There is one sure-fire method for finding deliverance from what we know as the Judgment of the Last Days, or the great cataclysm predicted to occur. One has to find the Messiah sent by God and attend him in unity. This is what I call "boarding the savior's ark."

When the flood judgment took place in the age of Noah, the only method to survive was to board the ark (Gen. 6 - 9). In this current age, however, the Messiah provides the ark.

God is a God of salvation, not of death or destruction. To save the people of this age, God has prepared and continues to prepare a number of providential plans. The core of those programs for human salvation is the advent of God's Son, in other words, the return of Christ.

As the Bible records, "For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life." (John 3:16) In the Last Days, these words will not be purely symbolic but will take on a substantial meaning.

From the very beginning of history, God's formula for saving humankind has been salvation through the Messiah. Why does the world need a Messiah? Why can't we win salvation simply by our own efforts?

The Messiah is necessary because the sin committed by the first human ancestors was not one that can be forgiven by human efforts or good deeds alone. It is the same with an extremely sick patient. He cannot be healed by his own efforts alone but requires a doctor's treatment.

The first human ancestors, Adam and Eve, went against God's commandment and committed a sin that brought about the Fall. This was the Original Sin. Because that sin was a sin related to lineage, someone has to come and change that lineage back.

God said to Adam and Eve, "You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die." (Gen. 2:16 - 17) God gave Adam and Eve complete freedom. Basically, He was saying, "You can do whatever you want to do. You can enjoy yourselves and have mastership over all things. Everything is for you. But please, there is just one rule that you need to keep, absolutely. If you make a mistake in this area, you will truly die on that day." God's direction to Adam and Eve was clear and unequivocal.

Yet even though Adam and Eve knew they were going the path of death, they still decided to make that mistake. There is only one power that can transcend the fear of death, and that is the power of love. The path that they chose despite knowing it meant death was the path of morally corrupt love. Eve succumbed to the temptations offered by the archangel Lucifer and ended up sharing a relationship of morally corrupt love with him. Adam then succumbed to the seductions of the fallen Eve and came to have a relationship of immoral love with her. (Originally, Adam and Eve were to keep God's commandment while passing through their growing period. They had to reach the level of completion before they could become a husband and wife through true love.) The relationship of love is equivalent to a relationship of lineage. But instead of following God's directions, Adam and Eve, in the end, gave greater credence to the words of the archangel Lucifer.

Through her relationship of love with Lucifer, Eve departed from God's lineage and was reborn in the lineage of Satan (the true identity of Satan is the fallen archangel Lucifer). The lineage of Satan then bore fruit through the relationship between Adam and Eve. Satan's lineage was spread to the sons born to them and infiltrated all of humankind.

Love always accompanies the authority to rule. Wherever love exists, the authority to rule is there with it. So when Eve's love was claimed by Satan, and then Adam also fell under Satan's control, all the created beings in the cosmos fell under Satan's dominion. Is there anything that could bring God greater grief than this? God had created all things in the spirit of true love, yet in the end, He was forced to hand it all over to Satan. Can anyone fathom how God felt at that moment?

Thus, from the very beginning in the Garden of Eden, humanity has been born as the offspring of Satan, in the lineage of Satan. It is our sorry human fate to be born with the Original Sin. For that reason, there was not one person whom God could call out to as His child, no one who could stand completely in the realm of God's lineage.

In order to rescue humankind, God had no choice but to send a Messiah. In was not possible to save fallen human beings through another fallen human. The Messiah is the one and only person to be born in this world without ties to the Original Sin. This is why we refer to him as "the only begotten Son of God."

As in the analogy of the true olive trees and the false olive trees (Romans 11), the Son of God comes to the world to cut the roots of fallen humankind (the wild olive tree) and graft them into the root of the Messiah, who has no Original Sin (the cultivated, or true, olive tree). In this way, all wild olive trees become true olive trees. This is the only path by which the linage polluted by Satan can he cleansed. This is how we are restored as human beings qualified to be called true sons and daughters of God.

