Sun Myung Moon Christian Crusade: Celebration of Life in St. Paul, Minnesota
I feel very humble and unworthy to stand before you here. When God called Moses, asking him to go to the Pharaoh of Egypt to bring the sons of Israel out of oppression into the land of Canaan, Moses instantly rejected the offer.
He said,
"Who am I, Lord, to go to the Pharaoh and bring the sons of Israel to Canaan?"
I have asked myself this same question many times.
Who am I, Lord, to come to America, to speak here tonight to the citizens of St. Paul and Minneapolis?
Who am I, Lord, to come to this Christian nation of America to speak about God and Christ?
It is truly a miracle that I, a professional military officer, am standing here tonight to speak to you about God and Christ. This is truly the last thing I would do of my own will. But what power in the world could change my destiny so dramatically?
It could only be the power of God. A miracle came. I heard the call of God. I saw the coming of the Lord. He touched my shoulder. And He said to me, “Proclaim the Kingdom.”
And, like Moses, I said, “No, Lord. I do not even have the language to speak.” At the age of 27, I did not speak one word of English. “Why me, Lord? No,” I said, “it's impossible!”
Then God said to me through the scriptures, in I Corinthians 1:27-29,
"God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, God chose what is low and despised in the world... so that no human being might boast in the presence of God."
That was in 1957.
Tonight, I dare to speak to you, this distinguished audience, in all humility, only because this message is not my own. I am merely a messenger.
The message comes from God. It is a message of divine revelation coming from God through Reverend Sun Myung Moon.
In the Bible, Jesus said,
"I have said this to you in figures; the hour is coming when I shall no longer speak to you in figures but tell you plainly of the Father."
Tonight, the message you will hear is not in symbols and parables and not in figures, but plainly of the Father.
Christianity has been here among us for 2,000 years. So the words of Jesus Christ could never be new to us. But all this time, we have never really known Jesus Christ.
We have never really known who he was, why he came, or why he had to die. We have not understood why he agonized so much.
Tonight, this age-old Bible will take on a whole new meaning for you. And you will be stunned by the truth!
No true life to celebrate
We gather here to celebrate life. But do you know that in reality, we do not even have that life to celebrate?
Yes, we do not have life to celebrate. In the very beginning of human history, death came to mankind. And ever since, death has reigned over humanity.
The Bible said in the beginning that God created the heavens and the earth, and God created man and woman. Their names were Adam and Eve.
And God gave them a commandment, saying,
"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it you shall die." (Gen. 2:17)
This was the first time in the Bible that death was mentioned by God. However, Adam and Eve disobeyed. But did they die? No. According to the Bible, they lived for another 900 years.
Then, do you think that God lied to them?
No, God cannot lie. Truly, in the sight of God, death came to Adam and Eve. Then what kind of death did they suffer?
To know the true meaning of death in the sight of God, let us explore the meaning of life in the sight of God. What is life?
There is only one life in this universe and one life source. God is life. And God is the source of life. We are to partake of that one source of life of God.
Life is something to be granted. Life is something to be partaken from one source—from God.
Let me give you a simple illustration. Here is an ordinary light bulb. I turn on the switch, and the light comes on. This light bulb shows life.
However, this life does not come from the bulb itself. It comes from the electricity flowing from the original source, the power plant. Here is another light bulb.
I turn on the switch, and nothing happens. No matter how many times I flick the switch, there is no sign of life. Why?
This wire is disconnected from the source of power. This bulb is dead. It has no life. By the same token, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they separated themselves from the source of life.
So indeed, in the sight of God, they died. This is why the Bible says
"...in Adam, all die." (I Cor. 15:22)
Ever since Adam, all humanity has lived in spiritual death upon the face of the earth. However, God created man as the temple of God.
In I Corinthians 3:16, St. Paul has this to say,
"Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in you?"
St. Paul is saying that we are built as the temple of God. The spirit of God is supposed to dwell in us. We are the house of life. This body is going to house the life of God! Our body is sacred. It is the dwelling place of God.
This is what man was supposed to be. Then we would be dwelling in the true source of life. Once this life of God dwells in us, then we are to live for eternity in perfection.
Life in perfection
Today, many people are puzzled by the idea of perfection because we think that perfection is impossible in human life. Everybody says, “No one is perfect—except God.”
