The Nation and World of Peace Sought by God and Humanity

Hak Ja Han Moon

This is one of the two speeches given on True Mother’s speaking tour of Korea, Japan and the USA, October-November 2001

At this transitional point in human history, we have gathered as leaders who are concerned about the unification of Korea and world peace. The tragedies that took place in New York, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania on September 11 truly shocked the entire world. Along with the concern over peace and safety, we came to reflect upon fundamental and serious questions of modern civilization and future of humanity.

The Inter-religious International Federation for World Peace (IIFWP) and World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations (WANGO) held a timely and significant conference in New York City this October 19 to 22. These two organizations, both of which my husband founded, brought together more than 400 participants from 101 countries. The participants included current and former heads of state, the highest leaders of major religions such as Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Confucianism, and representatives of academia and non-governmental organizations. The participants debated seriously on how to find peaceful solutions to today's crises.

My homeland, the Korean Peninsula, as the world's last divided country, is a troubled area that, along with the Middle East, attracts the world's attention. In my husband's opening address at the New York conference, he communicated a vision for lasting and fundamental peace, and today I again would like to share this view with you leaders assembled here. The title of my address is "The Nation and World of Peace Sought by God and Humanity."

Resolving the Root of Conflict

Throughout history, human beings have continuously aspired for world peace. However, we have never realized that dream. We can look back at the end of the Cold War, at which time fierce political and military conflicts and struggles concluded. Many people expected that the long-awaited era of peace and stability would arrive based on the foundation of highly developed science.

Nonetheless, we came to realize that conflict, hatred and selfish desire are imbedded deeply within each of us and are still active. These are creating ever more serious disasters in new shapes and forms. Violence wreaked upon innocents is certainly an inhumane criminal act, and we must bring it to a halt. However, what can eradicate those inner conflicts and struggles, and resolve the fundamental human problems at their root? Where was the seed of hatred, conflict, and struggle sown, and how did it come to be rooted deeply within us?

The seed was planted in the family of the first human ancestors, Adam and Eve. The conflicts and struggles that resulted have continued from generation to generation until the present time.

Then, where is the path to resolve those conflicts and realize peace on Earth? Historically, human beings have been attempting to overcome conflicts and pursue peace through economic, political, diplomatic and military means. However, such methods obviously do not provide fundamental solutions, as we are still struggling with many unresolved problems.

There is but one fundamental way and it is simple. It is to restore the family that the first human ancestors lost; that is, the ideal family of God. This is the family with God at its center, the family that has achieved perfection in true love both vertically and horizontally.

God exists as the Original Being of true love and the invisible True Parent of humankind. Nonetheless, love cannot exist alone. It exists in relationships and it can bear fruit only through relationships. That is why God created us as His children, through whom He would seek to realize His true love.

The Three Blessings of God

The First Blessing of God to human beings, "be fruitful" (Genesis 1:28), called God's children to become the object partners of His true love by becoming true persons. When we love someone, we want our object partner to be better than ourselves. Thus, in love, God, as the Father, wants His children to be better than Him. That is why God repeatedly invests Himself in human beings, the object partners of His love, and nevertheless constantly forgets about what He has already given and desires infinitely to give love more and more. This is so because love has its origin in the desire to live for the sake of others for eternity.

God then bestowed the Second Blessing, "multiply" (Genesis 1:28). The first human ancestors were to have grown to maturity as the children of God. After having reached perfection, as one with God in heart, they were to have become True Husband and Wife. Then, they were to have become substantial True Parents to their children, inheriting and passing on true love, true life and true lineage from God.

As such, God's ideal of creation was to perfect true love both vertically and horizontally, beginning in the first family of our common ancestors. Since God's love is absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal, that family also was to have become the absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal family, centered on true love. Human beings would have become substantial embodiments of love, totally united with God in heart. Then they would have obtained perfect freedom, happiness and the realization of all ideals.

Then they would have become the Lords of true love whom all beings in the universe would have loved and welcomed. This was God's Third Blessing (Genesis 1:28). This is the Blessing to create a living environment in which we can experience joy and happiness, having dominion over the creation. This includes the care for and preservation of the world's ecological balance as true masters of the creation.

Not by Power or Knowledge, but by True Love

Tragically, our human ancestors could not inherit the Three Blessings of God and establish the family of true love. That means they failed to become true persons, true spouses, true parents, and true Lords centered on true love. Instead, they disobeyed God, and He expelled them from the Garden of Eden. As the fallen human ancestors, they became false spouses to each other, with false love that has nothing to do with God's Blessings. They gave birth to children and those children multiplied to populate the world of today.

Since the fall at the beginning of human history, human beings have not been born on the foundation of true love, in the attendance of God. Instead, we have lived in conflict, with struggle between mind and body. This conflict manifested as a tragedy of hatred and murder between two brothers, Cain and Abel, in the first family. That was the miserable reality of a family that left God.

A family built upon the basis of human relationships alone cannot become a family of the original ideal of creation. An ideal family is one that connects to God vertically and has a true person as its axis. Under the true love of true parents, among siblings who own and share a common axis, the family finally can establish the relationships of ultimate harmony and peace. We can experience true love within an ideal family that bears good fruit. The family is the original and best school of love. Power or knowledge can never create true love.

The Loss of God's Blessings

Honorable leaders! What do you feel when you look at the reality of human society and at the youth of the contemporary world? Do you feel hope for a bright future? I believe that you experience agony over the increasing rates of crime, violence, drug abuse, immorality, corruption, teen pregnancy and so forth. These arise out of a confusion of values and foretell darkness enveloping our youth.

How did we arrive at this point? Better school systems and social improvements would have delayed the onset of these problems partially, but these do not address the fundamental cause of these problems, which is the breakdown and loss of families. This breakdown is a product of the time we are in, a time when humankind is harvesting the fruit sown by the loss of the first family of true love.

The destruction of the foremost school of true love leads to the phenomena of family breakdown, with enormously destructive side effects. This breakdown not only causes personal anxiety but also manifold problems on the national and worldwide levels. Of particular concern is the emotional instability of youth, which leads to changing life goals, spiritual wandering, and even deviation from healthy lifestyles.

Leaders who are concerned over the future should be very serious in order to solve the real problems of youth avoiding marriage, rampant divorce, and so forth, which destroy the fundamental foundation for families.

Having lost the First and Second Blessings, humankind does not understand how important it is to perfect one's individuality, through which we can experience sacred and eternal conjugal love. We do not educate most of our youth in a thoroughgoing way about the importance of keeping purity before marriage and reaching individual maturity through true love. This is why they do not understand the value of true love, which is the fundamental root of joy, happiness and all ideals.

The tendency to make light of trust and fidelity between husband and wife, and to ignore the sacredness of marriage, is an internal cause of indescribable disasters and tragedies for humankind. True love has no place in the so-called free sex culture, in which people seek only the physical love between a man and a woman as the cardinal but momentary pleasure. The rapid spread of HIV-AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) threatens the very existence of the human race.

It is said that there is no safety zone against the AIDS virus. A greater terrorism than that over which the entire world is now trembling is before our eyes, allowing us no safety zone. Once contracted, its victims gradually give up their dreams for happiness, ideals, and life itself. Unless we resolve this catastrophe plaguing our planet, how can we claim that we are leaders?

Nor have we taken responsibility for the Third Blessing endowed by God, to "have dominion over the creation." This requires that we take care of all creatures with true love. What would happen if the natural world were to rebel against the abuse and misuse it suffers at the hands of human beings who lord over it? Are not those symptoms beginning to appear? Before the natural world punishes our intolerable arrogance, we should stand before nature in true love as people of restored integrity.

The Perfection of "I"

Respected leaders, in order to examine today's problem at a more fundamental level, I would like to consider the relationship between the true "I" and the true "we" in the context of God's ideal of creation.

As a result of the fall, human beings did not achieve the position of the true "I." For this reason, God has never been able to use the word "we." That is to say that God has never been able to stand within the realm of the consciousness of His ideal of creation and establish a relationship that would allow Him to say, "This is mine" or "This is my child."

So our present concept of "I" has no relationship with the original ideal of God's creation, and it is for this reason that we should deny ourselves absolutely.

God has conducted His restoration providence so that He could establish true men and true women, that is, His sons and daughters, whom He could freely include within His concept of "we." Because God is the subject body of love, the subject body of life, and the subject body of lineage, He sought true sons and daughters who would live eternally with a complete and unbreakable standard.

We first are to perfect our individual character through the unification of mind and body. Then, on that foundation, we can build a vertical parent-child relationship with God. A vertical relationship by itself, however, is not sufficient to bring the word "we" into being. We also need to create a horizontal relationship in harmony with the vertical. To do this, man and woman form a husband-wife relationship through a true, blessed marriage, bear children, build a true family, and form a four-position foundation over three generations. Only then will God use the word "we" in reference to a family unit.

God's Image in the Family

How, then, can we advance to such a position? God created all things from a position in which His mind and body were completely one. His creation was an act of total investment involving absolute love and absolute faith. There was no possibility that He would consider His own interest or situation. This was the fountainhead of the love that seeks to give one hundred percent and then still continue to give. This is true for God and it should be true as well for our families.

Parents, who stand in the position of God, are to invest themselves completely and absolutely with true love. In terms of the logic of origin-division-union, they should give birth to and rear children from the position of the origin, thus establishing a vertical axis for the concept of "we." If the husband and wife, who stand in the position of division from the origin, become one with each other, centering on true love, they will establish the horizontal axis. Then the children, who are in the position of union, will align themselves automatically with the vertical and horizontal axes and become one. They will establish a new axis reaching from front to back. The first family that accomplishes this substantiates the concept of "we" that is complete vertically, horizontally, and front to back.

This is the reason the family is so important. The family is the most valuable gift given to us from Heaven. If the environment we call the family did not exist, how would we establish this absolute standard of "I"? If not for the family, we would never even dare to think of a "we" that is complete vertically, horizontally, and front to back. The cradle of love, peace, and happiness is nothing other than this family.

How, then, do we establish the true "I"? This is possible only through a life of true love for the sake of others. The person who denies him or herself completely, to the point of nothingness, and begins to live for the sake of the family, for the sake of the country, for the sake of all humanity, and for the sake of God, will automatically be able to establish the true "I." We should never put ourselves forward arrogantly and use the word "I" in a casual manner. God has worked, steeped in grief in the back alleys of history, to push forward His providence of restoration. His only desire has been to establish children who could speak of the true "I." Anyone who knows this heart of God can never claim the word "I" for him or herself in a casual manner.

When we establish God's original idea of world peace and the ideal families for which God has been waiting tens of thousands of years, we will have the starting point for the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. Beginning there, we will be able to resolve the grief of the piteous God. I would like to call upon everyone here to join with me. First, let us work to establish the true "I" that can look at the sun without shame, look at the ocean with a clear conscience, and has nothing to hide before nature. Then let us establish the family to which God will refer as a part of His "we."

God is Our True King

In this way, we can establish a relationship of true parents and children between God and ourselves. Furthermore, God, who is the true parent of humanity and the origin of love, life, and lineage, is the Ancestor of humanity and the True King who reigns over all. God lost the positions of Ancestor and King as a result of the human ancestors' fall in the Garden of Eden.

In accordance with the progress of the providence of restoration, my husband declared the return to the ocean, to the land, to the cosmos, and to the heartistic realm of the fourth Adam. Then, on January 13, 2001, my husband and I performed the historic "Coronation Ceremony of God's Kingship." Adam's family, as the first human family, was to have been the ancestors of humanity and to have set the foundation for the institution of the family. Originally, the king of the family someday would have inherited the positions of king of the country and king of the cosmos. Humanity was to have connected to the heavenly realm of the original ideal in that way and that way only.

We will establish national level kingship, because the age of indemnity is ending and we are entering the age of settlement by the process of family registration. This will develop and connect with the kingship of the world. This is why, on the occasion of True Children's Day 2000, my husband declared that the Parents of Heaven and Earth now reign as King of the family in the Unification Church. This means that we now are able to enter the age in which families that have been registered can attend the Heavenly Parent as our King. Thus, each blessed family should be aware of its responsibility to establish the tradition of humanity attending the King of Heaven and Earth. This is the reason that the age of the church has ended and the age of the family federation has begun.

The entire universe is linked as one connected body centering on one nucleus. Each and every family should stand in the position of this nucleus. To be such, love the creation and consume it. Love all creatures that God created in love. They exist in His love, and by loving them you will fulfill the position of their true master.

You should feel as if your family is becoming one body, that your family constitutes a realm of true love before God. In that way your family will create a settlement, a cornerstone for attending the King, the Parents of Heaven and Earth. This is how you become a blessed family and inherit the realm of victory.

Steps to World Peace

Respected leaders! Now is the time for humanity voluntarily to repudiate all pride, ignorance, selfishness and hatred. Let us follow the laws of Heaven and be humble before God. Ever since God called my husband at the tender age of 16, he has committed himself totally to the realization of world peace, which has been God's deepest wish. And at this time, I would like to set forth several crucial steps that are necessary for bringing peace to the world.

First, we are to live for the sake of others. A self-centered life not only causes discomfort to others, but also violates the laws of Heaven. Living for the sake of others, on the other hand, is the way we can resemble God. Loving our family, our community, our nation and the world is the way to inherit God's true love. It is the way to live in accord with the fundamental order of the universe. Only through practicing true love can we become true individuals, true parents, true teachers and true Lords. Only then can we finally become the leaders who can bring about peace on Earth. A life of living for the sake of others is the first gate to peace.

In this sense, the path to peace ultimately will be based on "Godism" and "Head-Wing Ideology." This is the teaching that can reconcile and embrace all actors in a conflict, from their thought to their fruit, by dealing with the starting point of conflict in the relationship between Cain and Abel. How can we break the chain of hatred and violence we perpetrate against one another? Returning hatred in response to hatred only leads to more hatred, terror and destruction. This is certainly not the path to peace. We can touch, educate and reconcile the conflicting parties only by true love.

True love that places God in the center disregards national boundaries; therefore it is international. True love transcends the high walls dividing religions and races; therefore it is inter-religious and inter-racial. True love centered on God's ideal of living for the sake of others can generate the power to touch a person's heart and spirit. By true love alone can the various reasons and causes of conflicts on Earth be overcome, whether the confrontation is between right and left, front and rear, above and below, or inner and outer. By true love alone can we establish a world of eternal peace.

