Father’s speech on March 1, 1992 at Belvedere, New York
Can anyone read the title today? Tongil Ka jong ye Chakim Kwon. Tongil Knjong: the Unification family, and Chakim Kwon: responsibility or authority. Responsibility is authority; it means your right. The difference between authority and right is that authority implies an established system or foundc1tion over which one exercises his authority; right, on the other hand, implies innate power. “The Responsibility of the Unification Family” is the title of my sermon this morning.
Whc1t is the Unification family? How does it differ from the ordinary family? The Unification family means the families of the blessed couples. We say the words Unification Church, but when it is written in the original way “church” is comprised of two words and the first word contains two elements. The element on the left means “sons and daughters of filial piety” and the element on the right side means “father of filial piety.” The word by itself includes in its meaning education, or teaching; public-minded is also written in Chinese characters this same way. These same two words read this second way also. The first word is “correct, righteous father.” Public-minded means righteous. The father teaches the historical and present child-parent relationship. That is what education is all about.
It is all one concept: education, religion, school. “Religion” means the central pillar of teaching. The center of that teaching is the father. So teaching about the father is what religion is all about.
There are billions of people living in China and that nation has continued to flourish for thousands of years. They can continue because they have this concept underpinning their society. In our lifetime we live with our father, we become like him eventually, follow the traditions he established, and leave our own traditions behind for our own children. This is what life is about.
Compared with this real meaning of human life, how long do you think the current materialistic, individualistic way of life can continue? The relationship between husband and wife is very weak. The world cannot continue without being connected in all different realms of relationship. No one can exist alone. The world is simply the realm of reciprocal, corresponding relationships. Once we become united within a family, then that family maintains the correct relationship with other families, and on and on to form the larger com-munity.
In the democratic countries, the philosophy of politics is not based on the father/ son relationship, as it should be. They are more aligned with the concept of struggle, similar to the communist philosophy. Within democratic elections, there is much outright fraud and dishonesty involved. Special favors come about, bribery and so forth-the roots of vice. Power, money, greed: all the human vices come to bear on elections. Confusion is piled upon confusion. This is what we see in American society. No one can claim that this is an ideal form of society. There is so much deceit–empty promises which are easy to make during campaigns.
LOVE YOUR ENEMY
We see these things everywhere in the world. The question is, how can we digest these bad things and turn them into good? Why should we digest them? It is because if you sweep out something, then you automatically create an enemy. This is the problem in American society today. Even though some forces may be righteous, when they subjugate the other side by their will, they cannot avoid creating enemies.
Those who hated Reverend Moon wanted to exercise their power and do away with him. Instead of being contained, we expanded, developed and became bigger. We can now clearly see in the religious realm the meaning of Jesus’ words: Love your enemy. People have wondered, “How can I love my enemy? What can I get out of it?” Loving our enemy came from this point. It is not easy, but this is our responsibility, our predicament in a way, to digest our enemy. Understand and make corrections.
Is Reverend Moon a strong man or a soft and gentle man? I am very strong! Have you ever seen me attack or strike out at others? I am the one who is always hit first. We know that God Almighty is truly the strongest being in the universe, yet God has been struck, hit, hurt all throughout history. There has been no justice concerning God; He has always been hit. Yet we have seen that every time in history when the unrighteous side strikes out at the righteous side, including God, they have to pay the price eventually. In the major wars, the ones who began the wars always lost. Everyone in the world who joined in the attack against Reverend Moon is now coming to the time when they are having to pay the price, especially world communism.
I want to make this point: the Unification family has a tremendous responsibility to change things, but not through fighting, only through the Principle. I am asking you now to please make your families available to anybody who wishes to come in and out, as they please. Open your doors. Suppose you build up your family, your home, and somebody comes along and says, “I want your house. You move out and let me move in.” You should be able to respond, “All right, I have had the experience of living very comfortably. Now it is your turn. Come on in and live here.” Then after such a person lives in your plundered house for three days or so, his conscience will most likely bother him so much he will say, “This is really your house. Come on back and live here. I will leave.” That is the way of religion.
CARE ABOUT THE WORLD
There are many different denominations within the world of religion. It happened through the work of Satan. Instead of religious people thinking about God and mankind, which is the purpose of religion, they have become centered on them-selves and their own denomination. All the different denominations within the same religion came to exist in such a fashion. So each person becomes centered upon himself and his country; he does not care about the world. Most great nations have repeated this pattern: they expand, and reach their limit. Then that nation starts to pursue its own interests exclusively and ignores any world interests. Nations always decline when they reach this point. This pattern has been repeated over and over.
