The Words of Sun Myung Moon from 1974 |
The Price Of The Dispensation
Sun Myung Moon
June 9, 1974
Tarrytown, New York
Translated by Won Pok Choi
In our life, when we have a special purpose ahead of us, we always have to pay a certain price. If a nation has a special purpose ahead of it, it also must pay some price for that. When the world as a whole is headed for a special goal, it has to pay the price for that. Even for God, we can safely conclude that He too has to pay the price for His own goal.
But had it not been for the human fall, God would not have to pay, and our way towards the goal would not have been so rough. Without the human fall, our way could have been well paved, so that we could dash on our way. Then we only had to adapt to the situation and we would be destined to go to the goal. Man would apparently go to the goal just as a tree would sprout and grow into a big tree with branches and leaves and finally bear fruit. According to natural law, men could have gone to the goal in their lifetime.
Due to the human fall, our growth has been something like this: the seed sprouts out right, but because of a bad environment and Satanic beings, our growth is barred, and a scar is formed. The branches have not grown wholesomely, and the fruits have not ripened well. The trees have blossomed, but the flowers have not been according to God's Will, and the fruits have also not been what God wanted.
Like branches, fallen men must be engrafted to the true tree, and we must grow wholesomely by sipping the sap from the new tree, the true one. Then how do we engraft ourselves to the true tree? We as branches must try hard to be entirely one with the true tree. In order for us to be a part of the true tree, we must pay a certain price.
But we as trees have grown in different environments: and your ancestral tree is different, and your endowed nature and dispositions are different. So, each of us is going to be engrafted to the true tree in different ways. Outwardly, there is no difference, but we must know that for us to be engrafted to the true tree, we must have something in common -- the sap, the growth element.
In human beings, our sap -- by that we mean some inner nature -- must be transformed into another. The sap coming from the root of the tree must pass through the trunk and reach the branches. Then the external things, the branches, must become one with the true tree.
From that viewpoint, we must become a part of the true tree. But when we don't have things in common with God's Will, we cannot very well be a part of the tree. On the worldwide base, we must be able to engraft ourselves on the individual base to the true olive tree. God's Will originally was to have all men engrafted onto that one man.
But Satanic power has spread all over the world, and God could not succeed in having just one man do the job; but all through human history, He has had many men fulfilling the same mission. God has had to have individuals engrafted onto that one man, families engrafted onto him, nations, and the whole world engrafted onto him. But these human branches have their own wills, so God had to train these people to be acceptable to the grafting process.
God's Will has a mainstream, so God has had to train a person as an individual, a family, and a nation for that purpose. According to that mainstream of His will, God has prepared a nation -- the chosen nation of Israel. Until the days of Jesus, the Israelites were the chosen nation, but they failed to be engrafted to the true olive tree. So after the death of Jesus, God has been preparing the whole Christian population, the second Israel -- for that purpose.
At the time of Jesus, it was God's will for the Israelites to be engrafted to Jesus, or Jesus to be engrafted to the whole of the Israelite nation. You know the engrafting process. The Israelites must be a wholesome tree, not undermined by insects and things like that. Then the branches of the true trees must be engrafted to each tree. So God has been preparing the evil trees to receive what was going to come from the true tree. So the long-prepared wild olive orchards were not sane and sound; that is, the individuals in that nation were not so prepared as to receive Jesus. So he had to undo the job and redo it.
After Jesus, God has been preparing the Christian population to fulfill the purpose of the second Israel. This is the last days. But is there any nation or any individual to whom the true tree of the Lord can be engrafted? As it now stands, the whole of Christianity has been corrupted. If the Lord of the Second Coming is coming at all, does he have any individual, any nation, or any world population to whom he can be engrafted?
Let us look at the world from the viewpoint of God. Does He have any single person to whom He can have His son be engrafted? Do we have any single such man with whom God is so pleased that He will have His son be engrafted to him? It is very difficult for God to have the true tree be engrafted to the wild trees. The engrafting process is contrary to what we imagine.
We don't engraft the wild tree to the true tree, but the true tree to the wild tree. If you were in the position of God, would He not have been disappointed by the way the world is? In the Christian world, every individual is thinking of his own salvation; he would not think of the salvation of the whole world. Everybody is eager to be saved and to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
But the Lord of the Second Advent will think of the salvation of the whole world, and if that true tree is engrafted to that tree who has the thought of only his or her own salvation, would that tree grow wholesomely? The process of engrafting is not that you cut off your branches and engraft them to the true tree, but that the true tree must have its branches cut off and engrafted to the wild tree. If you want to have the branches of the true olive tree to be engrafted to you, you must be prepared for that. You must deny yourself and prepare to receive that new branch from the true tree.
First of all, you must deny yourselves. That is, you must cut off your own branches, leaving just the one which you think is the most wholesome one, and then be prepared to receive the branch from the true tree. Have you ever stopped to think of that? Have you ever thought that if you want to have a branch of the true tree engrafted to you, you must cut off all the bad branches from your own tree?
It is only too natural for the Biblical verses to teach us that we must humble ourselves in order to be elevated; we must be ready to lose our lives in order to gain our lives. Have you ever stopped to think that for you to be a wholesome tree in God's sight you must have all the rest of your limbs cut off. You must be prepared for that. In human society, the things that have been going on work like this; a true branch is engrafted to you, but you do not cut your own branches.