Without such a change of lineage (removal of Original Sin), there can he no such thing as salvation, and this is why humankind needs the Messiah. The Messiah is the one person capable of changing (transferring) our lineage. Without exception, everyone needs to receive a change of blood lineage. Through the Messiah, we must be moved from Satan's lineage to God's lineage to experience salvation. This is the fundamental reason humankind has to welcome the Messiah.

Meeting and receiving the Messiah, then, is equivalent to boarding the ark of salvation. The salvation reserved for it in the Last Days is for each person to find the Messiah's ark and get on board. We only have to lift our heads and look for it, then ask our conscience what to do, regardless of what others might say. Without hesitation, everyone should board the ark. The purpose of this book has been to testify to where that ark is found.

The ark of salvation is none other than the Blessing given by the True Parents, the same Blessing that was planned for 3.6 million couples in 1997, 36 million couples in 1998, 360 million couples in 1999, and 400 million couples from 2000-2002. This blessing is the only path by which Original Sin can be removed. It is the only way to change the lineage and become a citizen of the Heavenly Kingdom. The Blessing is a ceremony by which the lineage of Satan is removed and one returns to the lineage of God.

After having received and lived with the Blessing, I can truly testify that this is the grace of Heaven, "the water of life," given freely. By what other power could we cut the chains of Original Sin and receive recognition as God's true sons and daughters?

Ultimately, the mission of the True Parent is to rescue the family unit, which is currently breaking down all across the globe. The family is the basic unit of heaven, the brick by which the Kingdom of God is constructed. More than any other unit, the family is truly an institution created by God. God designed the family so that a clan, a tribe, a people, a nation, and a world would naturally extend from it.

A man and women together are the two pillars of the family. In order to build a true family, a man and a woman must first remove the Original Sin and accomplish perfection. The ceremony that makes this possible is something called the Holy Wine ceremony. The holy wine symbolizes the blood and true love of the True Parents. By receiving this holy wine from the True Parents and drinking it, we erase the satanic lineage. By this ceremony, we move from the sphere of Satan's dominion and influence into the sphere of God's dominion and influence. We are restored to God's lineage, and recognized as God's true children.

The Original Sin can only be removed by the holy wine given by the Lord of the Second Advent. In Christianity, one is washed and purified at the sacrament of Holy Communion by drinking the wine that symbolizes the blood of Jesus. Similarly, we have the Original Sin removed and erased by the holy wine given by the True Parents.

True Parents stand as God's representative. When a man and woman receive the Blessing from the True Parents and have the Original Sin removed, the pledge of love between them is not a vow for one hundred years, or even one thousand years, but for eternity. This pledge is made during the Blessing ceremony, and the core of the Blessing ceremony is the benediction or prayer of blessing given by the True Parents. When a husband and wife receive this prayer of blessing from the True Parents, they become bound together as a true husband and true wife.

Through the Holy Wine ceremony and the Blessing, a couple has the Original Sin removed and becomes an eternal husband and wife. They form a family that belongs to Heaven. Without participating in this process led by the True Parents, no one can become a couple recognized by Heaven. Moreover, no one can become a citizen of the heavenly realm.

As I have already mentioned, no other marriages formed on earth have been recognized in the spiritual world. That is the reality. Husbands and wives have lived as couples after pledging their troth, but after death and their entrance to the spiritual world, they have been separated, like two totally unrelated strangers. This is why Jesus answered, in response to his disciples' questions, that in the spiritual world, people are neither married nor given in marriage, but live celibate, like the angels. (Matt. 22:30)

Up until the current age, "true parents" had never been seen upon the earth. How, then, could there have ever been "true children"? If there are no true children, how could there ever be true husband and wives? In other words, up until the present, no marriages have been recognized in the spiritual realm. This is the amazing truth. Up until the present, heaven has been vacant.

Why? Heaven can only be entered by a true couple together. Up until the present, however, there have never been true couples on earth who received the Blessing of the True Parents. Naturally, there have also never been families that had the qualifications to enter the Kingdom of Heaven in the spiritual world. Once you become aware of this fact, it actually makes a lot of sense.

