The Responsibility of Those Who Have Become the Root
Genesis 18:22-19:12 Isaiah 6:11-13
June 1, 1956
Former Church Headquarters
Prayer 1
Beloved Father! You know the hearts of the children who have gathered here, so please allow every cell of their bodies to move toward the Father of compassion. Please let the whole of their minds and bodies become captured by Your hands of love. Please let them emerge as the essence of harmony of the whole. Purify them in this hour to become the soldiers of Heaven who can put their life on the line and dash forward for the sake of testifying to Your words.
Father, please consider with sympathy the many children who have gathered here. We know that we must walk the fateful course of restoration, which requires us to ascend each level by relying on the words of life that You have permitted, Father of love, so please extend the hands of love, and holding onto our unworthy hands, please guide us. We lay down before You, joining our minds and bodies, Father, so please grab us and lead us. Raising us up, please convert our minds into the mind of God. I sincerely hope and desire this.
Father, please bless the many people who are participating here, and please allow God's miracle of life, inspiration and resurrection to take place. We have divulged all the concepts of this world that we hold and have come before You with the meek and humble heart of a child. Father, with Your hands of grace, please give rise to the miracle of recreation. Please reveal the fire of the Holy Spirit. Beloved Father, we wish that You would unveil the love that was hidden, and let these ones open the door of the blocked off realm of death in the last days, and that You will allow the Father's glory of victory to be revealed.
We know that we do not need many words now. Even if the children who have gathered here do not receive many words, please lead them to digest fully the grace You have granted them. God, our Father, in this hour we have made the pledge and determination toward You in order to fulfill the promised will that You have allowed, so please fill all the empty vessels. Please raise us up as the children who can be intoxicated in Your abundant love and return glory to the Father. In this hour, please allow the grace that will guide us to become the children You can love. We wish this sincerely.
Please tie together the heart of the speaker and the heart of the listener, and let our minds move in step with the movement of Heaven. Let our bodies move in synchronization with the movement of Heaven, so that we can model after and take after the nature and image of the Father. We earnestly wish and desire that this be done.
Wishing that the remaining hour will also be full of Your compassionate guidance and words, we prayed in the name of the loving Lord. Amen.
Prayer 2
In this day that You have allowed us, we have lain prostrate for the sake of bowing before the Father, so please penetrate into the heart of each individual who has gathered here and please nurture in them impeccable minds. Loving Father, we earnestly wish and desire that You allow the bows we offer in this hour to become the bows of comfort that can soothe Your anguished heart. Let this hour be the time when You can command us and entrust Your will to us.
Father! It was You who gathered these children here. It was also You who have moved them inside the realm of life by advising them, so please grant the fire of the Holy Spirit that You have promised and help each of our minds and bodies come together in harmony to bring happiness to everyone. Loving Father, we hope fervently that the whole of the holy nature that You demand will come out into the light in this hour.
Father, please pour down upon the children who have gathered here the love of compassion, and move everyone's heart to lean toward the glory of Heaven through the work of the Holy Spirit. By doing so, we earnestly hope that You will accept this hour as the time of bowing when we can represent all of humanity and all of the creation in heaven and on earth. Opening the door of the holy of the holies and going near the Father, we pray we may offer the living sacrifice of victory.
Please raise these people to stand near You on the foundation of our bows. Going one step further, we fervently hope that You will bestow an opportunity when the whole of humanity can escape from the realm of sin and evil and cross over into the realm of goodness that You, Father, govern.
We know that even now, dotted all across this land, there are those who are praying ardently and building altars before Heaven, representing the people. No matter where people are bowing toward Heaven, we pray that You will bless each place with the same grace and will prophesy the whole dispensation You are going to reveal in the last days. We pray that You will fulfill the will You wanted to realize through this people, and that by accomplishing their mission to testify, the people can lay the foundation to bring joy to God.
In this hour, we have put down before You the heart that will enable everyone's mind and body to bow before the Father and obey. Please, without any hesitation, give to them directives as to all that You promise and plan to fulfill.
Wishing that the works of the Trinity will abundantly fall upon our heads, I prayed in the name of the Lord. Amen.