As I said before, you must have something in common between yourself and the new branch, for instance the sap going back and forth. But human beings have failed to do so, so our position is far from the will of God. In the world, there are a vast number of people with varied dispositions and ancestral lineages. We can classify people into many layers from external to internal; some people play the role of the poles.
Seen from your viewpoint as an individual, for instance, putting yourself in the center, there are many layers or classes of people, around you, but all those people are connected to you and have at least something to do with you.
What is the most precious thing to you in the whole world? You yourselves are the most precious thing in the world. Every individual has to think of the world centered on himself or herself. With you in the center, the whole population of the world is around you, like satellites. Every one of you, I imagine, thinks of becoming the center of the whole cosmos, the most important person in the whole world. Isn't that true?
Be honest. It is human nature to think of one's self before thinking of others. Without the human fall, it would not be a wrong way of thinking, because inside every one of you God would abide. So, what would God have you think? But do you have God abiding in you now? Instead, who is dwelling in your temple? (Satan.) Have you ever seen Satan? Have you even seen your own mind? Without seeing our minds, we know whether our minds are good or bad. Before knowing that, we know our mind exists.
Objectively, too, we can look at a man and define the man as good or evil. And if that man has the mind of righteousness and goodness, and his thought never vacillates, we think of that person as good. If that person is trying hard to be utilized by good hands, or be adapted to the source of goodness, then we can define him as good.
Roughly, we can define as evil one who is always vacillating. This wavering is always against truth or goodness or beauty. It always has critical eyes, never praising anything. Evil came from the fall. We know that in the Garden of Eden, the first human ancestors did not look at God and adapt to Him; instead, they wanted to criticize God and deny Him, wanting to be like God himself.
Look into your own selves: have you been steadfast in following goodness? Or have you been wavering all the way, being critical of other people? Do you follow one mainstream of thought, without criticizing others? Which disposition predominates? (Wavering.) And criticism of others. When you are like that, you are the temple of Satan instead of God.
But one is neither entirely for Satan nor entirely for God. On the one hand some are 100% for God, and on the other, there are many, many classes of people who have a percentage of Satan. The ideal is to have 100% of God, and zero percent of Satan. To some, the situation is the reverse; they have 100% of Satanic will, and zero percent of God's Will.
That is God's side, while this is the satanic side. We are under that situation. The zero point is the borderline between God and Satan. But can you exactly grasp where the zero point is? Where is the boundary between God and Satan? Can you define it? (No.) You are in danger of having your zero point here, while God's zero point is situated there. There is a vast difference between the viewpoint of God and yourself.
At least we are headed for that goal, starting from the zero point. Where are you situated? Some of you think that your zero point safely starts from here, and are reassured that you are on God's side. Without a doubt, you are situated somewhere here, and fancy that you are already on God's side. So you must clearly grasp the picture where you are situated.
With you in the center, you must perfect your individuality, family, tribe, nation, and the whole cosmos, including God and the spirit world. You must be perfected so as to include all those things. But where are you situated? You imagine that you are on God's side and you are broadening your scope from the individual level of things, to the family, tribal, national, and worldwide levels.
You are making your own net there, but it is very dangerous. As I see it you are situated somewhere on the satanic side as yet, although you are fancying that you are right in the center of the universe. So if that is true, you are far from the will of God. So it is safe for you to deny yourself completely, and not make your own world right there: rather, try to lose yourself, deny yourself. Then you will find the true central point and be situated there.
If you deny yourself, and cut off the ties to the worldly manner of life, then you will naturally come to the zero point. If you rely on your own way of thinking, then in your mind, the center point, vacillates. Sometimes your center point is here, there, everywhere.
From God's point of view, He can see only one man right here in the center; those close to him are better, but others who are farther and farther away belong more to the satanic world. If you were in God's position, would you have chosen one somewhere out there to be the central figure? God cannot conduct His providence centering on such a man.
There are many conscientious people in the world, who are contented with themselves, saying, "I am a conscientious person. I am destined for heaven. I don't have to believe in someone.'' But is that a safe way of thinking? God would not chose that kind of person to be the center, and however close he may be to the center, if he is not connected with him, he has nothing to do with salvation.
The entire population of the world is descended from evil ancestry -- fallen, satanic ancestry. So God cannot choose one out of them to play the role of the central figure, but only one coming from His lineage. That central figure is the Messiah. The Messianic ideology comes from that. From God's point of view, the Messiah is no one other than the one who has God living in him -- in other words, one who thinks as God would have him think, speaks and acts out things in the way in which God would have him do. That person must be the one loved by God. God must have confidence that he will always live with God. Must that person be a male or female? He must be male, because according to the Principle of Creation, the male is in the subject position.
Americans are more used to thinking of women first, so women may not be satisfied with this ideology. Who is in the subject position? (Male) Well, I expected the answers from the women, and you are first to answer, "Yes." But in the satanic, fallen world, it does not apply. Men are not necessarily in the subject position.
In a sense, men are of a more fallen nature. Statistics show that men have committed more crimes. Isn't that true? But there have been exceptions. You women don't have a moustache. Well, that's something men have over you; and if someone has more than you, then he is richer than you.
