This is the text of the speech given at the Opening Banquet of the WCSF Convocation on Feb. 10, 2000.

Distinguished guests whose fervent desire is for North-South unification, ladies and gentlemen.

The new millennium that just began is a time to clean away the divisions and conflicts of the past century and to manifest the ideal of a one world family of harmony and unification. I would like to begin by thanking you for congratulating me on my eightieth birthday. Most of all, I would like to return to God all the honor and glory given to me, because it is He who has watched over me until this day.

As I look back, I am reminded that my life has never been easy. My life has been intertwined with the suffering history of our people and the numerous difficulties that our people have undergone in the midst of the great powers.

As a boy of 16, I came into contact with the will of Heaven through prayer, and throughout my life after that I have devoted all my spirit and energy to accomplishing God’s Will. I came to understand that the fundamental cause of human unhappiness is that the relationship with God was severed by the fall. As a result of the fall, human beings fell into a state of spiritual ignorance. In an effort to resolve the fundamental problems this has caused among humans and in the universe, I have spoken publicly on more than 10,000 occasions in many places around the world and set forth a true view of humanity, a true view of the world, and a true view of history based on Godism.

These speeches have been translated into twelve languages and published in three hundred volumes. The contents of these speeches are not the result of a comprehensive study of historical documents. My conclusions are not the result of scholarly research. Instead, I arrived at these answers to basic and fundamental questions through my communications with both the visible and invisible worlds.

The issue of unifying the Korean Peninsula is the solemn desire of our people and the final act of bringing the global Cold War to a conclusion. So today, as I express my gratitude for your having prepared this meaningful forum, I would like to share with you on the topic, "North-South Unification and World Unification Will Be Accomplished by True Love," and lay out the basic answer for how to bring about unification.

The unification of our country involves more than the mere unification of national territory. It begins with the unification of the human mind and body that were divided against one another as a result of the fall, and it is the model for the unification of the world that has been divided in two. Thus, this issue must be understood from the perspective of God’s salvation providence. It must be resolved on a providential level.

What is Satan’s ultimate target behind the history of struggle between good and evil every since this conflict was brought into being as a result of the fall of the first human ancestors? Satan has his sights set precisely on God Himself. God is eternal, unchanging, absolute and unique, and the standard of the ideal that He held at the beginning of creation must also have these qualities.

If you were to ask God directly, I think He will confirm what I am saying. How can God reply when Satan says to God, "God, when you made me an archangel in the beginning, were you acting out of a love for me that was temporary or eternal"?

I think God will say that He made him the archangel out of a love that was eternal. If he were to say that His love was temporary, that would make Him an ephemeral God. Unless He maintains a standard of loving Satan eternally, there will eventually come a time when He will no longer be able to exercise His authority as God with respect to Satan. Thus, no matter how much Satan may oppose Him, God has no choice other than to establish the condition of loving Satan.

Satan says to God, "I became an evil scoundrel as a result of the fall, but you and good people can’t use methods that are similar to mine, can you? I may like to fight, but you’re not supposed to enjoy fighting. Even when you take a blow, you have to endure, don’t you?" Thus, God’s philosophy is one of non-resistance. Why is that? It is because, until the world of the heavenly ideal is manifested on this Earth, God must love the archangel who has become Satan, regardless of the circumstances.

No matter how much trouble Satan may cause, God cannot punish him or cut him off. He must establish the condition of having loved Satan regardless of where he found Satan. God can only have complete victory when Satan confesses to Him, saying, "Oh, God really is God. I surrender to You." This is the problem.

Because of this, God is in the position of being tied up by Satan. Since the principle path of the providence of restoration is for God to bring about Satan’s surrender by loving him, we who are His children must walk this same path.

It doesn’t matter if a person is persecuted around the world and is considered a worldwide enemy. This person must establish the condition of having loved those who oppose him. From this aspect, there is amazing truth in God’s words to "love your enemies." In fact, this is one of God’s battle strategies.

These words sound simple. No one realized, though, that they have marked the boundary line between victory and defeat in the battle between God and Satan.

