Former Headquarters Church.
You all know well that, of the seven-year course, the three-year course has now passed, and the four-year course lies ahead.
Of course, this course is one that all of you must walk, but this seven-year course in particular is also a course that the Teacher must personally walk.
The past three-year course was a course of seeking out and establishing children, and this four-year course is a course of seeking out and establishing the environment.
When we consider this, we must feel how pressing and how anxious the position is in which the mission we must carry out from now is placed.
The Providential Significance of the Seven-Year Course
If, at the time God created heaven and earth, the number seven had been completed, this seven-year course of restoration through indemnity would be unnecessary.
But because, through the wrongdoing of our ancestors, the whole was utterly twisted, we have passed through the long, long historical course of six thousand years. That is, we have walked a course to resolve the grievance of the number seven.
This is why our ancestors of every generation, without fail, carried on the providence centered on the number seven. When the Teacher too set out on this path, he sought to bring this path to completion in seven years, but because that did not go as intended, he came to walk a twenty-one-year course.
You must realize that this present time is the final seven-year period of that twenty-one-year course.
Just as Jacob, in fourteen years, achieved a standard of blessing centered on his family, you too must, centered on the 1960s, pave such a victorious period inwardly and outwardly.
Yet that foundation is not achieved in a place that is free and peaceful and where the multitude rejoices; it must be wrested away from Satan.
You are now passing through the very course Jacob passed through when, though deceived ten times over in the house of Laban, he waged a battle of wresting away and established the authority of victorious decision.
Therefore, you must realize that, in this final period, together with the restoration of all things, you must establish, in every field, the restoration of the environment—that is, a free environment through which the ideal of free unification can pass.
As you also know, the watchword of this four-year course has been “Let us become victorious lords of dominion.” Then, in this period, what is it that we must do? We must seek and establish the land before God.
You must realize that your responsibility in this four-year course is to prepare a safe and free environment that the whole can welcome, wherever one goes, from the individual to the family, the clan, the people, and the nation.
When we consider it from such a standpoint, of whom is the term “victorious lord of dominion” spoken?
If we ask whether God is presiding over heaven and earth from a victorious position, He is not in such a position. The meaning is that He is not presiding over heaven and earth and all people in a glorious form upon a victorious foundation.
The countless forefathers who upheld the course of restoration, too, did not become victorious lords of dominion. Two thousand years ago, God’s only begotten Son, Jesus, came to bring that mission to completion, but he, too, did not become a victorious lord of dominion upon this earth.
So you must realize that Jesus and the Holy Spirit have been fighting for two thousand years up to now to prepare the foundation of a victorious lord of dominion.
This is why the final standard of this victorious lord of dominion is God. Without fail, God must first ascend to this victorious standard. Before God ascends to the victorious position, no one on this earth can ascend to the victorious position.
The one who comes to establish the position of victorious lord of dominion over heaven and earth is the Lord.
The Providential History to Seek the Lost Children
Because of whom is it that God has not stood in a position where He can preside over heaven and earth?
Originally, God ought to have presided over heaven and earth, holding victorious authority of dominion centered on the true ancestors of humankind; yet because of whom did He lose this position of dominion?
Because of Adam and Eve. It is because of Adam and Eve, our ancestors, that things have been so twisted.
Adam and Eve ought to have become the true ancestors of humankind, the True Parents of humankind, whom God truly desired. We humankind ought to have been born of the blood lineage of those True Parents.
The True Parents of humankind, who ought to have begun from the very start of history, ought to have appeared as the substance of God’s glory and before humankind as a victorious, eternal substance. Despite this, Adam and Eve did not appear as a victorious substance.
We know well that this became the ground of grievance that has made the sorrowful history up to now. We know well that, because of this, we human beings, who departed from the law of Heaven, lost our own substance, and trampled upon God’s heart (심정), are tracing the course of restoration to find substance according to the Word and to find the world of the heart.
This fallen humankind came to stand in a position more evil than all things, and fell into the sorrowful position of being unable to face God freely. Because such human beings cannot restore themselves by themselves, God has awakened them and carried on the work of re-creation.
You must realize the fact that He has come restoring them, passing through the position of servant, the position of adopted child, and the position of child, until, equipped with the victorious authority of dominion, they reach the position of True Parents.
If the Old Testament Age is the age of formation, the New Testament Age is the age of growth, and the Completed Testament Age is the age of completion, then the Old Testament Age was the age of the servant, and the New Testament Age was the age of the adopted child.
Only after passing through this age of the adopted child and bringing to completion the age of the substantial child can one move over to the age of the parent. This is the course of restoration.
Viewing this course of the history of restoration, we know well that the age of the servant and the age of the adopted child have passed, and that now, as the age of the substantial child, there remains the course of establishing a victorious standard and then advancing to the position of the parent.
Then, upon this earth, were there any of our forefathers who became the servant God desired and, planting a signpost of victory, declaring that from here on is the world of the servant, where Satan cannot invade, set up the whole condition as a servant?
There were none. And were there any who inherited the victorious foundation of the servant, governed the whole servantry on Heaven’s side, and, becoming an adopted child who could receive commands before God, established the victorious authority of decision as the adopted child whom God seeks and desires?
There were none. This is why, up to now, God and Satan have fought over a single person. And each time God set someone up, Satan invaded and ruined him.
This overturning history has flowed on for six thousand years, but it has been God’s han-laden history of restoration that He could not, at any one time, find a single person who, as a servant, could smash Satan, nor, at any one time, find an adopted child who could, in God’s stead, smash Satan and establish God’s authority.