Yes, that is a very true statement. No one is perfect—except God. But there is a way for you and me to become perfect. How? The principle is simple.
If we are dwelling in the source of perfection, if we become one with God, who is perfect, then we will become perfect, because we will then share the perfection of God.
This is why the Bible says,
"You therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matt. 5:48)
Man is something like an automobile. In the driver's seat, God is at the wheel. As long as the perfection of God is driving man, then man has no way to become involved in an accident.
As long as we dwell in the perfection of God, we have no way to become sinful. It would be impossible. Therefore, once we reach that perfection, we will stay there for eternity, because God's perfection is incorruptible.
Have we ever seen such perfection dwelling here on this earth?
Yes, Jesus Christ was such a man of perfection. He was the first example of the perfection of man.
We read in the Bible that one day Philip, one of Jesus' disciples, asked him:
"Lord, show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied."
Jesus said to him,
"Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father... Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me." (John 14:8-11)
Jesus was saying,
"I am in the Father, and the Father is in me. The Father and I are one. We live with one will, not two wills."
There is no boundary between God and Jesus Christ. They are inseparable. This is the state of perfection. And once we have attained this perfection, then we have deity. Jesus Christ has deity. He did not live only on the human level but also on the God-like level. He had a spiritual sense. He saw things we cannot see. He could see the heavenly world as well as we can see this world of flesh.
Then do you think God meant that only Jesus Christ could attain this state of perfection?
No, God originally intended for perfection to be reached by every man, starting from the first man, Adam, in the Garden of Eden, and the first woman, Eve.
Adam was supposed to be the first man of perfection. Eve was supposed to be the first woman that Mark Nilson aimed his Super Trouper spotlight at the stage.
The Celebration of Life's beautiful lighting is one of the main attractions of the show's perfection. They should have become the first temples of God.
And if they had become perfected, they would have become the visible living form of God, like Jesus. Adam was meant to be the first Christ.
Do you know why God created one male and one female?
God wanted them to marry after reaching perfection so that they could multiply God's children. Then they would have multiplied children of perfection from generation to generation.
So if that had been fulfilled, if the fall had not occurred in the Garden of Eden, then today three billion people on the earth would all be perfect temples of God without exception—Americans, Koreans, Indians, Eskimos.
Each one of them would be temples of God, with the spirit of God dwelling within them. Furthermore, we would all attain deity.
I mean, all of us were supposed to have spiritual senses to see the spiritual heaven while we are living here on earth. If we did that, death would have no power. Physical death is merely a transition from this world to the eternal world.
What would you call such a society?
There is only one description for this kind of world: the Kingdom of Heaven. And God created Adam and Eve on earth, right here on the same earth we live in.
Therefore, this Kingdom of Heaven was supposed to exist here on earth—here in St. Paul, here in the Twin Cities, here in America.
God's original plan
That was God's original plan to bring about the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. And if this Kingdom of Heaven had come, what kind of society would that be?
Here is a good example: The Kingdom of Heaven is like one human body.
Today, scientists tell us that we have well over 30 billion cells in our bodies. All those cells are working together in harmony, without contradiction.
Do you know why?
All cells—no matter how many—come under the control of one single brain. They do not have two masters, but only one. This left arm cannot harm the right arm.
If I pinch and hurt my right arm, my right arm does not say, “Ouch.” But my brain says, “Ouch!” Therefore, the left arm actually feels the same pain itself. One day, there was a very strange dialogue between two hands and two feet.
The two hands said to the feet, “You two guys down there lead a pitiful life. All day long you have to stay in dark, gloomy, polluted, smelly shoes. And you poor guys never have a chance to see this wonderful world. What a miserable life!
Look how free and clean we are. Besides, we enjoy the whole world.” Then the two feet looked up at the two hands and said, “Well, you are absolutely right. You know, at night we can be so dirty, so smelly, that we cannot even stand ourselves.
But you know, somebody comes down every night and washes us clean. That's you two guys up there who do that chore.” The beauty of the human body is the way it functions. The arms are not working for the arms themselves.
The legs are not working for themselves. All the parts of the body are working together for the well-being of the entire body. The Kingdom of God is the same way, with God and Christ as the head of the body.
Humanity, then, is like the cells of the body, all working together for the goals and well-being of mankind.
