Hak Ja Han
July 21, 2019
Chungcheong Hyo Jeong True Family Hope Festival 2019
Yu Gwan Sun Sports Complex, South Chungcheong Province, Cheonan South Korea
Distinguished guests, blessed families who have received the blessing here today, and members of the Chungcheong Family Federation! This year marks exactly a hundred years since Christian leaders and students arose and shouted for Korea's independence, particularly inspired by patriot Gwan-sun Yu. Their hope was to establish a Korea with God and protected by God. However, when you look at the reality today, Korea is not the unified nation that they had hoped for. Today, I would like to talk about what the mission of the chosen people is.
When you look at the six-thousand-year human history, the first human ancestors were not able to grow according to God's will and ended up falling. As a result, humanity has followed a path having nothing to do with God. However, since God, our Creator, formed his creation with an eternal vision, he could not do anything other than conduct the providential history of salvation to restore humanity. To do that, Heaven chose the Israelites from among fallen humanity as his chosen people. He had to raise them from the individual level to that of the family, tribe, people, and nation.
How difficult must it have been that it took God four thousand years to do that! Not just forty years but four thousand years! It was only after four thousand years that God sent Jesus Christ, his only son, whom he could call, "My son!" Unfortunately, the chosen people did not know God, the Creator. They also did not know that Jesus Christ had come.
It was after the extended period of four thousand years of restoration through indemnity that God was able to send his only son, whom he could call "My son." What path did the Israelites end up following after failing to become one with him? Jesus lost all the prepared environments and ended up dying on the cross. Yet, faithful followers of Christianity today sincerely believe that they are saved through the blood Jesus shed on the cross.
Find inspiration in history
While dying on the cross, Jesus promised to return. He said he would return and conduct the marriage supper of the Lamb. Christians, however, did not grasp the true meaning of those words. We are in a time when we must see the completion of human history, a time when we must complete the providence. The Korean people are also a people God has chosen. You all know that to bring back the flamboyant history of Gojoseon [ancient Joseon] they founded Goguryeo. They were a people that revered Heaven, whom they also called Cheon Ji Shin Myeong.
Originally, God, the Creator, created plus and minus, pistil and stamen, male and female, and a man and woman who were to become the first human ancestors. He created them in his image. God gave humans a portion of the responsibility and a period of growth. Through these, they were to fulfill their responsibilities and attain perfection. That place of perfection is the same as God's.
The first human ancestors were supposed to grow in absolute unity with God. Their failure to do so has produced today's fallen humanity. As a result, human history cannot be eternal.
We have had large, small and successful nations throughout history. Yet none has lasted for eternity. This is because the original owner is God, the Creator. Since our Creator created man with an eternal vision, he needed to restore humankind, which had lost its way. That was the providential history of salvation. Through the first chosen people, the Israelites, God sent Jesus Christ as his only son.
A new chosen people
The chosen people, however, were not able to fulfill their responsibilities. In accordance with God's Principle of Creation, God does not work again through a people that failed to fulfill their responsibilities. That is because they have indemnity left to pay. Heaven then selected the Korean people, Asians, as his chosen people. As a people who revered Heaven's will, this chosen people always attended Heaven first in their daily lives. As they waited for the returning Messiah, who had promised to return, the Korean people needed to make preparations for God's only daughter (whose birth could not take place two thousand years ago) to finally be born on the Christian foundation.
God's only daughter was born in 1943. God must also give his only daughter a period of growth. Korea's liberation came in 1945. The Korean War broke out in 1950 and Korea became divided into North Korea and South Korea. It took some time for South Korea to form a mature democratic system. In contrast, this was a time when North Korea had already established one system and was making plans to invade South Korea in one fell swoop. Since God had to give his only daughter a period of growth in accordance with the Principle of Creation, God had to protect me. So he made me go to the South.
During the Korean War, UN forces from sixteen nations intervened and protected democracy in South Korea. Under Heaven's protection, Korea today has joined the ranks of developed nations in the economic sector. Yet, this nation remains divided into North Korea and South Korea. We know that unity will be difficult to attain through political power, economic power, or other human-centered methods. What should we do? In this era, even superpowers cannot survive alone. This is a time when we must all live in harmony with one another.
Korea and Japan need cross-cultural blessings
However, at the center of it all, a movement to attend God, our Creator, must arise. The True Parents, who are responsible to complete providential history, emerged in 1960. Fallen human beings cannot enter God's presence by themselves. They can only do so through rebirth and the marriage blessing from True Parents. True Parents, who foresaw the problems and future this nation would face, began to conduct cross-cultural marriage blessing ceremonies a long time ago. It has been almost thirty years since we began to educate the young people of Korea and Japan, enemy nations, and to conduct blessing ceremonies that will bring them together in marriage.
Today, we see children of some Korean politicians or other leaders who are trying to evade mandatory military service. However, more than four thousand young people born to couples from our blessing ceremonies have either begun or have completed their military service even at the cost of giving up one of their nationalities. Many blessed families are following True Parents in this way in about 190 nations. And their hope is to realize one great world of peace that is within Heavenly Parent's bosom, the kingdom of God on earth. If blessed families fulfill their responsibilities, that dream will surely come true within your generation.
All couples that receive the blessing today, as well as all blessed families here with us, are chosen blessed families who are to complete history and Heaven's providence. There cannot be a nation that is an enemy to a chosen nation or family. This is because we are all one family centered on God and True Parents. I sincerely hope that you all become blessed families of the Heavenly Chungcheong nation, who attend Heavenly Parent, practice True Parents' teachings in your lives, and fulfill your responsibilities as blessed chosen people.