise above yourselves and fight representing the world. Your hands, your footsteps and your bodies will have to move in that direction.

Today is the age of the macrocosm, in which we must fulfill the ideology of re-creation. To become brave hearts of Heaven and build a new garden of rest in such a time, we should first push out all the elements with which Satan can meddle. What is more, we should serve and minister to God and offer Him comfort after bringing everything over to the heavenly kingdom. To do that, you will have to have the shimjung to walk the difficult path more gallantly than Jesus, who walked for the sake of Heaven; more gallantly than anyone who walked for the sake of the Will during the last 6,000 years.

Before you own the world and ideal of God, you must own God’s pain and sorrow and the difficult situation He has endured. Such people will be able to take charge of hell, as well as the heavenly kingdom.

How could Jesus take charge of hell? If Jesus had assumed the responsibility for the Will of God only in its good aspect and died for the sake of God only in its good aspect, then he would have been able to manage the heavenly kingdom, but not hell. Therefore, because Jesus established the heavenly standard by keeping his integrity even in hell, he set the standard of being able to manage hell too.

Now you should tread over the tribulation of hell and stand up and equip yourselves to be able to win victory over Satan in high spirits. To do that, you must know how to give witness to the goodness of God, how to be concerned about the righteousness of God and how to manifest the comprehensive Will of God, all in high spirits.

Only when that happens can we receive Heaven’s blessing for the first time. When that time arrives, we Christians can step forth before Heaven. For that reason, we must run to the stage of the final judgment, the point of the final decision. Accordingly, you must now run toward that place as an individual, as a people and as a world. Yet to go over it, all individuals and the world beyond the individual will face a strike in the face.

You must realize that the throng of people who go over this, feeling thankful to become a new heavenly people and establish a new family, a new society and a new nation, will build the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, he who feels concern and cries for himself will become a pitiful person. That is why we Unification Church members are induced to fast on occasion. What is it for? It is to have you leave the position of self-centered striving. That is why you are made to fast and endure ordeals. If you avoid such suffering, you will get a strike in the face. You must go over it, saying, “Thank you.”

God has endured with patience for 6,000 years to raise Satan to the standard where he too does God’s work. The day when you subjugate all human beings who acted in evil-centered ways into going the way of goodness is the day of the great judgment. He who can boast of himself in the presence of God will rise above the great judgment and be owned by God.

The Priority for Human Beings Is to be Owned by God

People today speak of God in a self-centered way, but they are wrong in this. Jesus said, “I am in the Father and the Father in me.” For this we should be grateful. You too must experience such a feeling. If that happens, you will realize that the world, the whole universe you thought you had lost, is in front of you in a more splendid way, with God.

The words “I am in you and you in me,” are not empty words. Only when that happens do things that belong to God simultaneously belong to me, and vice versa. That is something about which to boast. God cannot do without me. Why? God created all creation for human beings. Because He established human beings as the object or focal point that returns all of creation to Him, without human beings, God cannot do anything.

Therefore, when we look at the world, all things are in line with the principles of circular movement. If force expands only on a straight line, it is an eternal waste. The foremost principled purpose of God’s having created the world was to bend the direction of force expanding on a straight line. Therefore, the principles of the world are the principles of circular movement, and they are the principles of motion. When you study chemistry, you research and analyze materials and observe all phenomena of moving and acting. You then come to realize that nothing that exists goes out of line with the principles. All things are revolving 360 degrees. The universe revolves, society revolves, and my mind also revolves.

He who knows how to revolve centered on God’s heart, which is the center of the whole universe, will revolve if God revolves. As long as God revolves, this universe will revolve too. If God revolves, we will revolve, and all of creation will revolve too.

Only when we stand in such a position will we feel God’s heart transform into our own and be able to experience God’s heart. Having done so, St. Paul not only strongly felt the state of not knowing whether he was inside his body or out of it; he was also able to feel the heaven of three stories, the value of the existence of an invisible substantial entity. The power of a person of faith springs forth from there.

Jesus has endured until now, looking forward to the time when he could make a plea for such a state. Christian believers also have been enduring until now, looking forward to such a time.

Has the state of your minds reached such a standard? You must first become God’s possession. My subjective point of view belongs to God, and my life also must be God’s possession. Going further, the family, the society, and all the things we have belong to God. All must be God’s possessions.

God cannot take things that have been made dirty through Satan’s management. Satan’s elements of sin should not be there. God takes only after eliminating the elements of sin by striking them. Restoration history has been fraught with this sorrow of God’s.

For that reason, when we offer up a sacrifice, we must lift a sword and split it. Such a time will come to you too. Therefore, the last days will be a time of dividing. Having divided, wars will be waged. Korea is divided into north and south. More than six nations similar to Korea must emerge in the world. Things cannot move out of line with this principle.

Having understood these things, even if you offer up your lives to the Father, He cannot readily accept them. If He did, God would get caught in the Satan’s eternal false charges. Therefore, He takes only after striking. Only then will Satan not make false representations.

That was why Noah, whom God had chosen, was in such a position. Abraham, Moses and Jesus were also in such a position. It is the same case for us today. If there are people who wish to avoid that path, they are not the throng of people who may enter Heaven by the gate. They are like thieves or robbers who try to go over, not through, the main gate by climbing the fence.

We Must Know God’s Mind and Situation

What is a thief or robber? He who attempts to employ and make use of what belongs to others is a thief and a robber. We must know this and go over the crest of restoration.

In this light, you must understand the Father’s sorrowful situation. No matter how hard you pray, saying, “I will offer up my life to You,” He cannot accept it, saying, “Oh, yes, I have truly longed for your life.” Before you understand such a situation, God will never be able to accept it, even if we offer up all that we have in His presence. Jesus was to tell human beings about this situation and help them resolve it. However, he died without being able to do so. Therefore, you must understand that the sorrowful reality of the need for a Second Advent has remained until this day.

What then must we who are faced with the last days do? We have to earnestly request, “Please let us know of the Father’s sorrowful situation, of Your mind full of vicissitudes.” Furthermore, if there is a way to receive redemption by paying indemnity only once rather than ten times, then you should step forth looking for that way. This is the path Christian believers must walk in the last days. We are faced with the worldwide fate to look for such a path and go over it. We are to go over the path of tribulation and win a victory.

It is being prophesied that in the last days there the great judgment, the seven year tribulation, will come. He who dislikes being struck and avoids it will have difficulty going to the heavenly kingdom.

However, you must understand that God wishes for sons and daughters to emerge who can enjoy such a time and who can say, “Please let it come promptly. By striking me again and again, even if I breathe my last breath, please allow me to go over the seven year tribulation.”

If you become a person like this, it will be no problem for you to possess the history of 6,000 years. You will own the heavenly kingdom and God’s heart. Consequently, you must know that if you report to Him and make a request, you stand as a being whom God can possess and lend His ears. That is, you have the value of being God’s absolute representative. When that happens, you must understand that God will boast of us for the first time, and the day will come when we can politely bow our heads and offer comfort to the Father who has toiled for us.

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Chapter 2: Let Us Seek and Establish the Blessed Land God Wants to Administer

Genesis 1:24-28
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea
December 14, 1958

Prayer

Please allow us to feel and experience through our minds and bodies the heart, situation and image of the Father in this hour. He has come forth through the sorrowful restorational course to find His lost, true children.

Please allow us to be Your sons and daughters who can feel and experience Your heart, You who have hankered for love for 6,000 long years, unable to love Adam and Eve with affection deeply penetrated by shimjung. Please allow us to be Your ardent children who can offer comfort, embracing the sorrowful heart of the Father.

Please allow us to offer these minds and bodies as the Father’s now. We ardently wish You will lead us to be the sacrificial offerings who do not think of their minds and bodies as their own, but who pride themselves on belonging to the eternal Father. By doing so, Father, I sincerely wish and desire that You will allow us to be Your blood relatives who can ease the shimjung that could not express love for the past 6,000 years, embracing You with a true heart of love.

Although so many people live on the earth, we know that there are no sons and daughters You can love as Your own, whom You can embrace and excuse in the presence of Satan. We also know that You could not express Your love personally, holding Jesus as he walked the course of struggle on this earth 2,000 years ago for the sake of saving all humankind.

We know that absolutely no one can take away the children You love. Although Jesus touched Your heart, we know that he could not receive Your total love. Since You could not love us, please give relief to the deeply hurt shimjung by setting up a day of glory and raising heavenly sons and daughters to whom You can unburden Your heart, expressing love and embracing them. Please allow us to know that it is the Father’s wish for such heavenly sons and daughters to emerge on this earth. Although we have lost everything and have nothing today, we desire to be sons and daughters who can receive the Father’s eternal love, embraced in Your bosom of love.

Beloved Father! Please bless us. Please sanctify us by extending Your hands of authority. Please allow our minds and bodies to be free of blemish, belonging to You, having eradicated the evil elements. Allow this to be such a gathering. Father, I sincerely wish and desire this.

Father! You know our minds and bodies. If there is something insufficient in those of us who are prostrated before Your dignified presence in this hour, please manifest Your ability, Father. By Your competent hands, please bring about the miracle of re-creation. Please allow us to be sanctified figures. Beloved Father, I pray from the bottom of my heart that You will allow this to be the hour in which only You can operate, only You are in charge, and only You give counsel.

Even though so many people live on the earth, You chose unworthy us from among them all and called us, even though we are of no significance. Since we are fearful of not being able to fulfill the responsibility and mission in the presence of the Father, please, advise us in this hour. We know that the Red Sea waters were divided when Moses struck them with his staff. Beloved Father, I ardently wish and desire that You become our staff, and that You allow us to be the heavenly rods that can move according to the direction of the Father’s hands.

Father, please personally supervise Your sons and daughters who are gathered here this day. The last hour, when we are compelled to march toward the battleground, has already arrived. Please allow us to discern where we are, having taken a good look at us now. Please guide us to be offered as the Father’s. Father, I pray from the bottom of my heart that You allow us to be the sons and daughters who are offered as sacrifices before the Father in all our unique situations and positions.

Since we have decided upon, expect and are eagerly looking forward to the day of battle on behalf of the thirty million people, please, Father, bless this day. Father, I sincerely wish and desire that You allow those who were dead to be restored to life by us. Throw us like a bomb of new life. We pray that You will allow the day of happiness in which You can rest in an earthly settlement, in the midst of this nation, to dawn as quickly as possible.

Since we now desire to bind our insufficient minds and bodies together and offer them to the Father, please bless us to discard all elements of sin of our accord. With pure minds and bodies, may we be offered as the Father’s alone. Please allow there to be no satanic invasion. I pray all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Prayer

Father, please rule the minds of these people. Even if the spirits of these children, who are prostrated here, take various forms, I sincerely wish and desire that, in this hour, You allow them to be the children who can minister to the Father as one sacrificial offering, having a unified disposition according to the movements of the Father’s life.

Since we understand that today is the day when all sorts of people come forth in the presence of the Father and sing His praises, please extend Your hands of love everywhere Your name is sung. I pray from the bottom of my heart that You will bestow the grace of Heaven.

I know there are lonely families beseeching the Father in this hour, so please listen to their pleading voices. I earnestly wish and desire that, by treating their earnest shimjung with pity, You will fulfill the Will for which they wish and the hope they cherish.

Since I want to deliver a word to Your sons and daughters gathered here now, please guide the mind of the giver and the mind of the receivers not to become divided. I pray from the bottom of my heart that You allow this to be an hour in which we can feel and experience the joy of the original garden, which You created together with the Father, and the heart of grace. May we do this by becoming blended into the Father’s incarnation, participating in all aspects of You, whether You are at rest or in motion.

Please allow us not to have any faulty, self-centered thoughts or doctrines, assertions, concepts and formalities or a shimjung that saddens Heaven. Please allow this to be the hour in which we can reveal everything. With a heart of selflessness and a child-like mind, let us offer ourselves to the Father and submit to Your Will. Ardently soliciting this, I pray all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.

The word of the text we just read is the word of blessing God bestowed after He created Adam and Eve. It is the word of blessing of God after creating a man and a woman in His image, telling them to multiply and have dominion over all of creation, as well as the earth.

The title of the sermon I would like to share with you today is “Let Us Seek and Establish the Blessed Land God Wants to Administer.” I will speak upon this topic.

“I” Am to Be Restored

God created the world of creation centered on a lofty ideology we human beings have yet to comprehend. God created the world of creation thus to live together with human beings in the realm of eternal love.

However, human beings could not become united with the Will of the Father; that is, the Will of the Creator God. For that reason, the ideology God wished to manifest before human beings has remained unfulfilled; His administration has remained incomplete as well. In the meantime, the sad condition called “restoration” or “salvation” came to stand between God and human beings. We understand very well, from the Principle, that God has been relating with human beings under such conditions.

If this is the case, the fallen “I” of today should go back to the original “I” before the fall. This is the unavoidable duty of human beings and the inevitable responsibility God must carry out. For that reason, God has struggled until now to seek human beings on this earth. This is also why human beings have striven to seek God.

It is our life of faith to go forth seeking the footprints of God, who likewise comes seeking us. You should not forget that God and the prophets and sages, as well as our ancestors, have walked a course of laborious effort, a sorrowful, bloody course, to restore us.

What then is the terminus both we and Heaven seek? It is “I.” Accordingly, we should become the “I” whom Heaven can recognize, the “I” who can represent history. Now, in this providential final age, such a person inevitably must appear. Should such a person not appear, you must understand that the providential course God has walked for 6,000 years, as well as the religious course of humankind’s striving in search of the Will, will result in failure.

What kind of “I” does Heaven and humankind need? It is the “I” who has the shimjung, the situation and hope to equip himself with the ideology of creation which God could not manifest. It is the `”I” who can sing for all creation after equipping himself with the heavenly shimjung that has thus far been incomprehensible to humankind. It is the “I” who has equipped himself with the heavenly value and glory of one who can dominate the universe. You must become such a one.

Human beings today must find such a person and form a connection with him. If they do not form such a connection, they cannot be saved; nor can God’s providence of salvation be accomplished; nor can the goal of history meet any standard of completion. That is why, until today, human beings have been aiming for that ideological target.

We know that human beings are fallen. What is the fall? We can consider the fall to be that human beings lost the position of being a master. In other words, they lost the position to step proudly forth as dominators of the whole universe. Originally, God created human beings to raise them up as His embodiments, such original beings as to make all things in the universe follow the dictates of their commands. However, because human beings fell, unable to fulfill this original Will, we are as we are today. You must understand that it is the course of restorational history to wander about searching for the original “I” to restore this.

To Restore the Word, the Love and the Substantial Being

What have human beings lost through the fall? They have lost God’s love, they have lost God’s Word, and they have lost the substantial incarnation of that Word. What must we, who seek our original selves, inevitably do? We must regain what has been lost. That is, because God’s love, God’s Word and God’s person have been lost, we cannot help wandering about seeking them. God has unfolded the providence of salvation until today trying to regain these things.

Human beings have lost the love, the Word and the incarnation. What could have caused them to lose the love, the Word and the incarnation? They lost them because they did not have faith. For that reason, for God to seek human beings, people must set up the condition of faith. God relates to human beings through the condition of their faith. Furthermore, He unfolds the salvation providence for human beings on the condition that they have faith.

In the course of restoration, in which we go forth seeking the incarnated being, the Word and God’s love, what must we seek first? We must seek faith. This is an important matter for us. Before faith, God’s love has been introduced, God’s Word has been introduced, and the substantial being that God wishes to find has been introduced.

What is complete faith? Although we believe in Jesus Christ today, we must be completely united with him. At the same time, we must possess God’s love, God’s Word, and God’s incarnation. This kind of faith is the inevitable condition in the course of restoration.

If human beings become substantial incarnations with the Word and with love, love and faith harmonize so that only love remains. That is the essential part of the restoration which God has been leading human beings toward, to return that love. It is absolutely inevitable that such a thing occurs in the course of the restorational providence.

When we look at ourselves individually, each of us has a body, a mind and a spirit. However, since we could not have faith and fell, we lost all of creation, along with our bodies. We lost God’s Word, and we lost God’s love. These are the consequences of the original sin. Therefore, for us to restore these as individuals, we must eradicate the collective sins in the course history.

How must we walk the course of restoration today? This fallen world today is wandering around seeking succor for the body. In other words, we lead a life centered only on the body. Since we need material things for the body’s succor, humankind has struggled for material things.

My body has to rest. My mind also has to rest. Where is the garden of rest for my mind? Human beings have wandered, seeking that place until today.

After finding the blessed land for the mind, what must we seek? You must seek the eternal blessed land for the spirit and the eternal blessed land for your life. Accordingly, after you have found the blessed land in which the body can rest, the blessed land in which the mind can rest, and the blessed land in which the spirit can rest, you must link it up with God’s love. That is the completion of your faith.

When you look carefully at the course of historical development, before World War II, history was a struggle for material things. Humanity played the game of wandering around seeking economic foundations, seeking the place of rest for the body. What kind of history followed World War II? The spiritual sphere, that is, the phenomenon of human beings seeking their original minds, has taken place. Phenomena occur centered on thought and doctrine, yet no thought or doctrine has discovered the blessed land of rest for the human mind. They have not fulfilled their responsibility. You must know that we are stymied now.

The Course of Restoration We Must Go Through

Because human beings fell, they lost their bodies, their minds and their spirits. Human history is the history of humankind wandering around seeking the restoration of these things and the place of rest. Having passed the stage of wandering in search of material things, history has now reached the stage where human beings seek the conscience. What is more, you must understand that the world is standing in a face-off between two camps divided by thought and doctrine.

Since we are in a position where we must go through the course of restoration, we must seek the ideology centered on the mind, rising above the ideology centered on material things. You must understand that this is a necessary concluding point in the course of human history.

What then must we do after finding the blessed land of the mind? We must find the eternal, blessed land of love. What is the one condition of victory that can endure until the very end on this earth? That is a doctrine based on a love that transcends the heavens and earth, a love that can stimulate a person’s mind and set the universe in motion as well. This universe will never be put in motion by any other force. You will understand, through your conscience, that even God is seeking an ideal world filled with such an ardent feeling of affection.

The age of capitalism has passed, and the age of thought has also passed. Now the age of conscience will have to come. What is more, beyond the age of conscience in the future, the age of shimjung centered on eternal heavenly love will have to come. You must know that it is the fate of fallen human beings to go through these ages.

We must now seek the place of eternal rest for the spirit, for the mind, filled with a feeling of affection centered on God’s love. You must understand that this is the fateful path human beings cannot help walking.

Standing in such a situation, what kind of authority must we restore? We must restore the authority with which to manage heaven and earth. This is the original authority human beings must come to exercise deservedly. Human beings must manage heaven and earth, representing them. By uniting heaven and earth, we must seek and establish the ideal world of one shimjung. We are entrusted with this kind of responsibility. In addition, we must realize that, even though such a world was the original place of rest for human beings, because they fell, they lost that original place of rest. The course of restoration came into existence because of that.

Through what kind of course must we go? We must go through the course of the individual self, the family, the society, the nation and the world. These are the steps in the course of restoration.

If human beings had not fallen, their minds and the original ideal would have made everyday life harmonious. However, because of their fall, the ideal remained on its own, and their minds went a separate way. You must realize that this distance between the ideal and the fallen human mind has stood as a point of suffering for humankind.

What caused this? It was Satan, who betrayed God and violated the law of heavenly principles. How much of the blessed land of the ideal has Satan ruled with regard to human beings until today? He has ruled this land mass, this earth, the visible substantial world only.

With the original blessed land of the ideal in such a state, God has been fighting against Satan by loving all humankind on this earth, which Satan rules. This is restorational, providential history. Now a new world will have to unfold in sight of humanity, a world that can connect to God’s shimjung. The day when such a world can come about is the day of the Second Advent, in Christian terms. It is the day of judgment about which some religions talk.

Human beings have fought against one another since ancient times. As they fought against one another from the clan level through the tribal level, the level of a people and the level of states, nations gradually became united, and now they have formed two worlds.

Humankind had to go through this process because we could not shake ourselves free of the fate of restoration. That was how such phenomena came into being on this earth. God and Satan are still fighting on their respective sides of these two worlds.

The Age of Material, the Age of Thought, the Age of the Conscience, and the Age of the Religious Ideal

If we look at a human being, we see that he has not yet been able to restore his body. The history of struggle to restore the body was the history of struggle before World War II. Before World War II, the history of struggle centered upon material/that is, it was concerned with economy. Until World War II, the sovereignty of whole states and the whole world were affected by materials and economics. Only after this age passed, after World War II, did the age of thought come. This was the natural flow of historical development. Now the age of doctrine and thought centered on the spirit has arrived. What kind of thought will reap a victory? It will be the thought system that controls materials. As the mind must control the body, so the thought and doctrine have to control material things. All the sovereign states of the world today are established on an economic foundation. Yet, if an ideology is to achieve worldwide stature, it must transcend materialism.

Various nations of the democratic and communist camps are in a face- off. Which camp is going to win? What will determine that victory? This hinges upon which camp first shares its materials with smaller and weaker nations. This is how victory or defeat will be decided.

Although the democratic camp should support smaller and weaker nations economically, there has not been any noticeable result regarding this. Exploiting this weakness, the Soviet Union has been on the offensive. While she supports nations like Egypt economically, the Soviet Union is launching military maneuvers to take advantage of the weaknesses of the democratic camp. Yet the democratic camp is not aware of this.

In order for a doctrine or thought to spread through the entire world, it must be able to control material. What is more, such a thought system must be able to sacrifice everything to spread throughout the world. There is no other way.

What is the last path human beings must seek? They must continue with the world of the conscience in mind. To do that, something must emerge that can make human beings go beyond the age of doctrine and thought and go on to the age of conscience, ultimately with a view toward the world of eternal life, the ideal world, which is filled with the love of God. Human beings today have not been able to perceive this.

If God exists, for what has He been aiming and proceeding toward, having mapped out a plan of action? God has continued with the age of the conscience, preceded by the age of thought, in mind. God’s operation and plan will go into action then.

Now we have the Arab bloc, which is equipped with a form of religion, confronting the two great camps of democracy and communism. What does this signify? They have formed a bloc with a religious ideology, an Islamic civilization modeled after the ancient Saracen empire, God’s providential purpose of bringing humanity into unity through a religious ideology is thus revealed. In the end of this restorational providence, this sort of operation will inevitably take place.

If the communist camp breaks down after having fought with the democratic camp, what is going to happen? There are more prospects for the various nations in the communist camp to be absorbed into the Arab bloc, rather than the democratic camp. We must realize this.

A united world centered upon one purpose and ideology must be built upon this earth today. What, then, must happen in the democratic camp? A religion equipped with an ideology centered on God’s shimjung, a religion of love for human beings, who are God’s embodiments, must emerge. This religion must represent all doctrines and assertions. Human beings today are not aware of the fact that the last days are approaching, when such a religion will come forth. When will a religion appear with a Unificationist ideology that will enable the democratic world to embrace the Islamic camp?

The Human Mind Longs for the Ideal Land, The Developmental History of the Sphere of Civilization

Unificationist ideology is the historical standard, the universal standard and the macrocosmic standard which must appear in the new age without fail. You must realize that this is the standard upon which the unification of religion will take place. In this sense, the name “Unification Church” makes sense. No crowd of people has appeared until now who are being hounded yet who are ceaselessly progressing toward a Unificationist ideology, asserting that ideology and fighting at the forefront of this world.

What must we seek and establish in the age of thought, the age of doctrine? Human beings have always longed for the original homeland in their minds, eagerly desiring and dreaming of the garden of love they can enjoy, centered upon God’s shimjung.

When we look carefully over the course of historical development, the first human civilization was the Egyptian, a watercourse civilization centered on the Nile River. In other words, the Nile River was the cradle of Egyptian civilization. Yet how did Egyptian civilization develop? They were curious to know, “What is on the other side of the river?” They wanted to go and see. This became the spiritual background of the development of Egyptian civilization. After the watercourse civilization age had passed, Mediterranean civilization was established. Human society has come to develop stimulated by the ardent mind which looks at the other shore, the heart of hope. What is more, you must understand that the ardent shimjung toward the other shore caused the revolution of civilization.

During the age of Greece and Rome, civilization was established centered on the Mediterranean Sea. The people who took an interest in the other shore beyond the Mediterranean Sea reigned. By the sixteenth century, Mediterranean civilization had weakened, and the Atlantic Ocean civilization circle came to be established. After that, traversing the Atlantic Ocean through their will and laborious efforts, the people who had wished to see and cross the Atlantic Ocean arrived in America. Now a new Pacific Ocean civilization that connects America with Asia is being established. Such a time is almost near.

Now human beings live freely on this earth and have fulfilled the cherished hope. They are trying to move into the cosmos, stepping out to seek another new shore. Therefore, the cosmic age will open in the future. Human beings will land on the moon, just as they have wished, “I will go to the moon.”

Will the climate of man’s mind, the hope for a new ideal homeland that made him pioneer the course of historical development, ever change, even after he conquers the cosmos? No, it will not.

The mind’s longing for the ideal homeland will end only after having found the garden of the mind beyond the cosmos, the garden that can govern the minds of all humankind of the world. Beyond that, it must enter the world which has formed one body with God, in God’s world of ideology. Needing nothing more, man’s quest for the ideal homeland will then end.

Scientific civilization is only four hundred years old. Only since the latter half of the sixteenth century have we been singing the praises of science. However, for 6,000 years of human history, humankind has yearned for the ideal homeland, the heavenly kingdom, and sought God. It is an undeniable historical fact that humankind has come forth wishing to form a connection with God according to the heavenly principles.

You have not seen many books denying man’s mind or conscience. There is no doctrine on this earth that denies the mind. There is no doctrine that denies that human beings entertain a high regard for and have the eternal world of ideology in view, the world of feeling and experience that can connect with man’s emotion.

Since numerous churches and numerous religions have taught humankind about this world of the mind, have they taught them useless things? No, not at all. Even if you study tens of thousands of books, you will never find any that deny that ideology.

Yet in spite of the fact that the ideology of religion is right, why has that ideology not come to pass in human reality? It is because human beings fell.

Now human beings will have to march, breaking through the world of the mind, the eternal spiritual world. You will certainly understand that this is the most important matter of concern for human beings today, faced with the last days. God is looking forward to the time beyond the world of doctrines and assertions to a religion and the truth.

The Necessity of a New Word Which Can Cause a Revolution in Shimjung

Although communists today are advocating a materialistic revolution, this is not enough. A materialistic revolution is not the answer. A revolution of conscience is what is called for. Where will be the one doctrine that brings forth a revolution of conscience? Will there not be a doctrine that can cause a “heartistic” revolution? We need to think about this. Until this sort of doctrine comes forth, this world will not be united. If such a doctrine comes forth, that doctrine will have to be based on materials, and it will have to be based on the Word.

Because of man’s fall, he lost faith, love, the Word, and the incarnated being. That is why human beings have first gone through the age of materialism and are now going through the age of ideology and thought. In the future, the age of sentiment will come.

Emotion is what makes a person believe in the Word. We speak of intellect, emotion and will; however, emotion comes first. A great artist must emerge who can detonate man’s original emotions and sing in praise of all creation with the sentiments of original emotion. A great scientist of emotion and religion must emerge.

What have human beings wandered about seeking until today? Human beings have not found satisfaction in doctrines nor in faith. We have sought the true Word, the truth. What are we going to do with that truth after finding it? We mean to usher in a spring garden that can be vibrant with life. Only that which can make human beings full of life and energy will be the true truth. Don’t you agree?

God has introduced the Word of truth through Christianity. Although God gave human beings the Word for the sake of restoring the incarnated being, history has been flowing onward without the mission of the Word being concluded.

Although Jesus came to this earth 2,000 years ago and tried to fulfill the mission of the Word and bring about a revolution in mind and emotion, human beings did not believe and minister to him. Therefore, none of this happened and these things remain to be fulfilled today.

It is not only the Christian believers who are eagerly awaiting the true world; numerous other people are eagerly awaiting it too. If the mind and body come about which can restore fallen human beings, restore emotion and the Word of truth, the world will be united naturally. While there has to be the restorational providence to save fallen human beings, there must be an internal revolution that will recover those lost things from the fall. The people who must carry out this internal revolution are the Christians, the religious people, and the individuals of conscience of the last days. In fact, the individuals of conscience do not render significant services to God’s restorational providence. No matter how much hardship they go through, the end of the world will still come.

We should be very grateful for the 66 volumes of the Bible. However, it is difficult to call upon and create the original mind of a human being and induce the original shimjung through the Bible. Therefore, we must seek a new Word that is equipped with this two-fold power.

If we cannot find such a Word, God’s 6,000-year providential history will result in failure. Given the historical trend of the cultures and thought of the world and how they rallied the world, what we definitely need now in the last days is the Word that can move the original mind and the original shimjung, in order for God’s restorational dispensation not to result in failure. This is the matter for concern.

When he came 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ could not say all that he wished to say. What was more, even though he wished to love human beings, he could not do so to the fullest extent. This was the great sorrow of humankind. It was God’s sorrow, too. It was God’s sorrow, as well as Jesus’ sorrow, that Jesus was unable to introduce the world of the mind and body, the world of emotion, and God’s shimjung to the people who were in the course of restoration.

We Must Know God’s Shimjung and Jesus’ Shimjung

God does not exist higher than the cosmos. No created thing can achieve completion without having a connection with God. When we build a house, we must link up all the materials and have them relate to each other to be a complete house.

Now we must seek God’s and Jesus’ mind and shimjung in the 66 volumes of the Bible. Only when we get to know God’s and Jesus’ mind and shimjung can we know our minds and shimjung. Yet God’s and Jesus’ mind and shimjung are not completely manifested in the Bible. It is written in the Bible that the Kingdom of Heaven is in your mind. Yet how many people are there who can indeed say, “The Kingdom of Heaven is in me”?

Where are such people?

There are many people who have memorized good scriptural passages, wonderful, celebrated verses. Yet in order for us to know Jesus’ mind and shimjung, we must know why Jesus, the Savior of all humankind and the True Father of all human beings, grieved on this earth. What caused him to grieve the most? We must know these things. Only when we know these things can we say we have come to know Jesus’ mind and shimjung. We must know what the most unjust, vexatious, and painful thing was to Jesus, and the reason for it.

By doing so, we must be able to comfort Jesus, saying, “Aren’t your heart and mind in such and such a state? I understand your heart and mind.” Only then will we become true human beings for the first time. You must know this.

You must know that to restore one human being, God has gone through the vicissitudes of history, grieving and suffering. You must understand the content of the current age. Furthermore, you must understand the hope for the future. Because they do not know this, the people of the world today are struggling hard.

Jesus received the joyous day of resurrection only after having walked the path of sorrow, the path of suffering, the path of the cross. Jesus could feel joy toward Heaven, yet he could not feel joy on earth. You must know this. How could this be, that while he felt sorrow facing earth, Jesus could feel joy facing God, calling out, “Abba”?

Jesus knew God’s mind and heart. That was why he was able to express his gratitude and joy, holding onto God’s heart and mind and shedding tears. Yet there was no one on earth who felt similarly toward Jesus. That was the reason Jesus could not feel joy in relation to human beings. If human beings had been able to feel joy with Heaven in the glorious realm of resurrection, the 2,000-year historical course of sorrow would not have taken place.

Jesus resurrected, bearing the heart of these vicissitudes. Having seen Jesus’ resurrected appearance, Mary Magdalene tried to grab hold of him, saying, “Oh, my Lord!” Yet Jesus said to her, “Do not lay hands on me.” What does this mean? This showed us decisively that no matter how much human beings desire to grab hold of Jesus, they cannot become one with him without knowing his sorrow and pain, without knowing his mind and heart.

Now the time has come for human beings living on this earth to discard the material things and doctrines to which they subscribe and step forth. What kind of people opposed Jesus? We must know Jesus’ heart, even if we have to abandon our ideology, and all that we have. Jesus’ heart was not for his good but for the good of God. He tried to remember God’s heart to attend Him constantly.

In Order for God and Jesus to Feel Happy

God’s heart had gone through a course of turns and twists. Shedding light upon this, Jesus uttered, “God, now I know. I have come to know the final meaning of Your having unfolded the dispensation and what kind of heart You had as You did it.” Jesus then grabbed hold of God and rejoiced, shedding tears, forgetting his dignity and image. You too must be able to rejoice, holding onto Jesus and shedding tears. Only then can the ideology of the internal world be manifested as that of the external ideology. You must understand this.

The very core of faith, what is left after human beings believe in the Lord with uplifted hands, put the Word into practice with love and restore the incarnated body with faith, is for their minds to become united with the minds of God and Jesus. Beyond that, the love of God, Jesus and human beings must become united. This is the last, emotional problem to be solved for religious people. For that reason, Christianity, the religion of love, will survive to the end. People in the heavenly kingdom are people who strive for the sake of giving. They are people who strive to give their bodies and minds and all of their things. Most people of this fallen world, on the other hand, strive to live centered on themselves. Only when they can bring about a revolution in their minds can people like these become God’s sons and daughters who can receive the love of God, the Creator of humankind and all creation, who tries to embrace them in His bosom.

Not once has God found a person whose flesh and spirit are united, whom He could totally love. Not once could Jesus find such a person. That is why Jesus is still praying in paradise.

Therefore, we must yearn only for the love of God, who tries to embrace our spirit and flesh. We must receive God’s love, compared to which the love of parents for their children is insignificant. Within such a realm, we must be able to govern all of creation, having justified ourselves as God’s children for the first time. You must understand that such a world is the world of dominion and the garden of rest God is trying to restore.

Going back to the issue of our individual selves, what are we, fated to go through restoration, to do? We must wander about seeking a new ideology. The time has arrived. In the future, the problem of a true viewpoint of life, of the universe, will arise. Any view of the universe based on the visible substantial world will miss the mark. Through the perception of the world of the mind and the feelings felt, the invisible world will be utilized.

If a macrocosmic ideology, a doctrine that can unite the world of the mind, appears on this earth today, that doctrine will be the last one. Only love is after that.

Today, scientific civilization is extremely well developed. Yet, in order for individuals to be able to govern in a scientific civilization, they must improve the level of spiritual civilization. They must definitely find some particular doctrine that can govern the world of the mind and, beyond that, the world of the spirit. It is our fate to find this doctrine. You must understand this clearly.

After that, you must be connected with God’s love. Since God’s love includes the universe, if you grab hold of that love, the whole universe can come into you. You must become sons and daughters who can feel such a universal feeling, who can sing before Heaven, representing all things in the universe, who can live happily with Heaven. Going further, you must be the sons and daughters equipped with the dominion by which they can govern all things. Only when you become such sons and daughters will you be acknowledged for the first time as sons and daughters who can live in God’s ideal garden of creation. You then will be able to become sons and daughters whom God can embrace and love. You must know this.

Prayer

Father, although human beings do not comprehend the flow of history, we know that You personally have been operating the will of the providence. Your sons and daughters have come here today. Please allow us to reflect honestly upon ourselves to see what kind of circumstances we are in now. Is there a person who lives for the sake of succoring his body? Is there a person who lives for the sake of his mind’s rest alone? Father, I pray from the bottom of my heart You allow us to be Your sons and daughters who can attain rest through the Father’s love, after our restorational course is completed.

We have come to know that this is the inevitable restorational course human beings must undergo. Please allow us to stand proudly in front of human history. We have wandered around seeking what we lost due to the fall, faith, the incarnated being, the Word and love. I sincerely wish and desire that You allow us to be Your sons and daughters who can step forth with stately dignity before all creation on this earth with a heavenly heart, heavenly love, and heavenly hope.

Father, ardently soliciting that You embrace our minds and bodies forever with Your eternal life, I pray all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.

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Chapter 3: Humankind Wanders In Search of the Truth

Matthew 7:1-12
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea
December 21, 1958

Prayer

Father of love, human beings were to oversee the ideal garden of love and hold Your love in high regard. Yet ever since we rejected the heart of the Father, who wished to build the ideal garden of love, we have been leaving sorrowful footprints of blood and tears throughout several thousand years of restoration history. Please forgive us.

We are aware that now is the time when we must yearn for the Father’s lost love. The final day of restoration is coming near, when we cannot help standing on the Father’s side, having discovered the Father’s heart. Father of love, please raise us today and newly give us counsel. Since You have called us, please admonish us anew. Father, I pray from the bottom of my heart that You will allow us to bow in the presence of the Father with a blissful and glorious countenance, having eliminated the sorrow of restoration.

Please do not allow our minds and bodies to remain only as our own. Please allow all things, from the emotions that we feel to the concepts or doctrines or assertions that we have, not to be ours. We know that nothing originated from us and that all things were affected by Heaven. Father of love, I pray from the bottom of my heart that You allow us in this hour to offer up the whole to the Father.

Please allow us to understand that even if each of us assert ourselves, we cannot appear before all things proudly with our mind and body such as they are nor can we appear before humankind. Please guide us to acknowledge that none of us can step forth before the whole universe in a self congratulatory way, regardless of what we have. Please allow each of us to lay aside all that we have and transform it into the Father’s heart, by receiving the Father’s heart of resurrection. Guide us to delve into and enter the Father’s heart. Father of love, I ardently wish and desire that You allow us to be eager to receive the words of re-creation with blissful hearts.

Father, since these young people are gathered here in this hour, please govern our minds. Although it is our duty to offer a gift when we prostrate ourselves before the dignified presence of the Father, we were unable to bring anything. Please forgive us. Since we have only our ardent minds to offer before You, please accept these minds as Your own. Since we offer these bodies, please allow them to be a living sacrifice. Father, I sincerely wish and desire that You allow the ardent shimjung, the shimjung of high regard, to appear over the shimjungs and minds of those gathered here.

Father! Please govern every mind among Your sons and daughters gathered here. The circumstances, the emotions, and the course of the past days in which blood and sweat were shed differ from one another since each of us is different. Our conjectures also differ, since our opinions differ. Yet please govern us to be embraced in the Father’s heart and ardent mind, even if for this one hour only. By doing so, please allow us to be a sacrificial offering for the sake of the one purpose by gathering us into one. Father, I pray from the depth of my heart that You allow no element of which Satan can take advantage to enter into any mind in this audience.

Father, we thank You for granting us this opportunity. We have become conscious of the mission for which we must be responsible. Father, since we have made the Word public before this people, please allow many to appear bearing a heart of high respect toward Heaven because of it. Please allow a large number of people to appear in this nation who pray ardently to You, holding onto this Word.

I sincerely wish and desire that You will allow us, in the last days, to equip ourselves with a victorious altar to realize the glory and Will of Heaven. Thus You will let the day of the Father’s victory come as quickly as possible. We understand that it will not be difficult for the Father’s glory to bear fruit. Father, I pray sincerely that You will allow us to be devoted internally, as well as externally, in making preparations for this task.

Please allow us to know now that this is the time in which we must pray, offering all our minds and bodies. Allow us to bear the Word You are going to deliver in our minds and bodies. We know that if we put these words into practice responsibly, the fruits will be manifested in this nation. Father, I sincerely wish and desire that You attain Your Will and Your glory through this nation.

Since this is a holy day, the day You promised You would bless all of humankind, please bless every altar where people are gathered in ardent supplication before You. We have gathered in the Son’s name before the Father, having each become a blood vessel in one heart. Please allow each of us to be united to the whole. Please allow us to embrace Your heart and to be concerned about the Will of the Father.

Father, please look with compassion at Korean Christianity. Although they are seeking the path of life, they do not know which way to go, and they do not have confidence. Please bless the religious orders. Father, please direct the light of life before those who are straying, not knowing where to go. Father, I pray from the bottom of my heart that You allow these people to boast as the Father’s sons and daughters in the presence of all humankind, one day revealing the glory of victory before the whole macrocosm.

Father, since we understand that through this Will You must drive us out into a lonely position, please allow us to be a sacrificial offering in sight of the nation. We know that the duty of a sacrificial offering is to rejoice after You and all of creation have rejoiced. In addition to that, Your sons and daughters gathered here understand that a sacrificial offering has the responsibility to live peacefully for the sake of the Father’s Will, having revealed all of its flesh and blood.

Please allow these sets of minds and bodies to become altars and sacrificial offerings before You by venerating Your heavenly compassion. Beloved Father, I sincerely wish and desire that You allow us to be the sons and daughters who can sing the glory of the Father and offer comfort in solitude to the Father by becoming the Father’s substantial holy temples.

Please be present with Your sons and daughters scattered throughout the country who are fighting to fulfill the responsibility entrusted to them under all kinds of persecution and difficulties. Since You have led them until the present, Father, I pray from the bottom of my heart You will guide them, so that they may bear fruits which may be realized in the Father’s bosom.

We now offer our devotion, however insufficient it may be. We have prostrated ourselves in front of Your knees. Father, if there is inadequacy, please strike us. Yet, if there are still children who can fathom the Father’s heart, I pray from the depth of my heart that You allow this to be the hour in which they can embrace one another and pour out the Father’s situation, the Father’s heart.

Please take charge of all things of this day and rule over them. I pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Prayer

Father, at this time when this year is drawing to a close, please allow us to have the shimjung of preparation with which we can usher in a new year, reflecting upon the old one. Please lead us to the place where we are grasped by the Father’s hands with a deeper and more sincere heart than last year’s, looking forward to the Father’s new glory in the new year, where we can connect to the Father’s situation. Please allow us to be led into Your bosom and to have the preparation and resolution with which we can follow You anywhere and everywhere.

Father, we know that our lives do not belong to us. We know that our ideologies and our loves do not belong to us. Please allow our minds, our bodies, and even our lives to arise from You. Guide us so that they will not be things that come from ourselves.

We know a man’s self-centered conceit can be maintained only as long as he wears his physical body. We have awakened to the fact that no matter how high a person may say he is, he is insufficient on his own and cannot exceed the limits of time. Please give us minds that can emulate the Father’s lofty and broad shimjung through comprehending Your heartrending situation. Father, I pray from the bottom of my heart that You let us have a mind to deny ourselves, of our accord, to resemble Your deep shimjung and prostrate ourselves in the presence of Heaven.

Father, since we offer our bodies as a sacrificial offering, please accept them. Since we have prostrated ourselves before this altar, please relate to us. Please do not allow anything of man’s sole making to thrive here; please do not let anything become rigid.

Please let us strive at least for this hour to bear the ardent shimjung with which You have come seeking human beings for 6,000 years, and the sentimental content that overflows from that shimjung. By allowing us to feel and experience Your bitter pain, let such a change come over our minds as to enable us to sob ceaselessly for You. Please let us bear the utterly sincere shimjung with which we can beat our chests as we grasp Your situation.

We learned that You have toiled through a historical course of 6,000 years of restoration providence to find a person, whom You had lost. We now know that You have led people through this historical course and that, walking a path of sorrow along with the Father, they have shed tears and blood upon Your altar. You have not been comfortable for even one moment. Please do not allow us now to exist for our sake, even when our minds get hasty. Please do not allow us to become self-centered, even when we are placed in an endless irksome position. Even if we are unspeakably lonely, indescribably persecuted, endlessly hounded after and treated with infinite injustice, please allow us to be Your sons and daughters who can stand in the place of the Father, not for our sake.

We know that as the mind cannot help connecting to the mind, life cannot help connecting to life, ideology cannot help connecting to ideology, Your love also cannot help connecting to love. Father, we know that eternal life has to be moved by life, and love has to be moved by love. Father, since that is the case, please manifest Yourself as the Subject of life as life, the Subject of love as love. We are experiencing the exhaustion of that life and that love.

Since we are in narrow circumstances in all ideological aspects, we are inadequate people who cannot protect even one day of life. We prostrate ourselves in sadness in the presence of the Father this day, bearing in our chests the bitter resentment of the fall, stemming from the loss of the ideology brought about by the betrayal of Heaven and earth. Father, please embrace these pitiful figures. If You abandon us, who is to take charge of us? If You do not seize us, who is going to? Since there are no leaders or teachers before us, I sincerely wish and desire that only You be with us.

When we face the fact that You make effort to comfort our minds whenever we encounter a difficult task or face a sorrowful situation, we cannot help telling You that we are very ashamed of ourselves in Your presence. Father, we know You shed tears after seeing us receive persecution along the path You commanded us to go. We are sorry. We are the ones who stepped forth, following in Your footsteps in response to Your calling us, “Come,” and we are prepared even for death. Therefore, Father, please do not let us step back from the face of death in fear. Beloved Father, I sincerely wish and desire that You allow us to be righteous heavenly soldiers and righteous heavenly sons and daughters who, even if the pain of being torn to pieces befalls us, can surmount all things and go forward as long as the Father’s Will and love remain.

Father, we know the reason You chased us out in front of the nation into a lonely position was that of Your grand providence. By personally striking us and working through us, please let us be the pivotal part of life that can penetrate the world of death. Please allow such a movement of life to be manifested, even on a lonely altar.

If there is a heavenly soldier who can penetrate the world of death, please let him make preparations in his mind whereby he too can express thanks. Do not allow him to hesitate on this final course. Please do not let the throng of people You called turn back at the sight of that course. Today we are on the course that faces the fortress of death. Father, please do not take away Your hands of power. Father, I pray from the depth of my heart that by giving the Word of authority, You will guide us and give us counsel until the day when we sing Your glory at last, having won the last victory.

Father, we know that You have toiled more than we have to seek and establish the course of the number forty and that the time of its realization is near. Now where will our minds and bodies go? Where will these people go? Where will humanity go? Since the fear of death sinks deeply everywhere we go, the time has arrived when young men and women of fervent blood are needed to lead these people forward, assuming responsibility toward Heaven. By giving counsel to Your sons and daughters gathered here, please let our flesh and blood become Yours. Let us be explosive substances of love, atomic bombs of love. Thus, please let us return everything as the Father’s, having won over the world of death. Beloved Father, I pray from the bottom of my heart that You guide us to be the elite soldiers with brave spirits who can more than bring the garden of victory in the new realm of re-creation ideology.

Father, since I pray ardently, please consider this people’s destiny with compassion. Many of Your sons and daughters will have to shed tears ceaselessly, feel endlessly sorry and be immeasurably contrite for the sake of these people. Among these people, there is a throng of selected people who are to cry for the sake of the heavenly principles, for the sake of the state, and for the sake of these people.

Father, please let national-level feelings of life and love explode in our minds. I ardently wish and desire that You allow us to be the sons and daughters who can continue toward You, holding onto these people as their brothers, their parents, and their friends.

Please look with compassion at humankind wandering about in a deep sleep. Please bless every place sons and daughters have gathered to build altars in Your presence on behalf of humankind.

Having assumed the Father’s task, please let us quickly attain the mind that can tolerate indefinitely, that can concede endlessly. We know that, for the Father’s task, the individual has to offer everything before Him, transcending life and all possessions. Please guide us to be able to care for one another, to hold one another in high esteem, and to embrace one another. Thus, Father, I sincerely wish and desire that You will allow Your works, which can restore the lost one world of ideology, the garden of goodness, to be manifested in the presence of all humankind, everywhere heads are bowed.

By mobilizing a billion faithful believers, heavenly soldiers, and numerous spirits in the spirit world, please halt and eliminate the influence of darkness and wrong. I wish for You to sit comfortably, You alone enthroned, and single-handedly take charge of the glory of the leadership position. I desire for You to embrace the lonely families and guide them through counseling. I pray all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Prayer

Father, please convert our hearts into empty vessels. Please allow our hearts to seethe ceaselessly for the Father’s sake. Please transfer the ideology of creation with which You created all creation into our hearts. Allow us to be those whose minds move in response to the Father’s motions, whose hearts respond emotionally to the Father’s emotions.

Father, You wish us to see the unforgettable image of a mind submerged in peace and rejoicing. You wish us to seek and caress a peaceful heart. Now please allow our minds and hearts to be moved by You and to be used only as Yours. I pray sincerely that You will allow our minds and bodies to transform into the Father’s alone, piercing deeply into the world of essence only through the Father.

Although numerous human beings live on this earth, Father, we know that no group of people is striving to have the foundation of their minds and hearts hidden and buried in the Father. Our minds today long for the original heart, and we need the true character of the original creation. For this, we know we need the Father’s new Words.

Individuals, whom the Father created to rejoice in, dwell in a wicked world because they fell. Yet their true character is moving toward the world of the original nature. For 6,000 years, humanity has eagerly looked forward to the Words of re-creation of the original nature; He has looked forward to calling upon and raising the true character. For 6,000 years, he has adored and sought after the Word. Now the day of judgment is closing in on the fortress of death. Father, look with compassion at humankind, faced with a time like this, striving hard in a world of fear, not knowing which way to go, wandering about, having lost the center, unable to find their position and place. Please guide them so that they may come back to Your bosom.

We know that the children gathered here are the holy temples and essential foundations You seek. If You do not come into play, the creation on earth will endure limitless pain at the day of judgment. Therefore, Father, please extend Your hands of re-creation.

Isn’t it the original principle of creation that You created Adam and Eve to love? Please allow us to know the heart of the Father, who is holding onto each of us, to seek and raise humankind again in front of You, based on that principle. Not caring about tiredness, indifferent to mortified feelings and sorrow, heedless of vexation and the path of tears, not paying attention to the bloody altar, the Father persists. Please guide us to know Your historical situation, that You have no choice but to do thus. Please let us be transformed into Yours, only in peace, in this hour by having fathomed Your passionate heart. Eliminate everything that is not Yours. Please allow us to be able to rejoice if You rejoice and to move in response to Your movements. Thus, beloved Father, I sincerely wish and desire that You let us appear as figures of original nature, with the glory of beauty, before all phenomena. Restore us as figures who can multiply with a new voice.

Now we know that my mind does not belong to me, my body does not belong to me, and this land upon which I live does not belong to me either. We know that this universe does not belong to me nor do all the things You created. We know that all these things derived their origin from the Father and were created for Him, to be connected with Him.

We know that it is the true character of creation for all humankind to seek the glory of happiness by relating to one center. We were created in this fashion. Please restore us to be such substantial entities of harmony and original nature, related to the glory of the one center You established, in response to whom the whole universe can move.

Now the time has come for us to liquidate the historical course of universal grief and to create the history of a new happiness. Father, since we are short of strength, please give us mighty strength. Allow us to have strong desire. Father, I ardently wish and desire that You let us equip ourselves as dauntless heavenly soldiers who can proceed with confidence toward the goal.

The Father said to Joshua and Caleb, as they were looking at the land of Canaan, “Be strong and brave.” As Joshua was to bear the standard of being strong and brave in the face of the enemy, today we cannot help marching onward, toward the fortress of Canaan strongly and bravely.

Now, when the decisive last battle has arrived before our eyes, we know that fighting sons and daughters of responsibility are needed to face the darkness. Father, please allow Your sons and daughters gathered here to become such people in charge. Beloved Father, I pray this from the bottom of my heart.

Please govern the minds of the sons and daughters gathered here. Is there anyone who makes self assertions, getting above himself today? Is there anyone who relates to the Father through some doctrine, thought or concept of his own, through his perception? He would be the one who does not know the Father’s absolute power, the one who does not know the Father’s hidden pain.

Father, please grab hold of our hearts, and allow us to listen to Your new Word of life. Through new feelings of love, allow us to bring about the miracle of re-creation. Father, I ardently wish and desire that You let us realize our deficiency and immaturity. Allow us to be the sons and daughters who can directly report to You that we are not worthy of bowing before You.

Since our true character wishes to move toward the one ideology, please let our bodies and minds move according to that will. Please allow our minds and bodies to be united in this hour. Enable these unified bodies and minds to be offered as a sacrifice.

Please enable us to advance through the wall of death that has been barred for 6,000 years with bitter resentment and sorrow. In doing so, please enable the billion faithful believers to move. Let the numerous individuals in spirit world centered on the Triune God offer songs of delight in this hour. Father, I pray from the bottom of my heart that You allow this to be the hour in which we can promise the day of restoration and liberation before all things in the universe. I sincerely wish and desire that this will become the time when we can join the whole world before the Father’s altar by the mind taking the lead in operating together with the body.

Since now I am about to deliver the word, please do not allow the mind of the deliverer and those of the receivers to be separated into two. Since the word works through the mind, please allow us to feel it through our minds. Allow this to be the hour in which we can be led, transforming the Word into our bodies before the Father’s real presence.

Please do not let Satan seize any moment. Please sanctify the elements that Satan could calumniate. Please direct us personally.

If we cannot realize our insufficiency of our accord, please manifest Yourself as eyes like flames. Asserting that our minds and bodies belong to You, be present in us. I sincerely wish and desire that You allow us to fulfill the mission of restoration through indemnity by meeting the conditions of hardship. Let us be the ones who can bring about a new history. I pray all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.

The title of today’s sermon which I am going to deliver to you is “Humankind Wanders In Search of the Truth.” I will speak briefly upon this topic.

The Real Condition of Man and the Need for the Standard of Absolute Good

Today you may know very well that you feel indescribably impetuous and busy, yet at the same time you feel sad. You cannot deny that there is a mind within you nor that there is some kind of purpose within the mind’s yearning which causes the mind to ceaselessly seek to influence and absorb the body into that purpose. You cannot deny that you live in the condition where you feel that something, even if you do not know what it is, is leading you ceaselessly toward an unknown destination.

If you feel something like this, you must re-examine your minds and bodies. If there is some kind of ideological, invisible world of which human beings are ignorant, we must re-examine ourselves centered upon the spirit of that world.

Thus, by forming a relationship of oneness with that ideological realm, you can continue in a sure direction. If you do not do that, there will be no peace in your hearts. Even though you may hope for peace and other things, your hopes will not be attained. I affirm and assert this to you.

As you study the Principle, you learn that humankind was originally good. Yet history has proven that because of the mistake of one day, humans became beings who were not good. Religious people have proven this to be so; we cannot deny that fact.

The standard of good is the ideology all of us are pursuing. That is our hope. Furthermore, it is the center of the eternal love that is moving inside our minds, the focal point of any ideology of feeling. At the same time, the standard of good leads our minds to pursue an absolute resting place. It operates as an influence which, transcending time and space, controls our bodies, the direction of our minds, and the ideology we seek.

This standard of goodness must become the center of all that I am in mind, body and spirit. Thus, by relating to this freely, we must transform and create an environment where an individual’s emotion in life can be connected to the emotion of the whole. Otherwise, we cannot find the value of our minds or bodies nor the value of spiritual movements.

The bitter resentment resulting from the fall has created a seat of sorrow like this today. The grief caused by the fall has hounded humankind into this kind of hardship. Therefore, the historical course you walk is the path originated by the fall. You are striving under such circumstances.

Please review yourselves. Toward where are your bodies moving? Toward where are your minds moving? Where is your spiritual body headed? Even though humans are destined, by all means, to seek a true form of the absolute ideology, a true form of good, a true form of life and of love, we now wander about aimlessly.

The question becomes, at what direction and angle am I compared to the direction and angle of the absolute good? If my mind wishes to go right, why am I going left? My mind wishes to have a higher ideology. Why then do I have a limited view of the universe? Individuals today are walking the path of restoration to find their original selves to escape this situation. Now the time to look soberly at yourselves has arrived. You must be able to look at the headstrong attitude with which you strive and search. Your minds and spirits must transform into incarnations who can represent the value of glory. No such figure has appeared since the Creation. Therefore, we must realize that we must walk the path in which we search for something unknown, the path of fate.

There are body, mind and spirit in each of us. We must become a being who has a unified body, mind and spirit. Accordingly, if some kind of Creator exists, then the one who can be led to the presence of that Creator and be embraced and who can embrace others will be the one for whom the Creator is looking. We humans are looking for that person too.

To be a True Human Being

My mind commands my body to seek things that are true. It is commanding me to seek a true body first. Humanity today is wandering about seeking that which is true without knowing what it is. Because they are living in this world, which is deeply penetrated by the bitter resentment caused by the fall, they are being drawn into the fate of having to seek what is true without knowing what it is.