Therefore, the Bible says,
"If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it." (I Cor. 12:26-27)
We are to be the members of God. We cannot be separated from God. Our pain is God's pain. God's pain is our pain. Biafra's hunger is God's hunger. And God's hunger is America's hunger. The war between the Israelis and the Arabs is like a fight between two of your fingers. It is impossible in God's kingdom.
However, in reality, we have a world of death. God's intended Kingdom was not realized. Adam brought sin into the world.
Jesus said,
"Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. " (John 8:34)
And St. Paul, in Romans 6:23, says,
"The wages of sin are death."
Therefore, instead of dwelling in perfection, we are dwelling in corruption, and instead of possessing deity and God-like qualities, we have a fallen nature centered upon selfishness.
If you let a house remain vacant, then looters will come in and occupy it. And when this house was emptied of God, then Satan can come in and become the master of the house.
This is why the Bible says “the ruler of this world” is Satan.
You don't have to go too far to see the reality of the Kingdom of Hell. The other day I went to a hospital to visit a boy there. He had taken a knife and had cut his legs terribly. But he did not feel the pain. Why?
His body was paralyzed from the waist down. So even though he wounded himself severely, he could not feel any pain. By the same token, because all humanity has been separated from God, the source of life, the nerve center, we are hurting each other, fighting each other, and killing each other. But we do not feel the pain.
This is the description of the Kingdom of Hell. That is the world in which we live.
God's goal: salvation
Then what is God going to do?
God is love. Ever since the fall of man, if God were to give up on this world, then we would have no hope. But God decided to make His goal the salvation of this world.
Then what is salvation?
What does a doctor do for his patient to save his life? He brings a cure to the patient to bring his health back to normal.
What would you do if you saw someone drowning? You would pull that person out of the water and bring him back to dry land. You would rescue him, save his life.
So, in other words, salvation means restoration—to restore the original, wholesome state from an abnormal, unhealthy, or deviated state. Salvation means returning to the normal state. Therefore, salvation is equal to restoration. God's salvation has been the work of restoring this world from the Kingdom of Hell into the original state, the Kingdom of Heaven.
For that reason, we read in Isaiah 46:11 that God says,
"I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it."
God has spoken of the ideal world, so He will bring it to pass. God has purposed the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, so He will do it. God did not say, “I might do it.” He said, “I will do it!”
This is the basis of our hope. Indeed, God has been doing it. How? By sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to this world as a Savior, as the Messiah.
Therefore, the purpose of the coming of Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago was to restore this fallen world, the world of death, to bring it back to the world of life—the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
This is why we read in the first Gospel that the first words Jesus spoke were,
"Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." (Matt. 4:17)
With the coming of Jesus Christ, this Kingdom of Heaven on earth was knocking at our door; the day of fulfillment was at hand. We are now living in the year 1974.
The perfection of Jesus Christ dwelt among us nearly 2,000 years ago. Let us ask ourselves this question: Do we have that Kingdom of Heaven on earth today, here in St. Paul, here in the Twin Cities, here in America, in Korea? No!
This world of ours is still desperately ill, ever more disconnected from God, paralyzed. We are still living in the Kingdom of Hell. We still need a Savior. We still cry out for salvation.
We are still sinners. We still give birth to sinful children. This world of ours is anything but the Kingdom of Heaven. Our world is very far from the Kingdom of Heaven.
We still must pray, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth,” because the Kingdom is not yet here. Why? Jesus Christ was sent by God nearly 2,000 years ago to bring the Kingdom of God on earth. Yet, 2,000 years later, we still do not have that Kingdom here on earth. Why?
Three witnesses
Tonight, I will answer that question. But I know that you would not believe my word alone. Therefore, I will invite the three most powerful witnesses in Christian history and let them tell their story.
First, I would like to introduce you to the testimony of Stephen. The setting was in Jerusalem. He was surrounded by an angry crowd of priests, elders, and scribes.
And Stephen was speaking to them without fear. I want you to listen to what he said to those people.
This appears in Acts 7:51-53.
"You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered."
He was saying, “You have betrayed and murdered the Righteous One.” The truth is painful. Those people could not stand the truth from Stephen. They stuffed up their ears, picked up stones, and stoned him. Stephen was martyred right there.
However, just before he died, he looked up into heaven, and he saw the heavens open and saw Jesus standing—standing—on the right-hand side of God.
