We should not forget that apart from the prophets mentioned in the Bible, there are many other prophets and foreseers who have alluded to a "Last Days" in human history; prophecies concerning great chaos at the end of human history are not restricted to the Bible. There have been famous prophets in all parts of the world and all ages, and they often predicted great upheavals in the Last Days, or an immense catastrophe that will present great difficulty.

One of the most outstanding is the French seer Nostradamus (1503-1566), who made numerous predictions that continue to come true. Consequently, his prophecies have attracted a lot of attention all over the world. Amazingly, four hundred years ago Nostradamus accurately predicted such historical events as the accidental death of France's Henry II, the French Revolution, the appearance of Napoleon, the Russian Revolution, the First World War, the Second World War, the rise of Hitler and the Nazis, Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, the dropping of atomic bombs on two of Japan's cities, the assassination of President john F. Kennedy, and more.

There is a very interesting anecdote about Nostradamus and his powers of prediction. After predicting the day of his own death, Nostradamus wrote an important prophecy on a piece of paper and sealed it. As per his request, the sealed prophecy was placed inside his coffin and buried with him.

Long after he died, people began to notice how his prophecies consistently came true. Amazed by this, people became extremely curious about what was in the prophecy sealed inside the tomb. Understandably, however, it was not a simple thing to ask to dig up the prophet's grave.

As time went by, however, people's curiosity grew, until finally, under the pressure of public opinion, they dug up Nostradamus' grave and opened the sealed prediction. What do you think was written there? On the sealed piece of paper, Nostradamus had written the exact date and exact time, down to the last minute, when the people of the world, unable to control their curiosity any longer, would dig up his grave. That's how great a prophet he was.

Nostradamus predicted a great calamity at the conclusion of the twentieth century that would herald the end of humanity. His prediction that this worldwide catastrophe would take place in 1999 is widely known. He also prophesied that humankind would be able to avoid that disaster if and when a certain "something" or "person" appeared. In addition, he predicted that an amazing and wonderful new world would be born in the twenty-first century.

Another prophet whose existence only recently became widely known is currently attracting attention. This is Nam Sa Go (1509-1571), born in Korea. He recorded his predictions in Kyok Am Yu Rok (Writings from Kyok Am). While he predicts the end of humankind will take place at the end of the twentieth century, he also writes that the savior of humankind will appear in that same year and accomplish the salvation of humanity. He goes on to predict that this savior will be born in Korea, and that his name would start with Mun (Translator's note: Mun, the Chinese character for "letter, writing," is often written as Moon in English. Reverend Moon's name is Mun Sun Myung using standard Korean name order.)

In the book Finally Revealed-1999, Kosaka Michiru asserts that Nam Sa Go is a prophet who exceeds even Nostradamus in prophetic ability. Calling him a "truly amazing prophet," Michiru emphasizes that Nam Sa Go predicts the appearance of the world savior in 1999.

Internationally recognized American seer Edgar Cayce (1877 - 1945) first attracted attention as an amazing young prodigy. Approximately twenty thousand of his prophecies, large and small, have come true. He accurately predicted such events as the outbreak of the First and Second World Wars, the death of President Franklin Roosevelt, and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Concerning humanity's future, Cayce prophesied that the earth would experience a "polar shift" (a shifting of the earth's axis) and numerous upheavals on the surface, including earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and floods, between the years 1998 and 2002. He also predicted that the fabled lost continent of Atlantis would rise out of the ocean at the same time and that most of the Japanese archipelago would sink into the sea. According to Cayce's prediction, a millennial period of peace and harmony will dawn for the whole world after these terrible and frightening upheavals.

From Japan's perspective, Cayce's predictions are clearly significant. Cayce said that the shape of the world's six continents and five oceans would drastically change around the year 2000. At that time, Cayce predicted, the Japanese islands would he submerged.