Now you must realize that you cannot rejoice over your original selves. You must know yourselves to be faced with grief, yet you are not to feel sad. Even if you feel pain, you must not feel pain from things that happen in the world. If you are to feel sadness and pain, you must feel the sadness and pain of not having been able to find your true selves. You must realize that even though there is so much sadness and pain in the world, there is no greater sadness and pain than that which is caused by being unable to find our true selves.

Whom has God the Creator been looking for until now? He is looking for you: that is, “me.” For that reason, I must find the true me. If not, I cannot make a connection with a true family centered on perfect, substantial entities, a society, a nation centered on true families, and furthermore, a world made up of states, or a macrocosm made up of worlds. Becoming a perfect “me” is the standard for all the other stages.

God has been feeling immeasurably sad in relation to humanity for 6,000 years. You must realize that there is no more mortifying event than that of having lost one’s beloved sons and daughters. Although the whole of creation fills up the universal space, that is not what is important. The whole macrocosmos has turned into a world of deathly darkness, because of the loss of Adam and Eve. What is more, God is feeling endless pain and sorrow.

What must individuals do to restore their lost selves? They must reflect upon God’s shimjung at the time of the loss. Otherwise, there is no way to restore the original “me.” In the same manner that you can recover what you lost only when you go back to the place where you lost it, you must reflect upon God’s shimjung at the time of losing “me” to restore yourself. Without this, individuals cannot restore their original selves.

That is why Heaven has been seeking human beings for 6,000 years. In other words, God has come through the 6,000-year historical course to restore me, the individual. That 6,000-year historical course has been full of blood and tears, paths of persecution and death.

While coming through such a course, God has fought to seek me, the individual being, not forgetting the heart of pain or the tears of sorrow He shed after losing Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden 6,000 years ago. Treating the 6,000 years like a day, with the shimjung of the time of loss, God has come forth fighting to recover humankind. You must understand such a heart of God.

Because the sorrow started from God’s heart 6,000 years ago, history until today has remained sorrowful. The fruit of sorrow has accrued to us. Therefore, humanity’s sorrow cannot be eliminated before we alleviate the sorrow that penetrated the depths of God’s heart. We must realize this.

The tangled thread will have to be untangled where the tangling occurred. It must be restored to its original state through indemnity. This is the ironclad rule of the salvific providence. If this is the ironclad rule, we human beings today must realize that the historical age of conclusion will come when we must wander about seeking the heart that was lost in order to find and establish ourselves.

What then is to happen in the last days? Judgments will be made having decided upon a standard of shimjung.

Looking at yourselves today, you must know that your bodies are stained with the tears of God’s sorrow of 6,000 years, with the blood of God’s pain. The bitter resentment against evil has pierced to the very marrow. What is more, you must know that God’s sorrow and pain in regard to eliminating this condition of bitter resentment has penetrated deeply into all of our hearts.

The Wavelength of the Human Fall and the Path Man Should Walk

When humans were cast out of ancient Eden, they grieved centered on themselves, not knowing God’s heart. Thus, forgetting our own body’s sorrow and pain, we must first liberate God from sorrow and pain. Unless we do this, we cannot dissolve the grievous historical resentment and go over it. Therefore, you must now feel that each of us is a crystallization of God’s tears of 6,000 years. We are not only the crystallization of God’s tears, we are also the crystallization of God’s pain. Only from such a position will our individual value be restored to life again.

For that reason, we who are placed in the last days, when we must dissolve the sorrow and pain caused by the fall, must now represent God’s heart. We must know how to grieve and receive pain in place of God, who has grieved and received pain for 6,000 years. Since humans have no comprehension of this, you must know that Heaven has unfolded the dispensation, shedding tears for humanity, having laid down the term “Heaven’s judgment.”

How is one to avoid judgment? We are not to cry holding onto our bodies or over our pain. We must know the pain of God, who bears greater pain than ours to save us. We must know that God’s sorrows and difficulties are greater than ours. We must deny everything about ourselves and dissolve all the pain that has penetrated deeply into the heart of God, who has been guiding history from behind the scenes. Today’s humanity is fated to seek the one who can carry out such a mission.

Viewed from this standpoint, in order for fallen humans to break out of themselves and go on, what must they do? What can move my mind, what can move my body and the material that I have? That is the shimjung of perfect love.

You must become people who can feel that your spirit embraces your mind and loves it, that your mind embraces your body and loves it, and that your body embraces all of creation and loves it. Such a person is the very destination and terminus we are seeking.

However, no one has accomplished this. Although God is holding onto our spirits, our minds and our bodies and is loving them, no one could feel that. You must know this.

If God embraces my spirit and loves it, my spirit loves my mind, my mind loves my body, and my body loves all of creation, the shimjung will then become united. In such a world, the shimjung that loves all creation will be connected to the body; the shimjung that loves the body will be connected to the mind; the shimjung that loves the mind will be connected to the spirit; and the shimjung that loves the spirit will be connected to God. This is the terminus humanity seeks.

There is no one who takes hold of you and asks, “Do you know with what mission you are entrusted?” Yet, though you are not aware of it, there is a being who stands in your way and asks, “Who are you? Where are you going? What will you do?” You do not realize this.

What did humanity lose by falling? It lost love. The cause of human lamentation is the loss of God’s love. Therefore, human history has come through a historical course of lamentation with God’s love lost. Do you understand that?

God’s love is the foothold of the eternal ideology of the heavenly kingdom, for the building of the substantial heavenly kingdom on earth. However, humankind lost God’s love, the ideological foundation of the eternal world because of the fall. Because humanity lost this love of God, God had to leave. That is why God’s love, which can build the heavenly kingdom on earth, has gradually been broken down.

The Model of the Human Fall

The fall was the loss of God’s love. When we think of the course of the fall, through what kind of path did it go? At the very first, Eve lost God’s love. Next, Adam lost God’s love and their children did the same. You know this very well. Human history was the history of losing love.

Who was the first person to step forth after having discussed love? It was Eve. Who was the next? It was Adam. Next were Cain and Abel. These are the archetypes of fallen history. This model of fallen history took place in the beginning. Individuals have been walking through this kind of history ever since.

Love is a center that can command the whole universe. It is a subjective center, a commanding center, and a tolerating center. This is the ideology of love. This ideology was to be the foundation of history.

Thus, when we study the historical course, there were primitive ages in the time of clan societies centered on the maternal line. This is because Eve, the mother, discussed love for the first time. After the tribal society, history centered on the paternal line. After that, coming into the age of democracy today, the age of brotherhood began.

History, which has flowed in that fashion, has now arrived at the last days. It has become impossible to find love for parents among human beings nowadays. The democratic nations today are like that.

In the end, the time will come when anything attempting to resemble husband and wife from the position of brother and sister will be broken apart. Hence, the ladder of love that can connect Heaven and humanity today is being disconnected. Consequently, humankind today is living in the position of an orphan who lost parental love, lost true conjugal love, and lost true brotherly love. These phenomena formerly took place vertically in advanced nations, but now these phenomena are taking place horizontally throughout the world.

How did the fall take place? The fall took place because Adam and Eve were unable to make a vertical relationship with God and instead made an objective and horizontal relationship with Satan. Therefore, human beings in the final ages in history today are crying out for egalitarianism, centering on democracy.

What event took place in Adam’s family because of the fall? Cain killed Abel. Abel was a substitute for Eve. Therefore, in advanced nations today where egalitarianism is being advocated, women have more authority than men. Accordingly, this is the time to set up the vertical side through the horizontal side. Since humankind cannot form a complete vertical relationship, everything is falling to pieces.

The path you seek today is the path of a new ideology, the path of life, and the path of love that Heaven is presenting. You must realize that you are standing in the historical course where you must proceed seeking the path of love that introduces you to this new ideology and life.

What kind of parents have you lost? What kind of man and wife have you lost? What kind of children did you lose? You lost the parents who did not fall, the man and wife who did not fall, the children who did not fall. Thus, a throng of people who can surmount the sorrow of Eden and win the joy of Eden will have to emerge on this earth now. Unless such a throng appears, God’s 6,000 year restoration providence will face a critical moment of fundamental collapse.

The History of Indemnity for the Purpose of Saving Fallen Men

Salvific history has conformed to the principles of indemnity. It was a history in which the sovereign authority has been carried over from mother to father, from father to children.

Now we have ushered in a great historical conversion age. Therefore, the fortune of heaven and earth is being restored to life again. You must know that humanity is placed in the inevitable fateful course of restoration through indemnity.

Therefore, in this present world, equal rights between the sexes are being advocated. The time for women to receive better treatment from men is here. Don’t you think so? This is the process of restoring through indemnity the fact that Eve, the mother, ruled Adam in Eden in a reverse way.

The history initiated by the fall was not a normal history. It was a discriminatory, one-sided and one-directional history. Therefore, it must turn back the way it has come. Heaven unfolded the dispensation of dividing humans, cast out by the fall, into two sides: one on the left, the other on the right. Likewise, division into left and right has also taken place between man and woman, between human beings, between states and between the world. Left symbolizes what is wrong, and right symbolizes what is right.

Humans lost their innate character because they fell. That is why they have walked the path of good, according to the truthful reporting of the conscience.

Today you must stand steadfast before Heaven and become central figures who can govern the whole universe. What is the essence that can determine the central figure of all creation? It is not vitality nor ideology. It is love. That is why I Corinthians 13:13 says, “Faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” St. Paul spoke thus because this is the path a person must walk. Jesus had to establish a standard of love that could demonstrate the position of children by having united the internal spirit and the external flesh. Because the Israelite people did not believe in him, that standard could not be established.

Because human history is the history of re-creation, the process of restoration had to be developed. Therefore, Jesus’ spirit went to heaven, while the Holy Spirit came to deal with individuals on earth.

What must the Holy Spirit accomplish by embracing spiritual children among the faithful on earth? She must recapture the ideology of Eden. That is why the Holy Spirit came.

Therefore, we must seek the Savior, the bridegroom, in accordance with the moral obligations of the children of the Holy Spirit. Yet Christians seek the Savior on the ideological level. We do not attain the state of unity between the spirit and flesh. People who walk the path of righteousness, the path of faith, also must lead a life of denying the flesh. Faithful people have wandered in search of the world of the mind and the world of the spirit in such a way.

The faithful believers of today, the children, must continue toward restoration focused upon the Holy Spirit as their spiritual mother, seeking to unite the spirit and flesh. The mother, Eve, governed the father, Adam, in the Garden of Eden. Inversely, the mother must be governed properly now and her correct position restored. After this, the children are governed.

The hope of Eden must be attained by uniting the spirit and the flesh. Since the spirit and flesh were severed by the fall, humans must unite them. What is more, humankind must not only stand in a vertical position, but also in a horizontal position. Because humans have continued in a one sided way, rather than taking an all-directional view, their minds and bodies have become separated, and their minds and spirits have become divided.

When will Jesus attain this hope? Jesus left the Holy Spirit to work on the earth after his coming and ascension. That will not suffice, however. Because Jesus left behind the promise of his Second Coming, he must return to keep that promise. That ideology of the Second Coming is to seek the physical mother who was lost in the Garden of Eden. By governing the fallen mother, the restored mother will have to restore the physical father’s position. Thus, Jesus’ hope will be realized.

Fallen Man Must Seek True Parents

The realization of this hope is attainable in the world where spirit and flesh are united. Only when that happens will parents with united spirit and flesh appear for the first time before Heaven and earth. In light of the Principle, the day when a one-dimensional view of history changes to the all directional historical view will inevitably have to come. For that reason, if humanity takes only a one-sided viewpoint today, it cannot help writhing in agony in the world of sadness.

What do we who are walking the fated path of restoration seek? We must seek our true bodies, which we can love forever, and seek the parents of our bodies. Before we find the parents of our bodies, there is no way that the parents of our minds, the parents of our spirits can appear. The creation of heaven and earth began with external matter. That is why you begin writing from the left side when you write. You do not write from the right side. This is an expression of the manner in which the world of the ideology of creation exists.

When will the moans from the pain of human beings end? Not until we usher in the day when we find the parents who can love our bodies in place of God. No matter how great you are, you lost the innate physical true parents. Therefore, without true parents, true children cannot exist. This world cannot avoid being a world of sin and evil, a world of hell and pain.

God has been seeking such a person. Through the spirit, God has been seeking our spirits and bodies. God is the True Parent of humankind. He exists as the True Parent of our spirits and minds. While God stands in the position of a Parent who has united the spirit and mind, He forewarned humankind of the day when humankind would find physical parents and meet them. That day is the Marriage of the Lamb.

Now such a time has come. That is why, having passed through the age of the maternal line, humanity passed through the age of the paternal line and has now entered into the age of brotherhood.

Although humanity emerges with new doctrines, assertions and systems, if an ideal object, ideal brothers, ideal children, and ideal parents cannot emerge, those doctrines, assertions and systems will all break down. How far out will humanity be pushed? It will be pushed out to a position of less than all things. It will arrive at the day of judgment.

Viewed from this standpoint, humanity today must wander about in search of True Parents. Substantial True Parents, with physical bodies, must come seeking humanity with a new ideology and vision. The world where humans live ministering to the True Parents is the veritable ideal world. To accomplish such a world, Jesus left word that he would return. That is why the term “Second Coming” came into existence.

After finding yourselves in such a position before the whole created world, the time has come to subdue your flesh. You must voluntarily subdue your flesh, in place of Satan attacking you. This is the path of righteousness. You must subdue your flesh.

We cannot seek the path of the parents, the path of love, alone as individuals. Why is that? Each of us came to exist in this world of sin and evil, having passed through the fallen historical course. We live within the realm of the epochal fate of the fall. Therefore, this path cannot be sought alone. A tangle of historical problems lies within it. There is the problem of the family, the problems of society, nations and the world. Furthermore, there is the problem of the spirit world. Only when we form ties with the world of the new ideology and parley with it can the world of ideological love be sought.

The path of righteousness is the path we seek after fighting under hardships. This is the course of God, who has been fighting on the course of restoration for 6,000 years.

The Man Whom God Can Receive With Joy

What then are you? You are a sacrificial offering representing 6,000 years. To be the sacrificial offering representing 6,000 years, you must gain knowledge of the heart of God, who has made humankind offer sacrifices for 6,000 years.

What was it like when Adam and Eve were cast out of the realm of God’s love, after they fell in the Garden of Eden? They lamented their misfortune. This was the origin of the tears of humankind and the beginning of pain and suffering. Yet the sadness of Adam and Eve was not all there was. God had a shimjung of greater sadness than that of Adam and Eve when He cast them out. Humans do not know this. You must know this.

Thus, you are the tribe cast out of the realm of God’s love and have become its descendants. While individuals are grieving centered on their misfortunes, God is grieving even today, looking at individuals who have been cast out.

What must humans, made outcasts for having betrayed Heaven, centered on themselves, do for restoration? They must become beings who can shed tears, holding onto God’s sorrow, God’s pain and feeling of dejection, having denied all things of their own. They must not be influenced in the least by the presence of their grief, their feelings of dejection and death. Otherwise, they cannot be restored.

For that reason, Christianity cried out, “Repent!” This means to weep bitterly. In other words, we must restore the origin of history, which began with weeping. To do that, we must not cry over our sorrow. We must be able to cry holding onto God, who has embraced humankind for 6,000 years, who fell to the line of death and shed tears and grieved in pain without humanity being aware of it. If there exists a person of such tears, God will say to him, “Yes, you are the very son I love.” Accordingly, if a person emerges whom God can joyfully receive with such words, God will be able to indemnify the whole experience of having grieved and been subjected to mistreatment and suffering. His resentment will be dissolved.

adies and gentlemen, who is Jesus? He is the true father of humanity. He is the man who came to the earth with the heart of a True Parent, in the place of God, after the lapse of 4,000 years. He was the father who came to meet, embrace and love the humans who had struggled in misery for 4,000 years. Individuals could not recognize Jesus as such and instead crucified him. Only after they had killed him did they realize he was their true father.

Jesus, who was our true father, came to this earth to lead us to life. Although one might have killed Jesus without knowing such things, there would be no one who would not shed tears if he realized that it was truly his father that he killed. No matter how terrible a villain or robber who has killed human beings, even an unimpressionable person will weep bitterly, beating his chest. It is absolutely impossible for him not to know of the Father’s sorrow.

From this standpoint, it can be construed that Jesus’ death on the cross became an impetus for human beings to weep bitterly. Humankind was ignorant of the heart of the Parents, who had toiled for them for 4,000 years. Therefore, he who has met the cross must weep bitterly. Remembering that humanity killed Jesus, who came to this earth as the True Parent representing Heaven, one must weep bitterly first for the sake of God, then for the sake of the True Parent who came, and further for the sake of humanity on the earth.

What must the faithful believers of the last days today weep about bitterly? The time to weep for one’s benefit has passed. The time to weep for the sake of one’s family, one’s society, and one’s nation has also passed. Now we must weep bitterly for the sake of the world, for Heaven, and for the Holy Father, the Holy Son and the Holy Spirit. You must know that only then can we participate in the realm of ideology that has dominion over the whole of the created world centered on love.

Although they killed him, human beings came to realize that Jesus was the True Parent. Feeling sorrow and keen regret over the loss of their True Parent, they wished him to be resurrected. Because human beings had that kind of true character, God is sending the Lord of the Second Coming to fulfill that wish.

The faithful believers of the last days, who are to usher in the Lord of the Second Coming, will have to shed tears together. They will have to shed tears representing history and the eras, as substitutes for those events and times. After that, they will have to shed tears of joy. We must shed such tears while we live. Although human beings have shed tears of sorrow, they could not shed tears of happiness. That is why human beings have been anxiously looking forward to the one day when they can shed tears of joy. That is the day of the Second Coming, the day when they regain the lost True Parent.

The True Parent Walks a Thorny Path

The True Parent you so anxiously await was not coming after only a few decades of preparation nor was there preparation for only the life span of a human being. The preparation time was 6,000 years. When he comes, he is not coming in comfort. Even while you sleep comfortably, Heaven took pains to seek you. Having the appearance of a beggar, a poor person, a wanderer, a prisoner, a persecuted and extremely miserable person, Heaven has been seeking you, starting from the bottom of the human echelon.

Therefore, even while you were sleeping, Heaven walked forward on the path of tears, the path of sorrows, the path of being swallowed up in a storm, the path on which there is not a moment of rest. Such was the path Jesus walked, and the path of numerous prophets and sages.

You must realize the sorrowful fact that, even where you eat comfortably and rest in comfort, the sounds of undeserved pain and the bitter weeping of Heaven are heard. Unless you hear them, you are not qualified to receive love from the True Parent.

Thus, you must feel greatly indebted, even as you sleep and eat. You must feel that you are the sinner of sinners, whom Heaven and earth cannot forgive. You must realize that the things I see, the things I hear, and all the facts I see and feel are insufficient. “I myself am the fruit of a traitor.” You must feel that you did not know the situation of God, who wandered in search of you.

Faithful believers today must know this situation and be able to weep bitterly, holding the hands of their brothers and sisters. Looking at a beggar wandering about in the street, you must know how to weep bitterly, embracing him. When you look at a laborer in hardship, you must be able to lament, saying, “How did my brother end up in such a miserable situation?”

When we lift our eyes to our brothers’ plight, we must feel compelled to seek the historical course of the heavenly principles and raise them. Through them, we must seek and raise ourselves. God has been anxiously awaiting human beings who, knowing this, are steeped in such feelings as to be able to relate with every person they meet. He has been shedding tears for the emergence of such people for 6,000 years. Meanwhile, one who eats his fill and rests, even after seeing the starvation of other people will be judged. Those who dance, contented with themselves, while other people are in need will be judged.

What must fallen humanity do? Even if you yourself are starving, you must have feelings of deep regret for the starvation of your brothers and sisters. Even if I cannot eat or wear good things, I must live for the good of my brothers and sisters and for the sake of the world’s humanity. By doing so, you must achieve restoration by indemnifying what Heaven has wept for, weeping for the sake of the humanity of the world. You must understand that Heaven is seeking this kind of faithful believer.

When has anyone throughout the 6,000-year historical course faced the Father in Heaven with such a heart? Who has ever called Heaven “Father” and called the rest of humanity “his true brothers and sisters”?

Where are the minds of the professionals who guide the religious orders today, the teaching professionals who are said to be walking the course of faith? The people Heaven has anxiously sought for 6,000 years of history, who took part in the difficulties, grief and hopes of Heaven, also went a path like this. Where are your minds and bodies going? You must make this clear. You must realize that you belong to humanity, which must resolve this matter; humanity, which is deeply steeped in the bitter resentment of the fall.

The Position From Which One Can Connect to God’s Heart

The character who goes down in history is not one who has stepped forth asserting himself. If one is to be recorded in the history of the people, he should be a person who has stepped forth holding onto the people, to society. To be a worldwide character, he must be one who stepped forth on behalf of the world. To be a heavenly character, he must be one who stepped forth on behalf of Heaven. Because you are the sinners of sinners who killed your own parents and cannot be forgiven, you must think it natural that even if someone calls you bad names and persecutes you, even if you become the target of pursuit and are hounded, you will have to say, “Thank you,” having felt God’s sorrow and historical mortification.

The place where one can shed tears, embracing brothers and sisters who curse you, is the place where you can connect to God’s heart. The path upon which one walks bearing the heart of Jesus, who worried about the ones who were striking him on the cross and prayed in tears for them, is the prototypical path a true man must walk. He must walk this path, penetrated by this heart to the very marrow of his bones.

You are sacrificial offerings. All Unification members must become sacrificial offerings. Heaven wants historical sacrificial offerings.

What kind of being is a sacrificial offering? It is someone who lifts his head for the first time after God and all humankind rejoices. If Christianity today lifts its head before God and all humankind rejoices, it will break down. If Christianity does not fulfill its mission to serve all humankind, if it does not function as a sacrificial offering for the sake of all humankind, then the time has come for reform.

Jesus, who is the King of Kings and the Crown Prince of Heaven, is unable to be glad and rejoice. He came as a sacrificial offering. Even if God and the faithful believers rejoice in him, Jesus, the sacrificial offering, cannot rejoice in himself. Only after God and all humankind rejoice in themselves can Jesus rejoice in himself for the first time. That is the day of the Second Coming. This is the path a sacrificial offering walks.

When you look at all the persecution that the people of Korea receive, how do you feel? We Koreans have walked a path of all kinds of suffering through 2,000 years of history. If we were sad, we did not know where to go to appeal. Even if there was mortification and injustice, we did not know how to complain of it. What should we do then, we Koreans? Although we are like orphans, we must be able to weep bitterly, holding hands among ourselves. By this alone will these people come to life.

Regardless of whether brothers and sisters have made mistakes or not, since they are brothers and sisters born with the blood and bones and flesh that Heaven granted, tolerant people who can weep to connect to the historical blood lineage and shimjung of a parent, going beyond their own situations, will have to emerge. Such young people are in great demand.

If there were such impassioned young people, where should they devote that passion? If they put their hearts into achieving success and satisfying their desires, their efforts will conclude in the limited individual realm. The original ideology of human beings wants to feel joy, holding onto God beyond infinity. Accordingly, one must devote his passion for the sake of this original human ideology.

If God’s dispensation was behind the historical course that this nation has come through, what kind of people would God demand at the end of that dispensation? They would be the people who know how to cry for the realization of the Will of God. They would be the people who are determined to be sacrificial offerings above all, crying, having been involved with a Will, a shimjung, and in action. Heaven will be seeking such people.

Facing the people 2,000 years ago, Jesus said, “He who loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10:37) On the surface, what kind of contradictory, nonsensical remark is this? Although it seems incomprehensible, Jesus knew that humanity, fallen after having lost love, would all perish if they centered on themselves at the conclusion of history. Jesus spoke to prevent that. If such a miracle had come about, that the words Jesus spoke then were put into practice by the people, the last 2,000 years would have been very different.

God’s Providential History is to Restore Lost Love

Now is the time to break down the parental love, conjugal love, and children’s love that is not centered on Heaven. Christianity is to break down this kind of false love and teach the parental love, children’s love, and conjugal love centered on Heaven. That is why Christianity uses the words “bride and bridegroom,” “father” and “children.”

Fallen human beings have lost love. For the sake of such fallen human beings, Jesus came as the champion of love to restore heavenly love on the earth again. However, Jesus left for the spirit world unable to accomplish that task. That is why, having set up a spiritual standard of love, humankind is walking the course of restoring physical love. You must know this.

There is a top and a bottom, front and rear, left and right. At the top are the parents, the children are at the bottom, in the front and rear are the husband and wife. Brothers and sisters are to the left and right. This is the principle of love. Do you understand?

Humanity has to proceed seeking this path. Among these relationships, the conjugal relationship at the front and rear is the most important. That is why Jesus stressed the notion of the bridegroom and bride.

What kind of heart does Jesus seek in his bride? He is trying to search for the bride who represents God, the bride who represents the children, and the bride who represents brothers and sisters. Do you understand?

God’s Will is to set up a standard on the earth by sending the bridegroom and bride. God’s intention is to establish the form of a four position foundation, centered on the bride, with God at the top, the children at the bottom, and brothers and sisters on the left and the right. The history of God seeking the bride, who is the object being representing such love, is the 2,000-year providential course.

What then must you do now? Males must respect females and females must respect males. Only when mutual respect exists can females relate to males, and males relate to females. The male is the offshoot of the father and the female is the offshoot of the mother. They are alter egos.

For that reason, relating to each other as man and woman in the course of restoration, the person who looks at the object externally will be shattered. The object is one of the dual characteristics of God. That being the case, men have to respect women and women have to respect men.

Human beings must walk the original course of mutual respect, seeking the reciprocating nature of each individual. Even when relating to one’s children, the sons as the offshoot of the father, the daughters as the offshoot of the mother, the parent must have a heart of respect toward that gender. One must become a parent who knows how to embrace and love his children, bearing in mind the ideology with which God created all of the creation, having expanded His ideal and creating humankind as the master of all creation. One must become a truthful parent who, upon seeing the children standing in the fallen world, is impassioned with the emotion with which God has grieved for 6,000 years, knowing how to shed tears, saying, “Yes, become a man in whom God takes delight, whom humanity anxiously awaits, and for whom all of creation has longed.”

Because he saw things like this, Jesus had the qualification to relate with all creation and with the universe. That is why Jesus searched for the bride with the emotion of seeking the replacement of God, the replacement of humanity, and the replacement of the descendants of many, many generations. You must know that this was the heart of Jesus, the bridegroom. When you meet such a bride, you will feel the emotion of having embraced heaven and earth in love. When meeting with the parent as well as meeting with the children, it will be the same. You must become such central people.

The day when we meet as brides and bridegrooms equipped with the substantial forms of united minds and bodies, ready to take the place of parents, children will have to come. Only when that day comes will the tragedy-stricken things of heaven and earth, that is, the created world, blocked in heaven and on earth, be able to move in harmony in the directions of front and rear, left and right, and top and bottom. You must know that this is the day to which all of humanity is looking forward.

The Ideal Garden Where Man and God Can Mingle as One

Where is the place humanity must seek today? It is this very place. In order for you to seek this one place, you must be able to feel such a mind toward parents, toward brothers and sisters, and toward your objects. You must be able to feel the emotions of everything in the world.

You must be able to step forth in front of heaven and earth, after equipping yourselves with such a heart of love. Only then, as God established Jesus and the Holy Spirit after working for 4,000 years, will you be established in the position of the embodied bridegroom, and you will come to meet the embodied bride. This is God’s purpose of creation. Meeting the embodied reciprocating partner is the objective of humanity. The ideal garden where God can enter into man’s body and mingle as one with Him will then come to pass. You must know that this is the final objective humanity seeks. This is the inevitable fate humankind must attain. Let us pray.

Prayer

Father, we have come to understand that each of us is a substitute for God, a substitute for husband or wife, a substitute for parents, a substitute for children, and a substitute for brothers and sisters. We also have come to know that an inevitable historical course exists wherein we cannot but establish the resting place of the mind that can determine the great fundamental existence of the universe.

Now we understand that each man and woman among us is looking for true elder and younger siblings, True Parents, and a true reciprocating partner. We are aware that humanity is wandering about seeking the same ideology. Humanity is in the same situation. Humans can never be enemies. Humanity is entangled with the ideology of creation.

However, because of the fall, parental love, conjugal love, and brotherly love have been destroyed. Accordingly, in order for us to proceed forth in seeking these, we must first feel the emotion of love between brothers. Furthermore, we know that only when we meet the reciprocating partner whom we can love, taking the place of God’s sorrow of 6,000 years will the principled standard whereby we can take the place of heaven and earth be restored.

None of us is a simple, isolated being. We must not lack in any aspect of completeness. We will be sad if we do not have brothers and sisters, friends, parents and children. That is because the Principle, based on the rules of Heaven, is for humankind to love one another by having attained completeness. That is the everlasting original mind, the first standard of life that God granted. Therefore, I sincerely wish and desire that You allow Your sons and daughters gathered here to know that humans feel sad when they face the phenomena of the fall in real life.

Please allow us now to have the minds and hearts with which we can embrace humanity in place of God, the Holy Son and the Holy Spirit. Please allow us to embrace humanity as heavenly children. Allow us to become those who can think of heaven and earth with such a mind. I ardently wish and desire that You allow the day of happiness to come as soon as possible, when we can be restored as a center before the everlasting world of all creation. We do this by becoming such that we can rejoice, even when subjected to sadness and pain.

Father, please allow us to understand today that at the terminus of our wandering in search of truth, he who does not have brothers whom he can love will receive punishment. He who does not have children and parents whom he loves will the one who has not received the beloved bridegroom and bride.

Please allow each of us to achieve, in accordance with this kind of absolute, ironclad rule, the tri position form on a horizontal level, equipped with incarnate parents, incarnate brothers and sisters and an incarnate husband and wife. Let us also have such relatives of the mind and of the spirit, centered on the spirit in the ideological world, three generations of parents, three generations of brothers and sisters, and three generations of husbands and wives. We must usher in the day when we can receive the blessing, after receiving God’s recognition through being attested to as the substantiated fruit. Otherwise, please allow us to know that none of our problems today will be solved.

Each of us now is going to have to wander about seeking for the True Parents of my body, the True Parents of my mind, and the True Parents of my spirit. Since the Parent of my spirit is God, the parent of my mind is the Lord who is coming again, and the parents of my body are the parents who bore me, I ardently wish that You please allow each of us to be able to meet with our children, brothers and sisters and reciprocating partner who correspond to these. I pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.

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Chapter 4: Heaven’s Sorrowful Heart

Matthew 1:18-2:12
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea
January 3, 1959

Prayer

We are aware of the facts of history, tragedies and grief no words can express. We are also aware that, because of the fall of Adam and Eve, the heart of the Father, who took pleasure in looking at the Garden of Eden, was transformed into a heart of sorrow. That became the historical sorrow throughout the long 6,000 years. In addition, we are also aware of being entrusted with the historical mission to restore the lost Garden of Eden, clinging to the Father’s worried heart, exerting ourselves both mentally and physically.

Father, we now know that after toiling 4,000 years to regain the lost Adam and Eve, You sent Jesus to this earth equipped with the image of Adam. The greater the Father’s toil before the time of Jesus’ birth, the greater the pride of Heaven in Jesus being born as a result of that toil. Jesus should have been the pride of all created things and of all humanity. While Heaven welcomed Jesus to this earth, in its ignorance, humanity could not give him a favorable reception. Today, we cannot help feeling ashamed about this.

As we look back upon the pitiable fact that the toiling Father’s hopeful glance had to linger on the pitiful appearance of Jesus lying in a manger, we feel keenly that our ancestors were unbelieving and inadequate. Once more, human beings revealed the fault of the fall of Adam and Eve. Because we are aware of this, we are deeply saddened today when we are mindful of this sorrowful fact. I sincerely wish and desire that You allow us to be able to console You in Your sorrow in place of the chosen people, the Israelites, who could not comfort the Father in ancient times.

Although 2,000 years have passed, all too soon, since Jesus came and left, I understand that the world of heart transcends time. Father, transcendent of history, please allow us to comfort You in this hour, embracing the heart of Jesus Christ, who went to Heaven’s castle bearing a sorrowful heart.

Father, I pray from the depth of my heart that You allow this to be the hour when, getting to know the grief of the 2,000 years since Jesus came and left, the deeply penetrating, bitter resentment that remains in heaven and on earth today, we may accept the figure born as Jesus with all our hearts.

Father, please bless this hour when we commemorate that day. By manifesting the glory of happiness for which Jesus wished, allow the grief of Jesus to be cleared away. Since we who know the internal heart are about to commemorate this day, please allow us to redeem all the past sorrow left by human beings in their ignorance. I pray from the bottom of my heart that by allowing us to stand before the Father, Jesus will rejoice and the Father will receive comfort.

We have assumed the comprehensive restoration mission and are addressing ourselves to the Will. Now we are gathered here. Today we are placed in a position where we must seek and minister to a restored parent. Now the time has come when we attend Jesus as our true elder brother. Therefore, Father, I ardently wish and desire that You allow us to liquidate the sorrowful facts on this earth by feeling and experiencing Your sorrow and becoming true brothers.

There are so many people who seek the path to Heaven on this earth. However, since they do not know through what kind of will Your life force will manifest itself, Father, please have direct dominion over their minds and bodies. By mobilizing all spiritual movements, please allow them to comprehend the whole intention of the Father, who forewarns of the last days. Allow them to fathom the Father’s internal heart. By doing so, I pray deeply that You will allow the day of happiness, when they can be Your true sons and daughters, to come to the earth as soon as possible.

We know that Jesus, who came to this earth and walked the path of the tribulation of the cross, is aiding us in this task. Therefore, please encourage us not to be inadequate. Let those of us on earth accomplish the Will in which You take delight, exerting all our powers. Father, I sincerely wish and desire that You allow brothers and sisters on the earth to continue in unity.

Please allow this which we offer You, bringing our minds together, to be the sacrificial offering for historical liberation. Father, I ardently wish and desire that You allow it to be a holy hour from now on, when we can find the beginning of happiness by liquidating the remaining sorrow and the lament of heart of the thousands of years.

Father, although this is a quick respectful bow we offer You, please bless us. I ardently wish that You govern us according to Your Will by gathering our insufficient minds and bodies. Ardently soliciting that You allow only the glorious grace with which You can manifest Yourself to appear here, I pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Prayer

Father, please extend Your hands of blessing over the whole of humankind in this hour. Please extend Your hands of blessing over the thirty million Korean people. Over the numerous children who remember Your name, please grant Your grace of love. Moreover, Father, please lift Your hands of love in blessing over the heads of the children, who are prostrated to pray from the depths of their heart in a lonely place in this hour. I pray from the bottom of my heart that You remember the members who are concerned for You in this hour, wanting to comfort You in the space of a generation for the sorrow You left behind on this earth where sin and evil dwell. Please bless them in this hour.

People on the earth do not know about this day nor do they know about Heaven’s festering sorrow. They know even less about Your infinitely sorrowful heart. Father, we cannot help being grateful for the glorious grace with which You granted this day to us, we who were unaware of the lamentable fact of this day. Now we may celebrate this day, which none of humankind recognizes as Christ’s birthday. Please remember Your sons and daughters gathered here.

Please allow our celebration this day to be the start for us to be able to console the heart of Jesus, who has grieved for 2,000 years. Please allow this to be the hour when, looking back on Christ, we can inherit his old battlefield as an unfinished work. He cared nothing about the path of Golgotha, giving his life after having been born in a sorrowful position. We realize that this must be the hour when we have to inherit the great achievement he left in his lifetime as our mission.

Father! Human beings on this earth are not aware that the sorrow and resentment of Jesus remain on this earth. Please allow Your sons and daughters gathered here to have their minds and bodies deeply touched and taken hold of by Your heart. Please allow us to comfort You by understanding the heart of young Jesus, who was in such a precarious position.

Although human beings are unaware of it, please allow this to be the hour when we can feel and experience that Jesus is still working in the spirit world. Father, I sincerely wish and desire this to be done. Since we have prostrated ourselves in front of the Father’s knees to celebrate this day, in spite of our deficiencies of mind and body and our lack of filial devotion, I pray from the depth of my heart that You will be present, and that You will manifest overflowing grace so that we can pioneer the new ideology of restoration.

Since I am about to deliver the word, I sincerely ask You to please be with us in person. Please allow everything we pray for and honestly desire in this day to remain as the condition to liberate all that has festered in heaven and on earth.

This precious day is most important. We must leave behind the traces of victory in sight of the Father, in obedience to the new Will. Please remember this day. Ardently soliciting that the Father will manifest Himself in happiness, I pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Today is an important day, which could have been the day to which God was looking forward. I myself also looked forward to this day as I came forth unfolding the Will. You must remember that this hour, when we indemnify through the number four and at the same time through a new number three, is the time of a historical act of providence.

The title of today’s sermon is “Heaven’s Sorrowful Heart.” I would like to honor the memory of this day with words to this effect.

PGod’s Sorrow, Caused by Man

God created all of creation, in order to create one man. Looking at all creation from the first day to the fifth, God rejoiced in Himself with unlimited desire and hope.

God created our ancestors, Adam and Eve, as the central figures of all creation, the masters who would rule over all creation in God’s place. Bearing an immeasurably happy heart, He then blessed all for their sake. God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.” (Genesis 1:28) That He gave such words of blessing to us means that we were created to make God happy. God blessed us for such a purpose.

However, Adam and Eve could not realize that blessing from God. You must, therefore, look back again upon the fact that a sorrowful history has flowed forth without that blessing being realized.

Heaven was immeasurably glad while Adam was growing. Through Adam, all creation was returning happiness to God. Yet Adam, not comprehending the Will of the heavenly principles, could not uphold Heaven’s Will and Word. Therefore, he ended up being chained to the sorrowful restraint called “the fall.”

Because Adam and Eve fell, God, who set up the laws of heaven and earth, could not help putting them out of His bosom of love. Although all creation knew about God’s sorrowful heart, as did the good spirits of the angelic world, we, the descendants of fallen man, have not really known this until now. You may know this very well.

Today we have gathered to celebrate this day. We have gathered to celebrate Jesus’ birth. What kind of figure was Jesus? He was the existence Heaven sought and put up in place of the lost Adam. Therefore, in concurrence with the birth of Jesus, the people then should have felt and experienced the grief which penetrated to the depth of God’s heart and should have been able to cry in God’s place, holding onto the baby Jesus. They also should have been able to rejoice in God’s place, holding onto Jesus. There should have been many people like that. However, there was no one who took delight in holding the newborn Jesus and who also cried in God’s place.

Because God’s sorrow was caused by humans, God cannot dissolve it alone. Only through humans can the sorrow, which penetrated to the depth of God’s heart, be dissolved. You must know that because this sorrow was caused by humans, the sorrow festering in God cannot be dissolved unless humans can grieve in God’s place.

Joseph and Mary were able to cry in God’s place, looking at the baby Jesus lying in a manger. Yet they did not know that God’s internal heart was sorrowful. We must know that, even after seeing Jesus lying in a manger, Joseph and Mary did not know how to feel sincerely sad in Heaven’s place.

Various people, the three wise men from the East, a shepherd, Anna, and so forth, at least had the mind to witness and take delight in Jesus. However, no one knew the sadness that sank deeply into God’s mind.

What then must we do now? We have to feel and experience the sorrow of God, who lost Adam and Eve. At the same time, we must know how to take delight in the fact of Jesus’ birth. To dissolve the sorrowful shimjung which penetrated to the depth of God’s heart, we must restore, through indemnity, this world of sin and evil brought about by our human ancestors. To restore, by indemnity, a world which abounds with sin, we must have a sincere heart with which we can cry in God’s place, holding onto Jesus. If Mary and Joseph had been like this, they would have followed Jesus’ will. Similarly, if the three wise men from the East had been people of such a mind, they would have followed the will of Jesus.

God’s Unknown Sorrow and the Desire of Mary and Joseph

However, even Joseph and Mary, who should have toiled for Jesus and stepped forth pursuing the Will for him, could not relate to Jesus with the earnestness of God’s sorrowful heart. The three wise men from the East could not look at Jesus as Heaven looked at him, bearing a sorrowful heart.

Today we must first look back on the shimjung with which God grieved before Jesus’ birth. You must reflect in your minds on the sorrowful heart of God when He cast out Adam and Eve, because they fell in the Garden of Eden. You must reflect back upon that sorrowful and pathetic scene when God watched Adam, his only begotten son, being borne off by the enemy Satan.

To dissolve this sorrow, God came forth unfolding the dispensation for 4,000 years after the fall of Adam and Eve. God notified all of humankind of this sorrowful situation by sending numerous prophets and sages. Yet human beings could not comprehend God’s sorrow nor could they comprehend the grief of the Heaven-sent prophets. For this reason, the Israelites happened through the historical course where they betrayed Heaven. Since God will certainly attain His Will, He toiled without a moment of rest. Eventually, for the first time after the lapse of 4,000 years, God was able to restore the lost Adam.

In what kind of position were Joseph and Mary? Adam and Eve fell when they were in the state of engagement. Joseph and Mary were in exactly the same situation. Having set Joseph and Mary up in such a position, God unfolded the dispensation. It took 4,000 years before God could choose and raise Joseph and Mary. You must know this.

If we think about the respective motives of Mary and Joseph in coming to stand in the presence of God, we see that although Mary was a young person, she knew God was unfolding the dispensation through her people. Mary ardently wished for the Messiah to come to the earth, more so than anyone. Joseph also wished earnestly for the Messiah to save his people, to guide the chosen people into the Kingdom of Heaven. He wished for this more than anyone else.

In all sincerity, Mary and Joseph eagerly awaited the Messiah and believed firmly in their minds that God’s Will would come to pass. They believed that if they made every effort, God would notify them beforehand of the Messiah’s birth. Hoping thus, they made great efforts. We must know this.

Although Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in ancient times fell because they could not trust, Joseph and Mary had trustful minds representing the people, minds that wished for the Messiah to come, the mind to make every effort and give devoted service. We must know that this moved God and became the motive for God to be able to send the Messiah to Israel.

Mary was confused when an angel appeared to her and forewarned her of conceiving the Messiah. Because she had not come together with any man until then, Mary denied that such a thing would occur. However, Mary had an earnest mind toward the Father’s Will, and she responded to the angel’s command by saying, “Since I am the Lord’s maidservant, please do according to Your Will.” This ran counter to the Israelite law, which the Jewish people had kept for 4,000 years. For an unmarried woman to conceive was not acceptable. At that time, Mosaic Law was so strict that a pregnant, unmarried woman was to be subjected to immediate death by stoning. Nevertheless, Mary made this sort of final decision.

In that way, chosen by Heaven as a virgin and betrothed as well, Mary was placed in a position where she had to face a life or death situation and overcome it. What was more, she came to be placed in an important situation where she could exert influence over her blood relatives and over all classes of society.

PMary’s Great Determination Enabled Her to Conceive the Messiah

Mary was of an immovable heart, such that even if she had to give up everything in this world, she could never give up the Father’s Will. She would take on any matter with gratitude to realize the Father’s Will. We must learn that the very moment Mary sacrificed all her pride and dignity and her own life on behalf of humanity, the connections for the Messiah to be born were put into place for the first time.

At the same time, we must know the situation of Mary, who was pregnant with the Messiah, immeasurably concerned in her mind about the path she must walk after his birth. That situation closely resembled God’s pitiable one. Her state of concern closely resembled the mind of God, who worries about the evil earth. For that reason, God commanded Joseph, through an angel, to protect Mary.

Although Joseph heard the news through an angel, he found it difficult to accept that Mary, who was pledged in marriage to him, was pregnant. He suffered from a humanistic point of view. However, knowing that God raises a man to realize His grand Will and unfolds the dispensation through him, Joseph took Mary home according to the angel’s command. Mary and Joseph cooperating in this manner became the base to revive Adam, lost in Eden.

If you, today, were to be placed in the position of Mary and Joseph, going back to the time of Jesus 2,000 years ago, what would you have done? If Heaven came looking for you, communicated the heartrending situation and asked to make connections through you, what kind of attitude would you take? With what kind of heart would you relate to Heaven?

If you cannot appear before Heaven bearing a heart identical to that of Mary, a heart identical to that of Joseph, then your position today of offering best wishes to Jesus, to whom Mary and Joseph gave birth with a heart of concern for Heaven, will not be seen as proper in sight of Heaven.

For that reason, you must now think deeply about whether you are, indeed, in the position of Mary or Joseph and change your mind. To follow the Will, believe in it and put it into practice, regardless of what Heaven commands you to do, you must become people like Joseph and Mary, who denied all social convention and custom, even the ethics they previously held. You must stand in a position where you celebrate Jesus’ birth in this hour with the faith to withstand this sort of problem, having laid down your lives.

Having sent Jesus, God felt concern for things about which Joseph and Mary could not concern themselves. He thought about things, about which Joseph and Mary could not think. God wished that Joseph and Mary would bring up Jesus to whom they gave birth, embracing him with all their care and protection. God wished them to raise Jesus with all their devotion, to support him with all their sincerity, until he could step forth as the person in charge of the battle in front of the enemy’s world.

Being united, Joseph and Mary were concerned about God’s wishes, at least until Jesus was born. However, after Jesus was born, they could not feel concern commensurate with God’s. They looked at Jesus with their concerns at the center of their thoughts, and according to the precepts of their environment.

Joseph and Mary should have become Jesus’ guardians. They should have become Jesus’ shields in battle. Therefore, on behalf of God’s heart, they had to support the newly appeared Jesus, irrespective of life and death. Risking their lives for the sake of God, Joseph and Mary were to support Jesus. Although she gave birth to him, Jesus did not really belong to Mary.

The Sorrow of Jesus, Who Could Not Be Received as the Messiah

Had Joseph and Mary had the same determination while Jesus was growing up as they had at his conception, they would have been able to block the path of the cross for him. We are aware that because the mother and son failed to complete the internal and external circumstances through cooperation, Jesus abandoned his home and went forth to look for disciples.

For that reason, when asked by Mary to make water into wine at the marriage feast at Cana, Jesus said, “Woman, what have you to do with me?” (John 2:4) When we think about this, we realize that Mary did not understand Jesus. Neither Joseph nor Jesus’ brothers knew. Jesus felt concern about Heaven and the physical living environment. We must understand that it was natural for Jesus to feel concern about God, yet it was a sorrowful fact for him to have to feel concern about the living environment.

Jesus was born and raised in a sorrowful environment. The environment in which he was to live, caring and feeling concern only for God, was lost. Therefore, we must understand the sorrowful fact that Jesus was put in a situation where he had to feel concern about God and be concerned about his physical livelihood.

Jesus being compelled to leave his home was equivalent to having to leave his brothers and the tribe of Joseph, which had 4,000 years of history behind it. We must remember that Jesus’ heart was sorrowful, as he looked at all the people who did not believe in him. Yet he could not confide in anyone. Jesus’ heart ached, not because his circumstances were sorrowful and difficult, but because his mother, brothers and relatives did not recognize who he was. We must understand that this fact was the grief of Jesus’ grief. Therefore, today we must go back into history and restore Mary’s original position, Joseph’s position, the position of Jesus’ brothers, his tribe, and Jesus’ position as well. We must be aware that the bitter historical resentment remains. We cannot help doing this.

Feeling the thirty plus years of Jesus’ life on earth, deeply, in your minds, having been born and having left bearing the cross, you must feel to your marrow that Jesus felt sorrowful, that he was subjected to both mental pain and physical pain. You must not celebrate Jesus’ birthday without that. Only when you know about Jesus, who came and left in such a sorrowful way can you become qualified to celebrate his birthday.

The scene in which Joseph and Mary were looking at Jesus, embracing him after his birth, may have been a condition of happiness before Heaven. Yet because they could not embrace Jesus his whole life and could not offer their best to Jesus, they concluded by not establishing a happy condition before God.

As we welcome Jesus who was born, we must know about Jesus who left. By going back beyond the cross, following Jesus into history, we must have the mind to offer our best wishes, while holding onto the newborn Jesus. Since Jesus had to leave under such circumstances and fought in such a manner, unless you get to know all the shimjung Jesus felt in his lifetime and inherit that shimjung, you must know that you are not qualified to offer your congratulations to Jesus.

Deeming Jesus’ sorrow as truly your own, Jesus’ pain in his life as truly your own, you must be able to embrace, in your heart, the comprehensive Will for which Jesus worked for 2,000 years until now. It must be your will. We can congratulate Jesus only when we get to know the shimjung of Jesus as he grew up and died on the cross in pain as an adult. We can then connect with Jesus. With Jesus as the condition, a relationship then can be formed between God and us. We must know this.

Jesus’ Wish for Man

Today we must represent those wise men from the East who went looking for Jesus. We must be able to prepare the gifts that they prepared, gold, frankincense and myrrh, and bow down with them. We must equip ourselves with at least such preparations as the shepherd, who happened to be walking the path and who went looking for Jesus with a respectful bow. The songs the billions of religious people in heaven sang, taking delight in Jesus’ birth, spread throughout heaven. Even the creation responded with song, centered on the Messiah, when this one man was born. Although humans are not aware of this, we ourselves must have the mind to offer best wishes to Jesus in the place of the whole today. We must relate with Jesus directly, bearing a mind that can celebrate in the place of religious believers in heaven, a mind that can celebrate in the place of those three wise men from the East, the shepherd, and all creation.

When this happens, the whole universe will shed copious tears. After shedding tears, we will be able to celebrate in joy. We must know that this is the mission of humankind today, having sent Jesus away.

What kind of heart does Jesus want you to embrace? With what kind of heart does God wish you to commemorate this day? If there are things Jesus calls upon us to do, they are that we give recognition to the heart to which no one gave recognition when Jesus lived on the earth, that we give recognition to the heart that has endured in spite of the massacres and persecution of the many religious people he sent during the 2,000 years since his death. We must know this. We must also know that Jesus wishes us to take his place and restore, through indemnity, what he could not fulfill on this earth, the responsibility to realize the purpose of God on this earth, substituting for God.

Holding onto Jesus’ impassioned mind, holding onto Jesus’ bleeding body, we must seek the heart of Jesus, who shed tears for the sake of heaven and earth and humankind. He invoked blessing upon his enemies. We must feel his pain through our minds and feel his weariness through our bodies. Only when we are able to say, “Please dissolve Heaven’s sorrow through us. Please dissolve Jesus’ historical grief through us,” and have the feeling well up from the bottom of our hearts will God seek us and form bonds with us.

Jesus pioneered spiritual salvation after he died on the cross. This was not accomplished on a smooth road either. Jesus pioneered a lonely path, enjoying immortality on death’s path. Jesus was this kind of man. He has been going through a history of tears, without a day of rest until today.

We are now faced with a common fate whereby we die together and live together holding onto Jesus. We must feel that Jesus’ death is my death, Jesus’ sorrow is my sorrow, and Jesus’ vexation and mortification are my vexation and mortification. Jesus’ marrow- piercing vexation and mortification still exist on this earth. Therefore, we must not forget, even for a single moment, that the person who has to dissolve this is not Jesus, not God. It is we who must do this.

If you want to bow respectfully to Jesus and look at him with the true meaning of celebration, you must now continue toward the fortress of bitterness Jesus left behind, that bitter land. Only when we come to congratulate Jesus, after fighting and taking responsibility, can Jesus relate to us. The objective Jesus was to achieve after coming to this earth was not realized as he wanted, but has remained until today, after the lapse of 2,000 years of history, as the objective yet to be accomplished ahead of numerous descendants.

We Should Become Jesus Incarnate

We must attain Jesus’ objective, even if we die on the cross, even if God says He does not know us. We cannot abandon this objective even if all the people turn against us, including the person closest to us upon this earth. Having understood this, you must stand before Heaven in place of Jesus to accomplish this objective.

You must fight on, even if something turns against you and blocks you. You must stand in a position where you feel you have taken charge of what Jesus left behind in ancient times and accept it as a natural thing to do. Unless you can do so, you cannot succeed in attaining the objective Jesus left behind, and you have no way to resolve his suffering love.

We must understand that if we do not fulfill the objective Jesus left behind and resolve the suffering love he left, we cannot attain the Will of God, who has sought us for 2,000 years. We cannot dissolve His bitterness.

God has left behind the heart that wishes us to know that although we are individuals today, “I” am not a private individual. Although “I” am an element, I am connected to the whole universe. “I” am to represent the historical heart of the whole, who wishes us to represent Jesus’ whole objective. Furthermore, God wants to entrust us today with the responsibility of attaining His desires for the future as well.

You must become those who are able to call on Jesus and God, knowing that each of us is placed in a very important situation historically. In addition, you must know that the heart of Jesus exists, born through ties which were formed between God’s heart of 4,000 years and the hearts of Joseph and Mary, who ardently wished for the birth of the Messiah. Now that the long history of 2,000 years has flowed down, these hearts are acutely making demands upon us today.

Now, do you have the mind that wishes for salvation, lifting your hands to Heaven? Do you have the mind that repents facing Heaven by bowing your body? Do you have the mind that can run toward Heaven with all four limbs in motion? Do you have the heart, having made all due preparation in your mind and body, to take responsibility for the magnificent fight of Jesus, who fought having thrown down the gauntlet of the cross? You must fully realize again in this hour that, by reflecting upon what kind of heart you have, on your own accord, you must take responsibility for the movement that dissolves the grievous historical resentment.

What would Jesus forewarn us of today? Jesus came looking for true sons and daughters to whom he could truly unburden himself and speak about Heaven’s situation. However, he could not find them. Although he went around seeking and striving for thirty or more years, he could not meet even one person with whom he could share his fate, to whom he could pass on Heaven’s unfinished business. He left without being able to do so.

By knowing this heart of Jesus, you too must experience calling Heaven “Father,” bearing the same responsibility as Jesus, standing in the same situation. You must experience crying out in repentance, looking at all humankind on the earth. You must have a sincere heart with which you can look at all creation and say “congratulations” aloud to Heaven. You must think again that unless you feel this kind of impulse in your mind, you cannot save your honor in front of the numerous prophets and sages who fought in the face of death, coming through the past 2,000 years, upholding the will of Jesus, who is still making an effort even today.

Now we must make an earnest request and vow, lifting our hands before the Father. We must earnestly request and pledge, saying, “Father, we solicit in this hour that You will please allow us to represent the body of Jesus, who came to this earth 2,000 years ago. Please allow this body that we offer before the Father’s altar to represent Jesus.”

Now you may lay down your heart and make a vow before Heaven. The heart and the will we embrace must be able to represent Jesus’ heart and will. Our whole body must be able to represent Jesus’ body. We must become Jesus incarnate, who can dissolve in our generation the heart and situation of Jesus, who tried to grasp Heaven with his heart and tried to grasp the earth and all humankind with his body. By doing so, we must become those who can fight holding onto Heaven with our minds and holding onto humanity with our bodies.

Jesus’ True Wish

Jesus did not eat for his good; he did not live for his sake. He did not feel sorrow on his behalf or fret for himself. Even during times of sadness, Jesus looked at the Father who grieved and felt rebuked. We must emulate the virtues of Jesus, the son of God, who would then feel his responsibility more strongly, bowing his head, thinking that Heaven’s pain was greater than his, no matter how great was his own.

Jesus appeared with the responsibility to save unbelieving humankind. Therefore, even though there were many paths of tribulation, toil, lamentation and pain during his life, Jesus did not care. We must know the heart of Jesus today, who felt keen regret, even in his dreams, thinking how the Israelites were unable to stand before the Father.