Everywhere else in the Bible and in the Apostles' Creed, Jesus is always sitting on the right-hand side of God. But when Stephen suffered, Jesus Christ in heaven could not sit still. He stood up, ready to support and receive the soul of the martyred Stephen. This was an act of approval of Stephen's courageous protest.
Stephen was saying,
"You stiff-necked people. You, the chosen people of Israel, have betrayed and murdered the Son of God!"
Now, let us call the second witness, Peter, the chief disciple of Jesus Christ.
In Acts 3:13-15, Peter says,
"The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant, Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the Author of life."
This is Peter, Jesus' chief disciple, condemning his people for killing the Author of life, Jesus Christ.
Soloist Ivan Janer sings “How Great Thou Art” during the Celebration of Life program. This great city of St. Paul is named after one of the greatest men in human history, the Apostle Paul. Now let him bear his testimony.
Today, many do not know that Paul had never accepted Jesus Christ as the Son of God while Jesus still lived on earth. In fact, Paul was the enemy of Jesus, ruthlessly persecuting Jesus' disciples.
While traveling to Damascus, on the way to kill more of Jesus' followers, the spirit of God struck him. His eyes were opened, and he saw the truth. Then he realized what a terrible crime had been committed against Jesus Christ. His heart was broken, but it was too late!
In repentance, he said, as we read in I Corinthians 2:8,
"None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory."
In other words, Paul was saying,
"If only they had known who Jesus Christ was, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory."
He was saying that the crucifixion was a terrible mistake, which resulted from the ignorance and blindness of the people. That is why the Kingdom of God is not here yet.
Because of that tragic error, Jesus Christ could not fulfill the Kingdom of God on earth.
That's why Jesus Christ promised in the latter part of his ministry,
"I am coming again. I must come back."
Christ's mission was left Undone
Why is Christ coming a second time? It is only because a part of Christ's mission was left undone. He is coming again to resume and fulfill his mission of bringing down the Kingdom of God to this earth, to fulfill the will of God here on earth, to restore this world into perfection.
That is why he is coming back! God said, “I will do it.”
Therefore, His Son is definitely coming back. And Jesus will do it. He will make the Kingdom of God a reality here on earth.
When Jesus Christ was brought before Pilate, the Roman governor, Pilate wanted to release him. He could find no fault in Jesus. But the people surrounding Pilate's court—Jesus' own people—shouted out, saying, “No! Let him be crucified! Let him be crucified!”
Jesus died not of his own will but because of the will of disbelievers. Jesus did not come to die but was killed by the will of others! The traditional Christian churches have believed that Jesus Christ came solely to die on the cross and that because of his shed blood, our salvation is complete.
Let me ask you, if that is the case, why did God so meticulously prepare the chosen people of Israel for the coming of the Messiah for 4,000 years?
Why did God need a chosen people in the first place?
If being rejected and being killed on the cross was the sole mission of Jesus Christ, don't you think it would have been a lot easier and faster for God to realize His purpose by sending His Son among nonbelievers or barbarians?
No, that was not God's will! God's will was the acceptance of the Son of God by His own people. God asked King Solomon to build a temple. It was a gorgeous temple.
Do you think that God asked Solomon to build that temple because God did not have a house to dwell in? No.
We read in Acts 7:48,
"The Most High does not dwell in houses made with hands."
God does not dwell in houses made with our hands. God dwells only in the temple that He Himself has made. This body is the temple. Jesus Christ was God's temple. You are the temple of God in which He is to dwell – a living God-made temple.
This is the house of God. Then why did God ask Solomon to build the temple? God wanted to make sure that when the True Temple, Jesus Christ, would come, the chosen people of Israel would not blunder and reject him.
God was staging a kind of “dress rehearsal” for the coming of Christ, with a “mock-up” temple of God. Tonight, before this show, all our members went through a dress rehearsal because we wanted to make no mistakes in the actual performance.
God did not want the chosen people to make any mistakes when His Son came to His own people. Before General Dwight D. Eisenhower launched his famous Normandy landing operation, he put his troops through many meticulous dress rehearsals. Why? He could not afford to make a blunder at the Normandy landing.
The coming of the Son of God upon this earth, where Satan is the ruler, is like God's Normandy landing operation. God could not afford a blunder, so He trained the people through Solomon's temple, preparing the chosen Israel to be absolutely ready for the True Temple of God, Jesus Christ.
