The Words of Won Pil Kim
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The Words of Won Pil Kim |
Rev.
Won Pil Kim
Speech given Monday evening, October 22, 1984, in the Grand Ballroom of the World Mission Center. Translated by Mr. Yoshi Tanahashi. New York area members attending.
Maybe some of you think that home church is something that has passed away already, that it is some old providence. Or you may think, "What's going on? Home church again?" If you have thought this way, it means you have not quite understood the meaning of home church.
This confusion may have occurred due to the beginning of the emergency period, when, after March 1, 1983, many brothers and sisters joined the IOWC. Those who remained in New York were supposed to continue with home church. Also, those who stayed in various missions in New York were to participate in the IOWC for at least 4 months. At that time, though many brothers and sisters had been doing home church activities, they temporarily suspended these activities when they went to the IOWC. When they return from the IOWC they are supposed to continue with home church. Father mentioned that even though brothers and sisters go to IOWC they can still write letters and pray continuously for people in their home church areas.
In any case please remember at least this one sentence from Father: Without home church, you cannot go to Heaven.
You know the story from the Bible that Jesus left Peter the keys to Heaven. Today, what is the key to Heaven? It is home church.
Another expression Father used was that home church is the last stage in the history of restoration. Do you remember the yearly mottos? Each year, from 1978 through 1983, we had mottos about home church, such as "Home Church is the Base of the Kingdom of Heaven".
We've heard a lot from Father about the importance of home church, but with so many missions, and with such busy schedules, we somehow got confused. If home church is the only way for us to go to Heaven, it is of crucial importance. Yet in daily reality, we somehow lose sight of this. Why do we so easily lose insight about home church?
If the fall had not occurred, then Adam's mind and body would have been completely one with God. He would have become God's temple. That's why we can say that the perfected individual is the holy temple, or God's temple. We can also call such a person an "individual church."
Actually, if there had been no fall, there would be no such word as "church" at all. But now as we look back through the eyes of restoration, we can say that Adam would have been the "individual church." Isn't it the same case for Eve? Perfected Adam and perfected Eve would have come together in marriage, and then given birth to a child -- and created the original home church. Because of their perfection -- meaning that they would have been in union with God -- that family would have been a true home church. When perfected families or home churches would gather together, tribal church would have been formed. In the same way, the nation and world would have become the nation church and world church.
But because of the fall, instead of becoming individual church, man and woman became Satan's church, or Satan's individuals, and made Satan's family. In other words, because of the fall Satan's version of individual church started, and Satan's version of home church began; and this was multiplied all the way up to the nation and the world.
Restoration can be described as the transformation of the satanic version of home church to the God-centered home church and world church. What can we call a perfected individual? Individual church. What would you call the perfected family? Home church. And the perfected nation? Nation church. And the perfected world? World church. According to this understanding, why did the Messiah come? Why did Father come? Father came to establish the God- centered home church and world.
Try to imagine the restored world church. There are many companies within a nation. Let's say there is a company in the restored world. That company must be a company which is centered on God. The president, employers, and employees are all centered on God. That company is the company where God dwells. Then what would we call that company, in the terms we have been using? Company church. The purpose of Father's mission is to restore the universal or world church.
Let's put all this aside for now. Let's think about this: What was the meaning of the victory of the Washington Monument rally, which occurred on September 18, 1976? The Washington Monument rally was a victory for Father in his worldwide home church. Of course it was not a substantial victory, but was a conditional or spiritual worldwide victory. Because of the victory Father gained through the Washington Monument rally, Father declared on October 4, 1976, the Day of the Victory of Heaven.
In Jacob's case, on the day he moved Esau to unite with him, he brought about victory in a single family. That's why he was called Israel. But in Father's case, the day of Washington Monument was the day he received the name of Israel on the worldwide level.
So what was changed through the Day of the Victory of Heaven? Actually, before that Day of Victory of Heaven was declared on October 4, 1976, the spiritual world was in the subject position in relation to the physical world. But from that day on, the physical world, or the activities on earth, came into the subject position in relation to the spiritual world. Actually, when we say spiritual world, this also represents the archangelic world, which is the Cain-type world. Because Father gained victory, he restored the birthright. Through Father, the birthright was restored from the Cain side, which is the spiritual world, to the Abel side, which is the physical world.
Now, after that, Father's desire is to give the inheritance of that victory to his children. Of course Satan is against the idea of Father giving all that victorious foundation freely to his children. Satan cannot object to Father's own victory, because Father gained that victory himself. But Satan can object to Father freely giving his victorious foundation to his children, because we ourselves have not gained any victory.
For us, to gain a world-level victory as Father did is an impossible dream. Father presented the idea of home church before God and Satan. Because 360 homes represent the entire world, when we as Father's children gain victory in these 360 homes, we can inherit all his victorious foundations through that condition. This Satan cannot object to. The number 360 represents the world. Secondly, it represents the entirety of human history and also all of humanity presently on the earth.
