The Words of Sun Myung Moon from 1958 |
1 Jacob also went on his way, and the
angels of God met him. 2 When Jacob saw them, he said, "This is
the camp of God!" So he named that place Mahanaim. 3 Jacob sent
messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the
country of Edom. 4 He instructed them: "This is what you are to
say to my lord Esau: 'Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying
with Laban and have remained there till now. 5 I have cattle and
donkeys, sheep and goats, male and female servants. Now I am sending
this message to my lord, that I may find favor in your eyes.'" 6
When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, "We went to
your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred
men are with him." 7 In great fear and distress Jacob divided
the people who were with him into two groups, and the flocks and
herds and camels as well. 8 He thought, "If Esau comes and
attacks one group, the group that is left may escape." 9 Then
Jacob prayed, "O God of my father Abraham, God of my father
Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, 'Go back to your country and your
relatives, and I will make you prosper,' 10 I am unworthy of all the
kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my
staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps. 11
Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he
will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. 12
But you have said, 'I will surely make you prosper and will make your
descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.'"
13 He spent the night there, and from what he had with him he
selected a gift for his brother Esau: 14 two hundred female goats and
twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15 thirty female
camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female
donkeys and ten male donkeys. 16 He put them in the care of his
servants, each herd by itself, and said to his servants, "Go
ahead of me, and keep some space between the herds." 17 He
instructed the one in the lead: "When my brother Esau meets you
and asks, 'Who do you belong to, and where are you going, and who
owns all these animals in front of you?' 18 then you are to say,
'They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord
Esau, and he is coming behind us.'" 19 He also instructed the
second, the third and all the others who followed the herds: "You
are to say the same thing to Esau when you meet him. 20 And be sure
to say, 'Your servant Jacob is coming behind us.'" For he
thought, "I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending on
ahead; later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me." 21 So
Jacob's gifts went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in
the camp. 22 That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two
female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the
Jabbok. 23 After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all
his possessions. 24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with
him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower
him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was
wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, "Let
me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob replied, "I will not
let you go unless you bless me." 27 The man asked him, "What
is your name?" "Jacob," he answered. 28 Then the man
said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because
you have struggled with God and with humans and have
overcome."
Genesis 32:1-28
6 Then they gathered around him and
asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the
kingdom to Israel?" 7 He said to them: "It is not for you
to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you
will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and
to the ends of the earth." 9 After he said this, he was taken up
before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. 10 They
were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly
two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 "Men of Galilee,"
they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This
same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back
in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."
Acts
1:6-11
Please allow these sons and daughters who lay prostrated here to see for ourselves whether our own minds and bodies are in darkness. Please guide us not to have a self-centered mind or a mind full of doubt. Please allow us to be true sons and daughters who can comfort the Father's Shim Jung. You toiled solely to seek us. Let God's internal mind embrace our pitiful bodies.
If we are to feel sorrow, then please allow us to feel the sorrow of the 6,000 year history. If we are to be subjected to privations, then please allow us to endure the privations of 6,000 years. Father! Please allow us not to betray the Father while we live on this earth. Guide us not to have our bodies bound by the chains of Satan and therefore create a condition of sadness. Beloved Father, I pray this with a sincere heart.
Now, since Your sons and daughters have gathered together and You are the master here, please do not allow their minds and bodies to wander about at will. I sincerely wish and desire that You will allow this hour to be one in which we rely only upon the Father, when we feel the Shim Jung of the Father's compassion deep in our hearts and are able to be embraced in the bosom of the Father's love.
Through the word we just read, we understand that Jacob is the standard for our faith. Please allow us to follow the faithfulness of Jacob, who risked his life laboring for the sake of the one will. I pray You will allow us to experience his Shim Jung. Beloved Father, I sincerely wish and desire that You will allow us to return glory to the Father by having our footsteps and our minds represent the Father's will and defend the way of the Father's will to the death.
Please let us reveal the Father's power by meekly obeying the word the Father commands. Since we are exposed as insufficient before the Father, please watch over us with eyes like a flame. If You find some inadequacy, Father, I pray from the bottom of my heart that You will forgive us for that.
In the midst of this race, which is caught up in darkness, there are sons and daughters who are wandering around because they do not know which way to go and where is the way of life. Therefore, beloved Father, I sincerely wish and desire that You will guide these people and bestow upon us the grace that You would grant in the final days. Allow us to be the people who can attest to the word of life before the race.
Through this pitiful race, please let all humankind in the world kneel down before the Father and make Satan submit on this earth. Father, I sincerely wish and desire that You will let us be filled with victorious excitement and happiness in relationship to Satan.
With You alone in charge, please allow this hour to be one in which we clear away all sins with the Father's precious word and find the road of life. Ardently soliciting that the Father will personally govern our minds and bodies with firmness, I prayed in the name of the Lord. Amen.
The title of the sermon about which I would like to share my thoughts with you is "Let Us Be Israel, the Chosen People of God." I will speak briefly upon this subject.
The story of Jacob is recorded in Genesis. He was tested representing Heaven even after he had gone through a course of atrocious troubles. During the course of those trials, Jacob kept in his heart the thought that he was the blessed, chosen person. He fought to the finish with an angel who was trying to hold that will in check. He then won the victory and was granted entry into the realm of a person chosen by God. Because Jacob attained victory after struggling against all kinds of difficulty centering on God's will, God granted him the name "Israel." We use the word "Israel" frequently today.
