Authors
1. On the eastern edge of Asia lies the small Korean peninsula. Its people have been oppressed and belittled. However, God is working through these oppressed people to establish a new global realm of providence to begin a new age.
What led to this nation standing at the frontline in the conflict between democracy and communism, even as humankind is embroiled in the calamities and distresses of the Last Days? The answer lies in the pivotal role that Korea plays in both the communist and democratic camps. (22-145, 1969.02.02)
The providential significance of the Korean peninsula
2. Korea is destined to bring together and harmonize all religions of humankind that have existed throughout history, by God's Will. It is the nation that bears the responsibility to build a united world and a United Kingdom of heaven.
When North and South Korea unify based on their shared cultural background, they will influence the world's religions and peoples to manifest a harmonious religious sphere.
Then they also will establish the harmonious spheres of people and nation, fulfilling the Will that God had when He chose Israel. The Korean peninsula is divided into North and South Korea. This is like the division between mind and body in the Fall.
The North espouses materialism, while the South is inclined toward idealism based on the mind. The two Koreas reflect this division internationally. We see this situation throughout the world as the fruit of the mind-body conflict that erupted with the fall of Adam and Eve. (168-312, 1987.10.01)
3. Korea is divided into North and South. Claims about being one people notwithstanding, its sovereignty has not been restored. As long as the nation is divided, its people should unite and struggle to restore their sovereignty.
But their task does not end with the recovery of sovereignty. Once it is achieved, the nation has to advance a global vision. Unless the Korean people go through the path of struggle to recover the world, willing even to sacrifice their hard-fought sovereignty, a unified world of peace will not come. (48-309, 1971.09.26)
4. Korea is divided at the thirty-eighth parallel into an Abel nation and a Cain nation. Unless North Korea, which is in the Cain position, voluntarily surrenders to South Korea, in the Abel position, the world of peace will not come.
Today's world as a whole is divided into democratic and communist camps, and the Korean peninsula is the frontline between these two blocs. Therefore, the unification of Korea will serve as a model for world unification.
(34-276, 1970.09.13)
5. If Korea is to be a nation that the world welcomes, the Koreans must become a people who willingly take the lead by shouldering the cross of the world. Koreans have to be willing to sacrifice their nation and its sovereignty for the sake of the world.
The kingdom of peace will be built on the victorious foundation of the cross. On that day, the nation that carried the world's cross will be granted a position of glory. (125-245, 1983.03.27)
6. As Unification Church members, we should be willing to sacrifice for Korea as if we were one of its clans. If we sacrifice for Korea, we will change this nation. It will not remain divided as it is at present.
It will become a unified nation, a nation with an ideal so high that even the people of North Korea will wholeheartedly welcome it. We must build such a nation, guiding North Koreans to practice virtue and show reverence for God.
If we succeed in this task, the peninsula naturally will come together as one nation. Once unified as a nation, it will not seek to exploit the world. Rather, it will be a true nation, one that sacrifices for the world. (39-272, 1971.01.05)
7. It is indisputable that restoration comes through indemnity. It is based on the law of cause and effect. Then which nation bears the responsibility to pay the miserable indemnity for the world in the Last Days?
It is none other than Korea. As a result of the Korean War, Korea was divided along the thirty-eighth parallel. Even though it took no sides in the global conflict between the left and the right, it became a sacrifice t and had to shed blood. Surely, its situation was miserable.
Nevertheless, today Korea ought to stand once again as the ' nation representing the tragic destiny of the world. From this perspective, we ought to reflect deeply upon the reason Korea is driven into the circumstances of this destiny.
(63-267, 1972.10.15)
8. Communism and democracy are confronting each other on the Korean peninsula. Both sides argue their case at Panmunjom, yet their actions are but a manifestation of a larger battle between Heaven's world and Satan's world.
Externally, both camps are fighting over Korea, but internally, God and Satan are engaged in the ultimate battle over the past, present, and future. Therefore, as Koreans, we have to set internal indemnity conditions whereby history can advance, carrying with it these two camps. (017-309, 1967.04.10)
9. Korea is divided into North and South along the thirty-eighth parallel. Based on the Divine Principle, we understand that a sacrificial offering must be divided.
When a high priest presents an offering before the altar the people, regardless of their position, bow their heads. Even the sovereign of a nation bows his head before the offering.
Therefore, the Unification Church henceforth must establish a foundation before which all people of Korea will bow their heads. Until it accomplishes this, the Unification Church will not have completed its mission. (015-249, 1965.10.17)
10. Soon after its liberation, Korea was divided into North and South. This happened because Christianity failed to unite with me. The division of Korea occurred because Christianity opposed me and the nation did not unite with me.
