God's Possession and Our Possession
Matthew 6:16-34
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea
November 9, 1958
Prayer
Father, the time is approaching when we must direct our steps toward Heaven and run. We have begun to know the great hardships the Father has suffered and learned about His Will. We have also come to know how difficult is the children's responsibility, which the Father wishes us to fulfill.
A person who understands the Father's Will, a person who is to live in the garden the Father grants, understands that he will have to shed tears ceaselessly before the Father. He understands that he will not be able to avoid sustaining an injury as he attempts to go toward the Father. He understands that he will have to go in company with the Father. That person's body will have to bear the marks of all this. He will have deep regret and endless, bitter grief in his heart. He must appeal to Heaven in preparation for the day of the Father's judgment. We know that we must make eternal ties with the Father who seeks such sons and daughters. Please guide us not to stand in a position where we feel we already belong to the Father. Let us not forget that we are too ashamed to speak, too ashamed to act, and too ashamed to even lift our faces.
If there is a person among us who has opened up his mind to the heavenly anxiety and who has experienced the shimjung of the Father in his heart, he will become a friend who cannot help weeping bitterly in sorrow, representing the Father and the people of this nation. We know that he will mourn bitterly in sorrow, representing humankind and will share in the grief that pierced the depth of Heaven and earth and all of the spiritual world.
As we ponder whether we ourselves are in such a position today, Father, please let us become people who at least feel greatly indebted, if we are unable to face the Father who toiled, the Father who was concerned for us, the Father who walked the path of tribulation. My Father, I pray this from the bottom of my heart.
Father, what great sorrow You went through to command and lead the chosen people into the holy castle, the gates of Jerusalem. How great Your suffering has been as You have tried to take care of us and lead us into goodness! Nevertheless, we have forgotten the Father's toilsome effort; we have forgotten the Father's concern. We have forgotten to follow in the Father's footprints as He guides us. Now, since Heaven's elite soldiers are taking action, please allow those actions to follow in the Father's footprints. Allow them to be actions of dignity.
Humankind is unwilling to walk this path. We know that many people today and tomorrow may wish to go this path mentally, but they are not able to put their thoughts into action. Please awaken us to the fact that the responsibility to solve this is not only the Father's responsibility or some leader's responsibility, it is ours.
However, since we have realized that there is an extremely small number of people willing to be responsible for this stark reality, please let the Father's ardent passion overflow our idle minds. Let the Father's sorrowful shimjung overflow in us, thereby allowing us to be righteous people who can step forth seeking the path of Heaven's Will. Father, I ardently wish and desire this.
There are many people who wish for Heaven's blessing, and many people are exerting themselves to the utmost to become the Father's children. However, we know that today, after 6,000 years of history have elapsed, it is still difficult to find the Father's true sons and daughters: devoted people who are willing to be sacrificial offerings before the Father.
We are extremely fearful of becoming a pitiful throng of people who disrupt the Father's providential course. Please allow us to be concerned about the fact that we cannot guarantee that will not happen any more than the ancient Israelites could. Father, I sincerely wish and desire You to guide us to become sons and daughters who, feeling concern about our inadequacies, make exhaustive efforts not to be shameful, anxiety-causing children in the presence of the Father.
Now, when the bitter resentment of our ancestors is blocking our way, when billions of satans of distrust are leading us into temptation, Father, I sincerely wish and desire that You will allow us to be found to be persons of value who can be fully proud in the presence of the Father.
Since we came forth on this day to bow respectfully before You, please allow us to stand in such a position where, by reflecting upon our minds and bodies, we can set up the condition of being able to unite into one, the condition of goodness.
Father, who are these people who pray with concern for You this day? Who are these people who shed tears? Who are these people who grieve on behalf of Heaven and earth? Please bless them and allow the day of glory to come upon them as quickly as possible.
Father, please allow Your sons and daughters gathered here to be responsible, on their own, for what many other people have not fulfilled. Father, I pray from the bottom of my heart that You will allow us to be the sons and daughters who are truthful before the mission that has been left to us, honest and trustworthy before the Will, who can fight on, giving their all for the sake of the one Will of the Father.
Please allow us to analyze, of our accord, how far our paths and positions are from the original ideal garden. I sincerely wish You will guide us to be able to win victory in the fight to dash past that concern.
Please materialize everything this day according to Your Will. If there is a person who is equipped with the heart that can receive the grace of happiness, please work through him and manifest Yourself as he relates to You. I sincerely implore and desire that You bless him according to the devoted efforts he makes for the Father.
Since we entrusted everything to You, Father, please take charge of it all. Ardently soliciting that You will not allow this hour to be one of which Satan takes advantage, we pray all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.
I will speak briefly on the topic "God's Possession and Our Possession."