As we become more and more sincere in relation to the Will, we must hold onto Heaven with our minds and the earth with our bodies. Even as he walked the path of Golgotha, even as he shed blood and felt bone- and flesh-melting agony, Jesus held onto God and comforted Him. He held onto all humankind and worried about them. We must know this kind of heart today.

Jesus was a man to be pitied. Although he had parents, he did not have true parents. Although he had brothers, he did not have true brothers. Although he had disciples, he did not have true disciples. By restoring such historical matters, each of us should be able to become Jesus’ true parent, his true brothers, his true disciples and followers.

When young people see old people, their minds should overflow with the impulse to minister to them and support them as their true parents. In turn, when old people see young people, the mind to love them with all their heart, embracing them ardently from a parental position, willing to be sacrificial offerings for them, must spring up from within.

Although Jesus wished to have true brothers, he could not gratify that ardent wish even once: to go forward in sight of Heaven with true brothers at his side. That was Jesus’ suffering love. If we are to dissolve this for him, we must be able to love all people from the true brother’s position. Only then will Jesus’ suffering love be comforted.

There was no one who was a true disciple, who could stand eternally in the position of being united into one, not separated into two, who received Jesus’ love in the realm of God’s love. Jesus had no disciple to whom he could give all his love. This became Jesus’ suffering love. To dissolve this suffering love for him, we must become Jesus’ true disciples.

Who is the true disciple of Jesus? He is the kind of person who is connected to Jesus’ heart and is in kinship with Jesus. Although 6,000 years of history have passed, and there have been numerous followers of Jesus, Jesus could not have a follower whom he could truly love until today. We who know of such a fact must become true followers who believe in Jesus and know how to minister to him.

Going further, by realizing that there was no true tribe or race Jesus could truly love, no nation or world he could love, we must seek, for him, the race, the nation and the world, holding hands, with minds united and situations brought together. We must accomplish this in the position where we can truly receive Jesus’ love.

We Must Realize Jesus’ Wish

If all of creation and the billion believers in heaven were to appeal to us on the earth, what would they ask? They would ask us to fulfill Jesus’ wish. What was Jesus’ wish? It was that, after coming to the earth, he could have true parents, true brothers, true disciples, a true race, a true nation, and a true world. This was Jesus’ wish.

Since Jesus has been fighting until now, unable to rest, to become God’s true son or daughter today, each of us must be able to become Jesus’ parents, his true brothers, his true disciples, followers and representatives. We must become Jesus’ brave soldiers who realize a true world. Only when we become like this will Jesus’ wish be fulfilled for the first time.

Today we must become the throng of people who stand on the side of Jesus, embracing this kind of heart. Jesus came with this kind of heart. Therefore, we also must become the people who feel the joy of meeting by going back to look for Jesus at the time of his birth. With a mind filled with emotion, equipped with this kind of heart, we must know how to congratulate Jesus after meeting him. Only then can we become qualified to congratulate the Lord of the Second Coming in the future.

What does Heaven demand of us now? Heaven’s happiness and the fulfillment of Heaven’s wishes must be brought about by us. Each of us today is placed in this kind of important historical position. For that reason, our words must represent Jesus’ words; our activities must represent Jesus’ activities. In receiving persecution, you represent Jesus taking rejection. Therefore, even if you become lonely, without friends, you lose your brothers, your parents and your disciples, you must be able to feel and experience Jesus’ situation. Only when you stand in such a position, will you connect with the situation of Jesus at the foot of Mount Olives in ancient times. Only then will you connect with the heroic heart of Jesus who went up to the Garden of Gethsemane and prayed.

What must we do today? We must seek out the true family Jesus sought. It was the wish of Jesus to have brothers who attended one set of parents, formed a tribe and then multiplied to form a state, a race, and a world.

We too have parents and children in our respective families today. Yet, by establishing a true order of love, we must create true brothers, true parents and relatives, a true religious order and a race. If you see Jesus born on this earth and have this kind of mind. Jesus will be happy, even if he lies in a manger. I ask you to celebrate this day today with this kind of heart.

Prayer

Father, individuals have come down in history not knowing why You sent Jesus to the place of death. Please allow us to know, today, the sorrow of the Father who lost Adam and the grief that resulted from the loss of Jesus. We know that poor believers must come forth who believe in this pitiable Jesus. We know that religious people who understand the Lord’s Will have to come forth.

Please allow us to know that people who followed the providential path wandered about in search of the true path, striving in the face of death. Please allow us to know that they wandered about seeking true parents. By understanding that this became a matter of great regret, please allow us to examine closely whether we have true parents, true brothers and sisters, true disciples, true followers, a true race and a true world.

We cannot but feel that, even today, Heaven’s sorrow has penetrated to the depths of the earth and heaven, and all of humankind. We who are celebrating this day today have gathered to become true parents, true sons and daughters, filial sons and true loyal subjects.

Even though we are insufficient, please comfort Jesus who was sorrowful in the past through us. Please allow us to fulfill Your desire, constantly staying at the center of the Father’s heart. Entrusting You with everything, I pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.

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Chapter 5: Let Us Regain the Victorious Nation

Genesis 1:27-28, 2:15-7, Acts 1:1-9
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea
January 4, 1959

Prayer

Beloved Father, thank You for allowing us this day of the new year. We have come before You in this first hour, so please allow us to offer You a true bow, without blemish. Let this be a joyful hour for You. We eagerly desire that You forgive our having been disloyal to You. Guide us to become able to abandon all we have for the sake of the providential Will and to more than faithfully serve Your altar. Please lead us in this hour. We sincerely desire that You accept our bodies and minds as we offer them to You. Please be present and give us Your words of command.

Father, all we have been fighting for this year, centering on the Will, must bear victorious fruit. Please allow us to exert all our effort and bring pleasing results to You. We sincerely pray that You grant the grace that Your sons and daughters can enjoy and bestow a mark of victory upon Your chosen ones. Everywhere lonely brothers and sisters across the country bow before You, spread Your loving and gracious hands and send Your grace of compassion.

We sincerely desire that You allow us to be the sons and daughters who can manifest full loyalty to Your Will for the whole. We sincerely pray that You extend Your loving hands and compassionate grace everywhere Your name is used. Please take charge of all the affairs here today. We prayed in the name of the Lord. Amen.

The title of today’s speech is “Let Us Regain the Victorious Nation,” meaning “Let Us Regain Israel.” Since “Israel” means victory, I will speak on the title “Let Us Regain the Victorious Nation.”

The Providential History for the Sake of Restoring the Lost Love

In the passage just read from Genesis, it says that God created man and blessed him. Yet this blessing was not a realized blessing; it was a blessing of promise. Thus, Adam and Eve aspired to the day when they could dominate all things with great hope. God asked Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He said, “In the day you eat of it, you shall die.” (Genesis 2:17) Thus, Adam and Eve were to live and cherish the blessed hope in their hearts. Only when they believed in and followed the Word could they start a family as the son and daughter who could fulfill God’s Will. This was the Principle.

We human beings must have a hope. Next, after we possess hope, we should make an eternal relationship. A relationship is made through the process of faith. We can receive God’s love when our hope and faith are realized. This is the Principle. For this reason, Paul said in I Corinthians 13, “And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.” We human beings, however, have lost hope and faith through the fall. By losing hope and faith, we have lost love centered on God. We should know that the 6,000-year history of the providence of restoration was for the sake of restoring this love.

Now, in place of Adam and Eve, we should have, as our hope, the blessing God allowed before all things and heed and adhere to God’s admonitions and prohibitions to make this hope our own. It cannot be otherwise. Only when we possess God-centered hope and faith and then win in the life of praxis can we realize the level of individual restoration where we can receive God’s love. We should know that any individual, family, church, and even all things are placed within this realm. God created the world with such an ideal. Since all these were lost through the fall, humanity has been searching for hope, faith and love until now.

Thus, if we reconsider the 6,000 years, in the Old Testament Age, effort was exerted with hope in view. In the New Testament Age, effort was made in search of faith. Thus, you should know that the coming Completed Testament Age is the age when one gives effort in search of love.

In the Old Testament Age, which was the providential age to find hope, circumcision was the condition for chosen people. In the New Testament Age, baptism of water and fire (through the Holy Spirit) established faith before God. You should know that in the coming Completed Testament Age, you can enter into the loving relationship with God by receiving His seal of love.

What has the 6,000 years of history sought to achieve? It has sought to regain the hope, faith and love which were lost due to the fall. God has been toiling to regain them. Today, however, we should have passed beyond the time of hope and faith and be in the age of love. Yet we remain in the age of faith.

What did hope symbolize? It symbolized God’s new Word. What did faith symbolize? It meant becoming true sons and daughters of God. Faith was sought to establish true sons and daughters. In the future, God’s love will be established only when the individual self is complete and the family is found.

We Should Restore the Kingdom of Heaven with Hope, Faith and Love

In the 6,000 year work of restoration, God has been able to be the God of hope and the God of faith, but never the God of love. What then must we do?

Based on the God of hope and the God of faith, we should create an environment in which we can serve the God of love. Now is an important time when such circumstances must be attained. So far, a life of faith has been a matter of finding one’s individual self; that is, to restore a sinless original individual in the position of the lost Adam and Eve.

Now what is it that God wants in the end? First, He wants to find a family where individuals are united centering on God’s love. Centering on the family He can love, God then wants to find the tribe, nation and world which unfold from it. This is the whole Will of God.

Thus, before the times of hope and faith pass by, we should attain all hope and faith. Our individual selves should amalgamate the fruits of the entire 6,000 years of God’s providence: that is, they should take the shape of perfect Adam and Eve. We should then form a new family centered on God’s love. You should know this.

Jesus came to the earth with the promise of the heavenly kingdom, but he left without fulfilling it. Saints and sages of the past witnessed to Heaven, but left without realizing their intentions. Thus, we must reclaim the heavenly kingdom, which has been sought after by all historical hopes and faiths, the garden of victory.

What then must we do today? We must find an individual who will please God, and then a family that will please God. To find the family, you must find true parents, a true couple, and true brothers and sisters.

The history of God’s providence was for the sake of regaining this. Thus, the Old Testament Age symbolized hope, and the New Testament Age symbolized faith. In the future, there will come the age that symbolizes love. That can be called the “Completed Testament Age.” That connection is being extended from Heaven to the earth.

Hence, before Jesus came, the people of the Old Testament Age were individuals of hope for God. The New Testament people at the time of Jesus were objects who could establish faith for God. In the Completed Testament Age, however, God will try to find an individual who can love beyond those who represent hope and faith. You must know that this is the entire Will for which God has been leading the providence for 6,000 years.

In the last days, if you want to stand before God as a sacrifice of love or a substantial being who possesses love, you should be able to represent God’s wish, hope and faith. Along with meeting this qualification, you should resolve the sorrow of God’s inner shimjung, with which He grieved, suffered and was mistreated for 6,000 years. Only then can you receive God’s love.

Because of this love, God’s sorrow, pain and battle came into being. Therefore, in order for you to receive God’s love, you should first resolve His sorrow and pain and take over His battle. You then should receive God’s blessing as He says, “You are proud sons and daughters who fought in My place and won.” Only then can you receive God’s love.

The Saints Who Should Become God’s Beloved Israel

Today we should receive God’s love, but we do not need God’s love as it was received in the ages of hope and faith. We should go past the age of grudges and receive God’s direct blessing, with which He says, “I love you alone.” Only when you resolve the sorrows of heaven and earth through the conditions of love can you make a husband-wife relationship with Jesus and receive God’s love. This is the general content of the providence of restoration.

If you become an individual able to receive God’s love, you represent the Old, New and Completed Testament Ages. Thus, you must accomplish one will, uniting with the spirits in Paradise, the Christians now on earth, and the saints of the new age who will emerge at the time of the Second Coming.

You know well that, in the last days, the people of the past who lived in the realms of faith oriented to hope and faith, the countless spirits of the Old and New Testament Ages, cannot stand before God and receive God’s love without going through the Completed Testament people. Hence, we must win over everything in heaven and earth and become a substantial fruit of history.

Looking at the entire providence of Heaven, the spirits now in Paradise are the Israel of hope. The Christians now on earth are the Israel of faith. In the future, a new world of Israel must come. This is the Israel of love. Thus, you should be an Israel who can receive God’s love. You should become an Israel who has proof of love. Only then can you complete the condition of having passed the ages of hope and faith and stand before God without shame. You must realize this. With this in mind, we call the saints before Jesus the first Israel, the saints after Jesus who believe in him the second Israel, and those who will serve the Second Coming and live in the realm of God’s direct love are the third Israel.

For this reason, the people who stand in the position of the third Israel are ones who appear in history for the first time. They are the first people since the creation of the world who can represent God’s shimjung and relate to God directly, upholding the word “love.” If such people do not appear, God’s providence of hope and faith will all be shattered. Hence, we must be able to feel how important is our mission.

There are representatives of the second Israel living here on earth. In the spiritual world, there are representatives of the first Israel. The third Israel, whom God can command, has not yet been formed. Furthermore, the formation of the tribe, church and family has not been accomplished.

In relation to what God wants to do on the earth, from the times of Jacob, Moses and Jesus, He has been establishing such heavenly numbers as twelve brothers, twelve elders, and twelve disciples. By establishing all the Principle numbers of Heaven, God unifies all the people in heaven and earth, through connecting them to one order. This is the purpose of God’s providence. The door of the heavenly kingdom will then open, but the door of the heavenly kingdom should not be opened only in heaven. It has to be opened and widened on the earth as well.

The Meaning and Importance of Tribal Formation

We should know that the heavenly gate, constrained under the limitation of locality, has been gradually widened because the believers in Jesus have been increasing in number. This is God’s hope. Thus, in the last days, you should become glorious by winning over Satan for the sake of the Will of restoration and by representing heaven and earth. For this, all of creation now must go through the heavenly gate.

Today the question is to which tribe you belong. No matter how many denominations of Christianity there are now, they must belong to one of twelve tribes, representing the twelve disciples. Yet there has been no tribal formation through which God can control, move and command the earth. God worries about this earth even today.

The twelve tribes in Moses’ time represented the twelve brothers in Jacob’s age. The people from Abraham to Moses who were instituted as the chosen people were of the national type of restoration, representing the tribes of the providential age, centering on Jacob. Hence, the children who multiplied for the 400 years, centering on the twelve tribes, all had to belong to a tribe. The people within the realm of the Mosaic tribes had to be subsumed into the realm of the tribes of Jesus, centering on the twelve disciples, for they had the mission of worldwide restoration. The nation of Israel, which had been formed through Moses, had to be organized into Jesus’ tribes, centering on the twelve disciples. We know that such a restoration mission remains to be done.

If Jesus had not died and the Will had been realized, the spirits of the Old Testament could have become the second Israel. Those who believed in Jesus and received the true love of Heaven could have become the third Israel. Since this was not achieved, however, the Will concerning the second Israel remained unfulfilled. Moreover, because of this lack of fulfillment, the Will has been prolonged. Even now, 2,000 years later, Christians are carrying out the mission that originally belonged to the chosen people at the time of Jesus. We should understand that that Jesus could not organize the tribes, centering on the twelve disciples, through which he could take the command of Israel on the earth was the sorrow of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

Today, then, we should realize the purpose of God and Jesus. What should be done first? We should organize a tribe God can set up on the earth representing the entire world. In a tribal formation, there are the twelve sons of Jacob, the twelve elders of Moses, and the twelve disciples of Jesus. The relationship between Jacob and his twelve sons was that of father and son. Thus, the relationship between Moses and the twelve elders should have been like that of father and son, yet it failed to become so. Jesus and his disciples should have had a father-son relationship; yet they failed to do so. We should know that this is the basis upon which a condition of sorrow remained in the course of the providence of restoration.

If the Israelites had served Moses as the father of their nation, if they had made a father-son relationship with him, recognizing him as the God-installed father of the nation who could lead them into heavenly victory and had they gone to Canaan in such a relationship, they never would have betrayed Moses. Yet, since Moses and the twelve tribes failed to make a father-son relationship, they could not feel any sadness, even when Moses felt sorrow. Since their relationship began to tear apart, God’s Will to restore through love was shattered, and the chosen 600,000 Israelites fell in the wilderness.

The Conditions Required for Tribal Formation

After this, centering on Joshua and Caleb, the Israelites entered into Canaan and lived there. Their hope was to receive the Lord.

Why was Jesus necessary? Since they failed to serve Moses as the father of the nation, they had to wait for the day they could receive the father of the world. In other words, they waited and prepared for the Messiah who would come as the true father. If, after the birth of the Messiah, they had respected the heavenly Will and had made a father- son relationship with Jesus along with the disciples, they could have never separated from Jesus. Also, the disciples could have never separated from one another. We know that Israel’s inability to make a father- son relationship to receive the love of Jesus and God has become a sorrow of history today.

Thus, in this time, we should find representatives like the tribal leaders for which God has been looking and create a father- son relationship centered on the love of the returning Lord. Otherwise, God’s providential Will cannot be completed. You should understand this.

We human beings, however, who have been going through the course of restoration, came to stand in the position of having lost everything by betraying the Will of God, who led the providence for 4,000 years through Jacob, Moses and Jesus. We are standing in the position of having destroyed the Will of God, who worked for 4,000 years from Adam to Jesus. Thus, we should take responsibility for the sins of the nation, and for all the effort of the 2,000 years since the time of Jesus.

Hoping to bear such a responsibility, to organize new tribes, and to be related to Jesus as father and son are the current situations we Christians face. Thus, you should take all that your ancestors have left undone as your inheritance and go on, looking to form the tribes in a reverse way.

How is the tribal formation carried out? To become a part of the nation of Israel, one had to receive circumcision in the time of Abraham and baptism in the time of Jesus. You should know, however, that from now on one must receive the seals of Jesus and the Father. This is an important issue in our making a new tribal formation. You need the seals of Jesus and the Father. God has been leading the providence for 6,000 years for this. To pass beyond the Old Testament Age of hope and New Testament Age of faith and enter into the Completed Testament Age of love, we must establish the position where God can grasp us and love us.

Today you are in such a process. After you have become a perfected and consecrated individual, you should strive for the original family of Adam, which God tried to establish. In this way you become brothers and sisters of Adam.

The people, who lost their parents, have gone through a historical course whereby the brothers and sisters united and regained the parents. One must find it from Adam’s family through Noah and Jacob’s families. Thus, after an individual gains recognition from the Father, there comes a time when he has to reach out for his brothers and sisters. Brothers and sisters are not simply my siblings. Only when the Parents who establish the standard to complete the 2,000 years of God’s providence from Adam to Jacob and who are able to represent the heavenly family appear will there be the twelve brothers. Similarly, in the course of the providence of restoration, after our individual selves receive recognition from the Father, we should go through the number three of Adam’s family, number three of Noah’s family, number three of Jacob’s family, and then the number twelve of Jacob’s family. Furthermore, after going through this, we should go through the number seventy and then the number 120, in the form of disciples.

Now is the time to find true brothers and sisters. Only after true brothers and sisters are found can True Parents be found. We do not find brothers and sisters after the Parents. The Parents can be found only after the brothers and sisters. Looking from this standpoint, there are many who live in the reverse way. Thus, if someone seeks True Parents, he should know that without going through true brothers and sisters, True Parents cannot be served.

The Reason the Numbers Three and Twelve had to be Restored

What God is most worried about now is not that there are no True Parents representing Heaven, but that there are no true brothers and sisters. You should know this. Jesus, who had to take responsibility for such a providential Will, chose the three disciples and the twelve to place them in the position of true brothers and sisters. We should know the sad fact, however, that by the failure of the three and twelve disciples to unite, the way of restoring the Parents was destroyed.

We should know that only when we go through the position of true children and the gate of the True Parents can we receive heavenly love, which has remained as the hope of the 6,000 years of providence. This time will inevitably come. Hence, you should win in the Cain-Abel conflict within yourselves. Before God, we are the bride and Jesus is the groom. Jesus is the Abel and we are the Cain. We should be united with Jesus, the Abel.

What should we do to be united with Jesus? The bride cannot go by herself and receive the bridegroom, Jesus. She can meet him only when she is united with the brothers and sisters. Jesus comes with the name of the bridegroom. What shall be sought after going through the gate of the bridegroom? The lost family of Heaven will be sought. It must be found.

What shall we do first as we pioneer the path to victory and seek to receive God’s true love? In regard to the mind and body, we must subdue the sins of the mind and become able to completely and freely control the body in daily life, according to the mind’s direction. Taking the bridegroom, Jesus, as the Abel, my body in the position of the bride and Cain should become completely one with him. This is not the end of the matter. The problem is that after I become completely one with the bridegroom, Jesus, I must reach the people who represent the three disciples Jesus tried hard to find. I must also find people who will represent the twelve disciples.

Why did Jesus seek the three disciples? He had to stand in the position of true Adam by restoring three disciples representing the three sons of Adam’s family. Where did the nation of Israel begin? It began from Jacob. Only after the three people representing the three sons of Adam’s family were found at the time of Jacob was the victorious condition established. Furthermore, based on the three sons, the twelve disciples had to be united and establish a victorious foundation on the earth. Since the three and twelve disciples all betrayed him, however, Jesus could do nothing but die.

Thus, in order for us to stand in the position of Jesus’ bride today, we should fulfill the few conditions through which he tried to create an ideal family on the earth, but which he left unrealized owing to his death. Otherwise, we cannot meet the Lord as the bride.

The course of restoring the number three of Adam’s family in our church is the organization of trinities. Thus, if you cannot become one centering on the trinity, you cannot come before God.

By the unity of the trinity, we can fulfill God’s Will, which seeks to restore what was lost in Adam’s family. In the time of Jacob, 2,000 years later, the providential Will was carried on with twelve brothers. Likewise, only when the twelve disciples become one, based on the number three, can you serve the Parents and enter into the realm of the tribe where you represent one tribe. This was the absolute standard to indemnify the 2,000 years’ of history from Adam to Jacob. Therefore, Moses and Jesus also had to walk this path.

To Become a Member of the Heavenly Family

Moses, however, did not know the meaning of the twelve tribes and the seventy elders in the providential Will. Jesus, however, knew that he had to realize the historical connection by choosing three, twelve and seventy disciples on the earth. For this reason, he made this providential effort. Jesus absolutely had to stand on the national foundation with this preparation.

Yet the responsibility to prepare the national foundation belonged to John the Baptist, not Jesus. The failure of John the Baptist resulted in the disintegration of the national foundation and the shattering of all the effort of the 4,000-year providence. Hence, we know that Jesus embarked upon the second course in which he went back to Adam’s family and tried to establish three disciples, twelve disciples, seventy elders, and 120 disciples. We should know, however, that since the chosen Israelites were all abandoned by God, the fishermen and Gentiles, who had not previously believed, inherited this blessing.

After Jesus departed, where did the tribe of the three disciples go? Nowhere. After Jesus departed, where did the tribe of the twelve disciples go? Nowhere. Although they set up the condition with respect to the Word, the seventy elders and the 120 disciples could not establish the conditions in substance. We should know that without restoring this, God’s Will can never be fulfilled.

In the age of the Second Coming, which must bear the worldwide mission, the person of the Second Coming has to establish the foundation Jesus tried to create to realize the Will. Otherwise, he cannot complete the mission of restoration.

Therefore, Heaven will first realize the standard of finding the three disciples. The three should be able to live and die together representing Heaven. Next, the number twelve should be found. This is the minimum foundation for Heaven. The next thing we must do is to create the families of the heavenly kingdom, because in order for there to be a people, families must first exist. Thus, we can serve the Parents only after finding the family. This is the reverse way.

The Old Testament Age was the age of reclaiming a people. The New Testament Age was that of reclaiming the children. The Completed Testament Age is that of reclaiming the Parents. Since the age of restoring the family began from the New Testament Age, Jesus introduced love and founded the principle of love.

In what positions are we, we who must go through the age of restoration into the age of the ideal? Although Jesus came with the responsibility of carrying out the elder son’s mission and standing before God on the earth, he did not fulfill it. It has been prolonged another 2,000 years. Thus, our mission is to restore this through indemnity. We should know that we, the saints in the last days, are in such an important position.

What should you do to become a member of the heavenly family? You must satisfy the minimum requirement of Heaven; that is, the number lost in Noah’s family. When you fulfill the number three, however, can you then stand before God? Not yet. Because the number representing the three sons of Adam’s family was completed in the time of Jacob, now not only the condition of three brothers, but also the condition of twelve must be satisfied. You should know that only then can we establish on the earth the standard of restoring the heavenly family and come before God. Men and women all have this responsibility. You can progress toward the position of the parents in the new age only when you restore the three brothers, centering on yourself.

What are the last days? It is the time when the Parents appear. The cosmic parents, the national parents, and the family parents appear. Only when you model yourselves after the cosmic parents and parents of the church can you go searching for the family parents.

Conditions for Becoming a Heavenly People

In the 6,000-year history of the providence of restoration, God has led the dispensation for humankind from the position of the True Parents and cosmic Parents. Jesus and the Holy Spirit did the providential work with the second Israel from the position of the national parents.

Since Jesus represented the mission of the nation and of the church, he stood in the position of chief priest. Thus, you should follow Jesus and become chief priests and true parents of the family who can stand before God. You should know that this is the central point of providence which God must establish on the earth in the last days. Hence, in the position of the parents of the church, Jesus left behind the word of the Second Coming in order to continue toward the position of worldwide parents.

The one who comes with the mission of the worldwide chief priest is the True Parent of the world. That is how it goes. Looking upon this earth today, however, there are no true parents of the cosmos, of the church, nor of the family.

How does one become a true parent? Each one should serve the parent of the church, who is in the position of the chief priest of the church. Without this, one cannot become a parent of the family. In turn, the parent of the church cannot act as such without serving the cosmic parent. Since this providential pattern remains incomplete, God’s Will has not been fulfilled thus far.

What should we do now, we who must conclude the entire mission of restoration? First, we should find and serve the cosmic parents and churchly parents. Only then is one qualified to become a family parent.

A country has a representative, a tribe has the tribal representative, and a family has a family representative. Since a person has a connection with the whole world, he can become part of a heavenly people only when he serves the parents of the cosmos, the church and the family.

For what is it that the whole of humankind is searching today? They are looking for the cosmic parents. Christians desire for the parents of the church to appear. The time when the cosmic parents appear is the day of the Second Coming. Yet the providence of bringing together the parents of the church has not been fulfilled yet.

Heaven’s providential Will has been upheld for 6,000 years, yet the mission of the Second Coming still remains. Who should take the responsibility of the chief priest centering on the church? Although the providence of the groom and bride has been achieved within the realm of promise, no one has yet proceeded to the position of the True Parents who can live centering upon the church. Until the position of the True Parents is determined, the True Family, constituted of True Children, cannot be attained. Furthermore, until the position of the cosmic Parents is determined, the position of the church Parents cannot be determined.

Today, even though fallen people have parents, they are not True Parents, recognized by God. Our task in the last days is to serve the cosmic, church and family parents while we are alive. In other words, we should serve the parents of three generations. The family represents the people, the church represents the children, and the cosmic parents represent the True Parents.

People living on the earth today are outside the realm of True Parents’ love, which is approved by God. The sad fact is that the flesh and blood relationship with the parents does not extend into the spiritual world. You must realize that only when the family, church and cosmic parents and the love of God mingle and harmonize can we enter into the whole love realm of the 6,000 years and lift up our faces before God. This is the path we human beings must tread.

Our Position and Task

Where are we standing now? We have not yet entered the position of the family True Parents. We must gain this position, but it cannot be done without cost. Why? Since the fall occurred, to rise again, the bridge of brotherhood must be constructed. Even if we must sacrifice all that we have, we should set up the standard of having indemnified the historical condition of resolving grudges to find the True Parents and to become true parents ourselves. Otherwise, Heaven cannot tolerate you.

What then is your task? Since you must serve the Parents, you should prepare the foundation of brotherhood. This is the meaning of the trinities. Only when the brothers and sisters of a trinity prepare the center to serve the heavenly parents, and the three and twelve brothers become one can they receive the qualification to be a heavenly family. This family should extend beyond the parents. It should assume the form of representing the church, the nation and the country. On this basis, it should prepare the standard for serving the Parents.

After this, it must assume the form of the church and prepare to serve the worldwide Parents. Although the family standard was set up in the time of Jacob, it was destroyed through the disbelief of the descendants. Although the national standard of the family and parents was set up in the time of Moses, it was dismantled again through disbelief. Although Jesus came and tried to prepare the worldwide standard of the family, this Will was shattered through lack of faith.

Thus, even though a person has hope and faith today, he does not have love. We lost hope, faith and love through the fall. Therefore, those of us who have the destiny to regain these should have new hope and new faith. Furthermore, we should create a brotherhood that can harmonize with the new hope and faith and achieve oneness. You must manifest, in your substantial being, the standard that can represent the entire Will. The Will was sought after through hope from the time of Jacob and through faith from the time of Jesus. Only when we have satisfied all these substantial conditions can God call us “people of hope and faith.”

Hitherto, people have looked at God with hope and faith. When a substantial being appears on the earth who brings together hope and faith, God can have hope in him. God’s love can only make a connection with the world when God can have hope and trust in us.

Conjugal love will come only when parental love is established in your center, according to the principle of restoration through indemnity. Furthermore, only with parental and conjugal love can brotherly love come into being. That is the way it is. Parental love is one. Conjugal love multiplies centering on the parents, and brotherly love multiplies representing the couple. Parental love starts with one and gradually extends itself. In search of this, we fallen people start with the smallest stage of brotherly love. The ideal world cannot be constructed without starting off with brotherly love.

How Do We Serve the True Parents?

How do we serve the True Parents? We should become true couples and form true families. Only then can we serve the True Parents. It is good that you trust and follow me, but other people should be able to trust and follow you as you trust and follow me. This way you should produce the family Jesus tried to find, then all people will become brothers and sisters. I have organized the trinities to bring this about. Thus, when you do things in the future, you should not do it alone. You should not go witnessing alone.

When such a trinity stands in the position of the parents, they should not let the brothers and sisters go along by themselves, but should go with them. A family is formed only by combining the parents and siblings. In order for this to assume a national form, one family should become twelve. The national conditions can be carried out only with numbers above ten.

Why did Jesus install the 120 disciples? It was ten generations from Adam to Noah, and twelve from Noah to Jacob. Since the vertical result that represents the entire 2,000 years is twelve, i.e., the twelve sons of Jacob, Jesus took the vertical number twelve as the center. To establish the number that represents the twelve generations from Noah to Jacob and the ten generations from Noah to Adam twelve is multiplied by ten, making the number 120. This is the number representing all the numbers to be restored. This is why I strongly encouraged you to go witnessing last time. One should witness to 120 people while on earth. If this is too much, then witness to at least twelve people; yet one should not just stop at twelve people. If he does not achieve the goal of 120 people, he should make 120 horizontally. The mission of restoration will be accomplished only when he brings at least 120 into horizontal harmony.

Today you have the responsibility to build a victorious country. In the victorious country, there should be the True Parents, who represent the victorious heaven and earth and all the religions of the world. There should also be the True Parents who represent the family. Looking at this horizontally, the church assumes the social character and the country symbolizes the world. Thus, unless you make horizontal and vertical relationships, you cannot possess a family as a citizen of the country.

You must follow this path, for this is the way to the heavenly kingdom. Therefore, the one in charge of a family should fulfill the responsibility of the family. The one who takes charge of a church should carry out the responsibility of the church. The one who has a greater mission should realize the responsibility of the greater mission, then the shape and movement become identical. The difference lies only in the scope of the mission. The pattern and method of life are the same. The only difference is whether the area is greater or smaller. Hence, you should meet the condition of indemnity to represent the world from the position of a family. You should know that the ideal of the cosmic True Parents will be accomplished only when one establishes it representing the nation and church. We should understand how precious our responsibility on the earth is in accomplishing the ideal of restoration.

Moses’ course is Jesus’ course, and Jesus’ course is our course. Moses led the 600,000 people, centering on the twelve tribes and seventy elders. Jesus performed his mission centering on the twelve disciples, seventy elders, and 120 disciples. If the Israelites had followed Jesus, he could have started on the worldwide foundation. Since the people failed to uphold this, however, he could not realize the Will and died on the cross.

The task of those of us who live in the age of re-indemnification to make three becomes twelve, twelve become 120, 120 become 600,000, and even greater numbers through unity. Only then can God fully exercise His authority centering on the whole providence. You should know this. Only then can we progress beyond the national level. Hence, you should continue with hope in view. You are preparing for the day of hope.

The Reason We Offer the Condition of Restoration, Even Amid Persecution

In this age, we need to fulfill the responsibilities of the family, the nation and of the world. You should know that this is why we receive so much persecution. Through our offering the condition of accomplishing the national mission from the stance of the family and church, even through persecution, God tries to place us on the foundation of His 6,000 years of providential work. You should know that this Will exists. Standing before this Will, the countless spirits from the time of Jesus stand in the position of the first Israel. The saints who believed after Jesus came and left stand in the position of the second Israel. Those who are on the condition of perfection today stand in the position of the third Israel. Since standing in the position of the third Israel is the purpose of the course of the bridegroom, we should follow the reverse path.

Since the third Israel is to love, without going through the purpose of love, one cannot make a connection with God. Hence, the first Israel in the spiritual world must go through the second Israel, the Christians on the earth. The Christians, the second Israel, must go through the third Israel. Moreover, the third Israel should establish the standard of the mediator. You must establish this position in the areas of the individual, the family, the church and the world.

With this Will before you, you now know well on what stage you are. I thank you that you call me “Teacher,” but unless you meet the condition of restoration, the teacher cannot do anything about it.

In the process of finding the True Parents, what do the true brothers and sisters need to establish? They should plant on the earth a love that is greater than any brotherly love within the 6,000 years of fallen lineage. Without this, Heaven cannot say, “Oh, you are brothers and sisters I can recognize.” Only after going through the course of true brotherhood can you enter the realm of grace where you can be the parents of the family. You should not do this for your sake. You should stand in the position of the family parent for the sake of the national and cosmic parents. You must do this. No matter how talented you are, you must go through this course of indemnity as the condition.

Without accomplishing this, you cannot be victorious parents of Israel, victorious brothers and sisters of Israel, or victorious people of Israel. Thus, the family should be formed after organizing the brothers and sisters and being recognized by Heaven. Then families should come together to form the order for the sake of constituting the nation.

Since world Christianity, representing the twelve tribes sought by God, only has the name of Israel and not the order, they cannot provide the foundation upon which God can operate. Therefore, to install the footing for God’s operation, we should reorganize the scattered order of Israel and make the worldwide foundation for restoration. Such is our responsibility.

Today we are engaged in witnessing. Witnessing is for the sake of finding brothers and sisters. When the brothers and sisters increase in number, a tribe comes about. When tribes increase in number, a nation comes about. When nations increase in number, a country comes about. When countries increase in number, a world comes about. Even if we sincerely want to find a true brother, we cannot do it alone. You and I must combine efforts. Only then can we stand before the Father. One can serve the family parents through brotherly unity. A church can serve the parents of the church through brotherly unity with other churches. The world and its countries must love one another and unite as brothers and sisters before serving the cosmic Parents.

We Should Restore the Lost Order

Now we are living in the age when we must carry out this historical mission. Therefore, we must restore the lost order with our hands. In order for us to stand before God in this way, however, we need to go through the family. Jesus is now only in Paradise because he did not go through a family.

The Will of the 6,000-year providence is for the sake of going through the family. Since no one has ever passed through the gate of the family, however, God’s love has never been found in this world. Since Jesus could not go through the gate of the family, he left behind the task of his return. In the spiritual world, he stays in Paradise, an intermediate stage. Thus, we can go through the nation only after going through the family. It cannot be otherwise. The family belongs within the realm of the nation. The nation belongs within the realm of the country. Thus, we should know that we have an important responsibility to combine families and organize a nation, to organize nations and constitute a country, and to organize countries and form a world.

Therefore, if you are living for the sake of your family, your relationship with God will be severed. You should think that even though your life centers around your family, you live for the sake of the nation and world. Thus, when one lives representing the family, that family should live representing the nation. When one lives representing the nation, he should live representing the world. When one lives representing the world, he should live representing heaven and earth. We must create this new history. Thus, we have an important responsibility to organize the family, nation and world and to restore the new garden of victory.

This year you should move according to my plan. The brothers and sisters should restore the family by learning from parental love. Families should come together to save the nation. Learning from the shimjung of Jesus, we should love our brothers and sisters and become able to serve the Parents.

Without such a standard of heart, you can never become victorious sons and daughters. Without becoming victorious children, you will never be able to found a victorious family. Without a victorious family, the whole Will of the restoration of founding a new country will not be fulfilled. You should know this and keep today’s word in your hearts.

Prayer

Father, we have learned that You have been working providentially to be the True Parents and master of human beings, who have fallen into an extremely low and base position. We have learned that Jesus has worked for 2,000 years to stand as the parent of the church and of the nation.

We know that now the time has come when we should achieve the parenthood of the cosmos, the nation and the family. Without standing in the position of the family true parents, we cannot complete the position of the national true parents. Without completing the position of the national true parents, we cannot complete the position of the universal true parents. We have learned that this tremendously important matter is determined by us alone. Today, please allow us to indemnify the sorrow of restoration and to come before You by fully satisfying the condition of hope You desire. Please allow us to go through true brotherhood and proceed to the position of the True Parents in this way. Allow us to be able to bear the historical mission, according to which we should form the true family after achieving true parentship. We then should continue to the nation through the family and on to the position of universal parents through the nation.

Please allow us to understand that our lives, centered on our families, is not simply for our families, but for the nation. Let us have the heart of living for the sake of the nation. If there is a family taking responsibility for the nation, grant that family the heart to live beyond the nation, for the sake of heaven and earth. We realize that we can only resolve Your great sorrow by being thoroughly possessed of such a heart.

Therefore, Father, allow us to follow Your Will from today. As we sincerely desire to achieve brotherly unity and extend the Father’s Will of glory, we pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.

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Chapter 6: God and Humanity Should Live Together

John 14:6-12
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea
January 11, 1959

Prayer

We cannot help thanking You, Father, for having brought us before the Will and taught us the duties of children and our original value. Please do not let our hearts be our own. Connect them to Yours and make them hearts that can represent Yours. At this time, grant us the ability to feel everything in Your place and to experience the heavenly nature, beyond human nature. Beloved Father, we sincerely desire this.

Father! Having been separated from You, we must meet You again. Make our paths desperate ones.Let us forget all we have and struggle to find the lost Father. We know that we must have an earnest shimjung, earnest loyalty, and perform the actions that arise from such. Please forgive us our shortcomings. Father, please forgive us that, although we should offer utmost loyalty to You, we have not been single-minded enough.

Father, today is the second holy day of the new year. Allow us to start with a new determination. We have realized that our hearts must become one before You. Father, we must be grasped by You. Please come and soothe our hearts and embrace our bodies. Father, we sincerely desire this.

Since we know we must be offered as a living sacrifice before You, from this time on, please allow us to be offered as such. Today is a holy day. Please bless all the people on the earth, the thirty million people of this nation and the numerous churches. Please specially embrace the lonely brothers and sisters across the country who must be making tearful pleas with heavenly sorrow on this day. They are in lonely places because of the heavenly Will. Since they know the heavenly shimjung and situation, they are fighting for the sake of that. Hence, please embrace them with the same grace at this time. We sincerely desire it.

Father, since Your sons and daughters who have been fighting across the country are gathered this Sunday to make a new determination and resolution, to take up arms anew, please allow them to experience the traces of Your glory in this workshop with their bodies and minds. We sincerely pray that You will bless us to possess the heavenly staff to bear witness to the value that has manifested compassion before the whole of creation.

We are trying to gather our hearts and bow to You at this time. Although we are unworthy, please come here, receive it, and embrace us. We sincerely pray that You will admonish us with the hidden grace of life. Since we have the responsibility to save the people moaning under the forces of darkness, Father, please guide us to embrace them day and night and to struggle against the forces of darkness. We sincerely ask You to allow us to realize the responsibility to offer life and become sacrifices for their sake and to inherit that mission with our pledge to You. We entrust everything to You. Please lead us as You wish. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Prayer

Father, have pity on the people of the earth. We know that the day is approaching when the Will is to be completed. We know that day is the day of Your liberation, the day of Jesus’ hope and the day humankind so desperately awaits.

We know that the time has come when we must serve the Father with our hearts on the glorious day, the time when we must not become part of the sinful history, lest we receive the fearful day of judgment. Please recreate our hearts and give us characters pleasing to You. We sincerely desire that You recreate our bodies and give them a form with which You can work. Allow us to become Your true sons and daughters, who can sing of Your original hope with minds and bodies You can possess.

We sincerely wish that the day of Your hope, the day of Your glory, and the day of Your joy will come soon upon the earth. That will be the day when we become one in glory, when Your joy becomes our joy, and our joy becomes Your joy, as well as the joy of all the saints in heaven and the joy of all things.

If someone’s heart is immature, allow him to grow according to Your original heart. If someone does not have the original human form that resembles Your inner character, please subjugate his body and remove all the elements of evil.

We deeply long to be heavenly children who can move when You move, their minds and bodies harmonizing with Your shimjung. Father, if our mind is unable to resonate and move with Your original mind, please change it. If our body has not resembled the original form and is unable to resonate and move with Your shimjung, please subjugate this body and make it one that can appear as beauty itself, with the original form.

We sincerely pray that You not let even one of Your sons and daughters gathered here today fall into Satan’s bosom. Please embrace them with love and consecrate them. We sincerely pray that You will shape us so that You can dwell in this temple, You can move our bodies, directly and freely dominating us.

Father, today is a holy day. Please have pity on the miserable thirty million people of this nation. Many of Your sons and daughters are wandering in search of the way. Please embrace them. We earnestly desire this. Please quickly grasp and consecrate Your sons and daughters who have been seized by the forces of darkness and who are struggling, unable to find the path of life. Please make them Your children who can align themselves with the ideal. Bless them and guide them in the direction of making offerings upon the altar of the last days.

Please accept and guide us as we offer our minds and bodies. Eliminate all elements through which Satan can enter. Make this a gathering where You can directly dominate and give commands, a gathering which can manifest the harmony and glory of goodness. Please allow us to pour out all we have in our hearts at this time, to go back to the children’s heart and make a thorough response to Your commands. Beloved Father, we sincerely desire this.

Father, please do not withdraw Your loving hand wherever lonely hearts pray. Dominate and embrace our entire minds and bodies at this time. Please make this gathering a sacrifice in which we return glory to You in Your holy of holies. We pray all this in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Prayer

Father, please enable us to understand the grieving heart of Jesus, who had to speak to the beloved disciples about the imminent end of his own earthly life and his departure to the Father’s land. In a temporal sense, we are separated from Jesus by 2,000 years; yet time can be transcended in the world of shimjung. Hence, please arouse the fire of direct experience where we can envision Jesus with a disheartened countenance and saddened heart as he earnestly admonished his disciples. This is a scene for which we humans cannot help yearning.

Who on earth understood the heart of Jesus? Since there was no one who experienced heavenly sorrow in seeing his careworn figure, a sorrow which struck to the depth of the heart, we know that Heaven could not help lamenting over those people. Please enable us to sympathize in our hearts with the sorrow of Jesus. Without even one disciple who understood the heavenly shimjung and who called out “Lord!” He had to live under constant suspicion and thus ended his woe-filled life.

Although Jesus came to humankind with the heavenly shimjung and on heavenly business, people treated him according to their whims and persecuted him. They drove him into extreme loneliness. In spite of this woe and anguish, however, Jesus could not abandon the people. To pioneer the way to the garden of life, he was willing to go to Gethsemane and go the way of the cross at Golgotha. Please enable us to understand the sad truth that there was not even one trustworthy disciple who could truly merge with Jesus’ miserable heart.

We know that when Heaven comes looking for us in the last days, we should become the heavenly children who can carefully uphold the final shimjung of Heaven and who can connect our mind and body and experience the shimjung in heart and Word. We know that past sorrows are because our ancestors were at fault and did not understand the heavenly shimjung. Please enable us to treat Heaven with these thoughts in mind and plead, “Father,” with the orphan heart of Jesus. Please enable us to connect with the shimjung at that time. Make these people the disciples who can be trusted with an open heart, who can bear witness to Jesus. We sincerely desire this.

Thomas said, “Lord, we do not know where you are going” (John 14:5), and in John 14:8, Phillip said, “Lord, show us the Father.” Please let the people here feel how grave was Jesus’ sorrow when he heard his disciples demanding that he show them the Father.

Teach us to sympathize with the shimjung of Jesus, who had to conclude his life and leave behind disciples who did not know that Jesus lived with God. Teach us to sympathize with the heart of Jesus, who lived all his life for the sake of humankind, unable to see the fruits of his life, consoling God while his heart grieved.

Father, Your sons and daughters have prostrated themselves in Your presence here, so please bring their hearts together. Although they have nothing, please guide them to experience the shimjung You have given them, a desperate shimjung You tried to manifest through Jesus.

Make us the children who can represent the entire shimjung of Heaven, children who long for the heavenly Will and the world of heavenly shimjung. Allow us to appear before the creation without shame. We sincerely pray that You allow us to understand the heart of God and Jesus, who are waiting for the sons and daughters of whom they can be proud in front of the whole of creation.

Father! Please lead the thirty million people who are asleep under the deep wave of death. Guide the churches You have established to unify to fight against the powers of darkness with the authority of life. Although we are following the Will, we do not know what is the Will. Although we are trying to follow the heavenly path, we do not know what that path is like. Father! Please grant us the power to realize all this. Please bless us.

Father, please guide these sons and daughters of Yours to realize the desperate shimjung of Heaven on behalf of the nation. Allow them to stand closest to You. Father, we sincerely desire that You allow us to bow down before You with impassioned hearts that can listen to Your admonitions and cry out, “My Father, my Father,” embracing Your desperate situation.

Please help us understand that Satan is covering our eyes even now, by all cunning means, to abuse the world of shimjung. Please allow us to be offered to You as a living sacrifice by bringing our hearts together as one.

We must find Your path of life at this time. We must make a relationship of life with You and hear Your words of life. As I try to convey Your words with this understanding, please let the hearts of the speaker and those of the listeners become one, seized by a shimjung of earnest longing. Father, we sincerely pray You allow us to experience Your original ideal of creation with our shimjung, to receive Your shimjung as ours, and to be re-created through being moved by Your Word. We entrust You with everything. Please realize Your desires and embrace our lonely brothers and sisters. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.

The title of the speech I would like to share with you today is “God and Humanity Should Live Together.” I will speak upon this topic. God’s motive and purpose in creating this world were to live together with humankind. God created us that we might live together with Him.

The Motivation and Purpose Behind God’s Creation of the World

You know well that all beings, from the smallest to the largest, were created as beings of joy to move with God in the realm of His love. Humanity, especially, was created with God’s utmost effort. That is, humanity is at the center of God’s thoughts, of God’s shimjung, of the ideal of creation. He is the center of the substance of creation. For God, to possess humanity is to possess the universe; to dominate humanity is to dominate the entire creation; to share joy with humanity is to share joy with the entire creation. You should know that God installed humanity as the representative of the purpose, upheld from the ideal to the result of creation.

God created the world to live together with them, yet neither humanity nor all things are living in the realm of God. What is the problem? We know well that this happened because of the fall. Because of the fall, the foundation for God’s dwelling disappeared.

God has been searching for humankind, for us, ever since Adam and Eve were lost. Why? Because if we human beings become God’s temple and God’s body, one with God, substantial beings who represent Heaven and earth, our joy will become God’s joy, and God’s joy will be connected to all things through us. In other words, we human beings are the mediator linking God and all things.

Yet in spite of our destiny, we have never felt this joy; we have never built the original temple God desired; we have never possessed God’s shimjung, heart and ideal. This has been the reality of humankind’s situation until now.

We must acknowledge that no matter how great a saint or wise person might have been, one praiseworthy before all things, no one could become the temple of the ideal. No one could become the substance of the ideal whom God could visit, having the true form representing God’s shimjung.

Where have we been heading through the long period of 6,000 years? Where are our destiny and realm? Human beings are in search of the ideal, longing to live today and tomorrow, yearning for eternal life and deeply attached to life. Where are their hope and dwelling place? What would God’s shimjung be like as He looks down upon humankind, searching for, yet not knowing, the One who created them, not knowing the Master of shimjung, not knowing the Master of original true love?

If the ideal and the results of the creation did not exist, it would be a different matter. Since all things exist as a result of creation and the ideal of creation remains within God, someone must appear who will perfect and complete this ideal and result.

Whom? The time has come for us to see that it will not be the world of creation. It will not be God. It must be a human being. We must become such a person. This is why God has been reaching out to us for 6,000 years. He has been searching for us, to use us as the foundation and move us into His realm of possession.

Had human beings not fallen, they could have completed all the conditions and connected to the entire ideal of creation in daily life. He could have perfected himself within the realm of the ideal and could have become the perfected substance of the ideal before God. Through the fall, however, God had to leave us. The relationship with all things has been severed, and the relationships between people have been cut off too. This is a matter of utmost sorrow and causes us to heave our most grievous sighs.

The Results of the Fall

We are not alone in our sighs. When we look to either side of us, we hear the sighs of our brothers. When we lift up our eyes and look at the world, we hear the sighs of humankind. Moreover, when we behold all things, we hear all things sighing. When we lift our heads and see the world of Heaven through our hearts, we hear the sigh of Heaven. Have you ever felt such an amazing thing?

Have you ever cried along with this sighing, holding onto that lamentation with both mind and body? Have you ever had a shimjung such that you could embrace all the lamenting things of creation, seized by a higher sigh as you worry about the sighs of our Creator above all things? Have you ever desired to cry with Heaven, people and all things? Although we do not have such a heart, we should at least recognize that as Heaven searched for us with a lamenting shimjung, we were the most undutiful sons, the greatest traitors before Heaven. If Heaven exists, all of humankind are unforgivable traitors.

God has been wandering until today, looking for the conditions to re- create such unfaithful, treacherous and frustrating human beings. The Creator searches for an individual to bring him from the position of fallen Adam and place him on God’s side, to equip him with God’s character, from God’s ideal to God’s hope, and to live and confer with him. If there is anyone who feels this, God could not be more appreciative.

We know well through the course of restoration that until today, without humankind’s knowing it, Heaven has been preparing the environmental foundation of the providence through the individual. He has been preparing the worldwide foundation of the providence through the environment. Why has Heaven been fighting throughout the 6,000- year history without anyone knowing, trying to make a relationship with our ancestors and with our nation, our country, and the earth? What is the purpose?

God’s Word was not revealed only to our traitorous ancestors. During the 6,000 years of history after the fall, God revealed His Word in every age and time. Although there has never been a time when God’s Word has not appeared, humanity has failed to plant it in their hearts and produce fruit. This is humanity’s sorrow of sorrows. Our ancestors betrayed the hope of God countless times. He wanted them to plant His Word in their hearts and bear fruit. Will there appear a true descendant who will have antagonism toward the ancestors who left behind the fallen lineage? Ladies and gentlemen, you need to think about this.

Will there be true sons and daughters who can feel anger at the ancestors who inflicted sorrow on Heaven through betrayal and who built up the wall of sin? Can they come forward shouting before heaven and earth with a burning shimjung of protest? Heaven will look for such people.

God intended to plant His Word in Adam and Eve’s bodies and to establish them as the original, substantial human beings. What did God want to bestow upon their minds? He wanted to put His heart, His ideal, His life and His love in their minds.

Due to our ancestors’ betrayal, however, the ideal of creation, God’s Word, and original humans as the substance of God, as well as God’s heart, life and love, disappeared without a trace. There is no greater sorrow in the world of creation. Faced with such a woeful fact, we should be able to cry with a shimjung that penetrates our bones and flesh.

Since we have lost these and become victims of the fall, people long for the original self from before the loss. We long for the original self. We do not long for any material on the earth. Even though all things are there, they have no relationship with us. History and the world have no relationship with the world of my heart. They cannot console the inner me; they cannot give me any stimulation. They are unrelated to me. How did this come to happen?

The Original Self Must Be Restored

The most precious thing for a person is the original self, which possesses all the characteristics of God. Since the most precious thing has been lost, there is no happiness or joy for a person until it is found. Thus, fallen humans in every part of the world wander about in search of their original self.

What must be found first? We cannot dominate all things today. Although we have our minds, we do not understand God’s heart. Although we have our shimjung, it has no relationship with God’s shimjung. Although I search for and talk about ideals and love, I have fallen into a position where they have no relationship with God. We should know this.

This is the sorrow of humankind, the sorrow of God, and the sorrow of all created things. Therefore, those of us who have set out to find God, His goodness and love, and to resolve God’s sorrow have the destiny to go toward God’s Will, even through persecution and beatings.

Thus, when God strikes humanity, He strikes from the individual to the tribe, the nation and the world. God does not strike a person to destroy him, but to remove the elements of evil within him. You should know that this is why He strikes humanity.

Until today, the unprincipled master, Satan, has been abusing us, abusing our families, abusing our societies, and abusing our world of the ideal of creation. Satan and the sins resulting from him have been dominating our lives and have become the center that controls the world. We must turn our hearts around and long for God and the original self. You should know that, since Satan has been dominating my body and all the created things, we can never make an original relationship of creation with God, unless a condition stronger than this is explosively produced in our hearts.

We have come to the final age of being struck by Satan. Now is the time when God’s hope of 6,000 years begins to appear, Satan is destroyed, and the hope of humankind begins to emerge. These last days are days of infinite grief for Satan, days of infinite joy for original humanity, and days of infinite glory for the God of the providence. We have the destiny to become the saints of the last days, setting out to welcome the last days.

What has God been doing for the last 6,000 years? What did He want to instill in us, through His effort over such a long period? He labored to use us as His foundation and plant His Word. After humanity lost His Word in the Garden of Eden, God tried to reveal the true Word through which a person can know his relationship with God, God’s existence, and God’s shimjung, ideal and love.

Such a Word, however, has not appeared thus far. You should know that God worked hard for 6,000 years to recover the Word for us. Analyze yourselves. Is God’s Word within your character? After God’s hard work of 6,000 years to spread the Word, are the Word, the fruit of this blood and sweat, within your heart? God will ask you this.

The Order of Restoration

God must come to us, unite with us, and establish the garden of His ideal within our living environment and this world. Only in this way will God’s providence of restoration come to an end. For this reason, to stand before God as His possessions when He comes to us, we should possess the God-given Word, which is greater than any word in the satanic world.

God created all things through the Word, and He comes to us through the Word. Thus, if you say that you have come from God, since He has spread the Word, you have the responsibility to reap the Word and return it to the Father as His own.

What are the last days? It is the time when one must reap the Word and become the very incarnation of the Word. The incarnation is created through the Word. Finding the incarnation created through the Word has been the history of God and the purpose of Jesus’ appearance on earth.

God showed fallen humans the Word first, not the incarnation. This is because restoration must proceed in a reverse way. It must be restored in the order in which it was lost. As God hopes for the incarnation or substantial being, after first spreading the seed of the Word in the hearts of fallen human beings, He creates the substance of life based on this Word. When this substance comes into being, He will blow the breath of life into him as it says in the Bible: “then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.” (Genesis 2:7)

After becoming the substance with God’s breath of life, he will become the living spirit. What is the living spirit? The living spirit is one who can feel that God is my father; one who can experience the world of oneness with God, that he is the inseparable, eternal, substantial object of God. God has been working hard in hopes of humans being perfected as a living spirit who can feel that value and come before Him.

What will God do with the Word spread on the ground of our heart? He will re-create the image of Adam and Eve, lost in the Garden of Eden. You should know this. Thus, the one God sent at the end of 4,000 years of history as the substance of the Word, representing the Word of the 4,000 years, was Jesus.

