Former Headquarters Church
Matthew 10:32–42
Prayer
Father! We have come to know the sorrow You have endured for six thousand years in seeking the original sons and daughters who were lost. We have come to know, too, that You are a Father who has never once been able to call this humankind sons and daughters whom You could bless on any single day, nor to take hold of them and share Your circumstances with them.
Father, who loves this pitiful people among the multitude of peoples, and who especially loves this land and this nation! Pitiful and insignificant though these people may be, we know that hidden among them are those who long to live according to the truth.
These are people who, ragged and starving, dwelling in thatched huts and humble shelters, have harbored a sorrowful heart, longed for the Father, and awaited a new nation and a new promise. Because this is a people who appeal before You as though stripped bare, we know that the bond of heart by which You cannot forsake them runs deep; and because this is a people who appeal toward You from a place of suffering and starvation, we know that You—who hold more precious those who appeal from a pitiful place even when they appeal with the same heart—hold this people more precious than any other people.
It is with such a heart that we have prostrated ourselves before You. We possess nothing whatsoever. We have nothing to boast of, and we have prepared no offering to present to You. Though our hearts ache to give, we have nothing to give; and though our hearts ache to safeguard Your dignity and Your circumstances, please accept us, who are in a position where we cannot.
Yet our hearts long to be for You, to attend You, more than anyone, more than any people, more than any believer; and we long to wage every battle together with You, under Your care.
This was the people You called from among a multitude of peoples, and these are the sons and daughters You called from among a multitude of believers; so we dare to ask that You look upon their hearts with favor and seek them out.
We have come to know Your command that bids us “Come,” and we have come to know Your intention in driving us out again and again to pioneer this path. We have come to know that You are the One who counseled us when we despaired, and who comforted us in a place of sorrow, saying, “I am here.”
We know that it was so in the past, that it is so in this hour, and that it will be so tomorrow as well. We have come to know that we cannot form a bond with You in a place of comfort, and that we cannot meet You upon a smooth road. And we know that this is because You Yourself have not yet been in a place of comfort, and because You Yourself have not yet walked a smooth road.
We have learned, realized, and experienced that only one who seeks to bear the Father’s sorrow as his own and to walk the Father’s path of suffering in His stead can be met by You in person and, upon a natural foothold of heart, can have You pour out Your circumstances freely. And we have come to know that this is the most precious thing of all.
Father! Please remember this hour with particular care. Bless the multitude of human beings, and among them bless the many religious bodies that call upon Your name.
Above all, bless those who are being driven on as they hold fast to Your heart, and bless those who, heedless of blood, sweat, and tears, have forsaken everything and set out to be offered up to Heaven as a living sacrifice. We believe that You will be with them, and that You will fight alongside them.
Those who follow Your steps along the lonely road are themselves lonely. Knowing that, because You are so, You give no thought to night or day in gathering those who are in such a place, we earnestly ask that in this hour also You stretch out Your hand of protection over Your sons and daughters who, sharing the same circumstances, the same heart, and the same hope, have joined for one will; and that, by that same grace, You move them to a foundation of consolation (安慰).
Now we entrust this single hour into the Father’s hands. Look down upon the gathered throng here. While You Yourself are enthroned (坐定) among us, please make us sons and daughters who, embracing the original heart that wells up and surges forth in a stirring we cannot ourselves command, and preparing a heart of repentance, can rely upon and uphold You alone. And if there be any who cannot, then lay upon them the hand of the power of re-creation.
We know that those who come forth with a repentant heart, You will never forsake. Make each one of us able to recognize his insufficiency, to repent of his insufficiency, and with an earnest heart to say, “Father, look down upon me.” And so, we earnestly ask and desire that this be an hour in which, immersed within the realm of grace that Heaven has granted, we may once more experience in our minds and bodies the lofty and precious bond with You.
Make this an hour in which the work of resurrection and the work of re-creation may be accomplished, by which we may cut through the iron net of death and enter the garden of life.
And so, removing the evil disposition and the bitter root of evil that are lodged in our bodies, we earnestly ask and desire that in this hour a good mind, able to be in harmony (和) with You, may sprout forth. May the Holy Trinity be present with us in person.