This is why when he was on the cross, Jesus said to the thief who was on his right, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise." (Luke 23:43) Paradise is the highest level of the spiritual world that one can enter before the appearance of the True Parents. Jesus himself entered paradise, and heaven, the spiritual level above that, has been empty.

The main point here is that every member of humankind has to pass through the gate of True Parents' Blessing to enter heaven. The Blessing given to the 3.6 million, 36 million, 360 million, and 400 million couples by True Parents was in fact an ark carrying them on their journey toward heaven. Through the Blessing of True Parents, people of the world are becoming people of heaven, and our planet is being transformed into the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Moreover, for the first time in history, the Kingdom of Heaven will be opened in the spiritual world. I suppose that the Blessing process will continue until all of humankind is restored, but to receive the prayer of blessing directly from the True Parents while they are alive on this earth is a grace and a glory that will not he repeated in history.

The day is November 29, 1997. The location: Washington, D.C., arguably the most important city in the world. An event unprecedented in history is taking place. Pure and righteous men and women have gathered together from 185 different nations around the world to receive the blessing of True Parents in the Robert E Kennedy Stadium.

Some twenty thousand couples are gathered in the stadium, and yet these are merely representatives of the 185 participating nations. The Blessing being held is truly a global affair, one that embraces the whole planet. It is being broadcast around the world using satellite communications, and in every part of the planet, close to forty million men and women are participating directly and indirectly in the Blessing.

The blessings given by the True Parents began with 36 couples in 1961. These 36 couples were followed by 72 couples, 124 couples, 430 couples, 777 couples, 1,800 couples, 2,075 couples, 6,000 couples, and 6,500 couples, until finally, in 1992, a Blessing for 30,000 couples was held in the Olympic Stadium in Seoul, South Korea. Next, in 1995, in the same location, there was a Blessing for twelve times that amount, with 360,000 couples receiving the True Parents' blessing. It was after this Blessing that plans were initially made to hold a ceremony for 3.6 million couples from around the whole world on November 29, 1997.

Is this something that could be accomplished by human efforts alone? When the target of 3.6 million couples was announced, most Unification Church officials simply gaped in astonishment. It seemed impossible. But by July 15, 1997, some 3.6 million couples had already been pre-blessed, and from that point on, the wave of multitudes supporting the Blessing movement increased in number to more than ten times the original target. In the end, approximately forty million couples participated.

When November 29 came around, the original target of 3.6 million couples was combined with 36 million couples (the target for the following year), so that the True Parents, in the end, blessed some 39.6 million couples from all around the world. It was an unfolding of events worthy to be called the dawning of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

How was it possible, then, for the Blessing of the True Parents to spread so quickly, like floodwater rushing out a gate? The reason is that people all across the globe feel a sense of crisis. At the same time, people are feeling to their very bones that the source of that crisis is the breakdown of the family.

The breakdown of the family is very unsettling to many people. Not only is it directly related to decadent and self-indulgent trends among young people, but family breakdown is also a hothouse for numerous problems we experience in society. As I have already discussed in this book, our society, together with the culmination of materialism, is experiencing more and more "end of the world" social trends. The more "advanced" our nations are, the more we find murder, theft, drugs, divorce, child abuse, AIDS, and so forth bubbling up. The divorce rate in the United States has exceeded 50 percent and is climbing. But the real clincher is, there does not seem to be anything that governments or social groups can do about these phenomena, even with a multitude of laws.

In the midst of all this, humankind is becoming desperate. We have started to sense an emergency. Humanity is starting to get anxious like never before. In addition to this, the great religions of the world are helpless, almost at their wit's ends with how to deal with all this, and this amplifies the sense of crisis that people are feeling. For this reason, people are looking everywhere they can to find some solution to today's situation.

At this time, from somewhere in the distance, the call of the True Family movement is heard. .A call goes out: "Come receive the Blessing of the True Parents!" What are they calling out? "Let us all turn away from the values of immorality and divorce! Come receive the Blessing of the True Parents! Let us make a determination to build true families and raise true children!"

This is the call of the True Family movement, which seeks to guide humankind toward the Blessing of the True Parents. It is the cry raised by the international Unification movement.