What was Jesus to do on the earth, he who came as the substance of the Word? He had the responsibility to claim the people who had received the Word promulgated in the Old Testament Age. The people of that age who followed the Old Testament law should have received the representative of the Word in their hearts. They should have held on to the body, mind, ideal, life and love of Jesus.

The incarnation God had promised through the prophets of the 4,000 years and to whom God had witnessed through the Old Testament Word was Jesus, who appeared on earth as the Messiah. Yet where did Jesus go? His appearance had been prophesied through countless words and sent via God’s infinite pain. He was the incarnation of the Word. This incarnation of the Word could be seen with the eyes, heard with the ears, touched and grasped with the hands! Where did this Jesus go? Jesus came as the perfect incarnation of God’s Word of 4,000 years, the substance of God’s sad shimjung, the mouthpiece of the invisible God to the Old Testament people. Although Jesus came to unite with humans by giving them the substantial Word in the position of the substantial God, humans denied his need of him, and abused and mistreated him at whim.

Jesus came to the earth to harvest the Old Testament Word. Along with harvesting the Word, he had to win the trust of the Israelites and gather them into his heart. The people, however, killed Jesus, citing 4,000 years of Old Testament history. They asserted, “This law, established 1,600 years ago through Moses, is God’s Word! Who is this Jesus?” We should know this clearly.

The Purpose of Jesus’ Advent and the Disbelief of the Israelites

Although the Word must succumb to the incarnation or substance, and the substance should succumb to God, humans killed the incarnation, Jesus. Jesus tried to remove all the historical conditions for resentment over the 4,000 years by uniting with God. What was the historical condition for resentment? It was the betrayal of God’s Word over the 4,000 years. This grudge would have been resolved by the Israelites’ trusting and uniting with Jesus. Yet they killed the substance, deplorably using the Word of 4,000 years as their justification. This is the sin of the Israelites.

Therefore, the Israelite nation had to be trampled upon and receive contempt from the people of the world, wandering the world and becoming the servants of servants. The nation that was supposed to build the country of utmost glory wandered about on a path of pain and of the cross, longing for the glorious country. Why? It is because of the sin of having murdered Jesus. Today’s Christians are ignorant of this.

Hitherto, we have had semblances of God’s Word, but never the true Word of God. The New Testament is the Word of promise, like the Old Testament. It was left by Jesus, who was supposed to establish the Word of substance on the earth, representing God. Thus, people have been struggling, trying to find the substance from the New Testament Word. Even if one reads the Bible, however, he does not understand what is the center of the Word. Jesus departed the world without sharing all of his words, saying, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” (John 16:12) Where is the word of daily life by which a human being can live as the perfected substance with a complete foundation on the earth? Nowhere, it is not in the Bible. It does not exist. We should clearly know that Jesus has to come again, because he did not fully speak this Word. If you cannot believe it, pray about it. Prayer will teach you.

What are the last days? It is the time to meet the substance of the Word, the master of the Word. To meet the substance of the Word, however, one must achieve unity with the Word, possessing the Word which God tried to reveal to people for 6,000 years to save them. Only then can one make a relationship with the coming Lord.

Jesus came to convey the complete Word, yet he could not. He promised to reveal the complete Word through the Holy Spirit. For this reason, we can know the Word which Jesus tried to reveal in the last days through the Holy Spirit, who has worked for 2,000 years. We can also know the one who will appear as the substance through this Word. At that time, we should recognize him, serve him as the bridegroom, and make a relationship with him as his bride.

Since Jesus, who came as the substance, could not give the Word to complete humanity as the substantial temple, only when we come forward as beings of value representing the Word and as second substantial temples can God dwell in our bodies. The heavenly kingdom on earth is the place where such people live.

Has anyone wept over the Bible? Since Jesus, the perfect substance of the Old Testament, was murdered, the Bible does not contain all the words Jesus would have spoken as a perfected substance. Even though Jesus was sent to replace the invisible God, who relates to humanity only through the Word, with substance, he died and thus could only leave the Word in a form similar to the Old Testament. This is the New Testament. Now we should believe the substance of Jesus, rather than his word. The substance! Now is the age of substantial faith.

The Age of Substantial Faith and the Age of Resurrected Faith

Peter, special among the twelve disciples, could freely listen to and believe the words of Jesus. Yet he failed to advance to the stage where he could receive Jesus into his heart without hesitation. Likewise, since the substance of the Word could not be embraced, when Mary Magdalene tried to hold the resurrected Jesus, she was prevented from doing so. Humanity has been unable to embrace the substantial being. This is the second tragedy of humankind.

The first tragedy was to have lost Adam in the Garden of Eden. The second was to have lost Jesus, who was the perfected substance of the Word. This is why he has to come again. This fact, when understood, is a matter for endless weeping. For people living on earth, there cannot be anything more sorrowful.

God had been going over hills of tears, grief and wailing for 4,000 years, hoping for the day of liberation. He installed Jesus on the earth as the substance of hope. Yet the nation of Israel sent him to his death. He sent Jesus to Israel as the Messiah, representing the life of God and the promised ideal. He told them to prepare themselves to follow and serve the Messiah. Yet where did Israel go? They should have cried and wailed with Jesus. Where did the nation of Israel go, the nation that had served God for 4,000 years after the loss of Adam? They became victims of Satan. Israel became a traitor to Heaven.

Today’s faithful people believe that Jesus came to die on the cross. This shows ignorance of the purpose for the appearance of Jesus. You should believe in the way of resurrection, rather than the way of the cross. You should know that the cross came about because of Israel’s sin of having abused Jesus’ body. Orthodox Christianity believes in the descending of the Holy Spirit, which occurred forty days after Jesus overcame the cross and resurrected, and they believe in the resurrected Jesus. This is the correct faith of Christianity, but Christianity says that Jesus came to die. If he had come to die, would God have led the Israelites in such a way that He struck them when they did not believe, made them suffer and shed tears in Egypt? Would He have desperately admonished them when they were exiled to Babylon? Was the 4,000-year history one of preparation for the killing of Jesus? It is time to re-consider.

Christians are scattered all over the world. Who can guarantee that they are not the second Israel, just like the first Israelites, who abandoned and betrayed Heaven? We must know this grave fact. Jesus should have spoken God’s Words as the substance who perfected God’s Word. That Word is not something Satan can test. Satan cannot test the one who believes the Word and comes forward. Among those followers of Jesus, has there been anyone who was not tested? No, everyone has been subjected to a test.

What we need is the Word that Satan can never test, no matter how many times he tries. However, since the Christians are going by the word Jesus gave while being tested by Satan, Satan can attack them. When will we become the substance and go past Satan’s test? That is the day of the Second Coming.

We should plant in our body the seed of the Word that Satan can never invade and reap God’s Words. We should plant in our body the substance of the Word and reap God’s substance. We should become the perfect substance with united spirit and flesh, whom God can embrace and love with delight. Such are the ones who can become the brides and bridegrooms of the last days.

The work of the Holy Spirit is present in the last days. Thus, there should be saints among us who can press the Holy Spirit to work with us one hundred percent. Do you understand this? What is the standard of ideal by which the Holy Spirit will work for us? We should ask the Holy Spirit. This is one of the tasks of the faithful in the last days.

Is God So Dignified that He Cannot Make a Relationship with Us?

After the departure of Jesus, the Bible came to contain 66 books. The New Testament has many books, in addition to the Gospels. It has the Book of Revelation, which was written last after Jesus’ departure from the earth. This word was what Jesus wanted to say while on the earth. It was revealed after his death by the spiritual world.

To conclude the work of the Holy Spirit on earth, one should appear who thoroughly understands the true meaning of the Word at the time Jesus died and the Holy Spirit was sent. He should also understand the situation of the substantial being so he can go beyond the position of substance. Thus, the Will of God’s providence is to reap the work of the Holy Spirit on the earth and to establish a representative on the earth to inherit her work.

Thus, God’s work was transferred to Jesus as God’s representative, and the work of Jesus was transferred to the Holy Spirit. Now God wants to transfer the work of the Holy Spirit to the faithful believers. Only then can the Trinity rest.

Without going to that position, we cannot find God’s Word. Although we have planted the Word in our body, we cannot become the substance who has fulfilled the purpose of the Word.

After the resurrection of Jesus, Mary Magdalene was in the position of the bride. Yet when she tried to touch him, Jesus could not help stopping her. This was because she did not have the bridal qualifications through which Jesus could receive her. Satan’s accusations will be dropped only when the bride stands in the position where she indemnifies all the historical grudges and speaks the Word of perfection while alive. The providence will end only in this way.

After Jesus left, God and Jesus did not want to wait for 2,000 years. Why, then, did God have to wait so long? The 2,000 years had to go by because there has not been a substantial being who could say, “Such is God’s 6,000-year history”; that is, one who could speak the Word that Satan could not oppose as the perfect substance representing God. We should know that the providence was extended in this way for as long as 2,000 years. This is the sorrow of God and the sorrow of Jesus.

In the last days, what shall we do after penetrating the word of Jesus and taking hold of his substance? We should do the job which Satan cannot invade and speak the Word which Satan cannot attack. What is this Word? It is the Word by which we can hold onto the body of Jesus, and receive his heart and love. Only after becoming the substance who can penetrate the word of Jesus, after preparing the heartistic foundation to enter into his shimjung, will the promised love of God be given to humankind. This is restoration.

If Adam had stood as the perfected substance of the Word without falling, God would have dwelt in Adam. Adam would have become the substance of God and the incarnation of the Word. In other words, God would have dwelt in Adam’s body and Adam’s heart; his shimjung and feelings would have appeared as God’s heart, shimjung and feelings. This was the purpose of creation. You should know this clearly.

Is God too dignified for us to relate to Him, as the Christians believe? No, the Bible clearly explains: “On that day, you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” (John 14:20)

What shall we believe? Only in the shell of Jesus? No, we should be able to believe Jesus as the substance of the Word, God’s shimjung and God’s heart. Thus, by receiving God’s shimjung, ideal, life and love in our bodies, we should be the ones who can move when God moves and stop when God stops. The purpose of creation was to create a person such that he can move and halt along with Heaven, a person who has an inseparable relationship with God.

It Is Time to Abandon Conceptual Faith

The time to have a merely conceptual faith, saying “Oh, God!” like today’s believers do, has already passed. Such a God contributes no value to today’s developing society. We do not need such a God. In the last days, if there are true sons and daughters of God who trust in and search for God, they should be able to have God as the center of their daily lives. Only when a person finds such a God will He breathe a sigh of relief. At that time, the person with whom God can breathe a sigh and confer can never be invaded, even by a myriad of satans. Why? It is because no one can take away the one who has penetrated into God’s shimjung, heart and Word, the one who embraces God’s situation and love. There is no one.

Although Jesus has been to the earth, God has never been able to say to Jesus, “You are my true and eternal son who has thoroughly subjugated Satan.” You should know that God has been unable to give Jesus His full love. If Jesus had received the complete love of God in spirit and flesh, he would not have to pray in Paradise. What is the sorrow of Jesus? It is not to have made the relationship of bride and bridegroom.

Had Jesus received God’s love as an individual who could penetrate into God’s Word, had he stood in the position where he could reveal, in God’s place, the Word which can never be accused by Satan, as substance with a united spirit and flesh, and had he established such a Word at that time, Satan would have surrendered himself to the Christians who believed in Jesus. Due to his death, however, Jesus could not complete the ideal of creation, which must be completed in substance. Thus, Jesus is doing spiritual work in the spiritual world. Although he is doing spiritual activities through the Holy Spirit, the task of the flesh remains. That is why he must find the flesh. This is the situation of Jesus.

Satan, who struck the flesh of Jesus, has the condition to challenge today’s humankind on earth through the flesh. We should know this and fight this condition. The Holy Spirit also needs our body. It cannot be done without the body. The body is the temple, God’s dwelling place. Since God created our bodies as the temple, Jesus and the Holy Spirit can engage in the providence of salvation only through the temple. What is salvation? It is to multiply children of goodness. Is there any being who can multiply without the substance of spirit and flesh? There is no such created thing.

Hence, God wanted to indemnify the historical sorrow that had accumulated for the 4,000 years after the fall by establishing Jesus on this earth. For this reason, Jesus was the one to fulfill God’s Word, the original second Adam with whom God could dwell, the one who carried God’s shimjung, situation and hope. He was the one who appeared with God’s ideal, life and love. We should know this clearly.

What was God’s sorrow after the human fall? It was losing a person with whom to speak freely and the substance who could multiply life. Where did the nation with God’s lineage go, the nation where God could dwell? You should know that, as the center of life, God is looking for the object of the Word and the clan which has the living being who can represent the Word. Next, He searches for His ideal. Only then does He grant love. We should know that this is God’s Will and the ideal of creation. Those who are listening to this for the first time may not understand the content well.

The Necessity for the Appearance of the True Religion to Lead the New Age

What kind of age are the last days? Since there is no one on earth who can represent God’s Word, humankind has had to search for the substance of the Word, scattered in all four directions, and going through countless difficulties. Thus, after the age of war that claimed materials, we have entered the age of ideological war. After this age of ideological war, there will come the age of the war of the conscience. That will be the age of religious war.

After such a time, what kind of age will have to come? The age of the competition of shimjung and love should come. There should come an age when God’s love and satanic love will compete. This is the course of destiny through which fallen humankind must go. You should know that this is a necessary and inevitable course.

What is to be done in this age? It is the time when the world of spirit, rather than the world of ideology should be formed. In the future, the ideology of the heart should appear. When the heart ideology appears, your hearts will be pulled in by its ideal. When the heart ideology appears and secures the foundation, heavenly feeling and human feeling will move. An ideology should appear such that one cannot help living within its realm of ideal.

History struggles upward from the lowest level, that is, from the material stage. Thus, the vertical history of 6,000 years moves from the world of material to that of the spirit, to that of the heart. On the contrary, satanic authority goes through a history that descends from the top. It descends from the upper class, which claimed the best, to the middle and lower classes. These, however, will all disappear because they are under satanic authority. As for the process of historical development, through the war centering on materials, that is, the First and Second World Wars, now we enter into the age of ideological war. Yet, again, these will all pass away. Next, there comes the age of heartistic war and the age of the ideology of the heart.

The upper class and middle class have dominated the world in the historical course until now. Now the lower class will dominate the world. Considering the process of historical development, humankind has gone through the age of material-centered battle. Now is the age of spirit-centered strife. In the future, there will come the age of conscience-centered struggle. It is religion that moves, centering on conscience.

Thus, the age of religious battle will come soon. In the future, there should appear a religion with the truth which is centered on the heavenly heart, through which we can share heart and affection with the whole of heaven and earth and conclude: “God and I are one.” Such an age will come. Wait and see.

In the past, religious people renounced material things. This looks most foolish, but they are most wise. Religion has prepared the foundation through which it can escape the condition of historical war. The followers of Jesus believed the religion with the safest foundation, through which they could avoid the hell into which the people of the history of war fell.

Nowadays, young men and women who insist on their own way scorn religion. Such an age will pass. Wait and see. If you have such an obsolete idea, you will be hit by the communists in the future. There will come a time when they will say, “Alas, I did not know.” The fortunes of heaven and earth go through such processes.

What ideology will remain in the end? It is the ideology that cries out the slogan, “All people of conscience, be mobilized.” This is the ideology that can represent the Word for which humankind hopes, represent the substance through the Word, and represent affection through the substance. If you did not know this, you may now look forward to it.

Hitherto, has any spiritual person of conscience ever held sway over the world in the course of history? Even though Jesus said, “The Gospel will be spread to the poor,” spiritual people have never held sway over the world yet.

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Chapter 7: Oh, Where Shall I Go?

Matthew 7:7-8
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea
January 18, 1950

Prayer

Compassionate Father, since we have again come in Your presence with wounds and injured souls from the past week, we sincerely request that You spread Your loving hands, embrace our bodies and minds, and grant Your words of love and admonition to our hearts. Father, on this third holy day of the new year, let our hearts stay in Your shimjung. Let our bodies be embraced in Your bosom.

Beloved Father, we sincerely desire that You allow us to share joy with You this year, to live in the realm of Your hope, and to fight against Satan, representing You. As we come to understand Your historical course as You sought us with Your ideal, love, life and glory of goodness, we cannot help confessing openly that we are a shameful tribe in sight of You. We sincerely desire and hope, Father, You will not rescind Your heart of goodness and that You come to us and admonish us. Allow us to understand that this is the time when life and death are hovering over each of our lives, and we hang in the balance.

We have realized that we should become living sacrifices who offer their minds and bodies to You. Since we know that at this time we must consecrate our current lives from our lives of the past, Father, we earnestly desire and hope that we can offer our entire bodies and minds to You at this time and receive Your acknowledgment once again.

If You look at us with great expectation, we can only disappoint You. Yet based on our historical, blood relationship with You, please forgive us and personally visit us at this time. Although our strength falls short, we have prostrated ourselves before You to become one and fight against Satan. We hope that our pleas and bows can be pleasing to You. Since we know that, unless You deal with us directly, we all will be dragged away to Satan, we sincerely desire and hope that You will directly dominate us at this time.

Please personally admonish and command Your sons and daughters who are gathered here. We know that we must take the responsibility to fight for the sake of Heaven. Father, now the beloved young sons and daughters are living together in Your presence. Please allow them to experience the shimjung of Heaven and to understand the footsteps of those who have worked to fulfill Your Will. Furthermore, Father, we sincerely hope and desire that by letting them see the battles Your sons and daughters have fought, You will make them the sons and daughters who can understand heavenly things, the sons and daughters Heaven cannot forsake for all of eternity.

They have the responsibility to find the brothers and sisters who are scattered in all directions. We know that many of Your sons and daughters are piling up desperate prayers upon bloody altars in hiding, yet they are being trampled upon. Please look after them. Since we know that You gathered them to bestow the heavenly mission upon them, Father, separate them eternally from the satanic world and embrace them forever. Please allow them to become complete by fulfilling the responsibility of priests in charge of Your glorious altar.

Father, we cannot repay Your blessing nor do we have anything to give You. Father, you have taught us to pity and befriend the lonely and to forgive the sinful. Please forgive us, and do not abandon us in such a position. We sincerely hope and desire this.

Father, you know our hearts. Since You know that there are sons and daughters in lonely places struggling with longing for You, have pity on all because of them. They must be hoping for Your forgiveness and guidance at this time, so we sincerely hope and desire that You grant them blessing after blessing and outstretch Your compassionate hand.

Father, bless the countless numbers of slumbering people. Bless the nation of thirty million, which is in deep lamentation. Bless the Korean churches, fighting in a myriad of factions, not knowing the correct way. Make them raise the flag of life. Make them the children who can accept heavenly admonition, even the crack of Your whip. We sincerely hope for this.

Whether we come or go, we are responsible to become sacrifices. Guide us to understand the shimjung with which You give us such a responsibility. With humanistic thinking, we often do not welcome such a life of sacrifice. Guide us to understand the responsibility of overcoming all such conditions and to go on today, tomorrow, ten years from now, and even up the hill of death. Please allow us never to become exhausted, frustrated or hesitant until we have walked the path to the end. Father, we sincerely desire this.

Please personally receive our bows today. Since we know that the lonely brothers and sisters in the country are deeply praying on their knees without pastors at this time, please guide us not to betray their tearful prayers and sincerity. Father, we earnestly hope and desire this.

We sincerely ask You to make us a people who can communicate heart to heart and shimjung to shimjung; who can handle everything and share Your concerns. We hope that You will fill the remaining hour with Your guidance. We pray in the name of the Lord.

Prayer

Father, we know well that many people have struggled on a deeply woeful course in history to find You, even though they did not know the way. Father, Your existence seems likely, yet improbable.

You seem to exist in history and yet cannot be recognized as existing for certain. We behold this Father with an intensely grieved heart. You seem to exist in our hearts, and yet You are insubstantial.

We know well that You created the whole cosmos with the ideal of goodness and gave an amazing blessing to humans in that You gave us true consciences and enabled us to experience the ideal of goodness through our intellects, emotions and wills. We know well, however, that it is undeniable that Your substantial existence is felt in the temporal limitations of the moment.

Whenever we long for Your image in our hearts, we cannot help being seized by an unknowable sorrow. We cannot help lamenting over the misery of our existence. Father, You led us to this state. We know that this is Your historical operation of the heart to lead us to eternal life.

We want to know the Father, who came to us through our shimjung and who was the heart behind the scenes of history, unbeknownst to us, trying to structure history into one substantial ideal. We are sincerely longing to establish Your heart as the ideal of our lives. Since we do not clearly know the value of Your substantial existence, we do not know the value of our daily lives. We are in a miserable position of having to struggle today and tomorrow. Father, have pity on us. Have pity on each of us, wandering about on the boundary of death.

Father, now we know that the time has come when You must spread Your hands of love. The wave of that love should reach our environments and our world of shimjung. It is time to regain Your authority of shimjung. The authority is Yours alone. We know that the time has come to wage a war centering on the heart. Please give us the magnanimity with which to open closed hearts. Now is the time when we should become sons and daughters prepared to bow down to You. Enable us to hear You knocking on the doors of our hearts, to see Your hands before us. We sincerely hope and desire this.

We know that we must continue through the remaining ground of sorrow and the wall of grudges, the showdown and war of the last days. Father, grant strength, ability and Your substantial presence to Your sons and daughters who know this. Allow us to cut the dashing figure of a heavenly soldier who can go through all suffering and battles. Allow us to become noble and confident sons and daughters in exercising the authority of judgment, according to Your decisions. Beloved Father, we earnestly hope and desire this.

Since You are the one who blessed the chosen people, we know that You will bring it to pass. We know that the root of our heart is goodness, and our heart moves through goodness. We know that the purpose of goodness, history and the providence is to become one, centered on You. Please allow the pinnacle of the ideal, adored by the spirit of goodness, to bear fruit. Let us establish ourselves that we may persistently continue to become the ideal itself. Father, we sincerely hope and desire this.

Please allow us to know where our hearts are and where our bodies are moving. Allow our hearts to concentrate all our energy on longing for You and adoring goodness. Allow our bodies to call out to You, struggling to grasp goodness and holding onto the hands of hunger and thirst.

We know that the 6,000 years was the process of holding onto You and pleading with You. Beloved Father, we sincerely hope and desire that, at this time, You allow us to bow to You with our honest selves, confess all, and receive Your guidance.

Father, have pity on the sons and daughters gathered here. Since this is a time to offer a sacrifice to You, allow heaven, all saints, all people, and all things to lower their heads. When the Israelites made an offering to You, You lowered Your head to look it over, and all people and all things on the earth also lowered their heads. We hope that we can unconsciously lower our heads at this time and humbly seek the grace of compassion. Thus, we sincerely hope and desire that You personally come here, accept our offering and guide us.

Since You are the one who drives us to the path that is rejected by others, the road that is difficult to walk, You become responsible for this path. We have not been moved by a human heart nor dragged along by a human situation. Rather, we have been attracted to this place by an irresistible power of the heart. Guide us never to become lax.

Since we are ignorant of Your words of urgency and advice, apply shocks of power to us hour by hour so that we may realize the Words and move in their direction. Father, we sincerely hope and desire that no one will drop out of the process of moving toward You.

We sincerely hope and desire that You allow us to yield all we have to You, never staining Your altar, bowing down to You with all our hearts in offering sacrifices to You. If we still have our own philosophy, understanding or concepts, please remove them all at this time. Allow us to be the children who can submit all our possessions to You with the heart of a child. Allow us to receive them back and boast of them before Satan on the earth. Father, we sincerely hope and desire this.

Now we are about to receive the words. Please be with us. We sincerely hope and desire that since You will give many words of guidance, we will not disappoint Heaven after we hear them. Please allow the hearts of the giver and of the receivers to become one now. We sincerely ask that, at this time, we may return to the heart of a child sucking milk in its mother’s bosom. We pray all this in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Today we do not know clearly whether God exists or not; yet, we have a destiny which we cannot help living. As such, we always seek that which is better. This will continue until the end of history. Your descendants also will go this way. You will not be able to deny it.

Human Beings Lament in Ignorance

If we have to go toward a certain purpose anyway, we should think carefully about in what direction we should proceed, how we should live, how we should act, and what opinion we should have concerning good and evil.

Although you may want to resolve all these complicated problems, one by one, considering the reality of the world, if there is an available road to retreat, you will feel a strong urge to take it. You will feel that, if you look at the world, it is not the environment you desire. If you look at the society in which you live, it is not the society of well-being your heart desires. As the flow of the social environment and the generations becomes more complicated, we cannot help worrying about our future in that society.

The world is complicated; yet, today the movement of religious groups leading the world of the spirit through ideals is more complex. Thus, although you feel attracted to these religions in heart, it is difficult for you to follow them.

Since we are entangled in these complicated situations, we are unable to move, although our hearts and bodies desire to do so. We come to realize that we are able to grieve over ourselves, because we cannot move in the direction of our heart’s desires.

Thus, if people do not criticize themselves while they are alive, they will have to criticize themselves after death, in front of the whole cosmos. Religion explains that such a place is hell, where no one wants to go.

Since we are in a position where we cannot refuse to go, we have managed to walk this path and come to this place. When Heaven wants to see the value of your having come to this place by yourself, what do you have to show? You can only breathe a sigh of regret over your past life.

We are in such a position, whether we look at our past, present or future. Our heart is thirsty for the final ideal and the highest happiness. When will they come to pass, overcoming our contradictory selves and the world? If there are true young people who realize such facts and are shocked in their hearts, they will become consumed with a sense of mission to resolve the contradictions. They then will enter into a realm where they even lose their attachment to life.

You cannot eliminate all the sins from your body and give up your sinful body and take the lowliest position. How then will you overcome this contradiction? Something is grabbing your heart and directing it toward a certain ideal. All of humankind stumbles on this point. You should know that all of humankind and all things, all that exists in heaven and earth, are stuck in this process. You cannot deny that humankind is like this.

From the day you acknowledge this, you will hear the plea of your grieving and weeping heart, asking where you should go. Thus, the topic I want to speak to you about today is “Oh! Where Shall I Go?”

Our Ancestors’ Hope in Us

We know that everything around us today has gone through a fallen course of history. The people who surround us today are living in a fallen reality. Based on the reality, it is possible to predict that fallen history will continue.

How can we explain the fall, which occurred in the past, exists in the present, and will be projected into the future? You know well that, during the long period of the 6,000 years until now, although our ancestors tried hard to avoid it through countless efforts and sacrifices, fallen history continued.

You also know well that in the present age, many people are anxiously struggling to avoid the effects of this sinful world.

I have been living in such a world in the past and am living in it at present. As I reflect upon myself, I cannot deny that the resentment of my ancestors moves in my heart. A sad feeling flows due to the shock of living in the present world. If there is a connection that arouses yearning in us, what will it be?

Now is the time to yearn for our ancestors, who fought their way through the fallen course of history with sad hearts. It is time to yearn for our comrades in the present, who are struggling with sorrowful hearts to escape the realm of death, suffering and the fall. Hence, if we are to long for the past, we should not long for the historical facts; rather, we should yearn for the shimjung of the ancestors who were fighting with true faith against the historical tragedy.

What spirit did our ancestors possess that they could work for the sake of removing the historical tragedy? What spirit do our ancestors seek to instill in us today? Who are the comrades fighting to establish tomorrow’s foundation of goodness, carrying the hope of the future and overcoming all the troubles of the present?

It is undeniable that those who cannot revive such a heart will betray the connections of history and of the age, and will destroy the future. You are standing in such a position today.

When an ancestor appears and asks you, “Do you know me?” what answer will you give? On the other hand, when you face a brother fighting against this sinful world in this age, he will ask you, “What words can you say to me?” He will say, “I am fighting under persecution for the sake of the path of tomorrow. What words of advice can you give me?” The question is, what answer will you give to the voices of the past, the present and the future? Furthermore, although I hear the ancestors’ words and understand their shimjung, things remain for which knowing is not enough.

There are situations that cannot be resolved by the situation of the age, and there are situations that cannot be resolved by the situation of the future. In other words, the sorrow of history remains, the sorrow of the age remains, and the sorrow of the future looms. Realizing that such sorrow remains, we should keep in mind that we must speak representing our ancestors, the people of the present, and our descendants.

If our ancestors do not have a descendant who will take this responsibility, then they will lament, even if they themselves have accomplishments. The ancestors who fought for the sake of the Will, who were stricken with the shimjung of sorrow, who were consumed with the shimjung of resentment for the sake of Heaven have one hope in us today. If we fail to possess this shimjung, their sorrow will deepen. You should know that this will be the same in the present and the future.

Today’s Believers Should Excel in Shimjung Beyond the Faithful Ancestors of the Past

The course of restoration speaks. The sorrowful history began in Adam’s family, and the ancestors who served the providence of restoration went through a woeful course. With Noah, Abraham and even Jesus going through a complicated history of misfortune, the misfortune of history has been sweeping the world.

Jesus represented Heaven, humankind, history, the age and the future to prevent such a historical misfortune. We know too well, however, that since Jesus could not complete the victorious condition to eradicate this historical misfortune and left with the promise of the day of hope, the history of sorrow has continued until now.

Where am I going today? You should go beyond the shimjung of Adam, beyond that of Noah, Abraham and Moses. You should go beyond the shimjung of any prophet or individual, including John the Baptist and Jesus. We also should go beyond the woeful shimjung of the Christians who were killed and martyred in the historical course of the 2,000 years from Jesus until now. We are the substantial fruit representing all this. Heaven will ask you what heartistic foundation you have to respond to the historical connection of shimjung.

Heaven has been fighting throughout history. Heaven will want to establish victory in the end. Hence, we should win by experiencing the historical heart of sorrow. We should restore all the conditions for heavenly sorrow in history in this age. We should be the heavenly children who can console the sad heavenly heart toward the whole of history. We need to consider that, although Heaven has not been able to embrace anyone for 6,000 years, if there are such sons and daughters, Heaven will embrace them with a joyful heart.

If you have shimjung, it did not originate in your individual self. There is no one who does not go through the ancestral ties and their foundation of shimjung. Thus, we cannot deny that your shimjung belongs to the historical realm.

In which world of shimjung am I wandering today? With what kind of viewpoint and sensibilities am I living? Before you think about this, however, you will want to say, “Heavenly Father, I want to live with the shimjung of Adam and Eve before the fall, the shimjung with which they fell, the shimjung with which You expelled them, and the shimjung with which You worked hard with humankind for 1,600 years until You established Noah. I want to live with the shimjung with which Noah worked hard on the ark on the mountain top for 120 years, holding onto You even amid infinite mistreatment and abuse. I want to live with the shimjung with which You have gone through the twisted and multifarious course of history.”

The Father wants to install one person as the living substance of history and the hallmark of victory. You can pray, “Father, can you extend Your hand and allow us to travel so that we can see the heart of an individual sharing joy with You before the fall to the tragic scenes of history after the fall?”

What is the essential reason God’s sorrow and man’s sorrow are not resolved? It is because, although there are many people, none catch God’s shimjung; none seize the historical shimjung. No one grasps the divine shimjung and the future shimjung and connect them to man’s shimjung. Thus, you should know that among God’s sighs, there is none greater than the sigh of not having fulfilled this Will.

For this reason, you should reconsider the course of finding Heaven. God has been reaching out to us in order to send us to the garden of eternal hope.

We Should Find the True Substance, the True Word and True Love

As you know through the Divine Principle, we humans lost God’s Word, God’s substance and His love by betraying His Word. What was God’s heart like when He gave the Word, when He created the substance, and when He tried to love through this substance?

We are the ones who lost God’s Word, lost the original substance and the substance of love. It is we who lost God’s garden of the ideal. Thus, we should realize that we are sinners who cannot be proud of ourselves. We cannot find the ground of peaceful rest in our hearts nor can we be subject over events.

Although God wanted to come to us with the substance and a loving heart, since humankind has lost the substance, love and Word, God could not come directly as the substance. Therefore, Jesus came representing the substance, yet he left without completing the actions of the substance.

God gave the representative of the substance to humankind, who had betrayed the Word. Yet humankind betrayed this substance. God gave humans love, and they also betrayed this. Hence, today, substance, Word and love remain in name only for humankind. Humankind struggles in search of these things in reality.

Today we understand that history has come full circle. Since we have realized that we cannot be perfected by a genuine Word, we cannot be led to the substance by a genuine substance, and we cannot find eternal repose through genuine love, we should be struggling in search of this, with the slogan, “Where is the true Word, substance and love?”

Looking at humankind in this situation, Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who seeks finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8)

Where are my footsteps moving today? We are walking in order to seek, ask and knock. Although humankind has been walking this way for 6,000 years since the fall, his destiny is such that he is still unable to stop.

Where will my footsteps go? There are not only good things on the earth. On the contrary, evil outweighs the good. At such a time, it is a crucial question whether our paths are directed to the left or right and whether they are going toward goodness.

You wander in search of a true teacher. What will you do when you find a good leader and true teacher? You will want to hear the word that can bring consolation and hope to your hearts. You are looking for a new teacher in order to find some new word. What will you do then, when you find the Word? You should achieve the substance by being united with the Word. This is why you are looking for the Word.

Hitherto, our ancestors worked hard to examine God’s existence and resolve the fundamental questions of life. Such efforts continue today. Whether you have such a concept or not, many interested people are knocking, searching, asking and wandering today. When you see that, you should think about whether you too are struggling in such a position. Unless you are struggling, you cannot meet God, who has been ruling history. Unless there is such a person in this world today, God’s Will, ideal of goodness, and the age of hope we desire will bear no relationship to heaven and humanity. We can draw such a conclusion.

Although you may not be aware of it, searching, wandering and struggling people existed in the time of your ancestors. They exist in the present and will exist in the future without end. We cannot deny this. From this standpoint, you should ask in what position you stand today.

Humanity Eventually Must Cross Over the Intricate Hill of a Showdown

These days young students go to school carrying bags, but some of the students do not know why they carry the bags. I am going into society. Where shall I go? I am continuing with an important responsibility for the state. Since the world is there, I am going to lead the world. You say these things, but where will you go? If there is Heaven, an X is before us. We cannot deny that all affairs in the world have such complications.

The external world is the same, just like the internal world. Although we want to extend ourselves infinitely, signs of complications are blocking us every time we take a step forward. We go into the internal world to avoid this. We try to move in the direction of righteousness, morality, ethics and religion. However, all kinds of complications block us there, too.

At such a time, you will be tempted to complain, “God, have You established religion? Are You dominating history?” If God exists, why has He created such a tragic history? Why does He make us experience this? Why are we struggling without the authority to break away from all the internal domains of the world? With a desire to resolve these questions, you should fight against the power of misfortune, shaking heaven, earth, the world and your life. You should know that this is the hill of the showdown. Humankind eventually has to go beyond this.

When will these tragic complications be resolved? In the world, there are ideologies that have split into thousands of chasms. There is even more darkness in the internal world. As your truth-seeking heart becomes increasingly intense, you will forget the earth, heaven and yourself. You will desire to understand the historical shimjung with which our ancestors struggled, representing heaven and earth and the historical course. You will want to utter words of all the tragic complications of history with your mouth, in terms you do not even know. Yet you will not find heaven and earth. You cannot help returning.

Although you want to say, “I will believe,” from the historical level of shimjung, you will not be able to do it. If you have not felt this moment in your lifetime, you will encounter it right before death, but that is too late. Why is humankind struggling today? If you do not want to face this trouble at death, you must have a sincere faith while you are young. This is the hope of believers.

You cannot do anything about it if you encounter it right before death. Hence, Heaven drives humans into hardships to help them establish a view of life and the world centering on goodness, that is, to provide them a point of solution from which they can resolve all their problems. Today’s believers merely say, “I believe in God,” and “I believe in Jesus.” Fine, but any person in the street can say this. Heaven does not want that kind of faith.

We Should Meet and Serve the Messiah, Who Is the Substance of the Word

What kind of faith does Heaven desire? When Jesus said, “Believe in me,” he meant to believe in him as he believed in God. He could have said, “I am God’s son, and I believe in God,” because he was certain that God trusted him as His son, just as he trusted God as his Father. Jesus said this from such a position.

Today we are searching for faith. We are searching for the Word and the course of faith based on the Word. In Christian terms, the one substantial center who comes to humankind with the Word, centered on true faith, is called the Second Coming.

Humanity has been upholding God as the standard of faith. Analyzing faith as it has been held so far, God has been teaching humankind based on the Word. Now another battle is coming, since religions hitherto have not resolved everything. Speaking in biblical terms, this is the age of the seven-year turmoil of the last days. You should know this.

We should meet the substance through the Word. Today, although there are many who believe the words of Jesus, there is no one who believes in Jesus himself. Although there are many who follow his words, no one utterly relies upon and follows the substance of Jesus. We must. However, when someone appears with the true Word, we do not believe him. We even persecute him.

What kind of person should we become today? We should become one with the Word. The one who comes representing God is the only one of Heaven, the model for all people, the one who represents the entire ideal of humanity. When we compare ourselves with him, we should not be any different.

Thus, following the one who is good, righteous and victorious to the highest degree, we should take the subsequent steps. This is the road humanity should follow. Although humankind on earth has struggled for 6,000 years to rely on and live by the Word, no one served and lived with the one who is the master and substance of the Word. From the time of our ancestors to now, there has been no one who authentically served and lived with such a person.

God established countless numbers of saints and gave great amounts of words during the 4,000-year providence after the fall. To have humanity find the one center, God united and led a nation in one direction and promised to send the substance of the Word. That person was Jesus. For this reason, Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” (Matthew 4:13)

Jesus had the ability to fulfill all the words given until his time and had something greater than the Words God had given in the course of history. He was the Messiah. However, the people who had been waiting for the Messiah, the substance of the Word, did not recognize him when he actually came. You should know that they became the people who lost the substance of the Word.

Jesus, who appeared unexpectedly with the Word, went beyond all the historical conditions by engaging in a confrontation with God. There remains for us a condition also to engage in a confrontation with Jesus. You should know this.

What Man Should Do after Meeting the Substance

What shall we do with Jesus? We should engage in a battle as Jacob fought with the angel. After Jacob received the right of the elder son from Isaac, he tried to establish the condition of blessing centering on the Word. After one establishes the condition of blessing, he has to restore the substance, which requires that he confront Heaven. This is the original path.

When we look at today’s Christianity, it has not achieved the authority of the Word to rule over Satan. Rare is the believer who introduces Jesus as the substance of authority to truly rule over Satan and who prays for him. You are captured by the Word. The exit is far away, however hard you struggle.

Six thousand years have passed. Where shall we go from here? We should stand on the Word and hold onto the substance. As most of the New Testament books are letters, we should meet, not through letters, but through sympathetic understanding of one another’s personal situations. There is not even one single person who has become one with God this way, who has gone on to the position of being the first appearance in the 6,000 years after the fall.

Let us say that there is someone who stands upon the Word and holds onto Jesus. Yet there has been no one who prayed before Jesus, “Please teach me about the power of heavenly authority you carry, your authority as the Savior, and the method for eradicating the root of all sins.” No one has prayed, “Please tell me about the heavenly love through which I can eternally share joy with You.” There has to be such a person.

Let us say there is someone who can meet and ask Jesus these conditions and receive blessing and benefits. Jesus cannot say, “Oh, as you wish, enjoy eternal happiness.” This is how the heavenly shimjung is. Ever since Jesus died on the cross, the task remains for him to establish unity of husband and wife on earth, to go before God and say, “God, since You have established our substance, please give us the love hidden deep within You.”

We should know that then Jesus can say, “Yes, since you have worked hard to come here, receive God’s love through me as a condition.” Today most Christians try to receive the love of Jesus alone.

Paul said that to be in Christ is to be in God’s love. He was not talking about love within himself, but God’s love within the Christ. Thus, you who are searching for the ideal of the bride, even after finding the substance through such Words, you still have your portion or task to say to God, “Father, bless us with Your love and Your entire authority of love.” We should go on to this position today.

In other words, we should go beyond the Word, beyond the substance, and come before God, saying, “God! Bless me with love.” What is the reason for this? God can praise the one who comes to Him in the course of winning over Satan and in the process of coming to know God. God can say, “You worked very hard, going through the trials of countless satans until you found Me.” Yet He cannot bless him with the loving heart through which he can live intoxicated in the ideal garden desired by God.

Heaven will say, “If it is your desire, go out to the sinful world.” He will say, “Since you are descendants of sinful parents, you should go through the process of restoration. Find the lost True Parents in order to become My true sons and daughters.”

We thought that everything would be settled once we met God, yet areas of error remain. Since the human ancestors failed to become the true ancestors of humankind, we have not had True Parents and have not become true children. Thus, although you have won over Satan by knowing God as an adopted child, you should meet the True Parents to make a relationship of direct lineage. This is the way it works.

To Go Over the Whole Process of Restoration

Every brave person of faith will struggle. Finally, he will have to go to God and ask, “Are the Parents on the earth or not?” God will then say, “They are on the earth.” What can you do if they are not on the earth? You should take the responsibility in their place. God will say, “You try becoming the Parents.”

This courageous individual of faith will then move to another place. He will visit all the believers on the earth and ask them. You may find the True Parents and plead with them, “Oh, I have come to you, overcoming many pitfalls and hills. Please console me in all the historical sorrows I have felt so far on the road. Give us the authority to live in Your eternal blessed land and the authority of the ideal garden.” That plea will not work.

The Parents will say, “A path still remains for you to walk. You must find and bring back Your brothers and sisters.” The person will leave the Parents, looking for the brothers and sisters. When he encounters a brother after roaming the earth, he will say to him, “I came to you with the knowledge of the Will concerning you and in order to find a brother. Without you I cannot do well nor can you do without me. You must be my brother with whom I can live and die, who cannot be separated from me. You are a core part of my own body, sharing my own bone and flesh. If the sorrow of 6,000 years can be resolved through us, let us enjoy the happiness of the resolution together as brothers.”

The true brother of faith will say, “Oh, I am grateful for your coming to me, but God’s entire Will has not been completed through us. Another path still remains.” What path is this? It is the path of finding a tribe of goodness. Thus, the brave individual of faith will again move on.

When he meets a tribe, he will say, “Since I have met you through such and such a historical course, I want to realize the heavenly hope through you.” The tribe will say, “We welcome you, but cannot dance with joy.” This is because Satan, who destroyed the tribe, still remains. There is also a nation connected with the tribe, which has been destroyed by Satan. Furthermore, there is a people of goodness, as well as a nation.

Thus, again going over the hills, the man finds the people and says, “Oh, now that I have found a people who can realize joy, happiness and hope, let us enjoy together.” This, again, is untenable. There is even more to do. Joy can be realized only after we go beyond the world. Our True Parents, true brothers, true tribe, true people, true nation and true humankind will then all come together and bow down to God.

This is the accumulated sorrow in God’s heart. He has been moving in the background of history. This is the purpose of history, for which we have lived. You should know that the sinful world has been tangled up in a reverse direction. Satanic works block the way of establishing the ideal. This is the inevitable path of life.

Jesus came to the earth as the original substance of the truth, the substance representing God, the substance of love representing God’s shimjung. Above all, he came as the substance of the True Parents and the father of humankind. Jesus came as the True Father. That is why we are true brothers and sisters. Jesus also said that he would call humankind “his children,” not his servants, in the last days. We are his children.

The intention was to start as brothers and sisters centering on Jesus, the Parent, and form a tribe. The basis for this was the seventy and 120 disciples. Jesus tried to move the nation of Israel centering on these people, but in vain. As a result, the first Israel was shattered, and the history of the second Israel was launched. This is the history of Christianity.

Christianity has been forming a worldwide nation, centering on Jesus. As for humankind facing the last days, unless they make a victorious connection in going over the tragic hills of history, they cannot join the 144,000.

It says in Revelation 14, “there was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion! And with him were 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.” (Revelation 14:1) Ladies and gentlemen, have you received the seal of Jesus? You should first receive the seal of Jesus, then that of the Father. Do you think it is enough just to have the seal of Jesus? No, you should receive the seals of both Jesus and the Father. This is the why fallen people have been seeking the completion of their repentance.

What Jesus Must Do after His Return

The purpose of a good and unfallen individual who can receive God’s love is to be sealed by God and then to seal his brothers and sisters. Furthermore, he should be able to seal the tribe and nation. Considering this, you should understand how great was the heavenly woe. You have never heard about such sorrow of Heaven in any dream, from any friend, from any teacher or from any religious individual. This is truly serious.

Where will your footsteps lead tomorrow? Are you in the realm of God’s love now? Are you in the realm of True Parents’ love? Are you in the realm of true brothers’ love? Are you in the realm of the true tribe’s love? Are you in the realm of the true nation’s love? Are you in the realm of love where, when you unite heaven and earth and bow down to God, He embraces you? There is not even a single person like this, even Jesus has not been able to do this. This is why he is in Paradise in a state of waiting.

What must Jesus do when he returns in the last days? He should restore these matters. Jesus has already stood upon the Word. Yet Jesus, who was resurrected after the cross, had to turn Mary Magdalene away as she tried to hold him. He was not in a position to say, “Bride, let us go to the Father together.” He has been working hard for 2,000 years, looking forward to the day when the ideal of the bride could be realized. Originally, Jesus was to go before the Father with a rejoicing bride, be blessed and become True Parents. He was to embrace true children and a true tribe, and build a true nation. God wanted to bless Jesus to become the true ancestor of heaven and earth.

Jesus left without receiving the blessing from the position of the true ancestor of humankind. You know this well. This is the sorrow of God and Jesus. Now this tear-provoking, woeful shock of shimjung should be aroused in your hearts: “I have betrayed the heavenly Word, the heavenly substance, God, and my heavenly brothers, tribe, nation and people. Furthermore, I have abused the heavenly sovereignty. How can Heaven forgive me?” Heaven desires for many young men and women to appear who realize that they are unforgivable sinners and who struggle anxiously.

Having realized this, our shimjung cannot help burning. Affections will come through, and hearts will move. The desire to express anger against history and the age will well up in our hearts. As the anger becomes stronger, you will wonder how it can be resolved. Since this historical sorrow was caused by Satan, we must wage an intense battle against Satan. You should know that we can restore the parents, brothers, tribe, nation and heavenly sovereignty only when there are many young people with such determination.

The Final and Inevitable Destination of Fallen Humankind

We have been living a comfortable life thus far. Although we have had a consciousness of existence, we have had no value. Unfeeling as worms, we walked a tragic route; yet, we are shamelessly proud. At least at this time, we should recognize that we are sinful. Those who do not know this deserve to receive heavenly punishment and be thrown into a pit of fire on the judgment day.

Realizing this, you should not be afraid of receiving judgment. You should know that Heaven has a more sorrowful situation. We should know that the footsteps of our ancestors were more rueful than ours, and that the true determined people of this age are in more pain and shedding more tears than we. We should, at least, become people who can understand this.

We should go on today and tomorrow; if not while alive, then even after death. We cannot complain about such a hill of fate and about such miserable intricacies. Heaven is looking for the young men and women who can shout commands to heaven and earth as brave soldiers who fight violently against Satan, the one who caused these complications. We long for the people who cry out with the shimjung to run headlong into battle.

Now you should now be able to connect with the shimjung of God. Furthermore, we should become children who receive blood from the True Parents; the nation and people who are connected with that blood. Through our unity with the Parents, their joy should become the joy of the whole. The joy of the whole should be my joy. In this way, all people should be able to sing and bow down before God. You should know that this is the inevitable, final destiny of fallen humanity.

Prayer

Father, we have realized that there are incredible walls and hills of sorrow such that we must find You through a historical course of humiliation and suffering. Father, please allow us to understand this sorrow of history and Your grief, the root of history.

Beloved Father, we sincerely hope and desire that You allow us to march in an orderly line as we move in search of Your eternal garden of happiness. Allow us to realize in what stage we are living. Father, we have been living irresponsibly. Do not let us take the course of traitors. Allow us to become sons and daughters who can fight repeatedly with Satan, until the day when we can serve and bow down to You in the garden of the ideal, harmonizing with the whole. We sincerely hope and desire this.

Father, as Your sons and daughters have listened to Your Word, we sincerely hope and desire that You can cause a transformation whereby they see their course of life from a new perspective, and they run toward their destination, relying on heavenly law. As we ask You to rule over all of today’s affairs, we pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.

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Chapter 8: The Sorrowful Heart of Jesus as He Went to the Mountain

Matthew 17:1-8
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea
January 25, 1959

Prayer

Father, please remember this day. Please guide us not to appear before You with our minds and bodies centered upon ourselves. Please allow our minds and bodies to become the most holy place where You can personally dwell. Please allow this to be a time when we can be offered to You as undefiled sacrifices You can control and admonish.

Father, we have come before You with wounded hearts and exhausted minds and bodies from the previous week of living. We sincerely hope and desire that You grant us new joy of life with Your outspread loving hands and that You create an eternal and inseparable tie between You and us.

Allow us to be able to rejoice when You rejoice, to grieve when You grieve, to act when You act, and to fight alongside You. We eagerly hope and desire that You make an eternally irrevocable and inseparable relationship with us. We know that numerous ancestors of ours have worked hard to make a relationship with You. We eagerly hope and desire that You establish us as ones in which You can take delight, embrace and love eternally, guiding us to make an eternal and inseparable relationship of love with You.

Since today is a holy day, please perform an indirect work. Through our making a relationship of oneness with Your loving heart, please let the thirty million people receive the same grace and go into Your realm of love.

We know that there are many brothers and sisters who are worrying and praying for Your sake in front of hidden altars. Please allow them to be enmeshed in an unbreakable lifeline. Please guide this gathering to be a time to form a tight bond in the loving garden of Your pleasure. Father, we eagerly hope and desire this.

At this time, we dedicate ourselves entirely to You. Take us as Your own. Allow us to be the people who form an eternal oneness, inseparable from Your heart. Father, we eagerly hope and desire that You allow this to be a time when we can restore the true joy of the heart, emptying all of ourselves and filling our minds and bodies with what is Yours. Please grant Your hands of blessing upon all. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Prayer

Father, as I am about to deliver the word You have granted to the children You have gathered, please be the Master of our minds and the Ruler of our bodies. Father, we have seen the word Jesus spoke 2,000 years ago in the desolate moment when, having lost the standard for hope, he had to determine to go to the cross.

Father, although that time has passed, we know that the world of shimjung transcends time. Allow Your anger over having lost Jesus to be expressed as our anger. Allow the thirty years of Jesus’ life to reappear in our own.

Father, none on earth know that our ancestors’ lack of fulfillment of their responsibility before Heaven has become an eternal sorrow.

Although You have gathered these unworthy people, introduced to them the heavenly shimjung with many words, and have taught them everything through revealing Your situation, we have nothing to offer You. We possess nothing. Allow us to realize that the only thing we can offer You is to be a living sacrifice who will die willingly.

Guide us to move hand in hand as the heavenly tribe, with our heart moving with Your heart, our shimjung moving with Your shimjung. Allow us an eager heart that can, not only deplore the betrayal of Your son, but which can also receive Your son again. Father, we sincerely hope and desire that such zealous hearts will appear in the minds and bodies of this audience.

Father, I would like to speak Your Word in this short time You have granted. Please allow the hearts of the giver and receivers of the word to become one. Father, we sincerely hope and pray, knowing that no matter how excellent the word is, it has nothing to do with us until it makes a relationship with our hearts.

Since we know that such a relationship can be created only when You come to us, we request that You take charge from the beginning to the end. We ask You to embrace the brothers and sisters scattered in the countryside with the same bosom and dominate them with the same grace. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Christianity has had a deep connection with mountains throughout history. I will speak to you on the topic of “The Sorrowful Heart of Jesus as He Went to the Mountain.”

You must know well the scene of the Transfiguration from the text of the Bible. Please re-imagine the figure of Jesus as he went up to the Mount of Transfiguration. Going to the top of the mountain, Jesus represented the whole providence of history, his own contemporary age, and all the descendants of the future. I would like you to remember, however, that he climbed the mountain with a mournful, sad and lonesome heart, rather than a joyful one. We should know that this event did not affect only that moment. It was a time when a crucial decision was made that had implications for the age before Jesus, the age of Jesus, and the age after Jesus.

Jesus and the Mountain

We know well that Jesus visited high mountains whenever he was faced with serious matters. Jesus, who received the three tests from Satan after fasting for forty days, had to discriminate clearly between front and rear, left and right, with worry and concern for Heaven, humankind and all things. For Jesus, who bore such a responsibility, that scene was an important and tragic one in which he had to distinguish between Heaven and Satan, heavenly affairs and satanic affairs. Jesus was led away by Satan to a mountain top for the test.

Mountains figuring in Jesus’ life were: the mountain Satan led him to climb in the wilderness, the Mount of Transfiguration, which he climbed in order to decide in front of Heaven the matter of carrying the cross, and the garden of Gethsemane near the slopes of the Mount of Olives, where he offered a decisive prayer to go over the deadly path of Golgotha. We should remember this.

We will have to consider how Jesus moved, how woeful his heart was, and with what countenance Jesus appeared as he went to the mountain. We will have to reflect deeply on the figure of Jesus as he went into the wilderness 2,000 years ago. Otherwise, we will not be able to understand his desperate heart as he walked the course of struggle against Satan.

Jesus defeated Satan in the three temptations in the wilderness and achieved the final victory on a mountain. We should realize that the steps of Jesus in going to the wilderness, after being rejected by the chosen John the Baptist and his followers and the Jewish nation, were walked with a heart of sorrow the like of which no one on the earth has ever experienced.

Jesus appeared as the only son of Heaven, the one to resolve the 4,000 years, and the hallmark of victory God could boast about before the age and the descendants of countless generations. We must remember the sad heart of Jesus as he went into the wilderness alone, without a friend, leaving behind the people, the church, the chosen John the Baptist, and Joseph’s family.

Jesus had come forward with the determination and sense of mission to establish the historical conditions of indemnity. What did he think about during the forty days of fasting? He felt an acute sense of responsibility to restore through indemnity, by himself, the rueful course of the ancestors. We must realize this.

In the process of the three temptations, what must Jesus have thought about as he was led to the mountain top by Satan? He went up the mountain with a serious heart, worried about the entire historical course of 4,000 years, struggling whether he could subjugate Satan by holding up the final shield of victory. As he was walking through the wilderness, Jesus must have thought about how, after the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden and their loss, their descendants had to roam around in search of the garden. As he thought about the historical ancestors who had lived in a garden of grief after the expulsion of Adam and Eve, he had to think seriously about the mountain.

Jesus must have remembered the loyalty of Noah, who appeared 1,600 years after Adam and Eve and built the ark on Mount Ararat, enduring all hardships for 120 years to restore the expulsion of Adam and Eve. Jesus thought about how it was for the sake of the Messiah, Jesus himself, that Noah had lived such a life. Jesus must have thought about how hard Noah worked on the mountain, yearning for Jesus himself.

Reflecting upon the Loyalty of the Ancestors Who Had Been to the Mountain, Jesus Made a Determination

Next, Jesus had to think about Abraham, who headed for the mountain after he erred with the sacrifice and was ordered to offer Isaac. He could not help reflecting upon the tragic heart of Abraham, who deceived Isaac and took him to Mount Moriah. For whom did Abraham have to offer his only son Isaac as a sacrifice? Jesus must have reflected upon how this was, of course, for the Father and the Messiah.

Jesus then must have remembered Moses. Moses went through forty years in Pharaoh’s palace and forty years of hardship in the wilderness of Midian. He must have imagined the scene in which God appeared to the sorrow-stricken Moses in the burning bush, by the foot of Mount Horeb, and made a new promise.

He could not help recollecting the scene in which Moses met God on Mount Horeb and formed an unchanging bond with him, as well as the scene in which God and Moses made a relationship, through God’s providence to eradicate the enemy Satan from the universe. He could not help recalling the loyalty of Moses in serving the Will.