If God were to adopt a philosophy of looking on Satan as His enemy and seek revenge against him, then God would never be able to stand on the pinnacle of victory. Thus, God has said, "love your enemy," and has carried out a strategy of love. The words "love your enemy" also represent the culmination of Jesus’ teaching.

It is remarkable that Jesus, the only begotten son of God, stood before Satan and prayed for him despite the fact that Satan was trying to kill him. If Jesus, as he hung dying on the cross, had held any feelings of malice toward his enemy, God’s Providence would have been turned completely around. It is because Jesus overcame death with a heart of praying that his enemies might be blessed and of loving his enemies that Satan surrendered in that instance.

This is where the qualification to be God’s eternal child comes about. Even Satan recognizes this qualification, and gives his signature. You, too, will be able to stand before God and say, "Hey Satan, am I not unmistakably the son of God?" and Satan will reply, "Yes, that is correct." We must conduct ourselves in such a way that if we say to Satan, "You have no problem, then, if people who live like me expand God’s reciprocal realm, starting from the individual and moving to the family, clan, people, nation, and world," Satan’s answer will be, "That is the Principle, so I can’t do anything about it."

It is under these conditions that God has pursued the providence, with the Christian cultural sphere at the center. Whether we find ourselves on the path of sacrifice, in the position of martyrdom, or in the midst of bloody battle, we must carry out a movement of loving God and loving even our enemies. We must carry out this movement in our families, in our societies, and in our nations.

The Roman Empire severely persecuted Christianity, but it was forced to surrender in the face of the love by which Christianity loved even the country that was its enemy. This is how Christianity came to be a worldwide religion. The starting point for the path to heaven was within the country that was Christianity’s enemy. Until now Christians have only thought about loving their own personal enemies, but this is not correct. We must love the country that is our enemy, and even the world that is our enemy.

The starting point on the path to Heaven is within the country that is our enemy. Unless we create the foundation of the tradition of true love and set out on the basis of this foundation, we cannot bring about the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. When the tradition is established in this way, there can never be a philosophy or ideology greater than this.

When Korea was under Japanese imperial rule, the four providential countries ˆ Korea, Japan, Germany, and the United States ˆ were enemies with one another. Given the circumstances of that time, Japanese and Koreans were enemies. Japanese and Americans were enemies. Americans and Germans were enemies. Yet, I practiced the way of true love of Heaven by taking Japanese and Germans to America, their enemy country, and telling them that America was falling into ruin and their help was needed to revive it.

I emphasized to the Japanese and Germans that they could not establish a new thinking capable of leading humanity into a new world that Heaven desires unless they set the condition of having loved their past enemy, America, even more than their own fatherland. I set forth this tradition of true love, and created a new beginning.

Unless people erect a base and tradition by which they are able to love the countries that are enemies of their own, the Kingdom of Heaven cannot be realized on Earth. It is only within the true love of God that such a historic tradition can be constructed.

When I was humiliated by the U.S. federal government and unjustly brought before a court of law, my response was actually to work harder to give life to America by founding the conservative newspaper The Washington Times and a broadcasting station.

Recently, I am pursuing an effort to gather prominent strategic planners from around the world in order to assist China. This is one example of how all the organizations that I have founded are ready to involve themselves in any effort of Heaven that requires love. In the future, even those with superior ability will find themselves ruled by others if they have not accumulated accomplishments in true love.

Everyone here needs to bear this in mind. I was involved in the anti-Japanese resistance movement under the Japanese imperial rule, and from that perspective the Japanese people were my enemy. This was true for the Korean people as a whole and for me individually. Yet, after Japan’s defeat in World War II, I gave love to Japan.

After the war, I could have reported the police who had taken me into custody for my activities in the underground independence movement and tortured me severely. Had I done this, they would all have been executed. When I came across a Japanese policeman who was running for his life, however, I packed some things for him and helped him escape to safety under the cover of darkness.

Do you know why so many young people in Japan place their eternal lives at stake and pledge their loyalty to me? This is because there is a principle of cause and effect which dictates that they must return what has been given them.

It is because I planted the seeds of true love in the world, transcending national boundaries and in accordance with God’s heart. It is because I planted the heartistic foundation that leads people to a life of loving the countries that were the enemies of their own country. Thus, Japan today is my prisoner. Without even realizing it, Japan is fulfilling its heavenly calling.

Under Japanese rule, I had reason to harbor resentment even toward the Emperor of Japan. But he has already been defeated. Heaven does not strike a person who is defeated. In fact, Heaven shows mercy toward those who understand their sin and apologize. Because this is Heaven’s way, a person who raises a sword and strikes a defeated person will find his own descendants driven to ruin.

The United States is also a country that considered me their enemy. However, I left my family behind and diverted my attention from my Korean fatherland to bring salvation to that country. I threw away everything that belonged to me in order to bring salvation to the world under Satan.

Think, too, of how much hatred the established Christian denominations have directed toward the Unification Church. It might be said that we are enemies. We must not fight each other as enemies, however. We must come together in love. What happens when we come together in love? The two come together in love and lead the Republic of Korea into fulfilling the will of Heaven so as to digest North Korea. If the established denominations and the Unification Church had become one immediately after Korea’s liberation from Japan, everything would have been solved.

Because that did not happen, we have had to make extraordinary sacrifices to fight enemies of the individual, enemies of the family, enemies of the clan, and enemies of the people in order to attain the position that we would have reached in the first place had there been no conflict. We have worked to overcome the path of suffering where we were not able to strike at enemies.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, all the people in North Korea have armed themselves with Juche Thought. We must arm ourselves with the philosophy of true love that is capable of digesting them. North Korea is a part of the Northern Culture that has been influenced by the cold winds of the Soviet Culture. We must work to naturally melt them with our warm region civilization. Otherwise, both countries will go to ruin. Thus, we must thoroughly arm ourselves philosophically.

This philosophy must not be one that seeks the fulfillment of individual desires. Rather, it must seek the salvation of all humanity. It must not be centered on the self. Communists have the idea that everyone should work for the sake of a few top Party leaders.

This is why they eliminate any person who stands out as a potential rival. We are not that way. Our idea is to unite with the reciprocal environment in order to establish a reciprocal standard of a higher level. That is, for Cain and Abel to become one so as to receive their parents on a higher level.

I do not believe South Korea should attempt to overcome North Korea militarily. Instead, we must love our nation more than they love theirs. We must have the philosophical strength to love Heaven even more than they love communism. We must become capable men and women of character who can bring about their natural surrender. There is no other way for us to absorb North Korea.

In other words, we must become able to impress them with how we live. We must be able to amaze those people armed with communist ideology in terms of our outlook on life and our standard of character.

We cannot restore the Cain-type nation unless we maintain an environment by which we are able to exert influence over them. If we cannot restore the Cain-type nation, we cannot establish the restored country capable of entering into a worldwide nation centered on the Kingdom of Heaven. Although North and South Korea are divided against one another, we must liberate North Korea without fighting them.

The Korean people in both North and South Korea fervently desire to see the country unified, but how can this be accomplished? Unification can only be accomplished when a sophisticated method for unification is put forward that will allow both sides to live together. When the South goes to the North, or the North to the South, and says, "Let’s do it our way," unification will not succeed.

Thus, we must find a love that will benefit both sides.

Ladies and gentlemen, at the moment North and South are going in different directions. One is trying to go south and the other trying to go north, and they are on two divergent paths. Their purposes are at odds with each other. If both sides insist on their own position, it is certain that the situation will again result in breakdown.

The question is what is to be done about this. There must be a South Korean person who loves North Korea with a greater love than any South Korean person has for his own country.

Also, there must be a North Korean person who loves South Korea with a greater love than any North Korean has for his own country. There is no option or solution other than this.

If there is one person whose patriotism is greater than any South Korean’s and greater than any North Korean’s, then this is where the path to unification can come about. Can there be another way? No matter how hard you may think, there is no other way.

What are the Korean people to do, then? Our country straddles the boundary line between left and right centering on the 38th Parallel. We are the ones who have been placed on that line, so what are we to do? This is the question.

The issue is how to resolve this problem. The answer is that we must suffer even more than North Koreans, and even more than South Koreans.

How are we to uphold such a standard of patriotism, established through suffering and transcending nationality? This is the way to give this country life and to solve its problems.

The same principle applies to uniting the world of goodness and the world of evil. Someone must appear in the world of goodness that is a greater patriot to the world of evil than anyone in that world. A person must appear that can set a higher standard of loyalty to his nation than anyone among our ancestors who pursued goodness. This is the only way for a divided history to be resolved.

Jesus was particularly remarkable in this regard. He realized it would do no good for both sides to fight. The only way for him to live for the sake of God and for the sake of the people of Israel was for him to die for God and for his people. This was the reasoning behind the crucifixion.

Jesus’ love for humanity was greater than anyone else’s since the beginning of history, and his love for God was greater than anyone else’s in history. Because of this, his death caused a history destined for destruction to take a new direction toward a world of purpose. This was the Christian cultural sphere. This is historical fact.

Thus, the only way to unite North and South is to become a people who can die for the North and the South. There is no other path to achieve unification. There has to be a heart of truly wanting to live together in harmony with the other side.

When a person considers how to lead his life, the most basic fundamentals can be expressed as: the path of a filial child, the path of a loyal patriot, the path of a saint, and the path of a son or daughter of God.

Isn’t it the heart of wanting to live in harmony with others eternally and of wanting to be with others without regard to whether they are higher or lower, and transcending front and back and left and right? This is the logical conclusion.

What is the common denominator among those who say, "I want to live in harmony with others?" It is not power. Power cannot transcend history. Power is limited to a specific period in time.

The same is true with knowledge. The world of knowledge has an innate tendency to develop. Does knowledge give us the heart to say, "I want to live with this particular piece of knowledge forever?"

Clearly, we cannot keep either knowledge or wealth with us forever.

What then is the common denominator that transcends above and below, front and back, left and right, and the time differences between past, present and future? This cannot be anything other than true love centering on God.

Thus, a filial child is one who lives in his family giving profound love to his or her parents. Also, a patriot is one who lives a life of profound love for his or her country. A saint is one who lives a life of profound love for the people of the world. A son or daughter of God is one who lives a life of profound love for all humanity and God.

Thus, the problem is to develop a true foundation of heart by which a person can want to have the heart of a patriot. Such a person would want his or her life to be in concert with the fortunes of the people. Such a person would look upon any difficulties faced by the people as his or her own personal difficulties. This person would look upon any joys experienced by his people as more than temporary joys but eternal joys to be shared with everyone.

The person who possesses relationships of true love and true heart is given special authority to participate in the realm of unification.

Ladies and gentlemen, even if a woman lacks any formal education she can marry a man with a doctoral degree and suddenly become the wife of a scholar. Isn’t that true? Anyone who possesses a great deal of the relationships of heart desiring to live with others in harmony has the right to participate today in the realm of unification.

God himself is such a being. So if a person attains the life content enabling him to form a unity, this person is automatically given the qualification to participate.

Where should we begin the process of unification? Where should we start in order to achieve North-South unification? What is the first step? Do we begin by using our fists or physical force? If we subjugate the other side with force, then eventually they will develop a force stronger than ours and the conflict will begin all over again. We cannot achieve unification by this method. The way to unification will open when each of us has the heart to say, "Even though I live in the South, I truly want to live in harmony with those people in the North. I truly want to become one with them."

Suppose people in the South were to look upon our compatriots in the North and shed tears to see the miserable conditions in which they live. Suppose we were to tell them, "I am living my life in a way that I can share in your difficulties." Suppose we were to promise them, "Someday soon, I will appear before you having completed the preparations for your day of liberation." Suppose, then, we were to carry out a practical movement for unification based on such a heart. If we did these things, I believe the day of unification would not be far off.

Ladies and gentlemen, we must think how we can live in harmony with our compatriots.