When we consider this, who, then, must take responsibility for it?
God stood in the position of taking responsibility directly and, to establish a mission for one person, carried on the providence by setting up and dividing countless people.
You must realize the fact that, although God called and set up one person upon a prepared foundation to put His command into practice, because the person who received the command failed time after time, He mobilized countless people and went on setting up candidates who could carry it on successfully.
Because the history of the servant, the history of the adopted child, the history of the child, and the history of the parent — this vertical history—is today linked horizontally across the world, upon this earth there are still people who groan in the position of the servant, people who go seeking out the way of the adopted child, and, further, people who go seeking the position of victorious sons and daughters, who, when they say, “Father!” can hear, “My sons and daughters.” This we must realize.
Then what is the responsibility of the Unification Church today?
The Unification Church is placed at the time of passing through the age of the servant, the age of the adopted child, and the age of the child, and moving over to the age of the parent.
A victorious lord of dominion cannot win as an individual alone. It is because the cause of failure reached from the individuals, Adam and Eve, down to the three sons, Cain, Abel, and Seth.
Therefore, the course of restoration that began centered on Adam’s family passed through Noah’s family, through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, through Moses, and on through King Saul, King David, and King Solomon to John the Baptist and Jesus, when it sought to be brought to completion centered on the world—but it was not.
Because this first providential course of Israel failed, Christianity came forth to restore this once again through indemnity.
If We Have Won the Authority of a Victorious Decision
The Unification Church today must bring together the countless bonds of restoration that have arisen. This is why, among you, there must be one who has won among the servants scattered throughout the world, one who has won among the adopted children, and, further, one who has won as a direct child.
It must be a gathering that, upon that victorious foundation, attends a victorious parent. This is the goal toward which the Unification Church aims today.
This is why the Unification Church today must have a victorious parent, must have victorious children, must have victorious adopted children, and must be equipped with a victorious band of servants. Within and without a single fence, in whatever position, it must be able to go forth and drive back Satan.
Going forth as a servant, it must drive back Satan; going forth as an adopted child, it must smash and drive back Satan; and going forth in the name of a direct son or daughter, it must smash and drive back Satan. And further, that it must drive back Satan in the name of the parent goes without saying.
Only by standing in such a position can one bear the name of victorious lord of dominion. You must clearly realize that one must be equipped with one position or another among these: the victorious lord of dominion in the position of the servant, the victorious lord of dominion in the position of the adopted child, the victorious lord of dominion in the position of the child, and the victorious lord of dominion in the position of the parent.
If, in such a position, you have all united and won the authority of a victorious decision, you must not move within some limited environment.
The authority of the victorious lord of dominion must be welcomed by the whole people, if it is a people; and further, its dignity and authority must transcend the people, establishing a victorious decision upon the earth, and indeed must reach even the standard of holding the highest national authority and being able to command, facing the world — only then can God at last settle His place upon the earth, and only then can the building of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth begin in earnest.
The Teacher has a historical destiny of having to pass through the positions of servant of servants, servant, adopted child, child, and parent. It is because he must stand as the victorious substance who indemnifies horizontally the history that has flowed vertically, and gather it up.
This is why, for the Teacher, who has taken responsibility for the whole, what age must there be?
There must be, beginning from the age of the servant of servants. You must realize this.
Let Us Restore the Victorious Authority of Dominion
Having blessed many families, I find that there are not a few cases in which they fall again into the evil world. As to that, I am, for now, leaving it as it is. At some time, there will be a wretched indemnity.
The Blessing is the most precious thing and, at the same time, the most fearful thing. The Blessing is what was hoped for on the historical course so full of han (한).
Yet on the day when one, having received the Blessing, deviates from the standard God awaits and from the standard the one who blessed them on earth desires, it is only natural that one receives the accusation of God and the accusation of the one who blessed them.
When that happens, one receives the accusation of both the spiritual world and the physical world, so that one has no place to stand. Because they have trampled upon the victorious authority of dominion of the servant, the victorious authority of dominion of the adopted child, and the victorious authority of dominion of the child, they are threefold (三重) offenders.
If judgment is to come, they must receive it first. This is why the Unification Church is now carrying on a movement to restore the victorious authority of dominion.
As God desired, Adam and Eve did not hold the victorious authority of dominion.
Because Adam and Eve, upon this earth, did not settle the authority of dominion by which, as True Parents, they could govern the spiritual world, the Lord must come upon this earth and settle the victorious authority of dominion.
The Lord must come and settle upon the earth, the victorious authority of dominion by which above and below can be made one. Only when, centered on heaven and earth, one people, one land, and one sovereignty are established and this is settled, does the building of the Kingdom of Heaven at last begin.
The members of the Unification Church have, as yet, no nation. Being born in the Republic of Korea does not make one a person of the Republic of Korea, and though we live in this world, we have not the slightest bond with this world.
The meaning is that we are going forth for the sake of one nation and one world. This is why, for us today, the victorious lords of dominion at the individual, family, clan, people, national, and worldwide levels are linked in succession.
And though you may not know it well, He linked the providence of Abel’s offering, made of it a historical foothold of victory, and so established Noah and carried it on from generation to generation.
Seen from this viewpoint, we can know that God wishes to resolve han through us.
Then what must we do?
We must accomplish the purpose of creation that God desired and let Him move all of heaven and earth, and there must be no one who rebels against it. The meaning is that one must not become a Satan who accuses before God’s providence. Different last year and different this year, history is changing ever more rapidly.