Marriage as an Instrument of Peace

Second, the family is the fundamental unit for building peaceful nations and ultimately a peaceful world. As I already mentioned, the root of conflict originated in the first family. Therefore, until the family of the True Parents appears, it is impossible for us to enter the era of world peace.

The international Blessings that my husband and I promote worldwide are not the wedding ceremony of a particular religion. They are a movement to save all nations and the world. We teach youth to keep their purity before marriage and, when they reach adulthood, to marry under the Blessing of God. However, as a condition to receive the marriage Blessing, they first pledge to their spouse that they will maintain absolute trust and fidelity as husband and wife. Thus, the Blessing is a holy movement to build true families and lift up true parents who live centered on true love.

Families built upon such an ideal and such an education have no need to feel threatened by the AIDS virus. For them, preventing AIDS is easier than preventing a cold or flu. If we educate the youth of the world in this vision and practice it, we will completely eliminate the AIDS epidemic. We will eliminate the scourge of family breakdown as well.

Further, these families of true love will serve as the cornerstone for peaceful nations and a peaceful world. In particular, if individuals of enemy nations, who have lived in discord throughout history, come together in true love as in-laws, their reconciliation will bring nations and races together. It is a high wall to overcome. Nevertheless, here is the supreme formula for bringing true peace to the world: bring together children from enemy families and nations for the "Exchange Marriage Blessing." These inter-religious and international families can build a realm of Blessing, perfecting true families of true love that both Heaven and Earth desire. From that point will begin the world of eternal peace that God and all humankind have desired.

A Challenge to Religious Leaders

Third, inter-religious reconciliation and cooperation is an essential condition for world peace. My husband and I have campaigned tirelessly for inter-religious harmony and dialogue. We always have devoted a far greater proportion of our funds for that purpose than for the growth and development of the Unification Church. Do you think that practicing such sacrificial love with an unchanging heart is easy? By no means! But we cannot expect world peace unless religious people reconcile and cooperate.

World peace is the original ideal of God. Therefore, religious leaders and believers should be the guides who lead people to peace. If religions only emphasize narrow-minded denominationalism and fail to teach true love for God and the universe, we will never free humankind from the horrors of war. In the face of this global crisis, religious leaders have to practice true love, humbly following God's Will, walking hand in hand beyond the boundaries of their own religion.

The inner power of religion touches our hearts and can recreate us as people of peace. It can cultivate our ability to practice self-control from within. It can overcome historical hatreds and resentments among us. This is the root from which true peace and stability grow. If religions demonstrate love for each other, cooperate with each other, and serve each other, putting the higher ideal of peace ahead of their particular doctrines, rituals and cultural backgrounds, the world will change dramatically.

Beyond National Self-Interest

Fourth, I once again emphasize the proper role of the United Nations in realizing world peace. As a representative organization for world peace, the United Nations has made many contributions. It is a fact, however, that the world's circumstances have changed and the complex situations in which nations find themselves today are unlike those at the time of the United Nations' founding. In light of this, last year my husband and I presented proposals to solve the fundamental problems plaguing the planet Earth.

One of these proposals was to establish a special body that would discuss and evaluate the religious, spiritual and moral dimensions of world problems. The United Nations should serve the world and God's ideal of creation effectively. To do so, it has to transcend the power of politics and national diplomacy, which reflect the motives of nations seeking their own self-interest. Only then can it truly protect the human rights of all peoples and nations and build world peace.

This imperative does not apply only to the United Nations. It will be difficult to maintain order in the world and protect public prosperity and peace as long as political sovereignty operates on the principle of national self-interest and ignores or undermines moral and spiritual values.

What is required is that high-level leaders ground themselves spiritually and morally upon God's ideal and govern according to universal principles. No political power or earthly authority should stand above God and the laws of Heaven.

Moreover, the United Nations should listen to and embrace many of the views of the Non-Governmental Organizations. This is the reason we established WANGO. I encourage all NGOs and public service organizations, while not losing your original founding spirit, to dialogue and cooperate with one another. I request that you continue serving the world, be unselfish and stay free of corruption.

Our Historical Quest

Respected leaders! A person who only talks about world peace without practicing it is not a true leader. Given the current world situation, we cannot leisurely wait for the arrival of world peace while sitting down. It is an urgent time. God is calling each of us, the Ambassadors for Peace and everyone else, to create world peace by all means. Let us all take active roles as leaders in the movement for peace.

I wish and hope that, centered on the Peace Embassies, all service organizations national and international, including the United Nations, will participate actively in the movement for world peace. It is our historical quest.

Let us be united as one in mind and heart. Let us become pioneers for world peace, by first building ideal families of true love and living for the sake of others. May God's hand be upon you and bless you forever.

Mother’s Speech To Members: America’s Future Is In Your Hands!

Hak Ja Han Moon
February 15, 2001
East Garden

After Hoon Dok Hae followed by breakfast, True Mother asked, "Do you have confidence in True Father’s speaking tour along the East Coast?" "Yes, we do!" answered everyone present.

You are getting old, and some of you are over 50 years of age. So, you really have to understand that there might not be this sort of undertaking again. Through True Father’s speaking tour this time, everyone should attain the most victorious result of your life. By having that kind of attitude and acting on it, all heavenly fortune will come to you, and you will become persons of greatness.

The speaking tour of 50 states has a very significant meaning from the viewpoint of God’s Providence. Whether or not America can earn the position of the Elder Son Nation depends on how much you succeed in your mission this time. America can remain the most prosperous country, or become an undeveloped country according to the result you bring. As True Father has explained repeatedly, it is not necessarily the eldest son of a family with 10 children who will automatically inherit everything from the parents. Elder son-ship does not work like that. One who is the most sacrificial and lives for the sake of the whole family will be the one who inherits everything. There is no guarantee from God unless you do what you are supposed to do. Therefore, your future will be decided in accordance with how much you can live for the sake of others and be sacrificial. It is a matter of great importance. In the same manner, even within the True Family, who can live most sacrificially and devoutly? As True Father emphasizes, who lives the most sacrificially for the sake of others is the key point.

I can vividly recall the time when you just joined the church in your twenties nearly 30 years ago. I expect you to do your very best and bring the best result in this speaking tour.

You must know how aggressively active the spiritual world is at this time. There are many more blessed couples in the spiritual world than there are in this physical world. Thus, the more you live the life of sacrifice for the sake of others, the more heavenly blessing you will receive.

The Holy Wedding of the True Parents took place in 1960. Prior to that event, not only Unificationists, but also many mediums and religious people had the revelations from the spirit world about who True Father was: his age, name and so on. At that time, the entire spirit world bore witness to True Father as the Messiah. Also, many candidates for "True Mother" were there back then. Before True Father made a decision on her, there were many women who believed themselves to be brides of True Father according to revelations they had received. Everybody was excited as if they were almost crazy.

A new century has begun. The spiritual state of God’s providence is completely different from that of the previous era. Numerous Christian clergy and other religious leaders are witnessing to True Parents. Therefore, in America, we must really be focused on the center and essence of God’s providence to connect these clergy and righteous people to True Parents. It is crucial.

Great spiritual phenomena occurred in Korea in 1960. However, now in 2001, it is on a totally different dimension throughout the world and a tremendous foundation has been laid for True Parents to be welcomed worldwide. What you must know clearly is that behind this phenomenon, True Parents have spent 40 years in blood and tears. Our responsibility is to harvest the suffering course of True Parents and bring them the result. It is time for us to meet many righteous people and let True Parents’ words be known.

There was a worldwide speaking tour of True Parents in the early 1990s which was the founding rally of the Women’s Federation for World Peace. At that time, professors from PWPA, and participants of the Religious Conference, which are grassroots organizations, gave total support to True Parents. In 10 years, an unimaginably solid basis has made by True Parents. How it can be harvested to bring it to True Parents is up to us.

We must understand how much True Parents have been devoting them to the world by going around again and again. Lately, those who have kept a certain distance from True Parents and God’s providence are gradually coming around again and the spirit world is completely open in cooperating with people. Therefore, numbers of our ancestors can work with us and push us go closer to True Parents. A great cornerstone has been set, and it is our task to make a commitment in front of heaven and to act on the will which compels us to do our best for victory for our True Parents. It is getting warmer gradually since the spring is in our sight. The spring of the providence is coming. It is the arrival of a wonderful spring era.

The Nation and World of Peace Sought by God and Humanity

Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon
First version of the 2001 tour speech to be given at:

November 26, 2001 -- University of Bridgeport, CT
November 27, 2001 -- New Jersey
November 28, 2001 -- Texas
November 29, 2001 -- Los Angeles, CA
November 30, 2001 San Francisco, CA
December 1, 2001 -- New York, NY
December 2, 2001 -- Washington, DC
December 15, 2001 -- Chicago, IL

Respected leaders, ladies and gentlemen.

At this transitional point in human history, we have gathered as leaders who are concerned about the unification of Korea and world peace. The tragedies that took place in New York, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania on September 11 truly shocked the entire world. Along with the concern over peace and safety, we came to reflect upon fundamental and serious questions of modern civilization and future of humanity.

The Inter-religious International Federation for World Peace (IIFWP) and World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations (WANGO) held a timely and significant conference in New York City this October 19 to 22. These two organizations, both of which my husband founded, brought together more than 400 participants from 101 countries. The participants included current and former heads of state, the highest leaders of major religions such as Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Confucianism, and representatives of academia and non-governmental organizations. The participants debated seriously on how to find peaceful solutions to today’s crises.

My homeland, the Korean Peninsula, as the world’s last divided country, is a troubled area that, along with the Middle East, attracts the world’s attention. In my husband’s opening address at the New York conference, he communicated a vision for lasting and fundamental peace, and today I again would like to share this view with you leaders assembled here. The title of my address is "The Nation and World of Peace Sought by God and Humanity."

Resolving the Root of Conflict

Throughout history, human beings have continuously aspired for world peace. However, we have never realized that dream. We can look back at the end of the Cold War, at which time fierce political and military conflicts and struggles concluded. Many people expected that the long-awaited era of peace and stability would arrive based on the foundation of highly developed science.

Nonetheless, we came to realize that conflict, hatred and selfish desire are imbedded deeply within each of us and are still active. These are creating ever more serious disasters in new shapes and forms. Violence wreaked upon innocents is certainly an inhumane criminal act, and we must bring it to a halt. However, what can eradicate those inner conflicts and struggles, and resolve the fundamental human problems at their root? Where was the seed of hatred, conflict, and struggle sown, and how did it come to be rooted deeply within us?

The seed was planted in the family of the first human ancestors, Adam and Eve. The conflicts and struggles that resulted have continued from generation to generation until the present time.

Then, where is the path to resolve those conflicts and realize peace on Earth? Historically, human beings have been attempting to overcome conflicts and pursue peace through economic, political, diplomatic and military means. However, such methods obviously do not provide fundamental solutions, as we are still struggling with many unresolved problems.

There is but one fundamental way and it is simple. It is to restore the family that the first human ancestors lost; that is, the ideal family of God. This is the family with God at its center, the family that has achieved perfection in true love both vertically and horizontally.

God exists as the Original Being of true love and the invisible True Parent of humankind. Nonetheless, love cannot exist alone. It exists in relationships and it can bear fruit only through relationships. That is why God created us as His children, through whom He would seek to realize His true love.

The Three Blessings of God

The First Blessing of God to human beings, "be fruitful" (Genesis 1:28), called God’s children to become the object partners of His true love by becoming true persons. When we love someone, we want our object partner to be better than ourselves. Thus, in love, God, as the Father, wants His children to be better than Him. That is why God repeatedly invests Himself in human beings, the object partners of His love, and nevertheless constantly forgets about what He has already given and desires infinitely to give love more and more. This is so because love has its origin in the desire to live for the sake of others for eternity.

God then bestowed the Second Blessing, "multiply" (Genesis 1:28). The first human ancestors were to have grown to maturity as the children of God. After having reached perfection, as one with God in heart, they were to have become True Husband and Wife. Then, they were to have become substantial True Parents to their children, inheriting and passing on true love, true life and true lineage from God.

As such, God’s ideal of creation was to perfect true love both vertically and horizontally, beginning in the first family of our common ancestors. Since God’s love is absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal, that family also was to have become the absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal family, centered on true love. Human beings would have become substantial embodiments of love, totally united with God in heart. Then they would have obtained perfect freedom, happiness and the realization of all ideals.

Then they would have become the Lords of true love whom all beings in the universe would have loved and welcomed. This was God’s Third Blessing (Genesis 1:28). This is the Blessing to create a living environment in which we can experience joy and happiness, having dominion over the creation. This includes the care for and preservation of the world’s ecological balance as true masters of the creation.

Not by Power or Knowledge, but by True Love

Tragically, our human ancestors could not inherit the Three Blessings of God and establish the family of true love. That means they failed to become true persons, true spouses, true parents, and true Lords centered on true love. Instead, they disobeyed God, and He expelled them from the Garden of Eden. As the fallen human ancestors, they became false spouses to each other, with false love that has nothing to do with God’s Blessings. They gave birth to children and those children multiplied to populate the world of today.

Since the fall at the beginning of human history, human beings have not been born on the foundation of true love, in the attendance of God. Instead, we have lived in conflict, with struggle between mind and body. This conflict manifested as a tragedy of hatred and murder between two brothers, Cain and Abel, in the first family. That was the miserable reality of a family that left God.

A family built upon the basis of human relationships alone cannot become a family of the original ideal of creation. An ideal family is one that connects to God vertically and has a true person as its axis. Under the true love of true parents, among siblings who own and share a common axis, the family finally can establish the relationships of ultimate harmony and peace. We can experience true love within an ideal family that bears good fruit. The family is the original and best school of love. Power or knowledge can never create true love.

The Loss of God’s Blessings

Honorable leaders! What do you feel when you look at the reality of human society and at the youth of the contemporary world? Do you feel hope for a bright future? I believe that you experience agony over the increasing rates of crime, violence, drug abuse, immorality, corruption, teen pregnancy and so forth. These arise out of a confusion of values and foretell darkness enveloping our youth.

How did we arrive at this point? Better school systems and social improvements would have delayed the onset of these problems partially, but these do not address the fundamental cause of these problems, which is the breakdown and loss of families. This breakdown is a product of the time we are in, a time when humankind is harvesting the fruit sown by the loss of the first family of true love.

