The Words of Sun Myung Moon from 1987
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The Words of Sun Myung Moon from 1987 |
How many God's Days have been celebrated so far? From 1968 to 1987 is 19 years, so this is the 19th God's Day. In 1988, God's Day will be 20 years old, and we will be moving into a new era.
As you know, among the laws of the dispensation, the most important is the law of indemnity. In order to consummate this law of indemnity, three major elements are necessary. First, there must be a person or central figure to set the condition. Second, there must be a conditional offering or sacrifice. Third, there is a time element involved.
From the standpoint of the dispensation of the Unification Church, I am in the position of central figure, or subject. You are in the object position, the conditional offering. The time element is our dispensational period. Therefore, in front of me, the members of the Unification Church are in the offering position. The person in the position of the offering should not have any complaints or reservations. For example, you should not say, "Father is an Oriental. We are Westerners and we do things differently, the American way"
That which is chosen as a sacrifice is supposed to shed blood; however, you cannot do that because you would die. Therefore, you must shed something else: your sweat and tears.
At what moment do you shed your sweat and tears? It is when you are the most sorrowful, when you are deeply heartbroken. In order to fulfill the role of the sacrifice, you must be able to say at the most sorrowful moment, "Yes, Father, I want to go this way. I am grateful and I have no complaint."
The Eastern and Western cultures treat suffering and hardship very differently. Here in the West, if you complain and say, "Oh, I'm suffering so much, I think I'm going to die!" other people will most likely sympathize with you. But in the Orient, if you make the same complaint, others will probably say, "Oh, you can still go on." Oriental people are better fit for this kind of sacrificial role. That is why God chose a person like Rev. Moon who came from the Orient. I was the first one to be chosen by God as a sacrifice.
Father
cuts the celebration cake as the True Family watches.
Without knowing why it should be done or how, I myself, with the help of God, had to search for the right method and find the way of restoration alone. Your job is entirely different. I have taught you the Principle, the way to fulfill your role, and the reasons why. If you cannot do it with this much information, you are unworthy of anything. Even though you have been taught plenty of truth by me, many of you are still not sure, still not willing to commit yourself. You say, "I will wait to see if someone else does it first." God wants to recruit people who will serve as the champions of sacrifice. Will you say yes, or will you say, "I'll just think about it for the next couple of years"?
The Principle is like a railroad; you've got to go along every inch of it. There is no way you can go according to your whim or at random. You can't say, "I don't like this part, so I'll just skip over it." That is just not possible. Think about it. If there was any way to jump freely into the Kingdom of Heaven, I would have found that way and I would have done it, long before any of you. But you've got to go every step of the way. Even if your hip goes out and you fall to the side or to the rear, still you have to go on. If your head feels fatigued and starts to fall forward, you have to yank your head back up and just move forward.
How many years have I been living this kind of principled life? One year? Two? No, my entire life. Do you know how old I am? I am really an old man-67 years old. But you think I am younger than you are and you always want to push me harder.
Do you think it is necessary to become a sacrifice for God? You say yes easily, but to actually do it is not easy. Anyone who volunteers to offer himself will encounter a lot of resistance. For example, your parents will say, "No, don't go that way. Come to us." Your brothers and sisters or your wife or husband will pull on you, as will your children. They will say, "No, no, you don't deserve such a suffering and difficult course. Come and relax and be comfortable."
But when you persistently follow the road of the Principle, year after year, things will change. Even now, I am sure you have had the experience of many of your friends telling you, "You are a special and admirable person. I respect you as a person dedicated to God." That is the kind of reputation you have been earning all these years.
Likewise, your brothers and sisters and parents are coming now and apologizing to you for having said negative things about the Unification Church. This is exactly what
I have always talked about -- natural subjugation, not by force or violence. I am never proud or boastful about myself. I always bow down in front of God. There is absolutely no room for arrogance within me. Once the victory is won, it is a perfectly clean victory. I never go out and wage war against anyone, but the time will come when people from all fields of endeavor will come to me and say, "Rev. Moon, you are our champion." This is truly the most dramatic way to live. I am not here to make you suffer; this is the most noble and glorious life anyone could live. Because I love you, I invite you to come with me on that path of glory and victory.