Another well-known seer is Jeane Dixon (1919 - 1997), whom I had the opportunity to meet and share personal conversations with on several occasions. (On one of these, Mrs. Dixon gave a congratulatory address at a "Day of Hope Banquet" held by Reverend Moon in New York.) She successfully predicted a number of events, including the assassination of President Kennedy, the assassination of former Attorney General Robert Kennedy, the Watergate scandal, and the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union. Mrs. Dixon also predicted that many upheavals would take place around the year 2000 and the earth's population would be cut in half. She also said, however, that by 2037, humanity would finally greet a new era and that an ideal world, a paradise on earth, would emerge.

If we bring together all the different prophecies made in different times and places, we find certain common threads. These can he condensed into the following three items:

1. The period from the late twentieth century to the early twenty-first century will see the conclusion of fallen human history, with great natural catastrophes and the deaths of many people.

This time of great chaos and confusion will be followed by a millennial era of blessing, the era of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth or a new world of paradise.

At the end of the twentieth century, the savior of humankind will appear.

In more detailed prophecies, however, we find the following items predicted to occur sometime around the year 2000:

Frequent occurrence of large earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Highly unusual weather, causing drought and resulting in a shortage of food.

The outbreak of a final world war.

The penetration of a comet or other astronomical body into the solar system and/or great astronomical upheavals.

A polar shift (change in the earth's rotational axis).

Cave-ins and protuberances occurring on land, as well as floods. Atlantis or another submerged continent will emerge from the sea.

Great loss of life due to the occurrences listed above.

The return of the Messiah, or Savior.

The beginning of a paradise on earth in the twenty-first century.

But there is another common factor among all these prophecies, apart from the predictions of great upheavals and catastrophes. This is the possibility for humankind to avoid disaster, depending on what choices we make; whether our actions are good or bad will influence the unfolding of events.

At this point, I would like to share with the reader a few words about polar shifts, or natural calamities. Right now, our planet revolves on its own axis, with the North and South Poles positioned at a fifteen-degree angle. Maintaining this angle, Earth orbits around the Sun. It is this fifteen-degree slant that brings the four seasons. This balance of Earth's rotation and orbit preserves the tropical, temperate, and cold climates. Eventually, it is responsible for preserving Earth's order and time structure.

If this axis were shaken and the poles shifted in their corresponding positions, it would shake our world's geological organization down to its very foundations, to a far greater extent than even the greatest earthquake in history.

For example, what if the earth, which is currently rotating along a vertical axis, were to suddenly begin rotating along a horizontal axis? The result would be a massive redistribution of all the land and sea on the surface of the earth, not to mention the destruction of all geological formations covering the planet. Even if the change was only five degrees, so that the fifteen-degree angle became a ten- or twenty-degree angle, the impact would still be almost unimaginable. This would qualify as a disaster of cosmic proportions, a great cataclysm, a "shaking of heaven and earth."

Many learned scholars believe that polar shifts have occurred as many as five times during the history of our planet. They hold that such shifts can occur from the shock of an asteroid or other large body penetrating the solar system.

Buried thousands of feet beneath the Arabian Desert is a seemingly limitless supply of oil. This means that at one time the Arabian Desert was a flourishing forest. By what change did it become a deposit of fossil fuel thousands of feet beneath the earth's surface? Very possibly, it was the result of a polar shift or some other cataclysmic change. The same holds true for every coal and natural gas deposit. Moreover, where once vast and prosperous empires ruled in different parts of the world, now their capitals are buried. How can this be explained?

The evidence suggests that polar shifts have taken place in our past. This means it is quite possible that such a polar shift, that kind of immense upheaval, could occur once again in our own era.

What I want to point out is that a worldwide catastrophe is not simply the stuff of prophecy and conjecture, but there is a real possibility that it can take place. It may, in fact, be inevitable.

The earth itself is actually a kind of living organism. Our planet is continually developing. This little star of ours regularly undergoes rejuvenation and is constantly improving its status within the great reaches of space. We have no choice but to recognize that the earth itself is "growing."

