The Words of the Spurgin Family
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The Words of the Spurgin Family |
The
blessing of the inheritance of those spiritual groups was given to
father and mother.
The following article contains background information about our church's history. It was compiled largely from three historical speeches given by Father in 1971:
www.tparents.org/Moon-Talks/SunMyungMoon71/SM711227.htm
www.tparents.org/Moon-Talks/SunMyungMoon71/SM711228.htm
www.tparents.org/Moon-Talks/SunMyungMoon71/SM711229.htm
Long before Father ever taught the Principle to anyone, he searched throughout Korea for the Christian groups which he knew God had been preparing and which had been willing to make the sacrifices necessary to play a role in the restoration process. Many of them had made incredible sacrifices in laying a foundation of faith, but in the end there always remained that ultimate test of faith that they unite with another person or group, making the foundation of substance, thus taking the providence to a new level in preparation for the coming Lord. Father explains that it was also a condition that this unity be made in pure faith and obedience to God without rational explanation.
The period of oppression under the Japanese was one of unbelievably intense persecution and hardship for Koreans, particularly for the Christians. It was also during this same period of time that providential preparation was taking place among the Christians so that the Old Testament and the New Testament Eras would be restored and indemnified, paving the way for Father to begin his mission.
It is not news to us that the many failures in this early foundation were due to an inability to unite. During World War II and thereafter, Korean Christians suffered greatly, made incredible personal sacrifices, labored endlessly, and carried out directions from spirit world faithfully and obediently; yet in the end, one foundation after another was lost because of the unwillingness to unite with another person or group. Father often made special conditions personally so that he could inherit the foundations and thereby salvage the great indemnity which had already been paid. Even the establishment of the Unification Church was not God's original plan, but rather an alternate way to preserve the foundation of incredible suffering and sacrifice which had already been made. In this way a small group of early members made the conditions to inherit (and thus save) God's carefully nurtured restoration providence.
The providential history of Korea both before and after the establishment of the Unification Church had one goal -- that of uniting internal and external, male and female, and Cain and Abel on every level. The name Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity speaks as much to our mission today as it did at its inception in 1954.
Korea, in order to be the Adam country in God's providence, had to be dominated by an Eve country and by overcoming the Eve country, gain independence. Therefore, Korea was ruled by the Japanese for 40 years from 1905 to 1945. During that 40-year period the Japanese tried to destroy the cultural tradition and even the language of Korea. They forced the Christians to bow down to idols in the Shinto shrines. Many Korean Christians were imprisoned and suppressed by the Japanese government because of their refusal to do this. Father himself was imprisoned by the Japanese during this period. As a young man, Father was preparing himself for his public ministry; however, he did not teach the Principle at this time for he had promised God to begin his work after Korea was liberated from the Japanese rule.
When God finds people and enlarges the foundation for His providence, He always has to work against the rejection of Satan. Therefore, as World War II neared its end the oppression from the Japanese became much more severe. These last years of Japanese rule became unbearable, especially for faithful Christians. People longed and prayed for the day of liberation from Japan. As those Christians prayed more and more seriously, many received revelations from heaven that after World War II Korea would be liberated and a new history would develop centering on that Asian nation.
Under such circumstances Christianity became divided. The most devout Christians refused to bow down to the Shinto idols, consequently experiencing imprisonment, severe torture, and even death at the hands of their Japanese oppressors. Other Christians, often from the mainline churches, chose to compromise their faith, externally uniting with the Japanese authorities by bowing before the Shinto shrines while internally maintaining their Christian beliefs.
Many of the faithful Christians fled to the mountains where they hid and created underground groups centered around a spiritual leader. In the midst of severe persecution, and elusive in the mountains of Korea, these independent Christians became channels for many new revelations from God and Jesus, setting them apart from the established churches. Some Christians even received that they should not work with the existing churches. Consequently, they were not only in conflict with the Japanese authorities; conflict also arose between established churches and the many newly formed spiritual groups. From an internal point of view, these spiritual groups were part of the providential plan for restoring the Old and New Testaments and making the foundation for the Messiah to find a bride and establish the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
Won Pil Kim tells us of the role spiritualists played in Korean Christianity:
Many people who visited Father and became members had held leadership positions in one or another Christian church. Among these were the spiritualists. People who could heal and foretell the future formed an important part of the fundamentalist Christian churches, because their spiritual power drew others to the churches and the ministers were able to witness to them and multiply the membership. Thus, these spiritualists were the main leaders in the existing churches.