God’s viewpoint is to go beyond the individual, beyond the country. Consider the Roman Empire. That national power worked to become greater and greater, and ultimately was sacrificing all other powers and countries for the sake of its own greatness. What happened? Heavenly fate, which always moves towards embracing everyone on earth, starts to exert itself. No matter how great a country becomes, it will fail before the power of heavenly fate. Look at Japan, for instance. It has become a great country but if the people continue to expand centered solely on their own interests, they will be stopped somewhere along the line. If they go beyond their own national interests and want to embrace all of Asia and the world, Japan will not falter. They will continue to prosper and people around the world will support them. If a nation puts all its energies into struggling for power and economic expansion, certainly they will be able to achieve it, but only for a short time.
“Rather than collecting money, let us invite good people, finding more and more able, capable people, and love them.” That is religion. To embrace a nation, that is the ability heaven has. By embracing an individual, you will be successful in your lifetime, in one generation. However, if you embrace the whole nation, your success will continue even beyond that, and if you embrace the entire race, it will be even longer-lasting. That is the terminal point: that is where we want to go.
Each one of our Unification families has to have a clear understanding of this concept because it is the base of everything. There is no other place in the world teaching this concept. Harvard University doesn’t teach this. Even though many have attacked Reverend Moon, the individual, the realm of family will support him. Even when the power of nations comes against Reverend Moon, still there is a greater power, the world level, cosmic fate, that supports him because that is the realm which he is serving.
YIELDING TO WIN
This is a general rule. Even though you may not understand it completely, do you believe that it is probably correct? Here is an example: There is a narrow bridge and two individuals, countries or whatever, are approaching it from opposite directions. This bridge is too narrow for both to pass by, so what do they do? Usually, they would struggle, with one winning over the other and gaining the right to pass first. That is not the way of religion. If you step aside and allow the other to pass first, knowing that you have yielded to him, then that person will become grateful to you. Both will survive in that way, rather than the other way where only one survives. Obviously the one who goes first benefits first, but later on, he comes and bows with respect to the other who yielded. If you are willing to yield and do that in every circumstance, then you will be-come the one who actually molds history, not the other person, the one who goes first. That is true authority, and the application-exercise of true power.
Now those who are in the families of the Unification Church understand how precious is this way of life. I do not approve of anyone just holding on to this preciousness. You cannot draw into yourself and family, saying, “Nobody can come into our circle. My family is so valuable, I do not want to be open. Everybody else has to be beneath us. They have to come and show proper respect to us.” That is an attitude I will never ap-prove of. The person with that kind of attitude will not be able to expand or even survive. The other way is the correct way, to be available to others, to be like their servants.
The attitude of many Unification Church leaders is, “We don’t value any other church in the world. We are the best!” I do not approve of that attitude and never say such things. I always try to encourage the growth of other churches and denominations, even those who oppose our church. Is that the right way or the wrong way? It is easy to say these things, but we have never seen a religion that has done this throughout history. Now as we see, even Muslims are paying attention to the Unification Church. Likewise, Buddhism will come. Everybody will come, although shyly and cautiously in the beginning.
When a person is full of himself, his own denomination, and his own family-he is very loyal to them-but he is too full. He is so densely packed that he doesn’t have any room for anyone else. Reverend Moon has been teaching, “Don’t be filled up with yourself or your denomination. Empty yourself, go out and serve other Christians, serve Muslims. Embrace and serve other people; take them into your life.”
You might ask, “Father, we are doing so much! Where does it all end?” Of course, our ultimate goal is nothing less than to liberate God Himself. When someone hears such words, they shiver with fear because they know such lofty goals will make us winners. With such a concept at the center, how precious that is-to strive to liberate God! Do you understand just how precious it is? There is no other way of thinking that can compare with the value of this.
LIVE FOR THE UNIVERSE
This is my question to you: Are you going to live for your own sake, or for the sake of your family? Of course, when your family is strong, then that also protects you. Are you going to preserve your family at all costs, or will you live for the sake of your clan first? The fate of your clan will include your family. Even though we have to sacrifice our own clan, we work for the sake of the nation. We will even sacrifice the nation for the sake of the world, and the world for God. Then God Himself will come to liberate us.
Suppose you are exhausted, wanting only to sleep. Do you force your tired body forward in order to help somebody who is doing worthwhile work, like cleaning the streets? Would you really help somebody? I thought you American youth were not able to understand that concept! The standard of Sa-tan is to live for me, for selfish purposes. In that respect, are you on Satan’s side or are you on God’s side? Particularly, you American women, do you want to be on Satan’s side or God’s side? I don’t know!