When Moses received the order to lead the people of Israel from Egypt to the blessed land of Canaan, he was an old man of eighty years, exhausted from his life in the wilderness. Yet his gaze and figure were consumed with the shimjung of Heaven. Jesus could not help remembering the standard of the heart of Moses.

Furthermore, after having taken the 600,000 people to the wilderness where there were privations, Moses had the responsibility to persist to the end and bring them to the land of Canaan. Worried that they might go the wrong way, Moses went to Mount Sinai. On the top of the mountain, Moses did a forty-day fast and prayed. After this, he came down with God’s Word. Jesus could not help recalling Moses in this situation. He could not help reflecting that it was only for the sake of Heavenly Father, only for the sake of paving the road for the Messiah and of establishing a restored state through the chosen people that Moses did the forty-day fast and prayer on Mount Sinai.

For whom did Elijah confront the satanic priests of Baal on Mount Carmel? Jesus reflected that it was for the sake of God and himself that the ancestors went to the mountain top and prayed before Heaven in a showdown. Reflecting on such historical connections with mountains, Jesus felt a serious heart. Today we also should reflect on the world of the heart of Jesus.

The footsteps of Jesus as he was led away by Satan in the wilderness course were not taken with self-centered thoughts. As you know through the Divine Principle, Jesus went to the mountain top with the heartistic intention of restoring the individual environment and the world through such symbolic processes. We should know that Jesus followed Satan to the mountain top with the determination to face a great trial and with the heart to establish the tradition as the new ancestor of history and to inherit the heavenly shimjung.

Jesus had a more serious heart toward the Will than anyone else. We should know that he went to the wilderness with a burning heart to seize and subjugate Satan, with a firmer determination than any ancestor in history. We should know that Jesus stood alone on that mountain top.

When Jesus reflected on the historical course, he felt he had to make a serious determination. When he thought about the nation of Israel, he felt a historical sense of responsibility and a heart of inexpressible sorrow.

God sent John the Baptist to the earth and had him pave the new way for achieving the heavenly Will. Although he was sent to prepare for the Messiah, John did not believe in Jesus. As a result, the chosen people who were to carry out the responsibility of the age, representing the history of the people God had chosen, blessed and led for 4,000 years, the Israelites, disappeared. We should understand that Jesus had to regain the lost people.

In such a position, Jesus could not help being frustrated. Thinking of all the chosen people and groups, he could not help being stricken with sorrow. Examining the motivation and origin, however, and fathoming the historical shimjung up to that moment, Jesus felt that Satan was the one who caused such a complication. Jesus faced the satanic trial with a firm determination to win a decisive victory over Satan. You should never forget a scene of such gravity.

The Lonely Position of Jesus, Who Had to Go to the Mountain Again

Although Satan “showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor” and said to Jesus, “All these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me,” (Matthew 4:12) Jesus resolutely rejected Satan. In this way he established the standard of victory in front of Satan. You should consider the situation of Jesus. In this fashion, he won the standard of the self who could connect to the sorrows of history and the age. Jesus then had to descend the mountain and look for the chosen Israel and the Jewish church, as the footing for the historical connection.

Jesus went to the Israelites and the Jewish churches with the victorious standard from the wilderness course, yet they did not welcome him. Instead of welcoming him, they persecuted him wherever he went. He met with opposition and ridicule. Having to go the wilderness course after being rejected the first time was already enough to provoke hard feelings and anger. When Jesus saw the Jewish church and the Israelite nation opposing him, the one who had returned to them with a victory over Satan, his heart was consumed with inexpressible pain and sorrow. We should contemplate the position and situation of Jesus.

In difficult circumstances of persecution, to turn back the nation and church to God, Jesus prayed on the mountain top and fought against Satan throughout his three years of public life. Yet he saw no fruit. Consequently, he finally went up to the Mount of Transfiguration with the heart to awaken the ignorant people, even if he had to undertake his death.

After realizing that no human effort would bring about the result, he came forward with an ardent heart to save the people, who had the ties of history and the age and who were linked to the heavenly shimjung. He was determined, even if he had to die as a sacrifice and shed his blood and flesh, but the place he visited with such a heart was not a great palace. It was neither the house of a disciple who received him, nor the house of the people of the state, nor the house of a member of the Jewish church. It was a mountain, the Mount of Transfiguration. You should look carefully at the sorrowful heart of Jesus as he walked to and fro with no place to go.

Jesus had to take the woeful wilderness course, because the ancestors did not have faith and failed to carry out their responsibilities. Although he wandered about for three years looking for the one who could understand the heavenly heart, he failed and had to go to the mountain again. We should reflect on the sad heart and footsteps of Jesus today. When Jesus went to the wilderness, he set out to embrace the nation with the standard of winning over Satan. When he went to the Mount of Transfiguration, however, he discarded all previous resolutions and set out to give his body to the nation, determined to face death. If someone can imagine the figure and heart of Jesus as he climbed the mountain then, if someone can experience the sorrow as his own and behold Jesus with such a heart, he will be able to experience the sorrow of Jesus toward Heaven, the nation and the church.

The Background of Jesus’ Ascent of the Mount of Transfiguration and His Serious Determination

When Jesus climbed the Mount of Transfiguration, he was accompanied by three disciples. Although they were chosen as representatives of the nation, they failed to establish any condition of support for Jesus on the mountain route.

When Jesus went to the wilderness, angels served him. When he ascended the Mount of Transfiguration after fighting for the nation, determined to die for it, even the three disciples failed to serve him. Considering this, we cannot help feeling that the life of Jesus, which started and ended in sorrow, was full of pathos.

Jesus knelt down and prayed to Heaven that he would follow His Will to the limits of his strength and with all his effort. Although he followed the three-year course of public life with greater dedication, loyalty, sincerity and effort than any ancestor in history, Jesus was driven out by the nation and the church. Even with no relatives or disciples standing by his side, he still lived a life of prayer in sight of Heaven.

You should know that Jesus’ shimjung was such that rather than feeling sorrow for his lonely position, he regretted that the result of God’s efforts for humanity during the 4,000 years was so meager and felt sorry to express his heart to Heaven. To Jesus, consumed with such a shimjung, resentment toward the nation, the church or the fallen Adam and Eve was out of the question. We should know that Jesus did not have enough leisure to bear a grudge against anyone.

In the past, the ancestors had received Heaven’s consolation in their grief. Jesus realized that he could not express sorrow in prayer, even though he was in a position of sorrow. I think that, before a prayer, Jesus’ knees were wet with tears. He cried as if he were the worst sinner in heaven and earth. Standing on the route to defeat, without having set the victorious condition for God, Jesus had to go to the Mount of Transfiguration, by himself, with sorrow and plead with Heaven. He could not open his mouth and pray.

Since that figure and situation were full of pathos, God sent Elijah and Moses to discuss Jesus’ death in Jerusalem with him. Jesus knew that Heaven and his disciples would be stricken with woe upon his death. Worried about the people and their descendants, he grieved for the sake of the past, the present and the future. Wanting to save the Jewish people even through his death, Jesus appeared before God with a prayerful heart similar to that of Elijah’s when he cried out, “Father, only I am left.” Jesus’ heart was truly mournful.

We know well that our ancestors left a sad history as they worked for the sake of Heaven until today. God wanted the disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration to realize that they were of a sinful tribe and to worry about the sorrow of the nation with the same heart as Jesus. Although God wanted them to console Jesus and pray for his sake, their thoughts were different. This has been the reality of the historical course followed by our ancestors until today.

After he was notified of his coming death in Jerusalem, Jesus prepared for the day of death. He felt the day of death coming closer and closer, and the situation becoming increasingly chaotic. Seeing that one of his beloved disciples would betray him, Jesus seriously felt the need to conclude all his affairs on earth before going to the cross. His mind and body were immersed in such feelings.

Since he knew that he had the responsibility as the Savior to follow the path to death, he had to set the direction to take after death. Jesus worried that even after his death, the sorrows of history, the age and the future would not disappear but would remain. You should know that Jesus’ heart was more serious than at any other time.

There was no one on earth who understood Jesus’ heart. None of the disciples understood the situation. God was the only one who knew Jesus’ situation. Thus, Jesus carried a sorrowful heart about which no one else knew, and he carried the grudge of history, the age and the future. He was put in miserable circumstances in which the walls of misfortune and dark clouds blocked his way, and he was driven to death. The heart of Jesus must have been more sorrowful and indignant than any on earth.

Father, if Possible

For whom did Jesus come to the earth? Although he came for the sake of history, the age, the nation and the church, his path was full of pathos. Since he knew that his sorrow would not end simply as his own, but would be expanded as the sorrow of history, the age and the future, he was consumed with anxiety.

For this reason, Jesus went to the garden of Gethsemane. We should be able to feel sadness about this matter. The place where Jesus, the Savior of all people and the King of Kings, shared his final sorrow was not in the home of a disciple. It was not in a Jewish church nor a palace of the Jewish state. The place to which he went to decide everything in consultation with God was the garden of Gethsemane, where there were no visitors that late night. We should know this.

We believers in the last days should shed tears of sorrow, for the sake of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. We should have a longing heart for the figure of this Jesus. You should know that only in this way can you make a connection with Jesus, who cried with historical sorrow for the sake of the age and the future, who cried three times with blood and sweat, in utter misery.

When Jesus prayed all night, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me,” (Matthew 26:39) he must have been indescribably indignant and sorrowful. Considering that 4,000 years of history had collapsed, the nation of Israel had perished, the dispensational foundation of the 4,000 years had crumbled, and the Jewish church had fallen, Jesus’ blood and sweat were what connected the distance of history. His blood and tears bridged the gap of history. We should know that the Jewish people then could not even dream of this.

The disciples of Jesus at least made a pledge to follow him wherever he went. Who inherited the sorrowful heart of Jesus? Who made a connection with his pathetic situation of blood and tears? There was no one on earth. You should know that Jesus performed this task alone. There was no one to inherit his shimjung.

Hence, confronted with death, Jesus prayed as many as three times before Heaven at the garden of Gethsemane: “Abba, Father, for You all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet not what I want, but what You want.” (Mark 14:36) This plea burst Heaven and earth. This grave word was uttered to prevent the world of darkness from coming with power and authority.

Thus, the prayer at the garden of Gethsemane will never end. Throughout endless ages and centuries, this heartbreaking and blood- stained voice of the final plea should always stay alive in the human heart. God is working hard, hoping for a day when your shimjung will resonate with the shimjung of Jesus, who cried out, “Oh, Heaven.”

The believers in the last days should inherit the historical and grave shimjung of Jesus as he prayed on Mount Calgary and in the garden of Gethsemane. They should awaken the Christians who are in the position of the three disciples sleeping in the garden of Gethsemane. You should know that such an age is approaching. With the same shimjung as Jesus, who prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me,” (Matthew 26:39) you should also pray, “Father, if possible, do not let our Messiah be taken to the cross.”

The Mountain: Ground for the Blood and Tears of Jesus

When Jesus prayed three times, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me” (Matthew 26:39), there was no one who prayed with the same shimjung: “Father, if possible, let me be taken to the cross instead of Jesus.” You should know that there was no chosen believer or person capable of offering such a prayer.

The life of Jesus was a continuation of grave events like those on the mountain, without any joy. Whenever he was lonely, Jesus visited the valleys of the Mount of Olives. Whenever he was sad, he gave a silent sermon, with the quiet forest as his friends. We should know that he never had a free place where he could share the depth of his heart with anyone.

Whenever Jesus came to the Father on the mountain top, he came with sorrow. Amid this anguish, however, he had hope. What must it have been? Thinking that all the mountains and streams were linked with God’s tears and with the pitiful hearts of the ancestors, he hoped that the mountains and streams could form an altar of joy and glory and offer songs of victory, rather than being places of sorrow and tears. This was Jesus’ hope.

What should we feel, looking at the mountains? Considering that our ancestors tried to end all the sorrowful history on mountains with grave determination, you should be able to feel that the mountains hoped that the ancestors would win over the satanic world. You should consider that the mountain is where Jesus prayed to establish a standard of victory at every scene. He must have waited for the day when he could set up an altar of victory and glory on the mountain and say, “Father, receive glory through me.” Realizing this, when you see a mountain, you should feel that it was the ground of Jesus’ blood and tears.

Perhaps Jesus even pleaded with one blade of grass and with one rock at the garden of Gethsemane. Hence, the grass and rock could make contact with and be immersed in the shimjung of Jesus, who prayed all night. Yet the people then could not. We should understand this.

Furthermore, deploring our having become people of sorrow, and realizing our shame before all things and mountains, we should never be like the Jewish people, who expelled Jesus to the mountain, when the Lord returns to the earth. We should serve the Lord in the family, society and state. We should serve him in all places: in the fields, mountains, and even on the tops of the mountains. You should serve the Lord as people of joy and glory in the presence of Heaven. You should know that you have the responsibility to create an environment where the words of the Lord can be words of joy and love, rather than ones of sorrow.

The mountains have traces of God’s tears, who lamented over the history of sorrow, calling out, “Mountains! Mountains and streams!” Whether it is the earth, all things, the historical course or this age, there is nothing God does not see through His eyes of sorrow. God treats any being on the earth with a woeful heart.

Ladies and gentlemen! You should understand the trials of Jesus, who started out on the mountain and walked and walked toward another mountain. Jesus had a victorious condition from the mountain top and in the living environment. You should know that Jesus hoped for the day to serve God on the mountain.

This was the historical shimjung of Jesus, his walk during his age. It was the hope of Jesus, who went to the mountain and prayed to establish the standard of victory. We should know this. Furthermore, we should fight against Satan, in place of Jesus, in today’s wilderness course. We should be able to fight with our lives for the sake of the nation and the world in place of Jesus, who fought on the Mount of Transfiguration. We should be able to cry out to Heavenly Father with the heart of Jesus, who made a historical connection to face death at the garden of Gethsemane. With a shimjung that will burst our hearts, we should inherit the shimjung of Heaven, who desires to make a connection with this earth. You should remember that unless you establish yourselves as ones who can connect with God’s shimjung, the efforts of Jesus on the mountain will come to naught.

Prayer

Father, we know that in search of religion, humankind needs beautiful and great mountains. We know well that the great figures of history had relationships with mountains, sharing their situations with mountains and determining the standards of life and death and victory and defeat on mountains. We have learned that Jesus visited the top of a mountain as the representative of humankind and there pleaded with Heaven from the depths of his heart.

As we have realized the historical connections with mountains, please allow many sons and daughters of God to appear on the mountain tops of the peninsula of the 3,000-li. Guide them to be proud people who can return the glory of victory to You and indemnify the historical grounds of resentment over what took place on the mountains.

To be such people, we know that besides our individual selves, our families, our societies, our religions, nations and world must all go to the mountain top. Please guide us to resemble the heart of Jesus, walking up and down the mountains for the sake of heaven and earth, and to follow in his footsteps. Allow us to become the children who can fight with fidelity until the day we set up a victorious altar on the mountain top and sing “Hosanna.” Let us fight without exhaustion or retreat.

Father, we know that if we have such a determination, You will help us. Lead us to go through any complications with single-mindedness. Make us true sons and daughters who can, upon Your request, come and take the responsibility to connect to Your heart in the service of Your Will. We pray all this in the name of the Lord. Amen.

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Chapter 9: The Incarnation of Jesus, A Pioneer

Matthew 8:18-22
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea
February 1, 1959

Prayer

Father, although we are unfaithful, since we have come seeking You, please look down upon us with compassion. We have come forward after hearing the Father’s call. Please allow our minds and bodies to be the possessions of the Father.

Please allow us to become eternally connected to You in this place. Please allow our hearts to be in resonance with Your heart. Allow our bodies to be in touch with Your sacred form. On that foundation, please allow us to build an eternal relationship and connection with You, so that we move when You move, acting in accordance with Your Will.

We know that it is not a coincidence that You have gathered us here today. You have gathered us to sever our ties with the powers of death and raise us as the offerings who have triumphed over Satan. Thus, we fervently desire for You to take charge of us as You desire. Allow us to stand as the sacrifices who can bring joy to You.

Now, please lead us not to set any self-centered condition. Guide our bodies not to possess any element that can bring harm to You. Please let us restore our original selves, the minds and hearts of which are connected only to You, whom You can govern as You Will.

Father, we know that we must become unified in harmony through Your inseparable heart of love. Please make our bodies into the temples where You personally can dwell and make our minds into the holy of holies where You can personally live. Father, we earnestly wish that You mold our minds and bodies into the foundation upon which You can personally dwell and rest in peace.

Please allow us to open the doors to our hearts now. Please remove all sinful elements. Please eliminate all elements that are not appropriate to the Will of the Father. By doing so, please allow us to become people over whom only You can rule. Allow us to become Your beings of life.

Although there may have been many faults in our lives during the past week, since we have prostrated ourselves before the Father’s knees, please govern us. Please love us once again, even amid the ordeals of re-creation. Father of love, we sincerely wish that even just for this hour You will let us become sons and daughters who can be embraced inside Your bosom as burnt offerings.

This is a sacred day. Please bless all people. Bless the thirty million people and the countless religious groups. Please directly unveil the Father’s hands of grace upon the many sons and daughters who yearn and long for Your heart and Your heavenly Will. Father, we sincerely desire to feel the worldwide providence that the Father is working through our minds and bodies.

Please grant the same grace upon the lonely members who are scattered all across the countryside, who are praying for the Will of the Father with deep concern. Please personally protect them. It is my fervent request that You will guide them to remain until the end, even amid tribulation and persecution. Please govern us from the beginning to the end. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Prayer

The Father has guided us to this place, we who have been wandering without knowing our path. We prostrate ourselves before the holy presence of the Father with wounded minds and hearts.

Although we have not prepared anything to give You, please lead us and grant us Your compassionate grace. Father of love, please hold our fatigued hands and embrace our bodies, which have no place on which to lean. My Father, we ardently wish that You let this be an hour when You give us the love of the eternal world and instruct us in the name of the Father of hope for which we have yearned.

We want to face the Father with sincere and honest hearts, yet we feel so distant from You. However, in this place there are many who have pledged that they will abandon everything they have for Your sake and offer everything to You. Father, please appear before them and command them. Please let this be a moment when You personally advise us and allow us to forge a relationship of love with You.

The path we are now taking is for the Father’s sake. Our very life is for the Father’s sake. Everything that belongs to us is only for the sake of the Father’s Will. Please personally take charge of our bodies and govern us. Please embrace us personally. By doing so, may Your will to connect with human beings be manifested through the actions of the Father’s love. May the original self that You seek be molded during this hour. Father, this is our sincere wish.

We have not embarked upon this path because of our desire; rather, we have come forward because of the heavenly Will that impels us. We know Your hardships and bloody course, and we have been struggling to bring that Will to pass. Please consider our minds and bodies with compassion.

We have come seeking for the lighthouse of life that You have established. We have come yearning for the one self of which we can be proud in the presence of the Father. Father, please command us. Please allow us the grace of glory and reveal the hands of re-creation.

Please remove everything within us that is not acceptable in the presence of You. Allow only the Father’s works of goodness to appear. Please let this hour be a time when the Father can personally manage the situation and when we can bow before the Father with joyful minds and bodies.

In our hearts we yearn for the new garden and long for the ideal of the new nation. Yet there are many enemies blocking this path.

Our situation forces us to fight every day. Father, please be with us. Please magnify Your stimulating power and impact during each of these hours. Father, we earnestly pray that only our sincere hearts, which yearn for the love of Heaven can operate in our daily lives and affect our environment.

Father, please look down upon this nation and people with compassion. They do not know where to go. What these people want is the altar of hope and the garden of freedom. However, no one understands the ideal world for which You have given permission or the works of Heaven. Please awaken them. We know that our responsibility toward them is great, so please allow those of us who have prostrated ourselves in the presence of the Father in this moment to complete our responsibility toward this nation.

Please allow this to be a moment when we can come to the realization that we bear the responsibility to save the humanity of this earth, who are suffering under the powers of darkness. Please allow us to renew these people with the Father’s new words of truth. Please let this be the hour when we can love the humanity of this earth.

Father, please look down upon the lonely members in the countryside with compassion. They have been sent out as shepherds. As they appeal to You in this hour, please embrace them with the same grace and protect them so that they will not fall down on the battleground that stands before us. Please do not let them become stragglers.

Although we are unfaithful, we have cleansed ourselves and have come before the holy altar of the Father. Please eliminate all elements that are not acceptable to You. Please remove all self centered doctrines, mentalities and concepts that we assert. Please let this be an hour when only You influence us and govern us.

We have entrusted everything to You. Please govern us as You Will. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Prayer

Father! When we reflect, deep in our hearts, once again that the providential Will was not known, we come to the realization that although 6,000 years have passed since the fall of our ancestors, humanity has failed to fathom the heart of the Father. Moreover, we have already learned that the situation of the Father is difficult and pitiful, and that the Father’s Will remains before the earth, humanity and heaven today.

We reflect upon whether we have the integrity of children who can say, “Father, I am here. Please let me comfort You.” We reflect upon whether we are worthy of praise in the presence of the Father. We are forced to admit that we are far from achieving that.

When Jesus, who came as the embodiment of hope, representing the heart of the Father, comes to the earth again, those who are searching for the heart of Heaven will have to connect to his heart. We also understand that the situation of the chosen Israelites, who sense the situation of Heaven and are searching, must become united with the situation of Jesus. The Israelites should have understood that the hope of the Father who sent Jesus was for the sake of all people. Because they did not recognize Jesus, the embodiment of hope, this sorrow has been prolonged all the way to us. We sympathize with this historical sorrow.

What would we want to shout out to the Father? What would we want to seek from the Father? What would we want to obtain? Please allow us to possess the same heart as Jesus, who acted on behalf of the heart of the Father, the heart our ancestors could not attain. We understand that we have to possess the situation and hope of Jesus to obtain the same heart as the Father in the last days. We have the responsibility to pay back all the historical debts accrued toward You until now. We have joined our minds and bodies now and have prostrated ourselves before Your holy presence. Yet what qualifications do we have to call You “Father”? How can we accompany You in Your trials? What hope have we to represent the Father’s hope of the 6,000 years? We are Your unworthy children, who have nothing to offer.

We understand that the Father looks down on people in such a state with sympathy. We understand that the Father’s heart of compassion is great. We know that the Father, who persevered through the course of the cross, has called upon us to come. Therefore, although we are unworthy and inadequate, we have joined our two hands and have prostrated ourselves in the presence of the Father. Please have compassion upon these miserable people who have knelt before You. We wish You to awaken us with Your words, that You instruct us to become one with Your situation.

Father, if You have ever felt indignation toward us and had to hold the feeling back, please let this be the moment when Your heart is relieved. Even if You feel indignant and grievous, Father, we earnestly wish that You can resolve all those feelings through us.

Father, Jesus who came 2,000 years ago was a truly miserable person. There was no one who grasped his heart, even up to his final moment. There was no one who knew his situation and desires. Please allow us to fathom the situation of Jesus, who led a mournful and tragic life for some thirty odd years because he could not find a land or a people with a foundation to realize Your Will. Please allow us to inherit the heart of Jesus. Father, we ardently hope that You allow us to become the sons and daughters who can cherish the hope and follow in the footsteps Jesus left behind.

Where is the Jewish religion that You raised through 4,000 years? Where are the Israelite people? The Jerusalem temple You built was to pave the way for Jesus, yet it had no relationship to Jesus.

The prepared Jewish sects could not connect with Jesus. The prepared people did not have any relationship with Jesus and hounded him instead. During this hour, please let many people come to understand the situation of Jesus, who found himself in such a lonely position and who felt compelled to pray for those who persecuted him.

Father, the reason we have gathered here is that we have received the commands of the Father calling us to come. Now we understand that our footsteps lead to the path of the cross. You have called us because the time has come when we must fight the sinful world with tearful gazes and connect with the heart of the Father. Father of love, allow us to feel the heart of the Father as our heart, the situation of the Father as our situation, the hope of the Father as our hope. Let the enemies of the Father be our enemies and the fight of the Father be our fight. Thus, Father, we earnestly wish that You allow us to become Your children, the ones who accomplish the hope of the Father and are offered as victorious sacrifices.

Father, please allow us to concretely experience the bitter situation of the Jesus who said, “Foxes have their holes, birds have their nests, yet the son of man does not even have a place to rest his head.” This was a grievous situation that cannot be alleviated through our tears or through our death. Please allow us to go before the Father and Jesus and be embraced in the bosom of the Holy Trinity during this hour. Please let our gathering be a place where You can rest Your head and dwell.

I am now trying to convey words of truth. Please allow me to convey the Father’s heart and situation, not simply give many words.

Please allow us to move silently and become united with the situation of the Father. Allow us to experience the heart of the Father as we behold His glory. Please allow us become living temples, who move in harmony with the Father.

My Father, it is our earnest desire that You build a purified altar during this hour and that You protect us so that Satan cannot infiltrate. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.

The title of the sermon I would like to share with you is “The Incarnation of Jesus, A Pioneer.” I will speak upon this topic.

The Sorrowful Situation of Jesus

God exerted Himself to the utmost for the sake of saving fallen humanity. If someone sought us while we were yet sinners, someone toiled to introduce the land of blessing to us, it was not our beloved parents, children or spouse who related to us with such love. It was not a nation nor was it some saint or sage. It was none other than God Himself.

To pave the way for our hope, God has been exerting Himself until today. To alleviate our hearts and situations, to resolve everything in us that has been put out of order, He has labored and fought without rest. You must remember that God has been taking the responsibility of a pioneer throughout history.

During the 4,000 years from the fall of Adam to the coming of Jesus, God steadfastly carried on His providence, even though human beings, who should have inherited the toilsome work of pioneering, were ignorant. The garden of joy has been the goal of the providence of God, who has placed His hope in us. We have been moving toward that world through every step we have taken in history.

During the 4,000 years since the human fall, God worked through individuals and people to establish the nation of Israel. To accomplish His Will, on the foundation of the 4,000 years of His work, He sent Jesus as the hero who could inherit the entire mission of Heaven, as well as Heaven’s heart and desire.

However, the faithful believers of Judaism and the Israelites, who were proud of being the chosen people, did not know Jesus. The Israelites, whom God chose on the foundation of His effort, did not receive Jesus, who came to fulfill the purpose of God’s arduous works. No one received him: neither the religious sects, the society nor his family.

As a result, God’s Will to pioneer experienced a setback. The Israelite people, who should have walked the path of fulfillment with Jesus, actually headed down the path of failure and death.

God labored strenuously while walking the pioneering course. Jesus came with the glorious mission to bring this Will to pass and recompense for the work God had done. However, because the chosen people did not recognize Jesus but hounded him out, he was forced to stand in the position of a pioneer, in place of the prepared Israelites.

Jesus came with the mission to attend Heaven and build the ideal world for which the chosen people hoped. However, the Israelites, who were waiting for the Messiah, did not know that Jesus was their Messiah. This is where the grief and tragedy of Heaven expanded in a new direction. We must possess the heart to mourn over this development for God and grieve on behalf of Jesus. If we do not have this heart, then we cannot fathom the heart of God who has played the role of a pioneer toward humanity nor can we understand the heart of Jesus, who appeared before the chosen people with the hope of a pioneer.

To build the foundation of joy and the garden of hope, those religious groups and people should have followed Jesus even if he spearheaded a march toward the valley of death. They should have followed him if he went to the valley of joy and happiness. Heaven made an inseparable heavenly bond with us during the 4,000 years of His effort, yet our ancestors betrayed this bond and turned their backs on Heaven’s pioneering accomplishments. We must feel great indignation over this.

The Preparation Period of Jesus

Two thousand years ago, Jesus looked upon the Israelite people, who had the potential to betray him, with great anxiety. He also saw that Judaism, which should have been built on the foundation of the heavenly heart, had become enslaved to the formalities of the Mosaic Law. As Jesus watched the Israelites, who did not know where their home was or in what direction they must head, he understood that God had raised him through a 4,000-year course of pioneering and had sent him with the purpose of bringing them together to pave the way for the new world. You must understand that, at that moment, Jesus could not help feeling tragic.

After he was born in a stable, Jesus led a lonely life and helped his father, Joseph, who was a carpenter. Although he lived in a limited environment, his ideas transcended the Israelites and the world to connect with the whole cosmos. This is how Jesus lived.

Joseph ordered him around, and his younger brothers and sisters, who tagged after him, did not know this. Therefore, Jesus felt unspeakably sad. Jesus came to understand the state of affairs in the world, God’s inner heart found deep inside the providence, and the situation of the earth and his contemporary world. He longed for all of these situations and states of affairs to unite and move in the direction God desired. However, the heart of God, the situation of Jesus, and the state of affairs in the world went their separate ways and the result was utter confusion.

Looking over the situation, what determination must Jesus have made? After passing through thirty years of preparation, he made the determination to complete the Will of God through a life of practice. The more Jesus felt sadness in his heart, the more he called out to God; the more he felt hopeless toward the earth, the more he tried to find a solution to the situation through people.

The closer the heart of Heaven drew toward Jesus, the closer the world should have approached him, and the closer the chosen people and the religious groups should have come to him. Yet, on the contrary, though he was growing closer to God, the people were moving farther away from him. This made Jesus serious beyond our imagination.

Jesus realized that he should not hold grudges against these people, who were ignorant of the serious situation of Heaven. He thought of the path before him: overcoming their lives and opening the doors to their hearts, eventually embracing them. This is what Jesus was like. You must reflect once more upon the sad situation of Jesus, who could not assert, “I am the lord of your hope, the one for whom you have longed.”

Jesus had to stand amid these tribulations and make a new determination. Jesus knew that the foundation which God had established through His pioneering work of 4,000 years was destroyed. Therefore, he knew he could not establish the ideology of Heaven on those grounds. He had to make a bold new determination amid such tragedy to confront the Israelites again. We do not realize this. Under such circumstances, Jesus prayed to Heaven, “God, please give me strength. God, please allow me to set out in a new direction. God, please let me make a bold determination both internally and externally.” We must reflect upon how Jesus persevered through the thirty long years of his life, speaking silently with Heaven and having a conversation with himself in his heart.

What sense of mission did Jesus have in such a position, carrying on the mission of a pioneer for the invisible God? About God, he felt a sense of mission to pioneer and build the Kingdom of Heaven by opening the closed door to heaven. In relationship to earth, He felt the mission to pioneer the world of the people’s confused and isolated minds. Furthermore, Jesus felt the mission to pioneer this sinful world of humanity again.

Jesus would not allow the history of the providence of restoration that God had spent 4,000 years guiding to fall apart. Even if the Israelites were to betray God, Jesus was determined to remain unchanging and accomplish the one purpose. When Jesus thought about the internal, heavenly connection that God had made, he could not help making this kind of bold determination. It was an important issue to Jesus to manage such a mission in the living environment of the time. When he could become such a pioneer, he could represent the chosen people and history in sight of God, and he could manifest his determination as someone in whom God could believe and of whom God could be proud.

The Effort Jesus Made to Cope with His Mission

What then did Jesus do to cope with this mission? He passed through a preparation period. Jesus tried to connect the hearts of humanity to the heart of God, and tried to accomplish the ideology that could move the universe, Heaven and people. Jesus was determined to go forward in the shoes of a pioneer, causing unity between heaven and earth, humankind and the earth, the earth and God, and God and humankind. We have to understand that it took exceptional courage on Jesus’ part to make this resolution, in spite of the tragic situation with which he was faced. God raised Jesus for the sake of the chosen nation of Israel and for the sake of all the things of creation found on the earth. Hence, even if the earth was to betray him, he could not abandon his mission because the people were still there. Even if the people were to betray him, he could not abandon his mission because Heaven was still there.

During this preparation period, when Jesus’ mind was filled with these kinds of thoughts and feelings, he must have made hundreds, thousands, and tens of thousands of pledges in his heart. During his course of moving toward this ideology, he reflected on the history of the chosen people, the Israelites, who had represented Heaven during the 4,000- year course. When he realized they could not stand on the side of Heaven, Jesus predicted that there would be innumerable difficult persecutions waiting for him in his path. He then made a new determination.

Even today, God fervently seeks and struggles to find the people of this miserable world. Jesus felt the responsibility to bring resolution to the alienation between people and Heaven. When he saw that the Israelites were not heading in the direction God had set for them, he felt infinitely sad. He knew that God sadly looked down upon this earthly world, which had not become the foundation of goodness upon which Jesus could come. Rather, it was a place upon which Satan had trampled. Yet God had exerted Himself for 4,000 years. The more Jesus thought about this, the more he was overwhelmed by grief.

Every time Jesus was overcome with such sorrow, he felt a surge of determination: “I will fight on the side of Heaven, for the sake of Heaven, humanity and this earth. No matter what kind of difficulties or persecution come my way, I will prevail over them.” The resolution that Jesus made during his thirty-year preparation period was to carry out a successful battle in the future through a life of practice. He was determined that even if he was to become a sacrifice due to the ostracism of the Israelites, he would do this and that kind of path and establish such and such kinds of methods. He had many such ideas about which no one else could even think. He planned how, if they were to believe in him, he would take such and such measures; if they were not to believe in him, then he would do this and that. While no one else was concerned about Heaven, Jesus was deep in prayer. During the thirty years that he spent in the family of Joseph, he could not express joy when his brothers and sisters were joyful. When his relatives and the church were delighted, he was unable to feel delight.

There is a huge gap between the direction Heaven desires and the direction people take in their minds. Observing this, Jesus felt that it was his task to bridge the gap. The greater the gap, the greater his determination became.

Although Jesus had many things to say, he had to remain silent. You have to understand the sorrow that Jesus experienced during the thirty years of his preparation period. Even though he desperately wanted to witness to the truth by going from one place to another in Israel, he had to help with his family affairs.

The Determination of a Pioneer

What determination did Jesus make as a pioneer during the thirty-year preparation period? He determined, “I will even go toward the path of death, the road of persecution. I will go on even if I am to be destroyed.” Jesus made the determination of a lifetime, that he would gain control over his living environment during his preparation period, eradicate any self-centered philosophy, resolve all relationships on the level of the people, and rectify the rituals in Judaism that placed too heavy an emphasis on the Old Testament and its laws.

For Jesus, who had to pioneer the Kingdom of Heaven and the hearts of all humanity, there was no day when his heart did not visit the realm of God’s ideals at least several times. You have to understand that Jesus was this kind of person.

Although the people on the earth did not recognize the internal grief of Jesus during the thirty-year preparation period, God was on his side. When Jesus was shaving wood with a plane or was cutting a piece of wood with an ax, he wanted to experience the heart and situation of God and build the Kingdom of Heaven God desired. Even when he was taking a break after a meal, this desire of his heart did not fade away. You have to understand that there was not a moment when he did not have these thoughts.

Moreover, Jesus felt deep down in his flesh and bones that even if the 4,000-year history was to be abandoned, this value could not be abandoned. Even if the chosen Israelites were to be abandoned, such value could not be abandoned. Even if the chosen religion was to be abandoned, this value could not be abandoned. He felt that he could abandon everything he had, including his parents and relatives, but he could not abandon this value. You have to understand that his life was an unending continuation of bravery amid tragedy. In his life, he made preparations by cultivating a heart of perfect heavenly love, and he looked forward to the day of hope.

You should picture Jesus and his heart as he was making preparations for that one day, that one time. Even if the clothes that he wore were poor and the expressions on his face pitiful, his gaze was unmatched by any conqueror or pioneer of the earth.

His gaze could connect with the heart of God and see through the universe. Accordingly, as he looked at the world with this heart and perspective, he could not help feeling miserable and tortured. He could not avoid sorrow.

Considering this, we can infer how, the more intensely Jesus clung to God, who had toiled throughout history, the more he was concerned that the Israelites and his disciples might fall faithless. Jesus spent the thirty-year preparation period reticently, with this mind-set.

No matter how intensely his heart burned on the side of God, it was never for his own sake. No matter how preoccupied he became with the wishes of Heaven, no matter how seriously he looked at the world, we have to understand that it had nothing to do with the fulfillment of his own personal desires.

His gaze was for the sake of the Israelites, his heart was for the sake of the Israelites and the entire world. This is why Jesus shed endless tears. Jesus re-determined to face the path of death countless times during this preparation period. When he heard the rumor that someone was about to pass away, he felt that it was he himself. If there was someone who was unjustly persecuted or wronged, he felt that it was he who was undergoing the privations. You have to understand the heart of Jesus, who looked at all the tragic affairs of the society during his time as if they were unfolding in his life.

The Public Life of Jesus Was Full of Tribulation and Ordeals

Jesus who came 2,000 years ago, Jesus who led a sorrowful life during the thirty years of preparation, there was no one who understood this Jesus from the depth of his heart. No one bowed before him and was able to attend him. There was not even one ugly and crippled person who did that. This is truly a tragic story. Had there been such a person, humanity today would not feel so ashamed. When we consider this, we can understand that we owe an infinitely great debt to Heaven.

As Jesus observed John the Baptist during his thirty-year preparation period, he had many expectations. Jesus, who had been looking forward to the day when he could begin his course of public ministry, finally took the first concrete step toward fulfillment. He thought the people of the time and John the Baptist would welcome him. Yet both treated him coldly and even opposed him. The sects of Judaism opposed him. Jesus, who had made such a brave and firm determination during the preparation period, was supposed to use the Israelite people as his foundation to step forward and fight with the world, but they opposed him. Consequently, he was faced with the miserable fate of having to fight with the Israelite people. You have to understand this. This is why the Israelites, who had prepared for the coming of the Messiah with great toil for 4,000 years, had to begin their mission again from the bottom.

When God’s foundation of 4,000 years crumbled, Jesus had to appear before the people a second time with the same absoluteness of God’s dispensation just after the fall of Adam and Eve. We must understand how sad Jesus must have been. He sought them out because they were supposed to be the chosen people, yet they drove him out.

Where could Jesus go then? The Israelites, whom God had raised through 4,000 arduous years, had betrayed Heaven and stood in the position of Satan. Who was able to understand the agonized heart Jesus felt as he looked upon the situation? This is the reason Jesus went out to the wilderness and fasted for forty days.

You have probably never thought that Jesus was such a miserable person. The people at that time did not know of such an infuriating tragedy, that Jesus, who came as the prince of Heaven, was ostracized by the people and had to starve in the wilderness and be subjected to the tests of Satan, the enemy of God. There are no words to describe the indignation of God as He watched the situation of Jesus!

Jesus, who felt such pangs of indignation in his heart, knew that God was deeply concerned about his situation. This is why he tried to suppress any expression of such feelings and demonstrated the utmost filial piety toward Heaven. When we reflect upon Jesus, we can understand that he felt the heart of God, who transcended the betrayal of Adam in the Garden of Eden and expressed deep concern for him. It was natural that Jesus would pray to alleviate his sorrow; yet he suppressed his anger and tried to comfort God. This is why he was able to open the door of hope through which he could remove the grief of the fall and guide fallen people toward God. Jesus made the determination during the thirty-year preparation period that he would live his life in service of this goal. He knew he might have to stand as an enemy before the people.

As we reflect upon this, we can see that the history of sorrow has been caused by the mistakes of our ancestors. God wanted the three disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration to comfort Jesus with the same heart of concern that Jesus had toward the people. God wanted them to pray on his behalf. It was they who should have built the altar, yet they were caught up in other thoughts. Thus, Jesus made a new determination as he received the prediction of his death in Jerusalem, and he began to make preparations for that day.

The Strenuous Work of Jesus as He Tried to Raise his Disciples

What are God’s tactics? To reclaim one person, God must suffer a blow as hard as that person’s worth. This is the way Heaven works. To reclaim one family, Heaven must receive a blow as hard as that family’s worth. This is how that family can be reclaimed. Accordingly, to reclaim a people and raise them, God has to suffer the same amount as their worth. Jesus learned through his daily life that this is the tactic of God.

Because Jesus had to represent God, to claim a people, He had to become a sacrifice on the level of the individual, the family, the religious group, and the people. By receiving a blow, he pioneered the path of sacrifice.

Jesus came to live this way of life. Though he sought a comrade among the prepared Jewish sects, there was not even one person who welcomed him. Even in Korea today, fishermen are poor and lowly people and not well respected. You can imagine how Jesus must have felt when he had to seek out ignorant fishermen 2,000 years ago. Do you think that a person like Peter would become inspired and follow Jesus immediately after just hearing his words a few times? Although that is the way it is written in the Bible, the Bible does not elaborate upon the daily affairs in the background. You have to understand that people like Peter heard some rumors about Jesus that helped them believe in him.

Rejected by the people, Jesus came as a laborer and as a friend of the fishermen. He shared his life, heart and desires with them. He fought on with the determination that he would help satisfy their hearts’ desires, even at the cost of his life. The reason such fishermen as Peter could follow him was because Jesus testified and fought with this kind of heart and mind-set.

What did Jesus do for three years after picking these uneducated disciples? In the same way that God had served and toiled for 4,000 years to raise the Israelites, Jesus chose them and served them.

Jesus had great hopes for the twelve disciples he had chosen. It was Jesus Heaven had sent to influence Judaism and govern all priests and officials. His ideology was grand, his hopes were great, and his heartistic level was high. The priests and officials of that time who did not recognize Jesus, the pioneer with God’s practical ideology, were more pitiful than Adam and Eve immediately after their fall.

What did Jesus do while looking at these people? You have to understand that through the three years of his ministry, Jesus passed through the same course as God, who had walked the path of sacrifice and service for the sake of raising the people.

Therefore, Jesus searched for disciples, forgetting food and drink even when he had somehow obtained them. When he had something to wear, he gave it to his disciples, disregarding his rags. If there was some comfortable place to sleep, he let his disciples sleep there and sat in an uncomfortable place. Jesus, who lived in oneness with God and with this kind of heart and mind set, should have brought victorious achievements through his three-year course of ministry. Yet such results did not come.

The Disciples Did Not Abide by the Teachings of Jesus

The disciples did not understand the heart of Jesus. They were trying to use him to elevate themselves. Jesus understood this and had no way to alleviate his aching heart, no matter how much he cried and lamented toward heaven and earth.

Because he had a mission that forced him to go on, he suppressed his sorrow and said to his disciples, “Those who try to elevate themselves will decline, and those who try to lower themselves will rise.” (Matthew 23:12) You have to understand that he repeatedly testified to his determination, inscribed deeply in his heart, flesh and blood.

Listening to him, the disciples thought that the words Jesus spoke had nothing to do with them. Ladies and gentlemen! Please imagine how frustrated Jesus must have felt when John’s mother asked Jesus to elevate her sons to a position of glory in the last days. Although Jesus had taught his disciples and instructed them so many times, they did not understand him.

Therefore, as the crowd grew, the disciples were able to express their joy through their actions, but they could not become examples to the people as Jesus was to them in his actions and teachings. They could not become sacrificial people who elevated and served Jesus. On the contrary, the other people had a hard time going before Jesus because of these disciples. Still, Jesus knew that the disciples had the responsibility to transcend themselves and fulfill the wishes of the religious sects. In turn, the religious sects had the responsibility to transcend themselves and fulfill the wishes of the people. The people, in turn, had the responsibility to transcend the people and fulfill the wishes of the world. The humanity of the world had the responsibility to transcend the world and fulfill the wishes of Heaven.

Nonetheless, no one fathomed this heart of Jesus. If there was some cause of sorrow for Jesus as he watched the disciples, who only asked him to give them blessings, this must have been the greatest cause of grief.

When the apostles were hungry, Jesus made the utmost effort to feed them. When they were in tears, he comforted them. When they despaired, he told them about the blessings of Heaven with the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount. He was always concerned that they might despair or fall. We have to understand that the Gospels express this sorrowful, heartistic situation of Jesus.

The disciples should have become closer to Jesus the more he spoke to them, but they grew more distant. You have to experience the feelings of Jesus as he watched this.

As a last resort, Jesus took a towel and wash pan and washed the feet of the disciples, teaching them that serving others is the way. Because Jesus knew that this was the only way they could make a connection with Heaven, he had to tread this path. Even in his sorrow, he was watching over the disciples.

As he walked the course of restoration, Jesus was not delighted to perform miracles. If you think he performed miracles in comfort and joy, you are wrong. His actual situation was that he did not have a place to rest his body on the earth or a place to rely on in the universe, so he had to appeal to Heaven. You have to comprehend the desperate situation of Jesus, who was in such a miserable state.

When he was in a sad state wherein he felt compelled to display some compassion toward them, he raised his hands and said, “Father!” This is when the miracles took place. We have to understand that these miracles took place when Jesus shouted out of excruciating sadness. Do not think that Jesus performed miracles because he liked them or was lazy.

On the hill of Bethsaida, 5,000 people waved their arms and shouted out, “Jesus, you are our Savior. You are the chosen leader of Israel.” Although they sought him out when they were to obtain some benefit from him, after some time had passed and they saw that Jesus’ standard of heart was different from theirs and that his internal situation and ideals were in a different, higher state, they betrayed Jesus and turned their backs on him. All this actually happened to Jesus in his life.

The Heart of Jesus in his Everyday Life

No matter how much the external circumstances changed, the heart of Jesus and the path he walked could not change. This path is the one that fallen humanity must inevitably walk. However, the Israelites, who should have followed Jesus, betrayed him. The crowd that had followed him betrayed him and the disciples, who should have believed in and attended him without any doubt, cherished different hopes and had different attitudes. You have to understand that Jesus looked at them with a gaze full of sorrow and grief.

Jesus knew that he had to be persecuted on the individual level, the family level, the church level, on the level of a people and on the national level. He also knew that he had to be persecuted on the level of the Roman Empire, which represented the world at that time. Knowing this, he silently walked his course. When he climbed over the Mount of Transfiguration and then headed toward the hill of Calgary, he made the determination: “Let any persecution and ordeal come to me. I will overcome all that I must in my time.” If he did not overcome them, all the preparations would have been more cause for grief, so he made his way toward the pass of death. To put this Will into practice, he made the determination that, as a sacrifice of death, he would share his flesh and blood with humanity before he left. Jesus was overwhelmed by the heart of Heaven on behalf of humanity and made a firm determination with every footstep he took. However, no one knew that he was taking those footsteps to carry out the determination that he had made during his preparation period. You have to understand this.

Jesus could not hold any grudges against the many people who ostracized him. He was more sensitive than anyone, and his indignation surpassed that of anyone else. Moreover, Jesus felt that he had the mission to pioneer the path of God’s Will centered on the Israelites. Jesus understood that because the heart of God had been bound up with them through the relationships of the 4,000 years, he could not abandon them. Thus, even when they turned their backs on him, he appealed to Heaven, “Please save them through me. Please save these people through me, even though they are persecuting me. Please.” Later, when his disciples also betrayed him, he prayed, “Please accomplish Your Will of salvation through me.” This is the course Jesus walked.

The twelve disciples said, “Lord! We will go wherever you go,” with the determination to share a common destiny with him, be it death or life. This was when Jesus appeared with the Gospels. You have to understand that the determination the disciples made: “We will follow you wherever you go,” reminds one of the heart of Jesus at the outset of his ministry and when he was heading toward the garden of Gethsemane.

Jesus said, “Foxes have holes, birds in the air have their nests, yet the son of man does not have a place to rest his head,” and added, “I entrust my head, heart and body to the Father’s bosom.” This prayer was his final desperate prayer at the garden of Gethsemane, in which he clung to God, who had overcome all sorrows and ordeals of humanity and who had toiled, and entrusted his agonized heart to Him. Jesus made the determination that in place of God’s 4,000 years of suffering, he would offer himself as the sacrifice. This is the determination Jesus made in front of the fallen people who opposed him, not knowing the heart of God. We must never forget that Jesus was determined to offer himself as the sacrifice of death. In this way, the life course of Jesus came to end on a tragic note.

In other words, Jesus’ life came to an end without even one true friend by his side. This was how things were for Jesus. For this reason, Jesus gave his flesh and blood as the sacrifice of history and took determined steps that defied the fear of death for the sake of presenting this new course of life to humanity. This was the life of Jesus.

The History of the Providence of Being Struck First in the Process of Restoration

Just before Jesus passed away on the cross that was dripping with his blood, he said, “My Father, my Father, why have You forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46) At the end of this prayer, he said, “It is finished.” (John 19:30) He said, “It is finished,” not because he wanted to say that he had realized the ideal world. What he meant by this statement was that he had carried out the determination he had made during his thirty-year preparation period: “If my path becomes tragic, then I will do such and such.” This statement is not to be taken as something joyful; it was his expression of his sad heart to all of humanity. We have to understand that this was his last Will, which he spoke to the ignorant people out of his grieving heart.

Humanity has longed for the day when they could pioneer Jesus’ internal path of sorrow and be able to say, “I have realized everything.” You have to understand that this is the day of the returning resurrection. You have to understand this clearly.

Because the course of the crucifixion is the way Jesus fought with the satanic world, Christians all over the world today are following this example. Heaven reclaims after having been hit first. The people had betrayed him. Even the twelve apostles denied him, yet it was these twelve disciples that Jesus came to visit after he was resurrected from death. God takes things back after they have been hit once. St. Stephen, who believed in Jesus, was stoned to death. When St. Stephen was killed, God was able to claim St. Paul. In the same way that Jesus reclaimed the disciples who had earlier betrayed him, Jesus performed the powers of resurrection and took Saul at a time when the followers of Jesus were being killed. In other words, he took him after suffering a blow. Moreover, after he was renamed Paul, Saul took blows in place of the twelve disciples. Who would have thought that Paul, who suffered plenty of persecution and mistreatment, would become the most important apostle and establish the foundation for Christianity?

Who struck Jesus? The Roman soldiers and the Israelites struck Jesus. The Romans took the initiative. For this reason, because the disciples of Jesus were supposed to restore through indemnity the blows that Jesus took, they had to go into Rome and be persecuted in his place.

Because there remained the task to restore through indemnity the blows that the twelve apostles, seventy followers, and the multitudes took on behalf of the people, Rome was not allowed to collapse right away.

After the period of the Roman Empire and feudal society, when the Catholic church was at the height of its power, Luther challenged the church through the religious Reformation movement, and the church struck him and the movement down. Protestantism, which suffered these blows, crossed the Pacific, and created a new culture, it built the America of today. The external Canaan on the world level was established through those Christian groups who had been chased out.

Now the time has come when the society in Israel has taken on the form of a democratic nation. Heaven will seek another group of people to take the blow once again. This is a transition period in history. History has been seeking the group of people who will take the blows. This is the time when groups who will be struck and chased out must emerge among the churches and democratic nations. The group that is being chased out will have a different ideology and mind-set than the conventional one. Why? The ideology of Jesus is not the ideology of the earth. It is the ideology of the Kingdom of Heaven. It is fundamentally different from any ideology found on the earth. We know through our study of history that the people who try to live according to this new ideology will come to the surface through a course of great changes in heaven and earth, because Jesus founded the ideology.

What kind of group of people will appear at that moment? In the concluding period of history, a group of faithful people must appear who follow the footsteps of Jesus’ path toward Golgotha, a group which has been blessed by Heaven. A group must emerge who will retrace this inescapable path toward the hill of Golgotha, even if they are persecuted and driven out. Therefore, we must remember that a denomination must appear that shoulders the burden of Golgotha not on the level of Jesus, an individual, but on the level of Christianity or a church. Jesus gained what he was supposed to gain after first being struck. Since he was beaten by Rome, he took Rome. Because he pushed forward in time the movements of restoring the church, the nation and the world, he walked the individual path of Golgotha, in which he suffered blows on the individual level. Accordingly, there must emerge a religious group today that takes the blows on the level of the church and walks the path of Golgotha. A people must appear who walk the path of Golgotha on the level of a people. This is the formula course to reach Heaven in the last days.

The Position in which We Must Stand after We Have Made the Preparations

In this age today, we have to pass through a period of preparation and a period of practice in our search for Heaven. We must seek for the original nature of Heaven. What kind of preparation must we make? In what kind of position must we stand? We have to stand in the same position as Jesus during his thirty-year preparation period. In doing so, we must prepare to represent the internal heart of Heaven and the human heart, represent all sovereignties, and determine to face conflicts by ourselves. Accordingly, a group of people certainly must appear who cross Golgotha on the world level with this kind of determination. You must understand this.

Jesus said, “It is finished,” when he was passing away. Yet this is not the culminating point of the completion of the providence. For this reason, we must pioneer a course through which we can say, “It is finished,” while we are still alive. The heavenly soldiers and angels, spirits and all created things must be able to bow their heads and say, “Today is the day your wishes are fulfilled. Please receive the glory.” This is the time to prepare for the day we can say, “It is finished” in this way. Christians today remain faithful to go beyond the day of saying, “It is finished” as they pass away. They must be able to say the same while they are alive. Hence, you must take charge of the mission of a heavenly pioneer in this first completion stage we are in today.

Although it may seem that Jesus died for the world, he was never persecuted on the world level. He was persecuted on the level of the people. However, in this concluding age of Christianity today at the completion stage that must go over the last victorious Golgotha, you must step out to the world. Using the world stage as your foundation, you must inherit the heart that Jesus felt and the determination that he made during his thirty-year preparation period. You must copy the tactics that he used during the three years of his ministry. With these, you are to go over any kind of Golgotha, even at the risk of your life. Shouldering the responsibility to accomplish this task, you must fulfill the mission of a pioneer.

To put it another way, you must establish a new, second stage for Heaven. To do that, you must become the people who can overcome all difficulties by clinging to the internal heart of Jesus as he prayed for his enemies. You must become Christians who have inherited the mission on the world level. Without becoming this kind of person, on the day of completion when you say, “It is finished,” you will not be able to meet the one glorious day.

Although Christians have repeated this incomplete path and have taken responsibility for this path as pioneers, now we must pioneer the one way of completion. Accordingly, we must inherit the first ideology, with which we have been preparing ourselves while cherishing the ideology of Heaven, and which was manifested as the second ideology. By doing so, we must first alleviate the bitterness in the heart of Jesus, and then alleviate God’s bitterness from the 6,000 years. We must remain alive and usher in the day when we can say, “It is finished.”

We must cover up the unfortunate historical course of fighting with Satan and cling to the victorious day when we can fight for the sake of God’s glory. Moreover, you must possess the same heart as Jesus as he took the path to the cross and have the same form as his substantial body before you approach Heaven. Only when this is done can you accomplish what Jesus could not accomplish when he came to this earth with the mission of a pioneer on two fronts. We must feel deep in our hearts that we must pioneer the path of Golgotha on the level of the world, which Jesus left unfinished.

Jesus could not strike those who persecuted him and drove him away but he had to overcome the situation by praying for them and for his enemies. Today we must have the magnanimity to wish blessings upon this kind of people and be determined to triumph over death and grasp Heaven. Only when we have done that can we can usher in the one day of glory and become the children who can enter the bosom of God on the world level, the pioneers of the new garden on the world level. Please keep this in mind.

Accordingly, the Kingdom of Heaven that Jesus established before he passed away, the heart of love that he sought, the world he was trying to found, must all be realized in us. When we stand as the victors with whom Satan has not even a trace of attachment, when we go forward as the new pioneers on the level of the cosmos with the glorious flag of Heaven, then the Will of the Father can be accomplished and your mission of restoration will come to a conclusion. This will bring about the complete dissolution of Jesus’ bitterness. We must understand this.

Prayer

Father! We are awe-stricken to receive the mission that You have vested in us, and we are grateful for the grace You have given us by moving us to the depth of our hearts with Your call.

Now we have learned that our faith does not come from our hearts; it comes from the heart of Father, to which we cannot relate without shedding tears. We have also come to know the heart of Heaven, who has clung to these miserable ones and has struggled so fiercely for us. We have learned that we are sinful people who have bowed down before Your fearful grace, before which we shed endless tears.

