The Words of the Baughman Family
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The Words of the Baughman Family |
Rev.
James Baughman addresses brothers and sisters.
My content has to do with what Father has spoken to leaders in the latter part of 1988 and most recently regarding tribal messiahship.
Do you really believe that you can come under the direct dominion of God and not be influenced by Satan anymore? Do you believe that we can actually create the Kingdom of Heaven on this earth? When we first heard the Divine Principle we were excited about these ideas, but after we joined we became more practical and rational, realizing that it would take quite a while. We heard about "three generations," so we have been taking our time running the race. Now, we need to believe it.
What I present to you will hopefully give you confidence that the Kingdom of Heaven is a reality we are going to fulfill at this time. In the recent nationwide revival tour, we were proclaiming that we are heading into a new time where our church will be totally different, and new members are going to join like flies around mom's apple pie. We were nervous. If something didn't happen soon, people would discredit everything we said for the rest of our tenure in the American church. We proclaimed that our church needs to unite and that the time has come for us to witness and fulfill the providence of going into Canaan.
The final question everyone asked us was, "How are we going to witness?" The only answer we could give was that each region had to work out their own witnessing schedule. We didn't have the real answer. Like John the Baptist, our revivals were only to prepare the way for Father to establish the tribal messiahship program as the answer.
During these revivals we proclaimed a national goal during this second generation period, to bring 30,000 members in America by the year 1992. This was a goal we didn't succeed in fulfilling when our Father was in America for so many years. We didn't believe it so we didn't bring it. Now we have to believe it. We can't feel because we didn't bring it the last time that we won't bring it this time. Father has given us the goal of 1-1-1.
I would like to give you some sense of our present providential time. I suggest you listen to the tape of Father's March 19th sermon, to review what Father has said about this time.
Father often asks us, what time is it? He reminds us that we cannot just simply live in the present with the mentality of the past. God's providence is not static, so our church should be constantly moving towards the final goal. As one foundation is established, we move onto the next. If we maintain the mentality we had in our church in 1972, or 1984, or even 1988, we will lose. We are in a very different time -- the time of going into Canaan!
Father has described this time over the last few years, saying that we are no longer in the wilderness; we are now in Canaan. We are the second generation in the children's period. We must take responsibility and ownership by going to our home church or hometown and becoming a tribal messiah.
I will describe some parallel times in the Old and New Testaments and relate them to the Completed Testament Age. We must learn from the mistakes of the past and understand how to succeed in this providence of tribal messiahship.
First, the Old Testament, New Testament, and Completed Testament are three parallel periods. In each of these ages there was a segment that shifted from the first generation to the second generation: a shift from the formation stage to the growth stage, and ultimately to the perfection stage. After the tradition was transferred to the second generation, they were then to multiply, develop and construct their land.
This period in each of these three Testament ages also follows the pattern of going from Satan's dominion, through a transition period of purification, and ending up in God's dominion. This was the period of the first generation bequeathing the tradition to the second generation.
The central figure in the Old Testament was Moses, who represented the first generation just prior to the establishment of Canaan. This generation came on the foundation of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but Moses' generation was the first to be centered around the people of Israel. On the foundation of the Israelites' 400 years of indemnity, Moses could lead the people out of Egypt.
Egypt represented Satan's dominion. The foundation of suffering that the Israelites stood upon, centered on Moses, was the first generation. Joshua, Caleb, and the Israelites born in the desert entered Canaan, representing the second generation.
Father says we have just gone from the wilderness to Canaan. Let's compare the wilderness period and the Canaan period in the Old Testament. In the wilderness, the people wandered in the desert. The environment was very severe and they suffered a great deal. It was a period of no settlement. They lived out of tents or off the backs of camels if they had them. It was hand to mouth. There was no investment, no rooting themselves in the society, because there was no society. It was basically sand and scorpions.
God prepared food for them through manna and quail. If you read the books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, you realize that God would send them manna in the morning and quail at night, just long enough for them to collect what they needed for that day. They were told that if they kept it overnight it would spoil. They could not store food nor settle in any way.