This is not a simple noun. This word represented an historical life. This is the noun of victory that concluded the 2,000 year history from Adam to Jacob. We should not forget this. Furthermore, we must realize that after setting up Jacob and granting him the blessing to be called Israel, God felt happiness. At the same time, He was sad.
The reason God carried out the dispensation of toiling for several thousand years looking for Jacob is because Adam, the ancestor, had fallen. Owing to his fall, Adam lost the blessing God gave. That blessing had to be recovered, but the historical course of recovering God's lost blessing was indescribably sorrowful. You must understand that the God who blessed Jacob with the name Israel had this kind of sorrowful Shim Jung.
When God granted the blessing of "Israel", the word was not to be limited to the one generation of Jacob. It represented the ideology and ideal of the whole creation. This one word was fraught with God's Shim Jung in its entirety.
Jacob was exhausted from toiling for several decades at Laban's house. He had come through a difficult life course to establish the land of Canaan God had granted. Then he went looking for Esau in the country of Edom, losing everything he had for the sake of carrying out the will of Heaven, which had blessed him through the uplifted hands of Isaac.
However, the homeland he returned to was not the original homeland in which he could have had joy in his own time. It could not be the seat of joy for him. Even as he was going back to see his homeland, for which he felt affection, and his brother, Jacob was anxious and worried. You must not forget that this is not a state of affairs only Jacob, one individual, had to endure. This is a course all of humanity must walk.
The Jordan and Jabbok Rivers blocked the road that led to Jacob's hometown. With the blessed land in front of him, Jacob could not sleep. Instead, he had to pray shedding tears. The ancestors had left behind this state of affairs. This was the situation of God, who was conducting the providence of the heavenly principles. We should know that Jacob felt this in his heart more deeply than anyone else.
This situation was not limited to Jacob's generation. It recurred in the course of the history of the chosen Israelites. All the prophets and sages who appeared in association with God's will had to bear this kind of Shim Jung. In order to enter into the bosom of the Father, they had to cross the hill of struggle with a barrier of darkness in front of them. You should bear this in mind.
God granted the blessing through the hands of Isaac and urged Jacob to abandon everything and go back to his homeland. Why could God not make Jacob's path smooth? Why did He let the kind of heartless circumstance develop in which He sent an angel and let the angel hurt Jacob? Why did He not give a word of advice to Jacob who was appealing all night before Heaven, bearing the will of the heavenly principles with a fretful Shim Jung on the banks of the Jabbok River?
We should not forget today that this was an indescribable state of affairs and a fretful Shim Jung of vicissitudes incomprehensible to man. As he returned to see the homeland God had granted, Jacob's road was a wilderness one. We must realize through the course Jacob walked that there are twists and turns like this in the course we walk today.
Why could Heaven not help but pose these kinds of circumstances? Needless to say, selecting one person and setting him up is the will of God's providence. Yet establishing a foothold behind the scenes through which people can push out Satan is a more important will of providence. These are the kinds of ups and downs whereby God could demolish a wall of turns and twists in the invisible world humans know nothing about, but which God and Satan know well. In order to set up such conditions, Heaven could not help but put Jacob through extraordinary circumstances. You must understand this.
From the day he was blessed by Isaac until he returned to the homeland where Esau lived, Jacob did not have one day of happiness. This shows us that if a person receives God's blessing representing God's will, he cannot but go through a life course of anxiety until he settles all before Heaven and earth from the position of a sacrificial offering.
Because such a course of history remains, when you march forward today bearing the responsibility, you will have to go to the enemy's world as Jacob did and walk the course of struggle where you too fight alone in a difficult environment.
If Jacob had fallen down exhausted in the course of the struggle, then the name Israel would not have been given to him. The grace of blessing through the name Israel would have had nothing to do with Jacob. In order to attain the blessing Heaven had bestowed through the hands of Isaac, Jacob rendered devoted service toward Heaven with a burning Shim Jung that could overcome any difficulty or hardship. You should understand that was how he built a victorious foothold after fighting valiantly in a wrestling match with an angel at the Ford of the Jabbok River.
You should know that Jacob was a representative heavenly soldier who, centering on the word Heaven granted, walked the road of fierce struggle not to lose it, even at the risk of his life.
What forewarned this? Ancestral Adam and Eve should have been obedient to God's word to the end in order to bring in the day of hope. However, they weren't. In order to restore this one fact through indemnity, there had to be someone who would defend God's word to the death, unlike Adam. You should understand that Jacob, who received the call from Heaven, was exactly such a person.
Jacob came to be in the position of receiving a heavenly trial. He never relaxed his mental vigilance for a moment. You should know this. He firmly believed in the word of blessing from God and kept a firm conviction not to retreat before the fight ended, even if he were to lose an arm. Only after gaining victory in a battle like this was the blessing of being named Israel granted. You should not forget that this became the victorious foundation for the Israelites.
Why was Jacob placed in this kind of situation? This was on account of the human ancestors, Adam and Eve, distrusting God's word and betraying Him. Their descendants had to believe in God to the end centering on the word, even if God forsook them. Because Jacob maintained faith to the end, centering on the word from a position like this, he was able to surmount all pretexts for Satan's ridicule.
If the angel had not appeared to Jacob, who was keeping vigil at the side of the Jabbok River in place of God, Jacob would have had to receive a trial from Satan. In order to reveal a representative too trustworthy for Satan to ridicule, who could fight centering on the word, God sent an angel to Jacob and let them fight all night long.