From the first hour to the last, we entrust everything to You; govern it Yourself alone, and manifest here Your authority alone. Remove all that is unrighteous. We earnestly ask that we may each become one who, having prepared a substantial foundation (基臺) of goodness (善), can leave behind in this hour a living work and a living testimony; and all these words I have offered up in the name of the Lord. Amen.
Prayer
Heaven (天), Earth (地), and humankind (人)—when these three become one body (一體) centered upon God, they become the central body of truth that, however one may try, can never be changed. We have therefore come to know that this truth must be unique, unchanging, and eternal.
Heaven, Earth, and humankind are bound in a relationship that, try as one might, cannot be severed: when Heaven moves, Earth too moves; and when Heaven and Earth move, humankind too must move. Yet that original ideal of creation is nowhere to be found—Earth moves in its own way, humankind is scattered in its own way, and Heaven, still unable to take hold of its center, is fighting countless evils in my stead. This we have realized through the course of history, through present reality, and further still through the future.
We know that, before us, countless laborers of Heaven came and went to build up the foothold of goodness (善), and that on the path we are to walk hereafter, many offerings will likewise be needed from those who must walk the path of sacrifice on behalf of Heaven.
We know that the Father must raise human beings and go to the world of His great purpose, and that human beings must believe in the Father and go to that world of His purpose, so that the Father, the sons and daughters, and the earth become joined as one.
Therefore, before we yearn for the foundation of hope, grant that we first become those who know to be concerned that our bodies and minds are not yet joined with Heaven and Earth.
Our bodies were born receiving the elements of the earth, and our minds were born receiving the elements of Heaven; thus, we know that the earth is the parent that gave our bodies existence, and Heaven is the parent that gave our minds existence.
When we consider that we were born of Heaven and Earth as our parents—that is, born of Heaven as father and Earth as mother, receiving the flesh and blood of our physical parents—we must not forget that we possess three great (三大) parents. Yet, Father!
We have not become the Father’s earth, nor have we become the Father’s sons and daughters, nor have we become a heaven that the Father can govern completely; where, then, could there be sorrow greater than this?
We have learned and come to know that the Father grieves not because He has been unable to meet a single substantial son and daughter, but because He has no sons and daughters possessing oneness of heart, who would truly comprehend His will and inherit the heart with which He has labored to fulfill that will. That this most sorrowful of truths can be known only by being taught is itself an exceedingly sorrowful thing.
Our original Father was our eternal Father. There, therefore, the human being was a beautiful figure who could feel the Father before learning of Him and who, before feeling Him, could agree with the Father and stand in the Father’s place. Still, through the fall of the first human ancestors, he came to be one who must seek the Father through a relative relationship.
The Father, too, to form a relationship with human beings from a subjective position, has formed bonds proceeding from the individual through the tribe and the people, to the nation and the world, and further still to Heaven and Earth.
This history of the Father’s toil was thrown into ruin by the misdeeds of the first human ancestors, so we must become those who, exposing that state of sin, know how to repent on behalf of all humankind.
From the ancestors who sowed the blood of evil upon this earth, countless human beings to this day still submit to evil and betray Heaven; many must come forth in this heaven and earth who, taking up the whole state of that sin and the whole of the evil elements by which our descendants cannot agree with Heaven, can appeal in heart before Heaven.
We know that this earth is filled with sorrow. Because this earth, unable to discern good from evil, has not become a free heaven and earth where God can move Himself freely, God cannot but look upon this earth with sorrow even now; and we know that He must continue the arduous struggle of history and pioneer the foothold of righteousness upon which human beings are to walk. And we know, too, that You, who cannot carry out this mission directly Yourself, are longing for and seeking sons and daughters who can do it in Your stead. Therefore, grant that we who are gathered in this hour not become those who have come forth to receive some blessing, some Blessing, or some grace from You.
Now that we have learned, come to know, realized, vowed, and resolved, grant that we become those who, inheriting the Father’s whole will, mission, and heart, can advance toward the place of hope that the Father desires, and grant that we become sons and daughters who can fight against Satan, who has opposed us throughout these six thousand years; this, Father, we earnestly ask and desire.
Now we offer our insufficient minds before the Father; please receive them. Father, what is it that You await? What is it that you truly seek? You have ever counseled us to offer a living sacrifice with all our body and mind.