Since the representatives of the nation and the representatives of religion separated from me, I needed you to unite with me as I endeavored to establish the foundation to indemnify their failures. Now we have established that foundation. We have reached the level where South Koreans throughout the nation can align with me. (165-298, 1987.05.27)
11. Korea is the homeland of the world. To protect and liberate this homeland of humankind, God mobilized many countries in the Korean War. The veterans of the Korean War sacrificed themselves for the liberation and independence of their homeland. When viewed from the perspective of God's providence, the Korean War was a global call to the nations to mobilize their forces and shed blood to liberate their homeland.
The report that Jesus' face appeared in the sky during the Korean War supports this view. Yet more than an apparition of Jesus, the Korean War was sacred in the sense that it was fought to recover God's temple.
As a providential nation, Korea was meant to become the ideal homeland of the True Parents when they appeared. Therefore, God mobilized the nations representing the democratic and Christian world and had them fight to liberate this nation. (119-218, 1982.09.13)
The Pacific Rim civilization and the Korean peninsula
12. Human civilization first emerged along the Nile River in Egypt. It then shifted to Greece, a peninsular civilization on the Mediterranean Sea, and culminated in the civilization of Rome. Why did the development of civilization gravitate toward the West? It was unavoidable, and the reason goes back to the Fall.
Originally, a unified world civilization would have taken root in Asia. However, due to the Fall, civilization emerged without a root and moved in the opposite direction. This is in accord with the view of the Principle.
Accordingly, the Mediterranean cultural sphere emerged from the Nile River, expanded as the Roman Empire, and developed into modern Western civilization on the islands of Great Britain. Those islands are the cradle of modern civilization based on the Christian cultural sphere. However, civilization cannot settle there. It needs to complete a full circle and return to Asia, where it should form the sphere of a unified civilization.
This is God's plan for the fulfillment of the Will. It is natural, therefore, for civilization to move toward that destination. The last step in this development is when America, the global miracle of modern civilization, links with Asia on the rim of the Pacific Ocean. This will commence the era of the Pacific Rim civilization. (079-072, 1975.06.01)
13. In what environment should Western and Eastern civilizations meet? Where will the two connect?
It will not be in an island nation but on a peninsula. As a peninsular nation in Asia, Korea is in a most unusual position. In terms of its location, it neighbors Russia, China, and Japan, and it has strong ties with the United States. Scholars assert that history is moving toward the era of the Pacific Rim civilization. Those around the world in the fields of politics, economics, and history agree that this era is imminent. (196-162, 1990.01.01)
14. Civilizations emerge on peninsulas. Peninsulas provide the venue for an oceanic civilization and a continental ' Civilization to fuse and develop into a new civilization. This is how civilizations flourished on the Greek, Italian, and Iberian peninsulas.
Currently, Indochina and Korea are the world's two peninsulas that are raising global issues. In the flow of global fortune, Western and Eastern civilizations are merging and are bound to meet. (Where will they clash? Based on the l worldwide flow of fortune, they will dash into the sphere of Pacific Rim civilization, particularly at a central point '
Where an island, a peninsula, and a continent meet. The Korean peninsula is the central point defined by these geographical components. It is an undeniable fact of geography. (174-205, 1988.03.01)
15. The trials and tribulations of the Korean people do not just have to do with them as a people; they are also providential. Therefore, God is eager for these people to overcome them. It can be said that all the strands of world history meet on the Korean peninsula.
East and West, North and South, spirit and matter, idealism, and materialism – the entire inheritance of world history converge there in a confrontation fraught with confusion and chaos.
The maelstrom on this peninsula is like the contractions of a woman in labor; she is carrying a new age in her womb. My view is that the difficulties the Korean people and nation currently face cannot be resolved apart from God's Will and providence.
Furthermore, Korea cannot resolve them on its own but only by relating with the world. Hence, the Korean people should awaken to God's Will. They will overcome their hardships if they follow the one whom God has sent, the one with the mission to lead the spiritual spheres of the world. (135-239, 1985.12.11)
16. Global civilization most certainly will come to Asia. The era of the Pacific Rim civilization is approaching. Today, eminent scholars, not only in the field of social science but across the scientific disciplines, assert that a Pacific Rim civilization must appear that it is the trend of history.