It is the mission of the Unification believer to share life with this historical turning point and to gather the spiritual world and the living environment. Despite this, the meaning is that there are no such Unification believers. The time must come when God can govern all heaven and earth as He pleases.
What was the environment of this Unification Church, which came forth centered on a small band, today?
Had you not walked the three-year course, the Unification Church would not have endured upon this earth. The hole was our enemy. No one was an enemy.
In such an environment, we set out from one to two, from two to three, increasing the number, mobilizing a small band, and walking today’s course of toil for the people. Meanwhile, we came forth as a historical offering. Heavenly order follows without fail through the person who pours out devotion for God. Therefore, these people will be swayed by our movement.
God does not carry on the providence through people who live enjoying dazzling, splendid glory in the world. God, without fail, carries on the providence for the sake of that nation and that people in which there is a band who shed public tears and shed public blood and sweat for His sake.
History moves through those who, in God’s Will’s stead, pour out devotion without sparing blood and tears. And further, if at the national level there are people who fulfilled responsibility without changing, that nation must surrender before those people. That is the heavenly principle.
The Reason for Driving Us onto the Path of Death
You all know well the watchword of our Unification Church. It has been made, “Holding the heart of a parent, taking on the body of a servant, tears for humankind, sweat for the earth, blood for Heaven.”
Why is such a watchword needed?
It is this: in shedding tears, let us shed them in the stead of the parent; in shedding sweat, let us shed it in the stead of the parent; in shedding blood, let us shed it in the stead of the parent.
That is, what does this saying mean?
It means: let us go before the living God, take upon ourselves the path of death, and, for the sake of Heaven, for the sake of the earth, for the sake of humankind, let me be the first to ascend the altar of death.
God is the eternally existing One. That God sheds tears is to sweep away the path of death, to sweep away the path of suffering, to sweep away the path of sorrow.
Knowing that God comes forth shedding tears and blood and sweat first, to sweep away the path of sorrow and suffering and death, we today must stand in His Will’s stead. God must not go to the place of death.
Up to now, God has set our forefathers forth into the final place of death, the place of shedding the final tears, the place of shedding the final blood and sweat. He did this not because God had no love. To dissolve such places, God Himself had to feel a pain greater still.
Currently, a beloved child dies, how full of suffering is the parent’s heart, and how it must ache, the heart of a parent who watches a beloved child suffer?
The meaning is that it is more painful than one’s own dying. With such an aching heart, God has undergone suffering ever since the history of humankind began.
We, centered on a single generation, can have our responsibility all come to an end once we suffer once and pass over; but God, each time our countless forefathers walked the path of death, each time they walked the path of tears, each time they walked the path of shedding blood and sweat, and each time they walked the path of sorrow and suffering, has undergone severe suffering up to now.
When our forefathers, centered on the providence, shouldered the responsibility of their age, had they cast down their lives in a public position for the sake of Heaven, earth, and humankind, and shed their blood and sweat and tears, all things would have been resolved.
This is why our Unification Church today, too, holding the heart of a parent and taking on the body of a servant, seeks to follow forth toward such a goal. And in what position does it seek to set you? It seeks to set you in the position of children who follow their parents.
Since God did such toil, today we bear the responsibility of inheriting that toil and restoring it through indemnity upon this earth.
Because we are bound to the path of unification, the path one goes centered on this path is the path of tears, the path of blood and sweat. When one faces God’s sorrowful circumstances, one cannot face them without tears, and when one faces that wretched news, the blood cannot help but well up.
The Teacher, though it should cost all his blood and flesh, wishes to do anything and everything to dissolve that sorrow of God.
The meaning is that, even if it means sacrificing tens of millions of disciples, he can do anything to accomplish that Will. But this does not mean that he does not love you.
Because he loves you, he is centered on the Unification Church today, having you shed tears and blood and sweat as servants, so that you may advance as adopted children or as direct children.
Only one who can become a person who steps forth, as a direct child, without minding the place of death, can take upon himself, in his stead, the substantial course of the cross of the One who is to come.
Just as God has up to now set forth our forefathers and had them carry out the mission of restoration through indemnity, so for the substantial True Parents too, there remains the mission of setting forth beloved children and pioneering the worldwide course of indemnity.
So this work must continue until one person is completely restored.
What is the hope with which God establishes one central being who is to greet the final day, and what does He desire?
It is that, by establishing beloved children equipped with the authority to win in the place of death, they may win in the final place of death. It is to become a victorious lord of dominion who can win, passing beyond death.
This must be settled in the position of son and daughter, must be settled in the position of adopted child, and must be settled in the position of servant. This is why the movement is all the same. Though it moves on the level plane, it is linked through formation, growth, and completion, rising one after another, centered on a single fortune (運勢).
The Importance of the Seven-Year Course
Because the Blessed families today have failed to fulfill their responsibility, they have brought considerable hindrance to the development of the church. And because people who have been in for a long time have failed to fulfill their responsibility, there is much hindrance to the newcomers.
This is why, just as the Teacher passed through twenty-one years, the path the Unification Church walks today, too, cannot help but walk the three-stage course of formation, growth, and completion.
Then, in what circumstances must you fulfill your mission?
For you to walk this course of restoration step by step would require a long period, but because one central figure has integrated such missions and paved a victorious foundation, if you push through the command you have received, centered on the seven-year period of formation, you can bring it to completion within this seven-year period.
This is why the Unification believers of today, and the countless people who will come hereafter seeking this ideal, must all pass over this seven-year course.
