Hyung Jin Moon
October 29, 2008
Hyung-jin nim's speech at the regional presidents meeting on True Children's Day, October 29
Father has instructed us to build a temple to be used by two hundred and ten thousand members in Korea as the beginning point of the establishment of Cheon Il Guk. On October 12, he gave it the name Cheon Bok Gung. Situated in the center of Seoul, it will become the foundation of the Unificationist Community that no one can refute, as well as the substantial foundation capable of moving the nation spiritually and bringing all religions into unity. That site will become the New Jerusalem...
At that temple serving two hundred and ten thousand members, the temple for world peace and unification -- Cheon Bok Gung -- we will work with True Parents to establish all religions' vertical relationship with True Parents.
We are making preparations even now. There will be a place for all religions to hold services. In this way, those religions will be able to come into a relationship with our Unification Family and with True Parents, vertically, and through the temple, we will be able to show the world a historic accomplishment.
The former president of Costa Rica visited us at our Headquarters Church, which at present has about five thousand members. We have plans to continue to invite prominent people. We will have them come to our Sunday service. In the future, dignitaries from around the world will come not only to attend our events, such as inter-religious conferences, but to attend our services. We need to bring them to recognize True Parents.
Although we are a small church now, when our temple serving two hundred and ten thousand is built in a central location in Seoul, we can meet prominent leaders there. Based on our already having laid a foundation, we will be able to present things in such a way that people will come to attend our service and later become Unification Church members.
I believe we will even get Elder Lee Myung-bak to come to attend our service! [Aju!]
The crux of this is that though True Parents are able to influence Korea, socially and culturally most important is that they can influence the nation spiritually. Through the temple, we will bring all religions to recognize True Parents' position. We have already established a Protestant-style Unification Church service and a Catholic-style service at the Headquarters Church, and we are initiating a Buddhist-style service. Now we will work with these religions and bring them into a relationship with True Parents. Religions will not connect to us horizontally but their followers will come to know True Father as the Messiah, the Maitreya and the True Man. This will be the substantiation of the content of the Resurrection chapter.
Cheon Bok Gung will be the headquarters and center of the Unificationist Community, and when people think of the Unification Church, what will come to mind is the image of representatives of the religions working with True Parents. That will be a scene representing the world.
This will not be just a one-off event: every week, Unification Church members -- among them Buddhist Unification Church members, Protestant Unification Church members and Catholic Unification Church members -- will come to attend services, practice and express their faith. Of course, a worldwide church such as the Yoido Full Gospel Church is big and many Christians attend service there, but when the world sees us, they will see something of a totally different nature. Ours will not be services only for Christians but for all types of believers, coming together to attend True Parents. We need to offer this up to True Parents.
Thus, this temple will not be merely a symbol, but the actual point from which Cheon Il Guk, the substantial fulfillment of what is foretold in Divine Principle, is established. The temple will be the basis upon which we can move nations...
It will be the third temple of God, the perfection stage of the temple that was last seen two thousand years ago. In other words, this temple will not be one in which we look for the Messiah; it will actually be run by the Messiah! It will belong to True Parents.
We must dedicate this temple of substantial resurrection to True Parents. True Father has said that this should be the top priority in all nations, so we should certainly do our best to focus and work hard to build this temple of God.
In saying this, we will not omit to build the temple as Joshua and Caleb did after they entered the Promised Land. We will enter and enable this temple to take deep root so that our tradition and our religion can grow forever. You may already know -- and I have spoken of it several times in my sermons -- that the second generation made that mistake. After they entered the Promised Land, the second generation forgot what they had promised to do. A temple should have succeeded the Tabernacle. They omitted to fulfill that, however, so they had no place in which to worship God. For that reason, their nation easily and quickly fell into secular ways, and the providence was prolonged.
This could also happen to us, and so we must certainly to strengthen our church, our faith and our membership. True Father has said that our church is the root. If there were no church, there could be no root. We would neither have the Divine Principle from True Father nor be able to explain about True Father. Father would just be some peace-lover, or the big leader of an organization, or the founder of a big company.
Our work must have religious significance, and through it, we need to maintain our tradition and deeply implant it. This temple is the eternal, irrefutable and substantial expression of that process, and the amazing work of resurrection that will be revealed to the world while True Parents are still on earth. It will become the central place that protects our root. The temple will become the eternal place where the eternal word of God and the Divine Principle and word given by True Father can last forever, and where people can attend service, offer kyung-bae, and develop their life of faith.
Father has said this task is not only the responsibility of Korea, or of Japan, but that of the whole world.
I pray in the name of True Parents that we will become devoted sons and daughters who will bring to realization this perfection-stage providence in the form of Cheon Bok Gung and dedicate it to True Parents. [Aju! Applause]
Brothers and sisters, we must inherit this goal and this task. With a sense of ownership, let us lead the providence of Cheon Bok Gung and bring it to fruition for True Parents.
Thank you.