Yet, I have been teaching about the coming era of the Pacific Rim civilization for more than forty years now. These scholars still do not know which nation will take the lead in creating that civilization. To my mind, it is Korea that will have to take the lead. (207-281, 1990.11.11)
17. Now the Pacific Rim civilization is rising. In a situation in which the United States, Japan, Korea, China, and Russia are drawn inexorably onto the battlefield, the countries that are unprepared for this civilization and culture will fall behind. I am the very man who has made preparations.
I am standing on the front line. That is why I brought together Japan, the United States, China, and Russia. It gives us hope to think that the American people will walk hand in hand with me, and we will do great things together, as a condition for the United States and for the world to build a realm of common destiny with the Pacific Rim civilization (202-264, 1990.05.24)
18. We are living in the time of the Pacific Rim cultural sphere. History moved from a river culture through the Mediterranean cultural sphere to arrive at the Atlantic cultural sphere.
We are now entering the Pacific Rim cultural sphere, and the time is coming when we can leap into the unlimited cultural sphere of outer space. How these will link together is a question for the world's strategists to explore, but they will not be able to find an answer.
When I have gathered prominent strategists at numerous international conferences, they have concluded that my teaching is the only hope for this age. (174-049, 1988.02.23)
19. Throughout history, peninsular nations have been the birthplace of new civilizations. This is true of Greece and Italy. On the global level, throughout the world, peninsular nations have shaped history by assimilating their surrounding cultures. Korea is now in an important position in Northeast Asia. It emerged under the U.S. sphere of influence.
The United States, based on the Christian cultural sphere, has become the leader of the world. Now is a time that recapitulates Jesus' era. In this time Korea must indemnify the early Christian church in Roman times.
Thus, the Republic of Korea became dependent on the United States, which stands in the position of the Roman Empire on the world level, based on Christianity, which has reached the stage at which it can support a unified world. (125-270, 1983.03.27)
Korean Reunification Through True Love
20. What is our vision as we look toward the twenty-first century? It is a vision of world peace and unity, a vision of one unified world. The world's people are seeking a new, unified, and peaceful world. The Korean people are seeking the unification of North and South Korea. What about each of you?
Suppose the world was peaceful and flourishing, but our nation remains divided and under threat of danger. In that case, our nation would have nothing to do with the world's peace.
Likewise, suppose North and South Korea were peaceful, but our minds and bodies remained in conflict. In that case, the unified Korea would not be our ideal nation.
That is why we have to attain peace on the national level before we talk about world peace; likewise, we have to attain peace on the individual level before we talk about it in our nation. (143-043, 1986.03.15)
21. The Unification Church needs to fight for the people even before the nation does. We have to fight for our people. However, look at the Korean people, divided between the South and the North. When a people are divided, each side upholds only a one-sided sovereignty.
The most important issue is how to generate one unified spirit that transcends the political division of North and South Korea. From now on, the Unification Church should strive to accomplish this task. (49-095, 1971.10.09)
22. Once we recover the nation that God is seeking, the restoration of the world will take place rapidly. After restoring one nation we can restore three more nations; this adds up to four nations, which will form a four-position foundation. It will be a wall of global defense facing all four directions, which Satan cannot penetrate.
Only then can a world of peace be built, a world with the fertile soil for heaven to finally flourish. Such is the original homeland that the Unification Church is striving to recover. We Unificationists are gathered to invest our passion and youth for this cause.
Although the evil forces that are attempting to block us are strong, we will shatter them, dismantle them, and uproot them completely. Let us resolve to do so, and eradicate them once and for all. (056-290, 1972.05.18)
23. Occasionally, a leader has to push his people to challenge their limitations so that they can achieve their best results and display the highest of values in daily life. We in the Unification Church need to create a standard of achievement that the nation and the world will publicly recognize.
Unless we attain this standard, we will not have accomplished anything, let alone God's Will. Accordingly, we must be ready to deal with any situation that befalls Korea, including whatever affects its national fortune and international relationships.
Let us resolve anew with absolute faith not to die before we save the nation and world. If we can create a movement of solidarity with such a conviction based on our own Ju-che (subject-partner) thought in the Unification Church, we can move North Korea and South Korea.
Then, even if Korea declines, a path to save the world will remain. This is why I have been emphasizing that we need to bring substantial results and supporting materials that can convince the Communist Party that the Unification teaching, which emphasizes love for the nation and love for its people, is superior to their way. They have to acknowledge this. (59-153, 1972.07.16)
24. The path of history is stained with blood. Your life as a pioneer on that path may have been sorrowful and miserable. However, if you walk that path not for your own sake but as Heaven's emissary, seeking to liberate people and build peace in the world, you will be remembered for eons.
