Excerpt from Father’s speech given on April 7, 1985
You make me feel very good today, everybody looks bright and young. Today is the celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of Parents’ Day. Actually, Parents’ Day falls on April 20 this year but because of circumstances, we are gathered here today to celebrate it.
There are so many organizations and churches, but there is only one Unification Church, isn’t that true? The Unification Church has a vast and profound philosophical foundation, but at the same time it has a plan of action that is equivalent in depth to the philosophy that it expounds. The teachings we follow are very deep and also the things that we do are quite profound. The Unification Church has a mysteriousness about it. Unless one actually joins the Unification Church, he or she cannot really understand the church in depth. The Unification Church has its own unique celebrations and holidays that stem from novel aspects of our understanding of God and the universe. An example of this is Parents’ Day.
It is not common for a member of a particular faith or religion to worry about the salvation of the world. Usually people are concerned only about their own salvation, securing their own little “cubbyhole” upstairs. That is in fact a self-centered attitude toward salvation. It is also commonly understood that salvation comes only through one’s particular faith or denomination. Many people think they can receive salvation by following their own special creed or doctrine.
MANY WAYS TO ONE GOAL
The many different religions-Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and so on-are each trying to offer the world a particular way of salvation. Each religion looks at God from its own point of view. Throughout history, Christians have thought of God as being only the God of Christians. Muslims have likewise perceived Him as being only the God of Islam. The other religions do the same thing. What about the Unification Church? The Unification Church believes in a God who is the God of the entire universe, the God of all people. We are trying to bring together all religions into one common understanding of that universal God: one universal faith.
Only one God presides over all of humanity. People are climbing up one great mountain; there are many different ways to get to the pinnacle, although the people who are climbing may not see them. But once everyone arrives at the top of the mountain, they will begin to recognize each other. They will say, “Oh, these people are here, too. They were seeking the same goal as we were.” Eventually all humanity will arrive at the same destination. While we are striving to reach the pinnacle, we must try to embrace and unite with each other.
Everybody claims that his own religion is the closest one to God. For instance, established Christianity, Islam, and Judaism all profess to have the closest position to God. But the time will definitely come when we all arrive at the pinnacle and meet each other.
Human beings fell from their original position; from that point, the upward journey of humanity began and it has continued to this day. All of humanity is destined to end its journey in one ultimate culminating point. When humankind arrives at that terminus, everyone will realize that all people have one common destiny.
The question then arises: Are there two different kinds of salvation, or only one? If people think there is more than one kind of salvation, they are denying the unique and absolute nature of almighty God. If God indeed exists as the Creator of all, then He must have one ideal, one purpose of creation: not two or three. He absolutely has only one plan of salvation and one purpose, one goal.
If there is one God, one will, and one salvation, would the individual path be different from the family path or the national path? Would they all go in different directions or should they all go in one direction? They should go in one direction. When we come to the final destination, then we will realize that whether the dispensational level is based on the individual, the family, the tribe, the nation, or the world, it is centered upon the same axis. The circle gets bigger and bigger, but the center is always the same.
GOD’S THREE KINDS OF POWER
God has many kinds of motion; He dispenses many types of energy. Besides the power of love, there is the power of life or the maintenance of existence. You must exist and you need energy to exist. There is also a certain energy that pursues the ideal. Human beings always strive to find or achieve something better; people have the inborn desire to pursue goodness, and are moving ever closer to the absolute good. When we attain that purity of goodness, we will never want to lose it, but will desire to abide in that state of absolute goodness forever.
God has three aspects of power: the power to pursue the ideal; the power to create and maintain existence; and the power to love. Does that threefold power exist in a random state, without order and discipline, just moving all over the place, or does that power pursue some common goal? What do you think? Among all these powers, which do you think is the central, focal power, the core of God’s energy? The power to love. What is the difference between true love and not-so-true love?
First of all, in order to be truly loved, you need someone else with whom to have give and take. You cannot just be all by yourself. This is of crucial importance. Even God cannot derive joy from love if He is all by Himself. God doesn’t sit on His throne and say, “I am almighty and I am enjoying absolute love.” No matter how hard God might try to be happy all by Himself, He can’t find happiness that way. If God didn’t seek an object with whom to share love, would it be normal? It would be abnormal. The normal way is to yearn for an object; if God did not feel the need for an object, He would be crazy. Without that object, He has no way to fulfill His love. You are in the position of object of God’s love.