We have come to know that You unfolded throughout history the forms of cruel offerings not to seek the form of a bleeding offering, but to seek sons and daughters who, without blemish or spot, can welcome the Father and be embraced in the Father’s heart.
Now, grant that our bodies pass through the offering, our minds pass through the offering, and our hearts pass through the offering, so that, not as the dead but as the living, we may become sons and daughters who can be loved and blessed within the Father’s hand.
We know that this is no easy thing, but an exceedingly difficult one. We know that this was the very purpose for which You struggled through the six-thousand-year course of history; so we earnestly ask that You bestow upon us the glory of entrusting before You all the hope and circumstances we now hold, and of singing the bond of heart from a place of grace that holds value.
Let us return to the mind of a little child. The ground of a heart that can welcome anyone it beholds is exceedingly beautiful.
We have come to know that the hearts of us who are gathered here today must resemble the figure of a little child who knows how to smile even upon seeing the most evil person, so that we may know how to give thanks and to rejoice at whatever appears before us, in whatever form.
Let us return to the heart of a little child who, entrusting everything into Your bosom, is held in the embrace of his parent. Make the mind of the one who delivers and the mind of the one who receives become one. Move as You wish to move, and if there are sons and daughters You wish to raise, raise those sons and daughters and bless them. We entrust everything to the Father; govern it from the first hour to the last.
Let us come to know that the scripture read aloud was spoken by Jesus from the most sorrowful, the most aggrieved, and the most anguished heart, after he had taken up the gospel and set out. We earnestly entreat that we may realize how exceedingly difficult was that ground on which he sought to pioneer the path of truth and to establish the wellspring of life. Embrace the whole of it yourself. I have offered these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.
Message
The title of the message I wish to reflect upon together with you today is “Our Resolve.” It is under this title, “Our Resolve,” that I will speak.
No one wishes to forgive a person who disregards their character; it is the same for everyone. It is the human mind to wish that some authority and value be granted even to one’s mind or body, or one’s conduct, or one’s life, or even to a single, smallest word.
We Who Must Resolve to Receive the Recognition of the Absolute Being
There are many cases in the world where a person regards himself as an exceedingly precious being, yet others do not so regard him. There are many cases, too, where a person boasts of being exceedingly true, yet others do not acknowledge it.
When we weigh such things, if a time should come when these facts of the individual—each of the countless people upon this earth living and asserting himself—can be publicly recognized by the whole, then that time will be an era of true peace, the era we hope for.
We know that in the past, countless sages and saints came to this earth and, heedless of shedding blood and sweat, heedless even of death, walked the path of pioneering and then passed away, to leave to later generations what they had lived and practiced.
Yet if we were to ask whether the foundation of living, the foundation of word, and the foundation of teaching that they left behind have reaped a living result when set against our reality today, anyone would have no choice but to answer no.
For even in my case, I am in a position where what I assert to be right cannot be acknowledged by my environment nor publicly recognized by society. Thus, all that they asserted has not become something that can be publicly recognized before the whole from a standpoint of value.
However historical the faith one has believed in until now, or whatever socially established ideology one may hold, everyone hopes for an era to come when, across the distance of time and in a natural environment, the moment my mind moves, the other’s mind also moves, and when I rejoice, the other can rejoice as well. Yet until now it has not become so. Setting aside other ideologies and looking only at the religious sphere—it is so for the Buddhist believer, so for the one who reveres Confucianism, and so for the one who has faith in Christianity.
Therefore, we must clearly know that, unless one settles the matter by asking oneself whether the existence called “I” stands upon a complete foundation in today’s real world, one cannot assert that the place one occupies, the direction one goes, and all that one lives are of value.
We who are in such an environment cannot but make a new resolve. A new resolve is needed, is what I am saying.
Now is the time when a new resolve is needed. That resolve must be one that can pass through my person, through the environment, through society, and through the world; and further, if there is an Absolute Being who governs the conscience, it must be a resolve that can be publicly recognized even by that Absolute Being.
Unless you become a person who, through such a new resolve, can present something of value, you may at some point become a betrayer before the heavenly order.
Will what you now believe in carry you through?
It will not. Why? The Scriptures say that in the Last Days there shall surely be a Great Judgment. You have heard the words “Great Judgment,” but you do not know its content well.