Father of love, we thank you for having come and visited us. You have come in delight today, but we are afraid that when You leave, You may not be able to promise us the one day of joy and praise. We have learned that it has been Your tragic course to deal with human beings who come together in joy but part in sorrow. Please allow us to yearn for You more tomorrow than today; more during our later years than in our youth.

Please allow us to become sons and daughters who can take steps forward to that profoundly deep world of the heart. Please allow us to comfort the bitter heart of the Father and to alleviate the grief of Jesus and the ancestors of history. Father, we earnestly wish that You attain the liberation of Heaven through us.

We have learned today that Jesus came with the mind-set of a pioneer. How tragic was it that his glory had to turn into pioneering! It was because John the Baptist betrayed him, the religious sects betrayed him, the Israelite people and all the people in the world turned their backs on him. As we understand that this is a fact in the history of Christianity, please let the internal heart of determination that Jesus possessed during his preparation period and public ministry spring forth within us.

Jesus confronted enemies on the level of the people and the nation, but today we have the mission to go beyond the people and confront enemies on the levels of the world and the universe. In other words, we have the mission of the last pioneers. Father, please give us the power. Beseeching from the depth of our hearts that You will guide us to become victorious and glorious children who can shoulder this responsibility and bravely walk to the end of the path of Golgotha, we offer all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.

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Chapter 10: Let Us Understand God, Who Wanted to be Proud

Genesis 1:24-31
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea
February 8, 1959

Prayer

Father, please allow us to be awakened to the grieving heart You had when You lost the original garden and mourned over it. We have been ignorant of the fact that the sorrow of Adam and Eve is our sorrow. We have failed to experience through our minds and bodies that the Father’s sadness is greater than our sorrow. We sincerely wish to feel in our bodies and minds during this hour that, unbeknownst to us, the Father has shed many tears and has suffered endless and infinite sorrow and pain.

The sorrow of the Father caused by the fall of Adam and Eve was indeed great. Jesus’ unfinished mission in the will of the providence of restoration on the earth also caused You infinite grief, loneliness and suffering. Please allow us to experience the entirety of Your agonized heart during this hour.

Because our ancestors betrayed the Father, the history of sorrow that provokes great indignation in our hearts has come into being. Please guide us to reflect on this, so we will not commit the miserable mistake of increasing the Father’s sadness. Rather, please allow us to cope with the sorrow of Adam, Eve and Jesus.

Please do not allow our minds and bodies to stop at their limits. Please allow our minds to represent the Father’s mind and our bodies to represent the Father’s hyung sang. Please allow us to bear witness to the Father, who is deeply sorrowful. Guide us to call upon the Father during this hour.

Although we are shameful, please lead us to become those who can understand the internal heart of the Father, who has sought us and raised us. Although we are inadequate, we hope to become one with the Father in our minds and bodies. Please extend Your arms of compassion and cast the light of love. Please establish us as Your elite troops. Allow us to fight against Satan as Your sons and daughters.

We know that in the 2,000-year course of history since the coming of Jesus, our ancestors failed to fulfill their obligations toward Heaven and caused many prophets to shed blood. Please allow us to feel indignant about these facts and to be able to take responsibility for their sins and mistakes, repenting for them. Please forgive everything.

We have learned of the crimes which our ancestors committed. Please guide us to establish the standard of life the Father seeks. Allow us to become Your sons and daughters who can step forward as the embodiments of the original Adam and Eve.

We know that many millions of satans are watching us in our surroundings today. Please guide us through our path and allow us to make the internal and external preparations to defeat these satans. Beloved Father, this is our deepest wish.

Father, please establish the standard of victory and manifest Your glory in this moment. If there are some who fall asleep, please wake them. Beloved Father, we sincerely wish that You will take care of them personally, and that You will not let the myriad satans invade. Please guide us to resemble Your heart during this hour. Please allow us to experience the Father’s indignant heart. Beloved Father, we earnestly wish You to unite us with Your desperate heart and lead us to hope only for Your guidance and instructions.

Please give blessing upon the many altars gathering on behalf of the people. We know that there are many lonely children of Yours scattered across the countryside who are appealing to You with desperate hearts. Father, please give blessings to them and work with them with the same grace. We pray from the depth of our hearts that You grant them the miracle of resurrection which will enable them to fulfill their internal mission.

We have entrusted everything to the Father in this hour. Please govern it from beginning to end. We offer all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.

This sermon is about something with which we are very familiar. God said that the creation He made in the six days was good. We must reflect upon how God’s deep desire to take infinite pride in His creation can be found in this word “good.”

God Is Looking for Things of which He can be Proud

God wanted to boast about the creation He had made in six days. When He was looking at all the created things, He was extremely delighted. To whom did He speak the words, “They are good”? He did not utter those words to the archangel. He spoke those words to all created things. We have to understand that God’s feelings toward all things were that intensely loving.

Nonetheless, all created things lost their value of being good, which God extolled in the Garden of Eden. God’s desire toward all things could not be substantially manifested. When we think about this sad situation, we can understand that God’s words, “They are good,” became words of grief. We have to remember this. The words extolling the goodness became sorrowful words. If someone had recognized the heart and situation of God, then God would have been more happy about the creation He had personally made.

Nonetheless, God did not have anyone who understood the value of His words and related with the creation in the same way. When we think about this, we can see that God’s heart of love toward all created things contained a deep sorrow within it. Originally, God wanted to boast about His good creation. We have to understand this.

For this reason, the title of the sermon I want to give to you today is “Let Us Understand God, Who Wanted to be Proud.”

After creating Adam and Eve, God wanted them to rule the developing creation and realize His words in the ideal realm of goodness. We must think about how God was looking at Adam and Eve with the hope that the day would come when He could take pride in them and in the rest of creation.

God yearned in His heart for the day when Adam and Eve would reach perfection, emerge as His representatives and rule all things. God must have hoped for the historic moment when He could brag about the creation He had made over such a long time. Furthermore, God longed for the day when He could say to Adam and Eve that they were one with Him, copies of His internal Sung sang and external Hyung sang, capable of sharing all the joys and pleasures of life with God. We must learn to fathom such a heart of Heaven today. Our ancestors fell because they could not understand the heart of God. We know this fact very well.

After the creation of the universe, God longed for the appearance of the person and family in whom He could take pride. Yet because of the fall, the very basis for that was shattered. The basis for God’s pride became the cause of His grief. We must remember that it is our historical responsibility to penetrate into this desire to be proud, which is hidden deep inside the Sung sang of God. We must reveal this and usher in the day when we can truly be proud before God.

To Become a Source of God’s Pride

We have not known the God who could never take pride in His creation. We did not know that He saw His pride turn into sorrow and manifest itself in tears.

Therefore, now we must find the original heavenly nature and original love of which God longs to be proud. Accordingly, as the people who possess the original heart of love that can relate with God, you must cultivate yourselves to become those in whom God can take pride. Although God has been yearning and searching for the one person who can bring shame to Satan and provide God with a source of pride, He has not been able to find such a person.

People want to boast. It is human nature to put one’s self forward and boast about oneself. We have the desire to boast about our parents, our children, and the whole of our family. Furthermore, we have the desire to be proud of our tribes, our nations, our world, and the whole of heaven and earth. Although you are fallen people, your original minds that seek to boast about things are controlling both your lives and history. You have to understand this.

Why do we think of such a desire as wrong? It is because of the human fall. In our daily lives, we want to boast about everything we have. We do not want to boast about them to just our neighbors, but to everyone in the world. The desire to be proud is not an evil desire; it is an impulse of the original mind. This is the original mind through which you can enter the Kingdom of Heaven. It is the desire of our hearts to boast about ourselves and be famous on the level of the society, the nation and the world.

Why does such a desire move in our hearts and stir our feelings? It is because we have the natural desire to boast. Our minds have this desire because, if God and human beings had become one in the ideal manner, that would have been the source of pride for us as well as God. This is why we are moving in this direction, even though we fell. This is why we are struggling to find the central value of the whole cosmos.

However, because human beings fell, the laws concerning pride were not in line with the Principle. They were opposed to it. People should have followed the intentions of their original hearts and pursued the laws of the Principle; yet because of the fall, they lost everything and headed in the opposite direction. As a result of this, the directions that our original minds pursue and the actual environment in which we live are diametrically opposed to one another.

We are searching for God and the path of the Way. In whom should we take pride? Before we take pride in ourselves, we must boast about our center. If we want to be proud of our nation, rather than being proud centered on ourselves, we must be proud of a patriot of that nation. When we are proud of our tribe, we must be proud of its center. The same thing is true for the family.

Therefore, fallen people must reject and transcend themselves to find the source of their pride in the center of a group, province, nation, world and God, who is the center of heaven and earth. Unless we do this, we can never stand as the source of God’s pride.

To Acquire the Conditions of God’s Pride

Those who boast, centering on themselves, for the sake of their joy will set conditions that violate the principles of the universe. The more one can be proud of the goodness and uniqueness of others, the closer they can get to Heaven.

Although all people want to transcend themselves to take pride in their families, churches, nations and the world, there has not been a world, nation, church or family on this earth that they could sincerely respect and be proud. Although we may be faithless, we must still build a relationship of pride with God. We must transcend ourselves to take pride in our families, our society, our nation and the world. Therefore, our minds are always being pulled in that direction.

Now we must reflect upon the heart of Heaven, who was filled with the desire to be proud of us. When we think about God’s tiring providence of 6,000 years, the purpose of which was to seek us, when we think about God, who has come looking for us through a miserable course of history filled with bloody battles, we find that He has never had the conditions upon which He could raise a person and be proud of him in the course of history. When we understand that such is the situation of Heaven, we dare not boast about ourselves or go before Him with some condition.

In the original garden of goodness, God was able to boast about us. He was able to take pride in us before all things and to be proud of all things before the angelic world. Our original desire to boast must begin with us as the starting point and then expand through the family, the society, the nation, and the world. It must become linked to the pride of Heaven. The fallen people, who could not achieve this, must strike themselves before they can set the conditions for pride. We have to understand that we are in this sad state.

Adam and Eve should have set the conditions of God’s pride so that even Satan could say, “They are the true sons and daughters of which You can be proud. They truly deserve Your love.” They should have been worshipped by Satan. Yet they have turned out to be the sacrifices of Satan for 6,000 years. We have to realize how great the sorrow of God has been, as He looked over this situation.

Now we must set the conditions that can provide a source of pride to God, who is suffering such grief. One must become two, two must become ten, and ten must become ten million to form a people, a nation, a world and go in the direction God desires. The fallen people of the earth must inevitably seek this.

Therefore, you must now go forward toward the world about which God can boast, toward the sovereignty of which God can be proud. You must find and become the original person of which God can be proud and find the original life, personality and love of which God can be proud.

St. Paul did not boast about himself, though he had a high position and a great education. He could have been proud of his background, his tribe, his religious sect, and the chosen nation of Israel. The only things of which he wanted to be proud were what God had established as conditions of pride. You should learn about the life of St. Paul, who held onto that basis of God’s pride and carried on the battle. From the time of Noah to the present day, many ancestors who were raised before God suffered great tribulations.

How does God relate to us? He relates to us with what is most despised in the satanic world. We must understand this. Human beings fell because they lacked faith. Therefore, God emphasized that we must develop faith in the most difficult circumstances and that we must not eat the fruit in the most dangerous situation, when death is the consequence of eating it.

Consequently, our ancestors lived according to the word of God in an environment where it was difficult to believe in the word and put it into practice. Noah maintained his faith for 120 years as if it were a day. He chased away all persecution and scorn.

He was desperate to connect with the heart of God. He understood that what God wanted to be proud of was greater and more precious than anything of which society was proud.

The Reason Abraham Became the Ancestor of Faith

Because Noah’s course was like that, even when God judged the people with the flood, there was no condition upon which the faithless and rebellious people could protest against Heaven. Noah was someone of which God could be proud. The judgment of Noah was the process through which the value of heavenly pride and practical value were established. The sons and daughters of Noah should have become connected to the heart of pride that God wanted to establish, but they disregarded Noah’s devotion and had self-centered thoughts. Heaven was turned upside down.

The same was true for Abraham. It was not easy for him to leave everything behind in Ur of the Chaldeans. Abraham could have led a more joyful life than anyone in the satanic world. His wife was extremely beautiful, and he had abundant wealth.

God called Abraham and drove him the opposite way, toward tribulation. You have to understand that God ordered Abraham to leave Ur of the Chaldeans and drove him into tribulations that his relatives, family and people dared not attempt.

We have to understand that Abraham transcended himself and deeply felt the existence of Heaven, which was guiding his tribe and descendants to the ideal world. Abraham knew that ordinary daily life was not something of which the people could be proud. When God’s command was given to him in this state of mind, he abandoned all that he owned. It was not easy for him to do that. Abraham set out on a truly miserable journey toward the land of Haran, abandoning all that he had, his family, which had given him great joy, and all his belongings. However, even though he was a pitiful wanderer, his footsteps were full of confidence, because he believed that a glorious and proud day would come, even if he could not be proud of his current situation.

Abraham was determined that no matter what kind of ordeals and difficulties he might face, he would overcome them hundreds and thousands of times. You have to understand that Jesus sought for the garden of God’s pride more intensely than anyone else, with this same determination.

Because the heart of Abraham and the heart of God, who was desperately looking for a reciprocal object, came together in unity, God was able to give Abraham His proud blessings, which included the garden of the absolute ideal for which God longed.

This is how Abraham was put in the blessed position of being the ancestor of faith before Heaven. His living descendants thought they could be proud of their place of dwelling. They should have transcended the people and gone forth toward the world, yet they did not understand this. They just wanted to stay in one place and cling to their source of pride. This made them increasingly distant from the ideal of which God can be proud. You have to understand that this is why human beings have entered a long course of sorrowful history.

The same was true for Moses. For forty years Moses lived a comfortable and luxurious life in the palace. Although he lived a most enviable life, more than anyone else, he longed for the day Heaven could raise up his people and take pride in them. Although they were a pitiful people, moaning under the misery of 400 years of slavery in Egypt, he believed that one day God would surely bless them and lead them into the blessed land of Canaan. Moses hoped that God would build a new garden of hope, a nation that surpassed all others, the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, of which God could be most proud.

The Reason Jesus Became the Leader of the Israelites

Moses did not lack for anything in his palatial life, yet he rejected it all and did not take pride in it. On the contrary, he wanted to boast of the Israelites, who were moaning and suffering before Heaven. Furthermore, he wanted to be proud of the land of Canaan with which Abraham was blessed, the land that the seven Canaanite peoples had claimed. His desires were in tune with the wishes of God, who wanted to raise a chosen people of Israelites in the land of Canaan and be proud of them. Therefore, God put Moses at the helm of the people and led them to that land. We have to understand that this was the situation of God.

When Moses appeared before the 600,000, no one among them understood his innermost feelings. Most of them opposed him. However, through many miracles and calamities, God led the people to the realization that Moses was the one to guide them to the garden of pride in which they could dwell. They were thus able to fathom Moses’ heart, and God was able to lead them out.

The Israelites should have believed in Moses as the one sent by Heaven and should have been proud of him until the end. When he came with heavenly authority and struck the palace of Pharaoh, they rejoiced that he was their Heaven-sent leader. Yet when they faced more humble and difficult circumstances in the wilderness, they lost faith in him and discredited him, saying that he was not fit to lead the people.

Among the Israelites there should have been some who centered their lives on Moses, believing that he was their proud leader. They should have shared his sorrow, his path, and his leadership, knowing that it was all for the sake of saving the people. Had there been such people, then the 600,000 would not have been lost in the wilderness.

The people held grudges against Moses. They betrayed him and did not attend him when they should have boasted about him, followed him and served him. From this moment, the basis for the pride of God, Moses and the people was shattered. This will should have been realized by Moses, yet it did not come to pass. The people betrayed Moses, who was their representative. You have to understand that, at this moment, Moses felt more pain and sorrow than when he was living in the palace, longing for the land of Canaan.

Moses led the people into the wilderness to guide them to the land of Canaan, the land of hope. Even when he was being ostracized and betrayed by the people in the wilderness, he had to guide them. This is why he felt incredibly bitter. The people did not realize they should be proud of him and treated him with contempt instead. They surely deserved to perish. If the Israelites had truly understood the heart of Moses, they could not have complained.

When he was looking at the starving people, Moses was most courageous. He pleaded with Heaven to give blessings to the people. This moved Heaven. The Israelite people never understood that Moses was never concerned about himself. Instead, he was praying for their sake.

The 600,000 Israelites should have understood that Moses suffered more starvation and misery than they did. They then would have avoided destruction. They also should have understood that Moses was trying to save them. When they turned their backs and opposed him, Moses felt much pain and grief.

The people failed to realize that they should comply with the wishes of Moses, who was living for Heaven with all his heart and soul. Their attitudes not only caused grief to Moses, they made God even more sorrowful. You have to understand that God’s grief was more intense than that of Moses. Although Moses was the leader of the people and a person in which God could take pride, because of the faithlessness of the people, his life ended in miserable tragedy.

Humanity Should Have Taken Pride in Jesus

Heaven wanted the Israelites to follow Moses. God wanted them to follow him with the same intensity of desire with which He had established him, but that wish was shattered. Against God’s will, the Israelites became sacrifices to Satan.

The hope that God held in Moses during his forty years in the palace of Pharaoh, his forty years in the Midian wilderness, and the forty years of the wilderness course was completely shattered. As a result, God no longer had a people and a land of which He could be proud. Nevertheless, Moses wanted to be proud of these worthless people. The tragedy is that the Israelites were, in like manner, not proud of the greatness of Moses, whom God had raised.

What kind of nation and people can possess the heavenly authority to influence the world in the last days? You have to understand that it is the nation or people who take pride in the person God has chosen. Wouldn’t that be so?

Let us think about Jesus once more. Jesus was the ultimate fruit of all God’s work of 4,000 years. He was the incarnation of God’s heart and love. Moreover, his words, situation, hopes and heart represented everything of God. We have to realize that Jesus was chosen to represent and take pride in the hope of God.

After persevering for 4,000 years, God sent Jesus as His representative, the central figure of which He was proud. Yet when Jesus came to the earth, he never boasted about himself.

Jesus never had the chance to boast about himself in a manner that could bring joy to God. No one boasted about Jesus either, which would have pleased God. Because Jesus came in place of God, he had an intense desire to be proud of himself before the family, the religious sects, the people, and the world. Don’t you think that must have been true? Because he came as the proud fruit for which God had waited 4,000 years, he really wanted to be proud of that in the presence of his family, society, nation and the world.

Yet Jesus did not have the foundation upon which he could stand proud before the thousands of people. God raised Jesus, intending to boast about him before all created things in heaven and earth, as well as before Satan. Nonetheless, no one ever took pride in him, not his family, not his sect, not his people, nor the world.

We who are the descendants of the traitors to Heaven should feel utterly ashamed in the presence of Heaven. We human beings, who have committed the historic sin, are not in a position to boast about ourselves. You have to understand that it has been the source of God’s deepest sorrow that He could not find one person, one sect or one people of which to be proud.

When God chose Jesus as the representative of the 4,000-year history, Jesus shed tears and said, “It is my greatest honor.” Jesus became extremely grievous because he could not fulfill this will. Rather than finding an excuse for himself, he lamented and bowed his head before Heaven with the attitude, “I never thought that the wishes of my Father, who has toiled so hard for my sake, would meet such a tragic end.” You must understand that the time has come when we must show our pride in Jesus, who had this kind of heart.

Christians today must understand that it is their task to usher in the one proud day Jesus wanted to fulfill for the individuals, families, people and the world. They must attend Jesus. This is what Heaven desires. Now you must be awakened to the original heart of God, who wanted to boast about humanity after creating the Garden of Eden.

Jesus, who should have been glorified and felt proud that he was the son of God, had to shoulder the cross in misery. You must be full of the desire to liberate the bitter heart Jesus had toward the people, heaven and earth, and Satan as he walked toward Golgotha with the cross on his shoulders. You have to feel this in your heart. You have to have a desperate heart toward the will of Heaven.

We Must Take Pride in Jesus

It was our ancestors who caused bitter grief to the True Father. He came as the culmination of shimjung and the hope of humanity to build a parent-child bond with us. Our ancestors’ betrayal was the work of Satan. Hence, we must have a burning desire to cleanse the sin of our ancestors and judge Satan. Evil blood is flowing within us. Therefore, we must at least have the desire to cry out, “Heaven, please give us strength. Heaven, please forgive us.”

How could the garden of pride have turned into Golgotha? Today, people of faith brag about the cross. They do not shoulder the cross for the sake of Heaven. Even as followers, they do not take pride in Jesus, who struggled desperately to find a living altar for the sake of Heaven. They do not take pride in this earnest heart of Jesus. They do not understand his deep desire to realize the will of Heaven through the individual, the family, and the people sought by Heaven.

Even if we were to abandon all else, we must ultimately eradicate all our historical sins and concretely experience the shimjung of God. We then will appear as the people for which God has been looking so ardently.

Such a family, tribe and chosen people must emerge. A heavenly people must then emerge. No matter how bitter and complicated a person’s situation, this should not pose any problem. You must feel a swelling of intense desire to realize that will. Paul had this kind of heart.

Paul, who had a vision of Jesus on the way to Damascus, realized that he was not even worthy to raise his head in the presence of Jesus. After that, he tried to live for the sake of Jesus. He was overwhelmed with the desire to offer his life to Jesus, and he prayed, “Please guide me to glorify you, whether I am dead or alive.” Because he had this unchanging heart toward Jesus, he laid a new foundation for Christianity.

Now we must take pride in Jesus. We must be proud of his heart. We must boast about his situation and desire. Furthermore, we must take pride in the bride for which Jesus was looking. At the same time, we must also be proud of the family, the people, the nation, and the world for which Jesus was searching. We must understand that only then can God display us and show that He is proud of us.

What blocks our path as we try to be proud of Jesus? The cross lies before us. It tears us apart and persecutes us; yet Christians walk a proud path. This is a very sad thing. We must display our pride in Jesus. Because the condition to be proud of the crucified Jesus remains ahead of us, you must take pride in the cross. Without setting this condition of having suffered infinite tribulation for the sake of Heaven, there is no way you can become sons and daughters who possess the heart of God or the heart of Jesus, or who have set the conditions for pride in the presence of all things.

Even if you understand this reality in your heart and feel this emotionally, you must still set the condition of pride in the sphere of your activities. Only after you have set the condition equivalent to the proclamation of Jesus on the cross, “All is finished,” (John 19:30) can God and Jesus trust us and raise us to show their pride in us.

Let Us Become Those of Whom God and Jesus Can Be Proud

Although 2,000 years have passed since the coming of Jesus, have you ever met a person who is still burning with the desire to boast about Jesus? If you are not this kind of religious leader, you are a corrupted minister working for mere wages. You must be proud of Jesus. To set the condition of pride before Heaven, he gratefully overcame the path of the cross despite all the pain that he suffered: his torn body, the spear that pierced his side, the crown of thorns on his head, and the nails in his hands and feet.

Although Jesus had the qualifications to boast about his glory, he did not. On the contrary, he lived with the humility of a sinner. Jesus had the mind-set that even in the path of death, he would be proud in the presence of God. As we look at this life of Jesus, we must have the same kind of mentality and cross the pass.

When Mary Magdalene tried to hold the resurrected Jesus, he rejected her. The resurrected Jesus was not to be welcomed. Before the resurrection, while he was alive, his disciples should have comforted him and help him set the condition of pride to say “All is finished,” boasting to Heaven, earth and Satan. Because such tragic, historic Golgothas lie ahead, Christians have repeated the process of going up and down that hill until now. They have been repeating the process of climbing up and down the course.

No one has cried out to Heaven and earth that the Lord of Golgotha was his or her spouse. There were many people of faith who prayed, “Oh, Lord, please guide me to the bosom of the Father.” Until now, all have been ignorant of the internal situation of being proud of Jesus. They blindly follow Jesus, not understanding Jesus’ world of heart, his internal situation.

Jesus should have fulfilled God’s desire to be proud. Yet because that fruit has not been borne, Jesus has waited 2,000 years to raise a bridegroom and bear the fruit. You have to understand this and earn the qualifications to become the brides of Jesus. By doing so, you must become those about whom God, Jesus and yourselves want to boast. Only then can you attend the marriage of the lamb. You have to understand this clearly.

Parents naturally want to be proud of their children and of everything about them. Therefore, when you learn to be proud of everything around you, you can be elevated as the condition of pride before God and Jesus, who are the owners of everything.

Those of us who live in the last days must objectively criticize ourselves. Through whom do we show our pride? Through whom do God and Jesus want to show their pride? We want to be proud of ourselves based on Heaven, Jesus and all things. Accordingly, we should pray, “Father, the original person of which You wanted to be proud is here before You. I have become the representative of the Father’s heart. Please boast about me before Satan.”

If you acquire that proud heart, the authority of life, and the original nature to become someone trustworthy to God, you can boast about your relationship with God before all creation, all people, and even before the Holy Trinity. You must further become someone about whom even Satan can say, “That is right. They are the children of Heaven and earth of whom Heaven, earth, humanity and even we can be proud. Please raise them and be glorified for eternity.” God has longed for the appearance of these people for the long period of 6,000 years. He has persevered through the pass of death, the pass of grief, the pass of bitterness, and the pass of blood to usher in that one, proud day of hope.

You must connect with the original heart of which God wanted to be proud. You must reach the level where God can say about you, “Even if I were to lose this entire world, I would be satisfied as long as I could claim you.”

At the same time God’s deep-set grief is liquidated, His desire and ideal must also be fulfilled. Only then can we unite with the center of true love and build the eternal and inseparable parent child relationship with Him. Heaven can be eternally proud of us and we can be eternally proud of God. All existing things in heaven and earth can then use us as the condition of pride. We have to stand in that position.

Prayer

Father, the steps we have taken to go before You have been steps of ordeals through the history of contradiction. The saints and sages of the past were not considered normal people in the eyes of the people of their times. We know all too well, through our study of the Bible, that from the standpoints of their times, the saints and sages were stragglers, abnormal people who were ridiculed. This was the case with Noah and Abraham.

Who would have ever praised Abraham, who obeyed God’s command to offer his only son as a sacrifice and tried to strike him with a knife? He was the craziest and most strange person. Although he appeared to be insane, You related with him. The saints and sages were persecuted and ridiculed by the ignorant as they tried to bring pitiful people to the Father. Father, You have called upon us to build an inseparable bond of heart with us. We are truly awe-stricken before this infinite grace.

If we are to become the historic living sacrifices who can recompense Your grace by offering our minds and bodies, please allow us to forget our situations and dignity and shed tears of gratitude. Please allow our hearts to turn to Heaven and swell up with infinite longing. Please allow us to become crazy about the Father’s will to the extent that we cannot even feel our bodies being torn. We have now come to understand the fervent desire of the Father for such a people and such a nation to appear on this earth.

We have learned that You do not want to boast about us before the people of the earth. Rather, you have driven us into our current situation because You want to boast about us in the spirit world. We know very well that it is Your will to boast about us when we are undefeated, even after being torn and stepped on. We know that You have been working Your providence for the day of restoration.

Those of us who are witnessing the conclusion of the providence today must prevail with our lives and feel the fervent heart of the Father and Jesus. Please guide us to become Your sons and daughters who can step over Golgotha as the condition of pride and be living sacrifices in sight of Satan.

We have learned that only by achieving this are we worthy of the Father’s and Jesus’ praise. Yet we do not have anything worthy about which to boast. If we do have anything to brag about, it must be uprooted. We have understood that the character we have nurtured, the knowledge we have attained, and all such things are very distant from the Father. We realize that there is nothing on this earth that we really need.

God, our Father, our Lord and our Creator, wants to brag about the people of the earth. How can we forget You and brag about ourselves? We desire from the depth of our hearts that You allow us not to betray the heavenly laws or disrupt the Principle and order.

If there is some basis for pride, please guide us to offer it to the Father. If there is some condition for sorrow, please allow us to inherit it. Please do not let Satan follow us based on that condition of sorrow. Please allow us to boast to Satan that we are Your true sons and daughters. We earnestly pray that You guide us to become sons and daughters who can bow before the Father by establishing such a standard.

We know that although the Father wants to brag about these people, we have not become a praiseworthy nation nor a worthy bride of Jesus. Therefore, Father, we earnestly wish that You allow us to become Jesus’ bride after overcoming all conditions of bitterness. Allow us to become sons and daughters about whom You can brag before all things of creation and Satan. We offer all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.

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Chapter 11: Let Us Open Our Eyes Once More and Behold the Sky

Matthew 26:36-46
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea
February 15, 1959

Prayer

Father, humanity must awaken from its deep sleep and free themselves from the powers of darkness; yet, they do not. No matter what kind of obstacles block our path, please reveal Your compassionate hand to us so that we may dash toward the beacon of new light.

Father, we know the historical hardships You have suffered for our sake. We also know that You mourn that dark natures lie deep within us. We must look at ourselves and grieve, as the Father has grieved over the earth.

We must go beyond ourselves to pay back the debt we owe to all things, which are deep in sorrow, and comfort the Father’s grieving heart. Though we know in our hearts we must fulfill this responsibility, we have not been able to cope with it. Please forgive us.

We have inherited the history of sorrow and borne the fruits of sorrow. Although the Father has tried to nurture a history of joy and the fruits of joy, we have become fruits of bitterness and lament. Of course, this has caused deep sorrow and anguish in the Father’s heart. How could it not?

We are pitiful ones who need to be scrutinized and molded again by the work of re-creation. Father, please have pity on us and take us in as Your own. Remold us with Your ideology. Please re-make our minds and bodies according to the original laws of creation, so that we may possess the original beauty of Heaven. This is Heaven’s desire, too.

Please allow us to penetrate the walls of sorrow to see the bright morning light, to sing the victory song of hallelujah, to sing of the joy of having found the Lord and Creator of the entire universe, and to rejoice in attending the Father. Please allow us to feel true longing and true pride toward all created things.

We know that since the human fall, all things have mourned, lamented and hoped to be restored to their original position by the true sons and daughters of God. When we think about our mission to comfort the Father and restore all things to their original position, we must honestly report our inadequacies to the Father. Please forgive us for having to await, longingly, the arduous work of the Father.

We know that, even in this manner, we must help fulfill the wishes of the Father and all of Your creation to end the 6,000 years of lamentation and grief. Father of compassion and love, please do not let our hearts deviate far from You. Please lead us not to live far from Your sung sang and hyung sang.

We know that there is a bond within us which can connect us with the Father’s mind and body because You created us. We are not worth even a small speck of dust. Please guide us into the domain of Your original power and raise us again in the ideal way.

Please allow us to become sons and daughters who can be proud and dignified in the presence of the Father. Please allow us to become bright lights for the dark world and little lambs who can convey the news of joy to this dark world, representing the light from the East.

We know that the Father can raise insignificant people and overpower the great. We know that You can strengthen a small group and build a great nation from them. We know that You can raise pitiful people to the point where You can boast of them before the previously chosen ones. Please raise us as Your proud embodiments. We are extremely pitiful and have no place to call our own.

We know that You will raise us as You will. Father, we earnestly wish that You allow us to become the little lambs who can obey the Father’s commands and follow You with faithful and obedient hearts.

In this way, please eliminate the remaining sorrow and probe into the fundamental nature of the sins which have penetrated deep inside the hearts of all people. Please uproot the sorrow, and then raise us as the glorious foundation of Heaven. Please train us as the workers who can fully cope with this mission.

Please govern the minds and bodies of the children who have gathered here. Is there some private opinion in the hearts of these people? Do they have a desire to live according to their own concepts? Please remove all concepts, and allow them to have thoughts that can connect with Heaven. Please allow this hour to be a time when we can harmonize in the Father’s love, experience deep feelings, and become united and connected with our original selves.

Many millions of satans, wielding the dark forces, are watching us. Father, we entreat from the depth of our hearts that You not let anyone be captured inside the realm of darkness.

Please govern this hour. We earnestly wish that You quickly usher in the day of liberation to these members, these people, and humanity. Please give us the strength to accomplish all our missions and responsibilities. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Prayer

Father, every time a sad event takes place on the earth, Heaven mourns, our ancestors mourn, all things mourn, and we feel the same sorrow. Father, you have spent 6,000 years in fruitless wandering and struggling, unable to find that for which You were looking or a place to go, wishing all the while for the day of liberation from this sorrow. If You were to appear before us now, we would feel like crying endlessly.

Now we understand everything and have come seeking the original Parents. We wish, from the depth of our beings, for the day to come when we can shed tears of joy, rather than tears of sorrow when we can cry for heaven and earth with such intensity as to even forget our existence. We wait for the day when we can remove all sorrows and leave only joy behind.

We have realized where we must go, where we belong, and how we originally were to be. We have come to understand the value of the lost children; yet, the cries of sorrow and sinfulness that come from our mistakes are so loud, we cannot even hear the words of the Father, which we want to hear. We are sad because we realize we are powerless to vanquish all these evil forces.

Father, we are dashing toward restoration. We are dragging our wounded legs and climbing the pinnacle for which Adam and Eve hoped. Please spur us on so that we may apply our last ounce of energy and cross over the barrier. Please let us feel this through our minds and bodies.

Father, please be with us today. We know that if there is something about which You want to talk to us, it is not about Your happiness, but rather about Your miserable sorrow and how enormously difficult and painful it has been for You. Please let us fathom and feel this gripping in our hearts, and allow us to represent the original heart of the Father.

How must Heaven have felt after losing human beings? Please allow us to understand this heart and situation, during this hour. Please guide us to become one with the words that are coming from the depth of one who understands the situation of Heaven. Father, this is our earnest wish.

Please let the hearts of the speaker and the hearts of the listeners be one, so that only the Father’s will may be manifested in us all. Please do not let Satan invade this hour. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.

The title of the sermon I would like to share with you is “Let Us Open Our Eyes Once More and Behold the Sky.” I will speak briefly upon this topic.

The Results of the Fall, the Ignorance of Adam and Eve, and the Wishes of God

This land in which we live has not seen the new morning of the realization of God’s ideal of creation. It has slept under the power of Satan for a long time. This is how our history has been. This is how our minds have been, how all that we pursue and the hearts we seek have been. In other words, none can wake from the deep sleep in which they exist, within the realm of Satan. We understand this fact very well.

When God created Adam and Eve and blessed them, they were wide awake, and they were able to rejoice with God in the world of eternal ideology. God created Adam and Eve for this purpose. However, Adam and Eve could not grasp what kind of relationship they had with God and the ideology with which they should relate with all things. In this state of immaturity, when they were progressing toward perfection, they made the grave and sorrowful mistake of the fall. We all understand this.

God said to Adam and Eve, “When you eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will surely die.” (Genesis 2:17) He also said, “Become the master of creation and the ruler of the universe.” If their hearts had become one with the heart of God as they listened to His words, the fall would never have taken place.

There was considerable distance between the hearts of Adam and Eve and the heart of God. Adam and Eve could only connect with the heart of God by going through the period of growth and accomplishing the purpose of the word. If Adam and Eve had thought about and reflected upon the words of God every time they saw all things and the angels, then they would not have fallen. Had they thought about God and His heart with an awareness of their position and with enlightened hearts, they would have been able to discern the nature of the archangel’s words.

Adam and Eve should have always lived in the word and heart of God. When they did not live like that, the archangel tempted them.

Heaven always watches over us, whether we are asleep or awake. Even when we do not understand our value, Heaven understands and looks over us. When we do not understand our mission and responsibility, Heaven understands them.

Furthermore, God understood the value of living eternally centered on the deeply penetrating love in the realm of the eternally inseparable parent-child relationship. With this mind-set, God looked upon Adam and Eve. Yet Adam and Eve did not fathom the heart of God, and they fell. They fell not understanding their identity, not understanding what they should do and uphold, and not understanding what they should love.

If God has grief inside, it is that Adam and Eve did not recognize Him, their Creator and Protector. He was with them every second. They did not understand the heart of God, who was waiting for them to grow to a certain purpose. Because the human ancestors could not forge the vertical bond with Heaven, their descendants were ignorant of God and ignorant of their position. They did not understand to whom they belonged and what their identity was.

Because they did not understand God who protected them, who took responsibility for them and watched over them, they did not know what they should do, what they should pursue and what they should protect. Furthermore, although God was hoping to join in oneness with human beings, because they did not understand, we still do not know our purpose. We have searched for the path to love for 6,000 years.

What Human Beings Must Know, Realize and Experience

The fall took place because God’s thinking and human beings’ thinking were diametrically opposed. Thus, we must cultivate ourselves and reflect upon ourselves. We must reflect upon and recover ourselves. Because human beings have this obligation, countless philosophers and religious people have sought to resolve this issue, without much success. We understand this very well. In other words, who am “I”?

If human beings necessarily live in relationships, then who is the subject of these relationships? If there is a master of our lives, who is it? It is someone about whom we would say, “Only that person can represent my entire being, my thoughts and my life. I cannot live without him.” The day we recognize that person, we will understand God, the unchanging Master, who has been fighting to hold on to us through the long course of history. From that moment, everything will go smoothly. We came from the one Master, so we will understand what the Creator God has entrusted in us and what He has been struggling to govern.

God blessed human beings to have dominion over all things. Why did He give this blessing? Why did God not rule creation directly, rather than intending to rule it through human beings? This is to allow human beings to understand the heart with which God created all things in the universe.

Adam and Eve would have experienced the joyful feelings of love and beauty which God felt when He created all things. They would have experienced this in relation to how much they understood the ownership of God, kept the word of God, and recognized all things. They should have then loved all things and rejoiced before them as the representatives of God. However, they turned away from this responsibility of experiencing God’s heart of creation. Instead, due to Satan’s temptation, they felt feelings they were not supposed to feel. We should know that when they made this wrong turn into an impermissible place, they fell.

Since we are the descendants of fallen Adam and Eve, we have become people who cannot feel the joyful, creative heart of God as we look at the universe. Therefore, we must rehabilitate ourselves and serve only one master. We must then deeply experience the heart of God, who blessed us to have dominion over all things in the Garden of Eden. We must learn to step forward with this kind of heart. Unless we become this kind of person, there is no way we can alleviate the grief that Adam and Eve caused when they fell.

Have you ever felt and experienced in your heart and in your daily life the kind of heart with which God created all things? If you have, then you will be overwhelmed with emotions of love toward all things. You will hear the words God has spoken loud and clear.

Adam and Eve should have related to all things with the same joyful heart of God at the time of His creation. Adam and Eve, who should have opened their eyes once again and looked toward the sky, did not experience the heart of God.

What We Must Safeguard and Possess

Adam and Eve’s intellect and wisdom were not developed. This is why they made the mistake they did and could not feel the heart of God deeply. Even so, had they lived by the word of God in everything they did and felt in their lives, they would have overcome all temptations that came their way.

Adam and Eve did not know the purpose of God, who granted them the authority to govern all things. They did not long for what would come as the result of their successful obedience of the word. If their longing expectation of what would happen after they kept the word of God had dominated and guided their lives, if they had not forgotten their knowledge of life and their feelings in daily life, then Adam and Eve would not have eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Adam and Eve did not have any such yearning, so the words of the archangel seemed more important than the word of God. This is where the sorrow of humanity began. This is the beginning point of the long sleep in the darkness.

If at some point Adam and Eve had opened their eyes again and remembered the commandment of God, if they had sensed the greatness of the blessing God gave them to dominate all things in relation to the temptation of the archangel, they would not have fallen. This became the origin of all the vicissitudes which humanity has undergone. Hence, we must work to find ourselves, make an effort to find our responsibility and think about what we will become.

Had Adam grown up and cultivated the heart to govern all things, what would have been achieved? There would have been a complete bonding of the inseparable relationships of the whole through the unity between the love of Adam and Eve, the love of all things, and the love of God.

However, because we lost all these, we lament today. We are living in this sinful world with deep grudges against it. We have been ignorant of the true value and purpose of life and have been enslaved by Satan. We have been struggling painfully in the realm of the dark forces, where we cannot even fathom the value of death.

You must overcome this environment, open your eyes, and experience a fundamental change in your heart in order to recognize God once more. There must spring from within you a desperate and sincere heart. There must arise from within your heart a new realization about your life. Unless these things take place, you will not be able to take pride in your value. This is because no other value has to do with Heaven. No matter how proud you are of your authority or life, it cannot forge any relationship with Heaven. Everything will be in vain.

Therefore, we must re-analyze the words of the archangel and not repeat the mistakes of Adam and Eve, who did not behold God. We must correct ourselves through self-examination and open our eyes again. From that moment on, our true self can blossom.

Because we have not opened our new eyes, the universe has fallen into the abyss of sorrow, misfortune and despair inherited from the fall. There is nothing more sad or infuriating than this fact. Although we should be working toward alleviating this sorrow and indignation, people do not even know how this sorrow and indignation came about. They are completely at a loss. Though people are pitiful, how much more miserable is God as He watches over this situation?

In the last days, it is the fate of fallen people to examine and recognize everything in a new light. The purpose of history and human life is to attain the day when we recognize everything and open our eyes, the joyful day when we discover our new selves, the moment we can connect with the entire universe as a new self and forge an inseparable bond of love with God. People have been struggling to attain this, even though they were not aware of it.

The Reason We Must Open Our Eyes Again and Look to Heaven

We must open our eyes again. We must open our eyes again and look to Heaven. When we lift our gaze and look toward Heaven, we will feel awe-stricken. Heaven never forgot human beings, who are deep in sleep and lamenting before the death they face, all the while struggling to find the path in the world of death. Heaven has thought about humanity, which has betrayed Him, many thousands of times. You will fathom this and feel the heart of God, who loves human beings. The moment you realize that Heaven really exists, you will cry out of mixed emotions of sorrow and gratitude.

How many times has Heaven looked at us while protecting our lives! Heaven has been watching over us through our life course, our ideological conditions, and our desires, even while we were not aware of it. Do you understand the sorrow of God? Have you ever felt the misery that by far surpasses our misery and sadness? If you have not, you will not be able to bring resolution to all this in these last days of the 6,000-year history. It is not possible. The fundamental problems of humanity cannot be solved before humanity shatters all these walls and experiences the heart of God after returning to the original position of Adam. This is how it is.

We must open our eyes again and look at God, in whom we believe. We must look at Jesus again. We must look again at the countless good ancestors who came with the mission of God’s providence of restoration. While reviewing history, we must reflect on this again and think about what will happen as we look at the future with deep concern. If you do not feel like crying out bitterly, “Heaven!” as you open up your eyes and look, your hopes will be dashed.

Why are the paths of modern people blocked? Even the religious leaders who founded religions and guided people’s lives could not solve these fundamental problems and came to a dead end. Both philosophy and science have come to dead ends. What is the reason for this? It is because they did not open their eyes.

Since we cannot bring resolution with anything we currently have, we must forsake them all and look to Heaven once more. Those who have an earnest desire to look to Heaven and seek it, those who mourn with this desire to look up, and those who die cherishing this desire are the ones who can lay the cornerstone for the conclusion of human history.

A person concerned about the fate of his declining nation must not shout out for the sake of the people. First, he must cry out for the sake of Heaven, then he should shout out for the sake of the people. This is when the people will revive. History bears witness to this fact.

The moment we chase away the world, where we cannot find a solution even after ardent struggle, the moment when we return to the state of the original mind and open our eyes in the state of complete void is the moment when a new history is created and new life begins. It is the moment of re-creation when we can find our true selves.

We must understand that Jesus struggled to find Heaven as he prayed. Therefore, during the thirty year preparation period, he could never express joy, even when his brothers and sisters or neighbors and relatives were happy. He saw that there was a huge gap between what Heaven wanted and where humanity was heading. The greater the gap he saw, the more firm his determination became.

Though he had many things to say, Jesus lived in silence. This was the grief of the thirty-year preparation period. After this thirty-year preparation period was over, he left his family and went forth as a pioneer. He went forward with the mind-set, “I will go even in the face of death, even if the path is fatiguing, even if I am to meet my downfall.” With this determination, he was able to overcome his environment.

Jesus’ Attitude toward His Life

Adam fell because he believed everything that someone told him from the side. If we accept conventional trends of thought, then we may also perish. Therefore, we must re-examine them before we receive them. If you stand in the position of a master who can analyze trends through the philosophy connected to your mind, life and emotions, which philosophy can rescue you? No school of thought can rescue you. Had such fundamental problems been solved, peace would have settled in the realm of heart within you, and there would have been joy in your living environment. You would have enjoyed freedom and equality. No matter how many doctrines are promoting their ideals, we know that there has been no doctrine which has liberated our hearts, emotions and ideologies.

When we hope for the one day when we look up and wake from sleep, when we do away with our present environment and look to Heaven, we will find our Lord there. Human beings have not understood this until now.

What kind of people pursued the will of God during the course of history? They are those who transcended their era and clung to Heaven, those who abandoned earth and yearned for Heaven. They were not tolerated by their era. Rejected by their era, they led a pitiful life. They were extremely miserable people. In this world, where other people have places to rely on and live comfortably, they had nowhere they could depend on, no friend with which to share their heart, no people of similar mind who could give their lives and fight for them. In this sad state, they all faded away.

The young man who came 4,000 years after the fall, the young Jesus, discredited his era, his environment, and the religions up to his time to save all people. What did this young man promote? He promoted the will of God, about which humankind was ignorant.

Jesus cherished the will of God, and knew that what he experienced in reality could be the reference for the comprehensive ideology. Hence, even when the world betrayed him, Jesus overcame it and looked at his new self, his new family, society, nation and world with a new attitude. He was able to look confidently at the new ideology. Moreover, because he understood that its value was higher and more precious than anything else in his world, he was not affected at all by the betrayal of Israel and Judaism. Even when society, his family, a famous scholar, a chief priest or scribe opposed him, no matter what kinds of difficulties and tribulations confronted him from all sides, Jesus remained immutable. He only lifted his gaze again and said, “God!” This was the principle by which he led his life.

Jesus felt infinite sorrow over the environment around him, which denied him. Realizing that God was also grieving over his situation, he felt deeply sorry. Jesus felt blocked by a wall of sorrow toward the people who had repeatedly betrayed God and who had ostracized the many prophets and sages God had sent to establish him.

Therefore, Jesus felt that his death was nothing compared to the grief of God, who had lamented and fought for the sake of humanity. This is why Jesus was able to deny himself and bow down before the heart of God.

This is where a new awakening of humanity and a new beginning of the second selves came about. Humanity was able to meet the spring of life through Jesus. Humanity had been sleeping in sorrow and darkness for 4,000 years. Had they believed in Jesus, they would have been able to greet the new spring and revive their lives.

We Should Possess the Insight and Level of Heart with which to Recognize the Messiah

Today, 2,000 years after the coming of Jesus, everyone who lived for Heaven was attached to his life. There was no one who did not feel sorrow springing from within. Yet, they sensed the sorrow and the torn life of their Lord more than their attachment to their life and sorrow. Our ancestors denied all they had and followed the heart which guided them toward Heaven.

Where has the providential course of Heaven, stained with the ancestors’ blood, sweat and tears, gone? It has progressed alongside the course of human history. Where will the last days of history lead us? If at the close of the providence a person appears who can become the sacrifice of blood, tears and sweat for the sake of the whole, who proclaims, “Heaven, please receive me,” then that person is the Savior of the last days. He is the Savior of life.

If such a person takes charge of the providence, he will appear on the earth with heavenly conditions and represent Heaven’s heart. When you face that prophet, even if you do not understand his heavenly heart and character, you must deny the practical reality and behold him with a fresh perspective. You must open your eyes and be able to see and distinguish the value and character of that person. If you cannot do this, then even if Jesus were to come to the earth, you would not recognize him.

Moses, who stood before the 600,000 Israelites, had grown up in the palace of Pharaoh and had been a shepherd raising a flock of sheep in the Midian wilderness. If you look at that background alone, Moses had no special value which distinguished him from others in the world. However, when Moses appeared after having cultivated a heavenly heart and character, the Israelite people should have opened their eyes and beheld him. Because they did not do so, even though they followed Moses, they still fell down in the wilderness. The same was true during Jesus’ day. It also true, today, in the last days of history.

You must liquidate the sinful history starting from within yourselves. If you make a negative contribution to history, you will go to hell. If you make a positive contribution, you will go to Heaven. Moreover, when we compare the era to you, if the era is greater than you, you will go to hell. If you are greater than the era, then you will go to Heaven. This is how it works.

Human beings, who have been guided by the fortunes of the universe, must restore the day when they can control these fortunes. God has been working through the long 6,000-year history with His gaze firmly fixed on such a day. The 6,000-year course of God’s providence of restoration has been an attempt to find one brave person who can remove the sorrow of being dragged about by the fortunes of Heaven and can control them.

We who have the mission to renew this must acquire a second eye. We must sense our second life, find our second ideology, cultivate our second character, and take pride in them. Only when a person appears who can raise you and wish blessings for you on behalf of the fortunes of the universe, can the 6,000-year providence come to a close. Moreover, this will set the condition for God to receive glory.

When we reflect on Jesus, who prayed in the garden of Gethsemane with his three disciples, we find that he was brave amid miserable circumstances. He wanted to move the heart of God through the heart of heaven and earth and through his own heart. The garden of Gethsemane was the place where he offered such prayers. Jesus should have moved the heart of humanity to unify heaven and earth, heavenly love, and earthly love. He had to make a connection only with heavenly love, because he was ostracized in respect to the love of human beings and was driven out of the earth. The garden of Gethsemane was where that connection was made. Although the three disciples, representing humankind, were with him, the heart of Jesus and the hearts of Peter and the other two disciples were different.

Jesus, who yearned for heavenly love and beheld Heaven before his imminent death, fixed his gaze on the glory of resurrection beyond the valley of death. The disciples, who had selfish mentalities, could not understand the heart of Jesus. These kinds of incidents took place many times. They were indeed shameful people. These are the deeds of our ancestors, who betrayed Heaven.

What Will Remain in the End

Our ancestors betrayed Jesus. He was our True Parent, our Lord, our bridegroom, the master of our ideology, the subject of our lives, and the incarnation of Heaven who represented the entire universe. Have you ever felt deep inside that you are the descendants of these ancestors and felt bitter about these historical personalities?

When the disciples could not raise their eyes and look at Heaven, Jesus turned his attention toward them many times during his prayer. Jesus felt so incredibly urgent and anxious as he warned them about trials. With this mind-set, Jesus called upon God. Feeling the heart of God and forgetting himself, he thought about his beloved disciples and looked at them many times. However, the three disciples were dozing off, totally unaware of Jesus’ heart. You have to understand that this situation not only indicated the state of the three disciples, it also exposed the internal situation of all humanity.

You are not aware of the brave, weeping voice crying out loud and clear from the garden of Gethsemane. This voice is telling you to lift your gaze and look again, yet you do not hear. It is shaking the body and striking the head to awaken sleeping humanity; yet, they do not know. There is no one on earth who understands the grievous heart of God as He works hard for the one blessed day when He can raise humanity as His sons and daughters.

As the original sons and daughters who can uphold the good philosophy of life, you must repair the nail wounds in the heart of Heaven, uproot the historical sorrows, and become the harbringers of love and the media of harmony on behalf of all things and the universe. You must become people about whom God can say, “You are my pride, my beloved, and the highest source and standard of happiness.”

God is looking at you with this kind of expectation. When you lift your eyes and look to God, do you find that you have set the foundation for resurrection? God created all things and commanded Adam and Eve to rule them because He wanted them to experience being second creators. You must experience such feelings. Whenever you look at all things, you must sense the skill with which God created the universe and the effort He made in doing so. You must experience the heart He felt as He rejoiced over the created things.

You must find the unifying point with the heart of Heaven and the universe and become their embodiment, in order to offer everything to Heaven. The moment you do, that is the final destination that Heaven and we desire. It is the culminating point for which both Heaven and we human beings have yearned. It is you, not God, who must bring this to pass.

What will remain in the end? Qualified people who have connected with the love of heaven and earth and who have cultivated a new original heart inside the realm of God’s love will remain. Here we can witness the new people God has permitted. Having reached the state of original perfected Adam and Eve, we can become new people whom God can bless with both hands. Hence, you must become the heads of new families built in the new heaven and new earth. You must become new parents of a new universe and new children. Such a family must be formed around you.

God has passed through the course of history during which He watched over human beings countless times. Where will be the final destination of history? It is in the one family where God and human beings can live eternally, where human beings are made into the true children of God. In that family, based on God’s love, every member and every created being is indispensable. You have to understand that God has longed for such a family.

We do not own ourselves. Our lives do not belong to us. The society in which we live does not belong to us. The nation in which we live does not belong to us, and the world in which we live does not belong to us. The God in whom we believe also does not belong to us alone. Now you must lift your eyes and set out toward Heaven in search of your second selves. This is what the faithful people of the last days must do.

What Heaven Wants of the Faithful People in the Last Days

Attending the True Parents of humanity, you must alleviate all grievous situations, sorrows and grudges. Your heart must completely become one with the heart of the True Parents. You must thus become the incarnation of joy, every part of which is overflowing. In this way, the True Parents must be able to say to you, “You are my beloved. You are my joy. You are my goodness and happiness.”

When we reflect upon ourselves and our many sorrows, we have been so miserable that we can hardly say we have been living like people. Now we should no longer be lost in agonizing thoughts. We should become new, second selves who can dance in joy, bliss and glory. If such an event does not take place on the earth, God will truly be a miserable God.

Our fate compels us to deny ourselves and be recognized anew. However, the earth on which we live and our earthly lives have not borne heavenly fruits. Hence, even if the world, your friends, your parents, your spouses, your children and everything on the earth were to leave, your earnest heart which looks to Heaven must tell you not to leave.

Are you going to remain unchanged as God is unchanging? Are you going to cling tenaciously to the heavenly bond and bonds of blessing with the determination that you will bear the fruits on the earth, even at the cost of your lives? Do you have the desire to attain the love of God, even if your hearts are torn apart and you are made sacrifices of Satan in the process? Have you struggled vehemently with the hope and desire that the heart to drive away fallen conditions will remain within you? Have you become someone whom God has sought? Have you become someone who can be presented before Heaven? Have you become someone who can be proud before heaven and earth? You must be able to say, “Heaven, please come down. Humanity, please look at me. All things, please dance in rejoicing.”

Using yourselves as the condition, you must alleviate the bitterness of heaven, earth and all things, and remove all sorrow rooted deep in the cosmos. You should then sing on behalf of Heaven, earth and the universe. Moreover, you must be able to ask God, “Please allow only a sincere and loyal heart to remain within us,” so that you may command Satan. You must be able to say, “Only someone who possesses such a heart should be allowed to be the Lord of history. Only that person should influence the history of humanity. Only that heart should be the signpost of hope for our descendants.” You have to understand that you have the mission to pass down such a heart.

Jesus has fought for the sake of this ideal, and our ancestors also fought for it. God has been awakening the people who live inside the realm of darkness for the sake of this ideal.

Who will penetrate the walls of historical misfortunes and, with the heart of Heaven, awaken the hearts of the people who are fast asleep? Who will awaken their own sleeping self and introduce the exploding heart of God’s love? It is none other than you, who appear so unworthy. Therefore, even if you are chased out, driven away and cruelly persecuted, you must always remember that you are the spearhead who must make the connection with this mission.

We have been called before heaven, earth and all things with this responsibility. Hence, we must accomplish our mission and responsibility to alleviate the bitter sorrow of heaven and earth. As the new hope of heaven and earth, you must make it possible for God to forget all grief and look at you with a joyful heart. You must become someone whom humanity can behold with delight; someone whom all things can behold with joy. You must achieve harmony.