In order for God’s power of existence to have meaning, that power must have a purpose and a goal. The ideal is that goal. But how can the ideal be fulfilled? Only through true love. Therefore love determines the purpose for all God’s power.
What is the quality of love that a person seeks? When you are truly pursuing the goal of true love, even though you may be living all by yourself, all things will come and help you. If you as husband and wife must live separately, you still have a common purpose and ideal-to fulfill the love in your relationship. So you can always feel that there is someone who loves you, and you can feel an exhilaration because of that.
The happiness which everyone desires cannot come until the individual’s existence and ideal meet with the permanent ideal: true love. Then the person takes the position of an object who can have permanent give and take with the permanent subject in true love. That alone can engender happiness to every man and woman. When you recognize the absolute Being as the subject who has an absolute purpose for existence and for achieving the ideal, and when you make yourself the object to that entity, then you can truly experience happiness.
PLUS GOD AND MINUS GOD
If a reciprocal relationship is necessary to fulfill love, why are there not in fact two Gods, one who plays the role of object and the other the role of subject? If that were the case, there would be two pluses in the universe. Plus repels plus, so there could be no harmony or unity unless one God were the minus God, or the object God. What God needs is a minus God, and so the Almighty determined to create one.
The creation is none other than God’s effort to create a minus God with whom to have a relationship. Do you think there should be a showdown between the plus God and the minus God to decide who should be subject and who should be object? That is already determined, already naturally organized for the sake of harmony.
In order for harmony to be created, there must be contrasting components, which are then brought together and united. If everything and everybody were identical-God and human beings, men and women-there would be no harmony, and therefore no joy.
That is why God created men and women to be different. When two hard things come together and crash, what happens? Both are shattered. However, when one hard and one soft entity come together, the soft wraps around the hard. Man is like the bone; woman wraps around him like the flesh. When man and woman, hard and soft, unite in this way, the man feels such joy that he can go out all over the world and accomplish great things. The woman, wrapped around him, gets a free ride!
Within the essentiality of God there is a subject portion and an object portion: the masculine or plus and the feminine or minus, as well as internal character and external form. These all harmonize together and create one giant plus character. Within the human sphere, there must also be subject and
object: masculine and feminine, and internal character and external form. When these come together, they create a great minus God for that great plus God.
The ultimate destiny of man is to receive the love of God; our ultimate subject is God. In order to reach the love of God, people must come together as plus and minus. This is why men need women and women need men: only together can we create the harmony with which we can reach the love of God. That is the entire purpose of creation.
When men and women come together in love, the impact is so great that they would be shattered if they didn’t have God as their cushion. God gets squeezed in between the two, and is Himself ignited with true love. Once God is ignited in this way, there is no limit to the action that can take place. Actually, in that situation God is wrapped around by the true love of men and women. Everybody in that embrace is permanently welded together-God, man, and woman. They never want to leave each other. God feels, “How wonderful is man and woman!”
In this sense, man can educate God. Through having shared in the bonding of man and woman, God can experience the impact of true love for the first time. Even though God is almighty, you can say to Him, “You cannot be fulfilled without us.” And God will say, “I have learned a lesson from you! I have seen that true love is even mightier than I am! True love can do something that I alone could not do.” But that will not cause any unhappiness to God; it will make Him totally euphoric. God will have found the state of joy that He has always been seeking. Once He experiences the reality of His true love He can say, “Now I feel accomplishment, having fulfilled perfection and the purpose of creation. Amen!”
REMAKING MAN
But in reality this fulfillment of God’s true love never occurred in all of history. Why is that? Men and women were supposed to be in the position to return that true love to God, but they fell. Ever since the fall of Adam and Eve, men and women have never been fully restored.
God has never experienced the fulfillment of His true love through His creation. The world became satanic, filled with untrue, self-centered love. God’s purpose has therefore been to restore humankind to the point where this state of joy could be realized. There is a lot of laundry to do. There is an incredible amount of dirtiness in mankind. The stains are so ingrained that a simple washing cannot suffice. Therefore, God has had to unravel the fabric and reweave it with new threads.