The leadership was very severe. I was reading a paper on the leadership structure of the Israelites in the desert. It showed a one-page diagram with about 60 different departments -- departments of transportation, of food and housing, of finance, and so on. Underneath each of these departments it listed the central figure -- Moses. He was in charge of everything! It was a very strict leadership system. It had to be that way, for if the people had strayed even a little, they would have died in the desert.
The Israelites were also very isolated in this period. There weren't too many other groups of people living out there in the desert. Centering around the Ten Commandments, they created an identity. They consolidated their people and built up a sense of confidence in who they were, what they believed in, and the nature of their God. It was during this time of isolation that they were able to develop their identity as a people.
After 40 years they went into Canaan. Keep in mind that it normally would not have taken 40 years. The Israelites could have entered Canaan in 21 months. But when the 12 spies came back with their reports, only Joshua and Caleb supported Moses. These two were convinced they could go in, not because the Israelites were greater in number or better trained, but only because God was with them.
For them, it was only a question of how they should go into Canaan. The other spies made it a question of whether or not to enter, saying the Israelites would perish. The people united with the faithless ten and tried to stone Moses, Joshua, and Caleb. They had to wander for 40 years to purify the foundation before going in again.
Finally they were to enter Canaan. However, Moses did not enter Canaan, either physically or spiritually. He simply passed on the tradition to Joshua and Caleb. In the book of Joshua we read that God commanded the second generation to adhere to His tradition, the tradition that they had learned and established while they were wandering in the wilderness. In Canaan, it was a different time. The manna and quail stopped at the River Jordan. They were no longer to live in tents or off the backs of camels. They were to build their society, live in homes, build their businesses and schools, and center everything around the temple. The leadership was no longer just one man. It became leadership through the tribe elders hierarchy -- a familial hierarchy.
Of course, they couldn't simply go into the land and settle. When the Israelites went into Canaan it wasn't an empty Garden of Eden. There were other people living there with other traditions. When they entered, they had to be very sure of their beliefs. For if they ever compromised, God would not be able to protect them.
Read the books of Deuteronomy, Joshua, and Judges. If you want to know what we are going through right now and how to solve some of the problems that we may face, you must understand what happened to the Israelites. In the book of Judges, whenever the Israelites compromised with their tradition, or let other traditions influence them, they would be dominated. God would have to raise up a judge or a prophet who chastised them until they repented. Based on that repentance, they could fight the enemy, God's tradition would be reestablished and the nation would prosper again. It was a very simple formula. If they did not adhere to the tradition, they would decline. If they adhered to it, they would prosper. This is what we also face. They went into their home church areas and they were no longer isolated; they had to face other traditions. They had to be confident in who they were, otherwise they lost everything.
Father recently said that one of the reasons we are doing tribal messiahship is because we need to restore the fact that even though the Israelites went into Canaan, they eventually lost all 12 tribes. They did not keep the tradition. So this is our challenge, too.
At the Israelites' time of settlement, the leadership had shifted and changed. All the members and organizations had to tithe through the church; in return God would bless them and multiply their businesses, agriculture, and livestock, and their families and nation would prosper. As long as they maintained that give and take system, they would increase as a nation. This was a time for them to witness and build their nation under God.
In the New Testament time, Christians went through the same thing. The epitome of Satan's dominion and the foundation of sacrifice that Christianity stood upon was the sacrifice of Jesus, the central figure of the first generation. The greatest sacrifice that Jesus could have made was the crucifixion. It was the turning point upon which Christianity would grow and prosper.
Jesus also bequeathed the tradition to the second generation. Their task was to build their church, and it was centered around two people, Peter and Paul.
The
Blessing of True Children marked the beginning of the Children'
Course.
The time of purification in the New Testament was 40 days. During the 40-day period after the crucifixion, Jesus had to reestablish the foundation to receive the Messiah. Then, for 40 years it was a time of purification for the apostles. It was also a time of wilderness and wandering. Those apostles were scared. They saw what the Romans had done to their master. They saw what had happened to Jesus, so they realized that if that could happen to Jesus, who were they? They were afraid to talk to strangers on the street. Many of them would hide in buildings and rooms for days upon days. But it was also during this time of isolation that they meditated upon who they were. Now that their master had died, they had to find their identity. They had to study his teachings and discuss God's tradition with each other.
