In an unusual departure from the norm, Dr. Pak finds himself "not" translating for Father on God's Day. Instead, he is celebrating God's Day with his wife and family in Arizona and, thus, gives the God's Day address to the members, after reading Father's speech from South America. He describes 1999 as the year for the "final clearance" of our lives, our sin, and our shortcomings, before we enter into the new millennium. He cautions that this year could bring doubt and confusion, and inspires members to absolute faith. He reminds us that our only true asset is True Parents.

I really do not know how I ended up in Arizona on God's Day. You are right, it is providence. This is really amazing. I have been in the church for 41 years -- that is quite a long time -- but on God's Day I have always been with Father. Not only that, but for probably 30 years, particularly after Father came to the United States, I have been translating for Father on God's day. God's Day for me was-what shall I say? Incredible hard work, actually. My physical energy could not keep up with the work. Father speaks at midnight. The summary is about four pages; however, the actual speech is three to five hours. Right? You know it. So from 12 o'clock to five o'clock I have to translate. Then at seven o'clock pledge service I have to translate, and then again at the nine o'clock main service. Sometimes the speech would last six or seven hours. Then on God's Day evening the conference would begin and sometimes last 17 hours. I would have to translate. For a change, this is my heavenly God's Day in Arizona.

You know I really appreciate this modern age. This morning we already had the great blessing of receiving an excerpt of Father's message directly from Uruguay. This is wonderful. Already the midnight address has been delivered by the True Parents, and the motto of this year is "The Cosmic Expansion of the True Blessing and the Rooting Out of Satan's Blood Lineage." Father is determined to root out satanic lineage. This is the first time Father has used the word "cosmic" in the annual motto. This means our dispensational stage has come to the cosmic level. This is really wonderful. So this morning, instead of delivering a sermon, I would like to give you a testimony to our True Parents and our lives together with our True Parents.

How did I come to Arizona? I was a great admirer of Arizona and this beautiful sunshine that you take for granted. We from the East Coast don't take it for granted; the weather there is terrible now, snow and cold and ice and slippery roads and a lot of accidents. The sunshine here is heaven; it is incredible. Arizona is known to be heaven for asthma patients. One of them is my wife. She has been suffering from asthma for more than 30 years. She kept saying we must go to Arizona. I said, yes, of course we will. Even though I promised all the time, that never happened, year after year, because I had duties in Washington and New York: the Washington Times and AFC and ACC and so many other duties, assisting Father and translating for Father at conferences and meeting VIPs and so forth. I just had absolutely no time. My wife said to me, before I die I must go to Arizonaeven without you. So she left me behind and came all by herself to Arizona. Boy, she is courageous. I was so guilty that I could not come because of these things. That was five years ago already. She came to Scottsdale and settled in a small rented apartment. That is how Arizona entered into our lives. So what did I have to do? I had to follow her; she is my queen; there is nothing else I could do. Since then Arizona has become our second home. We still have a main home in McLean, Virginia.

Ten days ago I met Father in Washington for a religious conference. True Parents came to Washington, and I had a wonderful time of fellowship with True Parents as usual. I have graduated from translation, because Father now knows so much English. Furthermore, Father does not need a translator any more. The conference and everything is just in Korean. Either you know it or you don't know it. If you don't know it, you just listen to Father spiritually. This is the type of conference Father is conducting, so I am not needed. I am out of a job. I am unemployed. [Laughter.]

This God's Day was going to be in Uruguay. I begged Father's permission to spend God's Day with my wife in Arizona, so here we are. I am at God's Day in Arizona, a rare, rare opportunity. Yesterday my sister-in-law and brother-in-law joined me for God's Day. I would like to introduce to you Mr. Sung Kil Yang, my brother-in-law from Korea, and my sister-in-law, my wife's sister, Ki Oh Yoon Yang. They have two lovely daughters who are studying in the United States. The elder one, Chung Hwa, is at Brown University in her third year. The second one, Chung In, is a freshman at Yale University. This is their entire family. They flew to Phoenix and joined me for two years vacation-in two days we already have two years, right? 1998 and 1999.

I am so happy to see this wonderful gathering. You all look well. You are getting more mature and wise-looking. You even look rich. Why not? I am also very, very happy to meet with Mark Anderson. Mark has been an Arizona state representative for two terms. When we had lunch together yesterday, he showed me this Tribune newspaper article. Look at the picture. What a sharp-looking, handsome gentleman. The headline says "Anderson Ties With Reverend Moon in Question." This is what they are trying to say. "Lawmaker Denies Claims That Church Controls Him." But this is true: only God controls him, not the church. Right? Absolutely right.