Yet, that very blunder happened. Stephen was right! The chosen people of Israel resisted the Holy Spirit and betrayed the Law of God delivered by the angels. Furthermore, Jesus Christ worked very hard to be accepted.
One day, Jesus' disciples asked him,
"What must we do to be doing the works of God?" (John 6:28).
Jesus did not then answer,
"Put me on the cross. Let me shed my blood. That will give you salvation."
Instead,
"Jesus answered them, 'This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent." (John 6:29).
Jesus was saying,
"That one is me. Accept me. Believe in me, unite with me. That is your job. That is all you have to do. Then the Kingdom will be yours. Your sins will be forgiven."
Jesus Christ did not have to die for our sins. Why?
He himself said in the Bible,
"The Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins." (Matt. 9:6)
Furthermore, Jesus said,
"Those who receive me have eternal life and do not come into judgment, but have passed from death to life."
This is the formula to receive him as the Son of God. Then we have already passed from death to life. This is the power that Jesus brought to this earth. He can forgive sin, cleanse sins, totally liquidate sin, and make us whole, make us new creatures. All we have to do, as all the chosen people of Israel had to do, is to merely accept the Lord.
If they had done that, then the Kingdom of Heaven would have been a reality at that time. Jesus Christ is like Heavenly Ajax. Ajax [Cleanser] can remove stubborn stains. Our sin is like a stubborn stain.
But no matter how stubborn the stain of our sin is, Jesus Christ doesn't care. As long as men and women accept him and recognize him, then he has the power to forgive and cleanse sin, like Heavenly Ajax.
During his ministry, Jesus healed many people. But when he did, he did not say, “You will recover your health. You will have your sight. Your leprosy will be gone.” He did not say that. Instead, he said, “Your sin is forgiven.”
If each one of the people of Israel had accepted Jesus Christ as the Son of God, what would have happened? Their sins would have been completely forgiven.
Then Jesus would have indeed become the King of Israel, as predicted in Isaiah 9:6-7.
He would have come,
"Upon the throne of David, and over his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore."
If that had been fulfilled, then tonight we would not need the Celebration of Life, because we would have been living in an abundance of life for 2,000 years already. We wouldn't need to come here.
No further celebration of life would be necessary. We would have nothing more to offer! Ladies and gentlemen, we know that in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed a very painful prayer.
"My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me."
And going a little further, he fell on his face and prayed,
"My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will but as thou wilt." (Matt. 26:38-39)
He prayed this way not only once, but twice, even three times. The conventional Christian churches have often interpreted this passage in this way: E
Even though Jesus Christ came solely to die on the cross, to shed his blood for mankind, when the time came for his death, he suffered from the weakness of his human flesh. So he prayed this way out of his human weakness.
In other words, Jesus was tempted to run away from his destined responsibility.
But can this be true of our Lord Jesus Christ?
In Rome, in the early church, thousands of Christians under the reign of Emperor Nero became the prey of lions in the famous Colosseum.
Yet those early Christians did not pray,
"Let this cup pass from me."
The martyr Stephen, when he was being stoned to death, did not plead to God,
"Let this cup pass from me."
He said,
"Lord Jesus, accept my soul, and forgive their sins."
And even in American history, there is a moving story about a young officer named Nathan Hale during the Revolutionary War.
When he was captured by the British army and about to be hanged, he was asked if he had any final words. Young Nathan, this handsome officer, who was gloriously victorious in his faith, said to them,
"I have only one regret, that I have but one life to give for my country." He did not say "Let this cup pass from me."
In Matthew 10:28, Jesus taught his disciples,
"Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell."
And all the disciples and followers of Jesus followed this commandment to the letter.
Do you think that Jesus Christ our Lord alone could become the violator of his law?
No! This is the worst insult to the Lord. We have never understood the broken heart of Jesus. He was not afraid to die. He could have died 1,000 times if the cross was the only way to consummate his mission.
But he knew that his crucifixion would not bring total salvation to mankind. He knew that by his death on the cross, he could bring only partial salvation.
That is, he could bring only spiritual salvation in the Resurrection, after giving up his body.
Jesus knew that for the sake of the physical salvation of mankind, his body could not be forsaken. As the Author of life, by his spirit, Jesus saves our spirit.