This is the garden of the ideal, the original Kingdom of Heaven. The place where people join in harmony and unite around the one ideal is the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. God has been seeking us and awakening us countless times to introduce this. However, we have forgotten it, so we must remember this sorrow and ardently strive to find our new second selves in order to take responsibility for this.

Prayer

We must lift our gaze and look to Heaven. Although our eyes have become extremely dim, we must constantly look for something to appear. We must look at everything in history since the time of Adam.

These things have made it impossible for us to find the center of life and the standard of our thoughts. Please allow us to have the heart with which to overcome them and look to Heaven, the heart which can transcend human love and be embraced by Heaven’s love. Please let us recognize that we are struggling in bitter grudges held against the earth, Heaven and all things, and let us set out in search of our second selves, craving our second selves. Please allow us to have an anxious heart, which makes it unbearable for us to leave the matter unresolved.

We are the ones who must govern and protect the original garden which we lost. We are the ones who must make bonds of love with all things and offer them together to the Father. We are the ones who bear the responsibility to make the Father’s flowers of love blossom through the heart with which the Father created the universe.

Father of love, we earnestly ask that You awaken humanity, who are fast asleep without having taken even one step forward, and that You raise them to become people who can greet the glorious new morning and open their eyes toward the sky.

Please allow us to become people who can open our eyes again to look to Heaven and feel new willpower springing up before world history. Please allow us to tie the new ideology and the new heart together and to move the new tribe. Father, this is our sincere prayer.

If there are such people and such a nation, then let the world become connected to Heaven through them. Please protect the Korean people, so that they will not despair in their present miserable situation.

We understand that what lies ahead of us is the historical valley of misfortune, which will require us to reject everything and lift our eyes again. We Koreans have the greatest amount of undesirable things to be discarded. We cannot boast about our politics or religion, and there is nothing in our possession with which we can go forward. We live in an environment which we must abandon. Please guide us not to cling to them, but let us open our eyes toward Heaven. We know that You have blocked our path so that we may set out toward the new destination which humanity cannot behold. Please guide us not to despair, to forget all our fatigue, and to persistently move forward each day.

We know that only when such people appear, who can open their eyes and look to Heaven, can this earth regain its life and this world live. Please permit us to become those people.

Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane with the heart of someone who was destitute. He felt as if he had lost his parents, his brothers and sisters, his nation and the world. Please allow us to feel the same heart and possess Heaven only after experiencing the feelings of having lost everything. Because the bonds must be made on the earth, Jesus resurrected after he died. We know that Jesus had the responsibility to set the condition of bonds on the earth.

Even if we are to lose everything of the earth and to fall down with the heavenly standard and nothing else, please allow us to march toward the one day when the hope of Jesus, the hope of Heaven, and the hope of humanity can be realized on the earth through us. Please allow us to dash toward that day every day, every year, for the remaining days of our lives. Wishing this most sincerely, we pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.

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Chapter 12: The Ideal Kingdom of Heaven, Our Hope

Matthew 3:1-17
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea
February 22, 1959

Prayer

We know how much and for how long You, who lost the original true love, have endeavored to fulfill the providence of restoration. At this time, let us be able to experience with our minds and bodies the fact that You have crossed hill after bloody hill of a historical course, longing for the original Adam and Eve. We know that our ancestors, who inherited this task and observed the will of the providence, also walked the sorrowful road of the cross.

We who are situated in the last days know that today we have the historical and providential responsibility to walk the road of the cross which remains. With Your power and advice, urge us on again. Let us go over all the remaining hills of the cross. Let us become manifestations of joy who can sing the song of the Father’s glory in the original garden for which You have hoped.

We know that what belongs to us is not eternal. Today, allow us to make a heavenly determination to push aside the crisis of the cross, which blocks providential history, to fulfill the remaining tasks.

The time has come when we must advance with the attitude of marching toward a battlefield, armed and with grim determination to fulfill this task. Father, today, tomorrow and always, let us fight with our utmost energy. Give us strength to fight the numerous satans who are blocking the road.

Let us emerge from the battlefield with victorious faces and dwell with and attend You closely in Your garden of glory. Let us become sons and daughters who fulfill the whole will of Your desire and who sing the songs of Your love. Let us become sons and daughters of whom You can be proud before the satanic world and all things.

Let us be able to live with You eternally as Your recovered sons and daughters. Let us become true children who can comfort You with songs of glory and happiness as people who have fulfilled Your work, Your ideology, and Your desire. Let us become people who can sing of Your glory after passing through the remaining road of battle and the cross.

This is a holy day. Please hasten the day when all people can uphold Your will and build Your nation of victory.

Please bless the people of this nation and give special blessing to the sons and daughters gathered here today. Embrace the people of this nation with Your heart of love. Let them become people who can move according to Your will until they appear as people of glory who fulfill the will of Your hope and Your remaining sorrow by taking responsibility and fulfilling it. Let them become sons and daughters who can do this.

We have gathered here today, disloyal and unprepared. Please remove all things that are improper, and manifest only the aspects of the original nature that can be embraced in the bosom of Your glory. Make this a meeting where each person’s heart can connect only with the original glory and can be offered to You as one of Heaven’s desired ones. Let them be Yours alone, belonging to no other. Please also be with all the people who are spread out all over the land and work with them. I pray all this in the name of Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Prayer

Father, You have gathered us here. Therefore, do not let us be the only ones who survive in this hour. We thank You for protecting us from many difficulties that we may come to this place. We know that You have led us this way for our sake. We also know that the sorrow of Heaven and the sorrow of earth must be reversed, depending on us as the condition. We know we have this historic responsibility.

We are deeply grateful that You gave us the glorious grace of calling You “Father” when we face You. This came to us through the privilege of Your words, Your grace, and Your life.

We know today how precious is our responsibility. Loving Father, do not abandon us in this hour. Hold us to Your heart that You may transmit Your shimjung to our shimjung. Impart to us Your whole will, and mold us into people You can trust.

Please let our minds and bodies not be our own. Make them move as Your possessions in this hour, altars over which You have dominion. Please let nothing be admitted in this hour that is not of You.

Billions of satans are desperately seeking to obstruct our movements. We desire to have heavenly power and ability that we can use with all our minds and bodies to block those obstructions. Father, allow us Your power and give us Your grace that we may become heavenly soldiers equipped with the authority of resurrection, standing ahead of the realm of death. Loving Father, we sincerely ask You these things.

Father, Your sons and daughters, who went through the period of the workshop that You approved for us, have spread out all over the whole country with sincere shimjung and new determination and conviction. Father, please open up their ways and tell them where they should go. When they fight, give them strength. Allow them to establish and exercise Heaven’s real authority.

Give them the ability to conquer their enemies with words of iron and the shield of life. Give them the glory of heavenly victory.

We already know that the time has come to liberate Your shimjung, which has endured for 6,000 years. You have already shown us that time. Let this time become a triumph. Please give the movement of life to the whole, and manifest Heaven’s whole power wherever they go. Give them the shape of life, and allow them to meet the day when their enemies surrender.

This is Your day of promise; therefore, please bless us. You have approved this day; therefore, manifest Your will to us. Transmit to our minds the Father’s shimjung of love, and allow us to sing the song of Your grace. Make us display Your glory. Father, let this be an hour when we can truly bow before You.

Allow us to awaken the people who are asleep, and allow us to bring the numerous people of this earth to awareness. We know that Your care goes out to those who are in the field, that You are holding onto them so they do not fall. Let us in turn hold onto the people of this nation. Let us fight to hold onto humankind.

We know that they do not exist for us; we exist for them. We know that You are still fighting for their sake. We know that we should not live for ourselves, but for You. Let us feel Your will of wanting to hold onto the people of this nation and feel the critical responsibility of facing all the people. With this kind of duty and responsibility, let us become heavenly soldiers who do not waste a day or an hour, but who save every moment for Your will.

Please bless all the groups who have gathered today, representing all the people of this world. We know that there are many hidden sons and daughters, filled with the grace of life, building lonely altars unto Your presence and yearning for You. Please grant them Your special grace. Please show them Heaven’s will in the last days, and show them that the time of Your glory is coming. Please let the day come quickly when they can gather centering on Your grace. Let the day, when all people can prepare one altar and sing the song of Your glory and bow down to You, come to this entire land.

Let the day of the glory of the will of the providence come quickly. Let the day of joyous victory come swiftly for those of us who are fighting for that day. Allow the garden of happiness, where glory can spread in Heaven and the triumphal song of victory can resound on the earth, to be built with all dispatch.

Please guide us with Your presence in all the hours starting from now. We have gathered here in this hour. Therefore, remove our opinions and concepts from us. Allow us to be transformed by the heavenly shimjung. We request to be enraptured only with Your presence. We pray all these things in the name of Christ the Lord. Amen.

Prayer

Father, let those of us who have gathered here today become the determined group of people who gathered around the River Jordan. Allow us to become the group who gathered around John the Baptist to listen to new tidings.

Let us become those who examine the footsteps of the Israelites as they longed for the coming of the Messiah and struggled. Let us take on the appearance of the group of people who followed John the Baptist, connected with each other, having overcome all historical sadness and centering on heavenly love. Let us become the manifestation of the group of people who were following Jesus, who were rejoicing with new hope, each connected to each in shimjung.

We know that Your tears still remain in this land. You were proud of the power of the chosen people and the chosen citizens of Your nation. You lamented, “Where has Israel, living in the realm of blessing, gone?”

You held onto the Israelites, enduring 4,000 years of historical sadness, because You wanted to send the one Messiah. Instead of being embraced in the Messiah’s bosom, they were embraced in Satan’s bosom. The sorrow You felt when You saw that did not last for that moment only. It was a sorrow comparable to a million years. When we see that the chosen Israelites did not know this, we feel deeply sad that we have the responsibility to expose this historical sin, with humble and sincere attitudes, and to repent for that historical sin in the place of those who committed it.

Father, give us Your hand. Father, manifest Your shimjung of love to us. Father, find us by moving Your exhausted feet.

Jesus sought the perishing people with the sorrowful shimjung of Heaven. He looked for them, pitying them, willing to give his life for them. The people of Israel, who called themselves “chosen,” treated the Heaven-sent Messiah and John the Baptist, who had prepared the way for the Messiah, with carelessness. They hid the two in the shadow of historical sadness. We know this fact today.

Please allow the people gathered here to realize that the Israelites did not betray Heaven because they were less worthy than we. They did not forget Heaven because they had less shimjung to live for Heaven than we do. Instead, they lacked hope for a new age. They expected the appearance of Christ, who came with the new ideology of the Messiah, to be grand. When the actual appearance of the Messiah was beggarly, pitiful and small, they betrayed him.

Please let us examine the position of each of us. Today, we easily criticize historical Israel and the historical situation of the time. However, let us understand that there is no difference between their situation then and our situation today.

Let us acknowledge to ourselves that if we lived at that time we would have been similar to them and would have acted similarly. Make us realize that we have within us remnants of that historical sin and that the evil hands of Satan are aimed at us.

Many times we lose the authority of life out of ignorance, and we languish. Let us overcome this contradictory environment and suppress all circumstances that are bound by the environment. By doing that, let us not make any base for Satan to rejoice. Let us become an offering of shimjung that can soothe Your sadness.

Why have we come here? To see whom? The only thing we desire is to find the Father’s shimjung. Let us not become a group who looks for a historical teacher, but a group who looks for Your shimjung manifested through a prophet.

Father, the bitter root of sin remains within our minds, tainted by the world. Our bodies have been invaded by Satan and have received wounds. Appear to us with a heart of compassion, and embrace us in Your bosom at least for this hour. Let this be a time when we can face You with the appearance of original character, intoxicated in Your eternal life, overcoming all consciousness, and transformed by Your presence.

Grant us the ideology of the Kingdom of Heaven that You have kept until now. Let tidings of a new nation, which You have saved for us, come. Let the day come quickly when the bell of liberation tolls and we can dance with joy for the grace of freedom and liberation. In this way, let a new garden of hope unfold before humankind.

Please guide the remaining hour, and give us the words You wish to impart to us. Remove the dark shadow of Satan from us. Let this become an hour when a heavenly relationship is formed that can introduce the happiness of attaining new life. Let this be an hour when the dead receive the grace of re-creation and resurrection, and come to recognize You. We pray that words of re-creation and movements of re- created life can be manifested here. We pray all this in the name of Christ, the Lord. Amen.

We know that from the day of the fall, people have fought, longing for the lost ideal nation, holding onto hope, and experiencing endless hardships. The environment in which we live is supposed to be a joyful one; yet, we suffer unhappiness, not connecting to all the conditions of happiness for which we have longed in our minds. We must remember again that human beings stand in this situation because we lost the Kingdom of Heaven that God established as the ideal of creation.

God created all things in six days. God created Adam and Eve as the masters of all things. Adam and Eve were to have dominion over all things in God’s ideal garden of creation in His place. At the same time, they could enjoy God’s glory. They were the center of glory, the center of victory and the focus of happiness, able to be in harmony before heaven and earth. Adam and Eve appeared in this manner in the presence of heaven and earth, but they lost their position and failed their responsibility. From that day forth, this earth was transformed into a place of sadness, hardship and death.

If there is someone who claims this is not true, that person is denying his own mind, historical fact and the reality of our lives. People on earth today must realize that they are living in an uncertain and precarious land. They must realize that they are living in a harsh environment of fear and death.

We must awaken to this point, aroused to a new realization. We must eliminate contradictions in our reality and become filled with a new shimjung. We should possess a new ideology and hope. Moreover, if there is a Creator, we must possess the ideology for which the Creator hoped, and resolve to fight today, tomorrow and our entire lives alongside that ideology. Only in that way can we break down this contradictory environment and form a heavenly relationship.

It is a path of death that we cannot hope to bypass and an environment of suffering with which we must collide headlong. Yet we must possess a mind to eradicate all this and the hope to deny them all. A new, ideal garden where we can forget all this, a haven, is our goal. That is our goal in the course of history and in the last days. We must know this clearly.

That is God’s hope, humankind’s hope, the hope of the people, and our hope today. Standing in this position, you should feel that you must take responsibility for that hope today. Thus, the topic of the speech today is “The Ideal Kingdom of Heaven, Our Hope.”

The Result of the Fall

Because of the human fall, God’s hope crumbled, and human beings’ hope also dissipated. Humans are the object of God’s hope, the central being representing the universe, an individual of universal ideology. Each human was to be an ideal individual, an offering representing the whole. As such, they had to be able to move Heaven and earth. Because they did not become so, hope remains unfulfilled, and God’s hope remains unattained.

When we think of this point, knowing that the garden of creation was built for human beings and that the ideology of creation was for God to enjoy happiness with human beings, we must reflect upon ourselves again. We must again realize that we are the ones who decide the fate of the garden of creation and its ideology. We should take responsibility for this, fight for it, and dissolve God’s historical sorrow.

There is no greater sadness, no worse mortification, no greater vexation than that caused by the fall. The moment this kind of mental shock explodes in us is the moment we can find the new ideology and hope.

Therefore, we must not forget that Heaven has fought until now to impart new shocks to the minds of fallen people. Numerous prophets and martyrs, who took on the mission of Heaven in Heaven’s place, also fought and died to awaken sleeping humankind from the realm of death. They tried to impart that the world of a new ideology and the garden of new hope exist, to shock the people into denying the environment in which they lived.

We must know that no group or people became shocked by the words of the prophets warning people in each age, in place of Heaven, as they lived through their course of history, nor did any nation. We must know that no one depended on those words and overcame their age centering on those words. We should mourn this historical sin, yet we do not even recognize it.

We know that Jacob lived through 21 years of an unexpected wilderness course. Jacob possessed a heartistic standard with which he could overcome all the collisions in a 21-year period. Jacob’s steadfast shimjung toward Heaven, based on the shock of Heaven that collided with his mind, was able to dominate his life. Thus, he was able to win over all the hardships in his environment and triumphantly go over the course of restoration.

Jacob stepped forward, not minding all the suffering and hardship that visited him, holding onto the resolution he had made on the day he received the shock of Heaven. He was a man of faith who stopped the history of prolongation affected by the mistake of Abraham, the ancestor of faith. Jacob subjugated Satan.

The luxurious, royal lifestyle of Pharaoh’s castle could not dominate the mind of Moses, who was born bearing national responsibility. Even though Moses led a poor shepherd’s life in the Midian wilderness for forty years, the royal environment could not dominate the internal shock that penetrated Moses’ shimjung. Because Moses possessed a heartistic shock burning inside him, wanting to go over the nation, over humankind, over the world to make a relationship with Heaven, he was able to go over the forty years in the Midian wilderness with ease.

To what did our ancestors look forward? They were longing for a new nation, a place where God could reside. We know that they fought with their lives to establish that place.

In the forty-year period when Moses led the 600,000 people and wandered in the wilderness, the surrounding environment was very difficult. He was able to forget all the difficult conditions of the environment and deliver 600,000 people to Canaan. This is because his shimjung, pierced with longing to enter the land of Canaan as he had promised God, and his shimjung of hope toward the land of Canaan were greater than the shimjung of the opposition of the 600,000 people.

The Purpose of Heaven and the Ancestors’ Labor

Jesus Christ, who came as the culmination of 4,000 years of Heaven’s hope, came to introduce to humankind the ideology of the ideal Kingdom of Heaven and to fulfill that ideology. He was not caught up with words that indulged the customs of the age. He was not satisfied with the lifestyles of that society. He was not captivated by the customs of the ritualistic Jewish religion, entrenched in formality and rules.

Jesus appeared with the internal standard of new loyalty, denying every aspect of history. He had new words centering on that standard. When he appeared, taking novel action together with those new words, the chosen historical individuals, the chosen historical group and nation, raised a banner of revolt against him. We must realize that this was what obstructed the course of Christ’s establishing his ideology.

We can know through history that God, the Creator, exists and wants to raise human beings to a standard of the greatest ideology by connecting them to a better ideology, tomorrow more than today, next year more than tomorrow, this century more than next year, and in the next century
more than now.

We are living in a time which all agree is the last days. In this time, when the fate of humankind hangs in the balance, we are at a point when we cannot be proud of our existence. Therefore, each person has to receive a new shock from the ideology that Jesus introduced 2,000 years ago. Each person living in this antiquated system of reality has to ignite the explosion of a new mind. If a movement does not appear that can do this, this age will not be able to escape the depths of historical sadness.

Living in the historic last days, we have learned all that the Bible can teach us. Numerous scholars have researched the Bible with their utmost effort for 2,000 years, but their research ended with themselves. They thought of their movements as complete and that they had presented human beings with an ideal ideology, but it was not what human beings sincerely desired. Through merely observing reality, we can see that it was not a movement that could pioneer the garden of shimjung. We must become people who can break down this wall and plow our way through the debris.

Since every person is in despair today, what is the biggest problem? If there is a Creator who wants to build the Kingdom of Heaven, how can someone introduce the ideology of the Kingdom of Heaven to human beings? That is the problem. Let us then say that there is a person who feels that there needs to be a new ideology. He feels that the ideologies presented up to now are and have been insufficient. If he feels this but does not possess a yearning heart for that new ideology, he is a historical criminal.

If you long for that ideology and desire for all humankind to be happy, you must go over all hills of sorrow. You must possess a determination in your mind to push aside all problems of reality and fight to surmount them. Whether you possess that determination is the issue.

The Problem of Introducing a New Ideology

What I want to ask you today is: where is the ideology that can re- create people, the ideology which can break down historical adherence to old habits that humankind has not been able to escape, the ideology which can burn like a shock in the human heart? If there is a God, can He introduce this ideology to us without any condition? Have you ever thought about this? If you have not, you are a shameful sinner in the presence of your ancestors, who longed and fought for the ideal garden, the ideal world.

Jesus was pierced with his shimjung toward Heaven. He felt deeply about the new ideal world of creation, the world of hope humankind was to find. He acted according to what he felt and said to us, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

In what kind of surroundings did Jesus act in accordance with the heavenly shock he felt? All people were supposed to agree with each other and welcome Jesus wherever he went, but no one welcomed him. This was true, not only at that time, but even now, numerous people who live and who have lived in history, innumerable spirit persons in the spiritual world, also have not deeply understood the words that Jesus spoke and Jesus’ responsibility. None have welcomed Jesus.

Yet Jesus, coming with the new ideology, felt deeply that to fulfill that ideal, he had to conquer all conditions of opposition which struck him. The more intensely the shock of knowing the ideal came to him, the more Jesus solidified his firm determination to withstand all conditions of evil in his surroundings. Therefore, Jesus could overcome any kind of confrontation.

Today, our minds long for something. Our bodies suffer to find that something. We groan in fear and anxiety. Living thus, we must yearn for the day when we can be free of all these conditions of fear and apprehension.

We are not the only ones who face this. Jesus also lived in this kind of environment 2,000 years ago. You should reflect upon this fact and think about how Jesus lived through that.

Jesus knew that God had created all things. He knew that the Kingdom of Heaven was to be fulfilled with true owners having dominion over all created things. He knew that the ideal Kingdom of Heaven which God desired had turned into hell on earth through the fall. He knew that this world had turned into a world of unspeakable fear and uneasiness, a world of conflict. Thus, Jesus started a course of public life to take responsibility for and bring salvation to this hell on earth, forsaking his own ideal kingdom.

Advancing toward the ideal Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus faced indescribable loneliness, adversity and sadness. Nevertheless, Jesus knew he had to go this way. Therefore, he felt that he had to go this way until the ideal garden was fulfilled, until he met God in that garden, representing humankind. You must feel this way also. We are in the same situation. We also must advance toward that ideal garden.

If you have received this new shock, you should say in your mind, “Father, I want to go this way! I want to go toward that ideal Kingdom of Heaven, our hope!” You should be filled with that kind of shimjung.

The road that goes to the ideal Kingdom of Heaven of hope is not a level road. It is a road of sorrow. The road to the Kingdom of Heaven does not start from the Kingdom of Heaven. It starts from the world of sin and hell. If we surmount that hell and come out on the other side, we will be connected to the Kingdom of Heaven.

We must go. We are destined to go toward the ideal Kingdom of Heaven of hope. We should think of Jesus who had to go this way. What kind of road did he travel? He did not travel a flat, level road. Jesus did not go the way of being welcomed by society. Jesus was the redeemer of all people and the master of the cosmos, but he never exercised the role of master, and he hesitated to boast of himself and proclaim that the masses should follow him.

Jesus Walked the Road of Hardship

Jesus was supposed to walk the road of the providence in front. Yet, he could not go in front. Instead, he stood behind everyone and said to each, “You go the easy way. I will walk the most difficult path.” He shouldered the difficulties of the nation and the world alone. He carried the cross of hardship, which humankind repels, by himself and lived for the sake of humankind. Jesus had to walk the road, even though it was one of historical sadness, entangled with evil conditions. Thus, with a thirty-year period of preparation and a three-year period of public life, he walked that road with intense, internal determination. The more intense that conviction became, the more he became a friend to sorrowful humankind. Moreover, he was mortified over the fact that human beings were suffering a life of fear and that Satan ruled humankind. In the humblest place in history, in the humblest place of the age, he fought with Satan.

He walked the road with a mind to say, “If humankind is in sorrow, I will take responsibility for its sadness. If humankind is in difficulty, I will take responsibility for that difficulty. If humankind lives in death, I will take responsibility for death.” His footsteps were those of an individual, but his mission was a historical mission, a mission of the age, a mission for the future.

If there is a shimjung God felt after the creation, if there is a shimjung of humankind and of all things, then Jesus had the responsibility to know all that and liberate them. Where did his path lead? His path did not lead to a luxurious palace nor did it lead in glory to the house of some high official or authority. Jesus knew that he was placed in a position to do God’s will in a time when all the conditions had not been fulfilled for the age. He went the opposite way.

Jesus knew that the path of Israel, which Heaven had trusted for 4,000 years, the path of hope for connecting to Heaven, was blocked. Therefore, he attempted to go forward to break open that path of hope. The people did not believe, however. Hence, Jesus had to go to the lowest echelon of the Israelites.

Jesus was to go toward the Kingdom of Heaven of hope. He was to go over the individual level, over the family level, his nation, over his race, and lead the world to Heaven, the ideal world. He stood at the forefront of his race, but the race drove him away. Religion chased him out. His family drove him away. His disciples rejected him, even a robber rejected him. How sorrowful do you think Jesus’ heart would have been at that time?

Jesus was supposed to march forward with the ideology of God. He was to introduce the garden of happiness to humankind, yet he had to go the opposite way. What do you think Jesus’ appearance and his shimjung would have been like? If Jesus could not go to the destination the right way, he still had to go, even if he had to go backward. Since 4,000 years had passed, he had to go, even if he had to go back through the 4,000-year history. Because this was the mission and responsibility of Jesus, he repeatedly prayed to God. He prayed, “Even if there are obstacles that block the Father’s will, I will still go the way, even if I have to walk the road of several thousand years. I will march toward that garden of hope. Father, please do not despair. I am here.”

The race that God established, the religion that God established, the family that God established, and the party of John the Baptist that God had established obstructed Jesus’ way and betrayed him. How could God even face this situation? His will and dignity were completely compromised.

When all the conditions that had been set up over 4,000 years for the attendance of the Messiah collapsed in a short moment, Jesus comforted God, instead of moaning over his own situation. Since God was sad, Jesus must have been sad also, but he had to deny his situation and comfort God. Jesus was treated as an enemy by his people. He was driven out as a heretic by the religious. His family criticized him as a traitor, even criminals ridiculed him. Later, nailed on the cross at Golgotha, he blessed and prayed for his enemies, those who had killed him: “Father, please forgive them.”

Jesus stepped forward, pledging to go toward God’s ideal garden, even if his path did not end in glory, happiness and joy, but in sadness, agony and mortification. He had to go toward that garden of ideology which is the goal of God. The fact that Jesus traveled toward that ideal garden means that he went in place of humankind, in place of history and in place of all things. Therefore, we who are following him are fated to go that way, too. If we cannot go there while we are alive, we must go even after death. That is our fate.

Christianity Is a Religion of the Cross

Jesus carried with him the suffering of humankind. He started from the lowest point of humanity and ended at the top of Golgotha. There he sacrificed his whole self. Where was God’s son, the heir apparent, the Prince of Heaven? Where was the Messiah of humankind, the Savior? At that place, Jesus could not assert one iota’s worth of his value. It was a tragic and pitiable place. Yet Jesus was able to go over that hill of death, look to Heaven and advance toward Heaven’s ideal garden. His ideology was more powerful than death. His ideology was more powerful than any force in history. Thus, he was able to push aside the realm of death and resurrect. He brought the people who opposed him to repentance and, hence, Christianity today has a base of victory.

We the followers of Jesus must go the way he went, whether we live or die. The problem is whether you really want to go this way.

You must have a feeling more powerful than the power of death, saying, “I will go toward that ideology no matter what comes my way. I will go that way whether I eat, whether I get hit, am treated unfairly, or am persecuted.” Otherwise, you will not be able to go over the realm of death in the judgment appearing in the last days. You must feel, “I will go whether this happens or that happens. Father, I know You are there. I know that Your ideal world lies this way. Even if no one else goes, I will certainly go.”

The going is not easy. The progenitors of human beings did not start with peace, happiness and joy; they began with sadness, grief, adversity, fear and anxiety. Therefore, we who are living in the last days must also travel through that road of historical sadness to indemnify this. Unless the Messiah appears in this time and introduces a heavenly ideology, humankind will not be able to escape the realm of fear and death. Humankind will not have a way to salvation.

Thus, Christianity was originally a religion of sacrifice. It was a religion of the cross. It was a religion of shedding blood, a religion of service. It was a religion that stepped forward to die before others. Moved by Heaven, Christianity shone out its tradition through the course of history. If Christianity today does not keep this kind of tradition, Heaven will punish it. We can conclude this.

Christianity is supposed to pioneer the fate of the world in place of Jesus, who lamented with a worldwide sadness. Christianity should become a shepherd, a lamb. It should remove the resentment of Heaven and earth, filled with the shimjung that Jesus had when he said in the moment of death, bleeding on top of Golgotha, “Please forgive them.” Christianity should be able to introduce a new ideology, new hope and the new ideal garden. This kind of person must exist.

Peter, James and John, in the position of the Israelites and among them, did not realize that when Jesus died on top of Golgotha in the midst of opposition and persecution, he would resurrect. When they did, they marched toward Heaven, risking their lives as they pondered his death. You must realize that if there is a shepherd who can appear before Heaven, risking death with that kind of herd of sheep, they are the ones who can connect the world to a new age and a new heavenly ideology.

We must realize this today. Today, we must re-examine everything around us. We must examine our leaders. What kind of group were the Jewish religious leaders? They were a group who devastated Heaven’s new truth. We must re-analyze today what is really controlling us, what is controlling our country’s spirit.

You must receive a shock that can make you burn with the new ideology that can destroy all foundations of sin in this age and can lead people to new hope. If you cannot receive such a shock in your church, then that church cannot escape the same judgment as the first Israel.

Human Beings Must Meet God

We must go. We must go over the idea of faith that religious people hold. Furthermore, we must go over the cross of Jesus. Beyond the cross, we must go over Jesus’ heart of resurrection. We must even go over God’s heart and comfort Him. We must advance toward that kind of position.

How can we stop our footsteps from heading toward that longed-for place, the place where God resides, the place where Jesus dwells, the place of the true brotherhood of humankind? Before you lies the road of ideology that we must go, no matter what on earth holds us, stepping over every obstacle. We must even lead the people who have been those obstacles into following that road.

Have you ever thought about God’s hard work in finding us? From the day of the fall, God always sought Adam. God never failed to follow Adam’s descendants. He has been seeking you when you did not know He was doing so. Have you ever sought God? You must know that 6,000 years of sadness and millions of people’s deaths obstructed His path. When we know the hard work of God in seeking us, we should have the same kind of heart as we in turn seek God.

Jesus did not come to found an ideology for himself. Jesus came as the center of all people, to introduce all people to the garden of happiness and hope. Thus, he worked hard for all people, he suffered hardships for all people, he walked the road of sadness for all people. No one in heaven or earth was unrelated to Jesus’ sadness; yet he had no place to go. Nevertheless, Jesus did not lament and grieve over that situation; he left behind a new hope. Subsequently, he completed the standard of the Messiah and became the owner of pioneering a new garden of hope. We must understand this point.

We did not know about Jesus’ situation before now, but now we can see that Jesus passed away bearing sorrow and pain of heart. Since we now know this, we must go after Jesus, of whom human beings have let go. We must meet him. As you are filled with longing for Jesus, you should seek to meet him. Jesus fought to meet God, who had suffered for 4,000 years. Likewise, holding God’s hand, you must possess a mind filled with longing to meet the heavenly appearance that represents the 2,000 years after Jesus and the 6,000 years of history. You can meet God and Jesus, who were comforting you when you were sad, who were suffering with you when others wronged you and mistreated you. There is a hidden story behind meeting them.

When Jesus was passing away, he told many people many things. He said, “I will prepare a place for you in Heaven.” He promised to meet them again. We still have a way to go and a day when we can meet Jesus. Therefore, the conviction to go is not enough. We must meet that person.

The day we meet is the consummation of human history and the day of the second coming, in Christian terms. Therefore, you should possess a heart that longs to see the day of the second coming and a heart to march on to that day. You should go, overcoming hardships, persecution and wrongdoing and break down the gate of hell in the realm of death. The Kingdom of Heaven is a place where all conditions through which Satan can accuse us are vanquished, and everyone moves according to God’s ideal. Since the Kingdom of Heaven is a place free of all agony, if you leave behind any condition of suffering on earth, you will suffer in Heaven, to the degree of your lack of fulfillment on earth.

We human beings are in a situation to connect only after walking all the roads. We can connect only after walking all the historical roads that Jesus has already passed. Who are we to meet?

The Responsibility of the Bride

After Jesus passed away, God prepared for 2,000 years for the meeting to come. Jesus has been praying and preparing for 2,000 years from the spiritual world so that we may meet the bride of Heaven in the last days. Jesus has the responsibility of a bridegroom, and people on earth have the responsibility of a bride. Jesus has been fulfilling that responsibility in the spiritual world. We know this through the Bible.

How can the brides on earth meet the bridegroom? They must fulfill their responsibility. When Jesus appears on earth, he appears after having fulfilled his responsibility. Therefore, we should also fulfill our responsibility. As the reward for fulfilling Your responsibility, you will receive a gift from Heaven. Therefore, all the Christians of the world should fulfill their responsibility as the bride.

Jesus said, “You shall witness unto me , unto the uttermost part of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) He said, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” (Matthew 16:25)

We must be people who fight to keep giving, in the course of fulfilling our responsibility. That is the only way we will not be ashamed in the presence of the hearts of those who fought for the earth through historical courses, like Jesus, the bridegroom. They did not eat when they were hungry and never had a day free of anxiety and concern. Each of you must know that you can be qualified to meet Jesus only after fulfilling your responsibilities.

There has been no fallen person who has fulfilled the responsibility to meet God. Therefore, no one has entered the Kingdom of Heaven. Even Jesus is in Paradise. Paradise is only the anteroom to the Kingdom of Heaven.

What is the hope of humankind? It is to become people who can liberate the resentment of the fall and attain the appearance of people who say, “We have fulfilled all the responsibility of being human beings,” by indemnifying the conditions of Heaven’s sorrow and by going through the course of restoration. That is what Jesus has been seeking in his preparations of 2,000 years.

Filled with a heart of longing for Jesus, we must cleanse Jesus’ sorrowful, historical conditions in our daily lives. We must become victorious and walk with happiness through all the conditions of adversity that Jesus walked with sorrow.

Christians today must walk a pioneering course and be able to prevent Jesus from going to Golgotha. They should welcome Jesus from the position of having fulfilled the responsibility of accomplishing his desire by pioneering a victorious course.

Do we have a mind that longs for that meeting? We do not. Even if one is torn apart and faces death because of the longing with which he is filled, a group must appear which possesses a sincere heart capable of going over that situation. Only then can we have the dignity to meet Jesus, who has been trying to find us for 2,000 years.

We should be able to shout, “We want to see Heavenly Father! We know that Jesus’ hope was to make heaven and earth into the ideal Kingdom of Heaven. In order for that Heaven of hope to be built, there must be citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, the land to establish the Kingdom of Heaven, the authority of the Kingdom of Heaven, and a leader who can wield that authority. Allow all people of this land to become citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. We want to see that.”

No matter how broad this land, there is no piece of land which God can claim as His own. There is no land about which Jesus can say, “This is mine.” Jesus did not have one piece of land about which he could say, “Satan can never invade this.”

That idea of Jesus was Heaven’s idea, and the idea of a Kingdom of Heaven to be built on earth. Because there must be people who long for and agonize over wanting to see that idea realized, wanting to become citizens of God’s kingdom, Jesus told his disciples to find those people, seek those people, and knock on their doors.

We Must Fight to Build the Kingdom of Heaven

As we break apart the road of resentment that remains on earth, we must have a sincere desire to see the ideal world for which Jesus yearns in his heart. Only then can we meet the substance of that ideology.

After the first Israel perished, the second Israel, the Christians of the world, have worked hard to create that nation, race, land and authority, and are waiting for their leader to appear. Reality does not coincide with that ideal. There is no greater sadness than this.

What is a patriot? A patriot feels miserable when he sees the citizens of his nation in pitiful situations. He feels more pain than if his body was being dismembered when he sees his land trampled upon by other nations. He feels it more keenly than the leader of his nation when he sees the leader being treated unfairly and put in a miserable position.

What words are these about being brides who must meet the Prince of Heaven? We have the appearance of disloyalty, ugliness and sin and cannot even face the words. Therefore, we should have humble hearts. When we see the rights of the citizens of Heaven being infringed and Satan trampling this land, we must fight to recover them even if we die. We have a heavenly mission to restore the authority of goodness.

Christians today must realize that the time has come to eradicate the criminals of this earth through the ideology of conscience. You must know the day of appearance and hope Jesus desires. If there is a human being in a nation who possesses a heart of longing to see the land of ideology and its citizens, power, and leader such as Jesus yearned for, that nation will never perish. Such a person will have the heart to say, “I want to see that heavenly nation before dust fills my eyes, before my body disappears. I want to meet the citizens of that nation in order to fulfill the will of that person who went over the crisis of the cross with a heart of forgiveness.”

You must be able to say in your heart, “I want to build Heaven’s land. I want to recover the authority of goodness. I want to be loyal to Jesus.”

You who have gathered here must feel, to your bone marrow, the incredible fact that our fate will come to the historical point of demanding a firm resolution as the final age becomes more imminent. That time has come. For whom do you exist? It seems that you exist for yourself, but in actuality, you do not. It seems that you exist for your family, but you do not. It seems that you exist for your nation or the world, but you do not exist for them either. We can conclude this: our families, our society, nation and our world cannot become Heaven’s ideal world as things stand now.

Only by our being filled with a heart of longing and by fulfilling our responsibility can we meet the being of hope. After meeting him, how should we face him? When Mary Magdalene tried to clutch the resurrected Jesus, Jesus refused her. This is because Mary Magdalene had not gone through all the roads she was to walk and was not equipped with the offering she had to make. Jesus was telling us through that act that a person who has not fulfilled his responsibility and prepared his offering cannot appear before him. Therefore, we must prepare our offering with the victorious countenance of having walked all the roads and fought all the fights.

What is this offering? You must become that offering. God will face you according to the kind of offering you have become. God will meet you according to the kind of offering you are.

After going through all the roads and meeting God, what shall we do? We must receive the love of the Father. Moreover, after participating in the last marriage celebration and achieving a reunion of happiness, what shall we do? We must receive the love of the Father. This is the hope of humankind. The last project is to receive love.

The Qualifications to Become the Owner of the Kingdom of Heaven

You must meet the hour when Heaven grants your wish gladly as you say these words: “To receive this love, I have passed through the road of death, the road of difficulties, and the road of pain. I have endeavored even to love Satan, and I have fought to hold onto a dying life, even to become an offering in place of him. I have loved the people of this earth as You, the Father, have. I have poured out my heart upon the people who desired love. Therefore, Father, please love me!”

Jesus, whom you believe in, walked a road of tears for over thirty years. He crossed over the hills of sorrow and death. Then he resurrected and said to God, “Father, I have come. I have understood the Father’s heart of 4,000 years, and I have come to this place as an offering in order to introduce that shimjung. Father!” Upon hearing that, God forgot all about His own dignity, deeply lamented, and cried tears of joy. That moment was the moment of finding one’s lost child and the moment a relationship was bound between heaven and earth. Christians do not know that at that moment, God forgot His own dignity, held onto Jesus, and shed tears of sorrow and tears of joy. You also must appear in front of God and say, “I have come the way You desired. I have believed Your words of wanting to meet me and have come to meet You. Therefore, please embrace me in Your bosom of love.” You must receive the blessing as you are embraced by God’s love and as He says to you, raising His hands, “Let us live in the eternal realm of love.” Only in that way can our ideal garden of hope, that is, the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven, be concluded. The establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven starts from each individual perfecting himself in this way.

Jesus fought for this ideology. Our ancestors sought this ideal. All the people who are walking the way today are going toward this goal.

What is the shimjung you must unleash? You should have a longing heart and a heart of wanting to meet, but all that must pass away. That is what individuals of the fallen world have to indemnify. We must have the shimjung of wanting to receive God’s love. We must appear as one substance of eternal love, having received the love God built up from an eternity ago.

In this way, when God boasts in the presence of all things, in front of all humankind and in front of Satan: “I have found sons and daughters of love,” you must be able to say, “Yes, we are the fruits of love for which You have longed. We are the owners of the garden of love that You wanted to establish.”

By receiving God’s true love in mind and body without dying, you must become people to whom all things, even Satan, can testify and bow their heads, proclaiming that you are the being of hope God has sought and for which all humankind has hoped. You are the second God, Heaven’s heir, who can build the ideology of the Kingdom of Heaven in heaven and on earth and take dominion over it. Only if you do that can you become the owners of the Kingdom of Heaven and the sons and daughters of Heaven.

Prayer

When we experience Your heart, urging us on today, we cannot help realizing how weak are our bodies. When we realize, too, that the shimjung of Heaven is connected and flowing through us today, we feel deeply grateful. Father, please hold onto us. We want to go the way of the cross, with our minds and bodies becoming the offering, following Your request that we liberate Your hope, Your shimjung, and Your situation. Therefore, let us not weaken until the end. Make us go over the hill of death with a shimjung filled with a heavenly shock that penetrates the mind. Reinforce our exhaustion by allowing our connection with Heaven to be firm.

Allow us to come to the ideal garden for which we have longed. To do that, we have responsibility. Therefore, let us become countenances of joy offered to You as a gift, by fulfilling all the conditions for being a surviving fruit. Make us into Your original sons and daughters whom You want to love and who can receive Your love. Let us dwell in relationships of eternal love, the life of love, and the glory of love. Let us become people whom You cannot help loving and who cannot help receiving love from You. Please lead us this way.

On that account, let us not lack in any qualification to become the citizens of that nation, sons and daughters of that nation, and leaders of that nation. Let us become people of which You can be proud in front of a million satans. Allow the day when all the created world can recite a poem of ecstasy and liberation. Allow it to come quickly.

We know that this is not happening in some conceptual world. We know that if this is not defined through our minds and bodies, which live on this realistic earth and through substance, we cannot finish Heaven’s ideal of creation. Therefore, let us be able to feel with our heart and practice with our actions in the whole field of mission which we take as our responsibility. Make us into sons and daughters who do not hesitate to pioneer any road of battle until the day of hope comes.

Let us be able to pioneer even a difficult road to remove the remaining resentment of the cross and to welcome the hour of happiness and hope, the hour of love in which we can rejoice. We pray that even today we can live in that kind of state. We pray all these things sincerely. We pray in the name of Christ, our Lord. Amen.

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Chapter 13: Let Us Love Heaven and Become Patriots

Matthew 5:33-48
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea
March 1, 1959

Prayer

Beloved Father! Brief human life, which seeks after You, may appear to be simple; yet, it is complicated. We must walk this life course. Father, we sincerely pray that You guide us to become blessed sons and daughters who can persevere through each day and spend the rest of our lives in the Father’s bosom.

We are not alone in the world in which we live. We know that a myriad satans surround us. They have been engaged in insidious fights and have been putting forth conditions of accusations before the Father for 6,000 years. We know that You are keenly aware of this and have been working laboriously to protect us. Please allow us to realize that the Father’s concern exceeds our concern, and that the Father’s labors in fighting Satan and the victories You have won are much greater than anything we could accomplish, even if we battled hard for the rest of our lives.

The Father has been deeply involved in the lives of our countless forefathers and has been working to fulfill the will of restoration. We know that Your efforts have been the path of the cross, a debt we can never repay by any means. Please allow us to face You in humility and repentance, realizing with all our hearts and souls our inadequacy to return Your grace.

Father, we know that history until now has been a course of raising unworthy ones to the presence of glory. Please allow us to possess Your sincere heart and to be single-mindedly devoted to You. Please do not let our minds and bodies be ours alone. Allow us to possess a sincere heart which yearns to penetrate deeply into the Father’s. Please allow us to become sacrifices drenched in such a heart. Please relate with us as Your beloved sons and daughters who can be embraced inside Your bosom, giving comfort to You and being comforted by You.

We have come here longing for this kind of grace. Please do not abandon us. Allow us to become those whom the Father can personally call, “My sons.” Father, we sincerely hope that You will relate with us as sons and daughters with whom You can be and love personally.

Please have compassion on us. We are weak and full of concern about our responsibility to carry on the fight, even if we become exhausted. Father, please give us strength. Strengthen our minds with new powers and abilities so that we can become strong and brave children who will never surrender to our enemies. Please, beloved Father, allow us to become sons and daughters who can glorify You by becoming brave soldiers who can be entrusted with the entire heavenly mission.

Please become the center of our lives. Please let no one among us stumble over some condition, but let us remain in the Father’s possession only. Please allow us to become Your pride. Father, these are our wishes, coming from the depths of our hearts.

If the root of sin remains within our hearts, please purify us with Your powers. Please remove all the qualities You do not desire. Please let there be a profound change in our hearts which can bring us closer to resembling Your nature. Father, we pray that, in this hour, works of re-creation will take place, allowing us to feel the shock of new power and love in our minds and bodies, removing all evil elements within to purify us and enable us to be embraced by the Father.

Please guide us to cast away all thoughts and concepts which the Father does not want. Let this be an hour when every aspect of us begins as the Father’s own, moves as the Father’s own, and bears fruit as the Father’s own.

If we do not experience such feelings and impact, then we cannot take responsibility for everything in the great will of the providence. Father, please personally come down upon us and allow us the joy and resurrection of life.

Father, we have the responsibility to awaken this sleeping city. We have the responsibility to guide this peninsula into the new light. Please make our fragile hands strong. Though we are inadequate, allow us to become sons and daughters who can give the final blow to Satan and manifest the glory of Heaven.

Please let us not give up on all the things we pledged and determined to accomplish this year. Allow this to act like an explosive we carry in our hearts and bodies, and thus give life to many. Please allow us to become the atom bombs of life to restore this dark world to the ground of the Father’s glory. Please allow us to become sons and daughters who can carry out all our given responsibilities.

Please bless these people and bless humanity. All our wishes belong to You. Father, please be with us and work through us. Until the day we can alleviate the bitter grief of restoration, please guide us, Father. This is our deepest desire.

Please allow us to feel how inadequate are the exertions and efforts we make each day to go near You. Guide us to pioneer with desperate hearts. Please let the powers of Your impact and a sincere heart be the only things that sway our lives.

Please bless Your sons and daughters who are praying to You in loneliness from every corner of the countryside. Please embrace them with the same grace. We sincerely wish and pray that You raise them in glory so that they can proclaim the grace You have given them.

Everywhere obeisance is made today, let the countless heavenly saints, soldiers and angels escort You and bring You joy. Let only the Holy Trinity govern this hour. Let Satan not be found anywhere in this hour. From the depths of our hearts, we pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.

The topic of the sermon I want to speak upon is “Let Us Love Heaven and Become Patriots.” Let us become those who love Heaven and the nation.

God Has Guided Human Beings toward Goodness

Originally, human beings were to love Heaven, love their brothers and sisters, and love this land. They should have loved Heaven, people and the earth.

When God created humans, His goal was for them to love in such a way. Yet all who are living on the earth today have lost the ability to love Heaven, their brothers and sisters, and the earth, because they are fallen descendants. This is the grief caused by the fall.

Therefore, to bring fallen people back to their original state, God sorrowfully has faced every kind of battle without hesitation and has repeatedly sacrificed Himself for 6,000 years. In other words, we know that God has been seeking us with the responsibility to restore the lost people.

Although we are ignorant of the will of God’s providence of restoration, our minds are subconsciously following the heavenly relationship, which has had a dominant influence in our lives. We often experience this in our daily lives.

How do your minds ceaselessly, yet subconsciously, move in pursuit of goodness and the world of greater ideology? Why is your mind not moving in the direction you desire? This is because there is God, who is leading you in a direction of which you are not consciously aware. He is working through a relationship which surpasses your imagination. This is how our minds are being led by the ideology of goodness.

Heaven is the highest good and the loftiest of all ideals. Heaven is the pinnacle of human life and the center of hope. It has been active in the past and present, and will be active in the future. Hence, we must understand that our minds are being guided in the direction of goodness, which Heaven is pursuing.

Even if your heart is drawn toward goodness and you possess a good nature, you should not assert that this is your doing. Moreover, just because your body has been fashioned in the way of goodness based on the heavenly nature, you should not boast that it is your own.

Even if you possess something that is praiseworthy, good and illustrious, you should not consider it to be yours alone and manifest it as such. If you forget that Heaven has created such in you and are proud of yourself, you will be committing a crime against Heaven. We often witness people committing these kinds of sins all around us.

Today, we all desire goodness and righteousness. Even our minds, which pursue goodness and righteousness, do not belong to us. You have to understand this. If you look at the history of good minds, you will discover the 6,000 years of human history, God’s work of creation, and finally God’s original nature. You must act on behalf of historical and future relationships and possess the original goodness which operates through this center. If someone tries to block your way as you are trying to possess this goodness and sets up an opposing condition, how can you be sure that this violates heavenly law?

People today should pursue this good mind. Furthermore, after they come to possess this good mind, they should not live for themselves but for the greatest center of goodness. Nevertheless, we know there are not many people who understand this.

The Realization of Goodness and the Function of the Conscience

Goodness is never realized by one’s self. It is realized when one transcends one’s self, one’s environment, nation and world and connects with the highest goodness of the Creator. Goodness is possible only through a course of accomplishment.

We must understand that we should find the direction of goodness, understand its destination, and move in that direction. At the same time, we must become goodness itself and leave behind the accomplishments of a good life. It is not an overstatement to say that no one in history has ever understood this truth and led his life responsibly and confidently. God has worked laboriously with human beings. For 6,000 years God has been guiding human beings, who do not know how to repay His work and who are not grateful for His having saved their lives.

If this course of historical sorrow does not end in your generation, it will continue with your descendants. If you cannot feel that this sorrowful course is active in your life, flowing within the life you breathe, there is no way you can truly say that you love your nation and Heaven.

We must live each day based on goodness, with one heart. A good heart must govern our daily lives. While we are working to reach the goal of our lives, we must make accomplishments of which we can be proud, within the ideal of goodness. Those who cannot achieve this certainly have not made any contribution to history or the course of restoration, which seeks Heaven’s goodness. They have not brought any results.

How did the human fall come about? Human beings fell because they thought their lives belonged solely to them. Adam and Eve, the first ancestors of humankind, thought that every affair was fulfilled through them, everything began based on them, and every goal was to be reached through them. This is why they fell. We should understand this.

Accordingly, we must expose the sins of our ancestors and abandon the mentality that we should do everything based on ourselves. We must cultivate a true heart which seeks to bring solutions based on the people, the world, heaven and earth. We must pursue a good world. If there are such people, God will call upon them. God works to accomplish the goal which the conscience seeks and is looking for this kind of people. We must keep this in mind.

The connection of love can be forged only when one clearly understands this truth. One must then have a fresh realization about oneself, possess one’s value system and perspectives on daily life, human life, history and the universe, and say, “I love Heaven.” You can say that you truly love your nation only when you love it from this perspective.

We must understand that this is a path which both historical figures and the great people of our age must walk. We must analyze ourselves anew.

Although we feel that our conscience is at work, due to the human fall, we do not understand the destination toward which goodness is striving. Although we are under the influence of our conscience, we have been unable to lead the type of life in which we do not feel any pangs of conscience.

Now you must expose such contradictions within yourselves. You must reflect and measure yourselves against the new goal and new ideology. In doing so, you must abandon all concepts, assertions and thoughts and march toward a new goal of goodness. We must understand that humanity living in the last days faces a crisis which compels them to walk toward the goal of goodness.

What Kind of Person Truly Loves Heaven?

How low did people fall? They fell to the position completely opposite to God’s ideal of creation. Originally, human beings should have been able to consider this world their own. All of humanity should have lived as one tribe. They should have attended the Creator God as their God.

Have the people who live on earth today formed their own world? They have not. Is there someone or some nation who considers all humanity their clan? There is not. Moreover, is there a group of people who attend God as their God? There is not.

Therefore, we must first establish the standard of goodness and make our best efforts to seek our world, our clan and our God. We have to understand that this is the historical mission that fallen people must accomplish.

Our God has disappeared into nowhere; our human clan has scattered in all directions. The land we should govern has been divided into many pieces.

If there is a Creator, then what is His ideal? It is to make this land our land, to make humanity into one clan or members of one family, and attain unity and harmony with us. We must realize that the Creator wants to emerge as the God of humanity and of this world.

If there is someone who says, “I love Heaven,” what kind of person should he be? He should make great effort to search for our world, to make all of humanity brothers, to make the Creator the God of humanity, and to attend God in his life. This kind of person can be said to love Heaven.

Since people have lost this standard, even though they feel the workings of their good minds, their lives cannot bear good fruits. We know this all too well.

The work of goodness is taking place ceaselessly in our minds, based on the heavenly and worldwide ideals which human beings are destined to fulfill. Yet we have completely ignored this, severed ourselves from it, and have lived lives of violation. We should feel this deeply, to the core of our flesh and bones during this hour. Unless we can do this, there is no way we can love God, as fallen people.

What then must we do with all our effort? What must we do at the cost of all kinds of sacrifices? We must build the world for which God wishes, the world for which humanity longs. God is looking for one clan that stems from one parent. In other words, He is looking for the one clan rooted in God. We must understand this and lead our lives according to this standard. Otherwise even if the ideal world, ideal humanity, and ideal Kingdom of Heaven are built, they will not have any connection with us.

God created human beings and blessed them to have dominion over all things. He also said, “Multiply and fill the earth.” God intended to directly govern the people who have fulfilled these words and attained perfection. This was the standard of creation. Yet human beings have failed to fulfill this standard. Therefore, we have failed to rule the earth, multiply the world of true love, or receive God’s true love. This is the source of our sorrow. Because we live in such a realm, we have become sacrifices in Satan’s tests.

God has to raise up humanity again and have them rule the earth. He has to make good accomplishments to bring resolution to every aspect of fallen human life, which has been thrown into confusion and evil. He has to bring people together in harmony and create a heavenly clan. After all this is done, God plans to govern them. This is the goal for which God is working. This is the historical goal which human beings are pursuing. It is the standard of hope which the heart of humanity reveres.

We should have lived in such a world. Therefore, we must learn to be deeply grateful that every element in us is headed toward that place of our hope.

Human Beings Should Build a World of Love under God

Originally, human beings were to love Heaven, yet they fell to the lowest possible place, they have been working to recover it all in the opposite way. Originally, they should have received God’s love and formed love relationships with siblings, spouses and parents, but they became fallen people instead. Therefore, even if one proudly insists that he is a true parent, a true spouse and a true brother, no one has forged a true relationship with God.

Because this is the nature of the clan to which we belong, we do not have any basis to claim that anything we govern belongs to God. This world, which was created to be God’s world, does not even belong to human beings. It has become Satan’s. How pitiful! People must emerge who experience the sorrow Heaven feels as He beholds this situation. There must emerge those who experience the sorrow of humanity. Otherwise, there is no way to undertake a movement to liberate this world from Satan’s bondage.

To conduct such a movement, God has worked to strengthen the influence of the conscience in people. Because human beings, whom God should have governed, were lost, He sent central figures in each age. Taking responsibility for all human problems, God sent the central figures who revealed the mission of humanity in the time they lived. These were the prophets and sages of history.

Due to the fall, we human beings totally lost the six days of God’s creation. We can worship God only on the Sabbath. Consequently, having lost human beings, with whom He wanted to relate frequently, God has searched hard for an opportunity to make it possible. He has been seeking human beings with no concern for the infinite efforts He has to make in the process. Yet human beings do not know of the many toils God has undergone.

The prophets and sages who came in their assigned times, the heavenly people who came with a mission for their time, what did they present to the earth? They insisted that the people should not value anything of the earth, but should believe in God. They insisted that the land in which the people lived was not the eternal land, that the lives they were leading were not eternal lives, and that the joy they felt on earth had no connection with eternal joy.

Our ancestors fought to kill the prophets whom God sent, representing their particular moment or age in the 6,000-year course of the providence. Our ancestors betrayed the heavenly will. They not only betrayed the people God sent, they also betrayed God Himself. We must consider this background and reflect upon what kind of position we are in today.

God raised these people and made endless efforts to build a relationship with fallen people. Even though these efforts have piled up and become the grief of Heaven, the grief of the land, and the grief of all people, no one mourns over the affairs of heaven and earth. Countless are ignorant of this grief and mourn only over their individual affairs.