Looking at today’s social currents and worldwide currents of thought, everything is caught in a dilemma. You cannot deny the reality that a historical current you cannot even manage yourselves is sweeping you along. It is so for democracy as democracy, and for communism as communism.
We are seeing before our very eyes that there is no environment in which one can reach a clear resolution, set up the foundation of a new resolve, and march forward.
This Present Age Is an Era That Needs People of Conviction and Resolve
Therefore, having been born into such an environment, we must not merely console ourselves, believe in ourselves, live, and die; we must make a new resolve.
We must be able to push forward through the environment and, where there is an evil throng, to strike it down. And further, we must be able to cross over the world and pass through even to Heaven. We must know that this is an era that needs people who hold such conviction and resolve. Therefore, our resolve is needed.
However well-made you may be today, if you go on as you are, it comes to nothing. However loudly you may boast, it will end in nothing.
You! We human beings are historical beings. Even though you live as a single individual in this present age, you remain here today having passed through the bonds of a long history. That bond does not end in the present; it is at once of this age and of the future. Such human beings, unable to hold their center, are floundering this way and that.
The ideal world that such people hope for is incomplete. Here, unless we possess a conviction that can explain the historical self, explain the self of this age, and explain the future self, and unless we have something by which we can be publicly recognized before those who oppose us, we cannot turn an evil world into a good world. This cannot be done by any force, nor by any power.
What is needed in this present age is something by which the mind and body, rising above the hardship of the environment, disregarding the historical figure and burning away all the complications of the age, can light a new fire toward the future alone.
From where, then, must its motive arise?
It must not be a motive arising in this present age in which we now live. Why? Because we human beings are historical beings, beings of an age, and beings of hope, we must have historical content, content of the age, and content of the future.
Yet human beings do not know what it is they need. They do not know how things stand. Because they are in such a position, they seek something, and when seeking fails, they believe in something, and when believing fails, they pray, sacrifice, and advance even to the place of death. It is in this way that they have come forth until now.
What, then, is the source of the content that can break open this environment of ours? It must be something that began not in this age in which we live, but from the very root. The human being is by no means the root.
There is a root higher than humankind, and though only conceptually, it has been set up as one absolute subject partner and given the name “God.”
Therefore, working out the explanation from this root—if God exists, then we must know what kind of being that God is, and what relationship He holds with us. Yet we do not know God at all.
If God exists and has been guiding human beings, then there must be some will in it. God, too, must have set up that will under some resolve.
Today, we know that we are the descendants of fallen human beings. This is a fact that, try as one might, cannot be denied. As a means of saving such human beings, God will surely deal with history, with the age, and with the future under some resolve. Is that not so?
You make some resolve, form some new determination, and make some new vow, but it is not perfect and flawless. Why? Because it has not passed through the root. Therefore, we need the Absolute Being.
The Resolve of the Absolute Being
In carrying out the providence of salvation to save this evil world, that Absolute Being surely possesses a resolve, as the Absolute Being whom no one can override.
What kind of resolve is it?
We must know that it is a resolve which—in how He deals with the sinner and how He deals with the good person—cannot be changed by anyone’s counsel and cannot be yielded for anyone’s circumstances, until from the individual He completes the family, the people, the nation, the world, and further still the whole Cosmos into the world of the ideal of creation. It is a resolve that cannot change even after countless tens of millions of years.
The day that the resolution is presented to all people is precisely the Day of Judgment of which Christianity speaks. That day is the day when God’s resolve is actually shown before us sinful human beings.
Today, though countless human beings and countless seekers of the Way (도인) live upon this earth, they do not know what God’s resolve is. Yet God has been carrying out the providence of salvation under that unchanging resolve.
A person must receive historical recognition. How must we proceed if we are to stand boldly before the judgment seat?
We must receive historical recognition. Because we are human beings with a historical bond, we must receive historical recognition, is what I am saying.
Next, we must receive providential recognition.
If God did not exist, that would be one thing; but if there is a God who carries out His providence toward human beings, then human beings must receive providential recognition from Him. Because the ground must be laid to receive this recognition, that which is called religion could not but arise in the human world.
If some current of thought has appeared in history, that current must be publicly recognized from a position where it can face an entire world. It is for this reason that people set out searching for ideologies and ideals, or visions—seeking a worldwide ideal and a cosmic ideal. What is this?
