The Words of Sun Myung Moon from 1977
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The Words of Sun Myung Moon from 1977 |
Sun
Myung Moon and Haj Ja Han, May 15, 2011
All of creation, including man, was made by God for a specific purpose. Then, what is the purpose of creation? God's purpose for it was for the fulfillment of His will. Then, what is the fulfillment of God's will? It is the fulfillment of God's love. He did not create all things just to look at; God's purpose in creating all things is to complete and perfect His love. Even though God exists, without His love His very existence is meaningless. In order to be true to Himself, He must be a God of love; and for this reason God wants to fulfill His love in His creation.
Every Human being wants to be a true man. What is a true man? He is a man who is able to receive God's true love. The desire of all things surrounding mankind is to see the day when they can receive true love from the true men who are recipients of God's true love. All things of creation exist to receive true love from man, while man exists to receive true love from God.
Due to man's fall this perfection never came about, and since fallen man was never able to fully receive God's love, God could never fully give His love and thus fulfill perfection within Himself. Man was never perfected, and as a result all nature has been unable to receive perfect love from man. God wanted to have a reciprocal relationship between Himself and all things and man, yet even though His creation was completed, no relationship of true love ever emerged. In that respect, neither God nor His purpose of creation has ever been perfected.
People talk about love today, but is that a true God-centered love? Of course parents love their children. However, that love is not God centered. When husband and wife love each other, is that love centered on God? No, the love in existence now is far distant from the true love of God. There are all kinds of love in our society -- love between parents and children, love between siblings, and love among friends -- yet, all are still at a level of imperfection, since it is not centered on God.
What has God been doing to resolve this problem throughout history? God has been working to restore man to the original position and status. For this end, through the work of religion, God has been striving to restore man; He began on the individual level and expanded to the worldwide level as man spread all over the world. The Divine Principle tells us that restoration starts with one man; and God has been looking for one man of perfection through whom He can restore one woman of perfection. Through them, God can restore one family. Then, He can expand the family to the world level. This is the concept of one man of perfection -- the Messiah
Why is the Messiah needed? The Messiah is needed in order to elevate man's imperfect love to perfection. Since love was stolen by Satan, the Messiah comes to restore and sanctify that lost love into the holy love of God. Since man became the prisoner of Satan, the Messiah comes to restore mankind in order to recreate them to be able to receive the true love of God. This is the mission of the Messiah.
To be eligible to stand in the sight of God, restored man must establish a standard of love higher than the highest standard of the satanic world. The mission of restored man is to demonstrate a higher quality of love than has ever existed in the satanic world. In the truest meaning of love, both God and the Messiah cannot embrace the people of the satanic world as they are. If the Messiah could restore the people as they are, when God sends him to the earth, restoration could have been done instantly and such a long period for man's restoration would not have been needed.
The role of religion is to teach people to set their standard of love higher than the satanic world's standard. God's love will begin after we demonstrate our love, which is the very reason that Jesus said, "He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." This is the true heart of the Divine Principle. You must become people who can demonstrate a greater love towards God and towards the Messiah than towards anybody else in the world, because at that point God's love will begin. By loving the Messiah, men and women can surpass the point at which man fell and reach the level of perfection. For this reason, we in the Unification Church must fulfill a seven-year course of totally giving up everything for the love of God and the Messiah.
What is the Fall of Man? Simply said, Adam and Eve disregarded God and determined to follow the self-centered way of life. Without knowing the direction that God has set forth, no matter how hard you may work, you will never receive God's blessing. When you work hard after realizing God's direction, you are actually paving the way to bring spiritual benefit to your own future spouse and children. What matters is whether your hard work is God-centered; thus you will be freed from the satanic world.
As you strive to stand above Satan and advance in the direction of God you will have to confront Satan's realm on all the different levels: the family, tribal, national and worldwide levels. On every level Satan will always attack and try to stop you. This confrontation with Satan cannot be avoided. This is the reason that religious work has always been persecuted, and why religious people must have the unshakable determination to overcome any difficulties and go on further and further towards God.
We can conclude that if there is a totally unselfish group of people, their goal will be nothing but the service of God and humanity. The entire world will not understand or accept them, and that will be the sign that God and the Messiah can be met through that group. Furthermore, it is obvious that such a movement is already working on the worldwide level if it has aroused worldwide opposition. The Unification Church is in that position today.