The Created Things Lost Their Master
We know that the created things have lost their master. We know very well that this is true of us as well. Due to the fall, human beings cannot belong to God in any absolute sense. They cannot own the created things and this world in an absolute sense either. We should know the sorrowful fact that until today, even God, the Absolute Being, has not been able to take charge confidently, asserting that all His created things belong to Him.
For this reason, the historic course until today has been for the purpose of belonging to one master. We must keep in mind that until today, human beings have come through a history of struggle, full of ups and downs, to achieve this purpose, having passed through ages and centuries.
We cannot deny that all created things exist. Therefore, there must be a master who is in charge of these created things, an absolute being. Unless we find an absolute, stable point under the management of that absolute being against whom no one can make a false charge, this world cannot escape the history of struggle.
Believers today know very well that God is unable to assert that all of His creation belongs to Him. In other words, God is in a position where He cannot manage all that He Himself devoted His complete energy to and created according to His Will. He cannot use them as He wishes. That is why God's providential history to restore the original position came into being. That is why religious people have sought God's Will, even as they arrived at unjust death and undeserved persecution.
Heaven cannot directly supervise the numerous children who come forth fighting to attain the one Will, devoting their efforts and risking their lives for the sake of Heaven, centered on goodness and the glory of victory. This is also God's sorrow. You must understand that this is also the grief of righteous people who try to walk the truthful course of faith.
You must realize that the day God is able to boast of His own existential value of possession before the whole cosmos is the day all the accounts of God's providence are settled. It is the focal point of the whole creation's desire, the basic point that Jesus and all the sages, who came and left, idealized.
Look carefully at yourselves and the living environment in which you are. To whom do the things in your possession, you, your family, your society, state and world belong? Can you affirm that they belong to Heaven? You cannot say they belong to Heaven nor can you say they are yours. You must realize that this has been the greatest sorrow of sorrows for fallen humankind. Having set up providential salvation, God could not tell the people following Him to keep all their worldly things and take care of themselves. We have to feel and experience this situation of God's. It is an appalling situation. God was to put human beings in the position of the lords of all things, yet He cannot command them to keep the things they have and still follow Him.
Therefore, he who goes forth on the course of seeking truth will have to realize keenly and feel the sorrowful shimjung of God, from the bottom of his heart, who must tell him to cut off from all the belongings he has and follow Him. He who cannot do that will have no connection whatsoever with God when the time of the restoration of God's right of possession comes.
Religious people today speak of receiving salvation. They speak of their wish to become heavenly people. What is more, they wish to step forth as the chosen third Israel. You must understand that while it is good to have such a mind, the question is whether I, as an individual, have the standard and qualification to become so. This will become a matter for concern. Because Heaven is in a situation where it cannot manage all of creation, we must understand that regardless of how many great people have come and gone on this earth, no brave person has appeared who could completely manage this earth and call it his own.
Until when will this historic course continue? It will continue until the day when the one central figure comes who can assert that this earth belongs eternally to him. Until then, history will go through a course of ups and downs. Some human beings have come forth boasting of their cultures or their political influence and religion as if they belonged to them. However, the center of culture has been transferred to different places according to changes in the stream of thought. Political influence, centered on certain doctrines and assertions, has also taken new turns. Religions have undergone changes. We can see such facts very clearly as we research history. That is, as we look back on the historic course, we can understand that no movement has ever stood in the position to have the decisive right of possession.
The Standard of Moral Doctrine by Which Human Beings Must Abide
The beginning of the fall was when human beings acted at their discretion during the time when God could not completely manage things. If they had acted after welcoming the time when God could completely manage things, they would not have fallen. Ever since the creation of the world, God could not exercise His managerial authority. Incidentally, although numerous people throughout history tried to move a race, tried to move a state, or tried to move the world, no one was able to stand as one totally responsible for his particular age.
The time must come when God manages not only individuals but also the clan, the tribe and the state. Beyond that, He must manage even heaven and earth. Therefore, if Heaven, the earth and the spirit world exist, the ideology of the whole cannot be actualized unless the inevitable movement of God coming to manage them appears in the closing age of history.
That is why Heaven is asking us to give up all the material things we possess, to lay down our lives, to abandon our ideologies and forsake even the feelings of affection we may enjoy on this earth. This is the standard of moral doctrine (truth) upon which God insists.
Why did God set up such a demanding condition as this? Since the time is surely coming when the authority of His possession will be made manifest, God wanted to make us qualified to stand in full measure before Him when that time comes. That is why it has been the indispensable condition by which the people who follow God and seek the Will of goodness must abide.
Looking back on the history of Christianity, we see that God made human beings suffer before giving them happiness. He made them suffer persecution before allowing them to boast. He commanded them to pray ceaselessly, keeping away from environments of enjoyment. The reason God raised this sort of moral standard or truth before human beings was to make them belong fully to Him.