But I am impressed by one statement in the article by representative Winifred "Freddy" Hurshberger. She said, "Mark Anderson has got definite moral standards that he feels everybody should have. I don't know if it is religion so much as idealism or his philosophy or exactly what it is. I'm sure it perhaps arises out of his religion." To me, Anderson is a living testimony to our True Parents. You know I used to lead the American Freedom Coalition and the American Constitutional Committee. We had many CAUSA seminars in Washington, D.C., and one here in Scottsdale. I always told my dear brothers of the AFC and ACC that they must become political saints. Every Sunday morning I preached: you must become political saints, not junky politicians.

After many years I have come to Arizona and found Mark Anderson living that credo and virtually becoming an example to other politicians. He is gaining the recognition of the community He fought back very strongly in the face of this kind of criticism. Religious tolerance is essential to America. Absolutely. He stood up for his church firmly, strongly, and won respect. I understand the last time he ran, the race was uncontested. I wish I could run that kind of race, uncontested. Even after the publicity, nobody dared come against Mark Anderson. He will definitely win a third term. Why not? Yesterday I gave him a mandate. I am still AFC's leader. I told him to become the speaker of the House of the state of Arizona. He said, amen. Everybody say amen for him. But that is not the end of it. He will become a state senator, a congressman in Washington, a senator in Washington. Why not? Amen. Why not? Even a presidential candidate.

Arizona already has had two presidential candidates. Goldwater was the first one. I really respected him. I knew him personally and he was a great man. Now John McCain has announced his candidacy, making him the second Arizonan to be a presidential candidate. He was a great soldier I respect. Whether he will succeed, I don't know. God knows. But at least the third one will succeed. You know formation, growth, and completion. Mark Anderson will succeed as the third candidate for the presidency of the United States. Why not? Will you say amen?

Another reason I love Arizona is it is the Grand Canyon state. Dr. Mark Barry used to be my assistant. He has been promoted to be my special assistant. He has become my speech writer and he provides all the research backbone papers for Father's policy for the unification of Korea. Mark Barry has a Ph.D. in foreign affairs with a specialization in U.S. - North Korean relations.

Who is going to unite the Korean peninsula? Father. Father is the central person who will bring about unification. There is a very significant providential reason behind the unification of Korea. I am now spearheading that particular mission in Korea and in Japan, and Mark has been my special assistant. Wherever I am, in Korea or in Japan or in Scottsdale, my fax machine is busy printing out page after page about the North Korean situation. He always brings me up to date. Mark Barry is now a professor at the University of Phoenix and is working with Mark Anderson at the state house. His wife, Kim, is my dear sister.

Arizona is a great place. What a grandeur in the sunrise in Arizona. Absolutely splendid. You automatically exclaim "how great thou art" when you go to Sedona and the Grand Canyon. God's nature is truly, truly great. When you look at Sedona, the Arizona plain, and the Grand Canyon, you are really struck by an awesome feeling before God.

Today it is God's Day 1999. How wonderful we are giving this first day of the year in honor of our Creator, Heavenly Father. On the way here, there was a big accident. We saw a lot of police cars and an ambulance from Scottsdale. I said to my wife they must have been out drinking last night, crazy, jumping up and down and drinking, and trying to drive home early in the morning. Boom-the accident occurred. This is how the world is trying to celebrate the new year. When you go to Times Square in New York, the crowd is absolutely crazy. I have never been among the crowd; I just see the craziness on television. At 12 o'clock I have always been with Father, listening to His prayer, welcoming the New Year. At the same time, the world is crazy in Times Square. What a different way to welcome the New Year.

I understand you have a block party here, a gigantic party for New Year. I am sure there is a lot of joy and shouting and fireworks and so forth. However, I wondered whether God was there at the party. Probably not. On the other hand, on January 1, we gather together in honor of Heavenly Father, giving this day in honor of Him and giving Him our new commitment for the coming year. What a wonderful way to celebrate the New Year. Amen? Amen.

Today I want to talk to you about this story in the Bible from Matthew 17:14-20 .

... A man came up to him and kneeling before him said, "Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly; for often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him." And Jesus answered, "Oh faithless and perverse generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me." And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, the boy was cured instantly. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?" He said to them, "Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.

