Father’s extraordinary vision for the world despite his circumstances in war-ravaged Korea attracted new members among pure hearted and the spiritually prepared people that were also seeking spiritual solutions to a world gone wrong.
With the armistice in the Korean War (July 1953), Father sent a pioneer missionary to Daegu (Korea’s third-largest city) and made preparations to move to Seoul.
Why did Daegu become such an enemy of the Unification Church?
Due to a minister who complained about me, I saw a lot of Daegu. I had not had the opportunity to familiarize myself with its alleyways until I was chased from one alley to another. I thought that the Daegu church people were saying to me, “Check out our alleyways!”
There was one month in Daegu when I had to move thirteen times. Even so, I did not inform the Daegu church members where I was going. The established churches were against me, and our members used to follow me around in large groups.
It would have been all right if I had been silent, but the family members wouldn’t let me. If I moved somewhere, they would cry, “Where has Master gone?” They prayed, shedding so many tears that even God thought it was a big problem. He would say, “Do you want to meet Rev. Moon that much?”
“Yes! We want to meet him!”
Then he would say, “Okay, let’s go!” and He would lead them to me.
They would come to my room and exclaim, “Rev. Moon is in here!” and they would open the door and just come into my room. That kind of thing happened time and again. Many times when they didn’t know, God led them to where I was staying.
They thought with their hearts and just followed their feet. Their feet just led them to where I was. Their heads were not guiding them. What led them? Their feet! In Daegu, many grandmothers had such experiences.
I first met President Eu during an earnest time. I had been chased and persecuted; I then came to Seoul in three stages—from Busan to Daegu, and then to Seoul. This was restoration. I went to the very end of Busan, to Yeongdo, which is the southernmost point, and started from there.
When I started from Yeongdo in Busan, I was standing on the highest summit; it was in the most serious time of my life, so it was a time when I loved my co-workers, my brothers, and sisters and the Korean people more than anyone else did. At that time, I concentrated my whole self on realizing God’s will.
Furthermore, to find one child, to realize a family, and restore the nation, God poured out His entire heart, soul, and love. At that time, I spoke while being moved by God’s love and heart. The words I spoke were not my own. It was as though God were using me as He would a microphone.
Those people who came to our meetings then were all able to experience the spiritual world within a week, or even less than a week. Many experienced the spirit world within a few hours of listening to my speeches.
It was as if the spirit world were sending spiritual waves to the physical world. It was as if God were sending waves of love.
President Eu was a simple-hearted person. His warrior spirit was strong, and he only knew how to go in one direction. He sat down with me and melted. All the people there were shown the kingdom of heaven. People like Hyo-min had been led there by the spiritual world.
The crucial Abel–Cain foundation
I gathered a few members in Busan and started witnessing there, and then came up to Seoul via Daegu and Gimcheon because I felt the need to establish a foundation in Seoul. Around that time, I visited Elder Na’s retreat and was chased away. From there, I came back up to Seoul and established the Unification Church.
From the position of the parent, it was not my role to take the lead in giving the blessing. I had to set up Cain and Abel, and then establish a foundation centering on having restored them. At that time, Na Un-mong and Pak Tae-sun were in the positions of Cain and Abel. They thought it was because they were special.
Do you know that? A new movement had begun. They should have cooperated and attended to me. That is from the Principle. Cain and Abel, North and South, have to be connected.
The North is the Eve-type, and the South is the Archangel-type. So Pak Dong-gi represented the South, and Kim Seong-do and Huh Ho-bin represented the North.
God had prepared these groups, but all the spiritual groups had their selfish ambitions…. They didn’t understand that their purpose originated in God. So all these groups that pursued their selfish interests inside the realm of metaphysical conception disappeared. God didn’t set up the groups for Elder Na and Elder Pak for their sakes.
About this point, speaking of his environment, Jesus said, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” It was my destiny to experience almost the same thing in my life.
I established our church in Seoul in 1954. With a few members, notably President Eu, we began by hanging the sign on a little house in Bukhak District. I was not trying to start another denomination.
The name was the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, but I had not intended to create that. I wanted to create a movement that was beyond sectarianism, transcending religious denomination, but that was not going to work. That is why I had no choice but to found the Unification Church.
From the point of view of God’s overall will, the fact that our church was established amidst trials and suffering is sad. However, if we look back at it from the perspective of historical tradition, the establishment of the church under such difficult circumstances is all the more impressive.
Not everyone welcomed the church’s existence. I declared it one day under lonely circumstances, a few people meeting and shedding tears.
We can pass by good things without knowing they are there; yet it is always our task to overcome difficulties to find something good. Therein lies the promise of a new day.
Sae Dae Mun Jip (The House of Three Doors)
I put up the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity sign. I didn’t put the sign-up on some magnificent building like the Tower Hotel—that would have been nice—but on the House of Three Doors in Seoul’s Bukhak District.
Because it has three doors, it has all that is required! [Laughter] When you go in, you can’t help but greet people with a bow (because the door is so low), and when you go out, you bow to say thank you. [Laughter] What does this mean?
Because humans are imperfect and God doesn’t want to see us ruined, He makes us bow our heads. We should bow our heads in the formation stage, in the growth stage and in the perfection stage.
That was probably the smallest house in Seoul. You couldn’t even think about lying down across the width of the room; you had to lie lengthwise, or your feet would touch the wall. Even then, you could barely stretch out.
There were two rooms about the same size. How high was the ceiling? If somebody like me stood up straight, the ceiling would be pushed up. The paper ceiling would tear! Only six or seven people, certainly not more than ten, could fit in the room.
If we held a meeting, people in the neighborhood would noisily scold us. The local people called us “those crazy people.” They looked at the sign and said, “Ha ha ha! The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity?” It was difficult to believe, wasn’t it?
Our church started from that small hut [in Busan] and developed into a worldwide movement. In line with the principle of restoration, the representative needs to appear who can pray on the world level from the smallest house.
That’s my ideology. The representative then needs to pray on the world level from a slightly larger house. The history of the Unification Church shows such upward development through all the stages.
Since I could reach up and touch the eaves of the house with my hand, the sign was at a height where even children could touch it. We hung up this incredible sign on this incredible house.
Who would take any notice of it?
Do you have any idea how contemptuously it was treated? The local children used to take it down and play on it. You have no idea how scratched it was.
People who opposed the church used to come and say, “What? They’re going to unify Christianity? What heretics!” They took the sign and smashed it. Things like that happened. Because it was a historic sign, we couldn’t throw it away, so we nailed it back together.
The sign was treated with contempt, and so the house was treated with contempt, and therefore the founder, “Moon so-and-so,” was also treated with contempt.
Sun Myung Moon