Sun Myung Moon’s Life In His Own Words
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Sun Myung Moon’s Life In His Own Words |
Members
during a witnessing campaign; the man in front is using a bullhorn
connected to a battery on the bicycle. The banner reads, Unification
Church Street Witnessing Team.
The Unification Church headquarters is in Seoul, isn't it? Those of you who live at the headquarters, do you think that you are eligible to stay there? Though I don't tell you this, I shed tears many times each day. Those who are closest to me know how I spend my days. I am ready to weep at one word; I'm that sensitive.
You should be aware that among those of our members who live on this peninsula, some hungry members are offering mournful prayers even as we speak. Others are suffering under severe oppression in restricted circumstances. You are the intermediaries whose mission is to convey a connection of heart to such members. Yet, how can you possibly fulfill your mission when you live the way you do now? Those who live at the headquarters will be chastised more severely than others, which is why I make a point of not speaking about something for the first time at the headquarters. Usually, I speak first in the rural regions, and then I speak about the topic again at the headquarters. Those who live at the headquarters do not pray much. The members living in the provincial areas are praying more. Can even one person living at the headquarters say he has nothing to be ashamed of in front of heaven and earth? I'm ashamed to be your teacher....
People from around the world will one day flock to this house. They will find their way here. Do you think that's only a dream? Because I lived here and discovered God's will here, people will cross nations in search of the ideology I have taught. If I were of a mind to build a new house, I could do it right no but historic events occurred here. Heaven and earth wept here. All types of people have cried their hearts out and shed blood, shaking in anguish and making appeals to God here. Behind this tearful place -- a sacred altar stained with tears -- are stories that will never be forgotten.
If a church member's husband tells her, Hey, woman! Don't go to the Unification Church, she will definitely reply, No! I'm going.
She'll say that, not because I told her to but because she has learned what to do from the Divine Principle. I didn't teach women this, so those in the spirit world did. Often, men whose wives have joined our church curse us: May the Unification Church die!
Yet, the church has not died. People go to great lengths to oppose us. People of all types oppose us. That the Unification Church will never perish, however, is a fact. We will not be destroyed, even if the world's three billion people converge here in the middle of the night with torches in their hands, shouting, Down with the Unification Church! They are publicizing our church to the rest of the world.
During
a provincial tour in 1965: Left: speaking to members in Gwangju;
Right: Father in a train station in Busan; in the foreground, early
member Mrs. Hyun-shil Kang is speaking to a local member
I am going to instill discipline in you. Is that all right? How should I go about it? Should I do it forcefully? Would that be okay? I am not dictatorially inclined, but when it comes to Satan, I exercise absolute authority. With my children, though, I'm not a dictator. I would only act dictatorially toward my children if they were to become devil-possessed.
You are all young, aren't you? Let me see your fists. Clasp your hands together. I used to clasp my hands so tightly when I prayed that they hurt when I opened them. Even when they became sweaty, I clasped them tightly and made a vow. Try clasping them tightly. In this way I am saying, let's increase our seriousness one notch as we go forward. Where are we going? I'm saying, let's go to Golgotha....
Have you become someone that if every one of the 30 million Koreans opposed you, you would have the conviction to never change? I don't think you have become such people. I have prepared myself based on that conviction, and no enemy I have come across yet has pushed me out of my arena of work. Are you confident to do as well as that?
Numerically, 1964 is not a good year. You should have the attitude that if you must suffer this year, you will suffer to atone for history; if you are wretched, it will be wretchedness for history's sake; if you are sad, it will be to atone for the past. We must be determined to resolve all this. 1964 is the year we must resolve to accomplish that in. You have to fulfill your responsibility in these four years and become those who successfully take dominion over the people of this nation....
Some recent news is that in Japan, high school students come to the church right after school lets out. They leave their schoolbags at the church and go out street witnessing; they go home only after each one of them has witnessed to one person. They are doing that now. What have you grown men and young people done so far? Even if you don't move a step, remain still, God won't stop to rest. If you don't work, I will.
A
crowd of well-wishers see True Parents off on their first world tour
on January 28, 1965.
Isn't it true that people speak of me as the founder of a religion who takes off his clothes and dances naked? They might be saying, Wow! That's a church where people dance naked. Well, good for them. I've lived for more than forty years and I've never had a chance to dance naked. [Laughter] What's the big fuss?... I've come this far, and I'm determined to move forward swiftly.