When God created man and woman, God was more sympathetic with women, I think. Although women may be weaker, when they fight men, women can hold onto the beard. When you are weaker, you can win over the man like that. But when you are married, don't ever try that. You cannot do that, because your husband will not have a beard. Well, let's go back to the mainstream of thought.
It has been so difficult for God to find that perfect man. This man must be 100% in accordance with God's will, and also qualified enough to have his family, nation, and the whole world be like him. He is qualified enough to make the whole world come in accordance with God's will. Now it is clear that God wants that kind of person.
Then what kind of person would the Messiah want to have? He wants to have the same types of people God would want to have. If there are none like that in the whole world, what would he do? He must raise that kind of person. In order for the Messiah to raise or foster that kind of person, he must deny himself, and in selflessness and sacrifice adopt those people and raise them to be wholesome.
God would want to have that kind of group in existence in the world, and God would have the Messiah raise that kind of group. If there is a prepared group where people love each other and love mankind in brotherly love, and therefore be prepared to receive the Messiah, God will send him to that group.
The Messiah comes for the rest of the world, not for himself. So those who are qualified to receive the Messiah must have the same way of thinking. You must deny yourself, thinking only of the salvation of the whole world. There are a vast number of religions in the world, and many philosophies and ideologies, but is there any such group in the world?
What is the Unification Church? What are we going to do? First of all, our ideology is to unite the religions of the world, not only Christian denominations. Then after that, what are we going to do, after being able to unite the world religions. Our purpose is to have the world population receive the Messiah and live in the Kingdom.
In order for them to receive the Messiah, what should they do? Prepare to receive him, and then meet God through the Messiah. Then people will find the same quality in God as in the Messiah. God will be in the center of the individual, family, tribe, nation, and the whole world.
If you are in God's sphere as individuals, families, and nations, can you think of nothing else but the salvation of the world? In this sense, when we say, "our nation," it means one nation under God, the whole mankind as one nation. When you say "our nation," it must not mean America, Japan, or Korea. If you entertain that kind of thought, it's wrong. You must find out the difference between your concept of a nation and God's and the Messiah's -- how they differ from yours. There is a vast difference between yours and theirs.
So the way of life you have been following is not the way God would have you go. Do you think your way of life and God's are the same? You must first of all understand that there is a vast difference between your way of thinking and God's. Your ways of thinking, living, and acting have been so vastly different from God's and the Messiah's.
You must imagine the Messiah's way of thinking is so vastly different from yours -- almost opposite to yours -- so you can expect that when the Messiah comes, those who have been sitting on the chairs will be told to come down, and those who have been sitting on the floor must be told to sit on the chairs; those who are walking must be told to sit still, and those who have been sitting still must be told to move about. He will hate to look at people doing things they have been used to, so he will tell you to do the opposite.
If you were in his position, would you have your beloved people do things in obedience to your enemy? (No) What we read in the Bible sometimes sounds paradoxical. It is because God did not like the worldly way, the Satanic way. The people closer to the Messiah are more or less good. And as you go farther and farther from him, you are more evil. The Messiah will have to raise his own group, and if it is expanded to a certain number, however small the group may look, if the weight of this group in God's eyes is heavier than the rest of the world, it is entitled to save the world.
This small group must be so strong that it will win over the rest of the world, however strong they may attack that group. The Messiah must start from that point. If the whole of Christianity had been one with him, things would have been different and much easier. But even though they are against this movement, he must make this group stronger than the whole of Christianity.
If you are called into this group by him, you must go through the same process in order to reach out to the rest of the world, to the end of the world. You must imagine hardships and trials there. You are destined to have to go through all these processes of persecution and tribulation; only then can you come back here. Just imagine, after we have established such a world, the way of our descendants will be well paved; and they can go freely back and forth without Satanic obstacles.
In this group, the Messiah is the center; the whole group is in the center of the rest of the world, which is external. There must be a wholesome give and take and intermingling between what is internal and what is external, forming the whole. Even though you are situated here, you have something to do with the outside world.
But with what kind of person or society are you associated in the outside world? Wouldn't you want to have someone or some group closer to the center? In associating with those persons or groups, you must absorb them, and by continuing the same with others who are still external to you, you must come back to the center.
By doing that, the group will include a bigger and bigger circle, and then this part must play the internal role, as the core world, while the rest of the world is in the position of the external world. Finally, we must include the whole world or cosmos. What is internal and what has been external must become one, in harmony and unity. That's something like the unity between our body and mind. They are still two elements, but the spiritual side and physical side must become one.
That is the formula for perfecting our individuality and our personality. That is the pattern of perfected personality. This is also a world without any evil elements, so you can freely go back and forth, unhindered by Satan or satanic elements. Let me put it in another way. There are two worlds: the physical world and the spirit world. What I just described applies to the spirit world.
God is in the center, and there are many types of spirit men: those who are closer to Him, then the more evil, and more evil. In the physical world, too, with the Messiah as the center, the more conscientious or more righteous people are closer to him, and those farther and farther away are more and more evil. Spirit world is the internal world, while this is the external world. That world is something like our mind, while this one is something like our physical body.
But due to the human fall, there was a barrier or a cloud between the internal world and the external world. The dense cloud bars the way; we cannot distinguish which is which. Although you don't realize it, there is a vast distance between your spiritual side and flesh side. The difference is like the difference between the spirit world and the physical world.