A major directive of the Bible is, You must give up everything and seek His kingdom and His righteousness. Where then will be the Kingdom of God and God's righteousness? Where will be the person who can claim himself as a person of God? What kind of nation will be God's nation? It will be a nation of goodness. It will be a nation that transcends religion, a nation uninterested in nationalistic viewpoints, a nation that stands aloof from discriminating human beings and which rises above sovereign power, beyond any culture or thought.
For that reason, the Kingdom of Heaven is the kingdom that good people, without distinction of East and West, contend is their ideal kingdom. It is the place where they would like to live. Furthermore, the Kingdom of Heaven is the place where one can freely lay claim to his possessions, where one can set forth the notion of truly owning. This is the Kingdom of Heaven for which we yearn.
If there are people within Christianity or in some religious denomination who are immersed in a self-centered or denominationally limited notion of owning, the time will come when those people will surely be struck. The time will definitely come when any doctrine that tries to draw and rally the whole, centered on a single nation, will be struck. It is an ironclad rule.
God forgives even Satan. Why does God forgive Satan, unable to strike him? In the name of what goodness does God listen to Satan's pleas and accept the conditions of Satan's false charges? It is because, although Satan stands against the Will of God and does not follow Him, Satan does not dislike God. Although he does not follow the Will of God, in his mind, he respects and likes God. Satan is earnestly requesting, "Oh, God, I will offer You this world that is in my possession. Please put aside Adam and raise me in his place. If only You will do that, I will then serve and minister to You more than any human being." That means that Satan will attend God in a better fashion than human beings, if God puts him in such a position. Thus, God is put in an awkward position.
God's Possession and Satan's Possession
What did Heaven wish to do by sending numerous prophets and sages and by sending Jesus? It was to exercise the right of possession against Satan by raising a person who knows God's situation more than Satan and who cares for God more than Satan. Accomplishing this task is the purpose of the history of the Second Advent.
What was Satan's motive for becoming Satan? What was the motive that destroyed the heavenly principles? He wanted to receive more love than Adam and Eve. If he had tried to love Adam and Eve more than God loved Adam and Eve, if he had tried to love God more than Adam and Eve loved God, he would not have fallen. Here was the condition in which he was caught. What is evil? Evil is being unable to care for others, rather than oneself. Evil is being unable to serve goodness. Fallen human beings today all are caught in this condition.
What kind of nation is the nation of goodness? What kind of nation is the nation which God can possess? What kind of person can belong to God? What are the created things that can belong to God? What will be the point of conclusion? Whatever is centered on oneself cannot be possessed by God. The being who is centered on God can be absorbed into God. God can possess such a being.
The law in the satanic world demands that one serve and care for oneself. Therefore, people in the satanic world have the notion that the family, the society, the state, the world, and heaven and earth should all exist for their sakes. This is the point of departure from God's law of goodness. What kind of person then is a good person? He is the person who knows how to use all things that he owns, including his ideas, for the sake of others, feeling they all belong to others. He uses them for the sake of the whole, feeling that they belong to the whole.
What kind of phenomena surround being fallen? The phenomena of attempting to draw all created things and the world, even God, into one's self-centered life are fallen phenomena. This happened due to Satan's work.
What is the history of goodness? It is the history of carrying out a revolution within oneself which goes on to pioneer the course of a new direction for the sake of God, the world and others. This is the very purpose of religion.
Looking back on the history of Christianity, we see no one among the people who followed the Will and mission of God who lived for the good of themselves, regardless of their era. The great men who commanded and attached importance to themselves, served and cared for themselves all have disappeared. All such people will face criticism after the lapse of time in history.
The Doctrine Which Jesus Promulgated
What was the purpose of Jesus' coming to this earth? The purpose was to restore a nation God could own, a man whom God could own and to restore all created things. What doctrine did Jesus promulgate? His principle was to sacrifice himself and serve the nation, the world and the cosmos. The person who serves and sacrifices for the sake of the cosmos becomes the central figure of the cosmos.
We can see many such people, even in the evil world today. We can understand that the people who give devoted service and sacrifice in silence will become the central figures wherever they go, in their nation, their society, anywhere.
Now we must feel we have the responsibility to restore God's authority to own our individual selves, our families, our society, our nation, the world and the cosmos. This kind of right of ownership is not for God Himself to set up; it is for human beings to establish and resolve for Him. Because this very important duty has been left unfulfilled, the numerous sages and wise men who represented the historic providence could not but go forward, even at the price of beheading and death, to fulfill this duty.