The meaning is that one cannot help but go. Otherwise, one cannot carry on the heart of restoration that seeks to restore the lost heavenly heart.
Because God came forth so, and the forefathers came forth so, and the Teacher came forth so, you too cannot but trace that path.
If this passes beyond the national-level standard, it can be short.
Seven years can become seven months, and seven months can become seven days. Until this mission is brought to completion, there remains the world-historical seven-year great tribulation.
What is the mission you must carry out in this seven-year period?
You must be equipped with the individual victorious authority of dominion, must be equipped with the family victorious authority of dominion, must be equipped with the clan victorious authority of dominion, and must be equipped with the people and national victorious authority of dominion. But you, fallen descendants, cannot walk the path of the seven-year course directly.
So God establishes the Lord, has him pave such a path in the spiritual world and the physical world, and lets you go. You must realize the fact that the course of restoration is arranged so.
Whom has God been seeking up to now?
A victorious lord of dominion. He has come forth seeking a victorious lord of dominion centered on heaven and earth.
When the True Parents of glory come, there must be no Satan who opposes before them. Nothing that conflicts with their will and ideals can exist. Such a time must come. You must clearly realize that what passes over only halfway gets cut off.
When this new ideal comes forth today and sweeps all ideologies into one place, if one does not become one here, it will split the world in two once more.
Just as, from Adam on, Cain and Abel split apart, what could have been joined must, on a fortune in which it can be made one, become one and settle into a complete position; and if it does not become one here, without fail it is split apart.
After splitting Abel and Cain apart, He smashes Cain, and with Abel and Seth, replaces the Cain-Abel pattern and sets out. You must clearly realize this fact. As history is so, so too is our Unification Church today. (Omitted.)
To receive the mark of the victorious authority of dominion is the Blessing. The families the Teacher has blessed must pass not only through the three-year course but also through the four-year course, so it is not yet a complete Blessing.
In this four-year course, one must not fall while fighting.
The meaning is that one must not be caught here. Passing beyond this four-year course, one must receive the re-Blessing amid national welcome. Even that alone is not enough.
Next, one must completely pass beyond the worldwide course. Only by passing through such a process can one receive the third Blessing.
Faith, Hope, and Love
This is why you, though you live, must live not for yourselves alone, but together with God, to establish the victorious authority of dominion. Therefore, you, holding absolute conviction and centering on a life of attendance, must live in a position of complete oneness—only then can you achieve a victorious foundation. The path of restoration is arranged so.
God created heaven and earth, all things, and human beings centered on the ideal of creation. Yet has God presided over those He created from the place of having realized the ideal of creation—that is, from the place of having completed the purpose of creation? He has not. This is why heaven and earth are still incomplete. God’s desire, too, has not been realized.
Since God has not realized His hope, He has not realized His Will; and since He has not realized His Will, He has never once lived centered on human beings. Thus God has not realized His hope, has not realized His Will, and has never lived centered on human beings, so that in this heaven and earth God’s heart has nowhere appeared. The meaning is that He could not speak of his circumstances.
This is why human beings up to now have not known what God’s hope is, what God’s heart is, what God’s circumstances are.
So what is it that people living upon the earth today go seeking?
What do those who, together with the development of history, go seeking the path of the Way go seeking?
They go seeking God. In seeking God, what does one first gaze toward and seek? One must gaze toward hope and seek God. It is to link this that faith is needed. Merely saying “believe, believe” is vague.
In First Corinthians, it says that these three — faith, hope, and love — abide always, and that the greatest of these is love.
Fallen human beings must first take God’s Will as hope and next become the substance of a life that can realize that hope—that is, the substance of faith. Only then is love realized.
If the standard that the human being of original creation hopes for is to advance toward the completion stage within the realm of dominion of the Principle, then only when one becomes a person made one with that standard is love at last realized.
This is why we believe and go forth to find hope. Even the vague expectation that we will go to the Kingdom of Heaven, become the sons and daughters of God, and become the bridegroom and bride is acceptable.
Then why does God carry on the providence of salvation for humankind centered on a vague hope?
It is because this hope is centered on human beings. Until human beings know this exactly, this hope cannot become clear.
As you know from having learned the Principle, when one advances to the line of the completion standard of the realm of dominion based on the accomplishments of the Principle and brings all hope to completion at that boundary where it connects with the realm of direct dominion, that point becomes a place God too desires, a place human beings too desire, and a place that has reached the ultimate of the Principle. When these three points become one body, truth, character, and love are joined.
The Principle stands in the stead of truth, the human being (the family member) stands in the stead of character, and God stands in the stead of love; and the place where these three points are blended into complete oneness is the place that appears in the Last Days.
This is why, seen by the historical standard or by the standard of the providence of restoration today, God has not become a victorious lord of dominion.
Why has He not?
Because Adam ought to have become a victorious lord of dominion, but did not.
The purpose of creation does not lie in God Himself. Because He made all created things, centered on Adam, with a relational ideal, until Adam and Eve, the relational object partners, are settled (completed), God’s hope is not realized.
Seen centered on such a hope of God, the meaning is that the victorious lord of dominion He hoped for has not come forth.
The Substance That Has Completed Faith, Hope, and Love
Then, who is the subject of the hope that all humankind existing in heaven and earth desires?
It is a victorious Messiah.
Merely saying “Jesus” does not make it all complete. He must become a victorious Messiah who can exercise the victorious authority of dominion.
Jesus came to this earth, but because he bore the cross and went on the path of defeat, he could not set all people in a victorious position. He could not establish a standard of victory before he went.