It was during this time that they consolidated themselves around the identity of Christ and received the Holy Spirit. They made a foundation to receive the Holy Spirit and the Pentecost and then opened up the doors and went out. The Pentecost was in essence the apostles -- the second generation -- going out into home church. They had to face new traditions: the Greek tradition, the Roman tradition, the tradition of northern Africa. They had to go out into the world, and they had to be very confident about who they were, because if they ever compromised with their tradition, they would lose everything.
The Pentecost was a special time. The apostles were beginning to build their church, which represented God's Kingdom on this earth. It was parallel to the time of the construction of Canaan. This time also was a time for them to witness. Most people misconstrue the concept of Pentecost. The essence of Pentecost was not the spiritual phenomena. The spirit world definitely was helping, but the essence of the Pentecost was that the apostles decided, based on understanding who they were and who they followed, to take responsibility for the work of Christ on the earth. Their message was that Jesus was the Christ. They went out with the willingness to sacrifice their own lives for that message. In Acts it says that 3,000 people joined in one day. Did spirit world convert them? No! The apostles opened the doors, walked out, and opened their mouths and taught; they brought the people. And they knew, just like the Israelites knew, that when they entered those societies they weren't going to face a rosy situation. They faced persecution. Many Israelites and Christians died, but they had confidence that God was with them. They knew they would eventually increase and prosper and bequeath the tradition to the second generation.
In the Completed Testament the central figure is True Parents, especially centered around True Father. Probably the epitome of Satan's dominion over our church in America was Father's Danbury course. I would like to describe the period of history that we've just been through. Father says that he has been working for 43 years to establish the foundation on which he stands this day. The first 40 years actually parallels the Old Testament and the second part parallels the New Testament. In 1945 Father's public mission began on the foundation of the victory of World War II. It was at that time that he was to begin a seven-year course. Together with God's prepared foundation of Christianity, Father would be able to create the worldwide foundation for the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
If established Christianity had united with Father, this would have been done in seven years' time. However, established Christianity did not unite. They went through the same kind of period as the Israelites went through. The key leaders of the new Israel -- Christians did not unite with their Moses -- Father. They could not go into Canaan at that time, and went a much longer wandering course. Father had to step out of the position of Messiah into the position of John the Baptist, and establish the whole Old and New Testament foundation again. In 1945, Father had to start what became a 40-year course.
In 1985 Father declared the end of his 40-year course. It was during this period, 1981-82, that Father began to talk about being in the children's period. After his 21-year course, we saw the Blessing of True Children. We saw the first large international weddings in 1982. This was the children's period. Just prior to that time, Father was already talking about home church. Recently, Father has been talking about hometown and the second generation -- we are in this time.
Father has been asking us to prepare for this time because it is very different. It is not wandering in the wilderness anymore. During this 40-year period, we didn't live out of tents or off the backs of camels, but we lived out of sleeping bags and vans. I slept many a night under the stars on a fundraising team. I am sure all of you have done the same. Hand to mouth, with no investment. Everyone wondered why we didn't invest some of the money that we fundraised. Fundraising is like manna and quail. There was no sense of ownership, not even conditional ownership. The leadership in our church was very structured and strict. But it was necessary for us. We needed to be fused as a people. We needed to know clearly, in this isolation stage of our movement, what our identity was, because once we go out into the community, if we are unsure or if we compromise, we are in trouble.
We must understand clearly why we went through this period of purification. It was to purge us; it was a fiery life, and unfortunately some of our brothers and sisters died in the desert. We need to raise up their dignity, even if they are not here. We need to appreciate the work that they did, and give value to all the work that we did. If we ever think what we went through was because of inept leadership, that somehow "the church did this to me," we have lost the whole point. We should never diminish the value of what we sacrificed and what we suffered. That was the foundation of purification upon which we now stand. We cannot reduce our experience to some simple rational explanation and accuse somebody for what we have gone through. We need to restore the dignity of our sacrifice and stand upon that foundation.
In 1985 Father said the next three years in America were going to be critical. Do you remember that? Actually in 1985 Father finished the 40-year course. He then began the seven-year course that he wanted to begin in 1945. He spent the first three of those years in America. It was in 1985 that he got out of Danbury prison. It began a second period of purification -- a period of restoring the New Testament. Danbury was the crucifixion. And Father announced that we were going to go through our own Danbury course. He didn't say, "Okay, you are going to go through your Danbury course, so you can decide whether you want to or not." He said you are going to go through it, whether you know it or not.