God's 6,000 years of restoration providence has been to bring your mind and body into oneness. If you as an individual can unite your mind and body, you will have no barrier between your mind and body. And finally, the spirit world and the physical world can become one in harmony and unity. Man is groping in darkness in search of God; God is coming down in search of us, and we meet and become one. That's something like the spirit world and the physical world becoming one.
Our own selves are the base for God's restoration of man, and when we perfect our individuality in ourselves, God's Will will be realized through us. As such individuals increase, the whole world will be restored. When those individuals are multiplied, the whole of God's providence will be done. In fact, God's dispensation and providence of restoration is to make one man perfect. That means to make the whole world like one man. Because of this one man, the whole spirit world will be liberated and the whole physical world will be liberated.
When Jesus prayed he said, "Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven." That means the Lord must come after he wins over all the spirit men in the spirit world. Even though he has won the battle over Satanic power in the spirit world, if he is rejected and persecuted and is defeated by the Satanic world here, his mission is not done.
On the vertical base, suppose the chosen nation was prepared, and the whole national base was ready for the Messiah to land on and work his providence, but the whole nation rejected him. He had only this much left to do, if the chosen nation had been one with him. But the national base was nullified due to the disbelief of the Israelites.
So he had to start over again. He started from the individual foundation, being destined to go through all these stages. But he died with only the spiritual foundation, able to accomplish only this much. On the physical foundation there are many things left to do, on the physical side of salvation. In providential history, there are many such details.
We are going to accomplish things that were left unaccomplished by our predecessors. The missions all of the holy men were to save the whole world. Those holy men have been long remembered in human history because their will was according to God's will. In their sight, there was nothing other than the whole world; when they looked into themselves, they looked in terms of the whole world. They looked into their family, tribe, and nation, in terms of the whole world. That's the definition of a holy man.
What we are going to do in our Unification movement is to accomplish what has been left unaccomplished by those holy men. We must think that to perfect our own self as an individual is the starting point of perfecting the whole world, or restoring the whole world. What God has been doing towards mankind has been the same thing. God has had to sacrifice His holy men. But that was for the sake of the whole world; they sacrificed for the whole world. Where do we find the price? We must restore the price they have paid for this world.
To be able to restore the price they have paid, we must save the whole world and erect the kingdom of God on earth; they will be rewarded in that way alone. That is the end of the world. The last days means the days in which we will restore the price paid by the predecessors, reaping what was sown. Now, is the time of harvest. Then who will reap what was sown in the last days? The Lord of the Second Advent and the group who is in harmony and unity with him will do it.
In the time of Jesus, in order for God to reap what was sown through the chosen nation of Israel, the Messiah had to come and the people had to become one with him. Now for national restoration, the nation of the United States is in the hands of the American people, while the Japanese people will be responsible for Japan, and so on. You must return what you have reaped to the Messiah.
When the Messiah comes, both God and the Messiah will tell you Americans to reap what was sown in this country and elsewhere. The nation itself, the people themselves will reap what was sown in their respective nations, and you will return the crops to the Messiah and God. And when all those nations are restored back into the bosom of God and the Messiah, then the whole world will be one nation under God, one human family under God. Then there will be no wars, no fighting between men. There will be no national boundaries, so we cannot expect any war between nations.
Until that happens, the Christians are more responsible than others. But Christianity is failing its task, so our group must take it up. I have invited many members here, from all over the world, in order to train those people in this arena of the United States and send them back to their own countries to reap what was sown in their respective countries.
I have brought you here, but the United States as a nation has not invited you here. You have gone through difficulties to get visas to enter this country. But we are for that great cause, and we are working hard for that. But if the whole world becomes one, would you need a visa ton enter any section of the world? This is our world, this is God's garden, and His children are entitled to go about from place to place without a visa.
Until we can realize that world, we must witness to the people and make the people as we are. By our bringing the whole of mankind into oneness, we can reap the price paid by our predecessors. Can we just sit still with folded hands to reap that price? (No!) Our predecessors paid the price of their lives. They paid 100%; can we reap by paying less than that? (No!)
Can you pay just 50% and reap the 100% sown by those people? (No!) Then what is the way? (100%!) When we pay less than 100%, it means we have come down. When we pay more than 100%, we can go beyond the level of what has been done before. When we pay 50%, we are in the middle, and we reap only so much. If you as individuals reap this much alone and have your family and nation do the same, do you expect this whole thing to reach the top? Then what shall we do? (100%!) It's easy to say that.
You sow the seeds, raise the crops, and then reap the harvest. To reap sometimes requires more labor, but people can do that with happiness. Those who sow and raise the plants have gone through more difficulties; it takes such a long time, so many months, to sow and grow the crops; but we can reap it once. At harvest time, we cannot leave the crops in the field too long. When fall and storms come, it makes it harder for us to reap. So at the harvest time we are so pressed for time and we are so busy reaping the men.
When we look at the history of mankind, we are at the harvest time, the reaping of men. The laborers are we ourselves. Who else can do the job? You cannot be just the by-standers, watching someone else reap, but you must become the reapers yourselves. We have no time to lose.
If you were a Korean man, would you do the harvest in Korea alone, or would you rather do it on the world stage? (World.) We know that at length we have to harvest the whole of mankind, so you must choose the right place to do the reaping -- work better and sooner, and then move about from place to place. It took God so many years of history to sow and raise and crops, but when the Messiah comes to reap them, it will take a short interval of time.