Jesus could not claim to be the son of God while working for thirty years in the house of Joseph. He could not claim that he was the heavenly ambassador plenipotentiary. Jesus knew that even God had not been able to make such a claim throughout the long history. That is why even in the moment of his last prayer in sight of the cross in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus could not center on his will. Rather, he prayed, "Father! Not according to my will but according to Your Will."
The more strongly Jesus felt a sense of mission and responsibility toward the earth as the Savior, the stronger and greater grew his awareness of his existence and ownership. Yet Jesus knew only too well he should not live for his own sake. Furthermore, Jesus knew that he had to be owned by God, be God's possession to the furthest degree. He knew how to experience God's heart and, at the same time, how to seek the Will of God. Therefore, he was able to substitute his heart for God's heart, and he came to stand in a position where he could substitute his will for God's Will. Furthermore, you must know that he was able to equip himself with the qualifications of the Savior before all created things and before humankind as the one who must follow the Will and heart of God.
The Qualifications of the People of the Heavenly Kingdom
What kind of people would the people of the heavenly kingdom be? They are the throng who steps forth under the flag of service. For that reason, to save a certain race today, we must distribute everything we own for that race. If that is not enough, we must become the people who know how to give even their lives. These are the very people of the heavenly kingdom. God is in a situation where He has to gather this kind of person and accomplish the ideology of the heavenly kingdom.
Since you have come to know that Jesus wishes to fix the value of true ownership upon this earth, you should think about yourselves. Jesus said, "Do not be anxious, saying, `What shall we eat?' or `What shall we drink?' or `What shall we wear?'" (Matthew 6:31) This was the word of warning that seemed contradictory to the people of that age.
Why did Jesus speak such words? The heavenly ideology of ownership remained to be restored even at the cost of not eating, drinking and dressing well for 6,000 years.
If there is a certain race that is starving and miserable, God is in a more miserable situation than that race. If a certain race feels mortified, God is in a situation where He feels more mortified.
Nevertheless, God is more concerned about us than we are. When Jesus saw that the people who should have understood this could not understand it and worried only about themselves, he spoke such words. Accordingly, if there is a person today who seeks His kingdom and His righteousness as the word of Jesus said to do, he should lay aside his hunger and anxiously appeal to Heaven, saying, "How many good people are subjected to starvation like myself on the earth?" It is not strange for one who cannot stand in a position of goodness to be subjected to starvation, but people who are in a position of goodness should not face starvation. We must feel concern for the sake of such people. We must realize that we are saddled with this kind of fate. That is why Jesus spoke such words, willing that even if one is not able to wear things and eat, one can still make effort to build the kingdom and the people God can own.
Since it is said that God exists, what kind of people would He then choose? What kind of people would He choose to keep as His children? He would look for the person who goes beyond his hunger and his difficulties, who is able to give his blessing for the sake of others with uplifted hands. He would look for a person who knows how to go beyond his vexation and sorrow and cry out of concern for God's vexation and sorrow.
Therefore, looking at his enemies from the top of the cross where his own fate hung in the balance, Jesus was unable to say, "Oh, Heaven! Eternal Heaven! Please administer divine punishment upon them." Instead, he lifted his hands and invoked blessing upon them. You must know that such a heart is the heart of the heavenly kingdom. It is none other than the heart of God.
On the basis of this principle then, when we look carefully at our own religious life and Christianity, which is said to believe in God, how many people are there who are worthy of the heavenly kingdom? Going farther, where is the race that God can eternally claim as His own? Where is the land that God can claim as His kingdom? Where are such things, such a person?
You all wish to go to the Kingdom of Heaven. Not only that, from time to time we happen to see people who confidently claim, "Ah! The Kingdom of Heaven is mine." When we see such people, we come to wonder how anyone could declare that so confidently, more certain of the aspect of ownership than God Himself.
Since even God Himself cannot stand in a position where He claims that the heavenly kingdom belongs to Him, and since Jesus also cannot stand in a position where he claims that the heavenly kingdom belongs to him, how can they do so? Jesus is still in a position where he prays to Heaven. God also is making effort as of this moment.
What is the reason billions of people in the spirit world are cooperating for the sake of the earth and are unable to lead a joyful life in the seat of liberation, the seat of glory? Why would they have to stand in such a place? From the time of the creation of the world to the present, God has been unable to stand in a position in which He could realize the heavenly kingdom and claim it as His own. In spite of God being in such a situation, some faithful believers on the earth today are speaking so, contrary to the principles of the heavenly way.
The Reason the Faithful Believers Must Walk the Path of Hardship
The closer you walk toward Heaven, the more you dissolve Heaven's bitter resentment, and the more deeply indebted you feel. For 6,000 years, God has been seeking His kingdom and people on this earth. Consequently, the historic debt of the toil of His seeking has accumulated for 6,000 years. Therefore, even if my individual self has satisfaction and happiness, I cannot say I own the heavenly kingdom.
