Sun Myung Moon’s Life In His Own Words

Part 32 -- From Korea the World


After creating the holy ground on Mount Nebo in Jordan; as did Moses of old, Father is looking toward the biblical land of Canaan. In the 46 years since that day, True Parents have opened the way to the Promised Land for all humankind.

Why did I carry out a global tour? You know about the holy grounds, don't you? I did the tour in order to distribute worldwide the standard of success that I have established so far. The mission I have accomplished in Korea is the standard I have set up centering on Korea, and I needed to convey that to the world's people.

When I select a holy ground, it is to be in a condition similar to that of heaven and earth before the Fall. It is also similar to the condition of all things during the period before the creation of humankind. If there is a holy ground, the angels can cooperate with God in the creation of Adam, which is how the foundation on which the spirit world can work on earth can be established. When the children of God, who have the victorious realm of Adam in the position of Abel and the standard of heart before the Fall, are sent to those holy grounds, the re-creation of the substance of the word and the beginning of the standard of heart can be achieved centering on them. That is why I am trying to send out missionaries worldwide as quickly as possible.

The holy grounds were established between December 31, 1964 and January 4, 1966. The establishment of the holy grounds had to involve three different years. The selection and establishment of a holy ground is done according to the principle of restoration through indemnity, based on God's laws of creation. After God created the universe, He created Adam and Eve. Through Adam and Eve, He connected everything that He had created to Himself.


Left: August 31, 1965: Father arrives in Jordan. Khosrof Abdallah Mudabber (in uniform, with his family) met the church in the U.S. just before Father arrived there. He recognized Father as Christ and prepared everything for him in Jordan. Right: In Rome at the Circus Maximus (Roman sports arena); at back is Barbara Burrowes, who had joined the church in Italy earlier that year.

People who accompanied True Father

When I established the holy grounds, Ms. Won Pok Choi, Miss Young Oon Kim and Mr. Bong Choon Choi (Sang Ik Choi) were with me. From the point of view of God's will, Mr. Choi represented the Eve country, Japan, and Miss Kim represented the United States, the world-level archangel nation. Because this made a four-position foundation centering on the Adam nation, these four people did the global tour together. A man represented the Eve country, and a woman represented the archangel country. Everything seemed to be the wrong way around. But when you look, this is symbolically aligned with the internal Adam and Eve.

Later, when you go to the spirit world, you will have a chance to feel what I felt during the world tour. What I did mostly at the time was visit the nation's government buildings and museums, to try to observe the connection between their history and their current sovereignty. As I toured around the world, I mainly visited such places, choosing the holy grounds. I placed the stones and earth I had brought from Korea at the corners of the holy grounds and I brought back stones and earth from those nations.

What do the earth and stones signify? God did not lose only Adam through the Fall; the whole world was seized by Satan. However, now the base for God to recover the world exists; the age when we can recover the earth has arrived. Because of this, the earth and the stones at the holy grounds have become the foundation God needs to dwell on earth. You need to understand that this is why I proclaimed the holy grounds.

We are connecting Korean earth to these holy grounds. We are planting Korean earth and stones in them. These symbolize the human mind and body. The earth represents the body; the stone represents the bone. (The rock is also the symbol of Jesus.) They symbolize heaven and earth.


After visiting the Dome of the Rock, built (688-691) by Muslim caliph Abd el-Malik, Father and his entourage with the imam. Kneeling is Mr. Mudabber.

Ceremony dedicating holy stones

Summary of the Prayer: I dedicate to You the stones and earth brought from a hundred and twenty holy grounds in forty nations, symbolizing heaven and earth, so please accept them as the condition of dedicating those forty nations. Through this ceremony, please let all authority come to the side of Heaven, and let the power of the satanic world crumble.

[Afterward, True Father gave a thousand won to each of the districts in Seoul.] Put this money in a bank, as if you were saving it in my name. Every month, at least twelve people should add something to this bank account, and no one should take anything out.

You cannot go past this stage without putting aside some money in the bank. If no one else is there, the church leader should do it. By doing that, you set the condition of restoring sacrificial offerings on the world level. I began this global movement from the time of the world tour.

Seventeen European countries (July 9–August 24)

I prayed in front of the Vatican Palace. "God, after two thousand years, here is a church with over 600 million members. However, when I think about what will become of them, I cannot but feel anxious. Let the countless separate denominations be united, as is Your wish, Heavenly Father. "


Feeding ducks in Germany, where Father created holy grounds in Berlin, Frankfurt and Essen.