The destruction of the foremost school of true love leads to the phenomena of family breakdown, with enormously destructive side effects. This breakdown not only causes personal anxiety but also manifold problems on the national and worldwide levels. Of particular concern is the emotional instability of youth, which leads to changing life goals, spiritual wandering, and even deviation from healthy lifestyles.

Leaders who are concerned over the future should be very serious in order to solve the real problems of youth avoiding marriage, rampant divorce, and so forth, which destroy the fundamental foundation for families.

Having lost the First and Second Blessings, humankind does not understand how important it is to perfect one’s individuality, through which we can experience sacred and eternal conjugal love. We do not educate most of our youth in a thoroughgoing way about the importance of keeping purity before marriage and reaching individual maturity through true love. This is why they do not understand the value of true love, which is the fundamental root of joy, happiness and all ideals.

The tendency to make light of trust and fidelity between husband and wife, and to ignore the sacredness of marriage, is an internal cause of indescribable disasters and tragedies for humankind. True love has no place in the so-called free sex culture, in which people seek only the physical love between a man and a woman as the cardinal but momentary pleasure. The rapid spread of HIV-AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) threatens the very existence of the human race.

It is said that there is no safety zone against the AIDS virus. A greater terrorism than that over which the entire world is now trembling is before our eyes, allowing us no safety zone. Once contracted, its victims gradually give up their dreams for happiness, ideals, and life itself. Unless we resolve this catastrophe plaguing our planet, how can we claim that we are leaders?

Nor have we taken responsibility for the Third Blessing endowed by God, to "have dominion over the creation." This requires that we take care of all creatures with true love. What would happen if the natural world were to rebel against the abuse and misuse it suffers at the hands of human beings who lord over it? Are not those symptoms beginning to appear? Before the natural world punishes our intolerable arrogance, we should stand before nature in true love as people of restored integrity.

The Perfection of "I"

Respected leaders, in order to examine todays problem at a more fundamental level, I would like to consider the relationship between the true "I" and the true "we" in the context of Gods ideal of creation.

As a result of the fall, human beings did not achieve the position of the true "I." For this reason, God has never been able to use the word "we." That is to say that God has never been able to stand within the realm of the consciousness of His ideal of creation and establish a relationship that would allow Him to say, "This is mine" or "This is my child."

So our present concept of "I" has no relationship with the original ideal of Gods creation, and it is for this reason that we should deny ourselves absolutely.

God has conducted His restoration providence so that He could establish true men and true women, that is, His sons and daughters, whom He could freely include within His concept of "we." Because God is the subject body of love, the subject body of life, and the subject body of lineage, He sought true sons and daughters who would live eternally with a complete and unbreakable standard.

We first are to perfect our individual character through the unification of mind and body. Then, on that foundation, we can build a vertical parent-child relationship with God. A vertical relationship by itself, however, is not sufficient to bring the word "we" into being. We also need to create a horizontal relationship in harmony with the vertical. To do this, man and woman form a husband-wife relationship through a true, blessed marriage, bear children, build a true family, and form a four-position foundation over three generations. Only then will God use the word "we" in reference to a family unit.

God’s Image in the Family

How, then, can we advance to such a position? God created all things from a position in which His mind and body were completely one. His creation was an act of total investment involving absolute love and absolute faith. There was no possibility that He would consider His own interest or situation. This was the fountainhead of the love that seeks to give one hundred percent and then still continue to give. This is true for God and it should be true as well for our families.

Parents, who stand in the position of God, are to invest themselves completely and absolutely with true love. In terms of the logic of origin-division-union, they should give birth to and rear children from the position of the origin, thus establishing a vertical axis for the concept of "we." If the husband and wife, who stand in the position of division from the origin, become one with each other, centering on true love, they will establish the horizontal axis. Then the children, who are in the position of union, will align themselves automatically with the vertical and horizontal axes and become one. They will establish a new axis reaching from front to back. The first family that accomplishes this substantiates the concept of "we" that is complete vertically, horizontally, and front to back.

This is the reason the family is so important. The family is the most valuable gift given to us from Heaven. If the environment we call the family did not exist, how would we establish this absolute standard of "I"? If not for the family, we would never even dare to think of a "we" that is complete vertically, horizontally, and front to back. The cradle of love, peace, and happiness is nothing other than this family.

How, then, do we establish the true "I"? This is possible only through a life of true love for the sake of others. The person who denies him or herself completely, to the point of nothingness, and begins to live for the sake of the family, for the sake of the country, for the sake of all humanity, and for the sake of God, will automatically be able to establish the true "I." We should never put ourselves forward arrogantly and use the word "I" in a casual manner. God has worked, steeped in grief in the back alleys of history, to push forward His providence of restoration. His only desire has been to establish children who could speak of the true "I." Anyone who knows this heart of God can never claim the word "I" for him or herself in a casual manner.

When we establish God’s original idea of world peace and the ideal families for which God has been waiting tens of thousands of years, we will have the starting point for the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. Beginning there, we will be able to resolve the grief of the piteous God. I would like to call upon everyone here to join with me. First, let us work to establish the true "I" that can look at the sun without shame, look at the ocean with a clear conscience, and has nothing to hide before nature. Then let us establish the family to which God will refer as a part of His "we."

God is Our True King

In this way, we can establish a relationship of true parents and children between God and ourselves. Furthermore, God, who is the true parent of humanity and the origin of love, life, and lineage, is the Ancestor of humanity and the True King who reigns over all. God lost the positions of Ancestor and King as a result of the human ancestors fall in the Garden of Eden.

In accordance with the progress of the providence of restoration, my husband declared the return to the ocean, to the land, to the cosmos, and to the heartistic realm of the fourth Adam. Then, on January 13, 2001, my husband and I performed the historic "Coronation Ceremony of Gods Kingship." Adams family, as the first human family, was to have been the ancestors of humanity and to have set the foundation for the institution of the family. Originally, the king of the family someday would have inherited the positions of king of the country and king of the cosmos. Humanity was to have connected to the heavenly realm of the original ideal in that way and that way only.

We will establish national level kingship, because the age of indemnity is ending and we are entering the age of settlement by the process of family registration. This will develop and connect with the kingship of the world. This is why, on the occasion of True Childrens Day 2000, my husband declared that the Parents of Heaven and Earth now reign as King of the family in the Unification Church. This means that we now are able to enter the age in which families that have been registered can attend the Heavenly Parent as our King. Thus, each blessed family should be aware of its responsibility to establish the tradition of humanity attending the King of Heaven and Earth. This is the reason that the age of the church has ended and the age of the family federation has begun.

The entire universe is linked as one connected body centering on one nucleus. Each and every family should stand in the position of this nucleus. To be such, love the creation and consume it. Love all creatures that God created in love. They exist in His love, and by loving them you will fulfill the position of their true master.

You should feel as if your family is becoming one body, that your family constitutes a realm of true love before God. , In that way your family will create a settlement, a cornerstone for attending the King, the Parents of Heaven and Earth. This is how you become a blessed family and inherit the realm of victory.

Steps to World Peace

Respected leaders! Now is the time for humanity voluntarily to repudiate all pride, ignorance, selfishness and hatred. Let us follow the laws of Heaven and be humble before God. Ever since God called my husband at the tender age of 16, he has committed himself totally to the realization of world peace, which has been God’s deepest wish. And at this time, I would like to set forth several crucial steps that are necessary for bringing peace to the world.

First, we are to live for the sake of others. A self-centered life not only causes discomfort to others, but also violates the laws of Heaven. Living for the sake of others, on the other hand, is the way we can resemble God. Loving our family, our community, our nation and the world is the way to inherit God’s true love. It is the way to live in accord with the fundamental order of the universe. Only through practicing true love can we become true individuals, true parents, true teachers and true Lords. Only then can we finally become the leaders who can bring about peace on Earth. A life of living for the sake of others is the first gate to peace.

In this sense, the path to peace ultimately will be based on "Godism" and "Head-Wing Ideology." This is the teaching that can reconcile and embrace all actors in a conflict, from their thought to their fruit, by dealing with the starting point of conflict in the relationship between Cain and Abel. How can we break the chain of hatred and violence we perpetrate against one another? Returning hatred in response to hatred only leads to more hatred, terror and destruction. This is certainly not the path to peace. We can touch, educate and reconcile the conflicting parties only by true love.

True love that places God in the center disregards national boundaries; therefore it is international. True love transcends the high walls dividing religions and races; therefore it is inter-religious and inter-racial. True love centered on God’s ideal of living for the sake of others can generate the power to touch a person’s heart and spirit. By true love alone can the various reasons and causes of conflicts on Earth be overcome, whether the confrontation is between right and left, front and rear, above and below, or inner and outer. By true love alone can we establish a world of eternal peace.

Marriage as an Instrument of Peace

Second, the family is the fundamental unit for building peaceful nations and ultimately a peaceful world. As I already mentioned, the root of conflict originated in the first family. Therefore, until the family of the True Parents appears, it is impossible for us to enter the era of world peace.

The international Blessings that my husband and I promote worldwide are not the wedding ceremony of a particular religion. They are a movement to save all nations and the world. We teach youth to keep their purity before marriage and, when they reach adulthood, to marry under the Blessing of God. However, as a condition to receive the marriage Blessing, they first pledge to their spouse that they will maintain absolute trust and fidelity as husband and wife. Thus, the Blessing is a holy movement to build true families and lift up true parents who live centered on true love.

Families built upon such an ideal and such an education have no need to feel threatened by the AIDS virus. For them, preventing AIDS is easier than preventing a cold or flu. If we educate the youth of the world in this vision and practice it, we will completely eliminate the AIDS epidemic. We will eliminate the scourge of family breakdown as well.

Further, these families of true love will serve as the cornerstone for peaceful nations and a peaceful world. In particular, if individuals of enemy nations, who have lived in discord throughout history, come together in true love as in-laws, their reconciliation will bring nations and races together. It is a high wall to overcome. Nevertheless, here is the supreme formula for bringing true peace to the world: bring together children from enemy families and nations for the "Exchange Marriage Blessing." These inter-religious and international families can build a realm of Blessing, perfecting true families of true love that both Heaven and Earth desire. From that point will begin the world of eternal peace that God and all humankind have desired.

A Challenge to Religious Leaders

Third, inter-religious reconciliation and cooperation is an essential condition for world peace. My husband and I have campaigned tirelessly for inter-religious harmony and dialogue. We always have devoted a far greater proportion of our funds for that purpose than for the growth and development of the Unification Church. Do you think that practicing such sacrificial love with an unchanging heart is easy? By no means! But we cannot expect world peace unless religious people reconcile and cooperate.

World peace is the original ideal of God. Therefore, religious leaders and believers should be the guides who lead people to peace. If religions only emphasize narrow-minded denominationalism and fail to teach true love for God and the universe, we will never free humankind from the horrors of war. In the face of this global crisis, religious leaders have to practice true love, humbly following God’s Will, walking hand in hand beyond the boundaries of their own religion.

The inner power of religion touches our hearts and can recreate us as people of peace. It can cultivate our ability to practice self-control from within. It can overcome historical hatreds and resentments among us. This is the root from which true peace and stability grow. If religions demonstrate love for each other, cooperate with each other, and serve each other, putting the higher ideal of peace ahead of their particular doctrines, rituals and cultural backgrounds, the world will change dramatically.

Beyond National Self-Interest

Fourth, I once again emphasize the proper role of the United Nations in realizing world peace. As a representative organization for world peace, the United Nations has made many contributions. It is a fact, however, that the world’s circumstances have changed and the complex situations in which nations find themselves today are unlike those at the time of the United Nations’ founding. In light of this, last year my husband and I presented proposals to solve the fundamental problems plaguing the planet Earth.

One of these proposals was to establish a special body that would discuss and evaluate the religious, spiritual and moral dimensions of world problems. The United Nations should serve the world and God’s ideal of creation effectively. To do so, it has to transcend the power of politics and national diplomacy, which reflect the motives of nations seeking their own self-interest. Only then can it truly protect the human rights of all peoples and nations and build world peace.

This imperative does not apply only to the United Nations. It will be difficult to maintain order in the world and protect public prosperity and peace as long as political sovereignty operates on the principle of national self-interest and ignores or undermines moral and spiritual values.

What is required is that high-level leaders ground themselves spiritually and morally upon God’s ideal and govern according to universal principles. No political power or earthly authority should stand above God and the laws of Heaven.

Moreover, the United Nations should listen to and embrace many of the views of the Non-Governmental Organizations. This is the reason we established WANGO. I encourage all NGOs and public service organizations, while not losing your original founding spirit, to dialogue and cooperate with one another. I request that you continue serving the world, be unselfish and stay free of corruption.

Our Historical Quest

Respected leaders! A person who only talks about world peace without practicing it is not a true leader. Given the current world situation, we cannot leisurely wait for the arrival of world peace while sitting down. It is an urgent time. God is calling each of us, the Ambassadors for Peace and everyone else, to create world peace by all means. Let us all take active roles as leaders in the movement for peace.

I wish and hope that, centered on the Peace Embassies, all service organizations national and international, including the United Nations, will participate actively in the movement for world peace. It is our historical quest.

Let us be united as one in mind and heart. Let us become pioneers for world peace, by first building ideal families of true love and living for the sake of others.

May God’s hand be upon you and bless you forever. Thank you very much.

 

True Mother's Guidance

Hak Ja Han
May 23 - 24, 2000
The Hague, the Netherlands
Translation: Peter Kim
Unofficial Notes: Wim Koetsier

After lunch, May 23

In South America, professors came and brought their students to attend True Mother's (TM’s) speech. The purpose of TM’s speaking tour is to give a message, not only for members, but especially to outside people. This event is to be used as a springboard to educate outside people. Utilize TM’s foundation. What is the Will of God, the final hope and desire of True Parents (TP)? To establish the Kingdom of God on Earth and eradicate the root of Satan’s lineage. TP come to embrace all humanity.

TP have laid a strong foundation world wide with many different organizations. TP go around to bring God’s message. We need to (re)connect people of the different organizations and mobilize through them many people. Catholics and protestants still have a theology based on the mentality of the 15th / 16th century. TP’s movement is from 21st century. The ideology of TP is to fulfill God’s Will and to embrace all humanity.

We have to embrace the people still living with a mentality based on 15 / 16th century mentality. It is like people who are used to have horses, suddenly come in the time of cars. Likewise with truth. Suddenly there is 21st century truth: DP like a fast car. Once the people realize this, they will be excited. In Korea and Japan thousands of people came to the speech. Most came from established churches and movements. Among them were important people like judges, congressmen, etc. They were very inspired.