I myself often think, “Nobody has lived such a life as I.” I have been attacked so much, sometimes attacked beyond my own understanding, and I think, “Why am I being attacked now?” There has been so much turmoil throughout my life, yet I wake up every day feeling strong and ready to go again. I sometimes ask myself, “What is protecting me and allowing me to continue like this?” There is a gigantic worldwide foundation which was “made by Reverend Moon” according to the PBS television program. I often think, “Who made that foundation? It wasn’t me as an individual, but the protecting force of the entire universe which helped me make it.” I have never considered the foundation which has been established as my own work. Rather, I know I have been protected by the heavenly fate and by God, and that is why it has been successful. We know that God has creative power, that He is omnipotent, that He can do anything. We must understand what lies behind history.
What about you good, handsome American men? Would you choose to marry an attractive American woman, or would you take an ugly black or oriental woman, someone you never thought about? Which would be more in line with the Principle? It would be someone of a different nationality and a different race, too.
If you think you are making a step forward in this world by marrying someone from a different nationality and race, just wait until you go to spirit world. How do you adjust there if you don’t learn in this world? The spirit world is a million times more complex. On this earth, people want to find their own kind. When you go to spirit world, where the population is like an ocean, if you try to find “your kind,” you will have a problem. It is like going to a big stadium and searching for one particular person. It is impossible. You may push, shove and kick people aside, but you are unable to get to that one particular person. That is the way it is in spirit world. We know already what true love does in the spirit world. You can travel from the North Pole to the South Pole, come and go just as if you are visiting your neighbors. Instantly. Most people have this attitude: “I am here, you come to me!” Will it ever happen? No, you have to go to others.
Who is the subject in the subject and object relationship? It is the one who takes the initiative; the one who goes to the other becomes the subject. Everybody likes to be the subject, but how can you gain that position? There is only one way: by giving first, going there first. Reverend Moon is taking the step and doing the work to even liberate God.
When a woman gets married in Korea, we say, “She is going to her husband’s house.” It means she is marrying. Does she go there to be loved, or to love? Universal law and formula-that is why you go, not so much to be loved.
Those who are very confident that you will never die, raise your hands, please. Then naturally, everyone should invest for the sake of the spirit world. People say that Reverend Moon is a foolish man. Everybody around the world has gone against him. Still I continue. It is so that I can save that country, or that “How precious that is-to strive to liberate Cod! There is no other way of thinking that can compare with the value of this,” Father extols.
area. What about you-would you prefer that I be living here with you, or that I stay far away? Why do you prefer having me near you? It is because you always benefit from being around me. What if I started to take things away from you, asking you to donate this and that, then you would say, “Oh, I wish Father would stay far away.” That’s true! It’s a natural phenomenon.
Eastern world, Western world, which would be subject? Why the Eastern? Because the West-ern tendency is to take away from the East. The Eastern world has always been the one to yield. When the high pressure and low pressure are equalized, then the position changes. When it changes, it changes quickly. Now is that time of transition.
If a person says, “I am self-sufficient, I don’t need the subject,” that is no good. Then all things will kick him out. Judging from this principle, should America be preserved or should it be kicked out by the force of principle? These are not Reverend Moon’s words, these words represent the cos-mic forces which are working in that direction. Wisdom pre-serves a man. Father had that wisdom. No one on earth or in history has had greater wisdom. No one has ever lived the way I have, let alone teaching it to others.
I sold my house and tried to use everything for others, even at the objection of my family. I never heard of any American families who have done that. Isn’t that the way you do it? If you find any money lying around in the church or in the business, don’t you put that money in your pocket? Always you say, “Father, you have to support us with more money. Please help me with my budget.” I am not a banker! That is not what I am here for. Now we know at least what is the sure road for perishing and the road where you may not perish, if you go that way. Also, I beg your pardon, you American women, for citing you once more.
A HUNDRED “BATS”
Let me ask you this question: Who is the principal cause of divorce, the woman or the man? (Women!) So the woman is the bad guy or the good guy? (Bad guy!) (Father laughs loudly.) There is a very simple solution. Ask your eye about looking at your husband, “How many times have you betted your eyes at him, smiling, trying to entice him, to make him feel good?” Maybe your eyes would answer, “Ten times.” That’s not so much, so you should challenge to do it a hundred times. A woman may think a divorce will not hurt her, but what about her children? You don’t think about the children; you only think about yourself when you divorce. By universal law, the mother is supposed to be the subject of love, not the father.
How do you write “Holy Man”? This Chinese character has been around for thousands of years. When you take it apart, it has eyes, ears, mouth, as well as the symbol for a king. How wise! That defines the holy man. The king’s ears hear straight; the king’s eyes look at things straight, not crooked. His mouth talks straight, not crooked.