Harboring a will to fulfill absolutely the will that was bestowed upon him, Jacob fought at the risk of his life to beat off the angel. Before someone like this, Satan could not dare pose a pretext for ridicule and could not make any excuses. Because this kind of victory was attained on the banks of the Jabbok River, Heaven was able to inspire Esau, who was the object of the second trial, and subjugate him before Jacob. You should understand this.
The name of Israel, established through Jacob, and the base of Israel established in recognition of Jacob's services were not to be blessings for the one generation of Jacob. The name was for the formulation of a national level, state level, and world level Israel after the individual and family level Israel were started through Jacob. Passing through the course of history, the descendants of Jacob should have realized and believed that this was the will of God.
Yet the descendants of Jacob have gone along believing that the blessing extended by virtue of Jacob belonged only to them. You should know that today the Israelites, who were covered with the glory of being chosen, are scattered without a trace of their former glory.
Although Jacob had formed a family in Haran and moved forth victoriously, there was yet another hill to cross: namely, the battle with the angel on the banks of the Jabbok River. The descendants of Jacob did not know this. In other words, the descendants of Jacob had to go into Egypt and endure a nationwide trial in the bosom of the Pharaoh for four hundred years. At this time, Moses appeared. By winning the hearts of the Israelites, he stepped forward bearing the responsibility of restoring the land of Canaan, promised to Jacob in ancient times.
The Israelites had to prepare a nationwide victorious foothold in Egypt resembling the victorious foothold of Israel Jacob had created in his time. In other words, in spite of being utterly exhausted, the Israelites had to establish a victorious foothold like that gained from the battle with the angel on the banks of the Jabbok River in enemy territory. They could not establish this. The Israelites forgot they were standing in a position to pass through the heavenly trial process on a nationwide level.
In order to regain the hearts of the people, Heaven set up Moses and made him prepare for forty years in the palace of the Pharaoh representing the people. He also had to go through a forty year course of a shepherd's life in Midian. Because the Israelites in Egypt were not able to attain the blessing that Jacob, the ancestor of the chosen people, had attained in ancient times on the banks of the Jabbok River, Moses had to leave for the wilderness to walk a nationwide level course in order to regain their hearts.
In the same manner as Jacob went into the wilderness of Haran after receiving the blessing meant for Esau, Moses came to bear the responsibility to re-establish the blessing from God representing the Israelites. As such, upon seeing the people fighting amongst themselves, unable to unify, Moses expressed resentment. Upon seeing the race being subjected to unjust treatment by aliens, he came to fight at the risk of his life against that foreign nation.
The Israelites were to fight against Egypt by following Moses. Instead, they chased him out. This is similar to when Jacob left his homeland after receiving God's blessing. Jacob left the family of blessing and went to a satanic family, Moses also left the people of blessing in Egypt and started off on a forty year wilderness course in Midian. Moses' leaving for the wilderness in this manner was not a matter that pertained only to Moses, one individual.
Why could Moses not avoid a path like this? It was because the victorious foothold Jacob had achieved representing God's Shim Jung had disappeared. Moses felt more keenly than anybody the responsibility to prepare this foothold again on a nationwide level. Moses prayed ardently for the sake of the Israelites, who were experiencing toil and moil in the bosom of an enemy. He prayed more than anyone. You should feel Moses' Shim Jung to the marrow. He never forgot the Israelites in their course of toil and moil, not even for one day, not even for one moment.
Although he led a miserable and lonely life as a shepherd in the wilderness, Moses forgot about his miserable conditions. Thinking of the Israelites toiling under mistreatment by their enemies in Egypt, Moses shed tears of sympathy. You must know this. Moses' lonely state of affairs and his Shim Jung touched Heaven deeply. Because Moses was concerned for the sake of Heaven and appeared as a representative concerned for the chosen people, God called Moses again and dispatched him to the palace of the Pharaoh.
This is just like Jacob's course when he went with all his belongings to see Esau after toiling for twenty- one years at the house of Laban in fear of Esau. You should understand that Moses walked a difficult course like that of Jacob.
By setting up Aaron and Miriam, who represented the word, and by showing the works of three great wonders, Moses stepped out to look for the palace of the Pharaoh where Heaven commanded him to go.
What happened then? God did not provide a smooth path for Moses. Instead, someone tried to kill him as he retired to rest. Again, this is a course similar to that of Jacob. Moses had to go through the circumstances of Jacob wrestling with an angel on the banks of the Jabbok River, impervious to his own injury. Moses was put in that same situation by God. You should know that after going over this kind of trial without a hitch, Moses met the chosen Israelites again and built the altar of Israel on the nationwide level, representing God and the people.
What can we learn from all this? If the question is whether only our ancestors, Jacob and Moses, must walk this kind of course and bear this kind of responsibility, the answer is no, that is not the case. Not only Jacob had to carry out the responsibility. All the members of Jacob's family had to appeal to Heaven with a fretful Shim Jung and bear the responsibility, even more so than Jacob. Nevertheless, the family members of Jacob did not know this. This was the very point of Heaven's sorrow.
Moses stepped forth to look for the Israelites, trusting the word God had declared in the Midian wilderness that even if heaven and earth might change, His promise would not change. Moses appeared again before the Israelites with a firm resolution and determination. There were not only the trials from God; there was also opposition from the Pharaoh's royal court, like the opposition Jacob received from Esau. You may know it very well from the teachings of the Divine Principle, but you will have to look again at the fact that the Israelites built a nationwide level altar for the second time through subjugating Pharaoh and by bringing down upon Egypt ten calamities, which indemnified the fact that Jacob had been cheated ten times.