So he could not but pass through a historical course of twists and turns in which he was once again subjected to Satan’s invasion.
This is why there must come forth a victorious lord of dominion centered on God’s ideal of creation — that is, on hope. Hope, without fail, advances under the banner of faith.
What does faith require?
In a substance that has completed faith, if one has believed a hundred, it requires actual value equal to the hundred one believed.
That is, it goes forth believing, under the banner of a person who can be made one with the ideal of creation — that is, a person who can be made one with the law of the Principle, a person who has not fallen but has reached completion.
When one wins in this faith, one can realize hope. When one becomes a substance victorious in hope and faith, God’s love appears automatically.
This is why what we must realize today is that we must become the substance of victory who can hope, centered on God’s ideal of creation. That is, fallen human beings must, centered on faith, equip themselves with character and become lords of dominion victorious on the side of faith.
Only with this substance of faith that believes in and attends God, only with that substance, can all things of the religious world today be replaced.
However many billions of people may believe, however much there may be something they hope for, it cannot be exchanged for that one Person.
When the victorious lord of dominion of faith is settled and goes forth to a position where he can become one with hope, then at last a place that has realized love and hope and faith is established. God requires a person who stands in such a place.
Therefore, we must become the substance of victory in hope and faith, and become a victorious lord of dominion centered on love.
We must become a person who, equipped with the glorious figure of having won at the final standard the human being upon this earth ought to attain, can possess God’s love and can distribute that love as he pleases—in other words, a person who can have dominion over God’s love. Whatever such a person carries out, God too will affirm. Love brings about an overall integration. The meaning is that in love, there is no partiality.
Only by thus standing in the place of having completed God’s final purpose and being equipped with the victorious authority of dominion of hope and faith does one become a victorious lord of dominion centered on God’s love.
When that comes about, all humankind comes before that lord of dominion and receives a share of love. That love is the love that appears for the first and last time in the history of humankind. Therefore, on the day a fortune comes in which such a sovereign appears and can introduce love, the love by which fallen human beings loved one another among themselves must be automatically forsaken and passed beyond. This is why not only the countless human beings who pursue love, but also all things and the myriad saints of heaven, must surrender before that love.
By this, the decisive standard of the unification of the Cosmos is established. It is the standard of the spiritual world, the standard of the Principle, the standard of humankind’s hope.
When, at such a standard of love, the individual, family, clan, people, national, and worldwide stages are all linked and come to be loved under that sovereign’s authority, then at last they can take on a single direction. At that time, the history of God’s new Kingdom of Heaven begins.
In that love, there is no above and below. Therefore, when one comes to be within the authority of dominion of that love, even one at the very end has the authority to possess the whole.
The meaning is that in the world of love, there are no gradations. Because it always has infinite peace, infinite equality, and infinite public value, great and small, or above and below, it cannot become an issue. It is linked eternally, and it gives and receives eternally, so that at that standard, even if one takes up but a single thing and steps forth, there is nothing that is not integrated into it and nothing that does not respond.
This is why we must advance even to the position of a victorious lord of dominion centered on love grounded in such a standard. Because human beings up to now have not found such a place, we are going forth to find such a place.
Because human beings have lost hope through falling, they must, centered on faith, find the substance and link love to it. God has up to now awaited the appearance of a person who can assert before Him, “I am a filial son, a loyal subject, a faithful wife.”
When anyone first comes into the Unification Church and hears the Word of the Principle, he becomes so intoxicated with the Word that he does not even think of his own home. Moreover, his relations with the world fall away.
Even the husband he loves and the children he loves become a bother. Because the path he must go is pressing, everything but that Word becomes a bother. A person who has not felt this is a dead person.
The Lord who is to come hereafter comes to stand in the position of a victorious lord of dominion in hope, in God’s stead, a victorious lord of dominion in faith, and a victorious lord of dominion in love. This is why God says that, when such a one comes forth, He will give all people before him.
The meaning is that, once such a position is settled, He will give the three billion of humankind before him. He will bring all real authority and place it before him. The meaning is that everything cannot but pass through him. Through him, the order of Heaven too is set, and the nations of earth and the world too are set in order.
This special right God gave before the first ancestors of humankind, but because they lost it, we came to trace out the path of restoration.
So, to find this path, what process must one pass through?
One cannot but pass through the path of sorrow, the path of suffering, the path of death. Why? Because the world of today abides in the valley of sorrow, suffering, and death. To clear this away, one must overcome all of this.
The Process the Victorious Lord of Dominion Must Pass Through
This victorious authority of dominion is not found in a single stroke. One must clash against all things, clashing again and again. Pure gold, the more one puts it into the fire — thousands and tens of thousands of times — the cleaner it grows; it does not grow dirty. In the same way, to go forth to such a standard, one must, without fail, pass through a difficult historical course.
Otherwise, one cannot pass over. In breaking through, one must go bearing the individual cross, the family cross, the clan cross, the people cross, and the national cross.
This is why the One who must come as the lord of dominion over all things is, seen individually, the most pitiable person upon this earth, if anyone is pitiable. Until he is equipped with a standard of victory, he is a pitiable person. He is a pitiable person at the family standard too, and he passes through a pitiable standard until he passes through the clan, people, national, and worldwide stages.
Yet he is the responsible one who, though sorrowful and though suffering, must establish God’s victory, and the one who goes bearing the responsibility of establishing God’s victory even on the path of death.
