President, Women's Federation for World Peace
August 23, 1992
Members of the Women's Federation for World Peace; It gives me great joy and honor to stand be for you today as president of this Federation. I would like to thank all those members and supporters who worked to prepare this rally. I would also like to thank those who travelled here from Japan in order to participate in the preparations.
Today, I will speak on the topic, "The Central Role of Women in the Ideal World."
If someone were to ask you whether you think we live in a world that is predominantly good or predominantly evil, what would be your answer? I think you would reply that we live in a world of evil. It is not simply our world today that is evil. All the societies and nations that have existed throughout history have been evil as well. Evil actions have prevailed over good deeds. The world has seen more war than peace; more injustice than justice; more hatred than love; more division and strife than unity and harmony.
No one is satisfied to live in such a world. In fact, humankind has constantly sought for a way to break away from the world of evil and build a new world of true love, overflowing with peace, freedom and happiness. All individuals and all leaders on every level of society--whether the family, tribe, nation, state or world--share a common desire to accomplish a world of peace, freedom and happiness. The fact is, however, that despite all efforts since the beginning of human history, we have failed to achieve this dream and ideal.
Today, I would like to explain the fundamental reason for this failure. Then, I will propose a way in which we can finally accomplish the ideal world of our common desire. The ideas and concepts I am about to express do not come as the result of mere human intellectual exercise. As you are aware, my husband, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, has devoted a lifetime to resolving this issue. During my life of attendance to him, I have been profoundly moved and inspired by his life of tireless acts of devotion, motivated by a deep love for God and humanity.
When a wife, leading a life of attendance to her husband, receives deep insights into God's truth and is profoundly inspired by her husband's character and life, she has a responsibility to tell the world about her experiences. This is so, because the origins of today's evil world of conflict and rampant decadence can be traced to the breakdown and disharmony in the fundamental husband-wife relationship.
Today, more than five billion people are alive on this earth, but when you think about it, there are only two people: man and woman--that is, husband and wife. A great many people are living side by side in our world, giving rise to all sorts of relationships and problems. Essentially, however, all these problems can be traced directly or indirectly to the man-woman relationship and the various issues associated with that relationship. Thus, it becomes important for us to examine the life of our original ancestors that is the first man and the first woman established on earth by God at the time of His creation, and try to discover the heavenly path that was intended for them to follow.
According to the biblical record in the Book of Genesis, God first created the heavens and the earth. Then he created one man, Adam, and one woman, Eve. He gave them the three great blessings, along with a portion of responsibility. In blessing them He said: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth. (Gen. 1:28)" In giving responsibility to man and woman, He said: "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat...(Gen 2:17)"
These words teach us about God's purpose in creating this universe, and also reveal to us the essence of human existence. God's blessing to "be fruitful" means that all persons born on this earth should grow to become persons of completed character. The second aspect of His blessing involves a man and woman, each possessing completed character, coming together in a husband-wife relationship, to bear and raise children as parents. God's purpose of creation is for man and woman to fulfill their roles as husband and wife standing at the head of a family, that is, to be a father and mother. We are then to contribute to the general welfare by helping to build a world of greater convenience and greater abundance. It is God's purpose to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
For this purpose to have been accomplished at the time of the original human ancestors, Adam and Eve needed to keep God's commandment not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. However, before Adam and Eve reached perfection, that is, while they were still in a state of immaturity, they broke this commandment. They committed the fall by means of Satan, and brought about a situation whereby all humankind would inherit an evil lineage.
Ladies and Gentlemen, let us ask ourselves about this fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil that God entreated Adam and Eve not to eat. It was not a literal fruit of a literal tree. In this commandment, God was telling Adam and Eve that the love which each of them possessed was meant to be brought together in union after they eventually became husband and wife, sometime in the future. IN the meantime, God was saying that their love should not be tempted by any third party during the time of their immaturity in such a way that an illicit sexual relationship would take place. In fact, such a third party existed in the Garden of Eden, in the form of the archangel. The Bible identifies the archangel that tempted Eve into committing the sin of illicit sex, as Lucifer. This was the fall of the original human ancestors, the original sin that caused the roots of sin and evil to be embedded deeply in human society.
Thus, human beings committed a sexual sin before God the Father, who presides over all heaven and earth. From the time of the original ancestors, humanity has formed an evil world in which descendants are procreated by means of illicit love.