If God felt sorrow, what could have been the reason? If God felt sorrow, that sorrow was not because the enemies were evil. It was because the altar of the Israelites who had followed on the road of God's toil had collapsed. You should realize that was the source of God's sorrow, and it was the grief of humanity.
For Moses, who had to go into the land of Canaan leading the mass of 600,000 people, there were yet other trials barring his passage. These were none other than the Red Sea course and the wilderness course. What does this mean? It means that Moses had to pass through his wilderness course of an ordeal on a nationwide level. Moses drove the Israelites along toward this fate.
In the wilderness, the Israelites had to lift their hands if Moses lifted his hands. If he sat, they had to sit. If he went, they had to go. In other words, by becoming the second Moses, the mass of 600,000 people should have represented Moses and God. Instead, they forgot about this. To put it another way, when God pulled them out of the Pharaoh's court, the Israelites considered God to be their loving God and they were grateful. Since there was a solemn promise yet to be fulfilled, they expected Him to guide them as far as the land of Canaan.
Why, then, did this people fall in the wilderness? It is because they did not have the mind of Moses while living the life of wandering shepherds for forty years in the wilderness. Moses had fought with a heart of integrity for the sake of the chosen people God loved. If the Israelites had had even a little bit of that heart, they would not have collapsed.
God wished to establish the blessing of Israel on a nationwide level. His hope was for Moses and the people to become one. However, since they became divided, the representative, Moses, also collapsed. As Moses fell, the Israelites came to pieces. You should know this.
When the people came out to the wilderness and said they were hungry, God fed them with quail and manna. Why did this same God let the Amalekites attack the Israelites? This is because man had betrayed the will of the heavenly principles. Whenever human beings attempt to seek the will of the heavenly principles, there remains a providential condition to be satisfied for God to strike from the opposite side. For this reason, God could not help but attack the Israelites through the Amalekites. You should understand that Heaven had this kind of fretful Shim Jung.
Moses should not have died, and the race should not have fallen and collapsed. This happened because they failed to pass this test. Moses had responsibility toward the race as a guardian, so even though he had not erred himself, Moses built an altar of atonement for forty days after climbing Mt. Sinai. He represented the race that had distrusted, and he fasted and sacrificed in order to restore Israel, which was on the brink of collapse.
If the Israelites had kept the qualification of being the chosen people, then when Moses went up to Mt. Sinai with a grievous heart, the mass of 600,000 people surrounding that mountain should have been diligent in their prayers, saying, "Oh, God, please send our guardian Moses back down to us." They should have appealed to Heaven without sleeping and eating. However, there was no such person at all.
It was not for his own sake but for the benefit of the race that Moses had to fast and pray. Yet because the people were not even dreaming about it, they had no choice but to meet with destruction. Even though Moses faced the peak of difficulty, like Jacob praying on the banks of the Jabbok River, no one could lead the mass of 600,000 Israelites into the right path in Moses' place. If even one such person had emerged and led the nation, they would not have been in a difficult position, but would have stayed in a comfortable place. Since that was not the case, Satan took the people. This is the kind of path our ancestors walked.
By again setting up guardians, Joshua and Caleb, who substituted for Moses, the second generation was led into the land of Canaan. Once inside the land of Canaan, the Israelites had to make material the ideology of the sacred temple and be united into one with it. However, since they could not, the Israelite people fell down. In the fullness of time, the race which does not unify centering on the word will inevitably be forsaken by God.
Adam and Eve could not become the masters of all creation. All of creation was created through six periods centering on the word. Therefore, when the time to cross the hill of the worldwide level came after crossing the nationwide level hill of the restoration of all creation, the trial of whether or not to erect the word of God will inevitably take place in relation to the number six. The matter of attacking Adam in place of the archangel will inevitably take place.
That is why six centuries before Jesus' coming, the Israelites were tested as to whether they kept to the word of the Old Testament. When the time came for the Israelites to spread the will throughout the world, Heaven struck the people. This is the period when the Israelites were taken captive in Babylon. Subsequently, this race, which had betrayed God in the past, stood at a crossroads where they had to settle the grave issue of whether or not to betray again.
Because they had betrayed Heaven, when this race came to cross the hill of the new number six, Heaven could not help but allow Satan to attack and strike. This is why God allowed the Babylonian captivity.
What should the Israelites have done at that time? Holding onto the word God gave, entertaining the Shim Jung with which Moses looked out for God's concerns and loved the nation even while wandering about in the wilderness, they should have gone to the enemy country Babylon and defended the word to the death. They should have been that kind of race. Since they were not, the Israelites disintegrated.
The Israelites stood on the historical course to restore the standard of the word on the second nationwide level centering on the Old Testament. If they had kept the heart of integrity of being God's chosen people, then even if they were taken captive in Babylon, a new leader like Moses could have emerged to guide them onward.
After the lapse of six centuries, what took place? Just as Jacob ignored Esau's being in the line of direct descent, and as Moses ignored the chosen Israelites because of the will, Jesus came to the earth and stepped forward ignoring the Old Testament, which was the Esau-like word. The Israelites, who were in Esau's position and were to welcome Jesus, could not receive him favorably. That's why the realm of death on the worldwide level has been formed. You should understand this.