For years, people had unhesitatingly received their ministers' words as God's words. But then the spiritualists began to receive by revelation that Jesus' crucifixion was not originally planned by God. Since the ministers had always taught that the crucifixion was planned by God, the spiritualists thought they would be pleased to hear the new revelations, so they went and shared the news with their ministers. However, the ministers denied the revelations. The ministers said they must have come not from God, but from Satan. You can imagine how painful it was for the spiritualists to be told this.
So the spiritualists would pray to God and ask what to do. The same revelations would be repeated. Thus, the spiritualists were faced with the dilemma of deciding whether to follow their ministers or their revelations from God. They were in a kind of midway position. According to the ministers, the revelations were contrary to the Bible. Moreover, when the revelations were given, no biblical basis or explanation accompanied them.
So the spiritualists would stop going to church, but eventually, having nowhere else to go, they had to return. Still, they were always looking for the true answer. Whenever they heard of the arrival of a new missionary or a new teacher, they would immediately go to hear him speak. Although they attended church, they could not respect their minister. In those days, the Christian churches were to some degree built on the foundation of the spiritual power of the spiritualists. Thus the spiritualists were pillars of their churches, and of course, their families as well, since the whole family would usually attend church together. When someone became sick, he would go to one of his relatives who was a spiritualist and quickly recover. Whenever someone had a problem, he would go to the spiritualist among his relatives and get some good advice. Thus, the spiritualists were always respected and valued by their families. Deep inside, however, these spiritualists lived in great conflict.
Two spiritual groups, one on the east coast and the other on the west coast, played prominent roles in the restoration providence to lay a foundation for God's completed work.
The eastern side of Korea is rugged and mountainous, reflecting in its nature masculine elements. In the city of Won San, located on the east coast of North Korea, a Christian spiritual movement arose around a leader named Paek Nam Ju to whom Jesus gave revelations through a woman named Han Myong Pa. This movement had many male followers and had a providential role in the archangel position. Mrs. Han told Mr. Paek, "The Lord is with me and the Lord is speaking through me." So Mr. Paek bowed down and received the spiritual messages from Jesus through her. However, when other Christian ministers heard about this movement, they persecuted Paek's group for following these spiritual messages.
One of the messages Jesus gave Mr. Paek's group was that they should connect with a women's Christian spiritual group on the west coast. Spirit world further instructed Mr. Paek that he was to walk the 130 miles to the west coast without shoes. Barefooted he came, to meet the lady who was the leader of the west coast group. God wanted to unite these two groups on the family and tribal levels. By these two churches uniting, this could have been done. Obviously, this did not happen, and further persecution befell both groups when their unusual spiritual actions were reported to the Japanese authorities.
After Mr. Paek, the leadership of this masculine spiritual movement passed on to Mr. Lee Yong Do. Mr. Lee, a powerful and inspiring preacher, started a new church on Mr. Paek's foundation. Again, instructions were given from spirit world to unite his church with the "Inside Belly Church" (from the west coast). This time the western women's group went to the eastern group, but the east could not receive them. Because unification was not accomplished at this time, God needed a new movement to pioneer again. In 1932, at age 33, Mr. Lee died and the spirit and mission of the east coast church was passed on to a Mr. Kim Beck Moon, who began a new group.
The three men, Mr. Paek, Mr. Lee, and Mr. Kim, represented the formation, growth, and perfection stages in the providence to restore the three archangels. God had to go through a three-stage providence through these three male leaders. Mr. Kim was told to establish a seminary to prepare for the Lord of the Second Advent. This he did, calling it the Israel Monastery.
Father met Mr. Kim in November 1945 (three months after the liberation from the Japanese) and stayed and worked in his church for six months. Father did not speak of the Principle, but served the church in a humble way by doing the most menial tasks. During this time Father prayed hard for Mr. Kim to understand Father's role. Mr. Kim received a revelation about Father and placed his hand on Father's head, saying that the glory of King Solomon and the whole world would be on him. As Jesus was blessed by John the Baptist, so Father was to inherit from Mr. Kim the foundation made by the three "archangels".