Knowing this fact, Jesus was busy reaping men when he came, but their disbelief made him fail. When mankind with the Messiah pays this great a price and goes beyond the level of 100%, starting from here the Kingdom of God, heaven, begins. There have been many miseries, difficulties, and hardships in human history, but these were only to enable God to build the Kingdom on Earth, build His Kingdom on Earth through men. God is transcending time and space, so for Him, the 6,000 years of human history have been just nothing. The 6,000 years of human history are in His will, in His sight. God knows how great a price He has had to pay through His men.
In feeling and emotion, what God feels is more intense, so His heart is so agonized to see the failures of His holy men. God's mind can accommodate the whole world; his mind is so complex. So many things are stored in His mind; so many things are entangled. And when can we disentangle all those agonies stored in His mind and heart? So great a price has been paid, so many individuals have been sacrificed, so many nations have been sacrificed, and the whole world is still in the hands of Satan. So much agony is entangled in God's Heart. God's agony was the sacrifice of His men. These human sacrifices must be repaid.
On that base, what we are going to do is to make each of you a perfect man, after being triumphant over the whole world. Conversely, you must think that the whole world is evil because of you, yourselves. You must know that when the Messiah comes, he comes for you and the whole world, which is the accumulation of all individuals.
God has paid the toll of sacrifice, and the Messiah has paid a certain price, and all mankind has paid a price. And what we are going to reap is the totality of all the prices. Then we must be eager to restore ourselves into perfection, in which state we can dominate the whole world. Do I mean only Unification members? No. The population of the whole world must be saved; individually they know their importance, and in God's sight they are important too.
You must invest your whole beings, and I must invest the whole membership of the Unification Church to reap the prices paid by our predecessors. You must think that so many hundreds of thousands of people have sacrificed their lives for the sake of your own selves. When you think of that, when you really realize that, can you idle away your time without doing anything in God's will?
What we are going through here in the Unification Church is paying the price for them. Well, for whom are we doing this? For yourselves? (No.) For the whole world, for the whole of mankind. We are not working for the salvation of ourselves as individuals, but for the salvation of the whole world, because only after doing that will your salvation come.
What we are doing here is just like what the spirit men are doing in the spirit world. They are eager and are working hard to save the whole world. In cooperation with them, and by keeping pace with them, we on this earth are going to save the whole world on the physical level. So many thousands of years men have been paying the price for the salvation of all mankind. But what they have done is still down here, so we must lift them up beyond the level of 100%. God's wish is to have you shorten the period of 6,000 year history into 60 years or less.
From Adam to Abraham spanned 2,000 years, and from Abraham to Jesus spanned 2,000 years of history. The providence of restoration actually started from Abraham, and during the 4,000 years since then, the restoration providence should have been accomplished. But God's desire is to have us shorten the period of 4,000 into 40 years, and 6,000 years into 60 years.
The year 1960 was the 40th year of Father's mission, and 1980 is going to be the 60th year. Starting from the year 1960 up to 1980 will be 20 years' time. After that we are entering the 21st year, having completed three seven-year courses. God's final Will is to have us reap all that has been sown by our predecessors during the 21 years' time. The three seven year courses each represent one stage -- formation, growth, and perfection; in 20 full years, and entering the 21st year, we have to do that.
Our first seven-year course represents formation; the second seven-year course, growth; and the third seven-year course, perfection. So, one seven-year course corresponds to 2,000 years of providential history because we are contracting 6,000 years into 21.
We are now situated in the final stage or perfection stage of the growth period. That's something like the point where Jesus would have gone beyond the level of the nation. We are entering the third seven-year course, which will be fulfilled on the worldwide base. The Messiah is now going to accomplish his worldwide mission on the foundation of the national base. During the past three years, we have been doing that. I came here in the year 1972, and by going through these three years, we will go beyond the last stage of the growth period and enter the final seven-year course.
The culmination will come in 1977. Our providence under God, of course, cannot be a failure then; that will be the sixth year after my arrival in this country. Then we will dash on the paved way towards the end of the world. You must remember that from next year on, we will be in our final seven-year course, our third seven-year course.
As God's providence through our group will be ascending like that, in the outside world -- even in Christianity -- corruption will rage, and it will become worse and worse; thus our way will be easier. When we look at the whole world, we can roughly divide them into three blocks: Communist, democratic, and religious. There is corruption even in the religious block, also in the democratic block. The Communist block will collapse too. No one can save any of the three, except us, and God has prepared our group for that purpose.
We must be desperate in saving this nation; if we can move this nation, we can move the whole world. Then we can reap the rest of the world in no time. As for reaping individuals, I mean that you must be a perfected individual in order to reap other individuals; reap other organizations and families, we must perfect our family in God's sight; if we are going to reap nations, we must make our nation perfect; the whole world will be restored in that way.
Among all the religions of the world, there has never been any religion in which the central figure has taught that the heavenly Kingdom of God can be entered only by the family unit. If that kind of ideology can win a nation as a whole, on that national base, it can go towards the end of the world very easily. If we restore a whole nation, then our next restoration will come on the national base; we won't have to try to save individuals, but an entire nation at once. Then we can reap the rest of the world by reaping 120 providential nations.