The topic of the talk I want to give now is "The Responsibility of Those Who Have Become the Root." If you look at Isaiah 6:11, it is written, "Then I said, 'For how long, O Lord?' He answered: 'Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, until the Lord has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken. And though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste. As the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.'" Here God reiterates that if any root remains, He is going to use that root to blossom new buds and begin a new dispensation.
The ancestors of humankind, Adam and Eve, should have fulfilled the hope and ideal of all humanity with the one immutable root of heaven and earth. However, you know very well that because they fell, that fundamental root was dug up, pulled out and transplanted in the satanic world.
The Center of God's Dispensation
For this reason, the central point of the dispensation God has been guiding until today is to find the fundamental root that could become the root of man's happiness in the Garden of Eden. It is the root of the ideals, the root of life or the root of love. In other words, God's dispensation was to find again that fundamental root God had tried to implant through Adam and Eve. Although the countless prophets and sages who have upheld the will of the dispensation in the course of history did not understand the situation of Heaven, the suffering that they have gone through for the sake of the will has laid the groundwork on which to receive the lost root, the goal of the dispensation, as the unchanging, substantial being.
During the 4,000 years since the beginning of dispensational history, the Jesus you believe in is the one who was raised to claim back the root lost in the Garden of Eden. In other words, the mission of Jesus Christ was to re-establish on the fallen earth the one vineyard that God can manage freely after He acquires the root that can be used as the base and then perpetuate it forever. This is the very purpose for which God sent Jesus to this earth.
You must understand that the 4,000-year period since the embarking of the dispensation of Heaven to the time of the coming of Jesus was a path of suffering on which countless saints and sages shed tears and blood centering on the will of Heaven. In other words, you must never forget that, although there have been different dispensational wills representing the tribe, people, nation, world or history, by the time the dispensational will centering on that tribe and history passed through the chosen region or environment, there were the ordeals of countless prophets and sages before it who became the root. Jesus was sent as the substantial person who could cultivate the root on the individual, societal and world levels.
We who believe in Jesus today must know that all the ordeals of Jesus during his thirty years of life and in his work of the 2,000 years since his death was borne on behalf of the world. What is more, you must understand the tribulations of the prophets and sages who, as the hidden root, faced difficult crises in history and have been fighting with the enemy in the background until the time when they are established as the perfected root.
Abraham Lived a Life Full of Unseen Ordeals
Abraham was the one in the historical background who made it possible for Jesus to be established as the perfected being. Abraham possessed a concealed character of virtue. He did not betray Heaven even when he was in an environment where no one recognized him. In other words, even when he was in a situation where he was captured by the enemy country inside the satanic realm and faced the temptation to betray the will of Heaven, he did not. Abraham, who was like the hidden root, did not evade any situation but overcame all of them, even when the era was laden with vices, history was haunted by confusion and the environment was chaotic. In fact, he felt heartbroken about the declining cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and appealed to Heaven on their behalf.
Even if someone who is evil and wicked has something special, it is human nature to want to boast about it. But for a long time Abraham kept the grand dispensational will promised to him in his heart. He upheld that dispensation for the sake of fulfilling the will of God. As the chosen root, no matter who touched him or tried to uproot him, he persisted in his way for the purpose of laying down the solid and unshakable foundation. Even when he was subjected to all kinds of persecution and ridicule, he lived a life of unseen ordeals in which he persevered and overcame.
Similarly, Abraham not only set an unchanging condition before Heaven, but also, his sacrificial life for the sake of all of humanity became the seed that was sown. At the same time, his distressed heart was determined that if he could establish one fixed standard that could turn even evil people toward God, he would then cling onto it and never change.
Sodom and Gomorrah deserved to be punished by God, but it had nothing to do with the place where Abraham was. Although it did not directly concern Abraham whether or not the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah understood the will of God or whether the people were doomed, because he had a sense of mission toward the dispensation of Heaven and he felt that he must take the responsibility, he was concerned and anxious about the two cities night and day. What is written in the biblical verses reveals such internal feelings of Abraham.