The European continent is falling behind. What are we going to show as a result? What can we leave behind for our children? We need to leave something behind. True Father (TF) started from the bottom of hell. What about us? TP are going a suffering course. Now thousands of ancestors are willing to help us. This is a different time period. We have to be motivated to give the Word to the people, to save their souls. If in a nation like The Netherlands can only bring 400 people, this is shameful. Contact every possible field of people to bring them to the event. Please go out after lunch to get more people.

During HDH, May 24

TM’s speech was read again in the morning. After this she gave the following guidance.

What do you feel after hearing TP’s speech? Don’t you feel the suffering of God and TP, the path of indemnity that had to be taken? God’s Providence always has to continue. For instance, when Great Britain was at her peak, God showed England to lead the world, but she did not understand her mission. Likewise is the situation of France. If you visit this country, you can see in the museums many beautiful things from all over the world. In a way these things are stolen from the colonies. On the contrary, what is the Will of God? Living for the sake of others.

After World War II, God wanted to see Christianity to unite with TP. Christianity failed to do this. Therefore TF had to walk 40 years the course of the wilderness. In God’s Providence we see many champions, who were chosen by God. When they failed, God did not choose them again. God gave the opportunity to the U.S. to save humanity. If the U.S. had followed God’s Will, communism would not have emerged. The U.S. failed to be united with the LSA. TF had to start again from scratch, from the bottom of hell.

There is a difference between the past and the present. TF came with a physical body. He can act on earth and he could choose the U.S. back to God’s Will. For this he took the burden and indemnity on his shoulder on behalf of the U.S. The present speech takes only 30 / 40 minutes to read. Still it shows the path God and TP have been walking.

TP clearly understand God’s suffering. Don’t we feel that kind of suffering? TP have undergone this for our sake. Many Christians were in tears in the U.S. and South America. What about us? TM has not seen us in tears of appreciation. Is our heart far away? Don’t we have a feeling for God’s and TP’s suffering? Is our heart dry? Or could not we express our heart? Is our attitude to do God’s will on a side track?

When we hear that TF has been shedding blood, sweat and tears last 30 years, don’t we feel the same pain in our hearts? As is stated in the speech, not a single day, TF was in comfort. We just enjoyed our life, seeking a comfortable life.

Do you want to be successful? Or do you want to fail? The hope of God and TP is the liberation of God. God’s desire is to embrace us as His own children. As a son or daughter of the parents, if you see your parents suffering, can you close your eyes? God is not far away from our daily life. Is our attitude to keep distance from God?

Let us do our best to feel God’s heart. TF is now 80 years old. In 10 years he will be 90. TF is still very active. Our hope is unification of the fatherland. God could not embrace humanity. God could not find one restored nation. Blessed couples in The Netherlands, do absolute your best to restore the people of this nation. The spirit world is with us. Don’t you feel the difference of the year 2000? Through the CPL experience hundred of millions of our ancestors are liberated and blessed. The spirits are now free to move and know God’s Will. They will come down. If we do not go the proper way, the spirits feel frustrated. In this physical world, the best is to bring spiritual children. This determines our boundary in the spirit world. If we restore a nation, our boundary is nearly unlimited. Having many spiritual children helps us in the case we made mistakes. The spiritual children can ask forgiveness for us.

Our general attitude to God’s Will should be to be desperate. Our time is limited. Last night we saw TF’s smiling face. Do we feel good about this? If he would be here, we would feel even greater. If TF is in the spirit world, we might regret that we did not help enough to restore the world more quickly.

Within 3 years we need to have a showdown in our nation. Memorize all households in our nation. We have to be busy. If we do our responsibility, we will be remembered eternally. We live in a special historical time: in the same period as TP and we received the Blessing from them directly. How are we going to be remembered? Struggling a lot, but no result? It is a different time now. We are not alone. Good ancestors are ready to help. It is up to us to make the determination and conditions to mobilize this help.

Please do not neglect the contacts that were here. Contact the people who won a pure love ring and give them more education. It is like the Blessing ring. Through this we recognize someone as belonging to the same group. The people with the pure love ring belong to the pure love race group.

TM urged us to do HDH and to study in depth especially the volumes 10, 11 and 12. Understand the reality of the spirit world!. Also study the book about unification of North and South. Church leaders should give each Sunday an assignment about what to read in the coming week. The church leader has to check what is read and give new assignments for HDH reading each day of the week. The church leader has to make sure that every couple does it. We have to know the timetable of God’s Providence. Also strengthen the CARP activities and Youth Federation. This is the best way for restoration. Combine the organizations as a family with combined efforts under one umbrella. To secure the future, we need to educate the young people. TM wants to see the European continent reborn. Europe is like an old man. If we continue neglecting our faith, we will disappear. Dig into the message of last night. Let us do our absolute best and make a showdown within 3 years!

Mother's Words to Members in Birmingham, England

Compiled by Mark Bramwell
May 22, 2000

Some words of guidance from True Mother:

 The work of the WFWP should be expanded throughout Britain. The various Unification organizations have to work together and not separately, just as droplets come together and form a powerful river. Then we are in the position to effectively reach out to others. For example, FFWPU, WFWP and YFWP can do joint projects.

True Mother had had a difficult tour in South America and when she arrived in Britain she was quite exhausted and had a cold. Even at the beginning of the Birmingham speech her voice was quivering and she was visibly exhausted. However, by the end of the event she was very inspired, relaxed and confident. Today she invited everyone onto her plane for a photo and gave away her coat to a blessed child and gifts to others. She is now on her way to Den Haag.

About the role of Britain, True Mother said the following: Great Britain was chosen as the Eve nation at the time of the Second Advent, but failed. In God's providence there is normally no second chance, but Great Britain does have a second chance because of the merit of True Parents being on the earth. There are a maximum of three years to prepare the country to receive the True Parents.

It is difficult for the elder generation of Britain to understand that Britain should serve others, but the younger generation can understand this. We therefore need the younger generation and should focus our work on them.


Based on reports from Tim Read and David Earl:

The meeting in Birmingham, Monday 22nd May, went very well. The hall was packed to capacity with over 400 people, the majority of whom were friends and guests. The audience was extremely multi-religious and muli-racial. As well as many representatives of the Christian faith, there was a large contingent of British Asians belonging to the Sikh, Muslim and Hindu religions.

True Mother appeared young and extremely beautiful. This was remarked upon by many of the guests as well. They also said they could feel a great spiritual presence through True Mother.

The audience were extremely happy about the TV linkup with True Father at the end. Many belonging to non-Christian faiths had some difficulties with the content of the speech, but through the audio-visual link-up they could much more heartistically connect to True Parents. The audience was so happy that people did not want to leave the hall afterwards, but just stayed savoring the atmosphere.

True Mother was given a special award by the wife of the former Indian ambassador to North Korea and South Korea. (He now carries the important responsibility of Consul General of India for Birmingham and was represented at the meeting by his wife and daughter.)

Attending the meeting were representatives from the Birmingham Council of Faiths and leaders of women's organizations. The mobilization of these leaders was largely the work of the WFWP.

The Path for America and Humankind in the Last Days

Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon
World Speaking Tour South America and Europe
(Rev. Peter Kim's Copy)
May 8-19, 2000

Distinguished and honorable guests, ladies and gentlemen:

I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to all of you, as leaders in many walks of life, for gathering here and allowing me to share the Word of God.

In particular, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to God, who has been my constant companion throughout my life. To Him let us offer the glory and honor.

Throughout his life, my husband, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, has committed himself totally to the salvation of humankind centered on God’s Will.

He came to realize that God is not sitting on a throne of glory and honor. He is in fact a God of suffering, grief and lamentation, a God who is endeavoring to save His children who are suffering in hell as a result of the fall.

Ever since my husband first understood the Will of God and His suffering heart, he has worked single-mindedly to accomplish God’s Will, forgetting everything else. When I reflect upon his life, filled with misunderstandings, persecution and great hardship, I am grateful to God that I can be here to represent him today. I believe that it is entirely thanks to God.

On this significant occasion I would like to speak on the topic, "The Path for America and Humankind in the Last Days."

This will help us better understand human history and current world affairs from the viewpoint of God’s providence.

What are the "last days?" Ever since the fall of the first human ancestors, God has been working to save His lost children. This great work of salvation is to be concluded in the last days.

They are the turning point when the evil history of Satan ends and God’s good sovereignty begins. Accordingly, the last days are a time of hope when God’s work reaches fulfillment.

In the last days, individuals will be freed from the bondage of sin and will be able to reach the ideal of perfection.

Families will be healed, communities reconciled and the nations of the world will live together as brothers. Even the barriers between Heaven and Earth will come down as the fear of death disappears.

In the course of human history, God has tried on several occasions to usher in the last days by opening our minds to a deeper understanding of His Will and Truth. Time and again we failed to fulfill our responsibility to respond to the divine call of goodness and reject evil history.

However, God is eternal, unchanging, absolute and unique. His Will is also eternal, unchanging, absolute and unique. Therefore He will never abandon His ideal to build His Kingdom, through the true individual, true family, true society, true nation and true world. God will surely build the world in which He can live, freely traveling and acting both in Heaven and on Earth.

In God’s original plan, this world of peace would have emerged naturally. It would have started with the family of the sinless Adam and Eve, who would have been the first True Parents of humanity. However, due to the fall, the True Parents and the true world were lost from the very beginning.

Therefore, nothing in this present world, not the land where we are living, nor any human ideology or anything else, can connect us back to God and True Parents. We ourselves must first be redeemed and restored to true spiritual health.

When reborn individuals become true husband and wife and true parents, giving birth to true children, then the world under God’s sovereignty can emerge. When people once again can freely communicate with God in heart, the evil world inevitably will come to an end.

The last days are the time when such an ideal will be realized. It is the time of the Second Advent. Accordingly, the last days are a time of hope, not fear.

The biblical prophecies such as judgment by fire, the destruction of the Earth or people being caught up into the air have a spiritual rather than a literal meaning.

The last days are the time when the history of evil and tragedy will at last be untangled and resolved.

How does this happen? The Lord at his Second Advent will offer conditions of love and sacrifice on every level, starting with the individual and moving through the family, society, people, nation, world and even into the spiritual realms.

He will restore humanity’s vertical connection with God. We have been longing for such a day, and the final destination at which we all should arrive is now at hand!

However, the real situation of our world today seems to be far different. On every level, individuals, families and nations are still estranged.

Environmental problems such as air and water pollution and food shortages plague our societies. More seriously, religious struggles and racial disputes are constantly arising throughout the world, causing conflicts and even wars.

Who can take responsibility for this world? This is a serious question. There was a time when the Communist countries believed they could create a new world, but they could not transcend their own nationalism.

Similarly, America, the only remaining super-power, cannot transcend the idea of Americanizing the world in its own image.

When a nation places its self-interest first, it will not be able to lead the world. We need a people or a nation who are willing to sacrifice for the higher purpose of building or becoming an ideal nation that embraces the entire world.

America is faced with a moral crisis, and the influence of the church is declining because of confusion and disunity.

This is why my husband and I went to America, in response to the call of God. We have been making the utmost effort to revive that nation by educating her young people.

You might be curious about what we are teaching. It is actually simple. First, it is "to live for the sake of others."

More specifically, the individual should live for the sake of the family, the family for the society, the society for the people, the people for the nation, the nation for the world and the world for God. Finally, God will come and live with us.

The same principle applies in the family. The parents are to live for their children and the children are to live for their parents. The true husband lives for his wife and the true wife lives for her husband. Anyone who lives for others more than his or herself is living on the side of goodness.

Second, we are teaching people to "love your enemy." God Himself sacrificed Jesus, His only begotten and beloved son, for the salvation of humankind.

Since God did this in order to save the children of His enemy, Satan could no longer exercise his evil authority and power before God. Even Satan cannot help but surrender voluntarily before the God who loves Satan’s children more than His own.

Satan’s pattern is always to strike first, but he loses in the end. God’s strategy is to win in the end by taking the first blow and initial loss.

My husband’s faith in this simple heavenly law sustained him through torture and imprisonment.

We could send missionaries out to 185 nations throughout the world despite knowing that first they would face terrible persecution and misunderstanding, because we knew that in the end they would prevail.

This heavenly law can also be seen in Christian history. Christian missionaries and saints have walked a path of persecution and martyrdom, hindered by many enemies.

For two thousand years, their tears and blood have been the fertilizer for the growth of freedom and democracy.

But today Christianity, which once was the source of strength for freedom and democracy, is facing a crisis. Christian nations have lost direction and are drowning in moral confusion.

They deny or ignore God, Jesus, and God’s providence in a way that formerly would have been unthinkable. We even hear voices asserting that, "God is dead" or "God does not exist."

How does God feel about this? God’s heart must be broken, for He has been searching for His children, sacrificing everything that He has, with the hope that He could see liberation in the last days.

Ladies and Gentlemen: For whom has God been sacrificing Himself? It is not just for America or any particular country.

Nor is it only for Christianity. Rather it is for each of us, for you and for me as individuals. Likewise, the reason Jesus was crucified was not to save the Messiah himself, but was to save you and me, each and every one of us.

Since the fall began with two individuals, salvation should also begin on the individual level. The Messiah comes as a representative of humankind, proclaiming, "I will take full responsibility to pay all the debt that man has incurred during the entire course of history.

"I will become a person who will even make God indebted to me instead." Without such a steadfast determination, restoration is impossible.

We should not be only conceptual or theoretical. Without willing to endure misery and suffering in the world, we cannot reach God’s heart.

Have you ever prayed in desperation for the six billion people in the world, with the feeling that your own children are dying?

How much heart have you invested to save a family, a tribe, a people, a nation and the world, with a willingness to sacrifice yourself for them?

I believe that very few people are confident to answer that question positively. Nonetheless, the Lord of the Second Advent comes to the world with just such an absolute standard.

God works in history by finding champions who can represent Him and who are willing to suffer on His behalf. When God found Abraham 2,000 years after the fall, He first tested him through trial and suffering.

God then made Abraham’s descendants the chosen people by multiplying them as a new family, a new tribe and a new nation, Israel.

God called the Israelites as the chosen people, based on Abraham’s victorious faith. Thus they became the central people to receive the Messiah who was to come in the future.

If you go to the core of the matter, you can understand that the first human ancestors, Adam and Eve, lost the standard of faith and love.