These days, however, the earth is seriously ill, thanks to the environmental destruction wreaked by human beings. A great cataclysm might well be brought about because the earth itself is always taking steps to revive itself. It reacts as all organisms do (one of the unique characteristics of organisms) to bring about natural healing and remove itself from a polluted, broken-down, and ruined state, the state that we humans have forced upon it.

To put it a bit more concretely, the earth may well attempt to clean itself, even if it requires a polar shift, even if it has to trigger a worldwide catastrophe. Although a redistribution of the land and seas might result in the destruction of humankind, to the earth it is all work undertaken to revive, to regenerate, to develop. To humans, of course, such a turn of events would appear as a disaster of cataclysmic proportions.

Second, a great cataclysm might well be brought about because the earth itself seeks to bring spiritual awakening to its human residents. It wants us to awaken from our spiritual stupor. This planet wants to sec our continued prosperity and growth, because human beings are higher in the spiritual hierarchy of things. Therefore, it wants us to awaken.

Oh, humankind! How much we pollute and destroy the environment, all out of selfish motives! How deeply we live in darkness, contradicting the moral laws of the universe and seeking only to please ourselves! The earth wants to wake us up. It longs to see a race of humankind awakened to universal consciousness that fully embodies a noble mentality and high spiritual position. The earth itself wants to see the advent of a new planetary culture. It wants to realize its purpose given by the Creator. To see that purposed fulfilled, the earth itself seeks a reorganization, one that can raise the level of the spiritual vibration that permeates the planet. It seeks a reform and a revolution that can bring about self-rejuvenation and development of the planet's inherent potential. Thus, the earth seeks to carry out a great cleansing, a purification of humanity. In reflecting the Will of the Creator, such motions by the earth may well emerge as a huge and great catastrophe from the view of humanity.

On the other hand, in the works of God, no great catastrophe can have the purpose of obliterating the earth forever, or of indiscriminately destroying humankind by means of a merciless judgment. Such a purpose would mean the failure of the Creator God.

Nevertheless, it is a cold, hard fact that there can be no construction of an ideal world without first cleaning and purifying the earth. Such a view is only logical. As the Bible says, "New wine must be put into new wine skins." The newly reborn citizens of heaven need naturally to live within a new and revitalized earthly environment.

Unfortunately, however, if our global culture continues on its current course, we will arrive at a situation where the great global cataclysm will become unavoidable.

How can such a cataclysm be avoided? There must, of course, be a way, and there is.

I wish to expound on that in this chapter.

When the satellite nations in Eastern Europe began to collapse with the demise of the Soviet Union, their peoples had their first taste of freedom in decades. They revered the free nations as their saviors and thought the West would be the highest and noblest expression of civilization.

I feel for those people. How they suffered under the dictatorship of communist governments! Many were hungry and had little more than rags to wear. Life was a constant struggle. Oppressed and persecuted, they languished under the yoke of dictators. So when the communist regimes collapsed, they waited for an outstretched hand of love from the warm-hearted, hallowed Heavenly Kingdom that they thought the West to be.

How pernicious a thing communism is! They virtually lived at the bottom of hell while streams of propaganda declared their lives to be the realization of a true, ideal society.

When the walls fell, I imagine the people said to themselves, "I have survived, I am liberated. I am going to live in a place where there is freedom of thought, freedom of religion, high morals, humanitarianism, true and sincere love for one's fellow man. Heaven and paradise, I'm waiting for you! Free world, come quickly, you are welcome. Show me your embrace of salvation!" The Eastern Europeans thought the West was everything they longed for.

But it didn't take long before the bubble burst. In a sense, the newly liberated citizens of ex-communist nations fell into an abyss of despair even worse than that which they had known under communism. Why? They discovered that Western society, which they thought would be the Kingdom of Heaven, was simply another form of hell.

