The Words of the Pak Family
|
|
The Words of the Pak Family |
On July 6th Col. Bo Hi Pak, recently returned from Korea, spoke in Washington, D.C. about the significance of the June 7th Rally and America's role in the next three years. Following are excerpts
Upon my return to Washington, D.C., I was presented with the Great Seal of America. Although I have received many gifts from time to time, this particular gift was truly meaningful. It carries some prophecy, as the emphasis of God's crusade for the twentieth century is now shifting. In the last several months we have been engaged on the Asian continent, where God has won a great victory. But upon my arrival, I realized that God is shifting emphasis from Asia to America.
Reverend Sun Myung Moon, in his departing address in Seoul, Korea, clearly stated that for the next three years, America will be the battleground for God and Satan. He also stated that what we, the Unification Church International, will do in America will bring the world either hope or despair. Reverend Moon fully realizes that his mission lies in America in the next three years and that this battle in America will decide the destiny of the world for many centuries to come.
In one arm of the eagle on the Great Seal is an olive branch, representing peace. And in the other are arrows, representing power and strength. There is a famous story about this. The first president who authorized the Seal had the eagle face the arrows. But during the administration of Harry S. Truman, there was a great deal of philosophical discussion about what America should stand for -- not for arms, not for war, but for peace, it was decided. So the head was turned toward the olive leaves, and the eagle has been looking at them ever since.
This is a very important inspiration for all of us. America must stand for power in order to deter the world aggression of Communism. But at the same time, our ultimate goal is for world peace. America has to bear this great burden as the champion of the world, as the power who not only safeguards the destiny of the entire world from Communist aggression but also works for world peace. Father clearly states that we are the ones to help provide the power of inspiration and serve as the spiritual backbone of America for the next three years so that America can successfully fulfill the mission that God has ordained for her.
Two days ago we celebrated the 199th birthday of America. Since then, we are plunging into the celebration of our bicentennial year, the 200th birthday of America. About 100 years ago, America faced one crisis: the Civil War. The Civil War was a ravaging war between the peoples of one nation. The great president Abraham Lincoln, giving his last measure of devotion, sacrificed himself to save the union. That was a great trial of America -- whether it as a democratic country could stand. Abraham Lincoln won the war and saved the union. From a historical point of view, this was a test of the external durability of America, and America won the test.
Now as we are coming to the 200th birthday of America I see that America is facing a most crucial test again, but this time an internal one of the durability of America's spirit-whether this nation can stand as our forefathers planned 200 years ago and can truly sustain her founding spirit of "In God We Trust." America's founding spirit is God. God gave blessings to this country because of that beautiful spirit. America does not belong to America. America belongs to God first, and then to the world. The blessing never comes alone; it always comes with responsibility.
Whether America will awake to her God-given responsibility will determine the future of America. America must be the sacrificial nation to become the David of the twentieth century to save the world from the twentieth century Goliath, Communism. Whether America can deter aggression, turning back the tide so that the rest of the world can be saved, depends on the durability of our founding spirit not on how many atomic bombs we have, but how we feel about the 200th birthday of our nation.
When David stood in front of the giant Goliath, he did not volunteer to fight against Goliath to show his power. He did not have that power. Goliath was laughing at him because he knew that he could crush this boy in no time, at one stroke. David approached Goliath, not asking for power. He stepped forward to the giant enemy in the name of God, his Lord. He said, "In the name of the Lord I come to you. No one can go against the name of God. In the name of God I crush you." He was truly representing the Almighty, making himself the ambassador of God. And he won.
Today, the David of the twentieth century, America, is set forth against the Goliath of the twentieth century, Communism, in the name of God. There is no other way that we can win this battle because the principle has been set. Once we awake and realize how we can win, then we will win. If we stand in our own name, the proud name of America, we will never win, no matter how much steel, strategy, and weapons we have. We will become strong when we bring ourselves to be the ambassadors of God.
The fall of Vietnam brought a tremendous shock, particularly to the Korean people. After Vietnam, Korea will be the coming target, Koreans thought. When you look at the Asian land mass, you can see that the Korean position is so feeble. The Communists might even feel that they don't have to do anything; they can just blow this country away into the sea. The whole Asian continent is Communist. Korea is hardly even a pinpoint. Even the whole peninsula is not free. All the feeble Asian countries which have remained free are now rushing into worshiping Mao Tse Tung-the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand.
