The Words of Sun Myung Moon from 1986
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The Words of Sun Myung Moon from 1986 |
This is a synopsis of two speeches that Father gave one Sunday morning in March at Chung Pa Dong church in Seoul -- the first one to the general membership and the second to leaders. Father directed his message to all members around the world and especially to the American leaders.
Everybody who follows a leader, as well as the leader himself, should come to understand himself. What is the self? We must analyze it. Each of us is a result of history. We are not simply individuals. The most important historical fact is that we are the fruit of Satan's love. Many times even Unification Church members don't realize Satan's existence.
During our life of faith we gradually come to recognize the living God. We always focus on True Parents, who are the embodiment of the living God. But many times we forget about Satan. If we could look at ourselves with spiritual eyes, we would see that Satan is holding onto our necks, and that we are bound to our satanic lineage. Externally we only see a neck. But from the spiritual point of view our neck is Satan's hook. Through it he is trying to reach down into us and steal our love. It's a very serious matter.
Fallen man can either completely surrender to Satan and stay under Satan's dominion for eternity, or he can try to overcome it by jumping up and passing through historical difficulties, and thus stay on God's side. One serious and important point is that the rope of Satan's love can only be cut by true love. Nothing else will work! Only true love centering on God and True Parents can save us.
Fallen man can connect with true love only at the front line of life and death -- not at any other place. This is because it was at this point that man originally denied God and fell, thus losing everything. This crossing point of life and death is the only point through which fallen mankind can return to God.
As fallen men and women, we have to follow the way of restoration in the indirect dominion. The first son and first daughter must pass through the three stages of growth in the indirect dominion, so that others can follow. We lost this path, so on the way of restoration we must stand as elder son and elder daughter. We cannot go the path of growth under the title of younger son or younger daughter. Unfortunately, all fallen men and women, all Unification Church members, are not in the elder son's or elder daughter's position. Satan took over the elder son's and elder daughter's position and never gave them up.
Because of this, even a Unification Church member cannot pass through the indirect dominion period without first receiving the elder son's or elder daughter's title. This is the Principle. Abel has to overcome Cain, and not just in theory. On every level, Abel has to completely dominate Cain with love, and then go on to the next level. Leaders must be especially serious about this matter. We should always be serious about this.
Satan has two points of accusation. First, Satan accuses God: "Even though my present position is evil, You should love me at the level of an archangel. Without giving at least this level of love to me, you cannot judge me." Satan's accusation to man is: "You should love me as the owner. An angel is like a servant. Men and women are like the owners. So you should love me centering on God's love as an owner loves a servant." God never became the owner of the Heavenly Kingdom, and man himself never even entered the Heavenly Kingdom. For man, becoming the owner is not easy. For Heavenly Father this task is also not easy. Heavenly Father's love for Satan is really serious, because Satan is not an ordinary enemy. In front of Heavenly Father, Satan completely destroyed His ideal of a loving grandmother, a loving mother, a loving wife, a loving sister, and a loving daughter. Satan destroyed all this completely, and brought about fallen love. Because of this, God is very serious about loving Satan.
More and more now the Unification Church must bear the cross of the worldwide historical situation. What is the base of dispensational history? God's heart. God's heart is also the motivation of creation. Even though the Unification Church started from God's heart, the members themselves are not automatically related to Him. Therefore, Unification Church members should make indemnity conditions to relieve God's historical heart.
I want to emphasize the meaning of faith and reality. We should never ignore reality, the circumstances around us. Regardless of what kind of difficult environment or circumstances I face, I accept the given conditions as reality one hundred percent. Then I try to lay indemnity conditions to ease God's historical heart of suffering. In this sense, before Heavenly Father's heart, complaint cannot exist. So don't forget to make indemnity conditions, not only for yourself, but to solve the agony of God.
Another area to focus on is the CAUSA seminars and also, for the future, Principle seminars. All leaders, when you preach or lecture, should prepare not only intellectually; you should pray three times as long as the length of your lecture. For a one-hour sermon, you should make a condition of three hours of prayer and spiritual preparation. What you are teaching is not merely my philosophy but my actual life testimony.
In your lectures or sermons, don't teach the Principle only with your tongue, but with the seed of life, which you must catch with your mind and digest within your heart. The Principle should always be taught through heartistically digested truth. The Principle is so powerful that if you, as lecturers, convey this message through the correct method -- through your heart -- you will achieve results. We should consider the reasons for our lack of increase in membership. Every leader should consider this.
When Father speaks in front of IFVOC leaders and professors, even in front of thousands, he doesn't speak from a written text or from notes. He feels that if he is well prepared spiritually, his teaching will be clear and true. But he said if he writes down his thoughts beforehand, he wonders whether God's word or human concepts are really coming through. Instead of writing, he prays. Through this kind of preparation, God's words can be conveyed, not merely human understanding. Father emphasized that we, as Unification Church leaders, should follow this advice. Since you already understand the Principle, if you pray enough and make enough spiritual preparation, your words will be very powerful and you will reach your audience.
