Based on extracts from his speeches throughout his life
Earlier installments are available for reading.
The 1970s: Vision of the Global Mission
Father and Mother are still in Korea at this point but are expanding the style of church work and looking outward more and more to the world.
Part 88
Entering the era of global activities
Now we have entered the 1970s, we must lay a foundation for global mission work. Within a few years I will no longer be living in Korea. I am now preparing to go and live overseas. I did not tell you before but in Japan they are preparing funds and even if I go to live in the United States they have said they will build a house.
The Unification Church is sending out missionaries to approximately twenty nations. Within this year we will send missionaries to forty nations. I will do this however much the Republic of Korea opposes us. Are the things that I am doing wrong? It is evident that I have not been wrong until now. So holding on to that history I will go forward.
Land and buildings as an economic foundation
The Unification Church’s time has come, so we must build a headquarters. I have done everything that it was my duty to do. To establish the condition of fulfilling your responsibility, you should prepare a house for me. Before you do that, I must prepare the great foundation that God has planned.
So, at the beginning of this year, I bought land in four areas including on Yeouido [여의도],[1] in Cheongpyeong, and for churches. Because we need to establish an economic foundation to restore the four-position foundation, I am gathering all our resources in order to continue this work. We are beginning this project in order to establish the foundation we need in the future for the nation and for the world. We have already finished over half of this beginning stage.
When I consider the headquarters, I should buy a house. Yet, following my conscience dictates that I cannot buy a home first. We must build Heaven’s temple first in principle; that temple must be a hundred or a thousand times bigger than a house, and I should only build a house after I have made that commitment.
Land for a world mission headquarters bought on Yeouido in Seoul
I have prepared land in Yeouido for our church. Originally, I wanted to purchase an additional ten thousand pyeong,[2] but I was unable to. Even so, I should buy another three thousand. That’s all that remains for sale. After that, we will build a church. Of course, what I want is to create a global headquarters. Maybe you’ve thought of that, but this must certainly become our global headquarters. I have a leadership role while I am on earth, which includes a financial role. If I only buy a few pyeong and build a headquarters on it, that would be shameful. Ten, twenty, fifty years from now, many people will come from around the world to that historic, grand building, so many that overcrowding will be a problem. That is what I am thinking.
Unification Church members have to buy the land. Each person should buy one pyeong of land. They must do some kind of business activity or even sell their blood if necessary.[3] The devoted heart that prepares this money for the land in Yeouido will remain for eternity. We have to enable people to understand that the world headquarters is very important.
The Cheongpa-dong headquarters is not a global one. A global headquarters must be built in a new place. Because it has this significance, I have purchased land on Yeouido. I have bought land because we must have somewhere to make a new beginning. Our global headquarters should be there. The land is 360 meters long and 162 meters wide. We have to erect our building there, and when we do it, we will not just build a little house.
Yeouido will become the center of Seoul in the future. With God’s help what I had forecast has turned out to be exactly right. A national square will be made in the future, won’t it? The fact that the National Assembly[4] was built in the corner of Yeouido is telling to us to buy the rest. When we bought the land in Yeouido, I gathered hundreds of millions of won over a period of several months and paid each installment in cash. We paid the third installment of nearly 600 million won joyfully, not grudgingly. We bought about 15,000 pyeong and somehow managed to raise the money.
Aid to build churches in the provinces
I gave a little financial support this time in the building of the churches. That is because you all were in the position of having offered your family as a sacrifice. What are we trying to do by offering our families as a sacrifice? We are trying to make the tribal standard. That is the church. The church in the future will become the base with which to connect to other churches. This is why I am giving a certain amount to help the churches in the countryside.
The reason I secured places for you throughout Korea is to uphold our dignity in society. This is not on the basis of it being helpful to you. I am telling you to make the foundation to succeed in building churches that are bigger than the large established churches, even if you have to sell the shirt off your back. I am not doing this just to help all of you. You must have the right way of thinking.
Religious leaders attend public Divine Principle lectures
This year we gave Divine Principle lectures to more than a thousand ministers of other churches. They were deeply moved and made comments such as, “Oh, we didn’t know what kind of a man Rev. Moon is.”
In the past, they got together to try to drive me out without knowing anything. When they look back now on what they did back then, they are afraid to even recall their past. The fact is that things have changed. The world has changed.
When we told the clergymen to come to the Open Divine Principle Presentation, their superiors sent them official memos telling them not to go. Even though those in high places told them not to go, those on the bottom slipped out one after another. Their bosses sent out official notices once, twice, or three times, and when that didn’t work, they decided to turn a blind eye to it. No matter how many official notices they sent out, it wouldn’t have mattered. The clergymen came to us and received assistance from us.
Many of them stayed overnight, and they were thunderstruck. When they reflected on themselves, they realized that it was as if they were nothing. They were in trouble, and they bowed their heads in shame. When they first came to one of our churches, their eyes were wide open in amazement, but when they left, their heads were bowed; they had met their match.
We have to continue this work even if it means going into debt. In order for Jacob to subjugate Esau, he offered all the wealth he had worked very hard for 21 years. We should use everything and everyone we have now to work for Korea’s sake on the basis of our work with other churches.
Divine Principle lectures for professors
From the beginning of 1970, we started inviting ministers from other churches to Divine Principle meetings and professors to attend Divine Principle seminars at Academy House because I believe this is the time to break through in all directions and connect with the nation’s situation.
We are spending a lot of money to have famous university professors research the Divine Principle so that they can offer criticism of it and comment on it in relation to their own fields. We want to make books about lectures quickly. Those who read books that have a renowned professor’s stamp of approval wouldn’t be able to speak against them. Therefore, we need to hurry to make this type of book. Centering on the extraordinary Unification Principle, we should publish a book within this year, and have it translated into Japanese and English and position it to influence even the leaders in nations across the world.[5]
When a book written by a professor is translated into several languages, it will be a source of pride to the professor who wrote it.
To be continued…
[1] “Do” means “island” and is traditionally untranslated in this name.
[2] ”Pyeong” is among the Korean traditional measurements still in common use. One pyeong (평) is roughly 3.3 square meters. 10,000 pyeong is slightly more than eight acres.
[3] In past times in Korea, people sold their blood to blood banks.
[4] Construction began in 1969; the building opened in 1975.
[5] Several such volumes were produced, at least in Korean.