The Messiah comes to restore that lost standard. The Messiah comes in the position of a new Adam and the believers stand as the "bride."

Despite its significance, the Israelites could not carry out their mission because of the crucifixion of Jesus. Although called by God as the chosen nation, Israel lost the position of God’s elect.

Christianity was called as the second Israel to carry out the mission instead. God continued to lead His providence centered on one purpose: to restore the bride.

Thus the ultimate goal of all Christians, who today are awaiting the Second Advent, is not merely to develop their religion. Our most important mission is to become a bride qualified to receive the Messiah as our bridegroom. We are now in the final stage of that providence.

What is the essence of the Messiah’s teaching? It is to save the world. He brings a teaching that can unify the world and build an ideal family.

Its main purpose is to restore the position of the True Parents that was lost by the fall of the human ancestors.

The Old and New Testaments tell us that the Messiah comes with the authority of the Father, meets a substantial bride, who represents the power of the Holy Spirit, and restores the position of the True Parents. This is why Christianity is in the position of bride to the coming Messiah.

The appearance of the bride and bridegroom at the "marriage supper of the lamb" prophesied in the Book of Revelation refers to the coming of the True Parents as the first true husband and wife.

Jesus came with this same mission. However, when he lost his people and nation due to their disbelief, he offered his life for the sake of the world and the Kingdom that God wanted to build.

The path of Jesus’ suffering on the cross was the same path of tribulation that God Himself walked.

In the face of death, Jesus desperately prayed, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." He forgave Rome and all the groups of people who opposed him.

This sacrificial spirit is why Jesus’ life did not end on the cross at the age of 33. With God’s help, Christianity inherited his spirit and became the leading religion in human history.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is important that we understand America’s responsibility as the foremost Christian nation in the world. America is currently recognized as the one remaining super-power, but unless she stands straight on the providential line of God, she will not continue to prosper.

We may think that America will always enjoy the position of privilege it has today, but history shows us that civilizations rise and fall as their fortunes shift. Will America be any different?

Let us examine the history of civilization. Had our ancestors not fallen, civilization would have begun in the warm zone, the climate corresponding to spring.

As it matured it would have moved to the cool zone, corresponding to autumn. Instead the ancient civilizations were born mainly in the hot parts of the world, the tropics and subtropics. Examples include the civilizations of the Mayas, Incas, Egypt and Mesopotamia.

Yet the center of civilization moves from place to place and those once-proud societies declined. Today, the leading cultures of the world are part of the cool zone represented by western civilization.

This is the reason why the leading nations of the world, such as America, England, Germany and so forth, are in the cool zone of the Northern Hemisphere.

With the end of the cool zone civilization of autumn, the cold zone civilization of winter comes for a short time. This is the significance of Communism.

Many intellectuals may think that the Cold War system disappeared after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, but the forces of materialism and atheism linger throughout the world. Nonetheless, both democracy and communist ideologies are gradually losing power.

Now, the civilization of the true spring that we have been seeking from time immemorial will appear. It will overcome the crises and threats of modern civilization.

Who will be able to melt the block of ice frozen in the heart of God? Power, money, science and knowledge cannot melt that ice. It can only melt with the coming of the spring-like culture of true love.

The movement of civilization along rivers and coastlines also demonstrates that the center of civilization is not fixed. For example, early human civilization began around the Tigris, Euphrates and Nile rivers, and then shifted to the Mediterranean, focusing upon Greece, Rome, Spain and Portugal.

Later, the center of civilization moved to the Atlantic, through Great Britain and the United States. This movement is now bearing fruit in the Pacific Ocean civilization of the United States, Japan, and Korea.

Viewed from the perspective of the history of civilizations, the Korean peninsula, though small, occupies a very important position. To the north of Korea lies the boundary of the cold region civilization that links Russia and China. To the south lies the cool region civilization that links the United States and Japan.

In this providential view of history, it is natural that Korea would give rise to a warm zone civilization representing the new spring season of human history. This new culture should have the capability to digest both the cold and cool region civilizations.

The fact that Reverend Moon, who has dedicated his life to solving the North-South problem and the East-West problem, comes from Korea is no coincidence. It is directly in line with God’s providence.

Throughout our lives, my husband and I have challenged racial, ideological and national boundaries to pursue a movement for "One World under God." We have traveled this path because of God’s providence.

The principle of providential history you have just heard this evening is a revealed truth.

It is not a theory that Reverend Moon invented. He was enlightened regarding the Will of Heaven. Rather than letting these heavenly secrets remain only as a theory between my husband and me, we have been working together to bring God’s plans into reality.

God has guided us to work actively everywhere in the world. We have been able to inspire evangelical and business activities from Alaska to Antarctica, from the countries of the former Soviet Union to the 33 nations of South and Central America, and throughout Asia and Africa.

In recent years, we have worked in the Pantanal and Amazon regions of Brazil to protect our planet’s environment. The movement we have founded is preparing to solve the external and internal problems humanity will face over the coming millennium, such as environmental pollution, hunger and disease.

To solve internal spiritual and social challenges, we have worked through the International Holy Blessing and the Pure Love movement to break down the barriers between people, races and nations. Some 430 million couples around the world have already received the Holy Blessing from God. This adds greater impetus to building the long-awaited Kingdom of God on Earth.

The world is changing faster than we realize. Until now, countries possessing superior political, military and economic power have controlled the world. However, no nation can exist eternally unless it is in line with God’s providence. The fall of the once glorious Greek and Roman civilizations are good examples of this.

In more recent history, political factions favoring dialectical materialism and the materialistic view of history gained control of more than one-third of the world’s population and two-thirds of its land area, including the former Soviet Union and China.

Their expansion, however, could not continue forever because it was not in line with God’s Will.

The United States, which today stands tall as a super power, holds the same preeminent position Rome once held. The fall of Rome resulted from internal corruption more than from external invasions.

Moral corruption caused Rome to lose the support of heavenly fortune. America is in danger of suffering the same fate.

The time will come when religious leaders who speak for the Will of God will rise to prominence. Religious leaders are prophets. They must stand up fearlessly, declare God’s will, and point the way for humanity to go.

However, the splintering of denominations and the struggles among religious groups we see today seriously hinder God’s providence.

To overcome religious disunity, my husband and I have for years devoted 90 percent of our church’s budget to help other denominations and other religions resolve inter-religious conflict.

We founded the Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace to bring harmony and unity among religious groups, to contribute to resolving conflicts in many areas of the world, and to help bring about world peace.

Most recently, we founded the Inter-religious and International Federation for World Peace. This body has already brought political and religious leaders together to study the Word of God through seven international Hoon Dok Hae conferences.

We are in the time when all people can go beyond racial and religious differences and understand God’s providence to bring His ideal of creation into reality.

We can understand and ultimately unite with God’s heart. That heart of true love will bring about the world of faith, hope, and love for which all of us have been longing.

We can recover the heartfelt relationship with God that we lost as a result of the human fall. This means to recover the positions of parent and child as God originally envisioned them to be.

This is why God has promised us that the time when True Parents come is indeed the last days.

It is the day of hope, when the multitudes of people in the world, who lost their Parents as a result of the fall, again will be able to meet their original Parents. Thus, the True Parents are the fulfillment of the desires and hopes of all humankind. They are the final fruit of the victories and sacrifices of good people throughout human history.

The Unification Church has spread this new message and tradition throughout the world through the International Holy Blessing Ceremony.

The fact of black, white and yellow people coming together as brothers and sisters—beyond differences of ethnicity, race, or skin color—to form loving married couples is among the most significant signs of the accomplishment of God’s Will.

Today, by realizing the blessed family tradition, we can recover the relationships of brother and sister, husband and wife, and parent and child as God originally envisioned them.

We must go so far as to liberate God, who has been in the depths of sorrow ever since He lost His children. It is only then that God and us together can open the path to true happiness.

Until now, democracy has called for "human freedom" and "human liberation," but this is not enough. Now is the time to call for "God’s freedom" and "the liberation of God."

When we end God's sorrow, human liberation and the recovery of human freedom will follow automatically. Each of us should realize that we were born to liberate God and to liberate the world.

Ladies and Gentlemen: It is profoundly significant that we are gathered here to discuss God’s providence. The United States is a country prepared by God’s blessing. The forefathers who built that country were the Pilgrim Fathers, who risked their lives for the sake of the freedom of religion. They went to America seeking a land of freedom.

For the sake of their search, they left behind their parents, brothers and sisters, and homelands. They were prepared to cut their ties to their home country as they crossed the Atlantic Ocean at the risk of their lives.

As you may know, the ship they sailed, called the Mayflower, arrived in New England in the late autumn, November of 1620. While they endured their first winter, more than half of the 102 people who first arrived died of the cold and hunger. What was particularly remarkable was that they died refusing to eat the precious seeds reserved for planting the next spring.

The Pilgrim Fathers strongly believed in serving the Will of God in every aspect of their lives. After taking in their first harvest, they offered thanks to God. They first built a church and a school, and it was only then that they built their personal homes.

The early Americans began every activity with prayer. This was true whether it was plowing a field or fighting a war.

When George Washington was at Valley Forge during the War of Independence, he must have prayed with great desperation. In America, God supported His beloved sons and daughters who earnestly sought the freedom to worship Him. Isn’t this how the United States was born as a country advocating freedom of faith?

Even now, the United States Congress opens with a prayer. When the President is sworn into office, he places his hand on the Bible as he takes the oath of office, and a member of the clergy blesses him. America even prints the words "In God we trust" on its currency.

America is unique in the level of importance it attaches to God. This is how the United States came to occupy a unique position as a mainly Christian country with worldwide influence.

But what about America today? Prayer is banned in public schools, even as shocking acts of violence in schools are shaking the foundations of that nation.

The theory of evolution is given preference over the theory of creation. God is virtually excluded from education. A divorce rate of 50 percent is destroying the sanctity of the family.

In 1971, my husband and I left our family and homeland to go to America. He heard the voice of God sharing His concern about the current state of affairs. Upon arriving, he cried out that he had come as a fireman to a house that was on fire and as a physician to cure America of disease.

Even then, my husband realized that God was leaving America. It should have been possible to find God everywhere in America, but God was departing from the hearts of people, from the families and from the schools.

It seems like only yesterday that we stood on Fifth Avenue in New York City, where my husband openly wept for America. He was desperately holding onto God, to keep Him from leaving America. Unfortunately, as we predicted and feared, America has persisted on the way of moral decay.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I would like to ask you this. In spite of all the opposition and suffering my husband has endured, why do you suppose Reverend Moon continues to cry out to America?

It is because he knows, better than anyone, the blood, sweat and tears that God shed in the course of establishing that country. During the past thirty years in America, my husband has not spent so much as a single day in comfort or ease.

Who is the true master or owner of America? It is neither white Americans nor black Americans. The true master of America is the person who loves America as God does.

The nations of the world are brothers. We continue to plead with Americans because God has chosen that nation to be the elder son, His leading nation in building the Kingdom of God on Earth.

Even now, Jesus is spiritually present mainly in America, and he is offering earnest prayers that his purpose will be accomplished in America.

In 1982, in accordance with the Will of God, we founded The Washington Times in Washington, D.C. Ever since then, that newspaper has led American public opinion with a conservative voice showing the path for America to follow.

We have pursued national and world salvation through the True Family Values movement and the Pure Love movement for young people. We have invested in America with the fervent expectation that it would stand upright before God’s providence.

When my husband first visited America in 1965, he blessed an area near the White House as a Holy Ground. To this day, many people gather there and pray for America through the night.

I hope each of you here will also open your hearts in prayer. You will be able to feel the earnest desires of the Pilgrim Fathers as well as the many patriots who have gone before us in ( )’s history.

The new millennium is the time God’s six thousand-year salvation providence is coming to an end. God’s ideal of creation is being realized throughout Heaven and Earth.

This also marks the time that the lamentations and suffering of the creation, which lost its true master as a result of the fall, are finally over.

This is the time when the Parents and children who have been long-separated meet again. It is an age when there is free communication between the spirit world and the physical world, and when God’s Kingdom will be established in Heaven and on Earth.

The transition into the new millennium marks the completion of the New Testament Age.

It is the point at which the promises of both the Old Testament and New Testament are fulfilled.

From now, the direct dominion of God’s love will become apparent throughout the world. His power and authority will be recognized and respected.

In this age, the East and West, and even the spiritual and physical worlds, will come together centering on the Parents of Heaven and Earth.

This will create one world and one cosmos under God. The great family of humankind will be formed on Earth. This is the hope of the Completed Testament age. The promises of God will be fulfilled in glory.

The time has come. It is time for America and the world to awaken once again. It is time for ( ) to create a new movement to build God-centered true parents, true families, a true country and a true world. In this way,

( ) will keep God here at home.

( ) will be a society that attends God. God worked a thousand years to establish the nations of His providence. If He leaves ( ), where can He go? If ( ) attends God properly, all our problems—family problems, moral problems, youth problems and racial problems—will disappear.

As a place where people of all races and nations can live together in harmony, ( ) will be a model for the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.

It is time for us to unite and open the path for humankind. It is time for

( ), as a younger son nation attending God, to help lead the way.

America can complete its mission as the pilot that guides the other nations to God. ( ) is in an important position to aid the United States in its role of elder son nation in front of God.

Sharing many of the same blessings and challenges, ( ), stands as a younger son nation. Your help is needed for the United States to succeed as elder son nation in God’s providence.

By working together, the United States will be able to lead the world, once again, into God’s bosom. I ask you to stand with us to accomplish this historic task.

I would like to conclude by expressing my hope for the beginning of a new millennial Kingdom overflowing with peace, freedom and justice on Earth and in Heaven.

Again, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for your presence here.

May God’s blessing be with you and your families.

North-South Unification and World Unification Will Be Accomplished By True Love

Hak Ja Han
Speaking Tour of Japan
February, 2000

Distinguished guests whose fervent desire is for North-South Unification, ladies and gentlemen. The new millennium that just began is a time to clean away the divisions and conflicts of the past century and to manifest the ideal of a one world family of harmony and unification. I would like to begin by thanking you for congratulating me on my eightieth birthday. Most of all, I would like to return to GOD all the honor and glory given to me, because it is He who has watched over me until this day. As I look back, I am reminded that my life has never been easy. My life has been intertwined with the suffering history of our people and the numerous difficulties that our people have undergone in the midst of the great powers.