God thus needs a factory in which He can remake human beings. Throughout history religions have served as such mending or remaking factories. However, so far no factory has been able to reconstruct everything. One religion might be redoing the right leg; another religion might be redoing the left leg; another religion might be doing the arms; another doing the ears; another the eyes, the nose, and so forth. The whole process of remaking was divided among the different religions.
All this time, however, each religion has been working independently. Thus the left-leg religion and the right-leg religion each thought they had the complete and definitive plan. But now the final days have come-the time for an all-encompassing religion to emerge and remake the whole body of humankind.
So far in history there has also been great separation between the races, particularly between black and white. God wanted the distinction between the races to be maintained until the time when the Messiah would come; in this way each race could highly develop its special characteristics. The Messiah is to bring these contrasting races together in one beautiful, harmonious relationship. They will be able to weep and laugh together and share everything together. But in order to create such an all-encompassing atmosphere of love, True Parents are needed. This is because the deep love that is necessary to bond all races together as one family cannot be engendered without parental love. Thus the Messiah must come in the position of a True Parent. Without this basic structure of love coming down from heaven through True Parents there is no way to create harmony between the races.
In a way, the Unification movement can be described as the final remaking factory for human beings. Thus when you first come here, you will be given rough treatment, as if you were raw material being divided into pieces; this is because you have to give up your former self. Then you are fed by the milk of True Parents’ love, for the first time in history. Ultimately, a new person will emerge, a person of true love. This is almost like a beast being transformed into a human being. This is what the Unification Church is all about.
THE FINAL PHASE OF SALVATION
The question of love is the central question for the Unification Church. This is where humanity went wrong. In the Bible, God gave Adam and Eve the commandment: You can eat of all the trees, but do not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Today’s established Christian churches do not understand that the fruit represents love. God asked Adam and Eve to maintain their purity until He would bless them in marriage. When they broke that commandment, the fallen generations began.
We were all born to be the children of God, to be His princes and princesses. But what happened? The first ancestors joined with Satan; ultimately human beings became a part of the satanic lineage. This is the reason Jesus said, “You brood of vipers. How can you speak of good when you are evil? ” That is why people must shed their blood in order to cleanse their blood lineage. And that is why the history of Christianity has been a history of suffering and martyrdom.
We need another phase in the process of the remaking of man. We need the final part of the process, by which all the remade parts of the body of humanity can be sewn together. Most importantly, the stained blood lineage of Satan must be completely cleansed, or else the reassembly of the whole body will be to no purpose. You have to know clearly what the responsibility of the Unification Church is: to get rid of the satanic lineage and transfer humankind into the heavenly lineage of God through true love. In that way we will bring liberation to God and humanity.
Therefore, the greatest of all revolutions has been ignited by Rev. Moon. He has brought the way for all human beings to rid themselves of the satanic lineage and be restored into the heavenly lineage.
According to God’s original concept, He was to be united with Adam, Eve, the archangel, Cain, and Abel. All of them were supposed to be united as one, but instead, because of the fall they became divided as enemies. The Cain and Abel conflict has grown now to the worldwide level. The free world represents the Abel camp and the communist world represents the Cain camp. The central nation in the free world is the United States of America; within the United States, Christianity is in the Abel position and the government is in the Cain position.
Unless Cain and Abel are united, there is no way for humanity to return to God’s ideal. Today the True Parents are tearing down all the barriers on every level-religious barriers, national barriers, racial and cultural barriers. Thus people can more easily communicate and become one. Satan knows that we are approaching the final stages of restoration and so he is dealing his final blows. He is doing this through the destruction of love. Love has become extremely degraded and perverted. For example, free sex is completely opposed to God’s morality; through its increasing popularity Satan is trying to block God’s dispensation. At this time we are witnessing the complete destruction of the love tradition throughout the world. Knowing that, the Messiah is establishing this most crucial aspect of re-creation, the tradition of true love. The Unification Church and Rev. Moon have been working to accomplish this within modem-day society.
ABSOLUTE NECESSITY OF PARENTS
Marriage within the Unification Church has an extraordinary meaning. A man represents the plus aspects of the universe; a woman represents the minus aspects. God is bringing them together into harmony, and as a result God’s joy can be fulfilled. The large weddings of the Unification Church are guided by this philosophy and purpose. When a man and woman come together in love, a tremendous universal spark is created. But that spark requires the input of God. The human spark of love alone is horizontal; it creates only a simple, plain light. However, when man’s love combines with woman’s love, it creates a base for the vertical love to come down and hit that horizontal love. When that vertical love is welcomed into the human relationship a rainbow of light is produced and it spreads all over the world.