Your achievements will shine brightly as the foundation upon which North-South unification will naturally take place. Then a new sound of freedom will ring out across Asia. From that point will spring a new energy that will bring liberation to the world. (59-153, 1972.07.16)
25. I suffered bitterly when I went to North Korea. Enemies pummeled me, tortured me mercilessly, and incarcerated me in Hungnam prison. I endured death-dealing hard labor at that chemical fertilizer factory. But I thought, “I shall not perish.
The time will come when the young people of the world will inherit my burning heart, and at my word, they will advance toward North Korea with explosive love that casts out fear.” I nurtured this determination in my heart during those times of tribulation. (22-157, 1969.02.02)
26. When I crossed the thirty-eighth parallel to go to North Korea, I offered a prayer to God: “Heavenly Father, the next time I cross this thirty-eighth parallel, South Korea will have to come with me.”
I offered that prayer with tears, and I have not forgotten the vow I made that day. After crossing the border, even though I longed in my heart for my hometown, I stopped at Pyongyang but was unable to go home.
Unless I fulfilled the mission I had vowed to accomplish, I could not return home, even if on the verge of death. That was my destiny. That is why, although my path began in prison, and although my walk on this miserable path led my people to brand me a public enemy, I have been able to establish this foundation today.
(30-030, 1970.03.14)
27. Where is our finish line? It is at the thirty-eighth parallel. We have to cross this finish line. It is the ultimate finish line that the Unification Church must fight to cross. To cross it, we have to outshine everyone.
We have to surpass the Communist Party and exceed the achievements of all religions. This was my heart when I prayed to God while crossing the thirty-eighth parallel. I came back to South Korea without having seen my parents, or my brothers and sisters.
When I was released from prison, I was consumed with the desire to shout, “Mother!” and run into her arms. I wanted to see my older brother, who had sacrificed himself for me, as well as my other brothers and sisters, who also had sacrificed themselves for me in various ways.
I am a human being, not a dumb animal, and these feelings surged in my heart. Nonetheless, I had to deny this surge of emotions. I could have visited them all since they were only two days' walk away.
Yet instead, I spent my time searching for the people I had met through my ministry. Then, turning my back on North Korea, I headed for the South.
(62-136, 1972.09.17)
28. When I crossed the thirty-eighth parallel, I resolved to unite North and South Korea with my hands. Together with your family, you need to make a similar resolution on behalf of your tribe. Ideally, your father and mother should be a blessed couple.
Now is the time to resolve that with three generations of your family, including your children, you will unite North and South Korea and all of Asia. Resolve that no matter how arduous the path to unity may be, you will accomplish it with your hands. You need to understand this well. (242-216, 1993.01.01)
29. Our task is to unify the homeland. It is our destiny and the great task to which we must devote our entire lives. I have dedicated myself to this great task, according to God's Will.
For the remainder of my life as well, I shall devote myself entirely and exclusively to accomplishing God's Will. I appeal to you, £ the seventy million people of North and.
South Korea wishes for unification, to stop the discord and fighting, and from this time forth to devote themselves to recovering their identity as one people through harmony and love. Now is the time to melt your guns and swords and turn them into hoes and plowshares, and hasten preparations to welcome the bright new era of the unified homeland. (224-255, 1991.12.07)
30. The world is currently divided into the communist and the democratic blocs. The democratic world, on the side of the mind, advocates idealism, while the communist world, on the side of the body, advocates materialism. In this way, the world is divided into two camps, whose conflict is causing great unrest. Where does this commotion begin?
It begins within each person. Each of us is the seed of this problem. This is why we should never think that a politician can unite the world. Where is the solution that leads to unification? It lies not with external institutions but within you.
The way to unity lies in establishing peace between your mind and body and having the mind take the lead. As an individual, you have to follow the mind's lead. It is the same for the family, the society, the nation, and the world. When that happens, unity comes naturally. (39-267, 1971.01.15)
31. The unification of North and South Korea cannot be discussed simply as a national issue. If you look at it from the broadest perspective, it is linked to the entire globe; viewed from the most fundamental perspective, it is linked to the problem of the individual.
Before we can unite the world the nation must be united, and before we can unite the nation the family must be united. No matter how much a couple desires happiness, unless they are united, neither they nor their family can be happy. No matter how much a family wishes to be happy unless each person is happy, that family's happiness will be nothing but a dream.