As a boy of 16, I came into contact with the will of Heaven through prayer, and throughout my life after that I have devoted all my spirit and energy to accomplishing God’s Will. I came to understand that the fundamental cause of human unhappiness is that the relationship with God was severed by the fall. As a result of the fall, human beings fell into a state of spiritual ignorance. In an effort to resolve the fundamental problems this has caused among humans and in the universe, I have spoken publicly on more than 10,000 occasions in many places around the world and set forth a true view of humanity, a true view of the world, and a true view of history based on Godism.

These speeches have been translated into twelve languages and published in three hundred volumes. The content of these speeches are not the result of a comprehensive study of historical documents. My conclusions are not the result of scholarly research. Instead, I arrived at these answers to basic and fundamental questions through my communications with both the visible and invisible world.

The issue of unifying the Korean Peninsula is the solemn desire of our people and the final act of bringing the global Cold War to a conclusion. So today, as I express my gratitude for your having prepared this meaningful forum. I would like to share with you on the topic, North –South Unification and World Unification Will Be Accomplished by True Love, and lay on the basic answer for how to bring about unification.

The unification of our country involves more than the mere unification of national territory. It begins with the unification of the human mind and body that were divided against one another as a result of the fall, and it is the model for the unification of the world that has been divided in two. Thus, this issue must be understood from the perspective of Gods salvation providence. It must be resolved on a providential level.

What is Satan’s ultimate target behind the history of struggle between good and evil ever since this conflict was brought into being as a result of the fall of the first human ancestors? Satan has his sights set precisely on God Himself. God is eternal, unchanging, absolute and unique, and the standard of the ideal that He held at the beginning of creation must also have these qualities.

If you were to ask God directly, I think He will confirm what I am saying. How can God reply when Satan says to God, God, when you made me an archangel in the beginning, were you acting out of a love for me that was temporary or eternal? I think God will say that He made him the archangel out of a love that was eternal. If he were to say that His love was temporary, that would make Him an ephemeral God. Unless He maintains a standard of loving Satan eternally, there will eventually come a time when He will no longer be able to exercise His authority as God with respect to Satan. Thus, no matter how much Satan may oppose Him, God has no choice other than to establish the condition of loving Satan.

Satan says to God, I became an evil scoundrel as a result of the fall, but you and good people can’t use methods that are similar to mine, can you? I may like to fight, but you’re not supposed to enjoy fighting. Even when you take a blow, you have to endure, don’t you? Thus, God’s philosophy is one of non-resistance. Why is that? It is because, until the world of the heavenly ideal is manifested on this earth, God must love the archangel who has become Satan, regardless of the circumstances,.

No matter how much trouble Satan may cause, God cannot punish him or cut him off. He must establish the condition of having loved Satan regardless of where he found Satan. God can only have complete victory when Satan confesses to Him, saying Oh, God is really God. I surrender to You. This is the problem.

Because of this, God is in the position of being tied up by Satan. Since the principle path of the providence of restoration is for God to bring about Satan’s surrender by loving him, we who are His children must walk this same path.

It doesn’t matter if a person is persecuted around the world and is considered a worldwide enemy. This person must establish the condition of having loved those oppose him. From this aspect, there is amazing truth in God’s words to love your enemies. In fact, this is one of God’s battle strategies.

These words sound simple. No one realized, though, that they have marked the boundary line between victory and defeat in the battle between God and Satan. If God were to adopt a philosophy of looking on Satan as His enemy and seek revenge against him, then God would never be able to stand on the pinnacle of victory. Thus, God has said, love your enemy, and has carried out a strategy of love. The words love your enemy also represent the culmination of Jesus teaching.

It is remarkable that Jesus, the only begotten son of God, stood before Satan and prayed for him despite the fact that Satan was trying to kill him. If Jesus, as he hung dying on the cross, had held any feelings of malice toward his enemy, God’s Providence would have been turned completely around. It is because Jesus overcame death with a heart of praying that his enemies might be blessed and of loving his enemies that Satan surrendered in that instance

This is where the qualification to be God’s eternal child comes about. Even Satan recognizes this qualification, and gives his signature. You, too, will be able to stand before God and say, Hey Satan, am I not unmistakably the son of God? And Satan will reply, Yes, tat is correct. We must conduct ourselves in such a way that if we say to Satan, You have no problem, then, if people who live like me expand God’s reciprocal realm, starting from the individual and moving to the family, clan, people, nation and world, Satan’s answer will be, That is the Principle, so I can’t do anything about it.

It is under these conditions that God has pursued the providence, with the Christian cultural sphere at the center. Whether we find ourselves on the path of sacrifice, in the position of martyrdom, or in the midst of bloody battle, we must carry out a movement of loving God and loving even our enemies. We must carry out this movement in our families, in our societies, and in our nations.

The Roman Empire severely persecuted Christianity, but it was forced to surrender in the face of the love by which Christianity loved even the country that was its enemy. This is how Christianity came to be a worldwide religion. The starting point for the path to heaven was within the country that was Christianity’s enemy. Until now, Christians have only thought about loving their own personal enemies, but this is not correct. We must love the country that is our enemy, and even the world that is our enemy.

The starting point on the path to Heaven is within the country that is our enemy. Unless we create the foundation of true love and set out on the basis of this foundation, we cannot bring about the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. When the tradition is established in this way, there can never be a philosophy or ideology greater than this.

When Korea was under Japanese imperial rule, the four providential countries Korea, Japan, Germany and the United States were enemies with one another. Given the circumstances of that time, Japanese and Koreans were enemies. Japanese and Americans were enemies, Americans and Germans were enemies. Yet, I practiced the way of true love of Heaven by taking Japanese and Germans to America, their enemy country, and telling them that America was falling into ruin and their help was needed to revive it.

I emphasized to the Japanese and Germans that they could not establish a new thinking capable of leading humanity into a new world that Heaven desires unless they set the condition of having loved their past enemy, America, even more than their own fatherland. I set forth this tradition of true love, and created a new beginning. Unless people erect a base and tradition by which they are able to love the countries that are enemies of their own, the Kingdom of Heaven cannot be realized on Earth. It is only within the true love of God that such a historic tradition can be constructed. When I was humiliated by the US federal government and unjustly brought before a court of law, my response was actually to work harder to give life to America by founding the conservative newspaper. The Washington Times and a broadcasting station.

Recently, I am pursuing an effort to gather prominent strategic planners from around the world in order to assist China. This is one example of how all the organizations that I have founded are ready to involve themselves in any effort of Heaven that requires love. In the future, even those with superior ability will find themselves ruled by others if they have not accumulated accomplishments in true love.

Everyone here needs to bear in mind, I was involved in the anti-Japanese resistance movement under the Japanese imperial rule, and from that perspective, the Japanese people were my enemy. This was true for the Korean people as a whole and for me individually. Yet, after Japan’s defeat in World War II, I gave love to Japan.

After the war, I could have reported the police who had taken me into custody for my activities in the underground independence movement and tortured me severely. Had I done this, they would all have been executed. When I came across a Japanese policeman who was running for his life, however I packed some things for him and helped him escape to safety under the cover of darkness.

Do you know why so many young people in Japan place their eternal lives at stake and pledge their loyalty to me? This is because there is a principle of cause and effect which dictates that they must return what has been given them. It is because I planted the seeds of true love in the world, transcending

National boundaries and in accordance with God’s heart. It is because I planted the heartistic foundation that leads people to a life of loving the countries that were the enemies of their own country. Thus, Japan today is my prisoner. Without even realizing it, Japan is fulfilling its heavenly calling.

Under Japanese rule, I had reason to harbor resentment even toward the Emperor of Japan. But he has already been defeated. Heaven does not strike a person who is defeated. In fact, Heaven shows mercy toward those who understand their sin and apologize. Because this is Heaven’s way, a person who raises a sword and strikes a defeated person will find his own descendants driven to ruin.

The United states is also a country that considered me their enemy. However, I left my family behind and diverted my attention from my Korean fatherland to bring salvation to that country. I threw away everything that belonged to me in order to bring salvation to the world under Satan.

Think too, of how much hatred the established Christian denominations have directed toward the Unification Church. It might be said that we are enemies. We must not fight each other as enemies, however we must come together in love. What happens when we come together in love? The two come together in love and lead the Republic of Korea into fulfilling the will of Heaven so as to digest North Korea. If the established denominations and the Unification Church had become one immediately after Koreas liberation from Japan, everything would have been solved.

Because that did not happen, we have had to make extraordinary sacrifices to fight enemies of the individual, enemies of the family, enemies of the clan, and enemies of the people in order to attain the position that we would have reached in the first place had there been no conflict. We worked to overcome the path of suffering where we were not able to strike at enemies.

Distinguished ladies and gentleman, all the people in North Korea have armed themselves with Juche Thought. We must arm ourselves with the philosophy of true love that is capable of digesting them. North Korea is a part of the Northern Culture that has been influenced by the cold winds of the Soviet Culture. We must work hard to naturally melt them with our warm region civilization. Otherwise, both countries will go to ruin. Thus, we must thoroughly arm ourselves philosophically

This philosophy must not be one that seeks the fulfillment of individual desires. Rather, it must seek the salvation of all humanity. It must not be centered on the self. Communists have the idea that everyone should work for the sake of a few top Party leaders.

This is why they eliminate any person who stands out as a potential rival. We are not that way. Our idea is to unite with the reciprocal environment in order to established a reciprocal standard of a higher level. That is, for Cain and Abel to become one so as to receive their parents on a higher level.

I do not believe South Korea should attempt to overcome North Korean military. Instead, we must love our nation more than they love theirs. We must have the philosophical strength to love Heaven even more that they love communism. We must become capable men and women of character who can bring about their natural surrender. There is no other way for us to absorb North Korea.

In other words, we must become able to impress them with how we live. We must be able to amaze those people armed with communist ideology in terms of our outlook on life and our standard of character.

We cannot restore he Cain-type nation unless we maintain an environment by which we are able to exert influence over them. If we cannot restore the Cain-type nation, we cannot establish the restored country capable of entering into a worldwide nation centered on the Kingdom of Heaven. Although North and South Korea are divided against one another, we must liberate North Korea without fighting them.

The Korean people in both North and South Korea fervently desire to see the country unified, but how can this be accomplished? Unification can only be accomplished when a sophisticated method for unification is put forward that will allow both sides to live together. When the South goes to the North, or the North to the South, and says, Let’s do it our way, unification will not succeed.

Thus, we must find a love that will benefit both sides. Ladies and gentlemen, at the moment North and South are going in different directions. One is trying to go south and the other trying to go north, and they are on two divergent paths. Their purposes are at odds with each other. If both sides insist on their own position, it is certain that the situation will again result in breakdown.

The question is what is to be done about this. There must be a South Korean person who loves North Korea with a greater love than any South Korean person has for his own country.

Also, there must be a North Korean person who loves South Korea with a greater love than any North Korean has for his own country. There is no option or solution other than this.

If there is one person whose patriotism is greater than any \south Koreans and greater than any North Koreans, then this is where the path to unification can come about. Can there be another way? No matter how hard you may think, there is no other way. What are the Korean people do, then? Our country straddles the boundary line between left and right centering on the 38th Parallel. We are the ones who have been placed on that line, so what are we going to do? This is the question. The issue is how to resolve this problem. The answer is that we must suffer even more than North Koreans, and even more than South Koreans. How are we going to uphold such s standard of patriotism, established through suffering and transcending nationality? This is the way to give this country life and to solve its problems.

The same principle applies to uniting the world of goodness and the world of evil. Someone must appear in the world of goodness that is greater patriot to the world of evil than anyone in that world. A person must appear that can set a higher standard of loyalty to his nation than anyone among our ancestors who pursued goodness. This is the only way for a divided history to be restored.

Jesus was particularly remarkable in this regard. He realized it would do no good idea for both sides to fight. The only way for him to live for the sake of God and for the sake of the people of Israel was for him to die for God and for his people. This was the reasoning behind the crucifixion.

Jesus love for humanity was greater than anyone else since the beginning of history, and his love for God was greater than anyone else in history. Because of this, his death caused a history destined for destruction to take a new direction toward a world of purpose. This was the Christian cultural sphere. This is historical fact. Thus, the only way to unite North and South is to become a people who can die for the North and the South. There is no other path to achieve unification. There has to be a heart of truly wanting to live together in harmony with the other side.

When a person considers how to lead his life, the most basic fundamentals can be expressed as: the path of a filial child, the path of a loyal patriot, the path of a saint and the path of a son or daughter of God.

Isn’t it the heart of wanting to live in harmony with others eternally and of wanting to be with others without regard to whether they are higher and lower, and transcending front and back and left and right? This is the logical conclusion.

What is the common denominator among those who say, I want to live in harmony with others It is not power. Power cannot transcend history. Power is limited to a specific period in time.

The same is true with knowledge. The world of knowledge has an innate tendency to develop. Does knowledge give us the heart to say, I want to live with this particular piece of knowledge forever?

Clearly, we cannot keep either knowledge or wealth with us forever. What then is the common denominator that transcends above and below, front and back, left and right, and the time differences between past, present and future? This cannot be anything other than true love centering on God.

Thus, a filial child is one who lives in his family giving profound love to his or her parents. Also, a patriot is one who lives a life of profound love for his country. A saint is one who lives a life of profound love for the people of the world. A son or daughter of God is one who lives a life of profound love foe all humanity and God.

Thus, the problem is to develop a true foundation of heart by which a person can want to have the heart of a patriot. Such a person would want his or her life to be in concert with the fortunes of the people. Such a person would look upon any difficulties faced by the people as his or her own personal difficulties. This person would look upon any joys experienced by his people as more than temporary joys but eternal joys to be shared with everyone. The person who possesses relationships of true love and true heart is given special authority to participate in the realm of unification.

Ladies and gentlemen, even if a woman lacks any formal education she can marry a man with a doctoral degree and suddenly become the wife of a scholar, isn’t that true? Anyone who possesses a great deal of the relationships of heart desiring to live with others in harmony has the right to participate today in the realm of unification.

God himself is such a being. So if a person attains the life content enabling him to from a unity, this person is automatically given the qualification to participate.

Where should we begin the process of Unification? Where should we start in order to achieve North-South unification? What is the first step? Do we begin by using our fists or physical force? If we subjugate the other side with force, then eventually they will develop a force stronger than ours and the conflict will begin all over again. We cannot achieve unification by this method. The way to unification will open when each of us has the heart to say, Even though I live in the South, I truly want to live in harmony with those people in the North. I truly want to become one with them.