I already mentioned to you that Father has been praying for mainland China for 30 years. Even though he prays a lot for China, he is not concerned about the result. He only focuses on his prayer. He wants to pray until he has prayed for China more than any of her patriots throughout her long history ever prayed for her. He said that the result of his prayer doesn't matter. If China accepts Father, God's blessing will come to China. If China denies Father, all the historical merit of the Chinese will come back to True Parents through another way. Father continues:
I want to emphasize the importance of spiritual preparation for all of our activities. All leaders and Unification Church members should follow the way of faith. Don't rely on your knowledge or external capabilities. Providential activities will never be accomplished this way. Only the way of love can bring results -- true love linked with prayer and a pure mind.
Especially to blessed couples, I want to say: All members of your family should understand and digest family law, and inherit and follow the True Parents' tradition. What is that tradition? It is this: With the heart of the Father, in the shoes of a servant, we should shed sweat for earth, tears for man, and blood for heaven. That is the main content of True Parents' tradition. God and True Parents expect blessed couples to know it and to fulfill it.
Sometimes I hear members complain, "Oh, I joined the church over 10 years ago. I dedicated my entire youth! Now I need to have something for myself." I have a very difficult time understanding this complaint. At present God Himself is under Satan's dominion. God could never realize His own dignity in front of Satan. Throughout the restoration providence, God always had to work quietly, under Satan's regime. All His children were under Satan's regime. God has always been searching for them in agonizing desperation. And then only at certain moments and under certain conditions could progress in restoration be made. Considering God's terrible circumstances, how can Unification Church leaders and blessed couples desire to have a position of dignity or comfort for themselves?
The public way of life is the most precious. The meaning of public life is to take responsibility, not only for the good things, but also for the bad things. I am always looking for this kind of standard. Whether you are a leader or a member doesn't matter. What kind attitude do you have? Can you take responsibility for the good things and the bad?
Someone whose position of responsibility is increasing more and more has less and less freedom. I am the person with the least amount of freedom in the whole world. My life is completely public. I am always serious. Some people may think that in my private life I am free and relaxed. On the contrary, when I am alone, or with an intimate guest, or with my own family in the late evening or early morning, I am the most serious. That means I have absolutely no freedom.
If God directs you to do something and you respond immediately to His call with enthusiasm and a positive attitude, God will fully support you. If you don't respond right away, it is difficult for Him to help you. Success and results come through God's support, not through your own plan or effort. Don't create a gap between the time you receive God's or True Parents' direction and the time you start acting on it.
We are standing on 6000 years of God's expectation. Each of us was called t, do God's will, not our own will, and not for the benefit our own situation or our own family or environment. We should be proud to follow God and we should carefully respond to God's will.
After Korea was liberated from Japanese occupation in 1945, North Korea established a communist government under Kim Il Sung by 1948. During the next few years Korea's overall economic development was fairly slow. However, Kim Il Sung focused on military progress and in less than two years he was completely prepared for attack against the South in the Korean War. In any country in the free world, this kind of development would be impossible.
In a similar way in the United States, infiltration by leftists has been amazingly swift. America and American leaders in particular, must understand Father's urgency and the importance of overcoming communism as soon as possible. Father is very confident that we can do this quickly.
We should be very serious about our CAUSA activities. In the communist world, people believe and totally accept the words of their party leaders exactly the same way religious people believe in God's word. But how many Christians follow the content of the Bible and God's will and direction exactly? Unfortunately not many; perhaps most people have no idea about the living God. Many already discount the Bible because its content is so difficult. What is the degree of their belief in God compared with the communists' belief in their party? It is less. This is reality. The Unification Church members in the United States are the only hope for this country.
I would like to see a decentralized American CAUSA movement and more focus on the city centers. Whether church or CAUSA activities are involved doesn't matter. This will illustrate what I mean: Fruit doesn't grow from the root or the trunk or the main branches of a tree. It always grows from the tips of the tiny branches. First the leaves form, and from there the flower blossoms, and then the fruit emerges. Right now in the Unification movement, Heavenly Father and True Parents are not so much interested in the root, or the trunk, or the big branches, but in the tiny branches, the leaves, and the flowers, because they bring the fruits. The fruits are the ministers who are connecting to us in every city center.
Why was Israel's history so difficult? One of the main reasons was that the Israelites did not respect the tribe of Levi, who took care of the Ark of the Covenant, which symbolized the word of God. Because the main mission of the center members is to alleviate God's suffering through witnessing, the church leaders are the ones in the position of the Levites, leading the mainstream way of God. Of course, living in the mainstream is sometimes very hectic, but the mainstream never becomes bad or spoiled. Even though there are always problems of unity and a lot of struggling going on in the church centers, the mainstream never becomes stagnant or devious, while the peripheral areas of the movement, the areas of business or other external activities, may become spoiled. In the future, the position of center leader will be the most respected position in the Unification movement.
I want to remind you -- don't look for the easy or smooth way. We should expect an exciting life. Through living an adventurous life, we can link our own spiritual foundation with the True Parents' foundation. I always want to be in the place where the most difficult things are happening, for the sake of the country and the sake of the world. By going the smooth way, it is impossible to bring results. It would take more than 10,000 years. We shouldn't even dream about the easy and comfortable way. Sometimes we need to go a very unusual or suffering way, but for the sake of the country and the sake of the world, that is the normal way.