There are three to four main nations in God's sight. In the Second World War England, the United States, and France were allies. Now the great powers of the United States, Red China, and Soviet Russia are talking peace. If we can influence seven nations at least, then we can get hold of the whole world: the United States, England, France, Germany, Soviet Russia, and maybe Korea and Japan.
On God's side, Korea, Japan, America, England, France, Germany, and Italy, are the nations I count on in order to gain the whole world. If you look closely at the world, they are being prepared for our work. But God is preparing the outside world like that, so we must prepare ourselves to be qualified enough to absorb the world.
While you are witnessing to other people, you must cultivate the qualifications in yourselves. And more than that, after saving the whole world, we have to reign over the world. Do we have any time, any moment, to lose when we think of that?
"The Price of the Divine Will" is my topic this morning -- we are now in the harvest time, the human harvest, and we must pay a greater price than that paid by our predecessors and bring our world above the level of 100%. We must be resolved to do that. We must struggle hard, and by 1980 we have to lift the world above that level.
If we fail to do that by 1980, it will make it harder for us to finish the job. We must feel that we are always on the verge of life or death, so we must dash forward breathtakingly, without losing a moment. The alternative of life or death lies before us. We must go across, stage by stage, going through at least seven nations.
The most formidable enemy is Communism. God is working to have them be corrupted with infighting among themselves; but our job is to win them over with our ideology, which is stronger than theirs. It is our life or death problem, how to make the defense line against Communism in those seven nations. By being able to do this in this nation alone, we can hope to do that in the rest of the nations.
Being a strong Christian nation, God has blessed this nation for that purpose, so if we fail to do this here, we have no hope of restoring the rest of the world. We have to succeed in our mission here, in the United States. But as we now see, the Christians in this country are rejecting us; so what our predecessors and the Christian martyrs have paid before must now be paid by us alone. We must expect more difficulties, and we have to pay a greater price than expected.
We can see that among those seven nations, Communism is the most formidable enemy of God's Will. In Korea, the Communists cause the most headaches. In Japan, also, as well as in England, Germany, Italy, France, and even the United States, the Communist problem is the most formidable one. What I am praying for is that God will bar the way, stop the Communists from infiltrating.
In France, President Pompidou has died, and his place, the new president is more on God's side; it is under God's will that all this happened. In Germany, too, because of Communist espionage agents, Prime Minister Brandt has resigned and a new president has been designated. All those things are happening under God's will. In the providence of God, Korea and Japan are becoming one with our ideology. The final target of Communism wants to cause the United States to collapse by undermining it, bringing it to its knees before their ideology.
As I said before, the year 1977 (or very possibly 1978) will be crucial years. If by that time we fail to lay the foundation in this nation on which to fight against the Satanic power of Communism, things will be very difficult. Knowing that providential significance, I am so agonized and so desperate to over come Communism within that period of time. You must join me in this all-out effort.
During these 21 years, many historical events are apt to happen. Great changes will come about, even in the democratic world, the Communist world, and in the religious world, too. Communism will prosper up to its 60th year. The democratic world, too, is allowed to prosper to its 60th year. In the Christian world, too, the same thing applies.
But some 14 years ago the Christian world began to decline, and before the 60th year in the Communist world it will decline and in the democratic world, the same thing will come to pass. Only the Unification Church will grow and grow. It is only too natural that in the providence of God our group has grown so big, and in two or less years, my name has been known throughout this nation. We are now in 1974, but in the coming six years, we must work hard to cross over 1980. Then by that time we must be known throughout the world.
Can we do that by just sitting idle? (No.) We must be resolved to pay the price our predecessors have paid by our all-out efforts during these six to seven years. If we work desperately hard, then we can win the goal by 1980. If we fail to do so within that period of time, it may have to be prolonged. Then during that period, we will have to pay a greater price and sacrifice more.
In Christianity, we have paid with many martyrs. In our movement we will likewise have to pay that great a price if we cannot win the goal by that time. Maybe Communism will take over the sovereignty of the world. Then we are going to be the first martyrs in their hands. We must realize that. Untold miseries will come about in this world. So we must be ready to invest our whole beings into this project, in this interval of time; that is the price we are going to pay for the Divine Will.
If we, the Unification Church, have restored a whole nation as a base, then the whole nation can play this role and pay this price; it will be easier to restore the rest of the world because we can reap by nations, not individuals. Now we are on the stage of paying the price as a church. But we must go beyond the level of the church as a group and lay the foundation as a nation.
Our next seven-year course will be the contracted form of the 6,000 years of providential history, so we must be resolved to pay the entire sacrifice that we can afford to pay during that interval of time. By doing that, we can build our own personalities in such a way that we will be qualified enough to cover the whole world and restore it back to God's bosom. We must be resolved and be prepared for that. Do you understand?
If we go the usual way, we cannot let our name be known; so let our name be known to the world. That's why I had the speaking tour; but when we go across the year 1974, within that year, I have to have the biggest project of the Madison Square Garden speaking campaign, and it is for me to influence the whole of the nation of the United States, so that it influences the whole world. And in so doing, I can make your work easier to reach out to the rest of the world. Therefore, we must put out our whole energy, our whole beings into the Madison Square Garden campaign this fall.