Today when we are witnessing the concluding period of the 6,000-year history, you are able to sleep in peace, wear good clothes and eat good food, not because of some merit on your part. You will be doomed if that is what you think. The reasons that the world can at least sustain us like this is because in the background, there were unknown people who have become the hidden root and were building the altar of appeal on which they have been shedding tears and blood. You have the mission to propagate this fact to all people.
If there were people inside Sodom and Gomorrah who knew that Abraham's fervent prayer was reaching Heaven and that he was having a direct conversation with God, moreover, if there were some righteous people who could recognize Abraham among that crowd, then Abraham would have appealed earnestly to Heaven to put forth some condition that could save Sodom and Gomorrah from the fate of judgment. If there were even just a few righteous people, no matter how wicked Sodom and Gomorrah were, Abraham would have used the fact that there were righteous people as a condition, and would have appealed to God, "Father, who determines and judges with justice, is not judging both the good and the evil people equally with fire contrary to Your will?" Nonetheless, you must understand that when he realized that it was only he who was praying for Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham's heart was deeply hurt.
Do you know the main reason Abraham became the historical figure? You must never forget that more than caring for his own happiness and comfort, Abraham risked his life for the sake of his tribe, without others even knowing about it.
The Reason Abraham Could Become the Ancestor of Faith
The reason Jesus could emerge as the fruit of faith was also because such persons as Abraham came before him in the dispensation of Heaven and played the role of the root concealed under the ground. In other words, even if all the others were to be undermined, because there was someone like Abraham, who demonstrated eternally unchanging faith toward Heaven and played the role of the root, on that foundation Jesus Christ could be born.
Abraham's course of ordeals which others did not know about was even greater than that in which Abram ("exalted father") from the individual level was elevated to Abraham ("father of many nations") who was chosen to be the ancestor of faith. We should reflect back on our own past and, making a one-to-one comparison between ourselves and Abraham, we should deeply repent. What is more, we must experience the situation in which Abraham found himself.
Just as Abraham built the altar of the concealed root in regard to Sodom and Gomorrah, you must also possess the zealous heart of Abraham, who prayed and appealed fervently for the region he lived in and its people. You must never forget that you should inherit the foundation of faith that Abraham established on the basis of his hardships, which was a condition much like the concealed root.
The family of Abraham, the ancestor of faith, was promised a blessing. Through Isaac, Jacob and Moses, this was raised to the level of the people, and eventually expanded to the worldwide level. If there had been no loyalty and faith in Abraham that had penetrated deeply into Heaven, then there could not have emerged a relationship on the earth that could create a bond with Heaven.
Today everyone wants to show off the good things they possess. They want to bring it out and brag about it. Nonetheless, while someone who wants to divulge it and let others know about it might fulfill a responsibility analogous to a branch, he can never take on the responsibility of a root.
Do you know what the secret was behind Abraham's rise to the position of the ancestor of faith? Because his heart of longing toward Heaven and love for the earth was so extraordinary, he could build a wide and solid ground for the relationship with the Father in Heaven and could become the ancestor of faith.
Moses, the Leader of the People
The same is true of Moses. Until the time he was elevated as the leader of the people, there were the forty years of unknown tribulations in the palace, where he was living as a concealed root. While he was staying in the opulent and splendid palace, he did not eat sumptuous meals or wear luxurious clothes, and he did not live a cheerful life. While he was living in the palace, during every hour of his eating, dressing and sleeping, he was always thinking about the Israelites. Among the Jewish people, only Moses maintained an unchanging heart of loyalty toward Heaven, despite they knowing about it.
Even while he was inside the bosom of the enemy, as the nucleus of immutability, he determined repeatedly that no matter what kind of environment oppressed him and even if there was something blocking his heart from extending to Heaven, he would not change. Because there was this forty-year period when he exerted himself internally to the utmost with an unchanging heart toward Heaven, in the days that followed it was possible for him to have an explosive power of love toward the people.
Moses might appear to you to be a person with a bad temper, but in truth this is not the case. The fury that Moses felt when he saw the Egyptian and the Israelite fighting and when he then killed the Egyptian was not caused by a sudden impulse of the moment. When he saw that sight, the heart of internal sorrow with which he had appealed to Heaven on behalf of the people for forty years finally exploded. In other words, when he saw that injustice being done to the chosen people of Israel, he felt an irrepressible indignation and beat the Egyptian to death. His love toward the Jewish people and his righteous indignation toward the Egyptian was the internal cause behind the action of Moses. What is more, there was providential significance in the actions of Moses.