These days, people talk about global or international matters. They claim that the Unification Church intimidates people; they have a mistaken view. You just wait and see if what we've been saying are threats. People also say that our church has a lot of money. I'm sure all of you have wallets filled with gold, right? Of course you do. You may not realize it, but I'm telling you that you do have money that is not like money.
A man named Anthony Brooke came here recently, and a television reporter asked him why he had come. People wonder why he's speaking well of us. Prominent people in Christian churches are saying that we must have paid him a lot of money for that!" [Laughter] It's all so funny.
When I think about it, I realize it would have been terrible if God had not made it so that people curse me. God in the end is our God! The Unification Church developed while being at the receiving end of insults, which is why it survived. We prospered while being insulted and hounded, which is why the church will not perish. We grew even though we were unclothed and hungry. Yet, we did not have any problems finding food and clothing, and we have not disappeared. Isn't that right? [Yes.]
You should impress on your mind that as people working for Korea's restoration, you represent True Parents. Because of you, we are having this revival meeting at great financial cost. So when you return to your areas, you have to rise again. You have come from all parts of South Korea, and the fate of Korea and that of the world depends on what happens here. Heaven and millions of saints are watching us, so we have to feel a grave sense of mission and convey the truth. While I am working with you, you have to regain the heart and resolve you had when you first came to understand God's will.
I began work with only my bare hands. Even if you don't have anything, when you work in complete unity and with complete faith, God will help you. The three-year course seemed tedious at the time, but after it ended, our situation transformed. Similarly, it may feel as if the four- year course lasts an eternity, but it will pass by in a flash. Our path will become increasingly easier to follow.
More than a hundred important people have organized themselves to propagate the word in Washington DC. By sometime next year, people in all fifty U.S. states will mobilize. Our members abroad are doing their best not to be outdone by Korea. So, the only problem is Korea.
You can be proud that you suffered through hardships without having anything. The members in the United States fast a day or two every week; the American members that have come to Seoul are fasting every Thursday and Friday.
Left:
Father speaking with Dwight D. Eisenhower (U.S. president 1953-1961)
on June 25, 1965, the fifteenth anniversary of the outbreak of the
Korean War; Right: Father speaking to the members in Japan
A hundred and forty-four Unification Church members, representing all the members, must be loyal. We will thus be able to focus on doing everything that was to be done in Jesus' day. You 144, who represent 144,000, might look worthless, but you are extremely significant....
We must start visiting other churches now. Christian ministers are saying that our church has been silent for three years. They are asking why we are now visiting them. Visit them, even if they oppose you. As Heaven has ordered, we have to clash with them until the end of this three-year course.
My deep wish is to travel all over Korea this year. Now is the time for it. Our church members are exhausted after finishing the three-year course, which is why I held a revival meeting in Daegu and appointed new district leaders. Will you decide how you will grapple with what needs to be done this year and next? I am worried about this nowadays. I am going to mobilize more than two thousand people, but they will not be paid. On the contrary, you will have to pay a monthly fee to go out witnessing. We'll use that money to revive our people....
Why do you think I am activating as many of you as I can, whether you have achieved results or not? If, for instance, an emperor cuts down a tree in the mountains and carries it into his palace, would an ant sitting on the end of that tree enter the palace with the emperor, or not? It would. Similarly, though some people here have not been with us for a year, or two years, or a decade, we can at least take them with us beginning today. If a war ended while you were still on your way to the battlefield, you would still be considered a participant in the war. Even if you had shot your own officer by mistake on the battlefield, if your side won, you would be one of the victors.
Left:
True Father arriving in Korea on October 10, 1965, concluding the
first world tour; the type of jet they flew on, in use only since
late 1964, was the only type of commercial passenger airplane then
able to cross the Pacific non-stop. Right: A welcome- home
celebration for True Parents later the same day Sunday service,
August 11, 1963
Through my baby Hye-jin's death I could experience what God felt when He lost Jesus. Moreover, because I have not yet reached the point of death, I feel I haven't been completely loyal to God.
My indemnity course goes through the Christian indemnity course and continues the re-indemnification of the Unification Church, which is why things related with history happen, such as a child from my family becoming a sacrificial offering.
The battle until now has been over love between mother and daughter, between brothers, and between first wives and concubines. Mrs. Won-pok Choi is in the positions of Mary and of Jesus' wife and of Leah. Therefore, she has to thoroughly obey what I say. She is also in the form of the fallen mother who must restore the growth and completion stages. The completion level cannot be attained with the heart of fallen people, so we absolutely need the mother. Because of this, even Mother suffered and our baby Hye-jin became an indemnity offering.