Everything in creation will open its mouth and joyfully welcome that beautiful light, crying, “Oh! Come into me, beautiful light!” Only that perfect light can fill up everything, everywhere. Love is precious, but no one knew how precious it was until Rev. Moon came. We cannot buy true love even with the whole universe or God. Nobody in history has known that the cosmos was created to center upon the love between an ideal man and wife, nor that this ideal has never been realized. This secret has been revealed in detail through Rev. Moon, and Unificationists have come to be convinced of its validity. This is why Moonies are so strong and courageous.
Wherever true love goes, it causes re-creation and transformation. No matter which continent it touches-Africa, South America, Asia-it does the same thing. Therefore, the Unification Church is bringing rebirth and regeneration to all of humanity. Without experiencing true love here on earth, no one is allowed to enter the Kingdom of Heaven in spirit world. For that reason, the Kingdom of Heaven has been empty until now. The keys to that Kingdom were given to Peter while Jesus was here on earth. This is the agony of Jesus, which no one has understood. Even though Jesus came here for the purpose of salvation, he could never open up the door of the Kingdom of Heaven because he could not freely disseminate true love centered upon the ideal of True Parents. It is only through True Parents that true love can be given to humanity.
The entire teaching of the Bible centers upon one key point: the fulfillment of true love. Jesus came to expound upon true love. He was supposed to take the position of bridegroom and take a bride, and then teach about true love, with him and his bride becoming True Parents at that time. True love can never be found unless True Parents appear on the earth. This is a central truth. Thus even though Jesus came to be the Messiah two thousand years ago, he could not fulfill the highest level of true love here on earth because he could not go up to the level of True Parents. The fulfillment of true love means that the ideal of True Parents has been established on the earth.
The Bible teaches that in the Last Days the bridegroom and bride will meet. This means Eden will be restored. The Bible teaches that in the Garden of Eden, there were two trees, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life. Christianity has not understood clearly what these two trees symbolize, but in fact they symbolize ideal man and woman, father and mother-the parents in the garden of Eden. At the time of the Exodus when Moses was leading his people through the wilderness, they were guided by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. These pillars symbolized, again, the True Parents, the father and mother who would come to lead humanity to the promised land. Furthermore, when Moses went up to the top of Mount Sinai and received the Ten Commandments, those commandments were inscribed on two tablets of stone. Why were there two? They symbolized the father and mother, the True Parents, who are the full embodiment of the word of God.
The dispensation at the time of the Exodus was symbolic of and parallel to the future era of the True Parents. Moses’ course was intended to be a symbolic teaching for humanity, so that the people could be prepared for the coming of the Messiah. God educated the Israelites through the Exodus so that they would be ready for the advent of the Messiah, Jesus. Jesus was intended to fulfill the ideal of True Parents. However, as God taught during the time of Moses, absolute faith and obedience on the part of the people were necessary in order for the Messiah’s goals to be fulfilled. But because the people’s faith and obedience were not rendered unto Jesus in his time, everything was destroyed. The True Parents and their love were not established on earth, and only spiritual salvation became possible. Physical salvation did not happen, so the Messiah had to come again. It was a great tragedy for history that we had to wait for the Second Coming.
If anyone in the world feels proud of himself or herself, that person should ask God what He thinks. God will say, “You cannot be proud of yourself. You were born of satanic lineage.”
Satan’s worst crime was that he stole love away from God. For that crime there can be no compassion, no forgiveness. In a way, the focal point of the battle within our society is the struggle for love. Satan is trying to pervert love and make it his. God is trying to restore love into heavenly and pure love. Rev. Moon is not a mediocre and compromising man. God needs people like me because I am absolutely committed to His work. Many people might say that Rev. Moon is too harsh, too strong, but he gives the prescription that this world needs. People come into the Unification Church with spiritual stains on them. But Rev. Moon takes them and pounds and pounds on them until they turn into pure, white seeds.