The reason that Moses could not surmount his indignation and beat the Egyptian to death was because he was concerned about and felt responsible for the fate of the Israelites. Compared to the sin that the Egyptians committed in their oppression of the Jewish people, Moses' action was minuscule, so God chose Moses as the leader of the people, the one who was concerned about the people more than anyone else. However, the Jewish people misunderstood Moses and divulged the fact that he had killed the Egyptian. As a result, when Moses found out it could not be hidden, he had no choice but to escape to the Midian wilderness.
Moses, who lived in the Midian wilderness, felt shameful about the luxurious life he had led in the palace. He forgot the glorious days of the past when he had lived in a free environment and the daughter of the Pharaoh gave him all that he wanted. Although he became a nameless shepherd who wore clothes made out of lamb's wool and drove the flock of sheep from one place to another, as he was watching the flock, he longed for the land of Canaan that had been promised to his distant ancestor, Abraham.
Moses appealed to Heaven with a penetrating heart. He prayed that although he was doing no more than driving sheep, one day he was going to guide the people to enter the land of Canaan just like he drove the flock of sheep. Just as Abraham had prayed for the sake of the people in Sodom and Gomorrah without them being aware of it, Moses gave all that he had, whether he was eating, starving, sleeping or awake, in prayer for the sake of the people.
When Moses saw the suffering of the Israelite people under the oppression and cruelty of the Egyptians, he felt such great anguish it was as if his bones were melting, and he appealed to Heaven, "Jehovah! Please, on my behalf, treat the people with sympathy." So God chose Moses, who had a remarkable heart of appeal, as the leader of the multitude of 600,000 people, to lead them out of Egypt. He let Moses, a shepherd in the Midian wilderness, insignificant in the eyes of others, inherit the concealed root that came down from the ancestors and made him the representative of the people. What is more, He guided the Israelites to become one with Moses and enter the land of Canaan.
The Jewish People Did Not Know the Hidden Foundation of Moses' Devotion
When Moses entered Egypt after receiving the promise from Heaven, he was ecstatic. However, he was not satisfied by the joy. He could pioneer the path of survival for the people because of the fulfillment of the will that he had appealed for before Heaven, in which he pledged that he would offer his life to guide the people to the land of Canaan. He was not just satisfied at that. He gained a sense of mission and responsibility that he would diligently carry out the second part of his responsibility.
From then on, Moses did not act centering on himself. From trivial things to grand events, there was not one thing that he carried out without making a connection with God first.
In this way, Moses entered the palace of the Pharaoh, and by performing more than ten miracles and plagues, he could lead the Israelites into the danger laden wilderness. The Jewish people should have become one with Moses there. In other words, although the wilderness was fraught with danger, as the Jewish people escaped to the environment of freedom and headed toward the land of Canaan, the mind of the people should have become one with the mind of Moses. They should not have had differences in opinion and thought with Moses, who had rescued them from the palace of the Pharaoh. Nonetheless, because they did not unite with Moses, they walked a path that was not in line with the way of Heaven, and they met their doom. What was the reason they were doomed?
They did not know the foundation of the hidden devotion behind the appeal that Moses made while becoming their leader. What is more, although Moses suffered all kinds of hardships from the day he rescued them from Egypt and cared for them, they did not recognize his suffering and ordeals. Consequently, they were divided from Moses in the wilderness, and eventually, they fell in the middle of the wilderness. The history of the Israelites' unfaithfulness toward Moses is being repeated by the believers of the last days today.