In yourself, is there one vertical or two? There is absolutely one, only one, vertical line. Americans greet each other like this-horizontally-while the Orientals greet like this. First meet, then determine who is the subject, and then go forward in that order. Often we see the man proposing love to the woman, like she was a queen. When you look at such a sight, that day you will have no luck. A woman keeps her horizontal relationship. A woman can often cling on to the man’s neck; then she is in the right position. Do not think that you can come to Belvedere and hear Father any Sunday. Hear my words while you can. You are the subject of this country. You have to teach your fellow countrymen the same things you have been taught.
Blessed couples, I would like to remind you again of the very simple fact that Jesus Christ could not receive the bless ing. He waited for two thousand years. That blessing has been bestowed at this time for the first time in human history. Many countries have risen up and perished. So many sacrifices have been made. The first Israel and the second Israel suffered so much and were destroyed. Now with the third Israel, centered on Father, this blessing could take place. How important! In the fallen world there are billions of families on Satan’s side; on God’s side, here are the blessed couples. Would God trade the millions of families there for one family here? Satan would say, “Yes, trade them.” However, God would never want to trade.
VALUE OF THE BLESSING
How precious, how valuable is one blessed family compared with billions of fallen families. Yet when you look at them from the outside, how can you tell the difference? When I speak of this point, I immediately become angry. You are almost be-having like dogs. If you were to place monetary value on the blessing, how much would you say it is worth- thousands, perhaps? Would you Americans say it is only worth hundreds of dollars? I am asking you this direct question: how much value have you bestowed on your blessing? Literally, God and Father would never trade one blessed couple for one entire fallen country. It is that precious.
God allowed everybody into the blessing, including those who had engaged in free sex in the past. Forgiveness is His work. So God forgave them and let them into the Unification Church. Now Father expects people to change–from one extreme to the other. If you were the worst in the past, then when you come here, you become the best. Satan occupies the out-side. Bad people stay out in the fallen world.
This is why Father tells us we have to go through hell in order to make our way to heaven. What have you given up since joining the church? You are supposed to give up everything after joining the church. We should leave everything from the past behind. We went to school in the fallen world, and we acquired certain habits and we carry those habits. We are doing a great wrong to God. American members have that kind of habit which you carry with you. However, the owner of those habits is Satan, certainly not God. When did you clean yourself up, mind and body? Your country’s atmosphere is controlled by Satan: American society, family, and individuals. How can you clean it up? This is the problem-the concepts you carried in with you.
BAD HABIT CLEANSED?
Consider: how many of your bad habits did you clean out, and then how much did you cleanse them? What is the percentage? When the world looks at you, do they say, “That is a godly family, a blessed family”? Will God say, “They are godly,” if they are still carrying eighty percent of the bad habits from the satanic world? Can God say they are godly?
Reflect today after you go back home. Hand in hand, you husbands and wives should say, “How much have we cleansed ourselves? Sitting here to follow Father, who is doing the holy work for the world, how worthy are we of that?” Do you wish that Father could stop suffering from now on? What if your next generation has to indemnify the additional suffering Father is having to go through from this time on? God and spirit world have to work even harder if fruit is not here. The iron hammer of heavenly punishment will come down. God watches you failing to change from the extreme bad habits you had in the past.
If Father lived the way some of you are living today, do you think God could ever have helped me? Everything would have had to be given up. Then you all come before Father and expect to be forgiven so easily, and then you can continue with your assertions, your demands, and your bad habits. That cannot be. Even if you might be forgiven, what about your blessed children? If they have to bear a heavier cross than yours, would you ever want that? Would they want to carry a heavier burden than the first generation did? Absolutely not.
Am I overstating it? After you take a thorough bath from the old evils, then you should be clad in a new cloak of white. Instead, you are picking up and putting on the same old ragged, dirty clothes after you take the bath. Are you maintaining memories of the illicit love you had before? Are you still imagining his or her face after getting married and blessed? Or have you totally forgotten about them, never allowing your-self to even think about that for even one moment? Are you completely erasing your memory, or are you entertaining the memories? How much effort you must make! How painful it is to God, how angry He feels, when you are entertaining those old memories and habits! There will be a judgment day for the Unification Church families. You have to prepare for that. It is like the River Jordan. You will look at it, it will be only a few feet away, but you will not be able to cross it. The same way Moses came to the threshold of Canaan, but he could not enter it. You have to keep warning yourselves.
Those who are blessed couples, please stand up. Do you think that my intent was to bring all your families to the same level as my own? Do you think I wanted to stay at a higher level and keep all of you at a lower level? Did I do that? Think about it. You all know what level your own family is standing on. You know best whether you are making a condition to glorify the name of blessed couples or for the name of blessed couples to be disdained. Father is now saying, do not follow any leader or any leader’s family. Do you understand? You have to repent. That is the only way to get back.