CAUSA-USA
volunteers who had the highest results in the signature campaign
receive awards after the morning speech.
Now we have a problem, in a way, because the time of persecution is nearly over. No one will be giving you a hard time anymore, so I decided I have to do that myself. Then the American people will say, "Rev. Moon, please be easier on them" But I will say, "No, I'm going to be harsh." You must be able to follow steadfastly, whether I am harsh or not.
In a school classroom, what kind of teacher is best? Is it the one who sternly demands your attention and gives you lots of homework, not allowing you even one minute of relaxation? Or is a good teacher one who doesn't even give any lectures and just lets you take naps in class? You know that the good teacher is the first one. But even though you know that, you don't like to be in the harsh teacher's class. That is a contradiction you have within yourself; we have to straighten out that contradiction. Would you like me to be a very easy teacher or a stern one? Thank you for saying stern.
You want to be a real person rather than a fake one. Can you say, "I want to become a sacrifice on the altar of God"? I would like you to understand one cardinal rule: There should be nothing you are unwilling to do for the sake of indemnity. You should feel like doing any chore joyfully, no matter how difficult.
God sent me on this course and pushed me down to the pits of hell. But then when the time was right, He raised me up and gave me His fullest blessing. I came to America 15 years ago and received nothing but persecution, culminating in my being put into Danbury -- the bottom point. But at that moment, God resurrected me all the way up to the top. This is God's formula, and there is no exception, whether it is on the individual, family, society, clan, national, or worldwide level.
Once I give you "homework." or a goal to reach and you achieve it and are absolutely victorious, what then? Let's take the example of a schoolteacher who gives his students an extremely difficult test. If you can past that worst test with 100 percent, then the teacher doesn't have to teach you anything more. He can say, "You are free to go from my class" Furthermore, that teacher might say, "I'm so busy today, would you please come and take over my class for me?" In that case, the student is really participating in the glory of the teacher. Do you want to participate in Father's glory?
Think about this. We have approximately 1,200 people gathered here in this auditorium today. I want to pick the one best champion, so an easy test will not do the job. I have to give the most difficult task so that most of you will be eliminated. There will only be a few finalists, and then in the end only one will prevail -- the champion. Let me see how many of you want to be candidates for that number- one position. Raise your hands. There are so many candidates. I welcome that, but in order to eliminate everyone but the champion, I must make the obstacle course extremely difficult.
To bear the cross for 50 years, throughout one's life, is an extremely difficult course. My suffering is inconceivable to the ordinary mind. For that reason, when God Himself looks at my suffering, He cries out. Can you believe this? There is no person in the religious realm, including all the saints, who can compare his suffering with the conditions I have set in the sight of God. Therefore, they all want to come and receive teaching from me.
On
God's Day afternoon, Father and Mother watch the high-powered yute
tournament in the Grand Ballroom.
In order to receive the great blessings from God, you have to go down to the bottom of hell -- lick the floor of hell -- and then the time will come when God will be able to resurrect you. That is the road of indemnity; it is that difficult.
Will you follow all the way to the end? Following unconditionally is the smartest way to go. Once you get to your destination, you will see that you came the quickest possible way. Therefore, you are not dumb; you are really the princes and princesses of wisdom.
On this first day of 1987, do you feel good or terrible? Why do I speak about indemnity? Because it is God's Day. Even almighty God has to perform His dispensation through indemnity. Why is it necessary for God to walk the road of indemnity? Why did God have to allow His son Jesus to be murdered? Why does God let His loving son of the 20th century go the path of suffering? This is all because of the fall of man and the emergence of Satan. This suffering has to be endured in order to isolate and separate Satan from absolute good.
In the history of religion, one thing cannot be denied: I received in my lifetime more persecution than any other religious leader. I am right in the center of the most severe persecution. I had to undergo the worst kind of test possible. One day even God Himself kicked me out. He said, "I don't know you! You are a tic, so get out of my sight!"
But the incredible thing is that I grabbed onto the coattails of God and told Him, "Heavenly Father, no matter what You say, I know You can't reject me. You need me!" God said, "No, I reject you. You are a heretic and you are not my son." Then Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, and all the saints in spirit world said, "Yes, he is a heretic!"