It is to create an environment in which all the people living on the earth can receive historical recognition, so that the whole may enter the world of historical bonds. And in this way, historical recognition must be received.
Does everything then resolve itself simply by receiving historical recognition?
No. However great a statesman or however great a figure one may be upon this earth, even if he acts according to the will of God on behalf of the age and history, he cannot, with that alone, manage the heaven and earth that move centered upon God.
Therefore, after passing through the standard by which historical recognition can be received, one must, without fail, receive providential recognition. There is a purpose of Heaven that is at work toward this earth, and one must receive the acknowledgment by which one can face that purpose.
It is for this reason that, until now, countless seekers of the Way have forsaken this earth, disregarded this age, and sought to be absorbed into a new age. It is religious people who have flung themselves toward a providential new age, toward a providential appointed time.
These, as people differed from people, each set up an ideology and managed his own people; and, furnishing a new religious form by which the managed environment could be transcended, they have passed through the providential ages, arriving today in the age of worldwide ideologies, an age that crosses over into one that can furnish a worldwide religious ideal.
Just as the world and history have come along a course of revolution, so too has religion come along a course of revolution.
Looking at today’s worldwide currents of thought, beneath the ideal of liberty and equality, they are advancing in view of one world—that is, one sovereign world and one ideological world.
We can infer that an age will surely come when, alongside such outward worldwide movements, a worldwide religious movement, too, must be presented.
It is for this reason that an age must come in which the human being can receive historical recognition and be acknowledged as an existence with no fault before all of history. Such an age is the era of hope that we long for, the era of hope that history longs for, the ideal era.
The Purpose of Religion
Does everything, then, reach its conclusion with that? No. Upon such a foundation, one must receive providential recognition. One must form an age that can stand in God’s stead and become one with that age. It is for this reason that one must receive historical recognition and must receive providential recognition.
What, then, must be done after that?
The providence takes its direction through the ideal of religion, and when this reaches a certain standard, in the end, God and the human being must meet. This is precisely the purpose that humankind has pursued and that religion has groped after until now.
Until now, religion has labored to bring God down and to lift the human being up, to unite God and the human being. The purpose of religion lies here.
Religion came forth and has lifted the fallen human being, the human being mired in evil, the human being who can by no means form a relationship with Heaven. “O God, come down!” “O human beings, come up!”—to unite God and human beings and bind them together in one heart is the purpose of religion.
The Creator, the Absolute Being, took much toil to come and seek us, human beings. We must know this. The Creator toiled alone through the long course of history to come and seek human beings. And human beings, too, suffered countless sacrifices to seek the Creator.
The God who comes seeking and the human being who goes seeking—if Heaven set out toward the earth to find the starting point of goodness, and the human being set out toward Heaven, then there will surely come a time when they meet; and that time is the Last Days. Is this not so by reason?
It is for this reason that you must know. We are a historical foothold. A foothold. We must form a bond with God from a place where we have become an unchanging historical foothold, where, furnished with unchanging conviction, our minds and bodies are made one. We must form it not through a savior, but directly. It is while awaiting that time that God carries out His providence.
It is for this reason that, eventually, you must receive the acknowledgment of all history. You must receive acknowledgment in every providential aspect. It is no question of which denomination, nor any question of which people.
You must receive the historical acknowledgment of the whole and the providential acknowledgment of the whole—an acknowledgment that all people can equally feel, that no tradition until now and no environment of any age can block, and that anyone can publicly recognize, transcending all that.
Because such an age will come, today, while the world is presenting one movement, religion too is unfolding a history of movement furnished with one ideal. In this sense, unification (통일) is needed.
Human Beings Who Must Receive the Recognition of the Heart
Thereafter, what recognition must one receive?
After receiving historical recognition and providential recognition, one must receive God’s recognition of the heart. Why is this?
Suppose there is a father and son: only when the father can say to his son, “You are my son even when you are dying, my son even when you are in hardship, my son even when you are persecuted by anyone,” do they become a complete father and son (父子) whose bond no one can break, and no one can sever.
In a complete and exemplary father and son, however much dissatisfaction there may be, the father is the father and the son is the son.
If God, holding such a resolve, carries out the providence of salvation toward one world of purpose, what must the human being upon the earth do?