WHAT GRADE?
Before you attend Belvedere on Sunday or first days of the month, do you always do the pledge service in your own home? Those who don’t, raise your hands. I believe there are many. Instead of doing pledge at home, come here and do it with your sons and daughters. Can you educate your own sons and daughters? It is very difficult, so bring them here. They all go to schools which are not our own. You can never rest assured that they are going to follow the heavenly way.
When you go to spirit world, there will be a playback of your life, like a video, which will show clearly where your family is, what they are going through. With Father’s standard, you give yourselves a grade. What grade does your family deserve? Father gave you the blessing not for your own enjoyment, or for you to position yourself a certain way, but for the sake of your preparation for spirit world. What if you don’t get the blessing here? You have no place to belong in the spirit world. Do you understand? To give you an eternal position in the spirit world, I gave you the blessing on earth. God wants the family system in the spirit world. That is the simple purpose of blessing. How much different from that are you? You know better than anyone else. Every person understands clearly. American people cannot lie. Your mind always testifies clearly. Your standard is not so good. Your own mind accuses you every time. Now you understand.
The blessed family must go through the center point so that you have no relation with Satan’s side. That main center is God and True Parents through which you pass from one world into the other world. The original point of all concepts must be God and True Parents. From there, extend into the future, making the spirit world. You have to make your family system centered on true love; that is God’s and True Parents’ central starting point. From now on, let us clear up the family situation. Otherwise, we can have no hope. Now the time is at hand when the whole world will be welcoming us. How can you stand in the subject position?
ISRAELITESHIP ACHIEVEMENT
Today I want to place the utmost stress on the Unification families and their responsibility and authority. The three most important points which God has achieved in history: first is the authority of the selected people, the realm of Israel. How can it be permitted for Esau and Jacob to change their positions? The one who is below should go up, and the one who is already up should come down. This is where the transition and restoration is.
This is the same in an individual’s case, too. The individual, before he becomes Israel, has a body which commands his mind. The body, in the eider’s position, represents Satan. Mind has to take the subject position to the body, which has to take the object position. Centering on the mind, that body has to be controlled and made to follow the mind. This was the Israelites’ requirement. Now the question can be directed to-ward each one of us: have you won this individual Israelite right or authority? We must be able to measure how bad we are.
All of the blessed children do not understand the Israel concept because their parents did not teach them, did not show them. The most important thing God did was establish the authority of Israel (the Israeliteship). Now is the Israeliteship of a man and woman together; they get married and become a family. To put the question a different way: have you become exactly one with Father’s criterion or standard of Israeliteship? If not, if you fall short of it, you cannot have church Israelite-ship.
Within these Unification Church blessed families, there are still factions. For example, there is the tendency of the Japanese families to get together, speaking their own language. Americans have a tendency to do the same; Germans do the same. Then we cannot say we are the m1ified family. We abhor that separation. We got married to go over that, not to promote it. It is difficult, but our responsibility is to go over that difficulty. When an American and Japanese are living together with such beautiful harmony and happiness, everybody in America looks at such a thing and asks, “How can they live like that? Japan and America have been enemies for forty years; how can they make such unity? They are strange people!” We should show a good example to the outside world.
PRESCRIPTION FOR HEALTH
We cannot ever, even until death, give a bad name or make dirty the name of blessed couples, the Israelites’ name on the family level. That is something we have to resolve right now. If Christians are the salt of the world, you are the prescription for health to the rest of the world. When you are firmly grafted into Father, into the blessed couple, then your love will come about. Have you become the real olive tree as a result of grafting into the true root, or do you still remain as a wild olive tree? First you were a wild one, then grafted into the real one; then gradually you get nutrition, little by little, and then become a perfect, true olive tree. If you remain as a wild olive tree, if you get to spirit world that way, you will be seen there and people will say, “They are not the true olive tree.” That can be worse than the wild olive tree which never had a chance. That means spirit world will accuse you.
You have to take responsibility for your own result. You will be judged if you do not take the correct way. How can you escape that kind of phenomenon? This is not a playground. This is a judgment court which you are in.
The second most significant thing which God has done is the establishment of the authority of lineage. Is your lineage all cleaned up? How is it possible that True Parents are making that pure lineage? Because you have cleansed blood, your clan needs to be connected with you so that their lineage can also be cleaned. Can you now proudly proclaim, “I have ab-solute confidence that my lineage is clean”? You should be able to do that. If not, Satan can come in and out of you. He can claim you any time he wants to. Have you tightly closed up all your doors to evil, locking them and sealing them? Or have you left one door unlocked so Satan can come in when he wants to? If you as a blessed person see someone you like and think, “I wish I could have been married to someone like her (or him),” then you have already opened your door to Sa-tan. Have you closed and locked that door?