During this six-month period many women followers of Mr. Kim were told by the spirit world to follow Father instead of Mr. Kim. Mr. Kim, on the basis of what he received when he blessed Father, had his own portion of responsibility to find out who Father has. He should have asked Father what these revelations about him meant; Father was praying for him to ask. However, Mr. Kim became more concerned about his own position, and was fearful that Father would take his followers. Therefore, he, like John the Baptist, could not follow, although Father inherited the blessing of the providential foundation from Mr. Kim.
The providence of the east (men's) and west (women's) groups was that God wanted to unite Christians on the family and tribal levels. This could have been established in the unity of the two churches and represented the restoration of the archangel and Eve. Both churches were based on spiritual messages, having received that the Japanese would perish (this was during the worst oppression under the Japanese). But these special groups were persecuted by the Christian churches all over Korea and ultimately were reported to the Japanese authorities by Christian ministers themselves.
A
new foundation, the Unification Church, had to be established.
The western coast of Korea is a flat and gentle land where nature shows its more feminine side. From a providential point of view the west side represents Eve. Here, in the city of Kon San, an elderly lady named Mrs. Kim Son Do received many prophetic messages. She was a woman of deep prayer, often praying from 1:00 a.m. until mid-morning. The messages she received directly from God included such things as the exact date of Korea's liberation; that the Second Coming of the Lord would be as a physical man; that the world would be restored through Korea. She also received information about the "fall of man" which prompted her to teach her followers not to marry because a new blood lineage was to be established.
Her husband, who could not accept her devout lifestyle and unusual religious beliefs, persecuted her and even beat her nearly to death. Mrs. Kim also had two sons, the first of whom was married to the daughter of a devout minister. This daughter-in-law respected her and also received spiritual messages. The son, however, could not respect his mother's request that he and his wife give up their married life. When he disregarded her instruction (from spirit world) his wife died. Providentially, this was to indemnify the ill treatment Mrs. Kim's husband had given her. Her second son and her daughters did not marry in accordance with heaven's instructions.
Many women followed Mrs. Kim. After her death, which came as a result of torture during imprisonment, a faithful disciple, Mrs. Ho Ho Bin, was chosen by God as successor to this mission. According to Won Pil Kim, Mrs. Kim's group divided into two groups with some followers remaining with the original group. However, a larger number, including Mother's mother, moved to Mrs. Ho's group. Mrs. Ho, unlike Mrs. Kim, had a husband who was also a devout follower of Mrs. Kim. Together they prayed to inherit Mrs. Kim's foundation, for they both believed that through Mrs. Kim's work the true providence would come. They received that God wanted one man and one woman whom he could prepare for a final mission.
Because Mrs. Ho understood the "fall of man," she told her husband that he was in the archangelic position, requiring of him many difficult tests to indemnify the archangel. He had to prove that he was willing to die for this mission. Because of his obedience to God and unity with his wife, his indemnity conditions were always shortened.
Jesus revealed to Mrs. Ho much about the heart of God, the inner secrets of the mission Mary could not fulfill, Jesus' childhood, the fact that John the Baptist failed his mission resulting in the crucifixion of Jesus, and that the Lord of the Second Advent would come as a man to Korea. Mrs. Ho was also told that the Lord would come as a prince of heaven on the sacrifice of 6,000 years of history. Therefore those who would receive the Lord must solve the resentments of Jesus prior to his second coming. The Ho Church was to solve this resentment by preparing the best princely clothes and food for Jesus -- enough that he could have three banquet-style meals a day and clothes (both Korean and Western) to change every three days from birth to 33 years of age.
Every specific instruction was given for the fulfillment of these incredible requirements and the 1,000 members toiled endlessly to collect the money through donations and prepare the food and garments. They faithfully did this over a period of seven years. The following are some of the instructions given from spirit world: Members should wait for the markets to open in the morning so as to be the first to buy. They should buy only things which were freshly put on display. Members should never haggle over the price (which is general practice in Korea). All the clothes were to be made by hand. They were to be sewn three stitches at a time, then tied and the three stitches repeated. If they were interrupted by their children, they had to start over. They were not to stand up or go to the toilet until the garment was finished. The room had to be absolutely clean before preparing food or clothing.