How did he know that? One of the reasons why Jesus prayed in Gethsemane was because he knew that if he went the way of the cross, his children, the second generation, were going to have to follow the same course. And sure enough they did. Andrew and Peter literally died on the cross. The other apostles were martyred. Father knew that if we were really his sons and daughters, we would go the way of the parents. He announced clearly that we were going to go our Danbury course. And many of us have gone through it without realizing. We do know that we were abused, even by each other; we were rejected and suffered a great deal of loneliness, both internal and external trials. Keep in mind that everything we went through was exactly what Father experienced in Danbury: the abuse, the rejection, the alienation, everything. We went the course. It was providential in many ways.
We don't fully understand the importance of why we needed our leaders during this wandering period. We needed our Korean, Japanese and European leaders and our elder American brothers and sisters at that time. We need them now as we enter this Canaan period. As national president, the first thing I started thinking was, "Father is giving us this nation as our responsibility, and in a way I am scared. If we have not really learned the tradition from our elder leaders, we are in deep trouble in this country." Father is giving us a great opportunity to prove ourselves right now. During this time we have to learn from our Korean and Japanese leaders. If we truly unite with the tribal messiahship, we will progress and save this nation. I believe it.
This purification period ended December 20th, 1988. It was 40 months after Father's release from Danbury. On December 20th, Father announced that he was ascending to a different providence and the leadership in America was changed; it was just like Jesus' ascension after 40 days. He left America in the hands of the second generation, centered around Hyo Jin Nim, Heung Jin Nim, and all of the True Children. In 1985, when Father got out of prison, he held the Holy Water ceremony. In this ceremony, he bequeathed the entire spiritual inheritance to Hyo Jin Nim and said that he would be spiritually responsible for America when Father is out of the country.
Why has Father sent us out to our home church and hometown? Because we are going into Canaan and no longer belong in the wilderness. We belong out there among the other traditions. We cannot simply live complacently in our homes; we've got to change the other traditions and not let them change us.
This time also parallels the time of Pentecost. A year and a half ago Heung Jin Nim said, "Get ready, it's coming." He came here with a powerful spirit to purify and cleanse our church and to get us ready. Recently Father has said that the spirit world is already descending. The spirit and physical world are so united now that there is absolutely no gap. If you think that saving your tribe is simply going to your hometown area to your relatives, please also think about all your ancestors. A great Pentecost is already here.
We are in a completely different period now. What do you think it was like for the Israelite people when they came to the River Jordan? How many of you are less than 40? It says in the Bible that the first Israelite generation died in the desert. Those born during this 40-year period were the second generation. We were all born during our corresponding period; therefore, we are the second generation.
You have been wandering in the desert your whole life. When we joined this church, all we had was one concept of what this church is about. When the Israelites got to the Jordan River, do you think Joshua said, "Okay, now that we are going into Canaan, everybody must change their lifestyle"? It must have taken a long time to convince the people to change their mentality. They were not slaves or wanderers anymore. They were going to claim the land that God gave to them.
I am sure it is hard to believe that it is a very different time in our church. Most of us might think that this is just another one of those campaigns that we've been doing ever since we've been in the church: Washington Monument, home church, 10 million signatures, ICC, and so on. Father really protected us; he took us one step at a time. He didn't tell us how hot it was in the middle of the desert, or that there was no water. We found out those things as we walked along. Each step along the way Father went with us, helped us and saved us.
Why? So that we could persevere and make it to the end. That was Father's great love for us.
We are going into Canaan. This is not another campaign. Father recently said, "Everything continually rotates around a vertical axis. Things have rotated to such a point now that what used to be day is now night, and what used to be night is now day. If you go in the same direction you are going now, you will be going in the opposite direction of where you should be going."
So the first thing we have to do is change our mentality. Father has given us some cues in the recent talks he has given. He said we have to become like Abel, and described the responsibility of Abel. The Divine Principle only talks about the responsibility of Cain. But Father is constantly talking about the responsibility of Abel. Why is he talking about Abel, especially now? Who was Abel? He was the second generation of Adam. Now, Father is Adam, or the first generation. We are to become his true sons and daughters, tribal messiahs, the second generation. We must restore ourselves and become Abel.