The Middle East leg

During the world tour, I travelled through the Middle East region -- through Jordan, Israel and Syria and took a good look at them because I wanted to find out how the spirit world had been moving in the background in those nations.

When I visited Egypt, which at the time was under military authority under Nasser.... Because I could not discover how much they had developed industrially in their capital city, Cairo, I visited Alexandria, which was about a hundred miles from Cairo. Based on my observations there, I thought to myself that they had nothing to boast of. At the time, Egypt was ten or twenty years behind Israel.

The Jerusalem holy ground (August 31, 1965) At Jesus' tomb, you will see people from all races visiting and starting to cry, quite unexpectedly, and you will feel in your heart, "Oh, this is why he is so great." Though history passes by, leaving no traces, as you try to follow in Jesus' footsteps, you will find that your very bone marrow resonates. You will shed oily sweat from deep within you, and you will face him with a very serious heart that fills your very being. In light of this, we cannot deny that Jesus is indeed a great figure and the son of God.

In Jerusalem, I found plaques marking the points where Jesus stumbled and fell on his way up Golgotha. As I walked up that hill and saw the twelve places where Jesus had stumbled, I thought, So this is the path of indemnity Jesus walked.

At those places I prayed, "How heartbreaking Jesus' situation was at that bleak time, two thousand years ago, when he was starting out on his new heavenly mission in the middle of a desert wilderness! I understand that Heaven disregarded the larger, richer nations and came to this insignificant and exceedingly dry land of Israel in order to dispel, even a day more quickly, the bitter resentment that impedes the restoration of this people, because You had no alternative." Anyone who visits that place feels naturally compelled to comfort Jesus.

Half the land there is desert. Israeli grape vines are only about an arm's span in height. The heat of the sun in the daytime shrivels about a third of the vines. However, as hot as it is in the day, heavy dew falls both at night and in the morning, which revives the plants. Just as the plants that grow in Israel wait for the early morning dew, the Jewish people are waiting for dawn. I could clearly feel that they are a people that cry out in prayer to God in the silent hours of the early morning. If you look carefully into their eyes, you'll see that they are full of emotion. The songs they sing with deep emotion are great cries to Heaven, prayers that contain the soul. I felt that this is why history had to start anew from there.

For those Jewish immigrants who have just arrived there, there is temporary housing, which could be called a camp. These people have returned to the land where Abraham was blessed all those years ago, with their ideology of restoration, to restore their sovereignty. When I saw that, I felt that no one could take that ideology away from the people of Israel. Their belief in themselves as the chosen people is strong and complete, regardless of what difficult situations they might find themselves in.


In Venice, Italy; Father created holy grounds in Rome and in the Vatican.

The Syrian holy ground (September 3, 1965)

It took me over seven hours to choose and establish a holy ground in Syria, which is why the most memorable holy ground in the world is in Syria. When I went there, they were opening an international trade exposition for countries in the East European Bloc, and all the Soviet satellite countries were exhibiting their products. I will never forget the impression I got when I entered the Soviet exhibition center.

We could not select the holy ground during the day, so as I had to select the holy ground at night, it took more time. If a Christian were to stand and pray in the daytime, it would attract too much attention. So I chose to established the holy ground with the help of a man from Serbia who was sitting next to me. The choosing of that holy ground seems like only yesterday to me. I did it this way because I wanted to find out at what spiritual level the Islamic culture was.

At the time, I prayed, "I will remember this holy ground the most; it is the most impressive and the most wretched one. I am sorry that we could not do this during the day and have had to do it in stealth at night, but I hope that it will bring greater blessings, in the end, to this nation." The Muslim world began to move after that.


Mr. Bong Choon Choi (Sang Ik Choi) and Mrs. Won Pok Choi listen to Father speaking to German members. Young Oon Kim is interpreting.

The Asian leg of the tour

When I travelled around the various countries, if I stayed at one place for two days, I would get a sudden and strong urge to give them everything I had. Once you are connected in heart, everyone becomes a child of God. The value of a human being is not determined by his or her cultural background, historical environment or current status. Such things cannot be deciding factors in the value of a human being. People's value can only be determined when they know heaven and earth, the purpose of heaven, the purpose of earth and their own purpose.

The greatest difficulty I faced in South Asia was the heat. The greatest obstacle to my mission work was the hot weather. I stayed for a week in Calcutta, India, and the temperature topped 41° C. I had to sleep with a fan on, and though I had heard that you can get sick if you do that, I didn't get sick at all. You feel better after taking a nap with the fan on.... Would anyone here volunteer to go there?