Rev. Moon means a great deal to God’s restorational history. It is not by man’s power, nor by the power of armaments, but only by the power of true love that evil can be overcome. He was the individual who fulfilled man’s purpose and accomplished the family purpose. Finding disciples one by one, gradually accumulating a foundation-you have to know how many tears are behind this Principle, how much agony. Up until now I have gone to jail six times, almost five years all together. I am not a bad person. When I was struggling to discover the Principle I didn’t have anyone. I was alone. After finding out the whole of the Principle the intense fighting continued. I know the difficulties there have been up to this point; you don’t know them. How many complications there have been in creating order on the right, on the left, in front, and behind, all so that now people can understand the Principle! There has been so much persecution, so much suffering, to bring the Principle and true love into substance and reality. It is priceless.
[Translation from Korean resumes:] You must come to realize what a precious gift you have in the truth you have found through the teaching of Rev. Moon. You should also know how much Father suffered to reach and dig out that truth for the sake of humanity. You are the first recipients of that truth. You ought to come to the realization that you are not in a normal church; you are not living a normal kind of life compared with other men and women. You are in an extraordinary position, a blessed position.
The ultimate destination of every human being is God. Also, every person is destined to one day become a personification of true love. But how do you really experience true love? The woman will find it through a true man, her husband; but first she has to help her husband become a true man. Then husband and wife can share true love and together become true parents. But which level of true parents do you want to reach: the individual level, the family, tribal, national, worldwide, or cosmic level? Cosmic true parents, that is best. Have you loved humanity and the universe with the cosmic level of true love? The smaller levels of love are absorbed by the larger levels: the individual love will be integrated into the family level; the family into the tribe; the tribe into the nation. True love for the country can be fused into true love for the world; true love for the world will be absorbed by true love for the universe.
You might declare to Satan, “You cannot compete with the quality of true love that we practice.” Satan will laugh and say, “Are you really proud of your true love?” People in the secular or fallen world celebrate their birthdays; they hold parties for that purpose. What about you? You regard yourselves as godly people. What is the day of your birth? If you say, “My birthday is on such and such a day,” Satan can say, “On that day, your parents gave you birth, didn’t they? Those parents are fallen. So actually you come out of my own lineage.”
Also, Satan will ask you, “Do you have a day on which you can celebrate your dominion over all things of creation? Is there a day on which you were given stewardship over all things?” Even though you may consider yourself godly, Satan still can say, “Look: All this is mine. I can claim and use everything. It is all my domain.”
WHERE ARE GOD’S PEOPLE?
Godly people can be confronted by Satan, who will say, “What have you accomplished? Show me what you have done in this society. I receive great loyalty from people. There are many people who are dying for their loyalty to my power. Where are the people who are giving their lives in loyalty to God?”
America is supposed to be one nation under God; that is the noble concept under which it was begun. But in contemporary America nearly everything is centered on the material aspect, which is Satan’s domain. Virtually all of society is suffering moral degradation; drug abuse is rampant; free sex is considered normal; homosexuality is common. This is the reason why one Christian nation after another has fallen into the hands of communism. Where is the power of Christianity? Satan laughs at God and says, “Show me Your country; where are Your people? I know You created this world for the realization of the Kingdom of God on earth; and You said You were going to restore it and bring it to that ideal. But where is it being restored?”
What is the day of judgment? It is the final showdown between Satan and God. Satan will show all his cards and God will do the same. God must prepare His own cards; when Satan shows his joker or his ace, God will pull out His cards-true men and women. Then Satan will be stunned and will begin to retreat at that point. Satan can show all kinds of examples of his power within today’s families. He can show how he has destroyed family after family through his power. Then he will challenge God: “Where are the families under Your sovereignty?” Satan has completely divided the world-all the races, nations, everyone-into chaos and confusion. He is triumphantly saying, “God, where is Your world?” Don’t you think God needs a winning card to challenge Satan’s trump? Don’t you think God wants to have that kind of super-trump?
NO MATCH FOR GOD’S TRUMP CARD
As soon as he sees God’s super-trump cards, Satan will say, “Oh, no, those aren’t the right kinds of cards. You are trying to play a different game!” But God will say, “Yes, they are two different cards. My cards are the cards that will save the world. But your cards are selfish cards; you worry only about your own well-being at the sacrifice of others.” And for the first time, Satan will come to realize that there is no match between him and God, because their cards are entirely different. However, Satan has to admit that he is one of the beings created by God, and he is the one who has fallen. God will say, “Who are you, after all?”