Father said that the mission of Abel is to be a savior and save three elements. First, Abel must save himself. Our worst, most fearful enemy is our self. Father is constantly saying, "Know yourself; know who you are." We need to know our weaknesses, our strengths, and our shortcomings. We need to know where we stand and where we have to go to become Abel. Father has given us the tools and directions to save ourselves. Basically, we have to cut off from Satan's dominion and inherit God's dominion.
Father is always emphasizing going beyond the handicaps we face: sex, food, sleep, things we need to overcome in our daily life.
But, more importantly, late last year, Father described a process of separating from Lucifer's tradition. He said first of all we must separate from Lucifer's thinking. Lucifer distorted the first blessing. We must look at things not from Lucifer's point of view but from God's point of view. We must restore ourselves with the first blessing. Father has given us tools to do that: the Divine Principle, his words and his life example, for we live during the time of the Messiah.
Second, we must separate from Lucifer's lineage. Lucifer distorted the second blessing, and so we must restore that lineage by changing our blood lineage. Father has given us the tools for that: the Holy Wine ceremony and the Blessing. If we abuse these tools, we have lost and must stay in Egypt.
Third, we must cut off from Lucifer's environment. Lucifer distorted the third blessing so we must reclaim it. Why do you think that God was constantly giving territory into the hands of the Israelites? In every paragraph in the book of Joshua, God says, "I give the Amorites into your hands. I give this nation to you; I give Goliath into your hands." What does it mean, "To take ownership"? It means to take back the environment. Father gave us Holy Salt as a tool that we can use.
It is our responsibility to totally cut off from Lucifer's tradition. We've got to be dead serious. St. Paul chided the Christians that they had not been serious to overcome sin to the point of shedding blood. Look at how serious Father is and look at Hyo Jin Nim now. They do not compromise with that tradition. The challenge to us is to do the same. This is how we begin to save our self. If we cannot save our self, we cannot save our brothers and sisters. In essence this is the foundation of faith.
Second, Abel must save Cain. Abel cannot be saved without Cain. Father is telling us to put yourself in the position of Abel, and don't become arrogant, because the only way you are qualified is to first save yourself and be an example. We are saved not because we are members of this church, but because we have actually lived this example. God's tradition is self-sacrifice, true love, and a willingness to forgive enemies. Those enemies are often the people closest to us. That is our task and based on that example we can then save Cain.
If we put ourselves in the position of Abel, then the person we witness to is our Cain. Father is saying that the position of Abel is to witness. Put yourself in the position of parent, Abel, messiah, or second self of Father and Mother to that person and win his heart. Give him your life, like parents give life to their children. We must witness. That is the foundation of substance.
It is not mere coincidence that at this time, the end of this third parallel, Father has told us we must witness. Jesus told the apostles right after the Pentecost when he ascended, that they must preach the message to the world. Recently Father said, "Teach Divine Principle eight hours a day." In the next four years witnessing is critical. He has established the foundation for us to do that through the tribal messiahship similar to what the apostles had to do. We must believe we are in this period.
We must save our self, save Cain, and, finally, install the parents -- the mother and then the father. What is meant by that? On the foundation of faith and substance, one establishes the foundation to receive the Messiah. If we can become Abel and unite Cain with us through witnessing, then True Parents' blessing can come to this country. We can save America and based upon this foundation, the Holy Spirit can descend and the Pentecost will happen. It is essentially the fulfillment of Revelation 21:3-4: "Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be with them: He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more." We have never seen it before. Even God has never seen it before. But it is going to happen. God shall dwell with us literally, upon this earth. This is the promise of True Parents as well. We must believe that we are in this time: to save oneself, save Cain, and install the parents.
First, we must liberate ourselves from Lucifer's tradition and become Abel. Second, we must liberate our brothers and sisters by saving Cain. Third, we must liberate God and True Parents, who are the vertical and horizontal true parents centered on true love. That is what we are called upon to do when we take the position of tribal messiah.
In order to do that we must gain confidence. First of all, we must be confident in our True Parents' victory. We must fully understand that what our Parents have gone through in the last 43 years is completed and final. All we do is reap the fruits. We must fully understand the time we are in right now. We are going into Canaan and we have to change our mentality. We are not in the wilderness anymore and this is not just another campaign.