For 40 days, this kind of confrontation went on. They said I would have to change my position or they would not accept me. During that period all the satanic forces and surrogates for evil were celebrating and shouting, "Hurray for Satan's Kingdom!" and they thought they had won a complete victory. But throughout those 40 days, I did not move one inch. I was as steadfast as a rock. Then they saw that I would not change, not even in 400 or 4,000 years. Heavenly law was such that the showdown had to be over in 40 days. What happened? On the 40th day, God declared, "I have tested you, my son, and you have proven that you will uphold the truth, no matter what. I can now declare before heaven and earth that you are the greatest victor in all of history!"
At that very moment, Jesus became my number-one supporter and united totally with me in heart. Buddha, Mohammed, and Confucius, as well, became our friends. These religious leaders are now sending their influence down to earth to urge people to join with us.
Therefore, I look at all the major religions of the world as one big family. Because there are squabbles going on in the Muslim world, I work to help the unity of the Muslims. Likewise, I support the unity of the Buddhist world. Have you ever heard of a religious leader who supported the unity of other religions? This is not because we want to manipulate those people. We know that spirit world has already declared the unity of all the world's religions. Therefore, when we initiate some action along those lines, that sacrificial unity can be expanded. If the conditions had not already been set in the spirit world, we couldn't do anything in the physical world to bring that unity about.
If I am working on the earth with such authority, then who has the right to declare God's Day? If I said to God, "My Father, I want to ask You to come to our celebration of God's Day;' would God come? Yes, He would. Why is that? It is because God has declared that in the dispensational realm, I am the number-one champion. F r that reason, God rejoices and wants to come to our celebration.
God alone cannot fulfill His dispensation; He needs human beings. He needs a partner. This is why God's Day has been declared -- it is one day in which God can rejoice with us over His own victory. What causes God to rejoice the most? What God likes the most is the fulfillment of His ideal and His will -- the purpose of creation. What is that purpose of creation? It is the consummation of true love.
When God's true love is consummated, we call that the fulfillment of the heavenly four position foundation. This is an absolutely clear sequence. The heavenly four positions are the love of God, love between husband and wife, and love between parents and children. Thus the Unification Church celebrates four major holidays each year: Parents' Day, Children's Day, Day of All Things, and God's Day. We are heading towards the perfection of all people, all things, and the perfection of the joy of God. God created the world and mankind for the purpose of fulfilling His love. He created Adam and Eve to be His Love King and Love Queen.
At
the evening entertainment, Jun Sook Nim, the new fiancée of
Hyun Jin Nim, performs Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor with the New
York City Symphony.
When you enter the spirit world, you cannot see God. In spirit world, the visible God is Jesus Christ, and in the future world the True Parents will be in that position. In First Corinthians 3:16, what is God talking about? Adam and Eve are to be the temple, the holy place of God. The human heart is meant to be the dwelling place of God's love. Thus Adam and Eve represent a walking and visible form of God on the earth. God is meant to dwell within them and through them to have dominion over all creation.
If Adam and Eve had not fallen, their love relationship would have been sanctified and it would have glorified God. Through their God-centered love, they would have given birth to sinless children. They would have been the children of God, with God's own blood being passed down from one generation to the next.
What can we offer to God on this day? Should we try to build Him a golden tower as high as the Allegheny Mountains? What will make Him happy? Only one thing will make Him happy: the emergence of true sons and daughters in whom He can freely dwell, people who can become His temples and with whom He can rejoice. Before that time, God can have no settlement anywhere on the face of the earth.
In 1968, for the first time in human history, God found the base upon which He could settle, the base of true love. True Parents could be installed upon the earth, representing God's true love. That was the first God's Day. Before this time, mankind knew only the parents of satanic lineage. January 1, 1968, was the first day that God could begin His settlement upon the earth within the realm of True Parents.
For Moonies, the most important aspect of your life is to live purely and morally, no matter what. Your body, particularly your sexual parts, is your most holy possession, and therefore you must uphold its dedication to God. You cannot violate that law; you know how seriously God deals with a sin of such a nature.