The Lord who is to come must gladly receive not only individual sorrow and suffering, but also, though he shoulders national sorrow and suffering, though he shoulders worldwide sorrow and suffering, gladly receive it. Even if he is told to go the path of death for all people, he must gladly receive it.
The meaning is: go such a path and become the lord of dominion of victory upon this earth. In a world of sorrow, do not become a loser who cannot overcome sorrow, but, even if you hold a sorrow greater still, become a victorious lord of dominion who gives thanks.
Even if he suffers at the boundary line of death, he must be able to become a victorious lord of dominion centered on suffering and a victorious lord of dominion centered on death. Such things must be achieved in all eight directions.
Only then does one become a victorious lord of dominion centered on God’s desire and hope, a victorious lord of dominion centered on faith, and a victorious lord of dominion centered on love.
Therefore, you too must be so. In exerting strength, you must exert it more than anyone; in pouring out devotion, you must pour it out more than anyone; and in fighting, you must be able to fight more fiercely than anyone.
It is a path one cannot go without passing through such a process. In any case, this is a path one cannot help but take.
A Period of Trial Three Times or More
Today, God may even feel truly merciless. Only when a person can help arises does He teach the heavenly principle. Seeing this, we can know that God carries on the providence not by a single generation alone, but within three generations.
The meaning is that He does not require Adam and Eve alone, but seeks and establishes their son, fitting the number three, and so carries on the providence.
Whenever God is the subject, there must then, without fail, be an object that passes through the number three. This is why, even in teaching, He teaches important matters through the number three.
If one believes well what is taught through the number three, it becomes one’s own. The meaning is that, if one gathers it up well, it becomes one’s own.
Seen centered on heaven and earth and all things, where there are heaven and earth, there is, without fail, the human being. Just as there are heaven and earth and the human being, so it is with the Triune God. With myself alone, it does not work.
Only by setting up the number three does it work. When I must be found, there is, without fail, a need of my descendants, descendants whom I can link to upon the earth.
So only when one raises one’s sons and daughters well does He then teach. The meaning is that, having raised them, only when they have grown well does He then teach the heavenly principle. The history of restoration has been carried on.
The meaning is that, just as God raised me, when one pours out devotion and struggles for the sake of one's life, He then teaches.
This is why you must long for the family members to the point of being unable to sleep at night. Sorrow does not come only from outward tribulation. To be lonely too is sorrowful. To have come to know the Will yet have no one before whom to take pride in it is also sorrow.
Sorrow from outward suffering and tribulation is sorrow, of course; but when there is inner solitude, or no object to whom to convey the Will, sorrow too overturns. Yet because one is in the midst of such a thing, one must not betray God or neglect one’s own responsibility.
Only when, even though one suffers, one holds dear one’s children, holds dear the environment one is responsible for, and goes to the end with the heart of gathering it up oneself, can one pass over one ridge and make a new start.
When God settles something, He does it, without fail, by setting up Cain and Abel.
He teaches through Cain. Seen from such a position, sorrow too, suffering too, the path of death too — one must pioneer it oneself. To endure to the end and pioneer and pass over oneself is the path of restoration.
This is why Jesus, too, having died on the cross and been resurrected, established a victorious foundation and sent the Holy Spirit. From here, he made a decisive start and established Christianity, and so came to make a worldwide start.
God has continued such a history. In the process of such a history, God may even seem heartless. One does not even know clearly whether God exists or not.
Yet in the midst of that, holding a heart of belief and reliance, one must resolve upon and pass over the path of sorrow, the path of suffering, the path of death.
My friends, you must resolve upon death at least three times or more. You must pass over the place of death three times or more. You must realize that only by passing through such places and becoming the substance God desires can one go forth to the position of a victorious lord of dominion who can face God’s love.
This is why you must go holding the conviction that, even on the path of sorrow and suffering and death, you can be equipped with the victorious authority of dominion.
The Teacher, too, when he set out on this path, resolved upon death hundreds of times. There was such a period of trial. There is a period of training in which one commands oneself.
Thereby, one must pass over the ridge of national death, the ridge of national suffering, and the ridge of national sorrow, and undergo the worldwide tribulation of death, the worldwide tribulation of suffering, and the worldwide tribulation of sorrow. And further, when heaven and earth grieve and heaven and earth struggle at the crossroads of life and death, it is the path of restoration to resolve this and pioneer the single road of victory.
Even so, in the sorrowful place, one must hold God’s desire and love; in the place of suffering, too hold God’s desire and love; and in the place of death, too hold God’s desire and love; and go on, fitting the ability by which one can appear as that substance.
Only then can one at last become a lord of dominion of hope, or a lord of dominion of love, who completes God’s providence of restoration.
The Seven Stages to Reaching the Kingdom of Heaven
Then, how sorrowful a place are you standing in today?
This is the question. How sorrowful a place have you stood in? How painful a place have you stood in for Will’s sake?
How much have you resolved upon death?
This is the question. Unless you stand, for the Will’s sake, in a sorrowful place and a painful place and go forward resolved upon death, you cannot stand in the position of a victorious lord of dominion.
Looking at the countless prophets who have appeared in the history of Christianity up to now, they gazed toward the world of hope, holding a single faith and embracing faith and hope and longing for God’s love together with the ideal of the eternal Kingdom of Heaven, and traced out the path of suffering and sorrow and death.
In the old days, when they walked such a path, they became offerings through death; but today, even if one walks such a path, one does not die or become an offering. (Omitted.)
