The Words of Sun Myung Moon from 1986
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The Words of Sun Myung Moon from 1986 |
Good morning, everyone. The topic of my message this morning is "The Ideal Home Church'.' What is the Unification Church? As the word implies, it is those who go about unifying the churches. What is the purpose of unifying the churches? To unify the world.
The word "unification" means to lead. When you are talking about unification, you are putting yourself in the leader's position. "Unification" in the Korean language is Tongil. Il means one and tong means leading or controlling. Leading the way into oneness -- that is unification. Leading the way into oneness centering upon what? God. Therefore, the Unification Church is an interfaith movement, unifying all churches, all religions, and all believing people into one. That scope enlarges to the unification of all the people of the world into oneness with God -- one God, one humanity.
What is the core substance of unification? By what method can we make unification possible? Of course, through true love. When we talk about true love, we have to talk about both horizontal love and vertical love. This is what the Western world does not realize. Does humanity have a horizontal origin coming from below or does it come from above? Naturally, the origin comes from above, from the vertical.
You are the only creature in God's world able to say "I." This shows that you are automatically vertically connected. You are born with a fundamental relationship to the origin, the source of life. You come from your parents, your grandparents, and your great-grandparents. If you go all the way back to the first ancestors of mankind, where are they from? They are from God. This is how we are all connected ultimately to the one God in heaven. True love is the love that existed from the very beginning between God and man. When Adam and Eve were born, God poured true love down upon them. God initiated the action and gave love to them first.
When a baby is born, it has no perception of the existence and love of the parents. However, the baby is already in an environment of the unconditional love of its father and mother. Babies grow and gradually come into an awareness of the parents' existence and love, and this is how we too are supposed to become aware of the love of God. When we grow up we should come into the full realization of the love of God and become an embodiment of that love ourselves, able to give parental love to others.
The love of God comes down from heaven and the love of human beings goes up from earth. When these two loves collide in the center, where does the power of that impact go? It pushes out horizontally. It expands into horizontal love because vertical love has certain limits of distance.
Men are the plus side and women are the minus side. As men and women grow up individually to become recipients of the love of God, they form a horizontal line. Then they come closer and closer together to the point where they are united. Although men are the universal representatives of plus character and women are the universal representatives of minus character, the most important thing is that they both share a common destiny. When you say "L" that represents men's and women's common destiny.
Take a look at men and women; their features are so different. One is like the North Pole, the other is like the South Pole. They are very far apart. A woman's character is such that she is concerned with things that are very close to her. Women try to decorate their surroundings and themselves. Men are more visionary, looking at the future, the distant horizon; men plan life. Women like smaller things and men like larger things. Man is vertical, in God's position, and woman is horizontal, in humanity's position before God.
When God created human beings, the strong vertical line of love was established first. Men and women are to mature and come together and unite at the central point. That's the original design for the human family. The central point is an absolute one, not relative. All creatures universally want to meet in that central point and occupy that absolute place of value. All of creation is heading for one thing -- they are trying to move toward the central point of God's love.
Parents represent the love of God, and so all children want to get total love from their parents. They compete with each other in trying to receive the love of their mother and father. How much do we need such a relationship? It is an absolute necessity to us. This is our destiny -- we are born to receive parental love and to ultimately become the recipient of the love of God.
When a little baby giggles and looks up at its mommy's and daddy's face, is that a sin? Is that abnormal or absurd? No. When a man and woman look at each other, giggling and laughing and touching each other, is that a sin? When this give and take happens between parents and children and between husband and wife, then God freely comes down and goes in and out of each one of those minds and hearts.
Human nature is such that people want to have total control over a thing. You want to step on it, bite it, and do everything to it. You want to grab it, hit it, put it in your pocket, and eat it up. Do you want to have that kind of total unity in love? Or do you want the kind of love that says, "Oh, yes, we love. We have some thread, some connection." When you say you love someone, you have the natural desire to occupy him or her: "I want to occupy you totally, without leaving even one hair to go free."
When love is being exchanged, you don't want to close your eyes. You want to open your eyes and drink in the full amount. Nobody wants a discount on love. Everybody wants to receive it at the full price. When the voice of love comes into your ears, your ears are more open to that voice than to any other sound in the universe. Your ear leans in that direction, doesn't it? Even God's big ear is listening, waiting for that sound of love. Only true love awakens all five senses of the body to the fullest degree. Human beings are containers made f. r love, so night and day and all four seasons of the year we are waiting for more and more love from our parents and from God.
