Fathers prayer and speech on the midnight of God’s day 1981, (January 1, 1981)
Midnight Prayer
Loving Heavenly Father,
By passing through 1980, we have come to the opening of the new year 1981. Throughout the many different historical courses, so many tragic days have passed in succession. In Korea, in the meantime, during the period from 1920 to 1960, you sent me as an “innocent and carefree” child to this earth and
raised and educated me; I was under your protection and guidance until I became mature, and when I came to know God and Jesus, I discovered the historical view and mission. Afterwards, even though you have experienced triumphant and glorious days, I have reminisced about the sad results of history, due to American Christianity and Korea, which did not fulfill their responsibility. But I am sincerely grateful to you, Father, for your painful efforts in walking again the path of sacrificial struggle, in order to guarantee the victorious day.
Furthermore, in 1960 the three seven-year courses began, in order to indemnify the new mission which Christianity did not fulfill and the mission which the nation did not fulfill; when I think of the day that these three seven-year courses were established, it seems like just yesterday. I think back once again to the time when nobody even imagined that today we would be in such a victorious realm of history. Now these three seven-year courses have already passed by, and this year the second set of three seven-year courses begins. I am so grateful for these days that I cannot express my appreciation in words. I am so thankful for this historical period during which I was able, with your presence, to proclaim the second set of three seven-year courses in my own lifetime.
Now we have definitely crossed into the national level and the world level: we have also opened the new door to 1981, and in this moment we are newly determining to march forward into the new decade beginning in 1981, leaving the 1970’s behind. In this moment, we are going to determine the motto for this year: “Home Church Is My Kingdom of Heaven.” So, Father, please accept this motto. Also, please be close to all those of the Unification assembly everywhere who are praying for this motto. In this place in particular, here are 843 couples who were matched last night as one family. So many of the children you remember so well are assembled here, gathered from all over the world. I am grateful that you are present here with us in this enthusiastic place, filled with new hope for 1981. Now, upon this occasion of beginning 1981, we can newly lift up the banner of the 1980’s.
I am thankful that we are heading toward the new period of home church, and that we have to stand on the front line as representative families of the whole. We determine to be faithful and devoted for these ten years. I hope and I pray desperately that all can become children of yours, ones who are internally looking up at heaven, full of hope for great things ahead and determined to march forward-even though these are such confusing days and hope seems to be disappearing from this satanic world.
I also pray you will bless those who are far away in Korea and Japan and scattered throughout 127 different countries; even though they are in many various circumstances, still they are looking toward this place and thinking of True Parents and heaven. They are young children scattered everywhere; therefore, bless them. I know and believe, Father, that you will also protect them and that you are with them in lonely places and various circumstances, just as you protected my family and church, and this child as he was walking in Father’s love. Therefore, those who are in such hard circumstances or pioneer situations firmly feel that God is with them. I pray so desperately, hoping and praying that they will become children without any shortcomings, ones who can fulfill their responsibility under any hard circumstances, by feeling firmly that God is in their place.
Please bless them in this time of history, so we can have a good decade of the 1980’s; we want to make sure of your protection during these busy days of starting anew in the hope of 1981. Please open the new path in this country; I pray that the leaders you found can fulfill their historical responsibility for the world, beginning from the day you found them. Also, I pray that Korea can connect with Asia and Western Europe, so that a glorious world of new dimensions can develop.
I pray that you will accept all this new morning era with joy. I pray gratefully and desire this in the name of the True Parents. Amen.
Midnight speech (Home Church is my Kingdom of Heaven)
Now we have met the new year 1981. By meeting 1981, all of the seventies are now gone. Now we have crossed the threshold of 198081, leaving all ten years of the 1970’s behind. Father is heading towards his seventies as well. Forty-four years have passed since Father learned the dispensation and started it. It was exactly 44 years ago when Father was 16 years of age.
The numbers six and four have been traditionally the Satanic numbers, numbers which were held by Satan. But after the time of victory, they will be received as the number seven, which is the godly number. We are going into the era when the number four along with six will be the basic numbers of heaven.
This also means that starting from this year, we are going into the eighties, and the Unification Church is going into a new dimension or era as well. Beginning from this year 1981, we expect the 1980’s to be fast-progressing years for the Unification Church. God’s close help is with us. We will be offering our life during these ten years. After this decade, we will enter the 1990’s, when Father’s age will be in the seventies. So we must have this new concept of the new importance in our meeting at this time.
So as we are aware, starting this year, we are in the second set of three seven-year courses. This second set of three seven-year courses is your time. What does it mean that it is your time? So far, Father has been working the dispensation, but now he is transferring that, bequeathing absolutely everything into your hands. By that, it becomes possible for you to do the work just as well as Father, because of what you have. You can do it all by yourselves. You can do it, just as successfully as Father.
Then on what ground can you do it? Home church. The motto for 1979 introduced home church: “Home Church and the Completion of the Kingdom of Heaven,” and the motto for the following year was “Home Church is the Base of the Kingdom of Heaven.” Father gave us that destination and made us work towards that direction. Now for the third year in succession, the motto is on home church: “Home Church Is My Kingdom of Heaven.” That “my” is more yours than it is Father’s. The concept of home church during the past two years represented more the entirety or the whole, but this is more personal. Home church is my work, my responsibility.