Then the question might occur in your mind: Why do we all have to gain worldwide victory? Because of the fall, everything from the individual to the worldwide level came under Satan's dominion, including the spiritual world. Unless we gain victory on the worldwide level, we cannot restore what Satan took away.
So we understand now that we have to gain victory on the worldwide level, but what does it mean when we say worldwide? What do we have to restore? Earlier I mentioned Father's words: "Without home church, you cannot go to Heaven." What does it take to create Heaven? What is Heaven? What kind of place is it?
First of all, Heaven is not the place where we can go individually. The family is the least entity which can enter Heaven. Let's say you yourself were to go to Heaven, but the rest of your family (your mother, your father, your children, all of them) were to go to hell. What would it feel like? Do you think you could really be in Heaven while all your brothers and sisters and parents are in hell?
Because of Adam's fall the family, tribe, everything was lost into the hands of Satan. We must therefore go back as a family. The family is the smallest entity which can enter Heaven. So far, the great religions in history have been teaching individual salvation. But as you notice, the Unification Church is different. We talk about family salvation instead of individual salvation.
Secondly, we have a different definition of Heaven. Heaven is where people who love at least on the national level, or preferably the worldwide level, can go. God is the one who loves the world. Therefore, for us to live with God in Heaven, we must love the world. As we become victorious in our home church area, we are entitled to go to Heaven. We have to be victorious on the tribal level. The 360 homes make a tribal foundation, but at the same time that 360 home area represents the world. When we go to our home church area and serve and love the people there, God can accept this as though we truly loved the world. The person who can realize that divine love can go to heaven. And to that Satan cannot object.
How do we prevail through love? We have to understand why sacrificial love is the love with which we can gain victory in our home church area. Adam fell through self-centered love. Because Adam fell due to self-centered love, he lost the birthright. Also the right of dominion over creation was lost. In order for restoration to take place a condition is necessary.
Why did we lose the birthright? Because Adam fell due to self-centered love, the only condition man can set up is God-centered love. That is the only condition man can be restored through. God-centered love is sacrificial love.
What is the purpose of sacrificial love? Are we just going to love and that's all? By loving with sacrificial love we have to restore the birthright that was lost. What is the purpose of the restoration of the birthright? It is to restore the right of dominion that Adam was supposed to have. Through the fall the positions of Adam and the archangel were reversed. So through restoration, we must reverse back again to the original position. To restore the original state of things, we must re- make the world centered on God, with harmony between Adam, Eve, the archangel, and all the creation. The final goal is the restoration and recreation of the God-centered ideal.
The purpose of restoring the birthright is not just so that one can go back to God. After restoring the birthright, we can go back to God with our elder brothers and sisters. When we gain victory in our home church area -- in other words when we restore the birthright -- we take all those people back to the True Parents and together return to God.
Those who restore the birthright can receive the Three Blessings. To restore the birthright means to be accepted by Esau. There are of course birthrights on different levels: from the individual to the worldwide level. When we are welcomed by our people in the home church area, that means that we restored the birthright on the worldwide level.
Originally, only those who could gain victory in home church were to be accepted to receive the Blessing. If we were to bring about the victorious union of Cain and Abel through home church, God could bless us as the restored Adam and Eve. That's how our course was originally supposed to be. But, looking at ourselves, we know we did not bring such a victory, and yet we are blessed. This is the reason why, although we are blessed and may have started our families, each husband and wife must still gain victory in their own home church area.
To accomplish home church means that Father would be welcomed by the people in our area any time. Doing home church work doesn't mean only to serve people. They should clearly know that we are Unification Church members. Being a Unification Church member means to come from Father. For an individual to have accomplished home church means that he or she can visit 360 families at any time without making an appointment. In order to get to that level, of course, we need to apply the Principle. How otherwise could we succeed?
So we are gaining insight again about how important home church work is. But also we know that in reality we somehow couldn't do it, even though it is so important. Why? When we think about Father's course, we know that if Christianity had accepted Father in the first seven-year course after 1960, Father could have laid the worldwide foundation, even at that time. But because that didn't occur, Father had to extend it from a seven-year course to a twenty-one-year course.
Likewise, in our course of home church, if we do not gain victory in our first seven years, we will also have to extend our seven-year course into a twenty-one-year course. Then if still after twenty-one years we cannot bring victory, our own blessed children will have to go on an extension of the twenty- one-year course; another twenty-one years. When we feel the importance and significance of it to the bone, we cannot but do home church.