This is what faith does. Faith the size of a mustard seed will move a mountain. As Jesus said, nothing is impossible to you. I always try to live by this quotation. This is why True Father added number eight to the Family Pledge: "Our family pledges, as we enter the Completed Testament Age, to achieve the ideal oneness of God and humankind in love through absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience, thereby perfecting the realm of liberation of the Kingdom of God on Earth and in Heaven, by centering on true love."

Through Pledge number eight God wants to emphasize very powerfully, as the Bible says, that with absolute faith, nothing is impossible to you. Now we call it absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience. Mark Anderson said 1999 is the final year of the 20th century. It is amazing that in our lifetime we are passing through the year 2000. It is really miraculous when you think about it. What is the meaning of the year 2000? First of all, it is not only a new century but a new millennium. A new thousand years is starting, not just the 21st century. Many Christians believe that the new millennium will bring the kingdom of heaven on earth. So 1999 is the year for the final cleanup, the final sale. Everything has to be sold out completely, clean, ready to go into the new millennium. But there is even more meaning to the new millennium. Through the Divine Principle we know every thousand years is important. Yet every 2,000 years is more important Something gigantic always happens, ever since the fall of man.

I would like to recount the teaching of the Divine Principle. When the fall came, the world, instead of turning into the kingdom of heaven on earth, became the kingdom of hell. That began a spiritually dark period of 2,000 years, absolutely pitch dark. God could touch nothing, but God was working very hard trying to kindle the seed of faith. God tried through Noah but it didn't work too well. Finally God was successful in kindling the candle of faith on the face of the earth. That was the faith of Abraham. One man was on God's side. Everything else was satanic. As you know, Abraham was the son of an idol-maker, really from the satanic realm. Among that family God restored Abraham, and Abraham demonstrated absolute faith. God ordered him to leave his home town, and Abraham obeyed. God ordered him to give his son Isaac as a burnt offering. Abraham never hesitated. He was completely on God's side. He won with complete, absolute faith.

Father is talking about absolute faith. Abraham's son Isaac was spared through his absolute faith. God had worked for 2,000 years to find that one man. Yet, Abraham also made mistakes; therefore, the dispensation centering on Abraham was extended down to Isaac and Jacob. Jacob's victory gave God his first foothold on earth. So the greatest event in the first 2,000 years was Abraham. God claimed Abraham from the satanic realm. This created the base for the chosen people. The second 2,000 years of history was from Abraham to Jesus. So biblically speaking Jesus came 4,000 years after the fall. The 2,000 years from Abraham to Jesus was the period of preparation for the coming of the messiah. The chosen people were Jacob's descendants. Finally Jesus came 2,000 years later. The greatest event in the first 4,000 years of human history was the birth of Jesus. On that day, history came back to a new starting point, and a new history started clicking. From year one, we are now in the year 1999, with only one more year to go to the year 2000! Amazing. However, what God intended with the birth of Jesus was not another prolongation of the dispensation. God wanted to have done everything at the time of Jesus. He did not plan for the second Christ to come. He wanted to have the ideal of True Parents accomplished at the time of Jesus. If there had been no disobedience of the chosen people, there would have been no crucifixion. We would not be having this service today. God's Day would have been established 2,000 years ago.

However, the crucifixion came about because of the disobedience of the faithless people of Israel. This prolonged the dispensation of the will of God another 2,000 years. There is only one year to go to the year 2000. This is an incredible time we live in. What is the meaning of the year 2000? The year 2000 is like the inauguration of True Parents. The messiah has come to become the True Parent. That didn't happen 2,000 years ago. It is being done in our time with the Second Coming of Christ.

Father was born in 1920. In the year 2000, Father will celebrate his 80th birthday. During this 80 years Father was completely vindicated and victorious over Satan. All the indemnity has been paid. The True Parents were given the power to eradicate original sin. That is the meaning of the year 2000. In the year 2000, everything will come to zero. God will recognize no one except those who are with the True Parents; that is the only distinction. That is why Father is pushing so much with the cosmic expansion of the Blessing. Blessing means what? Recognition by the True Parents. No Blessing means no recognition by the True Parents. That will be the judgment.

This year is the final year of our life, of our sin, iniquities, and shortcomings. We have to get back to total innocence, come back to zero. The only asset we have is our True Parents. No other assets are important to us. The second coming of Christ makes a world zero, zero, zero. Nothing is important except you are with the True Parents or you are without the True Parents. With the Blessing or without the Blessing. That is the difference. Even the Bible says, in Matthew 7:21-23: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers."' Jesus will say, I don't know you. We need True Parents' recognition. All of us should become like a child, innocent, zero, zero, zero. All we need to have is purity of heart and recognition of True Parents.