You know that the first speech was given last year, but the second speech, and the prolonged speaking tour to 32 cities has been carried out in this year. The Madison Square Garden speech will be given in this year, too; the year 1974 is very significant. We have to let the people know Our Master's name.
Is his presence felt in every corner of the United States by now? No, we still have a long way to go. The rumor has been spreading, but you must reach out to every individual. Now that I have organized ten international mobile units, and one mobile unit in every state, and under them so many centers in every state, we are now beginning to make our name known to every corner.
And on the other hand, the Sun Myung Moon Christian Crusade is doing a fine job. It is because we are responsible to have the people know about our movement. During the coming three years, up through 1977, your responsibility is to let people know of our movement: the three ones motto. That is our responsibility.
If and when the nation does not receive God's will, after we have carried out our responsibility, that's not our responsibility. Then we will never perish in that way, but we have other ways to go. I will focus on and concentrate the work on this base of the United States up to 1977. If the United States will not respond to my call and lay a certain foundation by that time, I will shift my mission to another nation. They will be awakened to the fact later on.
God has been preparing this nation for 200 years. Before long they will celebrate their bicentennial. By that time we have to awaken this nation under God's will. So we must concentrate our whole effort in this nation on this project in the shortest possible three years. Therefore, you must feel the pressure and the flurry of our mission.
I sometimes feel bad and have sympathy with your having to labor so much and struggle so hard in this nation. But you must realize that you are not here to do the job for this nation alone, but for the whole of mankind and for the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. What you will have done here will be claimed by you alone, and you will be long remembered in human history for doing this. There are many, many things I have to do through you within this period of time.
In doing our job here, we make a connection with the Asian world, too. Although you don't know it, even though I am here in the United States, I am working on the project with the Japanese members. I have our PR members get in touch with the presidents of so many Japanese companies here. I am aiming at a cubic effect, a vertical effect.
Next year we are going to hold the Unified Science Conference here in New York; we are going to make it a historical event. And then through scholars, Master's name will be known to the end of the world. It was I who initiated all those things, and I can do it without your cooperation. But you must join me in the effort for your own sake.
The significance of my having brought the members from other nations is to have them work for this nation, so this nation's attention will be aroused. It is for me to lay the foundation in this nation and awaken people by showing the example of the members from other nations working for this nation.
I can say to them," Look at those members from other nations. They are working so hard for your nation. And can you sit still without doing anything for your own nation?" Here, too, I must perhaps train the American members more severely and harshly than the members from other nations; so you cannot complain. The American Unification members can never complain.
Up to the present, you have been enjoying material wealth and abundance in many ways; I may have to reverse your way and have you go through more difficulties. You American members must know how to criticize and analyze the declining, decadent things taking place in the world, especially in the realm of the youth of this country.
You must not be homesick for that way of life. If you go on like that, the white race is doomed to perish; and the black and yellow races must not follow their example. When they streak on the university campuses, they are sort of digging their own graveyard. We must not follow the example.
I feel it is fortunate that the black race has not yet followed the example of the white race; the yellow and black races must not follow the example. Then where are they headed for? We must not leave them alone, but have them return to the original track of life. The white race has a lot of things to correct.
God has been blessing the white race, because there is providential significance to that, but if you go on like that, being decadent and being corrupted, God will not leave you alone. You need Reverend Moon here in order to stop this from prevailing -- all sorts of corruption can be corrected by our movement here.
The gigantic nation of the United States will be declining very rapidly. I have to stop it from going downward and lift this huge nation upward. Nobody else can do that but our group and I. Do you really feel the responsibility? There are college students overflowing in this country, but if they concentrate on the material side of things and satisfy their animal instincts, they cannot but perish.
We are here to correct the mistakes being made by youth in this country, and lift them up to the original position that God intended for them. We will try our very best and then if that project is not done, we will leave everything else in God's hands; and He will help us out. But first of all we will do our best. We have got to do that.
We have quite a few black members here. You must realize that up to the present, you have been the enemy of the white race. But our black members must not be critical of the white race. When Jesus was going up to Calvary bearing the cross, the person who bore the cross in place of Jesus was a black man. What do you call his name? Simon of Cyrene.
If the black man bears the cross to the end, he will be blessed in place of the white man. The time will come. If you complain and fight against the white race and are critical of everything being done by the white people, you don't deserve that prize. You must realize that you are bearing the cross in place of Jesus, or in place of the white race, and if you go on, never complaining, bearing the cross to the end, then blessed things will be yours. God will help you out, and human rights will be equal between black and white. You are in the stage of bearing the cross; but your time will come before long. Do you understand, you black members?
In that way alone, by bearing the most difficult cross, when you win the goal you are going to be lifted up, and God will come down to meet you and reward you. It is in God's providence that in this great nation of Christianity, the Negro people are treated that way. There is some association with a Negro man bearing the cross in place of Jesus.
You were brought to this continent and are bearing the cross for the white race. I know that it has been done in the providence of God, having the black race go through difficulties for the sake of the white race, and your time will not be too long. If the white race is not grateful for that, they are doomed to perish. If you go hand in hand with each other with balance of power and equal human rights, then both of you will be blessed.
I want you black members to bear the cross a little longer until you have born it enough. You must not be critical of the white race, but go back to their position and lift them up, help them out, and bring them to the original position of God's intention.