Maybe some of you might say, "I was faithfully following my leader. I was doing just exactly what my leader said; therefore I ended up not doing anything." But is that really the case? Imagine you have a beloved wife or husband. Let's say your beloved spouse has come from far away just for a short time to see you, but your leader has given you mission that may last until midnight. You have to work hard until very late, and you are wiped out. Imagine yourself in that situation. You're completely exhausted after working until midnight. But then will you just go back to your room after working? What will you do? Your spouse has come from faraway place for just a short time, and is waiting for you. You still go, don't you?! In other words, you somehow make time. If it is for your beloved wife or your beloved husband, somehow you make time.
Actually when we think about it, home church is not something we do for someone else; actually it is for ourselves. Not for anyone else. And it is also not something we do because someone tells us to do it. We know it is important, that's why we do it. Just like when your spouse comes. Even if your leader doesn't give you time to meet, you still find some way to meet. Home church is the same. Although we may be told, "Do home church. Do home church," that should not be the reason that we do home church. We ought to do it because we all know it is so important, regardless of whether anyone says anything or not.
Let's take another example. You all know that before the Blessing, we are each supposed to have three spiritual children. But some of us don't have enough spiritual children. Then we go to our leader, saying, "I don't have enough spiritual children and I'm already over 30. What shall I do?" What would your leader say? Do you think your leader has the right to say, "Don't worry, I have the authority to let you start your family, even though you don't have enough spiritual children?" Do you think anyone has that right? No.
Then maybe you will start accusing your leader, "Why didn't you give me time for witnessing?" Then the leader will say to you, "When did I say you should not witness? I never told you, you shouldn't go. Why didn't you go?" So if Father asked those leaders, "Why didn't you teach them and arrange for them to be able to get spiritual children?" Then the leader will say, "I never said they couldn't go witnessing. I said they should." They will say this before Father.
The reason I am telling you all this is so you can be aware that home church is not something that we do because leaders tell us to do it, but it's something that we all have to know, and we just do it. Home church is our destiny. There are certain things that are absolute necessities in life. We have to eat to survive, and we have to sleep to survive. Do you think your leader has to tell you all the time, "You must eat and sleep?" You know that you have to eat and sleep. But there's still the nagging question: Why couldn't we do home church work?
You've all gone through many missions in your church life. Just here in this audience we have people from MFT, witnessing, IOWC, the seminary, and more. All these varied missions came from Father through our central figures. What is the relationship between home church and all other missions?
You have heard Father clearly state that we need to do home church to get into Heaven. It's the only way to get into Heaven. We've heard this about home church, but you never heard other missions talked about in the same way, did you? Has anybody ever heard Father say that unless you are in such and such a mission or do this office work you cannot enter Heaven? Nobody ever heard that.
Then why could we still not do it? Somehow there is some confusion in understanding the value of home church. Maybe the leaders are confused as well. That's why at this time I feel it is my mission to clarify this point for each one of you.
Why did Father leave Korea, his own country, to come to the United States? Why did God call Father to come to America? Of course, for the sake of the restoration of the world. In order for Father to restore the entire world he had to come first to the United States, which represents the world. When Father came to America, he said America has three major headaches: the decline of Christianity, immorality among youth, and the growing power of communism.
Before Father can restore the entire world, what does he have to restore first? There is a certain formula. The step before the world is America, which represents the world. And in order to restore America, what does Father have to solve? The three headaches of God.
So in this formula, we can say that if Father can solve the three headaches of God in America, that represents the restoration of America. And America's restoration symbolizes, or has the significance of, the restoration of the world. Since Father came to America he initiated many projects. But for what? We have countless missions; why did Father initiate all of them? He created all of these projects and missions to solve the three great headaches of God.
What about MFT? Which category is MFT in, in terms of the solution for the three headaches? It could he headache number two, when you think that through fundraising young people can be trained, and can become more God-centered. But fundraising is in actuality the preparation or foundation for all three purposes, as it is the restoration of creation. We need money to be able to do all these works.
What about CAUSA? It exists to bring about the solution to communism, but it also relates to the other ones. How about interfaith work or the seminary? In which category do they belong? They relate particularly to the revival of Christianity. But not only that; they serve the solution of the second and third categories as well. Any mission can be categorized as being designed to solve the three headaches of God. Can you think of any mission which cannot be?
(Note: At this point, the tape recording became indistinguishable. Therefore, the remainder of this speech is an unofficial transcript, taken from notes.)
From Principle we know that everything has the dual purpose of serving the individual and serving the whole. You have your own country and your own home. For each family the individual purpose is to serve the family and the whole purpose is to serve the nation. In time of danger you may have to sacrifice your own home for your country. If you lose the country there is no home for your family anyway. Although each one of us is to serve the nation and world, if we don't have home church, we don't have a home. This is the dual purpose. We have to be aware of this: We have two purposes to serve.