What kind of people were the Israelites? They resembled the archangel who tested Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Five hundred years ago, there was some attack upon the New Testament. The Renaissance, centering on humanism, caused the feudalistic society centering on Christianity to collapse. The sovereignty of the Papal court crumbled, and it was destined to go through a period of captivity in Avignon, owing to the attack of France. What does this explain? In the course of restoration, the second Israelites should have been formed at the time of Jesus. However, since Christianity, which bore the new mission of the second Israel, could not fulfill its mission, Christianity was struck on the worldwide level. You know this very well from study of the Principle.
The Pope had to repent before Heaven and entertain the heart of integrity that God had established. By upholding this will until the final days, he was to arrive at today. Then at the time of the final days, what will the Popes have to do? They should understand that the established word and denominations will be in the position of Esau, and they will stand in the position of the Israelites.
If God had a hope, what would that hope be? God's hope is to restore the chosen Israelites, who were revived to represent the lost, fallen humanity of this world. You must understand the providential will of Heaven in wishing to restore the Israelites. Where did the Israelites who were established through Jacob and Moses disappear to 2,000 years ago? They became enemies of Jesus. Jesus' course was such that he had to establish the Israelites and the Jewish nation as the foothold for restoration of the world. Centering on this foothold, he should have unfolded a lightning war for the restoration of Canaan on the worldwide level. However, because of his death, Jesus was put in the same situation as Moses. That is why today's Christianity has been cast into a wilderness age. Like the Israelites who lost their master, Christianity continues on a wilderness course.
Jesus should have restored the chosen, second Israel and the Jewish people should have restored the worldwide level land of Canaan centering on him. Where did the chosen Israelites who bore this sort of responsibility disappear to? Where did Judaism go? With the disappearance of the Israelites, the disappearance of the Jewish denomination, the disappearance of an individual Israel like a Jacob or Moses, and the disappearance of the family of Israel, Jesus' situation became pitiful, and he died.
Jesus did not die because he wanted to. The established theologians today are under the false impression that Jesus could not help but die. After being pursued by the nation and denomination, being cursed by the family and betrayed by the twelve and finally even the three disciples, there was no place whatsoever for Jesus to go other than to death.
God did not send Jesus to have him live his thirty-odd years of life in misery. Jesus was sent as the Crown Prince of Heaven and as the master throughout heaven and earth. He alone represented the ideology of creation. God's loving, beloved son, did not experience hardship due to his own wrongdoing. Because of the ignorance of the race, the denomination, the society and the family, Jesus walked the road of tribulation.
Where would the Israel Jesus was looking for be amongst us, we who committed the historical sin of killing Jesus! You must appeal with your very heart. Where would the denomination that Jesus was looking for be! You should pray with your very heart. You should understand that Jesus came to this earth 2,000 years ago and looked for the Israelites and such a denomination.
Jesus died because the chosen first Israel rejected him. For that reason, by erecting the Christians who believe in him as the second Israel and spreading them throughout the world, Jesus is again trying to make things right. Now is the time.
What kind of mission do the Christians spread all over the world have? Because Israel, which was established after being chosen in advance, was lost because of rejecting and crucifying Jesus, the course for the construction of the second Israel has been left for today's Christians to walk.
What kind of situation are the worldwide Christian believers placed in? It is time for them to unite into one denomination centering on a person resembling Jesus' twelve disciples or Jesus' three special disciples. Since Christianity has lost this organization, it is facing a matter of grave concern. By having each of their positions determined in an organization of ranks centering on the twelve tribal chiefs and seventy elders, the mass of 600,000 people could have passed through the wilderness course. However, the Christians throughout the world, who bear the mission of the second Israel, do not have such ranks today.
Jesus died because the twelve disciples who represented twelve ranks and the three disciples could not fulfill their responsibility. Christianity throughout the world should realize that the time is near to unite by formulating twelve denominations centering on the world's most prominent ones.
What life is Jesus leading now? Because Jesus did not attain all of Heaven's will on this earth, in the same manner that Jacob and Moses had to lead the lives of shepherds, Jesus too lives the life of a shepherd in the spirit world. Since he has been praying for you without rest upon arriving at the spirit world, his life is like that of a shepherd.
What has Jesus done in the spirit world? After gathering the people who died believing in him throughout the course of the 2,000 years since his death, Jesus established the second Israel in the spirit world to replace the one which had been lost. This is paradise. The first Israel who tried to kill Jesus was lost. In accordance with the principle of restoration through indemnity, after his resurrection, Jesus restored the first Israel in spirit by gathering the faithful believers who had come forth seeking him. Those restored people in spirit world are in the state called paradise.
How is the world of paradise constructed? The spiritual people in paradise have been left with the unsatisfied condition to establish a foothold that welcomes Jesus on the earth, having received the blessing of being the first Israel. Therefore, all spiritual people in heaven are fated, through returning to the earth, to restore through indemnity the fact that the first Israel rejected Jesus. They must do this by setting up the presently living Christians to represent the blessing of the second Israel and then uniting with these people. You must understand this. Today's Christians do not understand this.
What kind of time is the final days? Just as when foreign nations were attacking the Jewish people who believed in the word of the Old Testament, there will come a time to strike the Christians who believe in the word of the New Testament. That is why secular humanism is striking Christianity. Likewise, even in the midst of Christianity being struck, there must come forth one religious denomination that can hold onto the word. That denomination must be a reformative one.
During Moses' course, when the time came to attend the holy temple after attending the tabernacle, the Israelites did not know that there was a trial yet to be endured, the trial of having to fight in union. During the transition from the age of attending the holy temple to the age of having to complete the holy temple of a substantial entity, a cosmic battle had to take place. Because this battle could not be stopped, today it has expanded worldwide.