Therefore, those who are working only for their own well-being, those individuals, families, and nations who are pursuing only selfish interests, will become Satan’s trump cards. They will never become God’s super-trump cards. God will display His unselfish trump cards and Satan’s cards will be blown away, scattered. In the beginning of this card game between God and Satan, Satan had ownership of all the chips-the whole of creation and humanity was in Satan’s camp. Satan will show his cards first and then demand to see God’s. God will say, “Let me see your cards. Well, that card is self-centered and only worried about himself. I see now very clearly that your cards are evil and fallen. In fact, they are not real cards; they are imitations. My cards are true cards. Isn’t that correct?” Even Satan will have to admit it and say, “Yes, you are right, God.”
What about the United States? Is it God’s nation or Satan’s nation? Answer me clearly, you American people. Is this nation under God’s or Satan’s control? It is under Satan’s domination. The entire world is under Satan’s dominion. Thus people are born under Satan’s yoke; that is a fact. God lost everything to Satan. For that reason, there is no God’s Day in the satanic world; there is no True Parents’ Day; there have never been any True Children walking on the earth and therefore there is no Children’s Day honoring the true children of God. There has been nothing that God can claim as His own. This is the great tragedy, that God lost everything He created. Where is God’s nation today in the Christian domain? Can God celebrate the day on which His beloved son was killed on the cross?
TRUE LOVE COATING
Blind faith will not work. You cannot demand of people that they just simply believe without any evidence or verification. Today everybody tries to be scientific, except when it comes to the truth about God. How can you abandon science when you speak about God? How can you do that if you are twentieth-century men and women? I have met many theologians who lack a fundamental understanding about God. Many people respect me simply because of the logic of my teachings. Even philosophers want to meet with me; they change their concepts after only one meeting. Many times I have asked scholars questions and they could not answer.
What is the Unification movement? It is a new entity. It is the new trump card that God can play against Satan. Whatever cards Satan presents, this new card of God can wipe them out. What kind of card are you? Do you have a number? Are you an ace, a king, a jack, or what? You may have a special number, let’s say an MFT card. In order to move to another department, you can receive another Unification card. But I don’t want you to turn your card in for a satanic card.
Our cards have a different backing; they are coated with true love. Satan doesn’t worry about the number so much; the most important thing is the true love coating, for that is what will completely defeat Satan. What is the card of the Unification Church? For the first time, we can celebrate God and His day. God’s Day alone would not be powerful because God needs to have True Parents here on earth. Therefore, we must also have Parents’ Day because that represents the victory of God here on earth. Without True Parents, there is no true love. Satan will say to you, “Do you have that kind of day? Show me your cards, then.” When you show your cards, at first they will not appear to be different from Satan’s cards-there are diamonds, hearts, and so forth. But when you turn them over, you will be able to show that they are coated with true love. Perhaps they aren’t completely covered, but if even one corner is painted, that will be good. Satan cannot cope with that true love coating. He will draw back and retreat.
Therefore, in the Unification Church we have many unique celebrations-besides God’s Day and Parents’ Day, we have Children’s Day, the Day of All Things, Foundation Day, and others. Basically, however, the Unification movement is founded upon two things: God and His true love. God and His true love were never fulfilled here on earth until the True Parents were established. For that reason, the Parents’ Day celebration is special. Based upon the true love of God, Parents’ Day has been installed. Upon the victory of Parents’ Day, True Children came into being and therefore Children’s Day came into being. Now the ownership of all things can be transferred to God and therefore the Day of All Things came into being. Upon that foundation, the Day of Family, the Day of the True Nation, and the Day of the True World will come, even the Day of the True Cosmos.
DON’T MISUSE GOD’S HOLY PLACE
Do you have true love? Show me. What is the content of that love? You may say it is God-centered, and so forth, but in plain language, what is true love? I will give you the answer: True love has no end. It never gets boring; you always want more-you want it to continue forever. After a hundred years, you will still want to be with your beloved: that is true love.
In the love of God, there are no dirty or ugly places in the beloved. The love of God doesn’t change, not even in the bathroom. Today’s Christianity does not really understand true love. Every individual has his or her own most holy place. The man has his most holy place and the woman has her most holy place within their own temples, their physical bodies. That holy place is the sexual organs. That is why it is so important not to misuse that area. The punishment is so incredibly severe when you misuse it. Individuals have to worship in that holy place. This is why Satan is attacking sexual morality so strongly, encouraging illicit love. Satan is trying to destroy humanity in this way. Therefore, God must restore that holy place and make it truly holy. The blessing of God blossoms through these holy places.