We have an old saying, “When all is well in the family, everything else goes well.” The most important thing is for couples to become one and establish families of peace. That is the starting point of all solutions. (143-260, 1986.03.20)
32. How do we achieve unity? It is by living for the sake of others. Wherever love dwells, that place is good and desirable. Hence, if we stand in a place of goodness and give continuously, we will make the North and South one.
But to discredit communist propaganda, the South must be able to give to the people of the North and improve their current living standards. If our living standards are below theirs, the people in the North will refuse our gifts. We have to improve our situation and then give.
The way for Korea to sustain its life is basic. If South Korea excels in all fields, in its economy, living standards, and education, and then continually gives to North Korea, the North Koreans will unite with the South without hesitation. (36-076, 1970.11.15)
33. God placed me in the position to walk a path that is bound to Heaven. God has led me to walk this path my entire life. He did not intend for me to destroy the Communist Party, but rather to save its members.
After concluding the Washington Monument rally, I called for a rally in Moscow. I did not make my proclamation holding a sword or a gun. I said, “You may drag me down and trample on me, but I will stand up again.” And that is what I did. In the same way, the reunification of North and South Korea cannot be accomplished with swords and guns.
It can be achieved only through a heart that beats for the sake of God. Peace has an original path. We cannot achieve peace if we deviate from that essential path. If we do so, heavenly fortune will not accompany us. (144-165, 1986.04.12)
34. On behalf of God, I went to visit Kim II Sung in North Korea. There I stirred up the mud at the bottom of the pond by announcing, “You must obey God!” I concluded with a crystal-clear message: “All of you must follow Godism, which is head-wing thought! There is no other way!” I fulfilled all my responsibility, placing my life in the hands of Heaven. Even now, Godcano exercises His power of creation. He works in mysterious ways. (225-058, 1992.01.02)
35. As I walked this path, both ideological blocs, the democratic and the communist, opposed me. I faced opposition at every level: individual, family, tribe, people, nation, and world. Nevertheless, I overcame all those obstacles, and now I have even won over Kim II Sung.
I knew that it was impossible to bring down Kim II Sung's fortress by human effort alone and that only Heaven's love could penetrate his stronghold.
With this victory, I could recognize that the path I have been taking is the true one. It reaffirms my conclusion that only true love brings total victory; no other way is possible. That is why the miracle of re-creation took place during my visit to North Korea. (224-266, 1991.12.15)
36. The ultimate reason that Korea is divided into North and South is because one man and one woman failed to become one in love centered on the love of God.
Consequently, couples are divided, parents and alone national processes, but by those prompted by global fortune. (162-227, 1987.04.12)
37. When each of you with your family brings total oneness to your tribe, the unification of North and South Korea will not be a problem. Party or factional politics will not work.
Our strength will j | be based on an organizational system. • » Who loves not only this nation but also,j, cares about Asia and loves heaven and earth? There is no one apart from us.
Where should we lead this nation of Korea? We should lead it to the garden of love, not to the garden of power and scheming. When we lead the North and the South to the garden of true love, the issues between them will be resolved. This cannot be achieved without approaching them as siblings born to the same parents. This is the only way to realize a world of peace. (168-224, 1987.09.20)
38. South Koreans cannot achieve the independence of their homeland on their own. The four great powers that are involved with the unification of North and South Korea need to cooperate to resolve this issue, based on the power of love.
This is possible only through the power of true love, which is eternal and unchanging. For hundreds of thousands of years, our ancestors yearned for true love. Billions of people today seek true love, and so will future generations.
Humanity's common denominator is true love, which surpasses the national level and reaches the world. True love will make us one for eternity. The world governed by God's love is called the kingdom of heaven on earth. That is the world we are striving to build together. (141-118, 1986.02.19)
39. There is not a single spot on the Korean peninsula where my spirit is not embedded. I have invested everything in it through the Unification Church members.
The results of this investment are coming to fruition. The time has come for our investments to be brought forward and recognized in this era of history. Our Juche thought is not the same as that of Kim II Sung.
It is neither communism nor democracy. It is a truth that teaches us to become a subject partner of love centered on God. (164-104, 1987.04.26)
40. Ours is a new Juche thought. It provides clear direction to individuals, societies, nations, and the world, preventing them from going to ruin. It safeguards those whose views are in accord with the providence but are not centered on God.
There is only one correct formula: the principle of living for the sake of others. Remember this truth. It is the principle that was present at the beginning, when God created the world, and will remain to the end. (77-339, 1975.04.30)
Sun Myung Moon