If one is a son or a daughter of Heaven, he or she is left with the earth and the world for which he or she is responsible and for which he or she must be concerned and offer protection in God's place. In other words, as long as anything that God cannot own remains, he or she should feel that he or she cannot have confidence in himself or herself.
For that reason, although Jesus came to this earth with the privileges of the Prince of Heaven, he could not exercise them, not even once. Everywhere he went, he washed the feet of his disciples and aided people. Jesus did not live even one day of his life for his purpose.
Looking back on Jesus' life, we realize that he lived only for the good of others. His was a life of grief in which he struggled hard for the sake of others; he shed tears for the good of others; he was abused for the benefit of others; he was torn in the interest of others and he faced death for the good of others.
If God cannot dissolve this sorrow of Jesus, then God is useless. For that reason, we must liberate God from this iron chain of sorrow. Until the day He can claim that the whole of heaven and earth are His with uplifted hands and say to all humankind, "Let's rejoice together!" we cannot make a case for ourselves. Because these vicissitudes existed, Christianity put emphasis on love, sacrifice and service and made an emphatic point out of living a life of persecution and contemptible treatment.
What do we have to do to be owned by God? We have to be able to shed many tears for God's sake. You will be God's possession as much as you have the mind to grieve for God's sorrow in His place. You will be God's possessions as much as you shoulder God's hardships in His place. You will be God's possession as much as you take false accusations from Satan in God's place.
Therefore, you will become God's possessions as much as you have rendered devoted service. That is not realized in a fair place; it is realized when human beings cling to sorrow or pain that all others have shunted aside, detesting them, and when they give devoted service. This is the path of Principle which Christians must walk.
The reason Korean Christianity caught fire was that Christians in the early days walked this kind of course. If a throng of people had appeared denying this, saying, "Since we are the people of the heavenly kingdom, why do we have to die?" God's providential Will would not have spread throughout Korea.
If Jesus himself had denied this, saying, "Since I am the Son of God, why do I have to die? Why do I have to be abused and receive contemptuous treatment?" the course of salvation that you believe in today would not have been possible in human history.
What was the reason that all nations educate their people as patriots or in devoted service? Some patriots deserted their families, abandoned their desires and their honors to represent the will of their nation. You must know that they were people who took upon themselves the pain of their nations. They took upon themselves the sorrow of their nations and grieved. They tried to take responsibility for everything in their nation, representing the central figure. You must know that this is the right attitude to have in abiding by the laws of Heaven.
In this confused world today, numerous people insist upon having a high opinion of themselves and try to manifest their authority. It is difficult to find a truthful Christian. It is even more difficult to meet true sons and daughters of God, truthful people whom God can own. Now we should usher in a friend of ours, become people of the heavenly kingdom and organize a tribe by forming a religious order.
Where in Korea is one saint or faithful believer who has been claimed as the possession of God? Where is that one religious order? Where is that one race? We must shout, pouring out all the strength that is in us, until we are completely exhausted. We must realize that the time has arrived when we must seek, running until we fall.
The Youth Who Must Save the Race and the World
The mind that desires to serve the thirty million Korean people before you serve yourselves, the mind that tends to think of all humankind on this earth before you think of yourselves, must seep out of you today. Going further, the mind that can cry, holding onto even one blade of grass, should be unconsciously exploding in the midst of your mind. Unless you have this shimjung, you cannot become God's complete sons and daughters.
Such human beings are the fruit of God's tears, the fruit of God's pains. They are also the sacrificial offering on God's bloody altar. In spite of this, human beings do not think about this and step forth asserting themselves shamelessly. The same goes on with all created things.
Who is the person to pioneer the path for these Korean people to walk? The people who beat the ground and weep bitterly, beating their chests for the sake of these people, must emerge. Who is to straighten up this fragmented religious scene? The young men and women who have burning a passion to grab hold of the religious scene should come forth prepared for a bloody battle, beating the ground and appealing to fight against the hypocrites.
Who are the people who will save this world? They are none other than you young men and women. You must think about this again.
Today's Western material civilization is highly developed. With the continent of Egypt as the starting point, Western civilization has been shaped until now by going through the Assyrian, Babylonian, Greek and Roman civilizations.
Upon what did Egypt, which boasted of its civilization of more than 3,000 years at the time of Jesus, build its civilization? This is part of the history of religion.
The Egyptians worshipped a sun god and believed in a god called Osiris. They armed themselves with this faith and thought. With unified energy, they built a powerful nation and civilization. By adopting this religion as their policy and ideology, they consolidated an established format, and by leading the people toward that ideal standard, they created the Egyptian civilization.