Korea, alone, has resolved that we either die or we live in freedom. Korea is the one country in Asia trying to live up to the great cry of Patrick Henry, "Give me liberty or give me death!" Throughout the history of God, He has manifested the power to show His own people that, with absolute trust in Him, they could make the impossible possible, creating a miracle. Moses was taught by God how, by faith, the impossible could be turned into possible reality and victory.
For Korea there are many Red Seas, not just one. In the north, there is Kim Il Sung, wanting to take over Korea at any time. Because he has built so many tunnels underground, there is no 38th parallel any more.
In the west, the giant China of Mao, almost one billion people, can become a machine under one order from Peking. In the east, Japan is very feeble. The Communist party is legal, occupying many seats in the government. The Communists believe that it is only a matter of time for Japan to fall. If Japan falls, Korea has nowhere to go.
And to the south of Korea is the sea. I met Harry Truman before he died. He said that he made two great decisions while President of the United States. One was dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He still thought that he did the right thing, even though he devastated the two cities, because the Japanese were in no mood to stop the war. The second, he said, was the commitment of forces in Korea. By doing this he saved Korean freedom. He added that if his decision had been delayed three days, there would have been no Korea, because by then all Korea would have been thrown into the sea.
This is the Korean position. The Korean people realize more than anyone else what kind of position that they are in. What boosted the morale of the 35 million people of Korea was the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, proclaiming that Korea is the chosen nation of God, that God will never abandon this country, and that the Unification Church International is ready to save the Republic of Korea.
Everyone thought that our activities were more intriguing than a presidential campaign. We also had a good opponent. The existing churches did not like our determined spiritual revolution. They did everything they could to make our crusade a failure. Under these mixed circumstances, the results were amazing. It was the greatest campaign I have ever seen. The IOWC members were really heroes in Korea. They were truly wonderful.
The hundreds of IOWC members truly campaigned, handing out brochures on street comers and knocking on all two million doors of Seoul from 7 in the morning until 10 at night. It was the greatest honor and inspiration to lead this campaign of more than 700 courageous people, the living Davids of the twentieth century, in the streets of Seoul. I'm very proud of them; they really testified for what Reverend Sun Myung Moon stands for.
For the first time Reverend Sun Myung Moon was presented literally in the role of Messianic mission. This is because what Korea needs today is the hope and conviction that nothing will ever happen to Korea.
That Korea will be under the power of God. That in the name of God and the power of God the entire world would stand behind them and save them. United together and marching together as one fortress, they will have no reason to fear North Korea or any other Communist aggression.
We know that South Vietnam did not fall because of lack of manpower or weapons. At the moment of surrender, they had five billion dollars worth of weapons in their arms. They had tremendous manpower, many times that of North Vietnam. But South Vietnam fell because the people did not have a purpose to fight. Without conviction and a will to fight, naturally a nation cannot stand.
This time, Reverend Moon brought a sense of purpose to defend Korea. The resolution of representatives of sixty nations to fight for Korea truly shook the entire country. The Unification Church posed as the Messiah for Korea, the Salvation Army in the truest sense. In the 1950's only 15 nations defended Korea when the Communists attacked.
Now the Korean people could see that over sixty nations would rally around them at the outbreak of hostilities.
One day I took the New Hope Singers and the Korean Folk Ballet to the frontline, where we have a special performance to hundreds of thousands of frontline soldiers -- like Bob Hope. But we did not have just dancing and singing for them, but also we had a message. That message was: " You will never be alone. Do not lose strength. Do your duty. You have lots of friends in the name of the Unification Church throughout the world. We will never hesitate to come to your aid, to fight with you side by side if anything happens." And this boosted up the morale such that those many soldiers were in tears.
(As Col. Pak described the rally itself, he emphasized everyone's concern over the weather -- the one factor beyond our control. June 7th began with threatening clouds. As the time for Father's speech approached, a weatherman told Col. Pak that there was a rainstorm five minutes away and that the people must be warned to remain so that mass confusion could be prevented.)