Starting from the level of the individual, human society has expanded through the levels of family, tribe, nation, state and world. The evil lineage that originated with illicit sexual relations has cast its roots into every level of our world. The roots of this lineage are evident at all times and at all places in our world. It is for this reason that this world, instead of becoming a Kingdom of Heaven on earth, has become a hellish world filled with crime, war and fear. The fallen original human ancestors, Adam and Eve, were to have established themselves in the position of the eternal true parents of goodness, for all of humanity. Instead, they descended to the position of false parents, leaving behind them a lineage of evil.
Thus, the fall of Adam and Eve, and the evil lineage descended from them, represents the primary cause behind the unhappiness and tragedy experienced by all of humanity throughout history, and even today. Nothing can be more tragic than the fact that all the world's people lost their chance to have true parents and became, instead, the descendants of false parents. This was a tragedy for God as well. God's purpose of creation was to establish true original ancestors who would multiply into a true human race. Imagine His sorrow--imagine how great His pain must have been when the illicit fall of the original human ancestors caused Him to lost the entire human race to a lineage of evil.
If we are trying to save a person suffering from some physical illness, we must first find the cause of the disease, and then administer the appropriate treatment. In the same way, in order for human society to be liberated from the pain of sin and unhappiness, we must first find the fundamental cause of sin and unhappiness. This fundamental cause is the fall of the original human ancestors, or the original sin. Unless we remove the cause of this illness called original sin, we will never be able to completely eradicate sin and unhappiness from the world. Saints, heroes, great scholars, statesmen and philosophers may try to set this world right by creating better laws and institutions, or by educating people in morality. Such efforts are doomed to fail, however, unless they are based on a knowledge of the contents of the human fall, that is of the original sin. The deep roots of sin and unhappiness will continue to sprout new buds.
Religion, on the other hand, tells us that humankind fell, reveals to us the content of this fall, and gives us direct and indirect knowledge about the providence of God to achieve the total salvation of humanity from the world of sin. For this reason, all major religions can be considered the most aggressive form of treatment for the purpose of achieving salvation, by changing this world of evil into a world of good. The Korean word for religion, jong-kyo, can be written by using two Chinese characters--one character signifying the summit or highest peak of a mountain, and the second signifying teaching. Together, the characters mean "supreme teaching," or, in English, "religion." The teachings of the four great saints, Confucius, Buddha, Jesus and Mohammed, and teachings by other great religious leaders, transcend historical eras and geographic distances, to act as the primary force for the preservation of the human conscience and morality, and the development of culture. Thus, all these religions are partners in the task of bringing the world of evil to a close, and building a new and ideal world that is the desire of God and humanity.
In particular, Christianity has received the most direct revelation regarding God's salvation providence, and thus occupies the central position among all religions. We see in the Bible that human history is actually a record of the divine providence to recover the purpose of God's creation, which was lost when the original human ancestors, Adam and Eve, committed the original sin, and became false parents. The central point of the Bible's message is that the Messiah, that is, the True Parents, must come in he place of Adam and Eve, who became false parents, so that all people may be reborn. It was God's original purpose of creation that Adam become the true father of humankind, and Eve become the true mother. In order to restore this purpose, God has had to carry out a providence to recreate Adam.
This, in fact, was the central goal in the preparation of the Israelites as God's chosen people, and in the birth of Jesus. When Adam and Eve committed the fall, and humankind began to multiply through Satan's lineage of evil, God immediately began His providence for the separation of the lineages of good and evil. In the family of Adam, a separation was created between the second born, Abel, located in a relational position with God, and the first born, Cain, located in a relational position with Satan. God established a plan so that the natural order of His original creation could be re-established in the family of Adam, through a natural subjugation of Cain before Abel. This opportunity was lost, however when Cain murdered Abel, and human history entered a prolonged period of separation and struggle between good and evil.
God worked through Noah, Abraham, Isaac and then Jacob. With the assistance he received from his mother Rebecca, Jacob succeeded in the natural subjugation of Esau, who was the older of the twin brothers. In this way, Jacob performed a decisive role in establishing the Israelites as God's chosen people. Jacob's son Judah had as his daughter-in-law Tamar, who bore him twin sons, Perez and Zerah. Perez fought with Zerah while the two were still in Tamar's womb. Zerah was to have been born first, but Perez pushed him aside to become the first born of the two.
This struggle between first-born and second-born was a struggle of good and evil, taking place in the mother's womb. The younger brother defeated his older brother, to become the first born, thus accomplishing restoration in the womb.