And by his body, he was to save our bodies. So when his body was finally forsaken, the “redemption of the body” for all mankind was also forsaken.
Physical salvation is also Necessary
Jesus Christ knew that physical salvation—called in the Bible the “redemption of the body”—would remain unfulfilled until the Second Coming, until he could come back again.
He knew that when his body was forsaken, the physical salvation of man, the redemption of the body, would also be forsaken, and that the Kingdom of Heaven on earth could not be realized.
Today, we in the Christian world have salvation in Jesus Christ. You have salvation, and I have salvation. Yet, our salvation is only partial.
We have spiritual salvation only. Physical salvation, the redemption of our bodies, is yet to come.
Our physical bodies and our physical world are still under the bondage of sin, no matter how good we may be as Christians! Let me once again read from the words of St. Paul.
Indeed, he was the best kind of Christian who ever lived. Yet even St. Paul, after accepting Jesus Christ, said in Romans 7:24-25,
"Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I of myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin."
Today, we have a contradiction within ourselves. A great battle is being fought inside us between spirit and body, between mind and flesh.
This war is going on within us constantly, every day, every second. I of myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Our spirit and mind are going towards God. We have spiritual salvation. But our flesh, our bodies, are going after sin.
And this situation will remain until the redemption of our bodies is completed, when Christ comes again to wipe out sin, establish perfection, and the Kingdom of God on earth.
This is why Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane so sorrowfully, in such anguish. He knew the way of crucifixion could not bring total salvation.
He knew that by giving up his body on the cross, he was giving up the chance for man's physical salvation. He knew he would have to come back to establish the physical kingdom on earth.
So he was making his final plea to God, saying, “Father, even at this late hour, is there any way I can remain here on earth and fulfill my total mission?”
That is the meaning of his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. He did not pray out of human weakness but solely for the sake of his mission.
He pleaded to complete it. He knew his death on the cross would bring untold human tragedy. He knew that many Christians would have to suffer and shed their blood as he did, that they would all have to carry their cross.
Jesus could endure any amount of suffering of his own. But he could not bear to have humanity suffer. He came to relieve the suffering of man. Barbara Snell [Masuyama] shows Mark Whitman that the power of love for a flower is stronger than hate—Celebration of Life.
Furthermore, Jesus was sorrowful for the heart of the Father. He knew what the expectation of his Heavenly Father had been.
God expected His Son to be accepted and to establish the Kingdom. God then expected His Son to have a glorious homecoming.
When Jesus had to return to God in this lonely way, without the Kingdom, forsaken by his people, he knew and felt the broken heart of God.
All these things made him cry out in the Garden of Gethsemane,
"My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me." (Matt. 26:29)
On the cross, Jesus shouted out,
"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matt. 27:46)
If the crucifixion was the sole purpose of God and the only way for salvation, Jesus would have said, “God, I am honored! Rejoice, Father, I am victorious!”
Jesus knew that he had to come back to consummate his mission, to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. And now the time has come! His Second Coming is near.
This message has been revealed through Reverend Sun Myung Moon just in time so that we would not repeat the same mistakes of 2,000 years ago. We must truly understand our Lord Jesus Christ. And when he comes, we must accept the Messiah. This world of ours is deeply troubled.
All human efforts, all solutions we have tried, have failed. The answer is not in human hands. The answer lies only in God. Christ is coming again.
What this world needs is God's divine intervention. And this intervention is to come in the form of the Second Coming of Christ. Christ is coming once again. You and I are living in that extraordinary era of fulfillment.
So what is the most important thing for us so that we will be ready for the Lord? We need a true understanding of the Lord Jesus, a true understanding that he did not come to die 2,000 years ago. We killed him!
We must repent for this sin, this rebellion. Otherwise, we will rebel against him and kill him once again when he returns. The coming Christ is the only hope for the world in its despair.
The Day of Hope is coming. He will transform this world into a utopia, God's Kingdom, the world of love. But we must do our share. Our responsibility is to accept him. This is one voice crying in the wilderness to be ready for the Lord.
This is the cry of John the Baptist in our time.
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me." (Rev. 3:20)
He is coming up to the door. Jesus did not say he would open the door. It is we who must open the door once we have heard his voice.
The Lord has told us clearly that this is man's responsibility. We must hear his voice. We must recognize him, welcome him, and accept him!