The Lesson Learned in the Process of the Development of History, Centering on Religion
Thus, the Egyptians established a standard they could maintain as a nation. Through that, they held sway over the world. Yet beyond their own people, they should have absorbed any good points that existed in other nations. If they had changed by sacrificing whatever they needed and accepting the better standard, they would not have perished.
Although that nation perished, civilization continued to develop with the progress of history. While the Assyrian and Babylonian civilizations developed in the Orient, Hebraism, centered on Judaism, was formed in Palestine, and a God-centered civilization developed.
In Greece, civilization centered on the ideology of an external god. This developed and later harmonized with various trends of thought and worship of the arts. The realm of knowledge is the unique religious ideology founded by the Greeks.
The worldwide sphere of civilization was formed in such a manner. While passing through a period of confusion, it merged with Christian thought. This later traversed Rome and Christian civilization was thus established.
In medieval times, Christianity absorbed everyone under it indiscriminately and brought about homogeneity. However, because it could not actualize its purpose and became very worldly, God had to strike medieval Christianity.
If the papal court at Rome had not been corrupt and had a sense of mission to exist for the sake of the world and the good of the humankind, subscribing to and promulgating the thought of putting the benefit of others before one's own benefit, it would not have collapsed.
Since the Roman papal court could not do thus, God deemed it too reprehensible to be left alone. He struck it externally by bringing about the Renaissance and internally by bringing about the Reformation. After that, the Puritans crossed over to the American continent, and came to build a nation there centering on Christian ideology. The political ideology of Rome, the religious ideology of Christianity, and the intellectualism of Greece all blended into one and led to the formation of Pan-Americanism, which controls the democratic world today.
Now, to fulfill its national responsibility and mission and to be able to exercise the authority of ownership until today's democracy can be connected to the heavenly principles, what kind of thought must America have? First, it must discard its "America First" policy. This is the most important thing, above all else, for the American people.
If America insists that its economy, culture, technology, scientific advancement and political system exist only for the sake of its people, America will be struck. That was why the Renaissance sprang up to awaken people. Today communism has appeared and has been awakening people. From now on, ideologies and religions will be invaded by a movement. In times like these, we must discern heavenly movements with the mind of a seer.
From where will the religious ideology that can land America a blow emerge? People will have to consider this with an open mind.
This is a processional phenomenon of the development of history that takes place because human beings could not recover the authority of the Absolute Being's ownership. This takes place to lead them to that position, even if they must be struck.
What was the Renaissance? It was the restoration of Hellenism; that is, it was a movement to restore the original human nature, based on the Greek ethos, emphasizing human consciousness. Similarly, within the domain of today's America-centered democracy, Christianity must return to the original Christian spirit. A movement must take place in which people believe, not only in the words already revealed, but find the thoughts contained in the words and re-arm themselves centering on that. If the present Christianity cannot do so, it will end up in the same position as Roman Catholicism in the Middle Ages.
Why is that? What is required is not God's Word, but God's person, God's people and God's nation. The words emerge for that purpose.
What God Wishes to Own
Now the time must come when, having passed the absolute age of the Word, we will have to build the absolute age of substance. Therefore, after going through the Word transit age, the final historic age of the substance transit age will come. This age is the so-called "age of judgment."
When we consider this, we see that history is ringing an alarm for us today. The steps of the prophets and sages of the past are guiding our lives and their spirits are governing the trend of our thoughts in the background. For that reason, people who drift away will definitely see the day when heavenly laws will judge them.
What then will happen after God has reclaimed the earth, having restored an earthly person and made him Heaven's? That person must recognize the day when he can boast that God's life is his own. He must recognize the day when he can boast of God's ideology and love before the whole universe and humankind.
Is there anyone among you today who can boast thus? If there is, please come out. Is there anyone who has wanted to risk even his life in trying to realize the heavenly kingdom of glory? If there is, please come out. Furthermore, is there anyone who can step forth saying that he will become God's own and build the heavenly kingdom on this earth?
Many people in the process of restoration may have tasted the heavenly kingdom while still in the domain of Satan's accusations. Yet there is no one who has truly experienced the taste of the fatherland of eternal peace, the heavenly kingdom, having eliminated Satan. He who has experienced the taste of the true heavenly kingdom and felt the love of God will receive the impetus to fight with Satan. Once a person experiences the taste of the true heavenly kingdom and receives the love of God, he will never leave God again. A man who has experienced the love of God must appear on this earth.
What must belong to God? It begins from a clump of grass, from a pyung of land, from a man and from the smallest unit. It includes everything up to the heavenly kingdom; going further, it includes the world of God's shimjung. That ownership should not be relative or conceptual. It should be subjective. Only if such a world is built will God rest for the first time.