If a handsome man comes by and tries to entice you with lots of money and nice things, and you are interested in him, then your door is only closed, but not locked. That door must be locked, absolutely and forever. Then the court of judgment will not be harsh. You have to go through your mission, your responsibility. Father’s mission is not enough. You have to make your own result. In the future, the court of judgment is waiting for you.
PERCENTAGE OF PURITY
How pure is your lineage? What is the percentage of purity that your sons and daughters can inherit? You did not expect on the first of March, the beginning of spring, to receive such a strong sermon from Father, did you? Spring is such a beautiful season, why does Father have to speak so harshly today? You need a strong dose of medicine. Good medicine is always bitter to the taste but it is very effective.
Unless you go through the Israeliteship, there is no way you can inherit the lineage. The Israeliteship means that whoever is up must come down; whoever is below must come up. Otherwise, the condition of restoration cannot be fulfilled. What do you think Jacob had to endure, fighting the angel at the Ford of Jabbok? Don’t you imagine he sweated a lot and cried a lot of tears? It was life and death. “Let me go to my home-land now,” he pleaded. The angel hit him so hard, he dislocated his bone, and then he released him a little bit after that. The angel saw that Jacob would rather die than be held back, so the angel finally gave up and let Jacob go. It was that difficult. We have to go through that kind of difficulty. However, it is well worth it.
Jacob’s victory was on the individual level. He brought the victory up to the family level. From the individual level to the family level was so difficult, you can only imagine the difficulty of any level beyond that, all the way to the world level. All blessed couples have to go through that. God expects that. Father expects that. Do you think this is what I am saying, or are my statements based on the course of God’s dispensation? This is our mission even though it is a heavy burden. Don’t forget, Father understands everything you go through. Don’t forget that for one second.
Do you think you can give birth to sons and daughters who are worthy of going directly to heaven without relying on Father? Why don’t you say yes? Why haven’t you reached that kind of position? That is your mission. Now you have to shift the responsibility to yourself. Take heed of Father’s teaching, but do it yourself.
IS YOUR BLOOD CLEAN?
When the blessed husband beckons to his wife, even though they are married, she must ask, “Is your blood clean enough? How clean is your blood lineage to take that position with me?” That is something you should question deeply, not just getting together because you want it. First you have to question; you have to take that position every time. In God’s sight, how much purity do you possess? If you have confidence in that, then sexual intercourse is good; otherwise, it is a problem. Bad fruit will be borne for the future. You have to take responsibility for the children, the next generation’s purity. It is not an enjoyable situation; it is a serious situation. The judgment place will be very low, a deep hole.
Don’t think, “I’m an elder member, a leader of the Unification Church. How wonderful it is to be in that position!” God looks down at those people and His judgment is not so good. You are going closer to the dungeon of hell, not to the heavenly throne. You always have to maintain that central concept about the family system. Are you standing in the real parent’s position or not? Are you standing in the real husband’s position or not, in God’s sight, from the Principle viewpoint? You must constantly compare yourself with God’s viewpoint every time you act.
Do not leave a bad lineage behind you. Look at the dreadful disease of AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). Has that disease been spread from America or from Korea? From America. It not only happened here, it has been spread around the world. The policy should be that those people who have AIDS should let the rest of the world know it. It should not be covered up and protected. They should not be allowed to be comfortable about how they contracted this disease. We should give them a hard life. How would the American public respond to such a policy? They would welcome it, in order that they could protect themselves. Think about that. If you have AIDS-I kick you! These are serious words.
TEST YOURSELF
Imagine you go to a dance where you are well dressed, looking your best, having an enchanting evening. Ask yourself, “Would I falter, or am I confident that I will not? Am I going to fall if I go to this point, or beyond that point?” It is necessary to foresee possible future situations in order to test yourself. I have done the same thing. I have often imagined difficult situations, saying, “What if, knowing what I know, I was cast into a room with hundreds of beautiful naked women. What would be my response? Is my organ going to be excited or not? Taking a resting position or not?” In all seriousness, I have imagined such a thing. What if they represented the beauties of all different races, from East and West? The temptation would be very difficult, not easy. The degree of that temptation you can only imagine. The difficulty is comparable to giving up your own loved one to your worst enemy, allowing her to be embraced. He would sleep with her, and yet you have to give to that enemy in order to be able to restore them at a future time. You have to go beyond that. That is God’s situation, God’s position. When we talk about God’s heart, we don’t know what we are talking about. Only when we have reached that point can we say, “I understand God’s heart.”