Divorce is becoming more and more commonplace in America today, but the most controversial part of divorce is deciding who will get the children. The wife will say, "I don't care about my husband -- I want to throw him out. But I don't want to lose my children." Why is that? Because you have an eternal vertical relationship with your child. He is bone of your bone, flesh of your flesh. Even if the husband and wife, the horizontal plus and minus, are separated, the vertical relationship between the parent and child can never be severed.
After bearing children, there is no greater crime than divorcing your spouse in front of your children. Children are there to receive love from their parents and return love to their parents, for an entire lifetime on earth and thereafter throughout all eternity. When the parents are separated, all five senses of the child are beset by grief and sadness. Nothing can remedy or relieve such sadness. It is almost as if God were abandoning Adam and Eve. If God abandoned Adam and Eve, He would be abandoning all the creatures of the universe, since Adam and Eve are the central point of the creation. If God denies the creation, that means that God is denying Himself. That is impossible even to think about. Therefore we see that this eternal vertical connection can never change.
With this vertical love alone, however, you cannot have dominion over the creation. Vertical love has to be manifested or translated into horizontal love, like the spreading of a wing, encompassing all of creation under the wing of love.
Human beings are born in the indirect dominion of God, then grow by fulfilling their responsibility. Ultimately they come into the direct dominion of God. After a person has traveled this far, God will say, "Now, my son, my daughter, everything that is mine is yours. Everything I created is yours. Please take it and have dominion over it."
The Principle teaches us that during our growth period -- the indirect dominion of God -- human responsibility is the key. Who can claim that they have completed that responsibility? Who can say, "I'm totally and absolutely united with God, and nothing can separate me from Him anymore"?
When the absolute vertical relationship is established, then you can move on to the horizontal. As much as God and men cannot be separated, the horizontal relationship between men and women cannot be separated. The Kingdom of Heaven on earth and in heaven is when men and women fulfill their responsibility, reaching the perfection level of their relationship to God. Men will find a dwelling place in women and women will find a dwelling place in men. God, Adam, Eve, and all the things of creation will intermingle together in harmony and joy.
In the Unification Church, who first started using the term "human responsibility"? I did not create the concept of human responsibility, I discovered it. Before I discovered it, did the concept exist or not? Yes, it did, from the very beginning of creation. This is one of the permanent laws that were installed on the day of creation and will remain for the rest of eternity. Have you Unificationists been thinking about this? Have you taken it seriously? I'm sure some of you have even forgotten the term "human responsibility." But this is the absolute law of God, and unless you fulfill this law you have no way to get into heaven. You have a craving to fill your requirement of food and sleep every day of your life, but even greater than those requirements is the requirement of human responsibility.
Do you think I just sat down one day and the word came to me? "Oh. Human responsibility. Sounds very good." Or do you think I discovered it through incredible ordeals, struggles, and confrontations with Satan? Satan didn't want anybody to discover it, because he knew once it was discovered, the satanic world would start to crumble. Satan protected and hid this concept, keeping it beneath mountains and dirt and trees. It was hidden so deep it was not easy for any man to discover it.
Without fulfilling this law of human responsibility you cannot come into the direct dominion of God. Therefore, in the Unification Church, our goal is to become men and women who fulfill human responsibility. That should become our life goal. When you have children, you do not want your children to say, "You did not fulfill your parental role. Why did you let me turn out like this? Why did you neglect me, and why didn't you fulfill your human responsibility?" If that is what is going to happen, you have no reason to bear children. Without fulfilling human responsibility, you have nowhere to take your wife and child. You have to turn back.
All you blessed couples -- if you disregard God and disregard the law and heavenly principle, the only place you deserve is the dungeons of hell. You may protest, "Oh, I am a Moonie. I am a Unification Church member!" However, only upon completion of your responsibility can you claim your rights and privileges. You are all trying to claim and insist upon your own point of view, but you can only do that upon the completion of human responsibility. Otherwise, you will not even have a platform to stand on to make your claim.
Immoral Americans of today, with their free sex and free lifestyle, may wonder why they should be bound to such a rigid rule. "I want to live just as I please. I am a free man and I can do anything I choose. I want to enjoy life." Coming out of that culture and then trying to practice this principle and follow me and become worthy of being a Unification Church member is very difficult. America has a population of 240 million people. None of them are worthy of being praised by God or are able to say that their human responsibility has been fulfilled. This nation is like Sodom and Gomorrah. Two hundred forty million Americans deserve God's judgment. God is reserving judgment only because the Moonies who follow me say, "Father, give us time. We shall, in due course, fulfill our responsibility." That is the only reason why God is reserving judgment.