People all over the world are stepping forward to participate in pre-blessing ceremonies held in every nation and partake in the Holy Wine ceremony of the True Parents. The True Family movement has taken off like a prairie fire, and more than seven hundred million couples have received the Blessing.

In some nations, the government has taken the lead and actively supported the movement. In such cases, the governments concerned had come to the conclusion that the True Family movement was the only way that the breakdown of family ethics in their nations could be reversed.

The True Family Blessing movement transcends all religions, all races, all national borders and languages. The Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington on November 29, 1997, was a veritable festival of humanity with all the colors of humankind present. Moreover, prior to the prayer of blessing given by Reverend and Mrs. Moon in their capacity as the True Parents, six representatives of the world's largest religions, including leaders from Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism, each gave their own benediction.

The ceremony was held not only for couples being married for the first time on that day. Rather, it was a ceremony for the entire human family, with all generations represented, both those already married and couples getting married. The reason, of course, is simple. Whether married or not, all people need to remove the Original Sin and become people of heaven. For unmarried couples, the Blessing is also a ceremony of marriage. For married couples, the Blessing is a ceremony to renew their vows and determination to live in fidelity and true love.

If the Blessing movement progresses as it has until now, by 2005 almost half of humankind will have been embraced in the realm of the Blessing of True Parents. By 2010, all of humanity will have heard the name of the True Parents of humankind and participated in the grace of rebirth through the Blessing. What else could achieve this but God's active providence of salvation? What else could this be but the consummation of God's history to restore all humankind?

Finally, in this era, our planet is being restored to the original Garden of Eden, the garden that God planned from the very beginning. "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea." (Rev. 21:1) Thus, the final predictions of the Bible are being fulfilled.

What is God's view of marriage, and what is the marriage ideal that True Parents are proclaiming? Adam and Eve were intended to grow up sexually pure, then get married and form a family under the auspices of God's blessing. Likewise, all human beings should maintain their purity until they are married. Sexual relations before the blessing of marriage are not God's Will or desire. Such premature relations were, in fact, the cause of the Fall. When couples are blessed by the True Parents and marry as ideal couples, they offer their chastity to each other. The greatest gift that can be shared at a wedding is not a diamond ring but the purity that each spouse has maintained until that day. It is the greatest gift one can give in life, a testimony to love.

In the Garden of Eden, after Adam and Eve were married, there would have been only one woman for Adam and one man for Eve. Likewise, despite the fact that the world is populated with six billion people, every husband is like Adam, the only man for his wife, and every wife is like Eve, who was the only woman for Adam. For a couple bonded in this way, it is as if no other men and women exist.

What do I mean by that? A couple brought together under Heaven's blessing live together loving each other without limit and condition as one man, one woman, exclusively. The conjugal love that flows between a couple is like one-way traffic: a husband's love flows only to his wife, and a wife's love flows only to her husband. In expressing this concept, the True Parents coined a new term: absolute sex, or absolute fidelity. Infinite true love is shared for eternity between a husband and wife blessed by Heaven.

Adam and Eve's mistake was to deviate from this fundamental principle of true love and trample the exclusive love between husband and wife. This was the eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, and the result was "death." When God said, "On the day you cat of it you shall surely die" (Gen. 2:17), this is what He was talking about. The commandment that applied to the human ancestors in the Garden of Eden was God's eternal principle, and it applies every hit as much today, as it will in the future.

Let me demonstrate my point. If a person jumps from the top of a fifty-story building, he is going to be killed, regardless of how strong he may be, because the action violates natural law. The violation of natural law brings about self-destruction. The same principle applies to heavenly law and the law of true love. If someone violates spiritual and true love laws, he has no way to avoid self-destruction. Just as violating natural law brings about destruction, so violation of heavenly law brings about destruction. It was this that God expressed when He said to the human ancestors, "On the day you cat of it, you will surely die."