Then where is the Kingdom of Heaven? Traditionally, when Jesus answered this question, he said, “The Kingdom of Heaven is in your mind.” Now, where is the Kingdom of Heaven? What does the Unification Church teach? It is in your home church. This is in contrast to the spiritual foundation of the Kingdom of Heaven in Jesus’ time. Now it is in our mind and body. That means also that it is personal. The Kingdom of Heaven must be realized in mind, and after that, the bodily Kingdom of Heaven becomes possible.
Then where is that heaven? Heaven is where Satan has no place, where Satan cannot work. In Jesus’ time, even the entire mind was not of God; in the mind there was a borderline where the Kingdom of Heaven and the satanic domain connected. Now that borderline is pushed further and further away-even out of our body.
So unless we chase Satan not only out of our mind, but further and further out of our body as well, we will not have heaven environmentally; we will be unable to enjoy heaven with the environment around us. So home church means heaven on earth with our complete environment, with our daily surroundings.
Then what is this foundation of heaven on earth? Home church. Now this foundation of home church is given to you as your own Kingdom of Heaven. Centering around home church, there is a direct connection to the nation and to the world. So we can connect the mind kingdom to the body kingdom, to the home church kingdom, to the country kingdom, to the end of the world. Now we can look back clearly and see that Jesus was about to do exactly that. He was about to accomplish his heaven in mind, heaven in body, and push Satan even further out, making the heaven of the environment possible. He wanted to extend the border even beyond and make heaven out of the entire country and the world as well. This was precisely what Jesus set out to do.
So what is the satanic world? We know that Satan is occupying the entire world. There is no place Satan cannot claim as his. A certain part is God’s, but Satan is also occupying the individual-his body and sometimes even his complete mind -and especially the environment. And even in the spiritual world, all the evil spirits divide up the territories and exercise jurisdiction over each area.
What is this so-called Satan? Satan is the power or influence which comes directly under satanic dominion. Someone must appear on earth and dispel that. And who is the one who is to drive that out of the environment? The Messiah was to do it. Jesus was supposed to do it, but he could not. When he comes again, the Messiah is to expel all the satans from these areas. When Jesus failed to complete that, the foundation was lost from this earth and became like a cloud which never settled down in any one place, but just drifted from one area to another. Even though it encompassed the entire world, it was just on a spiritual level; therefore, there was no solid foundation on earth.
Even though from Jesus’ point of view there was a spiritual Kingdom of Heaven, there was no such thing on earth in a bodily sense, as a result of Jesus being crucified and having given his body to Satan. This is precisely why he must come back on earth in the flesh, to accomplish what was left out.
What is the Unification Church supposed to do? The Unification Church is to pass on to the world the spiritual Kingdom of Heaven which Jesus accomp1ished. In order to do that, someone had to go to the spirit world-standing in the presence of Jesus, God and Satan as well-and win the victory. Satan had to recognize that he won that inheritance from Jesus himself. For this reason, Reverend Moon went to the spirit world and got the inheritance approved by God and Jesus; and even Satan had to endorse it. Upon the foundation of inheriting the right to the spiritual Kingdom of Heaven, he has to achieve the same thing on earth. In order to do that, he has to cut off all the claims Satan has had on the body for the past 6000 years. Every one of the direct connections and claims over the body and the earth has to be reversed by the Messiah. Through the Unification Church, he has to disconnect all the ties and claims of Satan to the world over the past 6,000 years.
Instead of opposing Reverend Moon, if traditional Christianity had welcomed him, it could have used the spiritual foundation of the realization of God’s ideal as its starting point, and then it would have been connected directly to the bodily foundation centering around the Unification Church. In other words, the Unification Church has the responsibility of establishing the real body on earth. Through Reverend Moon, if the Unification Church could have connected with Jesus· foundation, which is a spiritual foundation, this would have been instantly accomplished.
With the portion of Christianity combined with this new portion of the Unification Church, then 6,000 years of indemnity would have been completed. The resultant new body would have been not exactly Christian and not solely the Unification Church. Seen in another way, there would have been no Christians who opposed the Unification Church and no persecution or opposition to the Unification Church by the Christian churches. The Christian churches would not have become churches whose main work is to oppose the Unification Church.
In such a case, what would have happened? The Christian churches would have found themselves on a much higher level than where they are today. Then we can conclude that American Christian churches would be quite different, and this country as well would be quite different – on a much better and higher level. Of course, Communism would have had no claims, even in a small area.
But as history turned out, the Christian churches failed to recognize and support Reverend Moon and the Unification Church. Therefore, that portion of what the Christian churches have achieved became useless in the sight of God. The Unification Church has faced the organized churches and has condensed and indemnified their 2,000year history into 20 years. It would have been nicer and easier if the indemnity had taken place over a period of 200 years, but this was not feasible since Father does not live for 200 years. It was absolutely incredible the hard work and indemnity that has been endured.