Human beings cannot help liking what God likes. For that reason, God decided upon the seventh day as the Sabbath and told man to rest. Did you know that God has not been able to rest on a Sabbath day even now, after 6,000 years of history?
Jesus emphasized the Word of God and came forth inheriting the vicissitudes of 2,000 years of providential history, during which the Sabbath was upheld as most important. However, has the day of triumphant glory come when Jesus could vaunt himself to the Father and say for Him to take a rest, together with humankind? No, there has not. Since God and Jesus are not in a situation where they can rest, neither can we.
Before the time of rest comes, there will be a war; before the time of rest comes, there will be suffering and death. When we steel ourselves and pass over this, we will then enable ourselves to taste rest for the first time. Jesus tasted one aspect of resting after his crucifixion. That was after he had passed through such a path.
What must we possess? We must possess the garden of rest, the garden of happiness, the garden of goodness, the garden of love and the ideal. However, before we possess these, we will have to be hit by Satan, as well as by Heaven. Jesus was hit by Satan and by Heaven. The Pharisees chased Jesus out, and at the same time, the Romans chased him out. In view of the fact that Jesus ardently prayed at the crucifixion, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46) we can see that God had abandoned him too.
Therefore, he who will possess and be possessed by the Kingdom of Heaven is one who will be put in a most miserable situation in the course of seeking God. Among the races of the world, which will be the one that will own God? The most miserable race will possess God. The closer a race is to such misery, the nearer it is to God.
The Man and Race God Can Own and Their Responsibility
Consequently, a great tribulation will come in the last days. What does this mean? The one who is strongly minded to own things centered on himself, the one who works to ensure his own self-centered comfort, will receive a strike in the face. This is the great tribulation. Still, considering that the Father is trying to awaken human beings by allowing them to pass through such tribulations, we must return thanks to Him.
People who try to live and die for the sake of truth will become miserable. Therefore, we must understand that the group of people who are saved from the grave of death will become the central figures in the garden of rest. He who holds onto and lives according to the truth to which Jesus attested will become Jesus' and God's possession, even if he casts away the rest of the Bible.
A person who says he is in charge based on who he was in the past, or who complains that people do not recognize him even though he has done such and such, should pack his bag and leave. Such a group of people will eventually be cleared away.
Suppose you have a mind aglow with righteousness, eager to build the new garden of ideology. Your every movement should then be for the purpose of attaining the Will and authority of God's ownership. Accordingly, you will now rise above yourselves and fight representing the world. Your hands, your footsteps and your bodies will have to move in that direction.
Today is the age of the macrocosm, in which we must fulfill the ideology of re-creation. To become brave hearts of Heaven and build a new garden of rest in such a time, we should first push out all the elements with which Satan can meddle. What is more, we should serve and minister to God and offer Him comfort after bringing everything over to the heavenly kingdom. To do that, you will have to have the shimjung to walk the difficult path more gallantly than Jesus, who walked for the sake of Heaven; more gallantly than anyone who walked for the sake of the Will during the last 6,000 years.
Before you own the world and ideal of God, you must own God's pain and sorrow and the difficult situation He has endured. Such people will be able to take charge of hell, as well as the heavenly kingdom.
How could Jesus take charge of hell? If Jesus had assumed the responsibility for the Will of God only in its good aspect and died for the sake of God only in its good aspect, then he would have been able to manage the heavenly kingdom, but not hell. Therefore, because Jesus established the heavenly standard by keeping his integrity even in hell, he set the standard of being able to manage hell too.
Now you should tread over the tribulation of hell and stand up and equip yourselves to be able to win victory over Satan in high spirits. To do that, you must know how to give witness to the goodness of God, how to be concerned about the righteousness of God and how to manifest the comprehensive Will of God, all in high spirits.
Only when that happens can we receive Heaven's blessing for the first time. When that time arrives, we Christians can step forth before Heaven. For that reason, we must run to the stage of the final judgment, the point of the final decision. Accordingly, you must now run toward that place as an individual, as a people and as a world. Yet to go over it, all individuals and the world beyond the individual will face a strike in the face.
You must realize that the throng of people who go over this, feeling thankful to become a new heavenly people and establish a new family, a new society and a new nation, will build the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, he who feels concern and cries for himself will become a pitiful person. That is why we Unification Church members are induced to fast on occasion. What is it for? It is to have you leave the position of self-centered striving. That is why you are made to fast and endure ordeals. If you avoid such suffering, you will get a strike in the face. You must go over it, saying, "Thank you."
God has endured with patience for 6,000 years to raise Satan to the standard where he too does God's work. The day when you subjugate all human beings who acted in evil-centered ways into going the way of goodness is the day of the great judgment. He who can boast of himself in the presence of God will rise above the great judgment and be owned by God.