This is the first thing that humankind has to realize in the process of the revolution of consciousness. Sexual ethics in the nations of the world are being corrupted to an extreme degree. We need to realize that this phenomenon alone is an indication that the end of the world and God's judgment are close at hand. Because Adam and Eve were teenagers when they fell, similar phenomena are occurring today, in the Last Days. All over the world, sexual corruption among young people is intensifying, and the number of children born to unwed, underage girls is increasing. By this fact alone, we should understand clearly that the present time is the Last Days and that God's judgment is imminent.

Reverend and Mrs. Moots offer a benediction at an International Blessing ceremony in Seoul, Korea.

The AIDS epidemic that is running rampant across the globe is a warning of the strongest magnitude from Heaven in this generation. Currently, the secular world is trying to prevent the spread of AIDS by using condoms or inventing new drugs. But Heaven is lamenting, and calling out, "Oh, that you were not so foolish!" Even if we were able to prevent or treat AIDS with drugs, Heaven would still warn us with a new form of AIDS, ten or a hundred times stronger. It would continue until humankind woke up to the truth.

The awakening that we need, then, is a return to God's law of love, a return to Heaven's marriage principle. The only way to truly prevent AIDS is to maintain sexual purity before marriage and fidelity after marriage. But more than that, it is the only way to maintain and protect God's pure lineage unstained by the violation of Satan.

The only way to eradicate AIDS from the face of the earth is to implement the marriage principles proclaimed by the True Parents. The True Parents offer a concrete and tangible method to reach salvation: the Holy Wine ceremony and the Blessing.

The modern-day ark is here. This is the ark of True Parents' Blessing. Until the time that every last member of humanity has climbed aboard this ark, it will continue to float on the waters. God desire is that all people receive the Blessing before they depart for the spiritual world.

In the book you have just read, I have poured out my heart and soul to testify that the return of Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, has already been accomplished.

I have testified that this has taken place in the person of Rev. Sun Myung Moon, that Reverend Moon has accomplished completion (perfection) on an individual level, and that together with his wife, Mrs. Hak Ja Han Moon, in 1960, Reverend Moon has ascended to the position of True Parent of humankind. I have also testified that Reverend Moon declared the advent of the Completed Testament age, on the foundation of the Old and New Testament ages, and that, beginning from 1961, he has been carrying out, in the form of the Blessing, the work of cleansing humanity of Original Sin.

Human history has now entered the age of the True Parents. Taking the weight of humanity's sin on his own hack, Reverend Moon has walked the suffering path of the cross and yet lived, thus paying the price of indemnity for human sin and winning the authority of God's only begotten Son. We are now living in the age of the True Parents, when humankind can be liberated from Original Sin and where all of humanity can receive the right to be known as God's true sons and daughters.

This is the salvation of the Last Days, salvation of both the spirit and the body. By passing through the process of complete salvation, humankind can win the qualification to live in the new millennial kingdom, the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

In 1961, I received the greatest honor and glory a person can receive. I was Blessed by the True Parents in the first Blessing, of 36 couples. In every sense of the word, this was the day that my wife and I experienced resurrection, both in spirit and in body.

Was there any qualification on my part for receiving this incredible grace and glory? Not a thing! Unless, perhaps, it was simply that I happened to discover the Messiah's ark and hoarded it earlier than most.

Blessing of 360,000 couples held in Olympic Stadium in Seoul.

From that time, my life has been a wonder, in so many ways a miracle! I lived with the world as my stage. Wherever I went, I had with me the truth that could overcome any kind of darkness. I always feel to the bone God's protection and spiritual power with me.

For me, the Blessing brought the destiny and fortune of Heaven. No matter how dangerous a situation I found myself in, I found my way to deliverance. An example of this was the time I was kidnapped and held against my will (chapter 17). At the time, God filled me with great courage and spiritual power. Another example was the time I testified before the U.S. congressional committee (chapter 13). With the grace of God, I cut down to size the mighty and influential Congressman Fraser. In the eyes of the secular world, it was an amazing feat. But for me, it was a result all too natural, for I had received the True Parents' Blessing.