Only by passing beyond the path of suffering and sorrow and death and being equipped with the glory of resurrection can one enter the Kingdom of Heaven. This is why you must resolve, inwardly and outwardly, and set up a living record of achievement.
The members of the Unification Church must believe the Teacher’s word absolutely. The meaning is that, seeking hope, you must believe as in the old days.
In the old days, even when one did not know the Will, one went forth holding some hope and longing for love.
How much more, then, if you, even while walking the path you have found, cannot stand in such a place, must you believe the Teacher’s word to believe, believe in God’s love, and move according to the command? There is no other way but this. One cannot but pass through such a path.
Even if you have received God’s blessing in the individual position of victory and received the blessing in the family position, you must, passing beyond the family, advance to the clan, the people, the nation, the world, and the Cosmos. Seven stages remain. To go all the way before God, one must pass through seven stages.
The meaning is that there are seven ridges. To advance to that place, one must go forward believing in God absolutely. Whatever God commands, one must obey it absolutely.
God commands you to go, setting up only the conditions truly necessary at the crossroads of the evil world. Up to now, God has done so.
If you do not go, you collide with tribulation and trial you had not anticipated. Something happens. When such a thing happens, if you throw your breast wide open and pass over believing, you can go without a single wound. But if you cannot believe and go circling round and round, you do not reach the destination. Seeing this, the course of indemnity human beings must pass over is tiny and short.
Having thus paved the whole path, when one passes over one ridge, God takes that as a condition and, making one toil for ten days at the work of ten years, sets one upon the foundation of a ten-year public life.
It is a hard path, but on this path, if God toiled for ten years, He stakes all of that toil; if He fought a hundred Satanic forces, He stakes all of that fighting, indemnifies it all at once, and passes over.
The meaning is that, at that time, the person mobilized, by being mobilized alone, can set up a condition equal to the conditions by which Satan was tested. (Omitted.)
At the final crisis, God, without fail, strikes and drives. At such a time, even if you go into a narrow alley where there are hundreds of Satanic forces, you must be able to fight them and, without being defeated, smash them all and pass over.
This is why the path that heads toward the Kingdom of Heaven is a narrow path. The meaning is, however hard things may be before you, do not by any means surrender to them.
When Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, Peter, James, and John all dozed off. You, even if your strength drains and you grow utterly exhausted, must not become a band like them. My friends, the time has drawn near.
Let Us Pave Our Path
God gives a grace of a hundred, and when one cultivates it well and goes on, He gives a grace several thousand or several ten thousand times in proportion.
The meaning is that, if one fights and wins in the position of a grace of a hundred, God adds a grace several tens of millions of times over. Seen thus, the circumstances of Korea hereafter will grow ever more straitened.
The more straitened it grows, the more conflict will arise and the more painful the position one is placed in. But you, even in the midst of such things, must live the church life earnestly. The meaning is, in the midst of that, hold hope and be loyal. (Omitted.)
However much hardship comes, the person who endures to the end receives a blessing. For our long-standing family members, last year was a great crisis.
Though you may not know it well, what the Teacher is most worried about now is the matter of having to go abroad. The meaning is, one cannot help but go.
My friends, have you ever thought about why the Teacher cannot go abroad?
It would be a great calamity if I were to keep this difficult position of the Korean people at a distance and quietly bundle up my things and slip away alone. By whatever means, I must carry out the mission for the people and make an environment in which God can take an interest in this place, and then depart.
Now, if you move well, a new history unfolds. The Teacher understands it, so. As I gave the watchword of the four-year course, in what position will you become victorious lords of dominion?
The meaning is that the question is great. You may say that, for myself, there is no need to go to the place of suffering, the path of death; but that very thing you say is unnecessary is what is necessary for yourself.
You probably do not know the method by which the Teacher now guides you. You probably do not know well why the Teacher keeps having you do overturning work, but there is a purpose in it all.
If one cannot lead many people over, one must lead even one or two over. As the time grows pressing, the Teacher, gazing upon you, grows merciless and cold. The meaning is that he does not take an interest in each individual’s circumstances. God has done so up to now.
The Teacher has, up to now, paved the path for forty years, and only now, if he wishes to go sightseeing, does he go. And yet, just because the Teacher does so, are you all to be idle about like antiques?
To go sightseeing without even paving your path?
One must fulfill responsibility. To eat whatever one wishes to eat as one pleases? That will not do. Many run about, not even knowing whether the world is coming or going.
My friends, the Teacher, to go this path, did not even go to the front door of a theater. To go anywhere as one pleases, to buy and eat whatever one wishes, to do whatever one wishes?
Hereafter, for those who failed to walk the seven-year course, when the Teacher has fulfilled all responsibility and received God’s public recognition, a still harder problem arises. You must realize what your responsibility and duty are.
Now the Teacher must not be allowed to live as in the old days. The meaning is that it is not good. The Teacher must rest, and you must take the lead everywhere.
That I make you suffer is to set you in the position of a victorious lord of dominion.
Knowing this, the more rough and difficult all the coming paths grow, the stronger and bolder you must be.
My friends, you must take responsibility splendidly and pass over. You must say, “I will take responsibility for all that difficulty and sorrow.” My friends! Is there anyone who says, “I will shoulder the hard responsibility of the whole Unification Church; I will take responsibility for the destiny of the Unification Church”?
Now and after, there will be a command of God. The meaning is that there will be a great test.
If God does not give that command, the Teacher must.
If the Teacher does not, then the Mother must, or the Teacher’s son must. Vertical history is carried out through three generations.
