Based on extracts from his speeches throughout his life
Part 25
Earlier installments are available for reading.
Spiritual Battle to Prepare the Way for True Parents
The preparations for the beginning of True Father’s public mission in 1945 included the battle to win the hearts of specially prepared Christian leaders, many of whom already had a strong sense of the direction of God’s providence.
Kim Seong-do (1883–1944)
You have all heard of Grandmother Kim Seong-do from Cholsan.[1] She was Chung Seok-on’s mother.[2] This Grandmother Kim had the mission of the Korean Eve. She was an exemplary woman who opened the gate to the providence of Korea’s restoration. She could not have lived an ordinary life, just marrying and having a family. She had to go through a unique course. There is division into the heavenly side and the satanic side. Restoration is impossible except in connection to that lineage.
From the viewpoint of the Principle of Creation, husband and wife were created to become one body. The place to realize this purpose of the Creation is where bride and groom come together. The Lord, as a man, represents heaven and his wife represents earth. The husband and wife, as one body, are the highest level. Hence, there are many who call themselves lords even though they are women.
A revelation from God
Mrs. Kim’s husband did not want his wife to become a Christian. Moreover, she always got up at one o’clock at night and prayed until morning. Nobody could understand her behavior. Even when her husband opposed her, she continued her practices. She was prepared to give up her life for her faith. So, in the spirit world she was specially recognized as a very devoted Korean Christian. She had direct conversations with God. She received many revelations.
She received so many teachings from Heaven. She heard the exact date of Korea’s liberation. She also heard that the Lord would come to Korea as a man in the flesh, at his Second Advent. She thoroughly understood that the coming of the Lord was a great privilege for Korea. She also understood that God would restore the world through Korea.
Heaven had prepared this foundation around Cholsan; through the spirit world, Heaven taught her many things, such as how Eden could be restored and why Eve had fallen.
Among the newly emerging religious groups, Grandmother Kim Seong-do’s group[3] focused on maintaining gratitude. We have to be aware that this group had to become a representative, absolute group achieving a lifestyle and tradition of total gratitude. Thus, we should be thankful in various ways. If you become a person who gives his or her whole life for the sake of God, He will resurrect you in the kingdom of heaven and will be proud of you.
Those people embodied thankfulness. They were grateful for everything. This is the right way to think. Satan cannot invade those who are grateful. Even if Satan invaded such a person, he or she would escape. When you are in trouble, you should always think “It is so that I can pay indemnity for the whole that God is giving me this trial.”
Mr. Chung Hang-jun persecutes his wife
Kim Seong-do’s husband strongly opposed his wife’s work. Why? It is in accordance with the law of indemnity. When, under Satan’s dominion, a woman tries to work for God, it is natural that she be opposed and persecuted. Her husband persecuted her to the extent of threatening her, with a knife to her neck. In order for her to move the providence of restoration forward, this harassment was inevitable.
It was a miserable destiny. It was almost impossible for an ordinary woman to endure, but she had to be strong and remain faithful. She was in the position of a new daughter, chosen by God. So she had to represent women throughout history. She had to separate herself from her husband and keep her purity. Only by doing so could God love and accept her. This difficult course lasted for more than twenty years.
What was the responsibility of the Grandmother Kim Seong-do, who had to receive such persecution? She had to absorb all the ill-treatment. The man was meant to surrender to his wife. In line with the Principle of Restoration, since Eve dominated Adam in the Garden of Eden, Kim Seong-do’s husband had to obey his wife. He had to follow her blindly and do everything she wanted.
In that way, God could bless them in accordance with the law of restoration through indemnity. Actually, however, her husband persecuted her too much in front of Heaven. As a result, his was not a natural death. He took some medicine and died. Have you heard that? [Yes.] This is the reality.
Kim Seong-do’s sons
Grandmother Kim had two sons. She had to have at least two sons, because through her family the Cain–Abel indemnity left unpaid in Adam’s family had to be paid. If these two sons had united and had supported their mother, this family could have established the foundation to prepare for the Lord to come. But the elder brother Chung Seok-cheon, Chung Su-won’s father, could not fulfill his responsibility. What then happened to this family? The father and the mother had to pay indemnity again.
Grandmother Kim’s daughter-in-law was a daughter of a certain minister, a very devoted Christian. She, too, had many spiritual experiences, so she understood the revelations her mother-in-law had received from Heaven. The oldest son somehow believed in his mother but he did not participate in her ministry eagerly. This old lady told her son and daughter-in-law not to have sexual relations; the son did not obey his mother, however, and they lived as a husband with his wife—and as a result, his wife was taken to the spirit world. In those days, this old woman did not explicitly understand the principle of indemnity, but because her husband had persecuted her so severely, she thought she had to atone for her husband’s behavior.
Pastor Paek Nam-ju (?–1948)
Mr. Paek Nam-ju from Wonsan had done research on Swedenborg’s spiritual endeavors and translated his books. He received revelations from God that the Messiah would come to Korea. He decided to prepare for the coming Lord. In order to pay indemnity for Jesus’ suffering, he walked barefoot to Cholsan to meet Kim Seong-do and apply to register Grandmother Kim’s group under the name Holy Lord Church. He was the first person in Korea to have a John-the-Baptist mission.
Furthermore, in those days there was a woman who was in correspondence with this man. Her name was Yoo Myung-hwa. Jesus Christ appeared to her, and Jesus spoke to Mr. Paek through her. Yoo Myung-hwa told him, “The Lord is with me; the Lord is speaking through me.”
Mr. Paek fell to his knees, saying, “Please tell me what you want to say!”
From that point, troubles began. All that had happened to them was reported to Christian ministers, who on hearing it, began to persecute both Yoo Myung-hwa and Paek Nam-ju. Thus, the Spirit-led groups and established churches started fighting.
Conflict between the groups
In the satanic world, it is not fair that a woman has to fight alone, representing a nation. A woman should fight in concert with men. Men and women should work together and have a unified foundation. Did Mr. Paek Nam-ju work in that way? He did. They should have been completely united, but they weren’t. Mr. Paek was also aware—through revelations from the spirit world—that Korea would become a nation with a special, God-ordained providential course, but he did not know how it would come about.
They met in Cholsan and held discussions, but they could not agree with each other. They separated. Then problems started in the first generation of the providence of Korean restoration. As a result, their mission had to move to the next generation. God’s will was that the foundation for pioneering should be prepared through a representative of women, Grandmother Kim Seong-do, from Cholsan, but the first generation could not fulfill its mission, so the mission passed to the second generation.
The Suffering of Holy Lord Church
The problem women faced in the family expanded to society through mainline Christian ministers, and later it became a nationwide problem. Chung Su-won’s grandmother, Mrs. Kim Seong-do, was also in that kind of situation.
All the established churches became hostile toward them. This was when the oppression by Japanese was the cruelest. A while later, members of the Holy Lord Church received revelations that the Japanese would be defeated. They had begun making yearly announcements of the substance of their revelations. The revelation regarding Japan’s defeat became extensively known. Needless to say, mainstream Christian ministers also heard it, and because they wanted to destroy these spiritual, upstart groups, they went to the Japanese government officials in Korea to inform them of those facts. As a result, Grandmother Kim was imprisoned. She suffered torture and although she was eventually freed, she died soon afterwards.
To be continued next week.
[1] On the west coast of North Pyongan Province where True Father was born
[2] And grandmother of Chung Su-won, who later joined our church was blessed among the 36 couples
[3] Known as the Holy Lord Church