The Believers of the Last Days Must be Awakened
Although Jesus came to this earth and toiled for the sake of humanity for thirty years, and he came down to meet humankind for 2,000 years after his death and worked through his love and grace, humankind is not sincerely worshipping Jesus in their lives. What is more, to the believers of the last days, there might occur a fearsome event similar to the one in which the Israelites could not completely uphold the will of God by not believing in Moses, who tried to lead the people into the land of Canaan. When he came face to face with the fact that the Jewish people were not one with him, Moses regretted before Heaven his own lack of ability before he scolded the people for their unfaithfulness. In other words, when he went up to Mount Sinai and offered a forty-day fasting prayer, he cried out, "Father, why is this people not able to enter the land that You have promised, even when it is laying before their eyes? Who does the blame fall upon? The responsibility lies in me. It is because I could not fulfill my responsibility. Thus, please accept me as the sacrifice and prevent the people from walking toward the path of destruction." You must understand that Moses had this unheralded period of devotion.
If the Israelites had known that Moses was fasting with a heart of anguish, not for his own sake but for theirs, they would not have made the golden calf and worshipped it to show off their unfaithfulness during the forty-day fasting period of Moses. Moreover, when Moses, who represented the blessing of the people, was being offered to Heaven as a secret sacrifice, if they had sympathized with him, and if, reflecting on his past hardships, they had shed tears with Moses and appealed to Heaven, then they would not have left God.
Just as Moses walked a lonely path by himself representing the people, Jesus walked a similar course. In other words, Jesus Christ, who was made the center of the world through the historical sacrifice of Abraham, as well as through Moses' course of sacrifice representing the people, followed the example of Abraham who had removed the condition of accusation of Satan on behalf of his family and that of Moses who did the same on behalf of the people. Jesus had to eliminate all the conditions of accusation by himself on behalf of the humanity of the world, and he had to lay the victorious foundation of indemnity.
Jesus Is the Center of the Victory and the Savior of Humankind
You have to understand that such responsibility lies on the shoulders of Jesus. For this reason, until the immutable foundation is built throughout the worldwide foundation, Jesus himself must not be limited to just himself. Therefore, Jesus displayed more loyalty than any other central figure of faith who remained loyal to Heaven during the 4,000-year course of history. He sacrificed himself for the sake of the whole.
Similarly, through the thirty years of his life, Jesus formulated the shape of the center representing the whole within the sphere of his mission, which no one else in history could achieve. You must understand that if he could not become such a central figure, then he could not have become the spearhead responsible for the worldwide dispensation.
Faithful believers today believe that Jesus bore the cross of his generation, but you should not limit your understanding of Jesus to that. Before Jesus' death on the cross, there was the altar of hardships that Abraham built, and there was Moses' course of ordeals. What is more, feeling the anguish of the people and humanity who are caught up in affliction and misery, Jesus pleaded with Heaven, "Please let us bear the burden of pain and please grant them the eternal ideal That they demand." To take responsibility for their anguish, he could not spend even one day in peace.
Because Jesus cared even for the people who were in the bosom of the enemy, and because he led a life focused more on the will of the whole that he was responsible for rather than on his own happiness, he was made the central figure and the Savior of humankind, and won the victory in the fight with the satanic world. What then must we faithful believers of the last days realize? We must repent for the fact that, until now, we have failed to shed tears in concern and prayer for the sake of evil people. The more people are going to be judged in the last days, the more we must pray for their sake. Moreover, we must never forget that behind us there is Jesus, who is concerned about us and praying for us. If we forsake Jesus and lapse into faithlessness, then there will be no way we can escape judgment in the last days.
The Believers in the Last Days Must Fulfill Their Mission as the Root
If the people of Sodom and Gomorrah of the past had heeded the warning given through Abraham and Lot about the judgment of God and had repented for their past evil doings, they might have been able to avoid judgment. Since historical events can teach us about the events of the future, we who are in the last days today must also reflect upon our past life and repent. Therefore, just as Moses climbed up Mount Sinai and prayed for the unfaithful Jewish people, we must clearly understand that, even in this hour, Jesus is praying for our sake on the spiritual Mount Sinai.
The heart of Jesus, who has prayed for the sake of humanity from his Heavenly throne for the last 2,000 years, surpassed the distressed and desperate heart of Moses, who had clung onto the Jewish people and prayed. Thus, you who are on the earth must know this and live according to the will of Jesus. In the past, Abraham prayed to God to spare Sodom and Gomorrah from judgment if there were ten righteous people, but because there were not even ten, they faced the judgment of God.