Examining the lineage of Perez, who was born as a result of this process of restoration within the womb, we see that his fortieth descendant was Jesus Christ, who came as the Messiah. Mary, the mother of Jesus, in order to conceive the baby Jesus, had to pass through an extremely dangerous situation, which could have resulted in her death, and she demonstrated a high standard of dedication in this process. The original human ancestors, Adam and Eve, engaged in illicit sexual relations as a result of temptation from Lucifer, who became Satan, passing on a lineage of evil to all of humankind that followed them. Because God's salvation providence is equivalent to his providence of restoration, it has been necessary for Him to carry out the providence of restoration in such a way that a total break could be made from this lineage of evil.
This providence is the history of the chosen nation of Israel between the time of Abel and the birth of Jesus. Jesus was born as a result of a process involving the separation and struggle between good and evil for the purpose of restoring Adam's fall and subsequent descent into the position of false parent. Thus, Jesus came as the True Father, that is, the second original ancestor of a humanity of goodness. It was therefore necessary for Jesus to restore a woman who would stand in the position of Eve in relation to him, become husband and wife with this woman, have children by her, and go on to establish himself in a position of having dominion over all of creation. This was the purpose of Jesus' coming as the Messiah.
Jesus came as the Messiah for the purpose of restoring God's three great blessings, by which he created Adam and Eve, and then told them to be fruitful, to multiply and to have dominion over all of creation. The chosen people of Israel, however, denied the one who had come as their Father, and said he was not the Messiah. Finally, in their failure to believe, they had him executed on a cross. What an incredible act of infidelity! What an incredibly great sin!
Jesus, who died on the cross, gave a promise for a second advent. He also said that when he returned, he would come as the bridegroom, and that all people of the world should prepare for his coming by adorning themselves as brides. In the Book of Revelation, Chapter 19, we see the Second Advent of Jesus recorded as involving his coming to earth and performing a marriage supper of the Lamb. This passage about the marriage supper refers to the restoration of the positions of the true husband and wife, and of the true parents, for the purpose of forming a family, such as what Adam and Eve would have formed in the Garden of Eden, had they not committed the fall.
How are we to remedy the society we live in, where all manner of sexual crimes, immorality and moral corruption run rampant and threaten to destroy our families? If we are unable to resolve this problem of the corruption of sexual mores, human society is certain to bring upon itself the same destruction that came to Sodom and Gomorrah. The fire of this judgment has already begun. The fearful disease of AIDS is heaven's chastisement for the sexual corruption of our society, and a warning of what will come if we do not correct this.
Jesus said he would return when this world of evil reached its last days. The Jesus who returns will come as the True Father of all humanity, and show us the path of the true child, the path of the true husband and wife, and the path of the true parents that must be taken by all men and women of this world. Only in this way will we find a fundamental solution to the problem of moral decay. This is the truly good news that will save mankind from this world of evil. It is the mission of the Messiah, the Savior, to teach the way for humanity to make a total break from the tangled history of evil that came about when the path of true parents, true husband and wife, and true children, was lost.
Today, I declare to all heaven and earth that my husband, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, is the one who has devoted his entire life to pioneering the way of the Messiah, and of the True Parents. Despite ruthless persecution and torment from the evil world, he was worked to pioneer the future of humanity. He has done this by letting the world know about God's purpose of creation and by establishing the truth concerning the original sin committed by the original human ancestors.
All the world's major religions teach that their original founders will someday return to this world. According to the Unification Principle, which are the teachings of my husband, the return of these figures, that is, Buddha, True Man, Confucius, and the Second Advent of theology of Jesus, will be fulfilled through the return of one Messiah, one True Parent, for all of humanity. All religions are to be brought into a union, and unified through this person. Despite what some Christians believe, this Messiah, or True Parent, will not be the same Jesus who died two thousand years ago, returning on a cloud in the sky. Instead, a new person, who has inherited Jesus' mission, is to be born on this earth. The country in which this person is born in the Republic of Korea. The Messiah, the True Parent of all mankind, is a Korean, whose principal language is Korean.
When is this Messiah to come? According to the Unification Principle, the Last Days are the time in which this sinful world is brought to a conclusion, and the Messiah is to come during the time of the Last Days. The Last Days refer to an approximate eighty-year period between World War I and the conclusion of the twentieth century. This corresponds to the transition period in world history, in which the True Parent of mankind is to be born in the Republic of Korea, and carry out his program for building a world of freedom and peace to take the place of today's world, filled with evil and war.