When you graduate from a university, you have to fulfill a certain amount of credits, and you have to accumulate them in four years. Otherwise, you won't graduate. Going the heaven-ward path is almost like working toward a degree; you have to get the right amount of credits. Human responsibility is heavenly law. Would you like to live under it or on top of it? You have to live on top of human responsibility. A person at any stage lower than that is a human trash can and belongs in hell. This is not conceptual -- this is a logical conclusion.
You've been living a Moonie's life in the Unification Church for many years. But during those years you have been creating a miserable pattern: Instead of succeeding, you've been failing. Your tradition is all mixed up and confused. Once you have completed human responsibility, is hell still there? No. If human responsibility is completed, you enter the direct dominion of God. No satanic power can come in. Only in that situation can you use the word "ideal:" That alone is the ideal situation.
Have you thought about this? You take it so lightly. You think, "Well, it sounds good, it sounds very logical;' but you don't take it into your heart. This is a law you must observe day by day. Without accomplishing human responsibility, love and every other beautiful word has no meaning. True love, true family, True Parents -- every heavenly accomplishment, every heavenly goal -- is bound to human responsibility. True Parents are there, true family is there, true husband and wife are there, true love is there, true heaven is there. Everything is achieved when human responsibility is achieved, not before. So unless you go beyond that level, where are you? What is your position? Have you been below human responsibility or on top of it? You have not yet crossed over that hill. You have been in the below position. Therefore, the first thing you must do is find out your exact position.
God and Satan always label everything. "This is mine, this is yours. Satan, you take this one, I'll take this one." They label according to only one criterion -- whether a person's human responsibility has been accomplished. Human responsibility means fulfilling the vertical relationship between God and man. Then and only then can the horizontal relationship between husband and wife begin. Human responsibility does not mean worrying about whether you have money or honor or are doing this or that mundane thing. That is not what I am talking about.
Everyone is violating the law of human responsibility. Who is the guardian of the door to the Kingdom of Heaven? Human responsibility is the guard at the door. That is the certificate. Without having that particular certificate signed, no one can enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Not one individual in the fallen world has ever deserved the Kingdom of Heaven. In order to open up this gate, God has been working all this time, doing the work of restoration, starting with Moses and Jesus and going all the way up to the time of the Second Advent. All this arduous work means that God has been opening the gate so that everybody will be able to pass through it into the Kingdom of Heaven.
Both God and Satan take this very seriously. Even if all the bases for Satan's power are taken away from him, he will not easily give up his hold on human responsibility. Religious people who believe they will ultimately enter heaven will be demolished if they do not fulfill their human responsibility. You cannot swap human responsibility for any price. Even if a person sacrifices himself a tremendous amount, Satan cannot just release him and say, "Oh, okay, that's all right. Go ahead. God, you can claim him" No way. Satan has been holding tight onto human responsibility all this time. But I am bringing human responsibility out of Satan's domain so that his hold on it will be completely destroyed. Human responsibility is now in our domain; we can go beyond it, above it. Now we have a weapon to destroy Satan logically, with the truth. We can say to Satan, "This is what you are, Satan. This is your true identity. We know you and your crime, and we have a weapon with which to destroy your satanic realm."
Human responsibility is a narrow gate. Even God cannot widen it. He has to keep the door narrow, but everyone is expected to go through it. Even God cannot make an exception, not in a million years. God did not commit sin. Human beings did. But God is taking up the responsibility. God knows that Adam and Eve entered into false parenthood; therefore, it is God's responsibility to restore His son and daughter into true parenthood. For that reason, God is taking upon Himself the responsibility and doing it a million times over.
You've been living as if in a void, with vacant eyes, blind. No one has taken human responsibility seriously as an individual, as a family, as a tribe. You always think, "Oh, it's cold outside, I just don't want to go out today. I'm hungry, I'm sick, I have a headache, I have to take my baby to the hospital." I see here a fake assembly, not an honest and decent one.
Everywhere I go I find the same attitude. I go to the Korean leaders and they say, "Father, this is just impossible. Nobody has ever done this. We cannot do it." Then I say: "Do it this way, follow me this way!' I have to lead them every step of the way. That is how everything I want done is finally accomplished. The time has come now, after 15 years in America, when the eminent scholars and professors who come to the science conferences are saying to me, "Yes, I will do it," no matter how famous they are. What about you?
Whose responsibility is human responsibility? Am I responsible for everything? Do I have to bear the cross? Human responsibility is yours. You need to fulfill it. Since you have not been able to bear that burden, I have taken it over. Most of the way, I have carried it for you.