What gifts did the West bring to them, these new arrivals to the world of freedom? X-rated movies. Pornographic magazines. Organized prostitution and trafficking in human flesh. They got a culture of lust and lechery, of drugs and free sex. And to top it all off, a nice little present called AIDS.

Where once the streets of Prague and Belgrade were filled with queues waiting for a single loaf of bread, now there stood lines of half-naked prostitutes. The streets that were once so gloomy had been brightened, but the source of the new glitter was poster upon poster of naked figures, put up to arouse the sexual desires of the people.

Of course, you could now find world-famous brands in the shops, but these things were out of reach for most people. The relief brought about by the demise of forced labor was short-lived and was quickly followed by crowds of the unemployed.

Where was the hand of salvation that they thought would he so warm and compassionate? Where was the lofty and noble society, the benevolent philanthropy, they had dreamed of all those years? Where could they find a true example of humanitarianism?

But those things were also missing in the West, and the Easterners soon saw all too clearly how things were. Look at the crowds of tens of thousands marching down New York's glamorous Fifth Avenue for the right to practice homosexuality, with men dressed up as women and women dressed up as men. They act out, in broad daylight, abnormal "acts of love." Even animals don't live like this. Is this what we call twentieth-century civilization?

In the United States, violent crime has increased 560 percent over the last thirty years. In Washington, D.C., the so-called capital of the free world, the streets are empty by nine o'clock at night. There is a self-imposed curfew. The people fear the monsters who roam the streets, monsters that have human faces but behave like beasts.

People doped up on drugs are truly more frightening than any beast. They can commit any act without hesitation or reservation if it means they can get their next fix. Under the influence of drugs, users can commit murder and yet not have a troubled conscience. In the United States, a gun is fired in the name of crime every nine seconds. A life is lost to a bullet fired in crime every fifteen seconds.

Free sex is running rampant among the youth of America. Every year, over one million teenagers give birth to children of their own. The divorce rate exceeds 50 percent and is said to he approaching 75 percent in California. Such a divorce rate means that more that one in two families is split by divorce. In Japan, one family in five splits up, in Korea, one in six. And it is well known that this number is increasing with every passing year.

Think for a minute about the children who grow up in such an environment. In the past it was normal to grow up happily with both parents, but such times have long since disappeared. Nowadays, you have to be very lucky to grow up with both your parents together.

Tragically, a large portion of children from the next generation will not know their own father, or even their father's name. It's a sobering fact. The way has been largely blocked for them to understand and grasp the concept of parental love and of a family's love.

If these children do not know their father, or even have a concept of what a father is, how can one teach them about their Heavenly Father, who is invisible? This is one current source of God's great sorrow. There is nothing more detestable to God than the sin of immoral love, and there is no greater source of sadness for Him than the destruction of families.

Given the situation, we should not be surprised if the current generation were thrown into "a pool of everlasting fire," as it says in the Book of Revelation.

But there is another serious problem, a symptom indicating that we have reached the Last Days. This phenomenon has appeared all over the world; it makes no distinction between East and West. It is the very height of depravity, the culmination of corruption. What I am talking about is children murdering their parents, and parents murdering their children.

In the United States, in an incident that shocked the nation, a young divorcee tied up her two little children, placed them in her car, and drove the car into a lake because her new lover did not like them.

In Japan, a student killed his mother with a cooking knife after she scolded him for getting bad grades. In South Korea, a child who coveted his inheritance violently stabbed and murdered his parents, then coolly went about destroying the evidence. Such incidents only accentuate the fact that the history of evil is coming to its final stage.

Indeed, the Last Days have arrived. But if things continue as they are without some dramatic change, the idea of the advent of the Kingdom of Heaven will be nothing more than a pipe dream.

Readers may feel a sense of despair thinking about how dark and dismal the twentieth century was and how fast we ran toward the darkness. Indeed, if we look at the outstanding features of the twentieth century, hope eludes us wherever we turn. The future looks bleak and can fill us with foreboding.