After the clothes were made for Jesus, Mrs. Ho was told to make clothes and prepare food in the same way for the Lord of the Second Advent. They were given the specific sizes for each age. When they brought food to serve to this unknown "Lord" they were told to bow 300, sometimes even 3,000 times, which took ten hours. Mrs. Ho received details such as the academic background of the Lord of the Second Advent. She prepared and trained her membership of 1,000 to all be ready to give their lives for him. She was also told that she would meet him as Chung Hyang (in a Korean folktale) met her Lord -- in prison.
Mrs. Ho's unusual sect became known throughout Korea as the Kokjungkyo (Inside Belly Church). This name was given the group because each time Mrs. Ho received revelations, her stomach shook, a sign which served as a constant reminder that the Lord to come was to be born as 1 physical man from his mother's womb. Mrs. Ho prophesied many specific things which came true, including that Japan would surrender on August 16, 1945. Because of her accuracy in prophecy her followers had great faith in her. She also received that they would meet the Lord when Japan perished. Thus, it must have been with great anticipation that these faithful and sacrificial Christians prepared both a house and a bride for the Messiah. They bought a fine house in Pyongyang. By this time (1946) North Korea was occupied by communists who, upon hearing that they owned a fine house and stored many rich garments, confiscated the clothes and put the leaders, including Mrs. Ho, in prison.
On August 11, 1946, several months after Mrs. Ho's imprisonment, Father was also imprisoned. He had gone to North Korea from Pusan. Without identification, he was suspected of being a spy. Secondly, his religious teachings and practices resembled those of Mrs. Ho's church, making him suspect.
As providence would have it, Father was put in the same prison as Mrs. Ho, and in the same cell as her assistant. Won Pil Kim tells the story thusly:
The cell Father was thrown into was the same as that of one of the Inside Belly Church leaders. When this man saw Father, he immediately felt an impulse to explain to Father everything about the Inside Belly Church and confide in him about his own life.
The communists had given the Inside Belly Church leaders two alternatives: to deny their revelations and be released, or to maintain their faith' and stay in prison. Even under severe torture, they would not deny their revelations.
When Father heard about this, he explained to his cellmate why their church was prepared, and urged him to deny the revelation so he could be set free. Eventually this man did deny the revelation and was liberated, but because of the severe torture he had endured, he died shortly after his release.
Father felt responsible for the woman who had received those revelations. In prison, it was very dangerous to write letters, but Father secretly sent a note to her on a piece of paper hidden in a rice bowl. The contents of the note were instructions to deny the revelations she had received and to pray to find out who had written the note. However, the note was discovered and Father was tortured. The Japanese had previously ruled Korea, and the torture in this prison was Japanese-style. It was severe and nearly unbearable. Finally, after about 100 days in prison, Father was set free.
The woman who was leader of the Inside Belly Church could not accept Father's request that she deny her revelations and be released. You can imagine how difficult it would have been for her to do so. Because she had been guided by God directly and because whenever she neglected to obey even a small part of her revelations she was chastised by heaven, to deny the revelations would have meant denying herself and everything she had done in the past.
Through many experiences, she had learned that if she followed the revelations exactly, many good things happened, but if she did not follow them, bad things would happen.
However, the last revelation she received was that she would meet the Messiah in prison. Her own responsibility was to discover who he was. Father told her to pray in order to find out who had written the note, but she could not.
Mrs. Ho and her followers could not deny their revelations and without understanding who Father was, both they and Father suffered severe torture. The great foundation of faith which had been made through Mrs. Kim and Mrs. Ho was never connected to the Lord they so longed to meet. Had they recognized and obeyed Father there, history would be different. In 1950 when the Korean War broke out, long-suffering members of the Inside Belly Church were sent to concentration camps in North Korea and eventually killed.