The Priority for Human Beings Is to be Owned by God
People today speak of God in a self-centered way, but they are wrong in this. Jesus said, "I am in the Father and the Father in me." For this we should be grateful. You too must experience such a feeling. If that happens, you will realize that the world, the whole universe you thought you had lost, is in front of you in a more splendid way, with God.
The words "I am in you and you in me," are not empty words. Only when that happens do things that belong to God simultaneously belong to me, and vice versa. That is something about which to boast. God cannot do without me. Why? God created all creation for human beings. Because He established human beings as the object or focal point that returns all of creation to Him, without human beings, God cannot do anything.
Therefore, when we look at the world, all things are in line with the principles of circular movement. If force expands only on a straight line, it is an eternal waste. The foremost principled purpose of God's having created the world was to bend the direction of force expanding on a straight line. Therefore, the principles of the world are the principles of circular movement, and they are the principles of motion. When you study chemistry, you research and analyze materials and observe all phenomena of moving and acting. You then come to realize that nothing that exists goes out of line with the principles. All things are revolving 360 degrees. The universe revolves, society revolves, and my mind also revolves.
He who knows how to revolve centered on God's heart, which is the center of the whole universe, will revolve if God revolves. As long as God revolves, this universe will revolve too. If God revolves, we will revolve, and all of creation will revolve too.
Only when we stand in such a position will we feel God's heart transform into our own and be able to experience God's heart. Having done so, St. Paul not only strongly felt the state of not knowing whether he was inside his body or out of it; he was also able to feel the heaven of three stories, the value of the existence of an invisible substantial entity. The power of a person of faith springs forth from there.
Jesus has endured until now, looking forward to the time when he could make a plea for such a state. Christian believers also have been enduring until now, looking forward to such a time.
Has the state of your minds reached such a standard? You must first become God's possession. My subjective point of view belongs to God, and my life also must be God's possession. Going further, the family, the society, and all the things we have belong to God. All must be God's possessions.
God cannot take things that have been made dirty through Satan's management. Satan's elements of sin should not be there. God takes only after eliminating the elements of sin by striking them. Restoration history has been fraught with this sorrow of God's.
For that reason, when we offer up a sacrifice, we must lift a sword and split it. Such a time will come to you too. Therefore, the last days will be a time of dividing. Having divided, wars will be waged. Korea is divided into north and south. More than six nations similar to Korea must emerge in the world. Things cannot move out of line with this principle.
Having understood these things, even if you offer up your lives to the Father, He cannot readily accept them. If He did, God would get caught in the Satan's eternal false charges. Therefore, He takes only after striking. Only then will Satan not make false representations.
That was why Noah, whom God had chosen, was in such a position. Abraham, Moses and Jesus were also in such a position. It is the same case for us today. If there are people who wish to avoid that path, they are not the throng of people who may enter Heaven by the gate. They are like thieves or robbers who try to go over, not through, the main gate by climbing the fence.
We Must Know God's Mind and Situation
What is a thief or robber? He who attempts to employ and make use of what belongs to others is a thief and a robber. We must know this and go over the crest of restoration.
In this light, you must understand the Father's sorrowful situation. No matter how hard you pray, saying, "I will offer up my life to You," He cannot accept it, saying, "Oh, yes, I have truly longed for your life." Before you understand such a situation, God will never be able to accept it, even if we offer up all that we have in His presence. Jesus was to tell human beings about this situation and help them resolve it. However, he died without being able to do so. Therefore, you must understand that the sorrowful reality of the need for a Second Advent has remained until this day.
What then must we who are faced with the last days do? We have to earnestly request, "Please let us know of the Father's sorrowful situation, of Your mind full of vicissitudes." Furthermore, if there is a way to receive redemption by paying indemnity only once rather than ten times, then you should step forth looking for that way. This is the path Christian believers must walk in the last days. We are faced with the worldwide fate to look for such a path and go over it. We are to go over the path of tribulation and win a victory.
It is being prophesied that in the last days there the great judgment, the seven year tribulation, will come. He who dislikes being struck and avoids it will have difficulty going to the heavenly kingdom.
However, you must understand that God wishes for sons and daughters to emerge who can enjoy such a time and who can say, "Please let it come promptly. By striking me again and again, even if I breathe my last breath, please allow me to go over the seven year tribulation."
If you become a person like this, it will be no problem for you to possess the history of 6,000 years. You will own the heavenly kingdom and God's heart. Consequently, you must know that if you report to Him and make a request, you stand as a being whom God can possess and lend His ears. That is, you have the value of being God's absolute representative. When that happens, you must understand that God will boast of us for the first time, and the day will come when we can politely bow our heads and offer comfort to the Father who has toiled for us.