The timing was exact; all the highlights of indemnity for this country were fulfilled by 1976, which just happened to be the bicentennial year. The completion of indemnity was accomplished through the great events of Yankee Stadium and Washington Monument. This stood on the foundation of the 200 years that have supposed to do with the keys?
After Jesus gave the keys to heaven to Peter, did Peter ascend to heaven or did he go to the cross? What should Peter have done? Now we know that he should have gone to heaven by opening the door of home church on the dispensational level of that time, which was the tribal level. Then the foundation of the Kingdom of Heaven could have been laid. But now we are starting home church on the world level, which is much more difficult. Peter would have secured the environment through home church and thereafter organized 12 tribes. Jesus had indicated that whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Unless we realize the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, the Kingdom of Heaven in spirit world will not come about either.
Father finds himself in the same situation of having to give the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. Then after giving them, will he go to the cross as Jesus did? No. Because he already secured that, he will go to a different place, with great expectation and hope. He will go to work on a higher dimension to realize the total heaven. When Jesus left the earth, he could not return and go back freely as he wished. But with Father it is different. After leaving here, having given the keys to the disciples, he can go and come as he pleases. But when he does come back, will he return to the Unification Church boundary, or to the home church? The church is like an office for the families and the society. But the home church is where the parents and the children can live, and where God can dwell.
Now you have a better idea of what home church is like. So would you like to inherit the spiritual Kingdom of Heaven? Jesus, even though he died, could not receive that. He tried hard up until this time, but he could not. You are about to inherit something which Jesus did not enjoy. But what condition have you made to inherit it?
Just as Father worked hard, we also have to work and go everywhere and do everything just like him. It takes that kind of effort to make home church successful. What is my heaven on earth? It is where my ideal and my love dwell. We have to find that somewhere, at any rate. Home church is yours, and when you really work at it, all your surroundings, including your ancestry and your supporting spiritual world, will come down and help you accomplish it. You will find that the spiritual world actually helps you very much. But you will never know until you really do it.
While you are doing home church, you will come to realize that this was precisely the destination of Jesus’ work. Why did Jesus work so hard gathering disciples and giving sermons? So that he could eventually send his disciples and himself to home church. When we do home church successfully, won’t the nation and the tribe come into being automatically? Do we have to do home church and then try to win the country? No, for by doing home church, everything will come to exist all at one time.
In America, if we have 150,000 members each taking care of 360 homes, that will cover all the homes in America. Some universities have 40,000 students. If you win only four such schools, that would be enough to yield 150,000 people. If you do not raise that number by witnessing, then CARP can do it.
What Father has done can be compared to compiling an encyclopedia. What you are going to compile is just a small dictionary. You do not have to elaborate or give a detailed explanation of each item. Just give a minimum explanation in a few words. The necessary basic words will be found in your dictionary. For instance, regarding tears: in Father’s encyclopedia, under tears you will find the chemical components of tears, how they are produced, on what occasions, and all that. But in your dictionary, under tears you may just have “weep.”
The Bible says that Christ will come again as a thief. Reverend Moon came to this strange country, and he was persecuted in such an incredible way. But he knew the blessings would roll in not just in bagfuls, but truckloads. That is how high Reverend Moon and our church will go, by being persecuted. In that view, is Reverend Moon a smart person to do something which induces persecution?
Each home church is a fuel tank. Since you have 360 homes, you have 360 fuel tanks. You have to connect them all and ignite the fuel. Then you will shoot up like a rocket. So if you are going to fly up to heaven, are you going to use only ten fuel tanks? Even though you ignite them, ten tanks of fuel will not carry you to heaven. If you line up 360 tanks and ignite them, going up like a rocket, you will reach it.
Amazing things will take place. Your ancestors will have to come and assist you, because they themselves are one with you in your capacity. Just as Jesus’ ancestors worked with him, hundreds of thousands of yours can work horizontally. Maybe they were not so religious, but so long as they were good, they can have this privilege. This is because the blessing that has been given to you is extended to the realm all around you, to your ancestral community. They can have instant credit, under the realm of blessing. This is like giving somebody a big privilege overnight. This is the only time the liberation of your ancestors can take place. At the same time, the path of perfection of your own descendants will appear. Because of this condition, you can go to the real heaven, not just the conceptual heaven. Nowhere else, even outside the Unification Church, was anybody else in all of history given that kind of priority and privilege. So long as you do home church, all else is secondary.
You want to take care of your family-your wife and your children. But if you take care of your home church instead, someone else will take care of your family. But that does not mean that you should think that if you are doing home church work you do not have to take care of them. If you think like that, it does not work.
Now you can say, “Father, you do not need to talk to us any longer. We will just go right ahead and do what we are supposed to do.” So by turning over everything to you, Father may leave America for other places.
Now you must truly know that Father’s responsibility is terminated at this point. This is why Father is saying that this is your time. Let us pledge from this time on to really understand more deeply than ever that our purpose of working is home church and nothing but home church.