Since Mrs. Ho did not accomplish the mission to connect with Father, the blessing of the inheritance of their foundation was passed on to Mother alone. Mrs. Hong (Mother's mother) was involved with this group. While Mrs. Ho was in prison, Mother as a six-year-old girl was introduced to the spiritual leader acting for Mrs. Ho. This spiritual lady gave Mother a great blessing. As Father inherited the foundation blessing from Mr. Kim, so Mother received this blessing. Here, in Mother's own words given on May 3, 1977, we catch a glimpse of the painful reality of the preparation for this:
In Korea there were many special spiritual groups which were unlike the conventional Christian churches which just blindly believed in the Bible and Jesus Christ, hoping to go to heaven. Those spiritual groups existed solely to receive revelations from God to prepare the way for the Lord of the Second Advent here on earth, and to search to find the heavenly bride.
Mother having been overcome with tears, Father explained:
Mother is very sorrowful because looking back to those days she remembers the impossible tribulations that those people, including Mother's own mother, went through. Those people who were receiving God's revelations had to suffer in so many incredible ways. They paved the way of indemnity, and many died in very unfortunate circumstances, sometimes in prison.
Mother continued:
I was also sorrowful to once again think that those heavenly chosen instruments, who were absolutely dedicated to God's revelations and whose one hope was to someday meet the Messiah, never saw that day.
God had precisely unfolded to them His plan for sending His son here on earth, and under untold hardships they prepared for the day of the Lord. But unfortunately they did not see that day, and one after another they died away. Yet their mission continued on for three generations. As the culmination of one group which had such revelations, I was born. The final spiritualist to inherit the mission of unfolding God's plan to send His son here on earth recognized me at the age of six, and said that I would be the bride of the Lord.
In a speech on the history of the Unification Church, given on December 27, 1971, Father said, "The Lord of the Second Advent must restore the three lost disciples of Jesus. These three disciples will be the restored archangels. After that he will restore Eve."
He continued, saying that to restore Adam, God had to work through the Old Testament Age, the New Testament Age, and the Completed Testament Age. Therefore, to restore the Eve position, Father had to make conditions to restore Eve in the three ages as well.
Originally God wanted to love Adam and Eve together. But in the Old and New Testament Ages God chose men in Adam's position: Noah, Abraham, and so on. The right conditions for restoration of the Eve position had to be made by Father in the last days.
To restore the three archangels, God had to go through a three-stage providence of succession of leaders as well. Father said, "If [Father] can restore one man and three women united with that man, from the spiritual group, by that he can restore all the conditions for the restoration of Eve." When Father went to the east coast church there were three women who testified to him. According to Father, if these three women and their leader, Mr. Kim, had become one with Father, then all the conditions would have been restored at that place and time; they would have become the perfection stage group.
In this same speech Father explained that had this group united with him, then a second Christian group would have been found which was united with the established Christian ministers, representing the growth stage centered on Christianity. These two groups were to unite. This Christian center would have in turn connected with the government becoming the formation stage group.
At the time these Christians should have become one with Father, Korea was under American military government. Through them he could have united with the government, and through the government he could have united with the democratic world. And through the democratic world the communist world would have crumbled.
Since unity was not made, Father went to North Korea in 1946 where he found Won Pil Kim and three women who played the role of the four people who had been prepared to unite in South Korea.
A new foundation had to be established. This is the Unification Church (HSA-UWC), whose mission it is to indemnify the failures to unite with God's providence for the fulfillment of the Second Advent. After Father restored certain providential numbers of followers in North Korea (for example, three male disciples from prison), Father could go to South Korea to begin the spiritual work out of which the Unification Church could be founded. By fulfilling this, Jesus' crucifixion could be restored.
Father had salvaged the restoration providence by himself inheriting the foundation made by the Christian group and creating a new group (the Unification Church) made up of his small group of disciples. Mother also inherited the blessing of the foundation of Mrs. Ho's church. These two great foundations of faith were finally united in our True Parents, and from this beginning they took the mission to unite Christianity to the next level, the worldwide level.
In 1971 Father said, "America is the archangelic nation in the democratic world." In order to fulfill the mission of restoring one nation there are two areas of focus. One is the Principle which will unite Christians and the other is anti- communist theory to end communism. These "two works must unite in America. The work to restore Christians must be done in America, and also to prevent communist domination."
So in 1985, at the end of his 40 year course, and on the foundation of his work and tremendous sacrifice in America, Father again asked us to take up the cross of Christianity, bring it into unity, and reach out to the non-religious world, in order to bring all God's children home.