The key to that holy place belongs to your spouse. The holy relationship between husband and wife is very sacred and beautiful. It must be pure and it must be disciplined.
My own life has been nothing but suffering, particularly since I learned the overwhelming truth. I have been trying to live that truth. To do that I have gone to the lowest, most miserable places in human society. Sometimes I felt as if I were a prisoner of God, but then God comforted me. While I was giving all my effort to set the tradition of true love, my youth passed away. Now I am in my sixties.
THE FINAL JOURNEY BACK TO THE FATHERLAND
Who has really known the heart of Jesus, whose physical body was taken away by Satan? Nobody has known the real purpose of Jesus the Messiah, who came to earth after long preparation. The followers of Jesus inherited the tradition of sacrifice from him, and they have been expanding around the world for two thousand years. Directly after World War II, Christianity became the dominant influence in the world. However, at that particular time, the established Christian leaders of Korea and the Korean government failed to listen to Rev. Moon. For that reason, I embarked on a sojourn in the wilderness, starting in 1945. This year, 1985, is my fortieth year of life in the wilderness.
I knew I could not go back to my homeland without having a superior foundation. When I was crossing the 38th parallel to go south, I pledged that I would return on the worldwide level. Therefore, no matter what race you belong to, keep in mind that we have to concentrate on creating our fatherland during these final three years, giving our best. Now is the time of the final showdown.
This period is comparable to the time when the Israelite spies went into Canaan to analyze the situation there. When the spies came back, Joshua and Caleb were the victors of faith and led the people into Canaan. Today I find myself in a land that has treated me like an enemy, and I am working to restore my position here; at the same time I am reconnoitering. When Jesus was crucified, the goal of worldwide physical and spiritual salvation was no longer possible, so only spiritual salvation could be ushered in through his sacrifice. The chosen nation of America and the free world will eventually turn to Danbury as the mount of both physical and spiritual resurrection.
DANBURY IS A TOOL FOR GREATER VICTORY
Since I have gone to Danbury prison, so many significant historical events have taken place. On the fortieth day after I entered prison, an open house day was held there for the first time. This meant that visitors could come in and mingle with the prisoners and see what it was like inside. At that time crowds came to see. They were not interested in the prison itself, but they were trying to get a glimpse of Rev. Moon. After seventy days of my prison term had elapsed, unprecedented dialogue was begun between the nations of North Korea and South Korea.[1] Later, Red China publicly criticized Marxism and began to adopt free market economic policies. Furthermore, many hundreds of ministers have attended seminars sponsored by our movement and have praised Rev. Moon as the “twentieth-century prophet of America.”
Of course, officials of the United States government have taken the position of enemy to me, but I have no animosity toward them. I made a clear statement of forgiveness to the U.S. government. I have been loving America more than ever, knowing that God loves and needs this country. At the same time, the one great power that fears me the most is the Soviet Union. Soviet authorities thought that since Rev. Moon went to jail, it would be the end of him and his church. But on the contrary, Rev. Moon is becoming much stronger. When I entered prison, the American government considered me to be an enemy of America, or a controversial leader at best. But the Soviet leaders can clearly see that on the day I come out of prison, I will emerge as a hero and a champion against communism. Then, who is the most threatened by me? The Soviet Union and international communism. Everyone else is joining with me more and more every day.
It was Satan’s plan to send me to jail, but it was God’s plan to use that jail as a tool to win the greater victory. Prison is the worst possible internal hell on earth and I am winning the internal victory there. You are in the external hell, which is the fallen world. Therefore, you must win the external victory in order to be parallel with me and make oneness with me. I want you to understand the clear goal, as expressed in our motto for this year, “Creation and Building of the Fatherland” -God’s homeland here on earth. That is my goal, and I am achieving the necessary victory even in the worst possible hell on earth, the prison. You must win the same victory.