In the eyes of the world, this gathering in this YMCA building in Tempe, Arizona, is humble, not magnificent. This is not a state house, not an assembly of congressmen. This is not an assembly of scholars. You are ordinary people, ordinary men and women, but I want you to know that you people gathered on New Year's Day at the YMCA in Tempe, Arizona, are the most blessed people, the most fortunate people, because, even if we have nothing else, we have True Parents. The most precious thing for you and me is True Parents. Hallelujah! Among the billions of people in the world, we are the handful of people chosen by God to know the True Parents first in Arizona. Several million people live in this state, but this handful of people have come here to celebrate God's Day in the name of True Parents. We heard the True Parents New Year's message. Who else in Arizona has this privilege? The greatest thing that happened in history is the coming of True Parents. True Parents came in 1920, but the year 2000 is the culmination or inauguration of True Parents on the universal and cosmic stage. That will happen next year. So this year is important because we have to prepare for the inauguration of the True Parents ourselves.

This year is not going to be an easy year. We have to get rid of all the iniquities, all the ungodly things to be ready to enter into the kingdom of heaven on earth next year. Therefore, this year the entire world is going to be on trial. The United States of America is on trial. In fact, the president of the United States is literally on trial this month. The head of state is on trial. That means America is on trial. On what charges? Moral charges. Not financial charges, not violence, but moral charges. It is symbolic of the United States going down morally. In the last several months, the United States has been shamed before the world. Proud America is no longer a proud nation. There was a phrase, "ugly American," but now the whole world is talking about the ugly president of the United States. America's question is a moral question.

That is most important in the sight of God. That is the only thing that God counts. Everything else is secondary to the moral question. America is on trial. America is coming under tribulation, from the White House all the way down to every level of society. Among so many iniquities the worst that God can see is immorality, especially within men and women, all kinds of perverse acts, permissiveness, all kinds of sins are permitted in this country. Financially, everybody says this is the greatest nation and the richest of all. That is absolutely true. I love this country. You know I love America. I have been in America for more than 30 years of my adult life. I love America. AFC/ACC people, Unification Church people all know I love America. This is why I don't want America to go down the drain.

America is deeply wounded at the moment. In the year 1999 we have to liquidate all the iniquities from our society and especially from our family. God can forgive many sins but God cannot forgive one sin, adultery or immorality. So we would like to build a proud America in 1999.

But more important, each of our Unification Church members is on trial in the year 1999. Our faith shall be tested. True Parents will ask us: Do you know me? Do you love me? You can squarely look in the eye of True Parents and answer: Yes, Father and Mother, I know you, and not only do I know you, I love you. I live for you. How else can we say that in the year of 1999; that is the question.

All kinds of trials and tribulations will come in this year to the Unification Church. This year the Unification Church will not prosper. We are being internally tested. Our spiritual faith is being tested. After the year 2000, the Unification Church will blossom, cover the entire universe, but not this year. We have to reorganize ourselves, rebuild ourselves, test ourselves, pass the test. That is our agenda in 1999. Korea too, Japan too. A lot of people all of a sudden have certain doubts. Am I doing right? Is he the Messiah? What happens if he is not the Messiah? Yes, this is the test. This test is not only for you and me, but for everybody, Korean members, leaders, from the top all the way down to the local leaders and members. Many things are going on around True Parents and True Parents' family, but I tell you I have come to the conclusion. Abraham passed the test; he had absolute faith. Jesus Christ, no question, he passed the test. When he was crucified, he was not complaining to God. He said, "God, accept my sacrifice, forgive my enemy who is piercing me with a spear."

I tell you after 41 years of following True Parents, I cannot imagine that anybody can have greater faith in God than our True Parents. Forty-one years of my life in the Unification Church. Forty-one years of being an eyewitness to absolute faith. Even in Father's God's Day message we read today, he said: there is not even one second that I was not thinking about Heavenly Father's well-being and His grieving heart; no one here on earth has ever tasted and expressed the grieving heart of God. I never even imagined that God was grieving before I joined the Unification Church, but even after 41 years of following our True Parents, I was still not feeling the grief of God, not even one-tenth, not even one-hundredth, one-thousandth, as much as the True Parents. It is so obvious. There is such a distance between me and True Parents. I surrendered myself completely to our True Parents, before their absolute faith.