Nevertheless, these things are the symptoms of the Last Days, and we cannot avoid passing through them if we are to greet the coming dawn. As the saying goes, "The night is darkest just before the dawn." The world is in the midst of a great transition. When the winter wind displays its greatest savagery, it is a sign that spring is just around the corner, ready to arrive with a blaze of blossoming flowers. In this sense, all the things I have described above are like birth pangs taking place before the birth of a precious and long-awaited child.

The beginning of the Kingdom of Heaven means the demise of satanic power. But from Day One of human history, this satanic power has dominated human events and wielded its authority in whatever way it saw fit. Naturally, this satanic power is not going to simply go away without a fight. Thus the twentieth century was unprecedented; it was the most turbulent century in history. It was a century of confusion, a century that presented humanity with more trials and tribulations than we ever before. If we think of these events as the final fling of satanic power as it faces its demise, then it makes a kind of sense.

Nonetheless, the world that exists under satanic dominion faces an inescapable destiny. Because the true authority of Heaven has now been established here on the earth, the satanic regime has no choice but to recede into oblivion.

God has been preparing for this heavenly sovereignty for the last two thousand years. This heavenly sovereignty is where humanity has to place its hope. After the fearful trials of the last century, humanity has nowhere to turn now but to Heaven.

The work of the Lord of the Second Advent, who was born in 1920, has been under way for eighty-two years. He has fought and won the decisive battle with the satanic dominion on earth, holding high the ideal of True Parents for all to see. Now he is plowing ahead to complete the great work of the salvation of humanity.

The result of that work will be a changeover between the dominion of goodness and the dominion of evil, and the year when this took place was the historical year 2000. This is the dawning of the Kingdom of Heaven, something humanity has sought for many years. If humanity completes its own portion of responsibility before Heaven, then that kingdom will be achieved without fail.

During this incredible emergency period we are in, humanity must think about how to survive the judgment of the. Last Days. What it all boils down to is: how can we become the chosen children of Heaven? How do we earn the merit to greet the new millennium of blessing? How can we qualify to register as citizens of the Heavenly Kingdom on earth? Those are the questions we face.

As I conclude this book, I would like write a few things about this particular problem.

The most important thing for humanity to understand is that (a) this era is destined to see the most significant transformation in human history, and (b) the pivot point for this great transformation is the return of the Messiah. Understanding the work of the returning Messiah is the path to salvation.

Two thousand years have passed since the birth of Jesus Christ. This fact is highly significant, and is not something we can easily afford to dismiss, for several reasons.

First, the year 2000 marked a change in centuries. The curtain closed on the twentieth century, with all its tribulations. Second, 2001 marked the beginning of a new millennium, the third since the birth of Jesus Christ. Many Christians interpret this third millennium as corresponding to a thousand-year Christian kingdom and paint a vision of the future filled with hope. When the start of a new century is such a meaningful event, how much more significant should be the beginning of a new millennium?

The third reason, much more important, can be understood from the explanation of providential history provided by the Unification Principle. As the Principle shows, a new dimension in God's providence has always unfolded every two thousand years. In the history described in the Bible, the process started with Genesis, and every two thousand years, a new level of the providence began.

Shortly after God created humans, Adam and Eve fell in the Garden of Eden and were banished. The first two thousand biblical years of history was a dark period. Only after two thousand years had passed did the first light in human history appear. When God found and established Abraham as the Father of Faith, a monotheistic religion was established for the first time. Faith in the one true God set down firm roots.

If we divide biblical history into periods of two thousand years, we can sec that, starting from Abraham, the following two thousand years was a period of God's preparation to send the Messiah, Jesus Christ. This preparation unfolded in the providential history that centered on the descendants of Abraham, the chosen people of Israel. God raised the chosen people on the basis of their monotheistic faith, and on that foundation, He brought about the supreme goal of the providence, namely, the birth of the Messiah. Jesus, however, died on the cross at the age of thirty-three. As explained previously (see Messiah, vol. I), God's ultimate purpose for sending the Messiah could not be completed by Jesus' death on the cross. For that reason, the providence of salvation had to be extended, and providential history from that point on has focused on the return of Jesus Christ, the Second Advent.