Therefore, just as Jesus has prayed for the sake of humankind from Heaven since the day that he passed away on the cross until today, and just as Moses prayed on Mount Sinai, you must experience the same sorrowful heart. Grabbing hold of this era, you must be concerned and pray in place of Jesus. What is more, you must never forget to seek, in your prayers day and night, the person who can take over the worldwide mission of Jesus and represent the prophets and sages of history. If in the last days there is not even one person who can remain on the earth as the root, then just as the Israelites fell down in the wilderness, the land we live in will not be able to escape fearsome judgment when it enters the concluding days on the world level.
What then must we do today? Because you are like the hidden root, we must possess the spirit of Jesus and answer the wishes of the ancestors who have longed for one central root as they passed through the course of history. Moreover, you must be able to be in step with the heart of Jesus who has toiled for 2,000 years until today, longing for the day of the Second Advent. This is the problem. Thus, you must now make a comparison between the historical central figures and yourself, and do an analysis. In other words, putting yourself in positions comparable to Abraham, Moses and Jesus, you must analyze whether your heart is the same as their heart, whether your wishes are the same as theirs, and whether or not their suffering and grief are the same as yours.
Now you must learn how to start with empty hands and go before Heaven to build high the altar of appeal. You have to understand the heart of Abraham, who pleaded before Heaven for the sake of Sodom and Gomorrah. The reason Abraham prayed for Sodom and Gomorrah was not for the sake of his own children or his nephew, Lot. Because he forgot everything else and built the hidden altar of devotion, Lot, who was related by blood to Abraham, could escape the judgment.
Those who claim to believe pray, "Please let my will be fulfilled." We should not offer this kind of prayer. Instead, we should pray, "Rather than my own will, please fulfill the will of God." When the will of Heaven is fulfilled, the will that we long for will also be realized. Therefore, we should not pray, "Please let my will be fulfilled." We must pray with the most devout heart, "Father, since You have put me in this position and called upon me, please let Your will be fulfilled through me." What you have to understand now is that the remaining task you have received is not a task just for your own generation, but it is a task that comes down all the way from Abraham and through Jesus.
You who are living in this era must represent all the tribal sects since the time of Moses, and, representing the tribal sect that Jesus needed, you must fulfill the will that God demands. In this way, even if this earth is evil and this land is dark, even if this earth is to perish, you must still become the concealed root that God has implanted.
What Heaven Demands of Us in this Era
Today Heaven requires us to fulfill the mission of religion on the foundation of individual faith. That mission is completing the responsibility similar to the one of Abraham. Next, the question is whether or not you have mourned and strived to save the thirty million people of Korea from the misery they are suffering, applying all of your heart and will to the utmost, just as Moses tried so hard with a distressed heart for the sake of the Jewish people. What is more, Jesus will ask whether you have strived to live for the sake of the humanity on behalf of Jesus, just as since the time of the creation until now, God has worked so hard to save humankind.
When you are then asked whether you have led the same life as Abraham, Moses and Jesus, you must be able to answer, "Yes, don't you already know that about us? The concealed root is found not just in us, but also inside God." When you become such persons, the fidelity of faith that Abraham demonstrated will bear fruit through you, and the will that Moses longed for will be fulfilled through you. All the elements of sorrow that Jesus held within him will be resolved through you.
If that kind of person can be found on the earth, then the hearts of Abraham, Moses and Jesus will be liberated from the sorrow that they suffered in their lifetime. Therefore, if there is such a person, you must serve him with all of your heart and soul. If there is no such person, then you yourself must become that person, and if there is such a person, then you must lift him up in place of Abraham, Moses and Jesus, and attend him. In doing so, you should say, "Please pray more for the sake of the people, please go out and do more." Going one step further, even if you cannot become the sacrifice that can be offered to Heaven, you must at least become the person who is building the altar.
Therefore, today you must call God, "Father." If you cannot directly feel God, who could not play the role of the master in the course of history from the creation of the universe until now, you will not be liberated in this generation. Accordingly, you must build the altar of prayer on behalf of all that, just as Abraham, Moses and Jesus prayed.