Just as Joshua and Caleb attended to God and fought and won, there will be a time of testing centered on whether you can win. And yet, looking at the Blessed families and the grandmothers here, it is dismaying.
When I look closely, they are pleased if given something to eat, and pleased at the sight of money—are such people people of the Unification Church?
Complete Your Responsibility
You must become victorious lords of dominion on the path of sorrow and suffering and death.
If, rather than becoming a victorious lord of dominion in a place of glory, one can become a victorious lord of dominion in the opposite place and take pride in that authority, then the world of glory will come automatically.
Knowing that you must walk such a path, there must come to be many who fulfill such responsibility at the individual, family, and clan levels.
When you take responsibility for a region, you must become one who holds the conviction that the countless hardships and sufferings in the place you are responsible for are mine, that they cannot be resolved except by me, and so take responsibility for it.
And so, although I assigned the Blessed people to the provinces, raise your hands, those who went there and prayed. Do they even pray? Yet the Teacher prays three times a day, every day.
For the land where I am currently staying—if it is Korea, for Korea—I pray. Whether I eat or go hungry, waking or sleeping, whenever I open my eyes, I pray. Without praying, without thinking, do you suppose the Will will be accomplished?
So, knowing how important our responsibility is during the remaining two full years, I ask that, on this path the Teacher walks, you give all the strength you have.
In this period, do not hope for glory, but pass over with the thought that you yourself will break through the most sorrowful place, the place of suffering, the place of death — such a path of the cross.
Then the glory the Teacher takes will not be the Teacher’s glory. All the achievements established in heaven and earth are not the Teacher’s. They are all to be bequeathed to you.
If you go forth at such a standard, why would you go hungry?
If you cannot set up such a standard, you will have to suffer dreadfully. Hereafter, even if there is a place at headquarters that is suffering, it must not be helped. To help on the one hand and drive out on the other — the Teacher, when he walked the path of the Will, did not do so.
What help was there to help me?
It was all blows raining down. Yet you have people who can help you.
How thankful a thing is this fact! When you are in hardship or suffering, you have at least a Teacher to whom to make your appeal, but does the Teacher have such a person? Looking at the content of the letter the Japanese missionary brought the other time, it is so.
Looking at what the Japanese family members write in their letters, one after another — having heard that the missionary went before the Teacher and acted like a child, they say that our papa-san can do so, but the Teacher cannot, so it is pitiable. The fact is so. Is there a friend? I am always alone.
If the Teacher were to vent his disappointed heart before you, it would not be resolved, though I smashed every head to pieces.
Yesterday too, by way of the Hongneung holy ground to the Inwangsan holy ground, I went round the holy grounds in a full circuit. Today too, in order to prepare the gifts to take with me should the Teacher go to America, I set out at dawn and returned after sundown.
Do you know what the Teacher goes about doing so for?
Do you so much as dream what heart the Teacher goes about with? You do all manner of things, but the Teacher is pressed with work to do.
Endure, Sacrifice, and Go Forward
The nearer the time draws, you must realize, the nearer draws the time of decision as to whether you win or lose.
The question is this: whether you receive praise or rebuke before God — that is, in what position you will establish the authority of victorious decision.
If you cannot establish that path, you must become ones who move as one body, one heart, with the Teacher’s mind, the Teacher’s life, and all the Teacher’s words and deeds.
In the old days, when the Teacher was about to go somewhere, you made a fuss wanting to follow along, but now many are indifferent even when the Teacher goes somewhere.
Such people grow distant from the Teacher. The other day, grandmother Jeong Seok-on came and said that, worried lest longing too much to see the Teacher become a burden, she prayed to be made to have no longing to see him; and Heaven said to her, “Oh, do not say such a thing.”
The meaning is that, if there is no longing to see him, one cannot follow along. The meaning is that, whether one eats or goes hungry, the heart of longing to see him must come first.
You too must be so. The heart of longing to see, the heart of yearning, must come first. Centered on some hope, only a person in whom the heart of wishing to see, wishing to go, wishing to live toward the place where hope is moves more strongly than the path of death walks that path. My friends!
Whom will you follow?
Will you follow the old man? Will you follow your son and daughter-in-law? They are all nothing much. In any case, you must be indebted to the Teacher. You are indebted, but there is no way to repay it, so it is arranged that, even if I beat your body, you say thank you.
The Teacher too thinks with thanks before God. Though I undergo all manner of suffering, I do not ask God to recognize it.
Since the Teacher has been so before God, you too must be so toward the Teacher. It is to bequeath to you the path the Teacher has walked with a glad heart that I tell you to do so. It must be bequeathed from a glad place.
Knowing this, in the remaining course, you must fulfill the responsibility entrusted to you, centered on the question of in what position you will settle the standard of a victorious lord of dominion. Knowing how great that field is, you must pour out all the devotion you have.
The Teacher thinks, “Devotion is mine, loyalty too is mine, filial piety too is mine.” My friends, have you done so? “It is mine, mine.” One must have such boldness.
If you have taken responsibility for a region, you must have the gall to say, “I do the work of a filial son in this region.”
If you cannot do that, then at least in the family, representing your own family and rendering full filial piety, you must have something that can say, “This family is mine.”
This year, in what position will you establish the authority of a victorious lord of dominion?
To pass beyond the sorrowful place, the place of suffering, the path of death, and advance at the last to the place of God’s hope and heart, you cannot but endure and sacrifice and go of your own accord.
Knowing in what direction the place where you are now staying lies, I ask that you follow along, seeking out a higher victorious place, all the way to the place of the final reckoning centered on God.