Suppose people in the South were to look upon our compatriots in the North and shed tears to see the miserable conditions in which they live. Suppose we were to tell them, I am giving my life in a way that I can share in your difficulties. Suppose we were to promise them, Someday soon, I will appear before you having completed the preparations for your day of liberation. Suppose, then, we were to carry out a practical movement for unification based on such a heart. If we did these things, I believe the day of unification would not be far off.

Ladies and gentlemen, we must think how we can live in harmony with our compatriots. No one can be a patriot if they do not want to live with their parents or with their compatriots. Any claim such a person might make to being patriotic would be a lie.

A person must first be able to live in harmony with his own country before he or she can live in harmony with the world. Further, a person must first live in harmony with the world before he or she can live in harmony with God. Thus, a person cannot be a patriot unless he first loves his compatriots and gives love to that particular regional society.

How much do our political leaders love their country? Any politician who lacks a heart of truly wanting to share in the life of common citizens will soon disappear. It doesn’t matter how well bred or educated this person may be. He will disappear like an air bubble formed on a surface of water.

Any leader who does not love the citizens will not be able to escape judgement by the citizens of his country and by history. Healing the division between North and South is not a simple process. As fellow patriots struggle to bring this about, they will need a determination of heart to work through many sleepless nights, transcending time, and overcoming all manner of difficulties.

I truly want to live with them, I don’t want to die unless I can die with them. I don’t want to live unless I can live with them. The movement for North-South unification begins when both sides have such a heart toward the other.

When North-South unification is accomplished, this will be the beginning point in the effort to unite the democratic and communist worlds. Each of us must consider the future of our people and of the world as a representative of the world, a representative of the six billion humankind, a representative of the three billion people of Asia, a representative of your school, and a representative of all the students you have ever taught. We must determine ourselves to carry out a movement that will truly enable us to share in the lives of our compatriots.

When such an effort connects you to the way of the saint, then you will come to resemble a saint. If you practice this with respect to God with the loyalty of a son or daughter of God, then you will become God’s heir, and successor to God’s will. I tell you these things today, because I have already confirmed their truth in my own life. Once North-South unification is accomplished in Korea, the unification of the world will follow automatically. Do you think that political power, military force, or economic wealth can bring about unification? There isn’t even the slightest chance of this. That is the reason I am speaking to you in this way. Can weapons, wealth or knowledge do away with rotten philosophies? No, they cannot. Only true love can do this. This love that comes from God.

When a person enters into a relationship of true love with God, he or she is absolutely given special authority to have dominion, ownership and the right of inheritance. In the world of mechanics, the energy is produced than is put in.

What is true love? It is love that lives for the sake of others. It is love of unlimited giving and forgetting. No memory is kept of how mush was given. It is a love that never tires of giving. A 90-year old mother can turn to her 70-year old son and say, Be careful when you cross the street, and there is nothing strange about that. Even if he mother has repeated those same words countless times over several decades, she will always sat them one more time.

If this is true with parents in the fallen world, how can we ever grow tired of giving and receiving God’s love in the essential world? When we establish God’s true reciprocal realm in our own lives, we will understand the unchanging glory of true love for the first time. Then we will be able to justify the ethics of eternal life centering on the true love of human beings. Who in the world is aware of such things?

In 1984, I was lying in bed in an American prison where I had been unjustly incarcerated, when God came to me. He said, You are the only person I can trust. I want you to resolve the situation in Nicaragua. Am I really the only person God can come to with such a command?

America is said to be great country standing at the forefront of all developed countries. It ha a population of 240 million people and a large number of religious leaders. How helpless God must be that He could not go to any of those people but had to come to me. At least, it is fortunate that God knows how to find a person by His love. If I had not worked for the sake of the world at that time, South America would have been completely ravaged by war by now.

North-South unification is the fervent desire of the Korean people, but it is also the earnest desire of God in this age. It is Heaven’s desire that North Korea and South Korea can be united and that God’s resting place will be established in your homes, in our churches, and in our worldwide church centered on God.

How, then, are we to attend God? How can we wipe everything clean? What can we use to wipe everything off so that God will say it is completely clean? This is the problem.

The answer is simple. We must clean the surroundings centering on a true love that is greater than our love for our parents, greater than our love for our spouses, and greater than our love for our children. It is only when our offerings are placed on the altar centering on such love that the ideal North-South unification will be manifested. This is where the ideal blending of Eastern and Western cultures can occur. This is where the ideal unification of the divided physical and heavenly realms can occur.

This is where the realm of liberation of Hell and Heaven will come about. We cannot unlock this without true love. We need the key of true love. Unification brought about by the love between a person’s mind and body can always be manifested as the unification of love in the family. A loving husband and wife with a harmonious family will always see their love manifested within their clan.

If a loving husband and wife unite as one, who will dare try to tear them apart and defile their relationship? A word made of the harmonious family, harmonious people, harmonious government, harmonious world, harmonious Heaven and Earth, harmonious true human love and God united as one, isn’t this world the utopia of true love? In such a world, there will be no possibility of discord. Love will be the life element for all people, in the same way that plants receive life elements by absorbing the rays of the sun. Our fervent desire is to build a Kingdom of Heaven on Earth and in Heaven, where we can resonate with true love eternally. How many people are there in this world, though, who are the partners or object partners of true love, who can stand as people of character qualified to be the master of all things, and who posses both the value of a remarkable life and the special authority that comes with such a life?

I sincerely hope that each person participating today will remember what I have said, and will work to unite your mind and body. I hope that you will start by becoming a person who lives for the sake of your spouse, and go on to become a true person who lives for the sake of your family, people, nation and world.

If you do that, then North-South unification will be as good as done. Even communist ideology is easily absorbed and disappears when it is placed in the midst of God’s love. The problem until now was that we did not know this. Once we develop our hearts of love, North-South unification will be no problem at all.

That is not all. Problems between East and West and the worldwide North-South problem involving differences among rich and poor nations can also be completely resolved through the true love of God.

We must digest the ideal for the world centering on God’s ideal that I have described, and go on to digest the ideal of the nation. Then we must move on to the boundless realm of peace of the ideal world that links the ideal of the nation to the ideals of clan, family and individual. This is, without a doubt, the way that the utopia of true love that God has desired can be built on this Earth.

We cannot fight the communist world with guns and swords or any other means of physical force. We must fight them with love. Communists seek to destroy the democratic world in order to build a communist world. By contrast, we must build a structure that will bring salvation not only to the democratic world but to the communist world as well.

The 38th Parallel is the deepest point in final resting place where North and South can be united by means of God’s true love. When it comes to doing away with this demarcation line between North and South, the North says, There’s nothing we can do about it. Russia says the same thing. China, too, says the same thing. The government and opposition parties in Seoul say, There’s nothing we can do about it. Even the United States and Japan say there is nothing they can do about this. If this is the case, then it will be the end of everything. If that happens, will we prosper or will we be ruined? It will be the end of everything evil and a new beginning for everything good. This is the reason we must unite the citizens of our country. Participants in the Victory Over Communism effort in South Korea number some seven million. The number in Japan may be more than 30 million, but we are keeping these in reserve. In America, we will bring together the 10 million participants in the CAUSA movement.

I declared the fundamental principle for unification more than 40 years ago. Since then, I have carried out a movement of ideas centered on Godism, both domestically and around the world. I have worked in the four major countries surrounding the Korean Peninsula to lay the international groundwork for unification.

Over the years, leaders of many countries and the philosophical world have recognized Godism as the only philosophy capable not only of uniting with materialism and atheism, which are its diametrical opposites, but also as the only philosophy capable of liberating secular humanism.

My patriotic compatriots filled with passionate hope for North-South unification, let us together establish our value systems on the basis of Godism, and join forces in arming the people of this country with this new philosophy. Let us make North-South unification a matter of faith for the sake of ourselves, for the sake of the Korean people and for the sake of world peace. Let us stand and answer the calling of historic age and of Heaven. Let us be leaders and people of righteousness standing at the forefront of the movement for North-South unification.

I pray God’s blessing may be with your families. Thank you.

The Path for America and Humankind in the Last Days

Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon
United States Speaking Tour
April 8-19, 2000

Distinguished and honorable guests, ladies and gentlemen:

I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to all of you, as leaders in many walks of life, for gathering here and allowing me to share the Word of God.

In particular, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to God, who has been my constant companion throughout my life. To Him let us offer the glory and honor.

Throughout his life, my husband, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, has committed himself totally to the salvation of humankind centered on God’s Will.

He came to realize that God is not sitting on a throne of glory and honor. He is in fact a God of suffering, grief and lamentation, a God who is endeavoring to save His children who are suffering in hell as a result of the fall.

Ever since my husband first understood the Will of God and His suffering heart, he has worked single-mindedly to accomplish God’s Will, forgetting everything else. When I reflect upon his life, filled with misunderstandings, persecution and great hardship, I am grateful to God that I can be here to represent him today. I believe that it is entirely thanks to God.

On this significant occasion I would like to speak on the topic, "The Path for America and Humanity in the Last Days."

This will help us better understand human history and current world affairs from the viewpoint of God’s providence.

What are the "last days?" Ever since the fall of the first human ancestors, God has been working to save His lost children. This great work of salvation is to be concluded in the last days.

They are the turning point when the evil history of Satan ends and God’s good sovereignty begins. Accordingly, the last days are a time of hope when God’s work reaches fulfillment.

In the last days, individuals will be freed from the bondage of sin and will be able to reach the ideal of perfection.

Families will be healed, communities reconciled and the nations of the world will live together as brothers. Even the barriers between Heaven and Earth will come down as the fear of death disappears.

In the course of human history, God has tried on several occasions to usher in the last days by opening our minds to a deeper understanding of His Will and Truth. Time and again we failed to fulfill our responsibility to respond to the divine call of goodness and reject evil history.

However, God is eternal, unchanging, absolute and unique. His Will is also eternal, unchanging, absolute and unique. Therefore He will never abandon His ideal to build His Kingdom, through the true individual, true family, true society, true nation and true world. God will surely build the world in which He can live, freely traveling and acting both in Heaven and on Earth.

In God’s original plan, this world of peace would have emerged naturally. It would have started with the family of the sinless Adam and Eve, who would have been the first True Parents of humanity. However, due to the fall, the True Parents and the true world were lost from the very beginning.

Therefore, nothing in this present world, not the land where we are living, nor any human ideology or anything else, can connect us back to God and True Parents. We ourselves must first be redeemed and restored to true spiritual health.

When reborn individuals become true husband and wife and true parents, giving birth to true children, then the world under God’s sovereignty can emerge. When people once again can freely communicate with God in heart, the evil world inevitably will come to an end.

The last days are the time when such an ideal will be realized. It is the time of the Second Advent. Accordingly, the last days are a time of hope, not fear.

The biblical prophecies such as judgment by fire, the destruction of the Earth or people being caught up into the air have a spiritual rather than a literal meaning.

The last days are the time when the history of evil and tragedy will at last be untangled and resolved.

How does this happen? The Lord at his Second Advent will offer conditions of love and sacrifice on every level, starting with the individual and moving through the family, society, people, nation, world and even into the spiritual realms.

He will restore humanity’s vertical connection with God. We have been longing for such a day, and the final destination at which we all should arrive is now at hand!

However, the real situation of our world today seems to be far different. On every level, individuals, families and nations are still estranged.

Environmental problems such as air and water pollution and food shortages plague our societies. More seriously, religious struggles and racial disputes are constantly arising throughout the world, causing conflicts and even wars.

Who can take responsibility for this world? This is a serious question. There was a time when the Communist countries believed they could create a new world, but they could not transcend their own nationalism. Similarly, America, the only remaining super-power, cannot transcend the idea of Americanizing the world in its own image.

When a nation places its self-interest first, it will not be able to lead the world. We need a people or a nation who are willing to sacrifice for the higher purpose of building or becoming an ideal nation that embraces the entire world.

America is faced with a moral crisis, and the influence of the church is declining because of confusion and disunity.

This is why my husband and I came to this country, in response to the call of God. We have been making the utmost effort to revive this nation by educating her young people.

You might be curious about what we are teaching. It is actually simple. First, it is "to live for the sake of others."

More specifically, the individual should live for the sake of the family, the family for the society, the society for the people, the people for the nation, the nation for the world and the world for God. Finally, God will come and live with us.

The same principle applies in the family. The parents are to live for their children and the children are to live for their parents. The true husband lives for his wife and the true wife lives for her husband. Anyone who lives for others more than his or herself is living on the side of goodness.

Second, we are teaching people to "love your enemy." God Himself sacrificed Jesus, His only begotten and beloved son, for the salvation of humankind.

Since God did this in order to save the children of His enemy, Satan could no longer exercise his evil authority and power before God. Even Satan cannot help but surrender voluntarily before the God who loves Satan’s children more than His own.

Satan’s pattern is always to strike first, but he loses in the end. God’s strategy is to win in the end by taking the first blow and initial loss.

My husband’s faith in this simple heavenly law sustained him through torture and imprisonment.

We could send missionaries out to 185 nations throughout the world despite knowing that first they would face terrible persecution and misunderstanding, because we knew that in the end they would prevail.

This heavenly law can also be seen in Christian history. Christian missionaries and saints have walked a path of persecution and martyrdom, hindered by many enemies.

For two thousand years, their tears and blood have been the fertilizer for the growth of freedom and democracy.

But today Christianity, which once was the source of strength for freedom and democracy, is facing a crisis. Christian nations have lost direction and are drowning in moral confusion.

They deny or ignore God, Jesus, and God’s providence in a way that formerly would have been unthinkable. We even hear voices asserting that, "God is dead" or "God does not exist."

How does God feel about this? God’s heart must be broken, for He has been searching for His children, sacrificing everything that He has, with the hope that He could see liberation in the last days.

Ladies and Gentlemen: For whom has God been sacrificing Himself? It is not just for America or any particular country.

Nor is it only for Christianity. Rather it is for each of us, for you and for me as individuals. Likewise, the reason Jesus was crucified was not to save the Messiah himself, but was to save you and me, each and every one of us.

Since the fall began with two individuals, salvation should also begin on the individual level. The Messiah comes as a representative of humankind, proclaiming, "I will take full responsibility to pay all the debt that man has incurred during the entire course of history.

I will become a person who will even make God indebted to me instead." Without such a steadfast determination, restoration is impossible.