This incredible, insidious battle is going on behind the scenes. God grabs each one of you and offers you as a sacrifice toward the fulfillment of human responsibility. You can't just think, "I'm a member of the Unification Church and I'm in good standing, and oh yes, heaven is mine. I already bought heaven." Japanese members may be thinking, "Well, we're special. We work very hard. Japan is doing very well. We are following the providence of True Parents and we suffer so much, we are in a special category. We will enter into heaven!' Not at all.
Think about it. If you truly feel that you have fulfilled human responsibility and you go out and tell the satanic world but still receive persecution, there is a contradiction there. Would anybody oppose you if you had completed your human responsibility? No. That's the truth. But I am still receiving persecution. Why is that?
This barrier of human responsibility cannot be jumped over all at once. It is divided into eight different stages, from the individual level to the level of the family, clan, tribe, society, nation, world, and cosmos. I have to go through each step, one by one. What stage am I at now? The time of persecution is virtually over and the time for a universal welcome for True Parents is at hand.
It is like a dream that the CAUSA USA volunteers could get 10 million signatures. Four years ago such a thing was unthinkable. This happened less than one year after I set the universal condition by suffering at Danbury.* What do you think will happen in the future? Will more and more people persecute us? (No.) Who alone in the Unification Church can go forth with his human responsibility on the verge of being completely fulfilled? (Father.) How did I do that? Did I do it by receiving all kinds of praise and welcome, all kinds of glory? Did I eat and sleep and play as much as I wanted to? By doing it that way, can you accomplish human responsibility?
God gave the world the most incredible opportunity to fulfill this huge responsibility all at once, right after World War II. However, the world did not receive me. I suffered 40 more years, all alone, paying all the indemnity. Christianity at that time was in a position to accept me and my role of unifying the world and was to do the heaven- building here on earth, but Christianity failed to do so. For that reason, I myself rebuilt the Christian foundation, in 40 years.
In order to come this far, I entered prison many times. When God installed me in this mission here on earth as True Parents, God did not mean for me to suffer. Actually, if everything had gone right, the whole dispensational scheme would have been completed when I was 40, and thereafter Mother and I would have received glory. Now
I am nearing 70 and I am still fighting, still suffering, still receiving persecution. Why? Because of the failure of Christianity and the American nation.
I came to this foreign country, sojourned in a strange land, and gave my entire heart. I was hurt so much by this nation and these people. Don't you think I could be harboring certain feelings toward the American people and the American nation, even though I never speak about them? Under normal circumstances, if anyone had that much evil done to him, he would turn around with a knife or a gun and take revenge. But I am entirely different. I swallowed all those feelings of hurt and I am continuing to try to save this nation, simply because I know about human responsibility. I want to avenge myself with true love, loving America, saving America.
Shall we be serious? Shall we choose to do nothing else but go through human responsibility? You really don't know this, but I have been bearing the cross all this time on your behalf. You have all kinds of time -- you play, you eat anything you like, you sleep all you want. I don't have that kind of time. You don't know about my personal life. I never show it in public, but I have shed millions of tears, agonizing over the situation of the world. I have shed gallons of sweat, laboring day in and day out. The time will come when history will eventually reveal what kind of life I have lived. Do you think that once you really know the facts and truth about me you will be able to raise your head? None of you will be able to open your mouth to even try to assert your situation, your excuses, or your complaints.
In order for True Parents to emerge, Cain and Abel must be united into one. On that foundation alone, True Parents can appear. You, the children, are supposed to take care of the restoration of the Cain and Abel providence. But since you were not doing it well, I had to go down to your level, take up your mission upon my own shoulders, and fulfill it. When the children are bad, the blame always goes to the parents. Afterwards you might say to me, "Well, Father, you fulfilled it for me. Give it back to me free" Would you be that shameless?
You know that I have fulfilled human responsibility on your behalf, but in order for this fulfillment to become your own, you have to set a certain condition. Otherwise, you will not be able to inherit it. Do you think parents want to pass their inheritance down only piece by piece? Isn't the parental heart so deep that they want to give their children the full amount all at once?
I will declare to the world, "I fulfilled all human responsibility. I finished it. Now anybody who wants to receive it, you do it too" That is the battle at hand.
There are certain laws for offering sacrifices. There are conditions that have to be met in order for the sacrifices to be acceptable. There is also a specific condition of time that should elapse. For 40 years I was the person who offered the sacrifice, and at the same time I myself was the sacrifice. All the satanic world was trying to block me from fulfilling this in 40 years' time. The satanic disturbances and obstacles have been almost insurmountable. Satan knows that once I succeed in this fulfillment of human responsibility, it is final. Satan wanted to block every stage of the game, until Satan came all the way up and pushed me into Danbury prison. That was the final stage.