So it has been that the True Parents' Blessing has brought to me a noble life, a great life. By the power of the True Parents' Blessing, my uncertain and transient life was all at once lifted high to a lofty spiritual plane where I received incredible heavenly fortune and the cooperation of the highest spiritual realms. The Holy Wine ceremony and the Blessing that are bestowed by the True Parents bring the same result to all recipients, no matter who they are.

The Bible verses in Revelation have been fulfilled from the year 1961. "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty, I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God, and he will he my son." (Rev. 21:6 - 7) Who am I? I was one of the ones "who received without cost from the spring of the water of life."

The 36 Couple Blessing was the beginning of true salvation for humankind. Since that year, the work of changing the lineage of humankind, accomplished only by the authority of the True Parents, has increased in breadth and outreach with every passing year.

The True Parents of humankind are not limited to any denomination, sect, or religion. Likewise, in the same way, the Blessing ceremony of the True Parents is not a religious ceremony for the Unification Church but a festival, a celebration, of True Families by all of humankind. True Parents exist in a place transcending all religions.

For this very reason, from 1997, the Unification Church changed its name and transformed into the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification. Here, all religions participate, and the True Parents live as the head of a unified world family.

The Blessing ceremony conducted by the True Parents is an event by which humanity is registered in God's Registry of Life (the "Book of Life" in Rev. 20:13). We can also describe this using the analogy of the wholesome grains being harvested and stored in Heaven's granary while the chaff is thrown into the fire. It is a work of separation and sorting in preparation for entering the Kingdom of Heaven on earth in the form of the new millennial kingdom. This is what judgment is: the sorting of good grains and chaff. When the Bible talks about "the ones recognized by Heaven," it refers to those who have participated in the change of lineage conducted by the True Parents. These are the good grains, the husked grains, stored in the storehouse of heaven. The storehouse is none other than the dawning Kingdom of Heaven.

If there is one thing I could emphasize in closing, it would be that, in the truest sense, the Blessing ceremony of the True Parents is a reorganization of humankind, a reformation that is realizing God's ideal that the world is one family, that all members of humanity are brothers and sisters. Through the process of washing away Original Sin and becoming the sons and daughters of God, all become true brothers and sisters. And when those sons and daughters of God stand facing each other and are married, that is the real beginning of God's own true family. Moreover, it is God's true family that stands as the basic building block of the ideal world. This reorganization and reformation of humankind is not carried out according to race or nationality or religion, nor according to scholarly knowledge, position, or wealth. It is carried out only by the True Parents' Blessing. It is the restructuring of God's true global family, centering on the True Parents of humankind, in a place that transcends race, nationality, and religion.

What joy! The True Parents have come! Greet them! Receive them! And yet, while this is a day of glory, at the same time it is also "the great and terrible day." if we can pass through this final trial and survive, we will greet the new millennial kingdom. If we do not survive this trial, before us will be great destruction for humankind and the cataclysm of the earth. To put it in other words, those who board the True Parents' ark will find the new kingdom, but those who miss the boat will find themselves flung into "the everlasting fire."

Right now, humankind is at an important crossroads. But it is also a golden age. With innocence, like little children, with simplicity, like doves, and yet with wisdom, like the wisest of snakes, we can carve out our own destiny. Every one of us can pioneer his or her own future.

From these crossroads, where will humanity go? Will it be the new Kingdom, the ideal world? Or will it be destruction, the great cataclysm? The thing that decides it will be whether we board the True Parents' ark or not. We are on the threshold of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Now is the dawning of heavenly fortune.

The great American medium Edgar Cayce left behind a most profound and meaningful remark: "Whether the age that follows is a golden age or an age of the greatest destruction in history, it all depends on what we do from now."

We have now arrived at that point. In this book, I have striven to bear witness to the greatest event in the history of humankind, namely the coming of the True Parents. I now put down my pen, confident that I have presented to the reader the direction that humanity must take if it is to avoid the great destruction of the Last Days and safely enter into the new age of peace and prosperity. The message I give is a message of hope and light, and I offer it to all humankind, out of my deep and sincere love.

"Beloved God! To each and every reader who has persevered to the end of this testimony, please grant Your grace, Your infinite blessing, and the fortune and Will of Heaven!" This is my sincere prayer.