Another two thousand years have now passed. If we look at history from this perspective, we can see that we have completed three two-thousand-year periods since the dawn of human history; the fourth is about to begin. We can easily deduce, then, that with the close of the third two-thousand year period (during which Jesus Christ made his promise to return), God's providential history is again arriving at another time of great change.

In this way, God's providence in human history has woven great events every two thousand years. At the end of the first two thousand years, God established Abraham as the Father of Faith. At the end of the second two thousand years, God gave birth to the Messiah, Jesus Christ. We can expect, then, that when the third two-thousand-year period comes to an end, God's providential history will arrive at another time of revolutionary change.

What will be the great change that takes place when the third period finishes and the fourth begins? That great event will be the completion of the providence of the return of Christ; the promised return of Jesus will be brought to fulfillment.

Throughout this book, I have testified that the return of the Messiah has already taken place. I have also testified that the return of Jesus is not accomplished by the Messiah coming on clouds in the sky but by the Messiah being born in the flesh, just as Jesus was two thousand years ago. Moreover, I have testified that the returning Messiah, born in the flesh, is none other than Rev. Sun Myung Moon, of Korea.

Concretely speaking, however, what exactly does this mean? It means the end of the fallen history of humankind, and for the first time ever, the beginning of the history of heaven on earth in the year 2000, the Kingdom of Heaven on earth began.

To summarize:

First 2,000-year period of biblical history: After the Fall of the human ancestors Adam and Eve, God establishes Abraham as the Father (Ancestor) of Faith at the end of a dark period of history.

Second 2,000-year period: God establishes the chosen people of Israel and, on that foundation, sends the Messiah, Jesus.

Third 2,000-year period: God sends the Second Advent of the Messiah on the worldwide foundation of Christian faith, and he becomes the True Parent of humankind, ushering in the dawning and then completion of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

This is a very brief outline of history centering on God's providence for human salvation (the history of God's providence of restoration).

What tasks must the returning Messiah fulfill to achieve the goal of human salvation? In short, he must establish a value system that is centered on God. This is equivalent to establishing the direction that the earth will go in the future. Using the analogy of a nation, we can say that he must establish a constitution. If the planet were a ship, he would have to set the compass heading.

To establish an eternally unchanging, absolute value system, one first has to know and understand, clearly and precisely, the Creator and the Creator's purpose of creation. God's Will is to accomplish that purpose. Hence, all events and actions that lead toward that purpose are by definition good, while all that goes against that purpose is evil. All efforts directed toward achieving God's goodness are righteous, and all efforts directed the opposite way are unrighteous.

True love is God's very essence, but it seeks an object, to give unconditionally to that partner, and to experience limitless joy in the response of love from that partner. To bring about such joy, God created all the things of cosmos, including humans. All other beings in the universe are indirect, symbolic partners in love to God, while humans are His direct partners in love.

Human beings are, in fact, God's children, and for that reason, God created us in His image. We could say that a human being is God in visible form, and God is the human being in invisible form. As God's children, the purpose of existence for humans is to return limitless joy to God as His partners in love.

It is logical that only the Messiah can bring such a cogent and absolute value system to this confused earthly plane. The Lord of the Second Advent comes as God's only begotten son to establish a value system that is unshakable. Who apart from God's chosen son would have the qualification to understand God's value system and reveal it? Who else but God's son could represent God and speak as God's mouthpiece?

The absolute value system established by the Second Advent of the Messiah forms the groundwork and foundation of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. By definition, the Kingdom of Heaven on earth will he a fair and just society based on God's absolute value system. It has a culture in which ethics and morality shine forth in splendor.