Second, we must be confident that I myself can become the second self-image of the True Parents, and literally fulfill the three blessings. I myself can become a perfected human being and a tribal messiah -- not just Father or not just Father's children. Often I think that we suffer from the same gap that existed between Jesus and the apostles. They felt that Jesus was so different that there was no way they could ever be like him. It became an excuse for them not to try after a while. We fall into that same trap. Father is so different in so many ways. Yet that difference doesn't mean that we ourselves cannot become perfect in our own right. If it is really impossible, why does Father keep telling us to do it?
What we need is someone other than Father to do it. We've been told that Mother has done it. She is also kind of different, right? I believe Hyo Jin Nim has experienced many things and demonstrated in his own life exactly what we can do. But some of us are still convinced that he also is different from us.
It is going to take some of us to achieve that same intensity of heart and will and to become a true Abel. I believe it can happen.
Satan tells us that this gap is really true and that we can never make it. We are just like the Israelites who faced Goliath. They were shivering and shaking. We are living with the deception that we can't do it. I believe we can!
Lucifer's tradition is that of a deceiver and a murderer from the very beginning. His tradition has destroyed the human race. Let's not have give and take with one iota of it. We have to be confident that we can become messiahs.
Third, and most fundamentally, we must be confident that God is with us. We are the chosen people. We are going into Canaan. If God was with the prophets of the Old Testament and with Christians of the New Testament, who spiritually went into Canaan, don't you think God is going to be with the True Parents of mankind, who have gone into Canaan physically and spiritually and are waiting there for us?
God is with us. We must be confident. It is not a question of whether we go into Canaan or not. Father told us how and we've got to unite with that.
We read in Joshua 1:3-9: "Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, as I promised to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory." It was like dividing up into little tribal communities, right? "No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you. Be strong and of good courage; for you shall cause this people to inherit the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you; turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night."
That was right before they went in. That is the time we are in. We have to ask ourselves: "Am I a member of this church or not?" We must really believe that I am a chosen person. Are we really the chosen people? Is God really with us? We must believe it. Are we going into Canaan or not? Is Father really victorious? Is he really the Messiah? Do we really believe it? We must ask ourselves these questions.
We stand on the verge of Pentecost. Twelve and one-half years ago, right after the Washington Monument rally, Father said if we would only keep the same intensity, the same sense of sacrifice for the greater good, the spiritual world would come down and assist us in ways we had never seen before. We have been waiting for twelve and one- half years and the Pentecost hasn't happened. If we continue to wait the way we have in the past, it will never happen. The Pentecost comes only on the foundation I have described.
Father said this time is very important because the spirit world is already coming. He told me the change is going to be so rapid that we must get into the river, now, before we get to the rapids, because then it will be too fast.
We've got to get into the communities now -- into our tribal areas. It's an urgent time. We are being asked to go into Canaan. We must do it now, otherwise we shall lose the opportunity -- just like they lost it in the early stages of Moses and in the early stages of Father's life course. We have to ask ourselves: are we still slaves, or sons and daughters? Are we going to wander or are we going to become tribal messiahs? We've got to believe that God is with us like never before in history.
Let's be confident. What are we waiting for, really? We've been working so many years in this church. We've gone through a lot of sacrifice and suffering. We don't want all of that foundation to be lost. To be confident, we must elevate the dignity of each other. We've got to go to each other and first of all repent because we have abused each other. We are all guilty of it. We have all disunited for some reason or other. We've got to repent and be willing to forgive. That is the Abel path. Once we have restored our dignity, we are no longer slaves, but sons and daughters of God.
When we have that confidence, we don't have to worry about Lucifer's tradition anymore. It is amazing how the environment has changed. It's time to reap the fruits. This is what Father is asking us to do.
In closing, we must rise up and take ownership. We have to say, "This is my church, my people, my city, my country, and my world! We've got to offer it to God.
We must go beyond our organizations and make the church the center, just as they did in the Old and New Testaments. In that sense, the mission of tribal messiah takes spiritual precedence over every other mission. We do our work, but we unite with the church as the center. In the words of our True Parents, "Unite for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand."