This is an excerpt from a Korean article translated by H. Sakai and edited by B. Lancaster. Dr. Oh is a professor at the Unification Theological Seminary Barrytown, New York

On September 1, 1997, at the celebration of the ninth anniversary of the "Proclamation of Heavenly Parentism" at Belvedere, True Father proclaimed a "New Start." He instructed all blessed families to set aside one hour each morning from 6:00 to 7:00 to recite the Family Pledge, then read Blessing and the Ideal Family; Way of God's Will; and the three providentially important speeches: "View of the Principle of the Providential History of Salvation," "In Search of the Origin of the Universe" and "True Family and True Universe Centering on True Love."

On October 3, in Uruguay, True Father added the speech "True Family and I" and God's Will and the World to the selected material to read. On October 13, True Father named the daily morning reading session Hoon Dok Hae. He also emphasized many times the importance of Hoon Dok Hae at the International Leaders' meeting, which was held right after the celebration of the 38th True Children's Day on November 1.

The reason why True Father has emphasized the importance of the Hoon Dok Hae is that since the Declaration of the Realm of the Cosmic Sabbath for Parents of Heaven and Earth, the direction of God's providence has shifted from the Age of the Divine Principle as the utmost priority to the Age of Living Life with True Parents being the highest priority (True Father, East Garden, Sept. 13, 1997).

Reaching the point where all humankind will become blessed families, True Father, who desires to build the ideal world centered on these blessed families, is expecting every blessed household, through participating in the Hoon Dok Hae, to realize the new tradition which True Father has established, and to live a life of oneness with the True Family.

True Father's thought in the Hoon Dok Hae, will remain as a new tradition in every blessed family and can be understood through examining the characteristics of God's Providence from the Declaration of the Realm of the Cosmic Sabbath for Parents of Heaven and Earth on August 9 (July 7 lunar) given on True Children's Day November 1. These characteristics are: the time to buy True Parents' words without cost, the time to become one with True Parents, and the establishment of the ideal world centered on the blessed families.

Since the Declaration of the Realm of the Cosmic Sabbath for Parents of Heaven and Earth, God's providence has been progressing rapidly as if one day was equivalent to a thousand years. After that declaration, True Father held a special meeting for 200 pre-blessed couples in Alaska, emphasizing the essence of faith, and that faith "should not simply end with just believing and knowing, but it should flower into a life of attending God."

True Father, after declaring the "New Start" at Belvedere on September 1, said "Even though people do not know, we have already entered into God's direct dominion," beginning with the Holy Wedding ceremony of Young Jin Nim and Hyung Jin Nim on September 6. Following that, at 7 o'clock on the morning of September 11 at East Garden, the Age of the Realm of the Fourth Adam was declared. This declaration became possible because of the Holy Wedding of Hyung Jin Nim, the youngest son of True Parents.

The Age of the Realm of the Fourth Adam means that the True Family restored the same position as that where Adam and Eve could receive the Blessing, reaching their perfection without the fall, and that every blessed family must attend the True Family, and practice the heavenly way of life in order to accomplish the original ideal family which Adam and Eve were supposed to realize through receiving the Blessing.

In the Age of the Realm of the Fourth Adam, the life of attending True Parents is more important than knowing the Divine Principle. On September 14 at Belvedere, True Father emphasized many times how important it is to attend the True Family and to live together with them. This speech has the longest title in Unification Church history: "Let us (1) believe True Parents; (2) know True Parents; (3) live together with True Parents; (4) become one in True Love with the True Family; and 5) start to live a life in the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth." As expressed in this title, we have to experience the heart of True Parents both internally and externally as if it were our own, and "to start living a life in the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth as the way that all blessed families who live in the Age of the Realm of the Fourth Adam should practice" (True Father, Nov. 11, 1997, Belvedere).

The tradition of becoming one, centered on True Parents' Words, began with the True Family. At East Garden, centering on True Parents, they started reading the Words from the end of August 1997. Through this reading, True Parents began to educate the True Children directly. Until that time, True Parents were not able to educate their children directly because of the providential reason that they had to love Cain children first. Now it has become possible for them to teach God's Words directly.

True Parents and True Children have established the tradition of becoming one, centered on the Words. On September 1, 1997 at Belvedere True Father said that based on this new tradition, every blessed family must resemble East Garden in which everything is harmonious, centered on the Words, and that from now on persons who have not inherited this tradition will not be able to enter East Garden. True Parents are expecting every blessed family to inherit this new tradition which began in East Garden and go the way to becoming one with True Family. In order to do this, we must get rid of our past conventional lifestyle. True Parents always think of something new, create new things, and require us to live a proper life corresponding to these new things. If we keep our past conventional lifestyle for even one day it will be difficult for us to understand True Parents; it will also become painful to accept the Words of True Parents, and it will be more difficult to live according to those Words. Moment by moment, we must deny ourselves, and continually nurture ourselves in order to return absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience.

In order to become one with True Parents, we should not be imbued or influenced or drawn into surrounding cultures and traditions. The Israelites who entered into Canaan guided by Joshua, aroused God's wrath because they were influenced and absorbed by the culture of the Canaanites and stained their blood through their relationship with them. The culture and tradition of the Unification Church are neither something that goes along with the conventional culture and tradition, nor can they compromise with the culture. As the culture and tradition established by True Parents, they are totally new. They are such that they are being established from the position of Adam and Eve before the fall, True Father is expecting us to know deeply the fundamental spirit of this culture and tradition through the Hoon Dok Hae.

The standard which evaluates how deeply we are one with True Parents is the very Words of True Parents, especially the most recent ones. True Parents emphasized many times that the only words we have to teach (even to those who are pre-blessed) are the Words of True Father that are written in Blessed Family and the Ideal Kingdom (True Father, Sept. 21, 1997, Caceras, Brazil; Nov. 1, 1997, International Leaders meeting, East Garden). This is the sole standard of life for blessed families. This is because the Words of that book are based on True Parents' life (True Father, Sept. 13, East Garden).

The fact that True Parents have emphasized the importance of the Hoon Dok Hae and decided that the Words we should read are Blessed Family and the Ideal Kingdom, is related to the providential transformation from the age of the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity to the age of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification. Since the age of the Unification Church was, in one sense, an age of theoretical battles, a logic for those battles was required. The necessary logic for those theoretical battles was Divine Principle, Unification Thought,, and Theory of Victory over Communism.

The age of the theoretical battle has come to an end, however, and the age of constructing the Kingdom of God on Earth has come. The most important mission of True Parents, ultimately, is not that of becoming the victors in the theoretical battle, but that of building the Kingdom of God on Earth and in Heaven, in other words, the Ideal World, which is the Will of God. To do this, the most important thing that we can do is read the Words of True Parents that are based on the contents of True Parents' life course, and establish a new tradition in our daily life like that of the life of True Parents.

True Father instructed that every blessed family should participate in the Hoon Dok Hae between 6 and 7 o'clock every morning. According to True Father, the reason we start at 6 a.m. is because God created humankind on the sixth day. The reason we continue to 7 a.m. is because we must indemnify humankind's mistake, which made God restless even on the seventh day, that being the day when God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, was supposed to rest (True Father, Sept. 14, Belvedere).

Humankind, after having been created on the sixth day, should have become the embodiment of God, achieving individual perfection according to God's purpose of creation. They should have realized an ideal husband and wife relationship through being ideal spouses and then established the ideal family (True Father, "The Significance of Celebrating July 1", July 1, 1997, Salo Boro Hotel, Brazil). In this way, all humankind, all families, must allow the True God to come and rest in the family as His true place. It is True Parents' desire that we learn the way of realizing such an ideal through the Hoon Dok Hae.

Through the Hoon Dok Hae, we read True Father's Words again and again, even thousands of times, until we digest all the words which are in Blessed Family and the Ideal Kingdom (True Father, Nov. 1, 1997, International Leaders meeting, East Garden). Based on this foundation, blessed families will become enabled to live naturally and automatically according to the Words. True Father said that after the "Proclamation of the Cosmic Sabbath of Heaven and Earth," the theme of the prayer of blessed families should be: "True Parents! Please enter my mind and dwell there" (True Father, Sept. 28, 1997, Corrientes, Argentina). The content of such a prayer has to be expanded to the levels of husband and wife, family, clan, tribe, nation, world and cosmos.

The Kingdom of Heaven on Earth will start from the point where Satan's lineage is completely eradicated. It is impossible to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth if there remains even a small part of Satan's lineage. Therefore, True Parents desire that even embryos in their mother's womb drink the holy wine and be cut off from Satan's lineage. The goal of the providence during the next two years is to "cut off Satan's lineage" and to establish the "Blessed Family and the Ideal Kingdom."

On November 1, 1997 at the International Leaders meeting at East Garden, True Father ordered all National Messiahs to translate Blessed Family and the Ideal Kingdom into the language of their mission country. However, soon after that instruction, he said that every blessed family must read the Words in Korean. He also said that those who do not understand Korean should be able feel the Heart of True Parents who have emphasized the importance of Korean through the voice sound of the reading, and that they also must feel the spirit of True Parents which is contained in those Words.

It is apparent that the unification of languages through the Hoon Dok Hae is in True Father's mind. True Father, who has stressed the importance of Korean for the last 13 years, has used every opportunity in order to encourage us to study Korean.

On the occasion of the International Leaders meeting on June 6, 1997 which was held right after the True Day of All Things, True Father spoke for 30 minutes on the importance of Korean. Later, on August 10, He said that leaders who did not speak Korean could not attend International Leaders meetings. On September 1, True Father said that studying Reverend Moon's speeches which were not taken directly from original language has no value. On November 1, He made it very clear that although international marriages will be allowed from the third generation of the True Family, candidates to become spouses of the True Family members must be able to speak Korean. In fact, True Parents have not wanted to use any translation at any International Leaders meetings since August 9, 1997.

The reason True Father emphasizes the importance of studying Korean is because He deeply desires to realize the unification of languages which were divided into many different languages at the time of the Tower of Babel. Members of the Unification Church accept international marriages very easily. True Father worries that if three generations in a row have international marriages, such big families will have difficulties communicating with each other because of language problems whenever all families of three generations gather. In that case, they will agree on speaking True Parent's language in order to solve this communication problem, and that language is Korean. He said that every blessed family must be able to speak Korean because True Parents expect them to speak that language .

The Hoon Dok Hae is a new tradition which True Parents established for all blessed families, responding to the providential shift from the age centered on the Principle to the age centered on Life. True Parents' desire is that every blessed family will buy without cost the Words of True Parents which are the source of Eternal Life, beyond the boundaries of race and nation, by attending the Hoon Dok Hae.

Through their attendance, all blessed families have to become completely one with True Parents and True Family in Heart. And through offering the time between 6 and 7 every morning, every blessed family should invite God and True Parents, who created humankind on the sixth day and wanted to rest on the seventh day in our mind and heart and let them dwell there. Furthermore, by letting God and True Parents settle within our families, the ideal world will be established based on those families. This is the desire of True Parents.

True Parents, with these same things in their own minds, absolutely keep this time without any exceptions. They think that the time of the Hoon Dok Hae is the most valuable time in a day. To follow this new tradition established by True Parents with a joyful and grateful heart is the way that we, all blessed families, are supposed to go.

Download entire page and pages related to it in ZIP format
Table of Contents
Copyright Information
Tparents Home