If the white race goes on rejecting us and fighting against our movement and myself, then the whole of the black race will come to my aid; I am sure of that. That's most logical, and that will take place. So I want you black members to be really one with the Divine Will. By the year 1977, I am going to make a black church, and concentrate on the black race.
So the white race must be awakened to the fact, and the black race must be unified into one. Before long, the Unification Church will be the hope of the black race. And the black race -- the yellow race too, will be easily united with the blacks. It is easy for the yellow race to reconcile black and white. That's why I mobilized PR members from the yellow race to go about from place to place, getting in touch with the firms and companies here in New York.
Everything taking place in our movement is for the sake of restoration through indemnity, like the case of the black race, bearing the cross for Jesus and the white race. So I want you black members not to complain a word against anything happening to you. If the white race goes on rejecting our movement, then before long the day will come in which the black race will be strongly united with our movement, take the lead over the white race.
So in our movement, both the white race and the black must do their best for the will of God. The time may come when I may have to order the white members to bear the cross in place of the black members. If the white race rejects our movement, that day will come. If you come to your knees before Communism, things more horrible will come about.
We are at the stage where we must pay the price for the Will of God, and we must feel the urgency of time. We are half way through the year; we are now in the second week of June, and we must feel the imminence of time and the urgency of time. We must be ready to pay whatever price is demanded of us for the will of God, and we must feel that we cannot afford to lose any moment of time, for the sake of the whole nation and the world.
In providential history, the yellow race is in the position of the eldest son in Noah's family. Shem was the source of the yellow race. Ham was the source of the black race, and Japheth was the source of the white race. History shows that the white race, ever since the Vikings (pirates), has been blessed, because there is a providential significance. The third son was blessed. We are now in the age in which the three races must be united into one.
The white race as a whole is the third son, in the position of the third son, while the black race is in the position of the second son, and the yellow race is in the position of the eldest son. Population-wise, too, the white race is the smallest in number, because it was born the latest. The second and third brothers are fighting with each other, and the eldest son must come reconciling the two.
It has been because God blessed the white race that they have hitherto enjoyed material wealth; but they exploited the black race and the yellow race. Without God's blessing, you could not have flourished like that, so you must be grateful to God; you must find out the significance of God's having blessed you. You have a mission to accomplish, and without God's help, you have nothing to be proud of. You have not been prosperous with your own power, but because of the blessing of God. You must not forget.
If you are too proud of yourselves, you, the white race will be in peril of being doomed. Here we are, black and yellow together, and we are striving hard to become one in harmony. Now we are in the age in which the people of the Western world must listen carefully to what the Easterners have to say. You must be directed by Orientals to the spiritual civilization.
There is no such thing as an accident or coincidence. Everything taking place is done under God's Will. God's Will is working behind human sins, so we must come back to God's Will and do it over again, beginning on the individual, family, national, and worldwide level. For this we are striving hard. And to win the goal we have to pay the price.
Back in ancient times, there had been strata or classes in human society; in some countries this has continued up until the present moment. But we have to demolish and annihilate all those classes and strata in human society. We must enjoy equal human rights. Suppose the black race pays a greater price for the Will of God. They will be more blessed by God. Suppose the yellow race does the same, and they will obtain more glory and blessing. You, the white race, must strive hard for that goal.
In the Second World War, the United States won over Germany and Japan; that, too, was done in God's providence. So you must lift up God's Will from that point on, never coming down. It just happened to be that we have mobilized more members from Germany and Japan. Male and female members together, the Americans must work harder than the Japanese members and German members here.
How many American members do we have? Hold up your hands, please. You must be determined to work harder than those people coming from other countries. Otherwise, you cannot keep your dignity. You will hurt the dignity even of God, because He has been blessing this nation for a special purpose.
After three years, I will leave everything in the hands of the American members; you must be prepared for that. Can you do that? (Yes.) Don't ever be beaten by the Japanese members and German members. You said "Yes," and I will trust you; and I have to make you be that way. And what you have to do is not to complain.
With the youth you see in the outside world, you cannot save this nation and the world. With the families you have now, you cannot save this nation and the world; with the nation as a whole as you see it, you cannot save the world. So our hands must be extended to them, to reach out to every individual, every family, every society, the nation as a whole, and the whole world. Do you understand me?
So you American members are destined to pay so many times greater a price than other people would pay. If the white Americans cannot do the job, I will raise the black members, and shame you white members. We must be able to have the American people discard their old ways of life and not to be so self-content; not to enjoy material abundance for themselves only but for the sake of the whole world.
Otherwise, this nation is doomed to perish. We must stop it from happening. With this knowledge, you American members, especially you white members, must strive harder than the rest of the Americans: I want you to be resolved to carry out the job, and I hope you have really understood what I meant.
You American members must separate yourself, or cut yourself from the old ties to the world, the old way of thinking, and old way of living, and be responsible for the salvation of this nation by stopping the outside world from going the same old way. Do you understand what I mean? We all must be ready to pay the price for the Will of God.
For the sake of this nation and for the sake of the whole world, we must cross over the point where Jesus prayed at Gethsemane: "Nevertheless, not my will, but thy will be done." We must pay whatever price is demanded of us by God for the Divine Will. I want you to be really resolved for that.
Scanned by Hans-Juergen Hutzfeld, 09.01.2008-Duesseldorf.