We should not be only conceptual or theoretical. Without willing to endure misery and suffering in the world, we cannot reach God’s heart.

Have you ever prayed in desperation for the six billion people in the world, with the feeling that your own children are dying?

How much heart have you invested to save a family, a tribe, a people, a nation and the world, with a willingness to sacrifice yourself for them?

I believe that very few people are confident to answer that question positively. Nonetheless, the Lord of the Second Advent comes to the world with just such an absolute standard.

God works in history by finding champions who can represent Him and who are willing to suffer on His behalf. When God found Abraham 2,000 years after the fall, He first tested him through trial and suffering.

God then made Abraham’s descendants the chosen people by multiplying them as a new family, a new tribe and a new nation, Israel.

God called the Israelites as the chosen people, based on Abraham’s victorious faith. Thus they became the central people to receive the Messiah who was to come in the future.

If you go to the core of the matter, you can understand that the first human ancestors, Adam and Eve, lost the standard of faith and love.

The Messiah comes to restore that lost standard. The Messiah comes in the position of a new Adam and the believers stand as the "bride."

Despite its significance, the Israelites could not carry out their mission because of the crucifixion of Jesus. Although called by God as the chosen nation, Israel lost the position of God’s elect. Christianity was called as the second Israel to carry out the mission instead. God continued to lead His providence centered on one purpose: to restore the bride.

Thus the ultimate goal of all Christians, who today are awaiting the Second Advent, is not merely to develop their religion. Our most important mission is to become a bride qualified to receive the Messiah as our bridegroom. We are now in the final stage of that providence.

What is the essence of the Messiah’s teaching? It is to save the world. He brings a teaching that can unify the world and build an ideal family.

Its main purpose is to restore the position of the True Parents that was lost by the fall of the human ancestors.

The Old and New Testaments tell us that the Messiah comes with the authority of the Father, meets a substantial bride, who represents the power of the Holy Spirit, and restores the position of the True Parents. This is why Christianity is in the position of bride to the coming Messiah.

The appearance of the bride and bridegroom at the "marriage supper of the lamb" prophesied in the Book of Revelation refers to the coming of the True Parents as the first true husband and wife.

Jesus came with this same mission. However, when he lost his people and nation due to their disbelief, he offered his life for the sake of the world and the Kingdom that God wanted to build.

The path of Jesus’ suffering on the cross was the same path of tribulation that God Himself walked.

In the face of death, Jesus desperately prayed, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." He forgave Rome and all the groups of people who opposed him.

This sacrificial spirit is why Jesus’ life did not end on the cross at the age of 33. With God’s help, Christianity inherited his spirit and became the leading religion in human history.

Ladies and gentlemen, what is America’s responsibility as the foremost Christian nation in the world? America is currently recognized as the one remaining super-power, but unless she stands straight on the providential line of God, she will not continue to prosper.

We may think that America will always enjoy the position of privilege it has today, but history shows us that civilizations rise and fall as their fortunes shift. Will America be any different?

Let us examine the history of civilization. Had our ancestors not fallen, civilization would have begun in the warm zone, the climate corresponding to spring.

As it matured it would have moved to the cool zone, corresponding to autumn. Instead the ancient civilizations were born mainly in the hot parts of the world, the tropics and subtropics. Examples include the civilizations of the Mayas, Incas, Egypt and Mesopotamia.

Yet the center of civilization moves from place to place and those once-proud societies declined. Today, the leading cultures of the world are part of the cool zone represented by western civilization.

This is the reason why the leading nations of the world, such as America, England, Germany and so forth, are in the cool zone of the Northern Hemisphere.

With the end of the cool zone civilization of autumn, the cold zone civilization of winter comes for a short time. This is the significance of Communism.

Many intellectuals may think that the Cold War system disappeared after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, but the forces of materialism and atheism linger throughout the world. Nonetheless, both democracy and communist ideologies are gradually losing power.

Now, the civilization of the true spring that we have been seeking from time immemorial will appear. It will overcome the crises and threats of modern civilization.

Who will be able to melt the block of ice frozen in the heart of God? Power, money, science and knowledge cannot melt that ice. It can only melt with the coming of the spring-like culture of true love.

The movement of civilization along rivers and coastlines also demonstrates that the center of civilization is not fixed. For example, early human civilization began around the Tigris, Euphrates and Nile rivers, and then shifted to the Mediterranean, focusing upon Greece, Rome, Spain and Portugal.

Later, the center of civilization moved to the Atlantic, through Great Britain and the United States. This movement is now bearing fruit in the Pacific Ocean civilization of the United States, Japan, and Korea.

Viewed from the perspective of the history of civilizations, the Korean peninsula, though small, occupies a very important position. To the north of Korea lies the boundary of the cold region civilization that links Russia and China. To the south lies the cool region civilization that links the United States and Japan.

In this providential view of history, it is natural that Korea would give rise to a warm zone civilization representing the new spring season of human history. This new culture should have the capability to digest both the cold and cool region civilizations.

The fact that Reverend Moon, who has dedicated his life to solving the North-South problem and the East-West problem, comes from Korea is no coincidence. It is directly in line with God’s providence.

Throughout our lives, my husband and I have challenged racial, ideological and national boundaries to pursue a movement for "One World under God." We have traveled this path because of God’s providence.

The principle of providential history you have just heard this evening is a revealed truth.

It is not a theory that Reverend Moon invented. He was enlightened regarding the Will of Heaven. Rather than letting these heavenly secrets remain only as a theory between my husband and me, we have been working together to bring God’s plans into reality.

God has guided us to work actively everywhere in the world. We have been able to inspire evangelical and business activities from Alaska to Antarctica, from the countries of the former Soviet Union to the 33 nations of South and Central America, and throughout Asia and Africa.

In recent years, we have worked in the Pantanal and Amazon regions of Brazil to protect our planet’s environment. The movement we have founded is preparing to solve the external and internal problems humanity will face over the coming millennium, such as environmental pollution, hunger and disease.

To solve internal spiritual and social challenges, we have worked through the International Holy Blessing and the Pure Love movement to break down the barriers between people, races and nations. Some 430 million couples around the world have already received the Holy Blessing from God. This adds greater impetus to building the long-awaited Kingdom of God on Earth.

The world is changing faster than we realize. Until now, countries possessing superior political, military and economic power have controlled the world. However, no nation can exist eternally unless it is in line with God’s providence. The fall of the once glorious Greek and Roman civilizations are good examples of this.

In more recent history, political factions favoring dialectical materialism and the materialistic view of history gained control of more than one-third of the world’s population and two-thirds of its land area, including the former Soviet Union and China.

Their expansion, however, could not continue forever because it was not in line with God’s Will.

The United States, which today stands tall as a super power, holds the same preeminent position Rome once held. The fall of Rome resulted from internal corruption more than from external invasions.

Moral corruption caused Rome to lose the support of heavenly fortune. America is in danger of suffering the same fate.

The time will come when religious leaders who speak for the Will of God will rise to prominence. Religious leaders are prophets. They must stand up fearlessly, declare God’s will, and point the way for humanity to go. However, the splintering of denominations and the struggles among religious groups we see today seriously hinder God’s providence.

To overcome religious disunity, my husband and I have for years devoted 90 percent of our church’s budget to help other denominations and other religions resolve inter-religious conflict.

We founded the Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace to bring harmony and unity among religious groups, to contribute to resolving conflicts in many areas of the world, and to help bring about world peace.

Most recently, we founded the Inter-religious and International Federation for World Peace. This body has already brought political and religious leaders together to study the Word of God through seven international Hoon Dok Hae conferences.

We are in the time when all people can go beyond racial and religious differences and understand God’s providence to bring His ideal of creation into reality.

We can understand and ultimately unite with God’s heart. That heart of true love will bring about the world of faith, hope, and love for which all of us have been longing.

We can recover the heartfelt relationship with God that we lost as a result of the human fall. This means to recover the positions of parent and child as God originally envisioned them to be.

This is why God has promised us that the time when True Parents come is indeed the last days.

It is the day of hope, when the multitudes of people in the world, who lost their Parents as a result of the fall, again will be able to meet their original Parents. Thus, the True Parents are the fulfillment of the desires and hopes of all humankind. They are the final fruit of the victories and sacrifices of good people throughout human history.

The Unification Church has spread this new message and tradition throughout the world through the International Holy Blessing Ceremony.

The fact of black, white and yellow people coming together as brothers and sisters -- beyond differences of ethnicity, race, or skin color -- to form loving married couples is among the most significant signs of the accomplishment of God’s Will.

Today, by realizing the blessed family tradition, we can recover the relationships of brother and sister, husband and wife, and parent and child as God originally envisioned them.

We must go so far as to liberate God, who has been in the depths of sorrow ever since He lost His children. It is only then that God and us together can open the path to true happiness.

Until now, democracy has called for "human freedom" and "human liberation," but this is not enough. Now is the time to call for "God’s freedom" and "the liberation of God."

When we end God's sorrow, human liberation and the recovery of human freedom will follow automatically. Each of us should realize that we were born to liberate God and to liberate the world.

Ladies and Gentlemen: It is profoundly significant that we are gathered here to discuss God’s providence. The United States is a country prepared by God’s blessing. The forefathers who built this country were the Pilgrim Fathers, who risked their lives for the sake of the freedom of religion. They came to America seeking a land of freedom.

For the sake of their search, they left behind their parents, brothers and sisters, and homelands. They were prepared to cut their ties to their home country as they crossed the Atlantic Ocean at the risk of their lives.

As you know, the Mayflower arrived in New England in the late autumn, November of 1620. While they endured their first winter, more than half of the 102 people who first arrived died of the cold and hunger. What was particularly remarkable was that they died refusing to eat the precious seeds reserved for planting the next spring.

The Pilgrim Fathers strongly believed in serving the Will of God in every aspect of their lives. After taking in their first harvest, they offered thanks to God. They first built a church and a school, and it was only then that they built their personal homes.

The early Americans began every activity with prayer. This was true whether it was plowing a field or fighting a war.

When George Washington was at Valley Forge during the War of Independence, he must have prayed with great desperation. In a battle fought for the sake of God’s Will, God sided with America.

Why? In England, the people were united with their king in fighting that war. Yet in America, God supported His beloved sons and daughters who earnestly sought the freedom to worship Him. Isn’t this how the United States was born as a country advocating freedom of faith?

Even now, the United States Congress opens with a prayer. When the President is sworn into office, he places his hand on the Bible as he takes the oath of office, and a member of the clergy blesses him. America even prints the words "In God we trust" on its currency.

America is unique in the level of importance it attaches to God. This is how the United States came to occupy a unique position as a mainly Christian country with worldwide influence.

But what about America today? Prayer is banned in public schools, even as shocking acts of violence in schools are shaking the foundations of our nation.

The theory of evolution is given preference over the theory of creation. God is virtually excluded from education. A divorce rate of 50 percent is destroying the sanctity of the family.

In 1971, my husband and I left our family and homeland to come to America. He heard the voice of God sharing His concern about the current state of affairs. Upon arriving, he cried out that he had come as a fireman to a house that was on fire and as a physician to cure America of disease.

Even then, my husband realized that God was leaving America. It should have been possible to find God everywhere in America, but God was departing from the hearts of people, from the families and from the schools.

It seems like only yesterday that we stood on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, where my husband openly wept for this nation. He was desperately holding onto God, to keep Him from leaving America. Unfortunately, as we predicted and feared, America has persisted on the way of moral decay.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I would like to ask you this. In spite of all the opposition and suffering my husband has endured, why do you suppose Reverend Moon continues to cry out to America?

It is because he knows, better than anyone, the blood, sweat and tears that God shed in the course of establishing this country. During the past thirty years in America, my husband has not spent so much as a single day in comfort or ease.

Who is the true master or owner of America? It is neither white Americans nor black Americans. The true master of America is the person who loves America as God does.

We continue to plead with you because God has chosen America to be the elder son, His leading nation in building the Kingdom of God on Earth.

Even now, Jesus is spiritually present mainly in America, and he is offering earnest prayers that his purpose will be accomplished in America.

In 1982, in accordance with the Will of God, we founded The Washington Times in our nation’s capital. Ever since then, this newspaper has led American public opinion with a conservative voice showing the path for America to follow.

We have pursued national and world salvation through the True Family Values movement and the Pure Love movement for young people. We have invested in America with the fervent expectation that this country would stand upright before God’s providence.

When my husband first visited America in 1965, he blessed an area near the White House as a Holy Ground. To this day, many people gather there and pray for America through the night.

I hope each of you here will also open your hearts in prayer. You will be able to feel the earnest desires of the Pilgrim Fathers and the many patriots who have gone before us in America’s history.

The new millennium is the time God’s six thousand-year salvation providence is coming to an end. God’s ideal of creation is being realized throughout Heaven and Earth.

This also marks the time that the lamentations and suffering of the creation, which lost its true master as a result of the fall, are finally over.

This is the time when the Parents and children who have been long-separated meet again. It is an age when there is free communication between the spirit world and the physical world, and when God’s Kingdom will be established in Heaven and on Earth.

The transition into the new millennium marks the completion of the New Testament Age.

It is the point at which the promises of both the Old Testament and New Testament are fulfilled.

From now, the direct dominion of God’s love will become apparent throughout the world. His power and authority will be recognized and respected. In this age, the East and West, and even the spiritual and physical worlds, will come together centering on the Parents of Heaven and Earth.

This will create one world and one cosmos under God. The great family of humankind will be formed on Earth. This is the hope of the Completed Testament age. The promises of God will be fulfilled in glory.

The time has come. It is time for America to awaken once again. It is time for this country to create a new movement to build God-centered true parents, true families, a true country and a true world. In this way, America will keep God here at home.

America will once again be a society that attends God. God worked a thousand years to establish America. If He leaves America, where can He go? If America attends God properly, all our problems -- family problems, moral problems, youth problems and racial problems -- will disappear.

As a place where people of all races and nations can live together in harmony, America will be a model for the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.

It is time for us to unite and open the path for humankind. It is time for America, as the elder son nation attending God, to lead the way.

America can complete its mission as the pilot that guides the other nations to God. I ask you to stand with us to accomplish this historic task.

I would like to conclude by expressing my hope for the beginning of a new millennial Kingdom overflowing with peace, freedom and justice on Earth and in Heaven.

Again, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for your presence here.

May God’s blessing be with you and your families. Thank you very much!