Imagine how difficult it is to bear to do this. We must understand that this lineage has only been established through going through this situation, which I just described. We must understand that, happy or unhappy, comfortable or not, this world is only a transient life, only a short time relatively speaking. This is why we need to go back to our hometown. When we go to our hometown, we don’t take with us all our bad accumulated habits. We must shed ourselves of these, become cleansed, and then go to our hometown to establish heaven. This is why Father is giving this sermon today.
What about the first-generation Israelites? The world knows that the first Israel was supposed to save the rest of the world, but they never did. Even today, they are still busy minding their own foundation. So nothing good is happening to them. America is the realm of the second Israel; it is a Christian nation. At the end of World War II, the whole world could have become a Christian domain centering on America. However, America didn’t realize this, so they threw away the opportunity.
Because America was not able to fulfill her responsibility, the third Israeliteship moved to Korea. That is the unification of the new nation. Here the new Israelites must become a new nation, not for their own sake, but for the sake of the world. When the country lives for the sake of the world, then that Israel will never perish the way the first and second ones did. It is not materially but spiritually; lineage has to do with the blood. Within the blessed families there should never be racial discrimination. Some white people find that it is hard to throw away their old habit of discriminating against blacks, even after the blessing. If you do not correct that quickly enough, you will surely go to hell in spirit world. You will perish. It is like a cancerous growth within your spirit: that sense of belittling another, feeling superior to them.
KILLING WITH THE SNAKE
Making the sexually-related mistake in the blessed couples is not only detrimental, it is killing, literally. You have to stand straight.
What the Bible expresses as the serpent, the snake, in the Garden of Eden, means the sexual organ. The snake gives poi-son. Once it connected with the woman’s sexual organ, then the heavenly world was destroyed. One time. A snake slithers around and when someone comes too close, it strikes out, at-tacks, and that person is poisoned. A woman is so fearful of that snake mouth. Actually that serpent symbolizes both sexual organs, man’s and woman’s: the organs that have poison. Once one bites the other, then that is the end. This is what the Fall of Man was about.
Now this is the lineage which does not have that poison in it. Once we reintroduce that poison, then everything will perish; it will be contaminated; it will make poison. So what is the snake in the Garden of Eden a symbol of? It is not only Sa-tan; it is the sexual organs of both sexes.
Like opening the mouth and showing all the fangs. Every woman, every man wants to bite. Think about that. It is worse than AIDS-connecting there destroys everything. Sexual intercourse happens and after that, everything perishes. It is the worst situation. The most fearful guy is that one, more fearful than a tiger. A one-time bite there opened Satan’s world, the dungeon of hell. History was torn down. It is serious. Snake, you have a SNAKE! Poisonous snake! Every fallen person want to experience that kind of concept. Man and woman are the same.
America’s situation is full of that poison. Therefore, she is completely perishing. Both eyes are like a snake’s antennae. Satan’s palace. One time that man and woman took that poison, one time they made that mistake, all disease was passed on. When there is a sense of snake, then the pure traditional blood is not there. Those hands have the senses of a snake, twisted like a snake’s. Those who are second generation raise your hands. You too must be very much aware.
SLOW LEARNERS
In Russia, many students of high school and middle school are pleading for Reverend Moon to send over teams to educate them. Then what happens? Those Russians must come to America and start witnessing on American soil. By the time that happens, I will be able to freely turn everything over to them. There are Ivy League students who are going to Russia and undergoing training there. The second team finished and the third team is now in progress. You didn’t know that but while you are taking a rest, Father is doing these things to achieve God’s will.
One thing you do not seem to feel is shame. How ashamed you will be if somebody from another country comes over to teach here about God. Just one year ago, the Russians didn’t know anything about God or spirit world. They believed material was the only reality. Look at your background of religion and Christianity. How shameful is your situation, when you consider all the advantages you had to help you know about God. Yet those young atheists are learning so quickly. The past two thousand years of history will bring judgment upon you. How can you escape that? How proudly Americans assert themselves, yet the truth is that America is losing everything. This nation is like a beggar. That is the truth. Think about the future. A drop down to hell. How can you escape? The only hope is the small remnant of Unification Church members. What a big load. One member has to take on the mission of thousands.
Who in this nation has taken on that responsibility? Only the Unification members. Now the Unification Church members are thinking about taking the easy way! The easy way is the path America has taken to destruction. It can be changed through the work of Reverend Moon and the Unification Church. You have to put on the brakes and change this nation. It is a serious situation.