I am not asking that only you to do something. This sermon is a sermon to Bo Hi Pak. I am telling myself what to do in the year of 1999. God tested with absolute faith. As Jesus said, I don't want you to be cast out because of your little faith. As Jesus said, "For truly, I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you." I want to obtain this kind of faith in the year of 1999. This is the culmination of my faith. I want to reorganize myself completely going straight forward, absolute faith. I want to live by absolute faith. Let us move the mountains We have to learn the warning in the life of John the Baptist. The Christian churches have described John the Baptist as the greatest man in the Bible. Wrong! Divine Principle reveals John the Baptist as a man of failure. The main person responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ was John the Baptist. He did not do the job that God was asking him to do, the job of Elijah. He did not even know that he was Elijah.

Today I would like to conclude my sermon by saying we must not repeat the mistake of John the Baptist. When Jesus was beginning his ministry, he asked for baptism from John the Baptist. In John 1:29-34 we read:

The next day he [John the Baptist] saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!..." And John bore witness, "I saw the Spirit descend as a dove from heaven, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' And I have seen and borne witness that this is the Son of God.

You know the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." I like the verse, "I have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord." Here John witnessed to Jesus as the Son of God. Amen. He was correct. He was absolutely correct. But less than three years later, John the Baptist's mind changed.

How long have you been in the Unification Church? I am sure you all have been members for more than three years. I am warning you that in three years the mind can change. It doesn't matter if you follow the True Parents for 41 years. In just three years the mind can change. How John changed is shown in Matthew 11:2-6. John the Baptist was in prison for criticizing Herod and his concubine. This was not John's job. He was supposed to be concerned with the dispensation. He sent his disciples to Jesus and asked, "Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?" That means, are you the Messiah or shall we look for another person as the Messiah? Three years earlier, he himself had witnessed to Jesus as the Son of God, but now he says, "Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?" Jesus was shocked. He did not answer directly. Jesus simply said, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is he who takes no offense at me." [Matthew 11:4-6]

In Matthew 11:11, Jesus said, "Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom is greater than he." The least in the Kingdom is greater than John the Baptist.

So with this teaching, on God's Day 1999, let us reaffirm that we have True Parents. Everybody say amen! Amen? Amen! Let us not ask this question like John the Baptist. Is he the one who is to come? Is Reverend Moon the one who is to come or shall we wait for another? Let us not ask this foolish question. Affirm the Son of God has come, and through True Parents, we will all become God's sons and daughters. What great blessing we have.

There are some young people here looking forward to the Blessing. Second generation, I want you to listen. You are not fully aware of the fortunate position in which you were born, because you are born with it. American people do not fully appreciate how great a country you are living in. You take it for granted. I suffered in my childhood; I grew up in abject poverty, so when I came to the United States, I said this is heaven. But for you: oh, not enough, not enough hamburger, not enough coca cola, not enough ice cream, not enough free time, too much homework, and so forth.

Furthermore you have great parents. Your parents have brought you by birth the greatest blessing. In your body, you don't have any trace of original sin. All you have to do is affirm the True Parents, and you will be in Heaven automatically. We shall live True Parents' moral standard and be able to say: I regret nothing. Hallelujah!

In American history, the person I admire in the War of Independence, in George Washington's army, was a very young officer whose name was Nathan Hale. He was courageous. He went on reconnaissance missions. Reconnaissance is always dangerous; you have to go behind the enemy lines to get the information and bring it back. On one mission, he was not successful-he was captured by the British army. They brought Nathan Hale to their commanding officer, who looked at this handsome, young, innocent man, and he did not want to kill him. The British officer said to him, "Nathan, all you have to do is surrender. Then we will let you live and you can join the British army and we will let you become an officer." Nathan said, no, thank you. Three times they begged him, three times he refused. So he had to be executed. The British officer asked what would his final words be. Nathan said, I have only one regret that I have but one life to give for my country. If I have 10 lives, I will give 10 lives. If I have 100 lives, I will give 100 lives to my country.

What a great patriot. We shall be better than Nathan Hale. Why? Because we serve the True Parents. We regret we have only one life to live for True Parents. We have only one life; therefore, we must do our utmost with this one life. Use it up completely, completely for the sake of True Parents. God bless you. Thank you for listening. I think my time is up. So let us have a wonderful God's Day celebration.

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