From the beginning of 1964, I entrusted management of the church to the church president. I am not meant to follow an individual's path now; we have begun the family era....
You don't know what I've been through. Not even the church president knows that. You ought to realize that even those closest to me did not know what I felt in my heart.
Even if ten thousand members of our family and clan are sacrificed, even if our children die, we should not feel sad. You should understand that at times like these, my only worry is that my family will fail to remain in a position where it can block all historical pain for the sake of humankind....
The perfection level cannot be achieved within a fallen man's heart, so we definitely need a mother to reach that level.
Because of this, in my family, True Mother suffered and baby Hye-jin became an indemnity offering....
The demise of elderly blessed members and of baby Hye- jin is deeply significant. On the day of her death, August 4, the problem arose in Vietnam. The fact that I experienced the death of the closest person to me has great significance for you.
Before, if Satan appeared during my prayers, a problem arose outside. However, from this year, if Satan appears during my prayers a problem will appear in my family. More indemnity offerings will probably occur in the future. Because the Abel figure was an offering, God struck the Abel figure and forgave those in Cain's position. Because of this condition, God could strike the satanic world. From now on, God will strike those who oppose His will.
You need to understand that under the circumstances I do not have any choice; I have to order a total mobilization. I am appointing forty-five people to be the vanguard for six months. The time to fight behind that vanguard in a decisive battle that will decide the fate of this country has arrived. Each one of you must be active for at least two months. You each have to offer at least 10 percent of your time. Additionally, for at least a week, each month, I will not stay at home but will be visiting a region. If the results after two months are good, I plan to hold three four-day revival meetings in different parts of the country under the church president, on different dates, even though I will not be there.
I visited twenty-four Western countries and sixteen Eastern countries, forty in I returned to Korea after 256 days.
What does God want Japanese brothers and sisters to do? He is saying to them, Die for the restoration of the world. Die quickly. That's why, when other people are sleeping, our young people assemble in one place and sing and study. They are working day and night for God's will.
In order to do what remains to be done to move the world, we first need to strengthen our ideology, to strengthen our Organization and to become one through shared activities. We have to confront communism with stronger power in our organization and activities than they have in theirs.
I had heard that foreigners don't cry easily. Yet when I arrived in the United States, I discovered that Americans cry more readily than Koreans do. The members didn't know the time of my arrival; they had only heard I would be arriving that day, so they waited all day at the airport for me. They must have been weary. When I arrived at the airport and slowly made my appearance, those who had come to welcome me reacted in various ways, some crying and others laughing. Though we come from different cultures and have different histories, because we are all Unification Church members, we laugh together and we cry together.
I met several world-famous spiritual communicators in the United States. I asked them three or four times about the problems of the world and how we might resolve them, but they had no answers. They were bewildered....
You American brothers and sisters here today need to understand how much suffering God had to go through to bless America and to have you here today. When I sent Japanese and Korean missionaries to the United States, neither the Koreans nor the Japanese had yet established the church properly in their countries. No one dreamed that we would send missionaries to America. Despite our difficult circumstances, I was determined to send somebody to America to plant the seed of the Principle. Day and night I worked for that goal.
We have to pass on the blessing we have received to humankind. You have to set the example and take the lead, giving all that you have for the people of the world.
You have to take responsibility for every city in America. Start with this city and expand your activities to all the others.
Your numbers are limited, so each one of you has to fulfill your individual responsibility. Do you know what would happen to America if you didn't fulfill your responsibility? America, which is in Abel's position, would suffer at the hands of the Communist powers, which are in Cain's position. The whole of the Free World would suffer disaster.
I asked Mr. Eisenhower, the former president, to fulfill three conditions. I asked him how he would solve the historical problem, the religious problem and the ideological problem.
The meeting had been planned to last only five minutes, but it went on for more than twenty minutes. When I said I should go, he expressed regret and took me to see his living quarters on the second floor.
I saw many crosses on my world tour, which reminded me that it is my mission to get rid of all these crosses. Christianity is not the religion of the cross; it is the religion of the resurrection. You have to comfort God's heart. He is agonizing over the state of the world, and you have to put your area and your nation in good order. If you establish the standard of putting things in order in place of God, you will be able to make an environment in which you are standing in the kingdom of heaven. This is Jesus' hope and God's hope. It is mine, too.