In the same manner, you should have the holy temple of the substantial entity ready in the final days. What do you have to do after attaining the holy temple of the substantial entity? You should build the kingdom of Heaven on earth.
Because of their fall, humankind lost the word. Therefore, the word of the Old and New Testaments came out and guided mankind in the right direction. Now the new word will come out and restore the people who are unified with that word into substantial entities. The age of feudalism was the period of putting God first in importance. Then the Reformation came into being. Owing to that, man stopped thinking of putting God first in importance and instead came to think of the possibility of uniting with God. Mankind has passed through this kind of course; now it has come to the age of restoring the holy temple of the substantial entity.
What should you do from here? After passing through this time of centering on the New Testament, the ideology of the Completed Testament will appear on the worldwide level. When that happens, you must become masters who can embrace the world, the representatives of Jesus. To be a master of the kingdom of Heaven on earth, you must become the holy temple of the substantial entity. After that, you must become a master who is acclimatized to the surroundings. To become this, you must go through a course of ideological revolution.
What form would that course take? Since history will reap what was sown today, in the worldwide-level final days, men of faith with established concepts and doctrines will stand in a position where all could betray Heaven. Who are they? They are the people standing in a position like the archangel's. In the same manner as the archangel seduced Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, in this age of the final days, there will inevitably appear a time when spiritual denominations resembling the archangel will emerge and oppose God's will.
As we realize that God unfolds the providence of restoration in accordance with principles of this kind, what must we do to become the chosen Israelites in these final days? You must make up your mind. You must make a resolution. What kind of people will you have to become? You must fill the place of Jacob. You should become a person who represents Jacob who, having gone through a twenty year course, fought with faith on the banks of the Jabbok River. You should become a man who can represent Moses, who walked on appealing to Heaven, holding the Israelites together in the wilderness course. You should be like Jesus as he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, worried about Israel, which represented world humanity.
Now then, second Israel, scattered all over this world! Where can you go? The time has come when Christians of the world should appeal to Heaven. In the same manner as the distressed Israelites wandered about looking for a leader, asking who could guide them to the promised, blessed land of Canaan while in the enemy court of the Pharaoh. Christians today also will have to look for the ranks and tribes to which they belong.
The established church will collapse. Only when that happens will it be possible to divide into twelve ranks. Try your utmost to stop it.
Because Christianity must go through the fate of the worldwide level restoration by forming ranks, even if it controls a nation, the time will come when Christianity will lose its prestige before the society, family, and even before the individual.
The Israelites formed ranks just before leaving for the wilderness. They waited until the last minute, not carrying out the rank formation when they were in Egypt. The time has come for world-famous Christianity to start the formation of ranks, because the Second Coming for the sake of the restoration of Canaan on the worldwide level is near.
If before his death Jesus had arranged for every man of faith to be able to belong to a tribe by having formed ranks on the earth centered on Peter, John, James, and the other disciples, Christianity would not be in confusion today. The time to get this under control is near. The time may come when it is possible to attest to all by setting up one group who has received rejection from the bottom most position. You never know. The Unification Church may be just that kind of a church. Who knows?
Today, in Korean Christianity, a new denomination has emerged centering on some miracle worker called either Elder Nah or Elder Park. This denomination is breaking the church apart now. This kind of thing happens because the rank formation has to be made. What would be the matter of concern left unresolved here? It is the concept of established doctrine. This is an enemy before God. The concept of those with established doctrine is, "Since I am an elder son like Esau, I should get God's blessing." This kind of petty thought should be discarded. One little mistake and you will insist upon this and easily become like the Israelites who rejected Jesus.
Since we have reached the end of history, how can we get over this barrier now? Who is going to be the enemy? The archangel was the closest person to Adam in the Garden of Eden, and he became the enemy. When Jesus came as the second Adam to restore Adam, the high priests of Judaism who corresponded to the archangel type in the spiritual world were his worst enemies. Because they attacked Jesus after inheriting what the archangel did for the second time, they should go to hell.
In the final days today, teaching professionals will strike Heaven by becoming archangels before the Lord of the Second Coming. However, even if put in this kind of circumstance, the historical fate will go over, uninfluenced by the environment. Who is to walk this kind of road? Men of mission must emerge who are like prophets and can speak the new word and reveal the new end. However, they will receive rejection before the established denomination and therefore will move onto a new stage.
What kind of age is coming at the same time? The age of attack from the spiritual world will come. In a similar way as the archangel harassed Jacob on the banks of the Jabbok River and attacked Moses and Jesus, in the fateful age of the close of the world, all men on earth will oppose. Even Heaven's attacks will come.
Jesus said, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matt. 27:46). This was because, as the hero of the restoration of the whole universe, Jesus had to indemnify the fact that Adam, who represented the universe, had betrayed Heaven. Because in this situation Jesus said, "I know God," even as God was saying, "I don't know you," he was able to bring about spiritual resurrection. You must be aware that this kind of crucial historical moment is left for you to overcome too. Since you feel that the world's fateful close is infiltrating into the realm of your life today, you should understand that this is advance notice of the time when Moses and the race were to unite. This is advance notice of the age when Moses and Pharaoh fought against each other.
Where did God's sorrow originate? You should understand that God feels sorrow not because those leaders did something wrong. It was their followers who made God sad by their mistakes.