No one can be a patriot if they do not want to live with their parents or with their compatriots. Any claim such a person might make to being patriotic would be a lie.

A person must first be able to live in harmony with his own country before he or she can live in harmony with the world. Further, a person must first live in harmony with the world before he or she can live in harmony with God. Thus, a person cannot be a patriot unless he first loves his compatriots and gives love to that particular regional society.

How much do our political leaders love their country?

Any politician who lacks a heart of truly wanting to share in the life of common citizens will soon disappear. It doesn’t matter how well bred or educated this person may be. He will disappear like an air bubble formed on a surface of water.

Any leader who does not love the citizens will not be able to escape judgment by the citizens of his country and by history.

Healing the division between North and South is not a simple process. As fellow patriots struggle to bring this about, they will need a determination of heart to work through many sleepless nights, transcending time, and overcoming all manner of difficulties.

"I truly want to live with them. I don’t want to die unless I can die with them. I don’t want to live unless I can live with them." The movement for North-South unification begins when both sides have such a heart toward the other.

When North-South unification is accomplished, this will be the beginning point in the effort to unite the democratic and communist worlds. Each of us must consider the future of our people and of the world as a representative of the world, a representative of the six billion humankind, a representative of the three billion people of Asia, a representative of your school, and a representative of all the students you have ever taught. We must determine ourselves to carry out a movement that will truly enable us to share in the lives of our compatriots.

When such an effort connects you to the way of the saint, then you will come to resemble a saint. If you practice this with respect to God with the loyalty of a son or daughter of God, then you will become "God’s heir," and "successor to God’s will." I tell you these things today, because I have already confirmed their truth in my own life.

Once North-South unification is accomplished in Korea, the unification of the world will follow automatically. Do you think that political power, military force, or economic wealth can bring about unification? There isn’t even the slightest chance of this. That is the reason I am speaking to you in this way.

Can weapons, wealth, or knowledge do away with rotten philosophies? No, they cannot. Only true love can do this. This love is love that comes from God.

When a person enters into a relationship of true love with God, he or she is absolutely given special authority to have dominion, ownership, and the right of inheritance. In the world of mechanics, the energy produced is less than the energy put into a system. However, in the world of true love, greater energy is produced than is put in.

What is true love? It is love that lives for the sake of others. It is love of unlimited giving and forgetting. No memory is kept of how much was given. It is a love that never tires of giving. A 90-year-old mother can turn to her 70-year-old son and say, "Be careful when you cross the street," and there is nothing strange about that. Even if the mother has repeated those same words countless times over several decades, she will always say them one more time.

If this is true with parents in the fallen world, how can we ever grow tired of giving and receiving God’s love in the essential world? When we establish God’s true reciprocal realm in our own lives, we will understand the unchanging glory of true love for the first time. Then we will be able to justify the ethics of eternal life centering on the true love of human beings. Who in the world is aware of such things?

In 1984, I was lying in bed in an American prison where I had been unjustly incarcerated, when God came to me. He said, "You are the only person I can trust. I want you to resolve the situation in Nicaragua." Am I really the only person God can come to with such a command?

America is said to be a great country standing at the forefront of all developed countries. It has a population of 240 million people and a large number of religious leaders. How helpless God must be that he could not go to any of those people but had to come to me. At least it is fortunate that God knows how to find a person by his love.

If I had not worked for the sake of the world at that time, South America would have been completely ravaged by war by now.

North-South unification is the fervent desire of the Korean people, but it is also the earnest desire of God in this age. It is Heaven’s desire that North Korea and South Korea can be united and that God’s resting place will be established in your homes, in our churches, and in our worldwide church centered on God.

How, then, are we to attend God? How can we wipe everything clean? What can we use to wipe everything off so that God will say it is completely clean? This is the problem.

The answer is simple. We must clean the surroundings centering on a true love that is greater than our love for our parents, greater than our love for our spouses, and greater than our love for our children. It is only when our offerings our placed on the altar centering on such love that the ideal North-South unification will be manifested. This is where the ideal blending of Eastern and Western cultures can occur. This is where the ideal unification of the divided physical and heavenly realms can occur.