I am bearing the cross of 4 billion people's fate upon my shoulders. In order to pay the indemnity for that incredible burden of sin, I have been in and out of prison six times. Who sent me to prison? In a way, you did. The world population did. There is a certain debt that has to be paid in terms of human responsibility on all levels, from the individual through the world levels. In order to pay the debt, I did it all alone, by myself. I want you to know that unless I release this inheritance to you, no one will even come near to entering the Kingdom of Heaven. Do you follow?
I have to liberate you. Without being liberated by me, no one will ever enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Even if you suffer in prison yourself, even die in a prison cell, it doesn't make any difference unless you receive this liberation.
Only by creating the beginning of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth can we go to the Kingdom of Heaven in spirit world. God will be able to dwell on the earth when you bring unity in your area between Cain and Abel, between the people and yourself and ultimately the True Parents. That is what we mean when we say, "Home church is the base of the Kingdom of Heaven." The Kingdom of Heaven is waiting to begin in your area. Your base for the Kingdom is your area; likewise the people in spirit world must use home church as their base.
Home church was supposed to have existed in the garden of Eden, with the home as the place of worshipping God. God should have been the main beam of the home where His children could have lived in His love. The original concept of God's creation began with one man and woman, who were to form one family, and then form one nation and world. Therefore, as their family grew to this higher capacity, home church was to have become national church and then world church. That would have been the ideal.
Having home churches was God's goal in the garden of Eden but it was broken into pieces by Adam and Eve, causing many different obstacles to be set up throughout history. Now I have cleared them all away and we are returning to the original concept. It is your blessing and privilege to participate.
Now you know what home church is. Ever since the fall of man, God, Jesus, and all mankind have been longing to reach the ultimate destination. That is home church. The Unification Church is Cape Kennedy and we are launching home church to the Kingdom of Heaven. Neil Armstrong lifted off from Cape Kennedy and reached the moon. Now we are lifting ourselves off from the Unification Church and our destination is the Kingdom of Heaven.
The Kingdom of Heaven is a big place, so where would you like to land? Right into the heart of God's love. The heart of God is not good enough; you have to be in the heart of God's love. When you land in the heart of God's love, you will surely give God a shock. At that moment God will really be awakened and He will smile ear to ear in explosive joy. Then the dancing will begin. When God begins to dance, the entire cosmos will be ignited in joy. All creation will feel joy with all five senses and everything will be intoxicated in happiness. That dance will be the ultimate grand finale. After that no more work of restoration will remain to be done. God will say that His restoration work is over and His ideal of creation is complete. His broken heart will be completely healed.
Home church was the ideal of God in the Garden of Eden but it was broken into pieces after many thousands of years of difficulties and tribulations. Now finally in the 20th century I have opened the doors. All conditions have been fulfilled and the doors of home church are open for all mankind to enter. That is the history we are witnessing today.
The unity between God, Adam and Eve, and the angelic world would have brought the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, but division came in the form of the fall. Now in restoration, by doing home church, you and God are united, like God and Adam and Eve. You and home church are united, like Adam and Eve and the angel. That restores unity of all three worlds. This is why spiritual help is bound to come when you do home church work.
The heavenly hierarchy is God first, then Adam and Eve, then the angelic world, then all the things of creation. As a result of the fall, this heavenly order was disrupted. Satan came to exist and man has fallen so low he doesn't even know that the realm of spirit exists. He doesn't know if God exists or what kind of relationship he should have with God. He certainly doesn't know the heart of original Adam, the true parental heart. The only thing mankind can see now is the "I" viewpoint and all the visible things of the created world. Mankind is degraded and lower than the creation; because of this, no one realizes the true value and dignity of human beings....
By witnessing one by one to each other, it would take centuries to liberate the entire world; so if you were in the position of True Parents, wouldn't you want to find a more effective way to bring all mankind back to God? The thinking of God and the True parents must inevitably be the same. If you asked God where He most wants to dwell, He would answer, "Home church." Within your area, the heavenly hierarchy must be restored. The houses represent all the things of creation; the ancestors of the people there who are already in spirit world represent the archangel position; and the Adam position is filled by the people themselves. Once God is brought into relationship with all these elements, the ideal of creation will be realized. As a result of this, Satan will have to leave your area because he will have no place to call his own. Within the realm of 360 homes, everything is represented-360 days of the year, 360 degrees of the circle. Since you are in America, all races of man are contained within your areas.
* Father was released from prison on August 20, 1985, but he had to fulfill a special 4-month condition until December 20, 1985, in order to successfully conclude his 40-year course.