What is the purpose of your walking the road others do not know about, this road that others do not walk? By becoming one rank, God can operate. After putting your strength together and uniting, you should become a successor who defends the footsteps of Moses to the death. He had a tough struggle in relation to the will of the heavenly principles. He forgot about himself to the extent of not noticing whether he ate or starved. You also must become the successor of Jacob. As Jesus' successor, following in his footsteps, you must fulfill the mission. This is the condition that enables the faithful believers in the final days to enter into the realm of the chosen Israel.
Because Jesus knew this kind of principle, he said the one who wished to live would die, and the one who wished to die would live. In other words, if you wish to subjugate Satan, you must step over even death centered on God. Only when man can step forward without being shaken even if Heaven betrays him, constantly faithful, will Satan separate from him. Then he will be able to escape from all conditions of Satan's ridicule.
Now you must understand that after spiritually erecting the Christian believers scattered around the world as a second Israel to replace the first Israel that was lost, Heaven will construct the third Israel where these are all made one by uniting.
Therefore, you today must become ancestors of the third Israel like Abraham. You must become ancestors like Jacob and Moses, who was the representative of the race. You must become the representative of the third Israel like Jesus, who is the world's representative. Furthermore, as you look back at the course of the history of God's providential restoration, you should know that you should become the individual and race, the state and the world that can comfort God, overcoming Satan, who ridiculed Heavenly Father in the past.
What is Satan? He is a traitor rejecting God. Yet even Satan does not dislike God. That's why God cannot help but reciprocate with Satan. Satan, too, likes God. Because this kind of condition exists, it could not but take a long time of 6,000 years. In the position of being fond of God, Satan says things like, "Please set me up and allow me to govern the whole universe as it was willed to be governed through Adam. Then I will absolutely obey God."
Through confronting God, Satan has been working to attain His affirmation. He will try to stand in the position where, by objecting to the will of the providence to the end, he will force affirmation to be given.
Even a treacherous subject who relies on the strength of a loyal subject dislikes the king. But this treacherous subject is asking to be heard, after eliminating the loyal subject
Because the whole world is inside the realm of Satan, if this acknowledgment is given, then it is possible that the whole world can be returned before God. Then why can't God do it? The rule of Heaven cannot be broken. Since God is the God of law, He cannot run counter to order. For this reason, even if He has to endure all kinds of trouble, God does not acknowledge Satan. He tells man, after setting him up before Satan who controls the world, to stop Satan who ridicules Him. This has been God's fretful Shim Jung.
If a man appears who stops Satan from making ungrounded accusations, Satan will not be able to be critical of God. If a master appears who brings out and restores the heavenly principle that the archangel is to be governed by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, all Satans will have to succumb. Attaining that does not mean to go to God's royal seat in the spiritual world, as in the case of Jesus. It means establishing such a day on earth. The time to establish a day like this is the age of the Second Coming.
You should not stand now in Satan's position, which is to offer opposition. You should follow the footsteps of God, who toiled for 6,000 years. You who are faced with the final days today should experience the Shim Jung of God, who toiled in the course of restoration from Adam's age, the first start of God's eternal world, until today. You should follow after God. In spite of being faced with a fate of this kind, you are not even dreaming about it. That means the situation is serious.
There should be a chosen Israel of Heaven who can say, "God! Please receive glory through me and take rest." Jacob, Moses, and Jesus represented this kind of mission. Only if you become someone who can fight against Satan, after inheriting the struggle that God has had with Satan, will the decisive sovereignty of Israel be set up before Heaven. Therefore, we should bring the war that defamed God to a conclusion. Because no objection can be raised, the war will be concluded. The time when we have to start the construction of the third Israel centering on such people will have to come. The struggle of having to attack the blessed land of Canaan, which was their own homeland, was left to be carried out by the Israelites who were in the land of Egypt in Moses' age. In Jesus' age, the struggle of having to build the blessed land of the worldwide level Canaan centering on the Israelites was left to be carried out. To those of us who have to build the third Israel today, a fierce battle to accomplish it in union has been left to be carried out.
What kind of people must you be today? At the time of the re- organization of the new Israelites, as the chosen people who will be put up before God in association with Heaven, you should willingly become a member of one trio, a platoon leader, a commander of a company, a regiment and a division. Who is going to be the commander of these heavenly soldiers? This is the problem. The time will surely come when this has to be done. In the end of history, all things will be united into one world. Because a mass of people want the unification of thought, and the world on earth is in need of a unification ideology, the time of unification when it is possible to be well-informed of the heavenly ideology will surely come.
What has happened in the course of history up until this time? If two got into a fight, the one with a bit more goodness would win. That is the principle. What is going to happen if the world on earth goes into the realm of one ideology? Whatever has a bit more goodness than the earth will win. This is the age when the spiritual world will attack the earth. For that reason, many kinds of diseases of the nervous system crop up, unnamed neuroses and whatnot. There is no medicine for this. For these kinds of problems you need the tonic of heaven and earth!
The time has come for the spiritual world to attack the earth for the sake of the ideology which can get heaven and earth in harmony. It is the time when men on earth should substitute for God's will on earth. In order to become one, there will surely be a battle. The time of becoming one world after fighting between two sides is the very time of judgment when Heaven unifies by becoming the center. Likewise, in a situation like this, where the spiritual world is attacking the earth, the Lord of the Second Advent is to come with the mission of supreme commander representing the earth.
You who are about to start the course of constructing the third Israel! What do you have to do? You will be able to free yourselves only if you get to know the law of the spiritual world. You have to know the set-up of its chain of command. The army of a nation must know the password that is being used among its own army in order not to be attacked by its own during the fighting.