This is where the realm of liberation of Hell and Heaven will come about. We cannot unlock this without true love. We need the key of true love.

Unification brought about by the love between a person’s mind and body can always be manifested as the unification of love in the family. A loving husband and wife with a harmonious family will always see their love manifested within their clan.

If a loving husband and wife unite as one, who will dare try to tear them apart and defile their relationship? A world made of the harmonious family, harmonious people, harmonious government, harmonious world, harmonious Heaven and Earth, harmonious true human love and God united as one ˆ isn’t this world the utopia of true love? In such a world, there will be no possibility of discord. Love will be the life element for all people, in the same way that plants receive life elements by absorbing the rays of the sun. Our fervent desire is to build a Kingdom of Heaven on Earth and in Heaven, where we can resonate with true love eternally. How many people are there in this world, though, who are the subject partners or object partners of true love, who can stand as people of character qualified to the be master of all things, and who possess both the value of a remarkable life and the special authority that comes with such a life?

I sincerely hope that each person participating today will remember what I have said, and will work to unite your mind and body. I hope that you will start by becoming a person who lives for the sake of your spouse, and go on to become a true person who lives for the sake of your family, people, nation, and world.

If you do that, then North-South unification will be as good as done. Even communist ideology is easily absorbed and disappears when it is placed in the midst of God’s love. The problem until now was that we did not know this. Once we develop our hearts of love, North-South unification will be no problem at all.

That is not all. Problems between East and West and the worldwide North-South problem involving differences among rich and poor nations can also be completely resolved through the true love of God.

We must digest the ideal for the world centering on God’s ideal that I have described, and go on to digest the ideal of the nation. Then we must move on to the boundless realm of peace of the ideal world that links the ideal of the nation to the ideals of clan, family, and individual. This is, without a doubt, the way that the utopia of true love that God has desired can be built on this Earth.

Distinguished guests: We cannot fight the communist world with guns and swords or any other means of physical force. We must fight them with love. Communists seek to destroy the democratic world in order to build a communist world. By contrast, we must build a structure that will bring salvation not only to the democratic world but to the communist world as well.

The 38th Parallel is the deepest point in final resting place where North and South can be united by means of God’s true love. When it comes to doing away with this demarcation line between North and South, the North says, "There’s nothing we can do about it." Russia says the same thing. China, too, says the same thing. The government and opposition parties in Seoul say, "There’s nothing we can do about it." Even the United States and Japan say there is nothing they can do about this. If this is the case, then it will be the end of everything. If that happens, will we prosper or will we be ruined? It will be the end of everything evil and a new beginning for everything good. This is the reason we must unite the citizens of our country.

Millions of people in Korea, Japan, and the United States have worked through the International Federation for Victory Over Communism and CAUSA to lay non-governmental foundations in each of these countries.

I declared the fundamental principle for unification more than 40 years ago. Since then, I have carried out a movement of ideas, centered on Godism, both domestically and around the world. I have worked in the four major countries surrounding the Korean Peninsula to lay the international groundwork for unification.

Over the years, leaders of many countries and the philosophical world have recognized Godism as the only philosophy capable not only of uniting with materialism and atheism, which are its diametrical opposites, but also as the only philosophy capable of liberating secular humanism.

My patriotic compatriots filled with passionate hope for North-South unification: let us together establish our value systems on the basis of Godism, and join forces in arming the people of this country with this new philosophy. Let us make North-South unification a matter of faith for the sake of ourselves, for the sake of the Korean people and for sake of world peace. Let us stand and answer the calling of historic age and of Heaven. Let us be leaders and people of righteousness standing at the forefront of the movement for North-South unification.

In particular, history took a mistaken course as a result of Eve’s error at the beginning, so in the Last Days women need to take the lead in overcoming conflict and strife in the age of division with their motherly love and create a new history of reconciliation and unity. The mission of women is to educate and restore young men and women, who are in the position of being their children, and even their husbands in order to realize the ideal of the Kingdom of Heaven.

I pray God’s blessing may be with your families.

Thank you.

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