By going over this, we become full of love and compassion, just like God Himself. We try to create, on behalf of God, a whole new world. With that kind of heart, we can live with the entire people of history and all mankind, and in that way become the unified family of love and compassion, encompassing all these traditions. Probably all the countries of the world are represented in America. Have you loved all of them? Why did Reverend Moon settle down in New York rather than Washington, D.C.? I was determined to spread all the seeds of love here in New York, where all the world’s immigrants have come.
FRUITS TO HOMETOWN
Have you decided, “I will live my life here in New York to disseminate the seed of true love, just like Father did?” “I Love New York” needs to be rewritten: “New York Under Love Authority.” On all the street corners of New York, we will talk to all the different nations, embrace them, and then see what happens. When you win over one hundred and twenty people in New York City, and then you go back to your hometown in the providence of clan messiahship, do you think your relatives will change overnight? When there are one hundred and twenty people devoted to you as their savior, then you can show that to your relatives. Do you think they will be influenced to follow you, too? They will be proud of you and say, “Oh, what a great guy he is!” Reverend Moon’s course is the same. People from one hundred and twenty countries gathered with me, and went back to my country of Korea. All of a sudden the Koreans were stirred up!
You must testify clearly. You have to save your country. It is your country! Shimjung-authority of heart is what you are given. This is what the blessed couples exist for. If we don’t do this, we are not living our mission. Who laid all this foundation? Father has done this and it is your mission to finish it. Accomplishing these things means accomplishing the purpose of religion.
To be proud of one’s parents is the tradition of the Unification Church training. So Father never sleeps before midnight, no matter how tired he is, and he never spends idle time. Always he speaks about God, about the things which you have heard a million times before-still Father continues to speak. When everybody goes to heaven, a great prize will be given to the greatest mouth in history. Whose mouth do you think will win: Confucius, Jesus, Mohammed, or Reverend Moon’s mouth? You have to inherit that same tradition, as well. You should be constantly teaching and teaching, just as I do.
When I taught others, do you think it was easy and pleasant, or was it with deep tears? You must understand this fact. When I went to Japan from Korea under severe persecution, I made a promise to God, “I will save this nation, Father.” That is why so many Japanese have come here-to fulfill that promise. The same is true of Korea. In the prison in Japan, I thought, “I will go back to Korea and save the people there.” That is why I went to North Korea and was put into prison. I pledged to save South Korea, and I went there and was put in prison there, too. I pledged to save America, and I came here and I went to prison in America, as well. What would have happened if I had gone to prison and lamented my situation, saying, “I’m not going any further. I did what I could and they didn’t listen.” What would have happened? I could not do that. I had to stand up once again, take on my impossible job, and continue to love America.
Even though I was confined physically and had to sit in one place in the prison, my spirit was traveling all over the world, reaching out for the people. This is what I told you, too. “Don’t pity me for being confined in this location. You don’t understand that there is a world beyond the prison wall.” After I came out of the prison, of course, the world changed. This nation of America was defeated.
A SPECIAL DAY
Have you ever imagined yourself going to prison and paying great amounts of indemnity in order to save this country? There has been no individual American who has decided to do that, no family, no clan. I have accomplished everything and I have passed everything on to you. Now I am telling you that everything is prepared. All you have to do is go back and do your clan messiah work and, with all that, you say, “No, Father, I cannot do that.” What hope can I have for American youth?
I expect all of you to take seriously what you have received today and to fulfill the little bit you are expected to do. Do you understand that? Today is a special day, March 1. Seventy-three years ago in Korea, the people sprang up for their own independence from the oppression of the Japanese. They faced down guns. Hundreds of people went out and shouted, “Mansei for the independence of Korea!” which symbolized independence of the heavenly nation. Hundreds of people lost their lives that day in that uprising. We call that the 3-1 Movement, or the March 1st Movement of 1919. We now should begin the March 1st Movement on the cosmic level, the worldwide level for the liberation of all the families. The families have been fettered and gagged and bound. We have got to liberate these families with true love. That is why we are the messiahs to them. This is the time.
A tribe includes many different houses. We have to revolutionize their thinking. Today is exactly the end of six months since September 1, 1991. That number six signifies the creation of man. God created man in six days. Then the real family was supposed to be established, but it was lost. Now we have to restore that real family. We must bring about a great reformation. The revolution must come from within the family with their concept of love and relationship.
I am now launching a great campaign for the world federation of women, as well as the world reformation of families. Those who say, “Yes, Father, I will join this movement which has been started in Korea, bringing revolution and reform to all the families, centering on women. We will go until we have fulfilled its purpose.” If you pledge that, raise your hands. By doing that, the responsibility will have been done as a blessed couple. God bless you.