Many people testify that the last days are nearing. At this crucial time, have you ever felt the heart of Heaven? God realizes that there is no one who grieves over His sorrow. Although God has been regretting and lamenting for 6,000 years as He clung to humanity and carried on the fight, human beings still possess conditions for lamentation. Have you opened the doors to your hearts today and fathomed the sorrowful heart of Heaven found deep in heaven, earth and all things? Have you ever fathomed the sorrow of Heaven, piled higher than the highest mountain? This sorrow is deeper than any person’s or any nation’s sorrow. We must understand that no sorrow ever experienced by a human being can ever compare with God’s sorrow.

Abandon a Self-Centered Mentality

If we are to be part of the people who sincerely love Heaven, as descendants of fallen people who must follow this destiny, our minds that seek goodness must explode within us so that we can feel the sorrow of Heaven which lies deep inside everything. We must become people who complete the responsibility to alleviate this sorrow. Unless such a group of people emerges, there is no way that the great will of the providence can be accomplished.

Yet human beings have been battling until now, based only upon themselves. They have been fighting, centering on their families, nations, lands and peoples. Yet this is not Heaven. God has been toiling to become our God, for the sake of our world and humanity. On the contrary, humanity on the earth has been searching for their own self-centered families, their own self-centered nations, and land they can rule based upon themselves. This has been the course of history until now.

Due to the fall, human beings have lost the heavenly heart, conscience, body and all things. Still, they are not aware of this incredible truth. Instead, they have been pursuing material things, their bodies, their minds, and their love, all centered on themselves. If there had been no work done by God to grab these people and drag them through the way in which they can transcend themselves, humanity surely would have perished. They would have been destroyed.

We must be eternally grateful toward Heaven, who has been directing us in our daily lives, through our minds, to awaken us. Fallen people, living selfishly until today, have fallen to the lowest possible state. However, fallen people face the destiny of restoration, by which they must return to their original state.

Your body is to fulfill cosmic value. Everything you possess is a sacrifice which can connect with the cosmos. Yet human beings have been ignorant of this truth. The heart of love you possess can connect with the heavenly heart. You have to understand that God has been laboring until now to build a relationship with ignorant people who stand opposed to Heaven.

All things which commonly took place in the course of history until now were battles fought for the individual’s sake. The battles were fought for their people and their territory. People have not gone any farther than to fight for the sake of their territory, their people, and their sovereignty. All the battles have been fought based on selfishness. Yet if we do not go beyond such battles, humanity will inevitably be doomed.

Countless peoples and nations have declined. Many people have demonstrated love and loyalty to their nation or people, their territory and the sovereignty of their era. Where did all these patriots go? All the patriots whose names are recorded in history have disappeared. Although there were many patriots in sovereign nations throughout history, their heart of integrity has disappeared.

When we examine history, we find that many people have fought to seize land and remove borders. What we must realize is that the original, ideal world ultimately cannot be built by these means.

After the passage of the imperialist age when land is seized and expanded, what must we seek? After the age of imperialism, we must seek people. Such a time will come. Ideology and beliefs are necessary to find people. However, if we try to take land based on ideology and beliefs, the ideology will not live. You cannot deny the historical trend which sought a new ideology after the great crisis of the First World War. After the age when battles are fought over the land, there will come an age when battles are fought over people. It is the time when battles will be fought with ideologies.

A New Religion Must Appear Which Overcomes Nationalism and Loves Heaven

What kind of age will come after that? An age will come when people make efforts to recover what the original people lost. Because we have the responsibility to rule all things, our original mind is at work to make the world our own. If we have the power to influence a certain sovereignty, it is human nature to want to elevate that sovereignty to the worldwide standard. This desire of the original mind directs us toward a certain place and governs our minds. Since the world is to be filled with God’s sons and daughters, each nation must overcome nationalism based on ideology and thought. Nationalism and national concepts must be finished. This is the kind of fight Heaven has been carrying on even while human beings were unaware.

After governing the earth and recovering brothers and sisters, what must be done? We must love Heaven. Since this is the unavoidable destiny for people, when a new religion emerges, it must love Heaven and surpass the religions of this age.

For the people who are searching for their land, Heaven has mobilized their people in an effort to help them find it and has worked to break down barriers and expand territories. For humanity living in the age of the heavenly dispensation, Heaven has established an ideology and philosophy that can dismantle the walls between peoples. What should emerge next? The ideology and philosophy that teaches people to love Heaven must emerge, the ideology which can dismantle the walls between religions and denominations. This is the only way the history of restoration can be concluded.

Therefore, those sovereignties which desire only territory and which love only their people as they plan to invade other nations will perish. On the contrary, if a nation invades other nations with the new ideology and the guiding philosophy of the new age, it will maintain its power and influence as long as the philosophy is still in effect. This has been the flow of history.

In this way, countless tribes have merged. Which nation possesses the most heavenly ideology? When a nation’s ideology is close to the heavenly ideology, it can command sovereignty. Otherwise, it will lose its sovereignty to a third party. The actual situation of the progress of history has been that sovereignty is always seized by the ones who have an ideology with the greatest potential to approach the heavenly ideals.

As you all know, today is the celebration of the Sam-Il Jel. Our people suffered the worst hardships for 36 years under the Japanese empire. The hope we cherished was that Japan would perish. Our people endured, hoping that such a day would come. The more the external situation developed, the stronger our internal determination became. It finally exploded on this day, March 1. You know well that right after the First World War, President Woodrow Wilson’s advocacy for the independence of nations spurred the March 1 uprising.

America is the leading nation in the democratic world and has the power to influence it. It will remain in power only as long as the direction it takes is in line with Heaven’s providence of restoration. If there is a deviation, America will decline.

In the 36 years of colonialization under Japan, we saw many patriots. Many patriots shed their blood on this land. Even as they shed their blood, they fought on with the hope that, although our people were under oppression at the moment, they would not be defeated but would certainly become independent. For this reason, the Republic of Korea was able to reinstate its sovereignty.

The Reason Jesus Could Become the Messiah

The patriots fought against all conditions of oppression because they loved their nation and land. They had hope for the one victorious day and had an unshakable belief that such a day would surely come. This is how they were able to not submit to the oppression, and carry on their struggle. We should understand this.

These principles hold true in winning a nation. To establish a heavenly ideology, we must have a stronger sense of unchanging camaraderie. Hoping for the holy land, we must act on behalf of Heaven. Although there have been many religious people who upheld God’s providence in step with the flow of history, among them all, Christians were offered as miserable sacrifices in fierce battles with Satan. We should understand this.

Even when we look at the 4,000 years of Old Testament history and the 2,000 years of Christian history since Jesus, we find that numerous people have followed the teachings of Heaven, while other people have not even dreamed of such an ideology. As they pursued Heaven’s ideals, many people were sacrificed.

In history, many people were sacrificed to establish Heaven’s ideology. Where will these two groups of people come together, those who have been sacrificed for the sake of God’s will and those who have been sacrificing themselves in the fight for their nations? This is the very question of this age which raises our curiosity. People say that a world government will emerge in the future. History is flowing toward one government and the world of one ideology. These two are approaching each other today. What must we do when these two do not seem to be coming together in a harmonious way?

We must never forget those who fell due to brutal bloodshed for the sake of Heaven and who clung to Heaven’s ideals and battled on. God has been guiding them toward the one opportune time. Hence, the time when people seize land and use ideology to win people over will pass behind us.

Religions have already secured their basic form and are moving toward the direction Heaven pursues, but human desires fail to go that far and stop in the middle. Therefore, although there have been many patriots in history, what can they be proud of in the age when history is glorified and the world is actively moving? What can our famous national patriots be proud of on the world level? They can only be proud of themselves on the national level.

If we compare ourselves with Jesus, who came 2,000 years ago, what kind of person was he? Jesus had the ideology and qualification to govern a nation, the world and humanity. He served God as the Father and insisted that he was the only begotten son of God. Is there anything more to be done besides this? He was indeed qualified to be the Messiah.

Today, we wish at most to become the son or daughter of an emperor or the child of a master of this world. Yet Jesus asserted that he was the only son of the Creator Himself. Truly, he was qualified to be the Messiah.

Jesus, who came with such a mind-set, did not lament, no matter what kind of difficulty he confronted. This was the greatest contribution he made to humanity. Because Jesus had this firm resolution and preserved his devotion and integrity, despite the storm of countless tribulation, he can be praised as the Messiah of all people today.

Jesus had this moral standard and offered his life to accomplish the one ideal. When they blocked his path, Jesus said to his parents, “Go your way.” He said the same to his people, tribe and religion. He abandoned everything and only held onto the world and humanity. He died clinging to the world and humanity. Even if his parents, family, religion and people were to go their separate ways, he believed that the world and humanity could not part from him. This was the essence of Jesus’ thought.

For this reason, the world needs Jesus. Humanity needs Jesus. Before he passed away, Jesus clung to Heaven and lived his life for Heaven’s sake. Hence, God also needs Jesus. Since he is needed in Heaven and earth, Jesus is certainly the Messiah. We should understand this.

What Are We Going to Throw Away and What Are We Going to Take with Us?

If history were to end, to what are we going to connect on a worldwide level after that? This is the crucial question which young men and women full of hope, ideals and courage must resolve. What we should hold onto and what we should throw away is an issue upon which humanity, awaiting the judgment of the last days, must decide.

Judging from the situation of that time, Jesus was seen as a traitor to the people. He was seen as a traitor to his church, tribe and tradition. Yet, in truth, he was not a destroyer but a builder; he was not a traitor, but a patriot. He truly loved Heaven. People have come to understand this truth only recently.

When we think of a true patriot, we probably have some idea of what kind of person he is. If someone is a true patriot or a true democrat, he should see the entire world as one people, as Jesus did.

We must reflect again that Jesus, whom we should worship, courageously walked the path of Golgotha, the path of the cross. Even though he walked such a torturous path, where will Jesus find those who understand his bitter course? The last days of history, which can resolve this grief, will one day come, as long as the fruits of Jesus’ martyrdom remain on the earth and his sorrows are found in the deepest parts of Heaven. Such a time will come, as long as God’s will remains unfinished. We call this time: the day of judgment, the last days, the end of time.

In this time, when we deeply feel the reality of the last days, where should we go and what should we attain? You must ask yourself for an answer to this. Where among this nation and this world can we find people who can follow in the footsteps of Jesus’ boldness? We must cultivate the wisdom with which to shift our gaze and look for these people with a different perspective.

Ladies and gentlemen, how is Jesus’ day different from our own? There is no difference. We who live in an identical time must contemplate whether we can attend Jesus, who was ostracized in his time.

At this time, when we are pursuing the world, we may ask what is the nature of communism, which claims to advocate equality. Communism advocates, “Let us save the workers and farmers; let us live and prosper.”

Let us examine the flow of history again. What kind of people can influence the world in the future? What kind of ideology can impact upon the world? What kind of religion can sway the world? As I have explained earlier, it is democratic religion which is in tune with the ideology of goodness.

This means that goodness is not self-centered. Is there a family that lived only for its sake and did not perish? Is there a nation which attempted to pursue the world for its sake and still lived? One might think that an individual or nation can dominate the world, based on some seemingly eternal and unchanging ideology, but wait and see. If you leave Heaven out, everything will be doomed.

Originally, people were meant to live centered on the heavenly principles. The standard of the conscience found within is what serves as the substitute for the heavenly principles in human life. There is an ideology confronting this standard of conscience, and there is heavenly love confronting this standard of ideology. Restoration is the process by which one seeks the heavenly principles amid this internal environment.

All People Are God’s Sons and Daughters

The time when we find our own world, our own people, our own tribe and our own nation and serve our Lord are the last days for which Heaven is hoping. This is the last days determined by Jesus, when he came to the earth for the sake of God’s will, the day of hope we should seek. It is the day for which Heaven, Jesus and all of us are hoping. Everything will be resolved on that day.

It is the Principle that the Lord of the Second Advent will return in the same way he left. When you lose something, you must look for it where you lost it. If something is broken, you must fix it in the pattern opposite to the way it was broken. Because this is an iron- clad rule which is bound by the principles governing human affairs, the Lord of the Second Advent will return in the same way he left. You have to understand that things are recovered in the same way they were lost.

Today is the time when all that was granted to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden will be recovered. All the people who live in this land today are descendants of fallen Adam and Eve. You are the descendants of fallen parents. You are not descendants of True Parents. Hence, you must become the descendants of True Parents again. What I mean is that you must receive the blessing of True Parents inside the realm of God’s love, where you can relate with God and True Parents directly. You must then form a couple and enter the lineage of the True Parents. Yet, until today, humanity has never properly governed the earth as children of the True Parents. They could not become the sons and daughters of the True Parents. Isn’t this true?

Heaven labored for 4,000 years to establish a doctrine in sight of humankind and raise their Lord. God raised Jesus, who cried out, “This world belongs to me. All people are my kinsmen, and God is my Father.” This is how God has come to be connected to human beings. Yet, since Jesus could not realize this will on the earth and died on the cross, Christ must return. This has elevated the last days as the day of judgment on the national level to that of the world level.

When Jesus returns to this world in the same manner he left it, he must accomplish the purpose left unfulfilled when he had to abandon everything and die on the cross. There must arise a movement of tribes around Jesus in the garden where the world-level ideology is established.

For this reason, a movement must unfold which promotes unification. This does not just apply to the unification of Christianity. All religions must work toward forming one body. Christians say, “You believe in Confucianism and Buddhism, so you will go to hell.” Yet, that is not how it is. Go and see; you will find that is not true. If that is how it really is, then I will go to the next world and protest. That is absolutely not true. People are trying to pull Jesus over to their side. Since it is difficult to pull him horizontally, each claims that they are the best and drive him upward. All humanity dwells inside the realm of God’s will.

Jesus abandoned, all at once, the people and his lineage which God had worked 4,000 years to establish. He gave up Judaism and the chosen people, for whom God had toiled for 4,000 years. This does not mean that the chosen people have lost all connection to God. They had absolute bonds with God. They could claim, “God is our God,” under any circumstance. When Jesus gave up these people, heaven, earth and humanity also gave them up. Consequently, the Jewish people became the most pitiful people of the earth. They had to wander aimlessly throughout the world and be persecuted by other people.

We who hold our hope in Heaven have also lived miserable lives. Although people have been ignorant of this, when the day comes, we will rise to the position where we will be respected, based on the movement of world history.

The chosen people, who could have possessed the glorious worldwide ideology had they been faithful to Jesus, have suffered all ordeals and have been seeking. Hence, the people who were blessed by God are no longer any different from those who were not blessed.

Jesus forsook the people whom God had raised to claim the world. Jesus was not attached to a narrow mentality, promoting only the good of his own religious tradition. He moved forward with a new ideology and a firm determination that if the Jewish people were to disbelieve him, then he would march forward without them. When we reflect on Jesus’ attitude, we learn that Christians today must repent.

Let Us Become the Heavenly People Who Unite the World Based on the Heart

When we summarize these things, we can understand that it is required by the Principle that, after democracy has settled and new doctrines have arisen, religions must be united. What must we do to remain on the side of democracy?

To remain in the free world, Jesus must be with us. If a nation lives for the entire world and all humanity together with Jesus, abandoning everything for the sake of Heaven, then it will remain intact. Jesus called out to God even at the moment everything he had was taken away from him. Jesus was intoxicated in the love of Heaven, to which he clung, and he offered all that he had. If we follow this Jesus, we will remain alive. When a people possesses this ideology, all other people will be defeated at their hands.

What determination should we, the pitiful people of the Korean Peninsula, make? Upon what should we reflect? We must pray with burning zeal, “We who live in this divided nation have given up all that we possess. Without any hesitation, we have left behind our parents, brothers and sisters, families, tribes and all our material things. Heaven, we wish that You allow the place on which we stand to become Gethsemane, where Jesus cried out. We wish this land to be the garden of Gethsemane on the world level. We hope that it can become Golgotha on the world level.” If many young men and women are found in this nation who offer this kind of prayer, this nation will never perish.

Those who pray, “Even if history, this age, our ideology, and our tribes are to be abandoned, we will not forsake that which Heaven loves,” will come to dominate the world. These are the true people of Heaven.

It has been said that Jesus will return in the same way he left, yet where can we find his footsteps? Where can we find the sorrowful heart he felt in the garden of Gethsemane? Where can we find the sorrowful heart Jesus felt when he was carrying the cross to Golgotha, shedding tears, sweat and blood? Jesus is not the problem; we must find the heart of Jesus.

Those who forgive through the heart, unite through the heart, harmonize through the heart, and live in the genuine love of humanity will live inside the garden of hope. Only when people become the masters who can look at the world through their hearts will all things of this universe find peace. Only then can we call God “our Father” and hold onto Him, overcoming any number of hills of grief built up throughout the 6,000 years. These are the actual fruits of Jesus, who cried out in the garden of Gethsemane, who was crucified on the hill of Golgotha.

Only when such people emerge can all of humanity serve God and unite with each other in harmony in the garden of goodness as members of the same family. That is not the world of those who want to receive. It is a place where those who want to give reside. Satan is the one who has fought hard to seize and receive throughout the course of history. The Kingdom of Heaven on earth, which we pursue, is the world of those who promote goodness and unity not for their own sake, but for other people.

God infused the concept of the chosen people into the Israelites, yet the true chosen people are those who can practice the concept of the chosen people in their lives. Therefore, the person whom God has been seeking is one who understands God’s sorrow over having lost the chosen people. He is one who fully manifests the idea of the chosen people, whose purpose is to build the Kingdom of Heaven. The place of unity of all people is the place where the ideal of the chosen people is fully manifested in harmony. Therefore, those who live inside this realm will never perish. What is more, when we base our actions on this ideal, everything we do will work out smoothly. The world of those who live with such a heart to live for others and give to others is the world of God’s will. It is the world where God’s will is fulfilled. It is the garden of hope for which God suffered all tribulations and hardships.

Those Who Truly Love Heaven Are Those Who Sacrifice All They Have and Live for the Sake of God’s Will

If we can find an ideal nation on the earth, which nation would that be? We will call that nation “the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.” Only when that nation is realized can we realize the will of God’s blessing to Adam and Eve, “Govern all things when you have grown to perfection.” Only then can human beings emerge as the true masters of this earth. Only then can humanity become true brothers and sisters to each other and the true sons and daughters of God. Before God, we must become true sons and daughters of filial piety and loyal subjects. We must stand before the world as the true masters. When we accomplish this, God will pass to us all our rightful powers, not just external powers, but also the internal center of the heart. We will become sons and daughters in whom God can entrust everything and be at peace.

Such sons and daughters are greater than any patriot, woman of chastity, or son or daughter of filial piety. The day must come when we can be proud of these people before the world.

Although communists today have created models of ethics and heroism based on their own ideology, this is not what democracy has done. We must surpass them and honor those heroes who have made contributions for the fulfillment of God’s ideals and respect their characters. We must follow in their footsteps and possess their ideals to become people who can march toward the world of God’s ideals.

Dwelling inside this realm, we must march forward to the day when we can unite this world and humanity as one and attend the Lord of our hope, the day when we can become one with the creation on behalf of heaven and earth. God seeks those who truly love Heaven and their nation, those who long for that one day as they offer all they have and continue to battle with the determination to sacrifice everything.

Prayer

Father, when we reflect back on history, we find that humanity has walked the course of Golgotha. The mountains and streams at which we are looking are full of skulls; the city in which we live is a city of skulls; the land in which we live is barren. We who stand here were abandoned by other people. Father, what is the one thing we can possess? Jesus said that when someone strikes our right cheek, we should let them also strike our left cheek. When someone asks us for our coats, we should also give the clothes we wear beneath it. When and where will these words be realized? They will be realized through a people who assert a certain ideology and through a religious group.

Father, this nation never knew how to speak in its own defense, even when it was suffering through its 4,000-year history. Even when it was suffering through many despairing events, it endured with patience for the one day of hope.

However, this people does not realize that it has been placed on the hill of Golgotha in the last days due to a hidden heavenly connection. Father! Father, please let every part of this peninsula be filled with voices like the cries of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. Allow us to look for the true people who long for Jesus, he who begged You to forgive his enemies on the hill of Calgary.

The chosen people of Israel did not even recognize Jesus of the garden of Gethsemane. No one understood the sorrowful heart of Jesus, who wept over the heart of God, the heart of humanity, and to alleviate the grief of the land. He cried out, “Let the earth explode, let the heavens explode, let this body be torn apart.”

Jesus must have been overwhelmed by the sorrows which had broken his heart, yet his three disciples were completely ignorant and fell asleep. Please let us keep in mind how we have been living only for our own sake.

Father, You have gathered us. We are pitiful. We have come thus far because You allowed us. You allowed us to stay here and have guided us. Please let many sons and daughters gather who will give up all they have and come forward with Jesus’ determination, crying loudly that they cannot abandon You and the world in the garden of Gethsemane, that they cannot forsake humanity or the Father. Father, this is our sincere wish.

When we reflect on this day, we feel infinite sorrow. We know that this day is a bitter and sorrowful day for these people. Let this be the day when we can be shaken up by a new eternal ideology and possess a heart yearning for God’s will.

I have given them words of truth. Please help them become those who love Heaven and love the original heavenly nation which will be established. Father, we pray for this from the depths of our hearts.

We know countless people have been seeking this path, even as they were dying and offering their lives. We have come to sense the direction in which the Father has pointed us. Please allow us to preserve the heavenly relationship by offering our minds and bodies, and loving Heaven and the nation. Please do not let us trample upon the tradition which has been established through the 6,000-year history. Please let us not become traitors. This is our sincere prayer.

Have these people learned something through the words I have given them? If they have, let them understand that they are words which reveal the profound truth; they must revive their hearts in this, the end of history, cross over the hill of Calgary and be resurrected.

Please allow us to abandon all we possess as Jesus abandoned all that he had for the sake of the ideal of the new world and the new ideology. Please allow us to comfort Your grieving heart and endure in the last days. Please do not let us be defeated by the persecution we will suffer in the last days. Father, we hope for these things from the bottoms of our hearts. Please let all things be fulfilled as You desire. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.

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Chapter 14: Let Us Halt in Our Steps and Behold the One Who Is Protecting Us

Psalms 121
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea
March 8, 1958

Prayer

We the unworthy have come before the Father, who governs life and death. Father, please receive us. Please take us in accordance to Your Will.

Although we want to dwell inside the realm of life and offer praise to the Father, we are still bound by the sinful nature that dwells inside the realm of death. Father, You have been conducting the providence of restoration to guide us to the new realm. Please be present here in this hour and dismantle the realm of death. Grant the grace of life and resurrection.

Eternal Father, please allow this to be an hour when we can live our lives with the original value of creation. Allow us to become those who can sing praises to the supreme goodness of the Father.

Due to the fall of the first human ancestors, our connection of life to heaven and earth has been severed. The archangel, who should have offered praise on behalf of the angelic world, betrayed Heaven and failed to complete his responsibility.

Since You have called upon us today, please alleviate through us the bitterness You have felt because no one has recited poetry for You. Please consult with us about Your internal situation, which You have not been able to share with anyone. Raise us to become people who can connect with all people and with Heaven. Father, this is our sincere wish.

My Father, we sincerely wish that You guide us to remain loyal to You. You have longed to share Your joys of creation with us. Allow us to build a solid bond with You as embodiments of life.

Please reveal to us that You are looking for someone who can offer You sincere songs of praise, that You long for us to stand as objects who can cooperate with You. Please allow us to fathom the heart of the Father, who has established the ideals of creation and toiled until now to allow us to govern everything. Please allow us to offer infinite help, praise and inspiration to the Father.

We the unworthy have come in the presence of the Father. Please allow us to understand that we cannot achieve any condition the Father wishes us to fulfill, if we center our lives on ourselves. Please allow us to be able to fathom the Father’s heart and situation. Father, this is our sincere wish.

Father, we know that during the last week we have committed many things which deviated from Your will; yet, even just for this hour, please allow us to build a genuine common base with You as You desire. Allow us to be embraced inside the Father’s bosom of love as embodiments of goodness.

This is a glorious day. Please bless all people and bless this pitiful nation. Please embrace the lonely members inside the bosom of Your grace. We, the unworthy, bow before You. Please govern us. Let no other rule us.

Father of love, please do not let this be an hour when the forces of darkness invade. Let it be a time when we can harmoniously share our hearts with You in this sanctified place and bow before You. Hoping that You will personally govern us from the first of the hour to the last, we pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Prayer

Please let this be an hour when we can commemorate the actual hyung sang of Christ, who originally came to rule heaven and earth. Let this be an hour when we can commemorate his heart as he was praying for his enemies, shedding blood on the hill of Golgotha. Please let us feel deeply, to the core of our flesh and bones, that this is the saddest thing that could have happened on the earth.

Father, we sincerely pray that You allow us to experience, within ourselves, the sorrowful heart of Jesus Christ and understand the bitter anguish of Heaven. We pray further that we can be concerned about Satan, who committed the historical sin, as well as about the direction our descendants will take in the future.

For 6,000 years, You have repeated Your labors and the providence of tears to find us. We are neither worthy nor dignified. You have been concerned for us every hour and every day, and You were never afraid of suffering wounds in Your heart. Please allow us to open the gate to our hearts wide and take after Yours. Please allow us to move our bodies and safeguard the footsteps of toils.

We who have passed through the course of sins and betrayed Heaven in sin have gathered in the presence of You, thoroughly exhausted, having attained nothing. Although we know we are unworthy to stand in Your holy presence, since it is our fate to find You, we bow down before You, cherishing Your heart. Therefore, Father of compassion, please forgive us. Father of love, please show us mercy.

Father, You have endured and continued to battle to find us. Please raise Your whip of advice. If some evil elements remain within us that keep us from You, please remove them. If we do not listen to Your advice, then please use Your whip to eliminate those evil elements from us, so that we may connect to the heart of Heaven and obey the commands of God. My Father, this is our sincere wish.

Father, please look down upon these thirty million people with compassion. Please be compassionate toward these people, who have crossed the valleys of sorrow in the course of their history. They have survived until this moment, even though they were lost and had to search for the way. Please allow Heaven’s new message of righteousness to be conveyed to this people, who has been struggling without knowing their true destination. Please grant the day when we can build a new altar of resurrection. Please allow a time of new glory for these people.

We know that You have gathered us here and have ordered us to become sacrifices for the people. Please allow us not to continue to blame ourselves for not being able to cope with the responsibilities Heaven has bestowed upon us, but let us become the sacrifices who can offer all that we have for God’s will and become the sons and daughters who can penetrate Satan’s city with a bomb and blow it up.

These people are not the only ones who are wandering aimlessly, not knowing where they should go. Please ring the bells of new commandments upon the countless numbers of humanity who live on the earth, and manifest the light of life. Please let the hour come to us quickly when we can introduce the Father’s one day of glory. Father, we pray for this from the depths of our hearts.

Father, You have called upon us and have revealed to us the entire will of the providence! Now we have come to understand Your will. Please perform Your works so that we can work to accomplish that will.

Please spur our steps when we falter and invigorate our bodies when we hesitate, so that we may go toward the blessed land which the Father desires with a new determination. Father, it is our sincere to become such sons and daughters.

Please take care of Your sons and daughters who have gathered here. They lie prostrate with desperate hearts. Therefore, please open Your hands of compassion. Please embrace them with the bosom of love, and grant them the glory of re-creation. We know that, at this moment, lonely members everywhere in the countryside are bowing before You. Please take notice of their sincere hearts and grant them the day when all their wishes are fulfilled. Personally manifest Your glory and delight in them.

We bow down before You now. Even though we have not brought any gift, please allow us to expose all our stained hearts and repent before You. Please allow us to expose all that evil has defiled and receive the grace of compassion through our repentance.

Please remove all our concepts. Allow us to revert to the heart of a child. Allow us to be held by Heaven’s power and move in harmony with Heaven’s motion. Allow us to attain life and sing of the Father’s glory.

Although countless satans are eagerly watching us, please do not let any of us fall prey to their temptations. We hope that the Father will rule us. We pray all this in the name of the Lord.

Prayer

Father, we are like orphans who do not know where we should go or in what circumstances we live, but who blindly follow the flow of history without securing the center of life. We have been pushed back and have survived with a pitiful existence until today.

We did not know that the Father was there, holding us and weeping when we were sad. We did not know that our Master has worked day and night to find us, we who were shackled to the realm of death. Please let us understand that it is more precious to come to know and experience these truths than to win both heaven and earth.

Let us understand that we have a Father who has labored for us and has been deeply concerned about our lives. Let us then serve the Father with all our minds and bodies with a sense of great awe. Let us understand the heart of the Father who took wounding blows in our place, who held us and embraced us when we fell down due to exhaustion, and who comforted us and showed us our path. Please allow us to reflect deeply upon our hypocritical lives in which we have not lived up to our words. Please allow us to become one with the heart of the Father and to become the sons and daughters who can fathom the situation of the Father. Please allow us to become inseparably united with the Father and to mourn over Heaven’s sorrow as our own and to rejoice in Heaven’s joy as our own. Please allow us to consider Heaven’s affairs our affairs and see Heaven’s responsibilities as our responsibilities. Father, please allow us to concretely feel that we must shoulder the responsibility to fight the myriad satans with an unchanging heart and become a sacrifice to save humanity.

Heaven never dozes, even as we doze. Heaven never sleeps, even as we sleep. The Father has worked hard to awaken this people and guide them. We who have come before You are unworthy, so please forgive us. If there is someone who is dozing off, please chastise them. If there is someone who has been hurt, please pour oil on them and wrap the wound.

If someone is desperately trying to find Heaven, please embrace him and comfort him during this hour. We did not realize that the Father understands our situations and has forgiven our actions, even those which are difficult to forgive. Please allow this to be a time when we can bring out all our difficulties and sorrows from the depths of our hearts and replace them with what You give us. Father, this is our sincere desire.

Father, we pray from the depths of our hearts that You eliminate all wrong elements in our minds. Allow us to make a firm determination to become one with Your heart and sung sang.

Please let no one among us try to fathom Your nature with our concepts, but let us completely obey You and unite with Your will, to be molded as You desire. If we have some element within us which You cannot forgive, then please remove it from within us and personally command us.

Please grant them the words of truth You wish to give. More than any words, we need the new words that come from the heart of the Father. Please allow us to remove all distance in between and immediately feel Your heart, so that we can feel Your feelings and heart as our own. We sincerely pray that You allow us to experience the Father’s grief and alleviate Your bitterness. Allow us to feel the impact of the new words of truth in our minds and bodies.

Please let the heart of the speaker and the hearts of the listeners be completely united, and multiply Your grace in this hour. Praying that You will extend Your hands of compassion to all the lonely members who are bowing to You all across the nation, we pray all this in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Human beings have walked the long course of history, not knowing their destination. With what ideology were they born? At what destination will they arrive with the aid of that ideology? Based on what value are they going to connect to what purpose? You know very well that people have been struggling because they have not found a complete solution to any of these issues.

When people of faith discuss their existence, they say that their existence began from Heaven and will end in Heaven and that they are pursuing the ultimate value before the will of God. Yet, I believe that there must come a time when even the average person thinks like that. Although all we think about is centered on ourselves, our human purpose is not to be found in ourselves. We sense deep within us that we seek to transcend ourselves and be connected to some world of ideology.

However, there is a gap of time and space between that world and where we are now. If something can bridge this gap, it is not an academic theory or some clever means. This gap can be bridged only when we enter the world of the heart.

“Heart” has been a controversial topic in the religious sphere and in the areas of culture and the arts. There is heart at the level of the individual, heart at the levels of the family, the society, the nation and the world. Furthermore, if a Creator exists, an actual Lord, it is undeniable that this Lord is moving in line with the heart.

Let Us Become Someone Who Can See the Whole Picture

People live and act based on their hearts. People act to solve problems based on their hearts, and they build relationships based on that too. This is how society, the world and Heaven’s principles operate.

When we take the universe and the cosmos as a whole, the center of their activities is heart. In other words, there is no entity which does not abide by principles based on the heart. We have to understand this.

When we reflect on ourselves with respect to the heart, what kind of heart do we possess? What kind of heart do society and the people of the world possess? If there is a God who is trying to realize a unified cosmos, what kind of heart does He have? The important question is through what means and relationships the hearts are to be connected. If a great religion emerges which can help individuals transcend their hearts and even transcend their societies, nations and the natural world to connect to the heart of God, then all things of creation will naturally wish to belong within the realm of this religion.

What is the ultimate purpose of our pursuing greater goodness, higher beauty, and greater emotional love? It is to connect with the heavenly heart of the Creator. We must reflect upon this situation again.

When we examine the heart of God, the heart of the heavenly principles, and the heart of human principles, it is true that they are not moving toward one purpose as they should. Ethics in human society do not have the same orientation as the heavenly principles which follow the laws of the providence. If we were to use religious language, we can say that this is the result of the fall. Due to the fall, the heart of the Creator, the heart of the heavenly principles, and the heart of human principles are in conflict.

We must understand our situation and realize the state of our society and world. We must stop in our footsteps to behold the resurrected natural world again, to behold the heart of the Creator in a new light, and to look into the actual situations of society again. We must point out our minds and bodies again, otherwise, a new world of ideology and love cannot emerge in human history. We must look at the One who has stopped in His tracks to protect us.

We must stop and feel within ourselves an urgent necessity to reflect upon the One who has been working to build a relationship with us in our lives, even without our conscious knowledge. He is the One who has been taking care of our living environment and protecting us.

The topic of the sermon I want to give to you today is “Let Us Halt in Our Steps and Behold the One Who Is Protecting Us.” I would like to speak on this topic.

We must learn to look at the whole picture. Furthermore, we must learn to lift our gaze and behold the world of minuscule organisms. We must lift our gaze and look at the actual situation of society, which is being destroyed by waves of death. We must lift our gaze and look at the world of emotions and ideologies, which longs to link the world of our hearts to the world of ideology.

We must think about connecting everything from the minuscule bacteria to the entire cosmos. We must think about the horizontal world and the three-dimensional world, which is the world of the mind.

The Purpose of God’s Creation

The earth in which we live is constantly rotating around the sun, according to the principles of the universe. Not only the earth, but the sun itself is rotating. The sun, which is 1.3 million times more massive than the earth, is in constant motion. In the universe, there are vast galaxies that are many billion times more massive than the sun. We call these galaxies “miniature universes.” In the universe, there are countless such galaxies. We call all of these together the “great universe.” We must open our hearts wide and look at the huge universe. God, who created this enormous universe, has been acting according to the unchanging principles of the universe for many billions of years. God has been moving this entire universe with powers which are beyond our imagination and sensations.

The more we think about God, the Creator of this universe, the more we bow our heads before His magnitude. The Creator of this gigantic universe is the Father who cares for us, the God who protects us, our great Hero. We must comprehend this by opening our minds wide.

After creating this great universe, God looked upon all things of the universe with great delight. If God could talk, how much He would have said! If He could boast, how much He would have boasted!

Although the universe is so great it cannot be measured by numbers, God’s purpose of creation cannot be found in the universe itself. God’s purpose of creation can be found on the earth, which is only a small planet inside the solar system, and within human beings, who are even smaller than dust particles when compared to the great universe. When we think about this amazing fact, how delighted, grateful and glorious must we feel?

As we behold all things of the natural world, as we behold the beauty and harmony of how all things follow the seasonal changes in natural phenomena, we should not look at them without appreciation of their profundity. When we look at a flying bird, butterfly or bee, when we look at the flowing streams or the tall mountains, we should learn to feel that each of them is God’s creation and the manifestation of God’s internal heart.

Even though there are many artists and authors, each of them uses countless ways to describe the beauty of the natural world. This world is closely connected to the arts and literature. When we understand that without the world of creation, the natural world, we would be deprived of the object of our joy, we come to realize that we cannot live without it. We must behold nature through this connection of heart. Furthermore, from the infinitesimal germs, bacteria and cells that are in circular or square shapes, to the great and immutable heavenly bodies, all living and non-living things are acting and moving toward a certain purpose in an orderly manner.

Why did God create all this? With an open heart, you should reflect again upon the fact that He created the universe for the sake of human beings on the earth, so insignificant and small when compared to the gigantic heavenly bodies.

God should be delighted to watch over what He has created, yet He has never been happy. That is because when human beings are suffering in sorrow, there is nothing more sorrowful for God. Nevertheless, human beings do not even feel this sorrow. We have become so insensitive, we do not even feel it. However, throughout history, God the Creator has mourned before human beings did and worried before human beings did, and He has labored for the sake of human beings.

The Original State Where Religions Are Born

You should open your heart, stop in your footsteps and behold God. Only then can the value of human beings be realized.

Today we believe God to be the center of our feelings and thoughts. God is moving the entire universe and is progressing toward eternity without rest. We have to believe in this God. This God has been protecting us for the long 6,000 years. Though we have had time to rest, God has never had time to rest. Though human beings could sleep, God never had time to sleep. He had to recognize human beings when they did not recognize Him.

In the meantime, God has governed all the laws by which the entire universe functions. He has re created human beings and has been working to raise them as valuable masters of the entire universe, who can act on His behalf. Have you ever been deeply and sincerely grateful to God for all He has done for us?

The moment you feel a sincere devotion welling up inside you, you can look at the creation and bow down before it. As you look up at the sky or nature, when you look at the infinite stars of the universe, you will be overwhelmed by a sense of mystery and awe. Religions have begun from these feelings. We must be able to appreciate natural phenomena and be able to look at all the moving things of the creation and sing a song on behalf of the precious world of the heart within us.

When all living things resonate in our hearts as if they were playing natural music, like the arts or natural literature, we can become connected to God, who rules the heavenly bodies. Only when you feel strongly that you are intimately connected to everything can you can enter a state of the heart that can appreciate them. You have to understand that when we enter a mystical state, we can feel everything as it is really.

This is the relationship which exists between God the Creator and all of His creation. God and the entire universe are intertwined by these relationships, and they are trying to build bonds with human beings. If you behold the natural world understanding this fact, you can finally feel the true dignity of human beings.

When we realize that the reason God and all things are intertwined in these inseparable relationships is to link with human beings, who are so small and insignificant, we will come to fathom the relationship between all things and ourselves, between ourselves and God. In this state of mind, our minds will continue to head in that direction. In our daily lives, we are driving ourselves to move in that direction. You must understand that this is the state where art and religion come into being.

Therefore, we should not look at the infinitely grand universe without a proper sense of appreciation. We should understand that they have an eternal relationship with us, and that they were created for our sake. There we can gain the conviction that no matter what kind of cosmic turmoil, God will protect and care for us.

We can then experience our amazing, inseparable relationship with God and feel that God is our Father, intimately connected to our hearts. We will feel our minds and bodies come in contact with something previously unknown through the heavenly and human principles.

This force comes from God’s heart, and is the operating power which has become connected to God and us through the principle of creation. This force is the standard of heart which can penetrate through the world of ideology, the world of the heart, and even the world of imagination. It can even penetrate the invisible world.

The Greatness of God and the Original Position of Human Beings

We have to understand this as we relate with all things and become someone who can sing of the heart of God, who created the natural world. We have to be able to sing of the heart of God who rejoiced after creating the universe; we should sing of the heart of God when He rejoiced after creating human beings. We should sing about how this world of ideology has been made so good, precious and beautiful. When we can praise God with this heart, we can become connected to heavenly and human love. You must understand that this is how the historical and providential bond of heart, which is linked to the heavenly principles and human principles, is forged.

Today, we often understand God as one who has the same sung sang as we. However, in your life of devotion, when you are praying or when you are meditating quietly, watching the natural world alone in the dark night, or when you have opened the door to your heart with a serious attitude and feel the outpouring of your original mind as you behold nature, you will feel that nature exists for you. You will experience deeply that the infinitely large world of the heavenly bodies exists for your sake. If you then bow your head and pray, “Father, thank You,” you will offer a more profound prayer than any you may offer based on your personal feelings.

Although we call God “our Father,” we merely thought that this Father protects us. We did not know our Father was so gigantic, great and all-encompassing. We have to realize clearly, in the depth of our hearts, that this Father has been working hard to elevate us and build a father-son relationship of heart with us throughout the many thousands of years since the creation of the universe.

When you come to sincerely feel this in your innermost heart, you can use the words “great” and “gigantic” for describing this Father alone and no other. This is how great and immense He is. If we were to praise Him with such words as “great,” “amazing” and “dignified,” He is so great that there is no other being worthy of being portrayed by the same words. You have to understand that we have been worshipping this Father and that this Father has been protecting us.

Why has our human desire been so small until now? Why has our point of view been so narrow? Why have our feelings been so wicked? We can only lament over ourselves.

If in your life of devotion you have never had the experience of entering this state and feeling this emotion about the world of ideology, bowing your heads and shedding tears, calling out “Father” to the Holy One who is protecting us, then even if you understand our goal of attaining dominion over the natural world, you cannot shoulder the responsibility to accomplish it.

Jesus said, “For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life?” (Matthew 16:26) What does it mean that our insignificant and unworthy selves are more valuable than anything in the creation? It is not because we have the most beautiful appearance or shape; it is not because we are so great. It is only because of the fact that we alone can connect to the love which flows internally from the world of the ideal of the creation. That is why we are precious.

No matter how vast the heavens may be, no matter how beautiful nature may be, they can at most give inspiration and stimulation to God. They cannot grasp the Father’s heart of creation and bring Him joy by manifesting that heart. The things of creation cannot grasp the entire stream of the creative heart and respond to it in kind. No other being in the universe, only human beings, who have been blessed with dominion over the universe can do this. For this reason, God needs human beings. If you take the heart out of human beings, their value is no longer greater than that of all things.

What is true for our heart is also true for our actions. What must we do to establish the ideology and manifest it as beauty, love and goodness before the heart of God, who created the universe? We have to understand that before our path lies a relationship of the heart which is more lofty than any self-centered desire, hope, joy or feelings.

What Human Beings Must Ultimately Pursue

Though a person may have claimed, “I am happy, successful and a great victor,” there still remains a far greater happiness which has never been attained by anyone. We must understand that no matter how successful or wealthy one may boast about being, there still remains far greater success and far greater wealth which have never been attained by anyone.

In the last days of history, today, Heaven is searching for us, and we are seeking Heaven. We can imagine how great is the happiness we do not know, how great the success we can achieve. We can imagine that there is something about which we can sing in joy and boast proudly like no one in history.

What people rejoice over now is not complete happiness or full success. These are only transitory phenomena. Those who are intoxicated with them are truly pitiful.

Jesus said, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life?” (Matthew 16:26) The life he referred to is not life inside the realm of the fall. What is that life? It is the life which connects us directly to the life of the Creator. We must understand that Jesus’ words refer to the precious human life which can link with God’s original love and the love of the original nature.

In our life, we should not boast about happiness which is centered on ourselves, because we are walking a path of sorrow due to the fall. Those who do will fade away. Those who boast of happiness which is founded upon their people, or this world in which we live, also will fade away. Even if one advocates some ideology, if one is fighting for the sake of an ideology centered on his nation or this earthly world, he will also fade away.

If there is Heaven, we must realize how we stand in the middle of a progressing history. We must halt in our steps and reflect again. Who is the Master who governs our lives? We want to be happy, yet who is the Master who can govern our joyful feelings? We want to move toward certain goals and become successful, yet who is the Master of those successes? This Master is not our teacher or some great ideology in which we believe, nor is it a religion. When we consider this, we must stop and think whether there is someone who is protecting us with the true heart which brings us true ideology, happiness and success.

No matter how happy you may be, if your joy does not have any connection with the world, how can your accomplishments make any contribution to the 6,000 years of human history or the eternal history of the universe? Even if a person has made great contributions to his nation, he can be considered a patriot only when he made the contributions for everyone’s sake, not merely for his own.

History is moving forward in a serious manner. We must stop and think who is our Lord, whom we wish to be governed by, whom we want to serve in our hearts, and for whom we want to lead our lives. This is the problem.

Why is not possible for you to live happily for your own sake, even if you wanted? If you reflect on this within your living environment, you should stop and ask who is the beloved Master of ideology, who is trying to bring blessings to humanity, and who is our Master who controls the causes of true happiness and steers the course of our history?

The Direction and Driving Force of History

You may not be so well aware of this fact, but history is moving toward some destination. It is ceaselessly flowing toward the one unified world of the ideal. This is not an arrangement made by human beings or something human beings have accomplished. This flow moves forcefully in spite of our ignorance of it. Since it has the power to surround us, move our minds, and steer the course of our nation and world, and since we are on our way toward the world of our destination, we cannot help being a part of this great procession. You should reflect once more upon your being subject to this unalterable fate.

In this flow, where is our path heading? Is it to the left or the right? Is it vertical or horizontal? When we consider this flow, we find that we cannot boast about any self-centered success. The same thing holds true, even if we are delighted in the great world of the arts.

A person has value as the subject in sight of the entire universe in a reciprocal relationship with it. Therefore, until we can achieve the kind of success of which we can boast in the presence of the creation, there is no way we can alter that flow of the heart. The path we must walk is one. We set out from this amazing and great world of relationships and pass through a world of relationships before arriving at our destination. There we can fully manifest our original value and proudly stand in the presence of the Creator. Hence, we must understand that in their innermost hearts human beings long to be such victors and attain such joy and freedom.

Religions and the arts have emerged to guide people. They have been dealing with the realm of our emotion. They have been expanding the realms of emotion from the individual level to the family level, the national level, the world level, and the universal level. This is the direction the arts of the past have pursued.

The arts, culture and literature exist to connect us with the natural world in our hearts and to guide us to the world of emotion and thought. Science has been helping us relate with our external living environment through its external laws. The path of science is more cold-hearted the more one pursues it, while the path of the arts and literature is an increasingly painful path the more one treads upon it. Despite this, everything has been moving toward the one ideal.

What is religion? Even though science, the arts and culture have made contributions to our world and have broadened our emotions, they could not connect our realm of emotions to the eternal world. They could not connect us to the world of original, heavenly emotions. Religion emerged to shoulder the responsibility for this internal world of emotions.

Religion represents the internal aspects of the arts and culture. Religions guide people to worship the invisible Lord, whom artists and authors cannot imagine. They allow people to be moved by the inspirations of beauty the invisible Lord gives them.

There will come a time when religions, which were divided into many denominations and sects, will come together. This will not occur based on the framework of religions or the arts, but through those of you who work to bring it to pass. Ladies and gentlemen, “I” am a being. If there is a religious doctrine which understands this concept well, it can pierce to the heart of the matter and lay a foundation of the heart which can connect with heavenly love. No matter how beautiful and stimulating a work of art may be, if it cannot connect with the religious spheres, history will shove it aside as a failure and expel it from the earth.

The Place of Rest Where the Greatest Blessings Are Given

We should be seeking the self, and religions have made considerable contributions throughout the periods of history. There is no true progress in the world of emotions. Why? It cannot make progress because it has replaced the world of the heart. There was no progress thousands of years ago nor will there be much many millions of years from now. There is no progress in the realm of emotions through which parents can love children, husbands and wives can love each other, and relatives and kinsmen can love each other. This is because one can represent the whole, perfection and happiness of the whole based on heart alone.

Where can one find the greatest happiness and peace in life? Since God is our Subject, it is the place where we can assert that we are His children, where we can call Him “our Father” and He can call us “His children.” When such a movement emerges on the earth based on love, the world will become a joyful place from that moment forth, and it will be the world of the greatest accomplishments sought by humanity.

This is why religious people have all pursued goodness and have tried to satisfy their desire for goodness. When Jesus came to the earth he called God “Father” and attested that he was one with Him. There is no one who has announced anything greater than this in the whole of human history. Jesus referred to humanity as his bride and friends. He called them his people and his disciples.

Jesus pointed out all the factors which can stimulate and move every human emotion and asserted his value as the Lord. No founder of religion in history has made such an announcement. When Jesus was looking at all things, he did so with a heart of love. When he was relating with historical figures, he did not relate with them horizontally but with a heart deeply concerned about history. Yet conflict arose. We must understand that such contradiction is caused by the fact that this world is fallen.

Jesus said, “Love me more than you love anyone else.” These words were a radical and revolutionary pronouncement to the world in which people had emotional bonds and social relationships. Why? When Jesus looked upon the people with the heart of love that flowed deep within him, when he saw them from this standpoint of being connected to heaven and earth as well as to the heart of every person and the heart of God the Creator, he realized that the love people had shared before then could not be recognized by Heaven as true. This is why he spoke those words.

Since Jesus made such radical pronouncements, everyone who came before him turned out to be his enemy. Thus, the path Jesus walked was a sorrowful one; yet, no one understood his sorrowful heart. No one understood the sorrow he felt when he was nailed to the cross and shed blood in the presence of his enemies at Calgary. Moreover, no one knew the joyful heart Jesus felt, one full of hopes and wishes. Nonetheless, Jesus thought about how God was feeling immeasurable sorrow as He looked upon the fallen people.

God’s hopes were unlimited after He created the universe. If God truly lamented over the fall of human beings and regretted ever having created them, His sorrow must be so deep that we can never in a million years imagine its intensity. On the other hand, we also have to understand that before God’s heart was stained with crushing sorrow, it was full of infinite joy, longing for human beings.

Therefore, Jesus decided that he was not going to be crushed by the weight of his deep sorrow, but would overcome it and seek limitless joy. How was Jesus able to hold onto this heart and fight? Even when Jesus was living an unspeakably miserable life and was kicked out of Joseph’s family, he comforted himself with the knowledge that his situation was not the most sorrowful one. Even when he was persecuted by his nation and condemned as a cult leader by his religion, he knew that greater sorrow than his existed. When he was betrayed by his beloved disciples, he knew it could be worse.

Because Jesus understood, even when he was dying on the cross, that there was a more sorrowful situation than the one he was suffering through, he was able to pray for his enemies. At that moment, Jesus realized that there was a heart which grieved even more than he did and which had suffered through greater sorrows in history.

To Become Brave Soldiers Who Seek the Heart of God

Why did God not abandon the world, even as He was forsaking Jesus? Why did He allow Jesus to be hung on the cross, yet did not forsake his enemies? It was to show that there was even greater sorrow than Jesus’ death.

We fallen people must seek the infinite love of Heaven and experience His historical heart as our reality. He has protected us and labored for our sake. We must emerge victorious before God. When you look at society, you will find that it is not a joyful world. Human history is a history of sorrow. Because human history did not begin in joy, but in grief, human history has become a history of sorrow.

When you look at a person weeping painfully over his grief, you probably feel sympathy toward him. However, do not sympathize with an individual’s grief or rejoice over your situation. Our grief transcends the individual level and is connected to the family level, the national level, the world level, and even to the level of Heaven.

You commonly weep and grieve over your misfortunes, difficulties and sorrows. Yet there is a sorrow which exceeds your individual grief in your family, society, nation, the world and the universe.

To become brave soldiers who seek the heart of Heaven, we must feel not only our sorrow but sorrow at the highest level. We should reflect upon whether the persecution, betrayal and grief we suffer in our life are for the sake of the ultimate goal, our pursuit of Heaven’s love. There is grief which surpasses any sorrow felt in human relationships. If the Creator is great and lofty, His ideals and goodness are also great and lofty. Yet in place of this great and lofty ideal and goodness, sorrow has become the object of God’s heart.

When you seek heavenly love, you are to grieve and weep, but you are not to do so selfishly. You are not to bear fruit for your sake. Such people will be bound to themselves and will perish. Those who cling to their families will decline while holding onto their families, and those who cling to their nation will fall with their nation. Those who cling to the world will perish with the world.

What then must we cling to when we cry? We must cling to Heaven’s love. We should feel God’s sorrow as our sorrow and feel God’s difficulties as our own. Because we are fallen people, because we have to shoulder the sorrowful course of history and walk toward Golgotha, we are not to stop at the sorrows we feel today. That is not the end.

Jesus, who understood this, had no problem praying for his enemies. He was determined that, even if he were to encounter more sorrowful trials, he would prevail and complete his responsibility as Heaven’s son. Therefore, Jesus could step over the hill of death, forgive his enemies on the cross, and overcome death. We must understand this.

What path does religion walk? Although God established religions and gave human beings something precious, they could not walk this precious path but had to suffer difficulties and grief.

For Whom Do I Exist?

No scripture reveals God’s labor and grief of the 6,000 years. However, scriptures extensively elaborate on goodness and the land of blessing where we can live.

Why did God take this approach? It is because God loves us. Because Heaven loves us, He has sought us in this manner. It can be said of our path toward God that joy cannot be attained instantly. Joy can be attained only after we go through the path of sorrow.

If someone on earth longs for the Kingdom of Heaven and longs to become a true son or daughter of Heaven, he should raise his hands and pray in tears, “Please let me shed God’s tears of the 6,000 years in my lifetime.” He must offer his life and risk heaven, earth and all created things as he cries out.

He who discovers that the Father cannot be found in a good, beautiful, precious, proud and glorious place, but is in a state of deep sorrow will become the master of goodness. You have to understand that such a person can become a true son or daughter of God.

If Heaven had eyes and shed tears, He would have shed more tears than all the waters of all lakes put together, so much that there would be no place in heaven and earth which could contain the tears. Hence, one who has deeply experienced the grief of God will look upon a mountain and feel that it is full of God’s labor and anguish. As he beholds an ocean, he will feel that it is God’s tears. As he looks upon the trees and plants, he will feel that they are God’s concerns. When we behold the sight of the infinitely vast cosmos, we may find all its phenomena beautiful, but we must understand that they are a source of God’s sorrow because they have not yet come into a direct relationship with human beings. God will look for sons and daughters who can sense this and call out to Him with this heart of understanding.

A person who is worthy to be called a son of true filial piety is not someone who shares joy with the Father when He is happy. Such a person does not demonstrate true filial piety. Only when someone can shoulder the sorrow and difficulties of his Father can it be said that he has demonstrated true filial piety.

The same holds true for Heaven. Because this is a fallen world where relationships of the heart cannot bear fruit in joy, because we human beings suffer through grief and the vicissitudes of life, even when our hands swell and our bodies become exhausted, we must keep our determination to run toward Heaven. You must understand that the moment you experience a sorrow so deep you cannot share it with anyone on earth and call out, “Father!” is the moment when you can be re-connected to the lost love of Heaven. The moment sorrow disappears from our hearts and we can sing in joy and peace is the moment Heaven will descend, smile and delightfully raise His hands and bless us as His children.

Fallen people must go. They must halt in their steps and take a new course of sorrow. The people should repent who did not understand that Heaven has suffered grief for 6,000 years to protect human beings. They must repent over their family, nation and world.

Unless we follow in the footsteps of Jesus, who was concerned about God’s suffering, and who prayed for his enemies even when he was crossing the Golgotha of death, we cannot feel the toilsome and grieving heart of God while we are on the earth. Unless we alleviate the sorrow found deep inside God, there is no way for the eternal joy, goodness and happiness lying inside God to forge any relationship with people living on earth.

We must reflect again upon our position today. You must have shed many tears. Yet, to what did all your tears amount? Please reflect critically upon yourself. Your hands are actively moving to help you stay alive. However, for whose sake do they move? For whose sake are you so desperately taking steps? For whom do your minds and bodies long? You must stop and reflect upon this point. You must then realize that you live amid the grief of history and that you must seek the one day of hope. Making a new determination, you are to evaluate your past critically. You must lament over the fact that you have not met God’s expectations and have failed to make a relationship with Him.

Are you always going to feel, “I am ashamed to stand before my family, nation and world?” If such feelings spring forth from the depth of your heart, you will shed tears when you face your family, your nation, the world and God. If you do not experience this in your lifetime, you cannot penetrate through the dark barrier in God’s heart to find the goodness, joy and happiness which is hidden at the highest realm.

We must now analyze for whom we are leading our lives and understand the One who protects us. We must behold the One who is protecting us, regardless of whether we are aware of it, the One who protects us even as we are going through all kinds of difficulties.

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