Now is the time when the password of Heaven is being heard. Now is the age of communication in code. It is the age of communication in the providential code, the historical code, the period code, the humanistic code, and the mission code. In addition, it is the age in which, through a code like this, connection can be made, the operation plan can be carried out, and the ideology of unification on earth can be represented.
Today the established churches raise objections, uttering the names of such as Elder Park, Elder Nah, the Unification Church, calling them a gang of heretics. We can take that. Modern times are such that science is discussing the age of the cosmos. This is the kind of age when an artificial sun is made. Since we have arrived at this kind of age, we should not hold fast to antiquated religious concepts. The one comprehensive Unificationism that can stand up and step over this will have to emerge.
There is a short-wave mechanism that can decode a secret code. If there is one with the short-wave mechanism who can decipher God's secret, he will become victorious. For that reason, when the spiritual world comes down attacking the earth, the method of war will be different. The war will definitely take place, but I don't know its limits. When a war of this kind takes place on the earth, conscientious people at that time will have to be mobilized.
Now you must understand that, in preparation for this one day in the final days, history has unfurled until today, sacrificing conscientious, good people. Today, we who are faced with the fateful fall, should look for and enter the last, unitary world of ideology and be able to sacrifice everything. Then we should become true heavenly sons and daughters who, riding upon Jesus' shoulder, can confidently say, "God, please take charge of me." God also wishes to see sons and daughters of this kind appear.
You should heed that the mission to unravel all things in the world of paradise and introduce heavenly life does not rest on Jesus or God. It rests upon you today in the final days. A representative must emerge who can take on all the operational plan in place of Jesus and fight on behalf of God and fulfill the responsibility. Only then can God and Jesus be liberated. With this kind of cosmic mission in front of you, you should find and move forward on the course of the triumphant Israel.
For that purpose, you should find your leader and the rank to which you belong. Also, you should know what kind of position you are in before Heaven. You should become representatives of Moses, Abraham, Jacob, and Jesus, who are unchanging. You must become someone who can receive a respectful bow from Satan along with praise, saying, "Yes, you are God's son (or daughter) who has the qualification to be able to return glory before God on behalf of the ideology of the creation." When you get to command Satan, you will then be able to stand before God representing the ideology of the holy temple on the worldwide level of the garden of Heaven on earth.
Before that happens, you will face one big, fierce battle. Various denominations will attack you. You will be tested spiritually. As God struck Moses, you too will have this kind of course. As the race betrayed Moses, such a course lies before you too. As Jesus was forsaken on the cross by Heaven, such will happen to you too. As Jesus was betrayed by the race, such a course will lie before you. Knowing this, you should not be dispirited when it happens.
God's will is not easy; it is extremely difficult. For that reason, you should not fall down in the course of battle, even when receiving extremely heartrending objections, bearing on your back the worldwide level agitation. Until the world and heaven and earth find one unitary point, you should move forth, fighting continuously.
In this process, please don't bewail your fate like the Israelites bewailed the lack of food and water in the wilderness after leaving Egypt. Please don't complain about no one giving you recognition. Please consider it to be the best thing if you have found and held onto one leader who understands you and who is like Moses. By grabbing and holding only onto God and Jesus, who understand you, and by believing that this is the best thing, if you hold onto that man even if everyone rejects you, you will then inherit what that man is to attain. Only then will you be able to participate in God's glory with the qualifications for being the chosen people of the third Israel.
Then you will be able to be the man of God's glory. At the same time, you will be the man of historical glory who represents the ideology of the whole universe. Only if we appear before Heaven representing the world as glorious sons and daughters will God be able to take a rest for the first time.
We will not receive such blessing as the angel gave to Jacob. We will receive the blessings God planned to bestow upon Jesus by personally lifting His hands. In other words, God will bless you who are restored in the final days to be His sons and daughters who represent Jesus, the heroes of the eternal third Israel. He will bless you for the first time to be substantial beings of happiness, glory and beauty that Heaven can rejoice about eternally.
Likewise, by penetrating into the sphere of God's love through Jesus' love, if you attain God's love, you will then be able to become the ancestor of the third Israel. You must understand this for certain.
While the rank formation has been done in the name of the second Israel in the spiritual world, Christianity, which is spread throughout the world today, has not been able to accomplish it. Father! Please awaken this race, which is asleep. By awakening the sleeping Christians of the world, formulate the ranks which can replace the blessing of the second Israel on the earth in order that the spiritual world may become one. Please grant us the right of being the chosen people, able to build the third Israel on the worldwide level today.
Please allow us to inherit the heavenly mission to go forward as far as the world through the tribe organized in rank, through the race and through the state. Allow us to inherit the course on which Moses fought. After we inherit the course on which Jesus fought, please allow us to repulse Satan's reproaches and slanders. Going further, allow us to be able to attend the Father. Please grant us the Father's glory. Father, I pray this sincerely from the bottom of my heart.
I ardently pray that You will raise these people to be sons and daughters of happiness who, after receiving the word delivered today, can overcome the tribulation of the chosen people Israel, whom God selected. Please allow these people to accomplish the course of the restoration of the worldwide level Canaan. Now, in the course of the fight with Satan, please allow us to unite and win the victory. Please allow us not to betray the will of Jesus, who is like one center. Please allow us not to make the center suffer.
We know that the race was the one that betrayed Moses, yet Heaven needed them for the purpose of constructing Israel. Now, ardently soliciting that You will allow us to be sons and daughters who will not let Heaven worry and who will more than accomplish the estate of the third Israel, I prayed all this in the name of the Lord. Amen.