While the situation was crumbling down upon me, I announced to the crowd: "Look at the sky over there. The weatherman said that in five minutes those showers will come upon this island. But I want you to know that this is the beautiful strategy of God. When you stay, strong even under the rain, your eloquent testimony against the threat of Kim Il Sung will be a thousand times stronger. God wants us to exhibit strong resolve to show Kim how much we are determined. So do you promise that even if it showers, you won't move?" Then I introduced Father and he began to speak his most beautiful message. I now believe the Old Testament more than ever before because not even one drop of rain fell!
Many religious leaders gathered, eloquently testifying to what Reverend Moon was doing for the world. (Col. Pak gave a few names and associations.) These people speaking on our behalf showed complete unity, which is what the government is seeking. The government is really looking at the religion which is united on a common stand against Kim Il Sung. We truly served that purpose so beautifully.
I want you to know that we, the Unification Church International, are not only serving as the salvation force for the Republic of Korea, we are the ones responsible to turn Communist aggression away in every corner of the world. Over and over, I was so deeply impressed by the spirit and determination of Father. He took the entire world situation upon himself. He knew that no one is responsible but himself. He knew that there is no other way for the worldwide alliance of Communism to be stopped but through the Unification ideology. So far we have been thinking that Communism is an evil way of life or an evil ideology. But on June 7th, Reverend Moon branded Communism as another form of religion because Communism provides a philosophy and controls every action of the human body. Communism is an evil religion without God. Communism tries to pose itself as God, trying to take over God's job.
Therefore, there is only one way we can win over Communism -- with a better, stronger, and truer religion centered on God. God-denying ideology can be deterred only by a stronger truth. The problem is that today Christianity is failing to live up to this standard. Many Christian nations are giving up to a Communist takeover: Portugal and Italy are good examples. Traditional Christianity is giving up, opening the road to Communist takeover, showing that Christianity is not really living up to God's desire.
The Unification Church is a new breed of Christianity. We are igniting the spiritual revolution so that our conviction goes beyond the Communists', bringing the human race towards a strong commitment to the reality of God. In this way alone Reverend Moon has shown the world the way to conquer Communism.
After this June 7th rally the Unification Church International will never be the same. We have gained new power and recognition. More important than anything else, we became a new hope for the Korean people. Truly there is not one single Korean who has not heard about Reverend
Sun Myung Moon. And they heard of him as a patriot, a prophet of God, spearheading the salvation of the Republic of Korea. There was no better way to represent our Father to the Korean people. I was jubilant about the outcome of the rally.
Upon the victory of the June 7th rally, Father formally concluded the second seven-year course on June 10, World Day. The next three years will be most important and centered on activity here in America.
Yankee Stadium will be national event, particularly in conjunction with the Bicentennial, something like a "God Bless America" rally. No religious or government leaders could lead a rally of such magnitude.
Centered on Reverend Sun Myung Moon, we will. I know that Father will speak on that occasion that America must win this important test at her 200th birthday. The test is to return to the founding spirit of America. Then the new era of America will dawn, and our young people, the decent patriots of America, will truly recognize that Reverend Moon is the hope and the Unification Church is the champion of God.
Our path will not be an easy one. But if you had chosen an easy way of life, you would not be assembled here. We came here to really invest our youth and life and energy and heart and soul in the best way possible to be used by God, to become the nourishment of the kingdom.
That is why. we are here. And I tell you that the most exciting period is going to begin from this time on here in America. My heart is pumping in joy and excitement. We will live a life that will never be dull. What we need is just one single-minded conviction that God is with us. I am and you are His ambassadors in this newly dawned heavenly kingdom.
This time I have come back with even stronger determination to give the best of my life any way that He wants to serve His way here in America. What America becomes the world shall become. Even though we won a great victory in Asia, Asia is dependent upon what America will become. The showdown is not going to be in Korea, even though the physical set-up is there. We are going to create the cue-sheet, the plan of action, the power behind all things. I am confident that we have the leadership and inspiration that we need.
Above all, God is depending on you, telling you: "Come my way and you will be with me and I shall be with you." Several years ago I adopted as the credo of my life: "He who tries to find his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it." Unless we do it, no one else will, except the Communists. We are in the most profound mission of the messianic era of the twentieth century.