BE WILLING TO DIE FOR GOD’S SAKE
Furthermore, while I was in prison, I sent a special emissary to Red China to negotiate behind the scenes on an issue that is most important to the future peace of the world. No matter what, I cannot feel any personal hostility toward America or the United States government. We cannot be defeated by Satan or by communism. For that reason, I must forgive the United States government and work with them, striving to embrace them. There are brothers and sisters who are now fighting and even dying in the Soviet Union and other satellite countries. They are becoming martyrs for the Unification movement. Therefore, we must be serious; and we must have no complaint. The one who decides to give up his life for God’s sake and for the True Parents’ sake will find it.
God’s people should be willing to die for God’s sake. If they are willing to do that, God will find His Kingdom here on earth-that is the absolute truth. When people are giving their lives and transcending culture and skin color for the sake of God’s Kingdom on earth, they shall find that Kingdom. Today, at the culmination of our celebration on Parents’ Day, we must pledge to march forward toward the ultimate battleground for the final victory. That is the true meaning of this celebration. This is not just a day to be happy and merry. We have to commit ourselves to that final goal.
In one hand we must grasp the United States of America and in the other hand the Soviet Union and international communism. Remember, God is playing His extraordinary and final “card game” with Satan. And God is holding onto one trump card: that is Rev. Moon and you. Rev. Moon is like God’s ace card; all of you represent the rest of the cards. Together, we will create God’s trump and win for Him.
Therefore, there is no viable choice but to become united and totally committed. There are 52 cards in a deck; we have all the cards we need for every eventuality, for every different direction. Can you say that you are a card in God’s hands? I want you to be the best cards; if not an ace then at least a seven, eight, nine, or ten.
Thus you have to be different from other people. Your eyes should have a different shine. Your focus should be different; not concentrating on earthly, material things, but on spiritual things. Your every behavior should be different when you are a child of God. Tell yourself, “I am different because I am a child of God and I have True Parents.” Do you know how old I am? Am I 25? I feel like it. That is because of my purpose. I am constantly busy. I always yell at my own legs, “How can you be relaxed? There is no time!” If my body tries to lie down and rest, I yell at it, “What are you doing? This is an emergency! How can you rest now?” I always battle with my own body, my eyes, legs, and so forth.
I AM RESTORING TRUE PATRIOTISM
Do you think Satan likes to see people trying to imitate Rev. Moon? Satan hates to see that. I voluntarily went to prison although I could have avoided it. There were many different places I could have gone, rather than returning to the United States. But I chose to go to prison for one purpose: to save America; to shake up this country and tum it toward goodness. Patriotism and the love of God have not been strong in America. I want to revive those attitudes here. By entering prison, I am restoring true patriotism in America. I am not a citizen of this country, but I love this country so much that Americans will become ashamed and will begin to love their own country, and love God.
What about you? Are you a true American or a false American? Are there more of God’s Americans or Satan’s Americans in this country today? There has been little patriotism in this country; and love of family, clan, and society is severely lacking. Look at the statistics of drug abuse: virtually ninety percent of the young people are affected by the drug situation, even students in elementary school. Thousands of them lose their minds due to drugs. Is that the effect of patriotism or love of God? Therefore, we have to shock this country; we have to give a special injection into the American body that will dissolve the poisonous effects of these drugs. We are the physicians with our own spiritual medicine. We have to inject this nation with love of country and love of God.
When I went to jail some people thought, “Rev. Moon, you cannot influence those prisoners.” But what happened? Rev. Moon went to the hellish society of the prison, and the inmates there began to be transformed. Even though I cannot openly preach the Principle, the inmates are being transformed by their direct experiences with Rev. Moon and his way of life. There is a special destiny that I have to fulfill at this time in Danbury. People have said it is impossible to restore America, but I will bring a great awakening to this country. We will bring great patriotism back to America, great love of God, so that this nation will truly become the instrument of God and will save the world.
Everybody stand up. On this Parents’ Day celebration, those who pledge your commitment to win your external battle, as I have won my internal battle, and become extraordinary men and women; those who pledge to bring this nation to patriotism and the love of God and by so doing bring salvation to the world; those who pledge to me on this Parents’ Day, raise both your hands and declare that you will become Joshuas and Calebs. Say out loud, “I will bring the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and march towards great victory!” Amen! Amen! Amen! God bless you!
[1] On September 29, 1984, North Korea delivered over 700 truckloads of food and humanitarian relief to South Korean flood victims. This exchange marked the first non-hostile interaction between the two sides since the Korean War. In November the two nations began for the first time to discuss the possibilities for economic cooperation, bilateral trade, and f amity reunification.