Our current society has achieved the peak of material culture. So why are we languishing in such extreme confusion? The reason is that the true standard of ethics and morality is as yet unclear. A measure by which we can judge what is right and wrong cannot be found. For example, recently in Japan, a thirteen-year-old student murdered a female teacher in broad daylight because she had been scolding him for being late to school. In the United States, President Bill Clinton's immoral and lewd conduct in the White House astonished people around the whole world and brought no end of embarrassment to the citizens of America. Such is the current reality. I wonder if such things aren't also signs that we have come to "the end of the world" as it is.

The establishment of God's absolute value system is the one thing that can bring light to this dark and dismal society. To give an analogy from construction, establishing God's absolute value system is like laying a firm and strong foundation. As I have already mentioned, the three fundamental pillars of ethics (morality) rooted in God's absolute values are absolute honesty, absolute purity, and absolute unselfishness.

The drama of human history after the Fall in the Garden of Eden reflects the destruction of these absolute ethics. Humanity's Fall began from the start with a lie; with art and cunning, the archangel Lucifer deceived Eve with a lie. Eve had improper, immoral sexual relations with the archangel. She lost her purity. Next, Adam became entangled in this unfolding drama of immoral love. In the end, God's entire world -- the world of His ideal -- was delivered over to Satan, because, be it true love or false, love is the thing that determines dominion. Thus, the corruption of humanity began from the evil intentions of Satan, who was none other than the archangel Lucifer. It all began from self-centered desire; this was the motive behind the Fall.

The Fall of the first human ancestors was a tragedy. It was triggered by the loss of the ethic of living for others, by a loss of the spirit to serve, by a loss of the ethics and morals that derive from God's absolute values. The Messiah, then, is the one who comes to reverse that loss, to return things to their original condition. As the True Parent, the Messiah has the mission to establish God's absolute value system, and on that foundation, to clarify the absolute standard of good and evil. In the end, the Messiah must turn this society into a society that embodies the three great principles of the path of true morality: absolute honesty, absolute purity of love, and absolute unselfishness.

Whoever lives by these three principles becomes one with the essence of true love. If a husband practices these three principles in relation to his wife, he is loving his wife in the truest way. If any person lives these principles in relation to his family, he is loving that family in the truest sense. And so with one's neighborhood, one's nation, the world, and all humanity; live these three principles and you are loving your neighborhood, your nation, the world, and humanity in the truest possible sense.

Thus, the Kingdom of Heaven on earth is a world of absolute ethics and morals. Humanity is destined to live in such a world, in honesty, unselfishness, and pure love. Based on God's absolute value system, humankind is destined to live in joy and the spiritual light of God's absolute virtue.

In order to send the Messiah and make this planet into an ideal world, God has painstakingly prepared and consolidated the environment necessary for the construction of the ideal. Moreover, Heaven has prepared a program of unlimited blessings for humankind so that we can build such an ideal world in the years directly before and after 2000.

In preparing the world for transformation into the Kingdom of Heaven, God has brought about external reforms based on His blueprint for the ideal society.

The society of the twentieth century has no way to become the Kingdom of H eaven in the current state it is in. Great revolution and change are absolutely unavoidable. Those great changes are under way this very moment.

The principle of God's creation is to carry out external creation first and then internal creation. In the creation of humanity, God created the human body first, and then breathed spirit into it. Before creating humans, God created the external things of creation -- the environment -- first and then created humans within that environment.

Constructing an ideal society in the twenty-first century will involve re-creating the world according to God's original design. Thus, in accordance with the principles of His creation, God first restores and consolidates the environment for the ideal world, and then sends the Messiah and re-creates humanity. I would like to describe just a part of God's program for the restoration of the environment for the Heavenly Kingdom.

I will discuss God's external preparation for the twenty-first century in four different categories, each describing one type of external revolution or reform. These are the energy revolution, the food revolution, the health and medical revolution, and a paradigm shift toward New Age science.