Preparing to bless the holy ground near Brussels, Belgium on August 9; Father is holding red poppies, the country's national flower. At right is Paul Werner.

In Japan on the return trip

What is the mission that Japan needs to fulfill on the world level as the Eve nation? No matter what anyone may say, the way for them to succeed is to obey. When they obey completely, they will subjugate completely. When they are won over 100 percent, they will win 100 percent. At that point, we will be able to make a move.

If you love Japan, you need to begin working there immediately. How can you possibly overcome the three great problems facing you, namely the problems of young people, communism and religion? You are in a more difficult situation than if you were in Korea. Koreans are absolutely against communism, so it will be more difficult in Japan than in Korea.

I have no choice but to leave you and go back. Rev. Nishikawa (Sang Ik Choi's Japanese name) has to go to America. Once he leaves, Mr. Kuboki will need to take full responsibility. In light of this, I want to place great emphasis on the need to strengthen your organization and form closer relationships with one another. Therefore, the most important thing is for you to establish strong communications and good administration within the organization, and to follow well. In short, you first need organization, second solidarity and third action. These are the three factors needed to move the world centering on Japan.


In Germany. Note that Mr. Bong Choon Choi (Sang Ik Choi) is holding a home movie camera, used to record the Messiah's historic first global tour.

Establishing holy grounds in Korea

I sent the 124 couples all over Korea and I selected holy grounds in each location. I told them to focus on the holy ground, unite as a group and go out to fulfill their missions....

I established four large holy grounds in the Seoul area. Including the east, west, south, north, and the central holy ground, plus the holy ground at the headquarters, I made seven in all. In order to connect this victory to the world, I took earth and stones from these seven holy grounds on December 31, 1965 and January 1, 1965 and prepared to travel overseas.... For what reason would I engraft the Korean holy grounds to the whole world? In order to make the world's land into Korean land.

In order to expand this to a new level, I established holy grounds in forty nations during my travels. Although we incurred high expenses, I established holy grounds in those countries and brought earth and stones from them back to Korea. This was required according to God's providence. Nothing like this has been done before in history.

Those one hundred and twenty holy grounds in forty countries can protect the realm of God's chosen people. Even if they cannot protect people still in the flesh on earth, they give protection to those in the spirit world. We have driven in a marker that enables God to work with us, and made the base from which we are able to fight, in order to establish the starting point for the fight that could bring about success in restoring a people. Like blessed couples, the holy grounds are sanctified, and the spiritual world is able to help in those places.

Since the headquarters church is the central holy ground of the world, it is most effective to pray here. The headquarters church, as the central holy ground, is connected to the holy grounds in forty nations. Even with a history of five thousand years, Korea is yet to have a stable sovereignty, which is why I am ultimately trying to establish a stable Heavenly sovereignty.

Every time I go where we have a church, I pray for the future restoration of the Abel-like foundation. I have chosen the holy grounds based on a providential plan to realize this. That is, the establishment of the holy grounds is also laying a base for the restoration of the economy. In each area, we have to give Abel-like financial aid. That's why, in all the countries I went to, I gave a donation in my name. That is becoming an important foundation for making an altar for the restoration of all things.

At the age of forty-five, I travelled around forty nations to select a hundred and twenty holy grounds. Other travelers were laden with cameras, and made a fuss of taking as many pictures as possible when they visited other nations, but I was laden with trunks packed with stones and earth. I travelled around forty nations in search of holy grounds [Father laughs].

Whenever I passed through immigration on my way to and from airplanes, people thought I was a strange man because I carried around stones. Others also carried around heavy luggage, but I was the only one carrying nothing but heavy stones. Who could have fathomed the real reason for them? They all thought I was crazy. Those holy grounds were selected after undergoing such difficulty, and now they have become the bases whereon all people can offer devotions together in front of Heaven.

When I toured around those nations, it was not an easy time for the Unification Church. In fact, it was a time of trouble and woe. No however, they have become the cornerstones and the bases of a new history, haven't they?

The fire must not die out in the one hundred and twenty holy grounds in forty countries. According to the changing seasons you should also take care of these holy grounds. Korea has to become like a broadcasting station and send out spiritual waves to the world. If the waves are sent out from Korea, the holy grounds of the world will receive them and send thanks to Heaven. God has a deep love for these holy grounds; how sorrowful His heart will be if His children don't appear there. 

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