For this reason, this is a period of great confusion, in which individuals, families, tribes, nations, states, and the world will be divided against each other in a conflict of good and evil. During this period, humankind has already experienced two world wars. Following World War II, there was the perpetual conflict and struggle between the democratic and communist worlds. Also during this period, Korea experienced forty years of Japanese colonial rule, that ended in liberation in 1945, followed by the tragedy of the Korean War. Today, Korea remains as the only country still divided by the struggle between communism and democracy.
The northern and southern halves of the Korean Peninsula today represent the fruits of the seeds of good and evil, separated from each other, and sown in the forms of Cain and Abel, following the fall of the original human ancestors. That is, the communism of North Korea is the fruit of all Cain-type philosophies and systems throughout history. North Korea has established itself as an atheistic communist state that denies religious value systems. It is a microcosm of the communist world. On the other hand, South Korea is the fruit of all Abel-type philosophies and systems throughout history. It is the country where religion thrives most in the world, and it stands in a position to represent the free world. Thus, the Korean Peninsula is a microcosm of the world separated between good and evil, with South Korea on the side of good, and North Korea on the side of evil set against each other in one final battle.
Thus, the unification of the Korean peninsula is the key to world peace and unification. Korean unification is not merely a political event or task. Korean unification holds providential and historical significance as an important step toward accomplishing God's final goal to bring about an ideal world. It is a three-dimensional task, involving the numerous spirit men who have passed through this physical world. For this reason, the unification of the Republic of Korea is not a matter to be solved only by politicians. My husband, Rev. Moon, understands the will of heaven surrounding the Korean peninsula. During early December last year, he visited North Korea for seven days, met the North Korean ruler, President Kim Il Sung, and communicated to President Kim heaven's command to him, related to the issue of Korean unification.
He said to the North Koreans: "You cannot unify North and South Korea by means of juche thought. North and South Korea can be unified peacefully only through Unification Thought, or Godism and headwing philosophy, expounded by Rev. Moon. When they tried to claim that the South first invaded the North in the Korean War, he refuted them flatly, saying it was the North that started the war, with its southward invasion.
I have accompanied my husband to many countries around the world, and met numerous world leaders. In order to make our trip to North Korea, however, we needed to make a truly courageous resolve, and a serious determination. Jacob, in biblical times, endured through great tribulation. He used his wisdom and determination to soften the heart of his older brother Esau, and finally succeeded in reconciling with him. It was in a similar way to Jacob, that my husband and I finally succeeded in sitting down to discussions with Kim Il Sung. No longer is Korean unification something that is to be left to politicians. God is now directly involved in this matter. Even now, my husband, Rev. Moon, is working day and night to mobilize his global network for the task of accomplishing Korean unification according to the will of God, and building an ideal world of peace, free from immorality and moral decadence.
The content of my speech today is not something that is believed, only by the small number of Unification Church members who follow my husband and myself. Social, religious and political leaders of more than one hundred and sixty countries around the world, as well as large numbers of young people all over the world, are working in accordance with these teachings, in order to build a new unified world, overflowing with freedom and peace. All around the world, the Republic of Korea is beginning to be revered as the country where the True Parents of humankind have come. A rapidly increasing number of people from around the world are coming to Korea, to learn its language and culture.
Our Women's Federation for World Peace is a global organization. On April 10, in the Olympic Stadium in Seoul, we held a rally with one hundred and fifty thousand Korean women and representatives from sixty countries around the world. The focus of that rally was our fundamental solution to the threats to our families, stemming from the decline in moral standards, increasing drug abuse, and all forms of indecent sexual behavior in the world around us. We cannot afford to wait any longer before setting out to save human society from the fallen social customs, and sexual depravity by which men have oppressed women.
Our effort to learn the duties of true parents, true husbands and true wives, and true children, must finally culminate in the establishment of a Families' Federation for World Peace, so that immorality and moral decadence will be expunged from all corners of the earth. We must work quickly to separate ourselves from the lineage of evil that has caused pain and suffering to humankind ever since the time of the Garden of Eden. Only then can we prepare ourselves fro the new world.
Until now, there was no way to defeat the immorality and moral degradation that has been destroying humanity. Now, however, a new hope, a new expression of truth, capable of bringing a total and complete solution to this problem, has arisen in the land of Korea. This new expression of truth pronounced by the True Parents, will accomplish the unification of Korea. It will then go on to become the guiding beacon for all humanity in the building of world peace. Let us all learn about this message of hope, so that we may join together in bringing an end to the sinful world that has brought us so much suffering since the beginning of history, and become the courageous women who will build the unified world, overflowing with freedom, peace and happiness.
Let us go the way of a true mother. Let us go the way of a true wife. Let us go the way of a true daughter.