We ourselves have been serving the world in our missions, but somehow we don't have our own homes. Just like the people who belong to the nation but are homeless. We lost the home to go back to and serve. Where are we supposed to build that home? In the home church area.
Maybe some brothers and sisters have an apartment. They are renting the apartment in the midst of the satanic world. As you know, the tribe is stronger than the family. So when some members have a rented apartment, it means there is only one family surrounded by the satanic tribe. The tribe is stronger than the family, so this family is headed for destruction. You pay $500 or $600 a month for the apartment. Unless you pay you will be kicked out. You take your children to a babysitter who charges money for the service.
But what is it like when a family lives in its 360 home church area? It means we have our own family in the midst of our own tribe. So if you were to work hard in home church, and for some reason you lost your house, people there might offer you a room in their house. Even someone else might say, "No, why don't you come to my house instead?" People might compete. People would ask how they could care for your baby when you are at work. In other words you will be surrounded by your own tribe and you will be protected. Many brothers and sisters want to start their families, but few have understood the need for a foundation for the family. Without that foundation you will be troubled with money problems. That is why since Father understood this he has been saying for six or seven years to finish your mission by five or six o'clock and go to your home church area.
You must be aware that this world is thirsty for true love. This is a world where parents cannot trust their children and children cannot trust their own parents. This is a world where many people are self-centered. Even faith in this world is often self-centered. Through this faith / can be saved. Satan can never practice sacrificial love, which is higher than self- centered love. People are destined to be drawn to that higher love.
We keep saying that we are so busy that we cannot go to our home church area. Let's say we have plenty of time and then we do home church, or we feel so high spiritually today that we go to our home church area. In these cases we can never say we went from selfless, sacrificial love. But what if you are so busy you are surrounded by work but still you go. Or, similarly, perhaps you are so down spiritually, completely wiped out, but when you think of the people in your home church area you still go. This is selfless, because you went beyond your situation. We understand that human beings lost their birthright through self-centered love. In order to restore that which was lost through self-centered love, what kind of condition do we have to set up? One of sacrificial, selfless love.
Father has given us many missions to serve the completion of world church. Then why did that very Father, who knows we are so occupied with these missions, still give us home church on top of all of these missions? It is because Father wants us to practice selfless love. We are all put into difficult situations, but as we strive forward to accomplish, the period of indemnity can be shortened. Father himself has been working from early morning until late at night only so that he can shorten the indemnity period, to liberate God and save humanity as soon as possible. Out of Father's love for God and all humanity, Father himself and we, his children, have been working so hard from morning till night.
When we are completely occupied with our missions and have too much to do, yet we still find time to squeeze it in, then that is selfless love. Also when we are so down that we have no motivation, but out of our concern we push ourselves out to go to the area, then we put ourselves in the victorious position of one who can restore the birthright. The ancestors of the people in our home church area will be moved to come down and help us. This is how we gain spiritual assistance in our home church area.
Then how are we supposed to do home church? Just as Father came to America to solve Heavenly Father's three headaches, when we go to our home church area it is to solve these three major problems. Restoration will come after we solve these three headaches of God. Following the pattern of Father in our own home church means we initiate different projects in our area just as Father initiated many projects to solve these headaches on the national and worldwide levels. Father first initiated the IOWC, so when we go to our home church area we go house-to-house visiting. It is parallel to what Father did in going state to state. In order to continue our activity in our home church area, we need a financial foundation or it will be difficult. Therefore, our individual fundraising can be considered like MFT on the home church level. Sometimes we might make a pamphlet explaining what we are doing; maybe it is parallel to The Washington Times. Think that you are parallel to Father's situation. We have to bring down to the home church level all the projects that Father initiated to solve the headaches of God in this nation. We must create parallel projects on our home church level.
The reality of our situation is that we are so engaged in the completion of world church that we don't have time to do our individual home church. The time has come in which we have accomplished the foundation for Father's world church projects. Now they can all be connected to our individual home church area, which was not the case before. Think about visiting ministers -- how we can approach them with Principle, video tapes, NCCSA, ICC, CAUSA. Through these many things ministers can be connected. When you have a minister who has become very close to us, then you can ask him to come and speak to the people in your area. We can connect these ministers' work to our home church foundation. In this way it makes it easier to come to a home and be trusted.
Please remember that we are serving our world church as well as our own home church. The second point to remember is that we are to solve God's headaches. Ecumenical work, CAUSA, and CARP all are to complete the world church. But at the same time all these activities are for our own home church.
Some day we will all die. If we do not accomplish home church, when we go to spirit world we will be asked why we didn't do home church. Leaders, please make sure that everyone has n area. If you are extremely busy and cannot go, then why don't you pray for the people in your area? Then you will be secure later on when you go back. There is a book called Home Church: the Words of Reverend Sun Myung Moon. Father said to please read this every morning. It will help you considerably if you read this book.