A phenomenon of America for the past two decades has been free sex, with promiscuity, blatant homosexuality, wife-swapping, and so forth. Now the consequences of such practices are coming, in the form of widespread divorce as well as the spread of diseases like AIDS, which is incurable. Why is that disease incurable? God always has mercy upon man, except when he commits this one cardinal sin against love.
You blessed couples, raise your hands, please. You received the Blessing even without knowing what a valuable gift you were getting. You are the custodians of the greatest value of all, and you must not misplace it. I want you to understand that the four major holidays of the Unification Church include the four most important aspects of our way of life. So any violation of love includes the violation of the meaning of those days. Don't ever imagine that God's Blessing to you is cheap. In order for you to receive that Blessing, God has labored for tens of thousands of years and sacrificed multitudes of things. Therefore, you must preserve your Blessing; otherwise, you will receive heavenly punishment.
Now you know what God's Day means. In order for the True Parents to be installed and for True Moth,-+ to have been chosen, I had to overcome incredible dispensational ordeals. There were many occasions where even one misstep would have meant falling down into failure. Thus I have been deadly serious about the Blessing and the dispensational will. But then if you, the recipients of that Blessing, take it very lightly as if it were some cheap commodity, I cannot forgive that.
As we said, this is the 19th celebration of this day. By now, unification should have been established on many levels. You should have a love kingdom within your home, within your family -- between you and your spouse, between you and your children, and between you and your parents. You should be mature children by now. In 1988 we will celebrate the 20th God's Day; many crucial turning points
After pledge service this morning, I spoke to representative leaders and told them that 1987 is the year of mobilization of the entire family. Together you must go out to the world, like the Israelites. You must declare God's will and dispensation to the entire nation and the world. When the United States follows Rev. Moon's way of life, then the rest of the world will undoubtedly follow. So this country is where I would like to create the model.
Are we going to create the right environment in this year? Two more glorious opportunities are before you -- the years 1987 and 1988. No other opportunities like this will ever appear in the future. We are becoming the perfected Adam and Eve by the power of the True Parents. Adam and Eve were the God-given husband and wife, meant to center perfectly on the time love of God and then to create the human family of God. God wants all the things of creation to be able to rejoice when He rejoices, when Adam and Eve are rejoicing. Thus you should be admired not just by your neighbors, but also by the animals and even the insect world. They and the flowers will sing your praises.
Do you think Father and Mother are living in such a relationship of perfected love? Mother's role is absolute obedience and support toward me. She has total trust and fidelity, as well as absolute purity. Of course, these things are mutual; that absolute standard has been kept by both of us. All the children coming from such parents will be of extraordinary dimension on the worldwide scale. My children -- they are handsome men and beautiful young ladies, aren't they?
God wants each of you to go to heaven. In order to do that, you must become the bearers of sinless children. What do we mean by sinless children? They are children of the family that Satan has no room to accuse, because their lineage, their bloodstream, has an entirely different root. Under the True Parents, the world can have a new root. Anybody who joins with the foundation of the True Parents becomes part of their new root.
In order to understand true love, you have to know the parental love, the vertical love, first. After that you can learn true horizontal love. As a couple, you must experience the true love of God on the earth; then you are entitled to go to the Kingdom of Heaven in heaven. Anyone who experiences true parental love, as well as true conjugal love centered upon God, is entitled to be with God. Then you can say, "I know the love of God."
Therefore, how can a person who cannot love his own wife or his own children understand the love of God? American culture has a long way to go -- true parental love is virtually foreign to this country. In a country like Korea the family system is strong, and it is easy for people to experience parental and conjugal love. Because they are living that way already, Oriental people only have to be taught once. But here in the Western world, this kind of love is so foreign that no matter how many times people are told, they still don't understand. However, you have to go that route, no matter how difficult it might be. I will push you that way so you can have your own personal experience. Then you will say, "Oh, this is it. Now I have experienced the true love of God."
Today we are gathered together for the celebration of God's Day. We have come here for a most serious purpose, not something frivolous. Let us pledge and recommit ourselves to go to our communities and our missions and become exemplary people, bringing the fruits of victory in 1987. Your Father and Mother expect this, so can you make that pledge now? Let us pledge three times. Thank you and God bless you.