After receiving historical recognition and providential recognition, he must receive even God’s recognition of the heart. Then all is accomplished. To do so, one must rise to a standard where one can say, “If you die, I die; if you live, I live,” and, “What is yours is mine, and what is mine is yours.” This is no game played after an introduction has been arranged. This you must know. It is not a work done by Jesus coming and laying a bridge. It is done directly. The era of receiving recognition of the heart is a direct era.
Can the recognition of the heart be granted indirectly?
Does the heart get through merely because one explains, through a trusted disciple, that one’s heart is thus and so? It must be done directly.
In this way, God, to establish the world of the heart that He purposes, manages the countless peoples of this earth and manages countless ideologies and currents of thought, driving them all toward one world.
Now, two ideologies that are closest to one world remain; therefore, it is the Last Days. And so today there is a collision, breaking, and the eruption of problems in the world.
Since the world is so, religion too must collide. As it is, the matter cannot be settled. There must be a collision. The leaders must collide with leaders, and the congregants must collide with congregants. Through such confusion, a revolution must break out. This is a historical fact. A historical fact.
We must not despair in such a complicated environment; we must know that this age is demanding a new resolve of us. Here we must not despair and look back, but look ahead and advance. We must know that this is a time not to be motionless and in a state of giving up, but to make a new resolve.
Every sovereign of the past has vanished in the course of history. Even one who in his generation proclaimed some ideology vanishes when the age of worldwide ideology comes. No one who advocated some denomination in the past could carry it over into the age of a new ideology. Is this not so?
Looking at the history of Israel, they passed through a course of four thousand years from Adam and two thousand years from Abraham, and after endless hardship, sought and established the right of the chosen people called Israel. God shed tears together with those people and shed blood and fought together with them.
Then, at the time of the consummation—four thousand years after Adam, two thousand years after Abraham—when their national dignity had crumbled, their social environment had grown murky, and their religious ideal was about to vanish, Jesus was born.
In that age, the people of Israel were to bring their historical mission to completion and advance to a place where they could receive historical recognition and providential recognition, but they did not.
The Purpose for Which Jesus Came to the Earth
With what purpose did Jesus come to this earth?
He came to form a direct bond between the human being and God. To say it again, he came to find the resolution of the heart. In the end, there is no need to worry about sinning and falling. Those are all side branches.
Once the matter of the heart is resolved, there is no need to be anxious about such things. Therefore, fallen human beings have the responsibility to offer up all their devotion, to wring out their blood and flesh, and to resolve the han (한) of God’s heart that has pierced to the very bone. This is the most important thing in the course of the providence.
Had the people of Israel followed Jesus’ will, managed the historical environment, become providential representatives, and been able to stand as victors before the tribunal of God’s heart, the two thousand years of providence after Jesus would not have been prolonged. Why is this? Because what is decided by God’s heart and resolved by God’s heart can be governed by no one and overturned by no one.
There, even Satan is broken. It is for this reason that Satan is the first to know the one who has received grace.
One must commune with God in the heart and grasp through experience (체휼) in the heart. One who has not grasped through experience in the heart can never come before the Father. And what of the people of Israel in Jesus’ day?
Although there remained in them tears that had passed through God’s heart, blood that had passed through God’s heart, and sweat that had passed through God’s heart—they whom God had raised with His tears, raised with His blood, raised with His sweat—the chosen people of Israel forgot it all. They forgot it all.
Before such a people, Jesus appeared, rearmed, and what was his mission?
Was it to gather the people of that age and send them to the Kingdom of Heaven? No. Jesus’ mission was to resolve the han of God’s historical tears and of God’s historical blood and sweat. If that mission were not accomplished, the will of God could not reach its conclusion.
To fulfill this will, a historical people is needed without fail. A single person is needed who can establish one ideological nation on behalf of all the world’s humankind.
Had Jesus, upon the foundation of that people, taught them and actually shown them that the tears, the blood, and the sweat which God had shed unbeknownst to them were welling up within their bodies, and had he become one with that people, the thought of the Second Advent—the hope of two thousand years of Christian history—would not have existed.
Then, since Jesus came toward the people of Israel, what was the purpose for which he came to this earth?
Since the chosen people had lost their historical context, he came to show this to them, and thereafter, he came to fulfill a providential purpose. God, as a formless spirit, gave no thought to shedding tears, and as a formless spirit gave no thought to shedding blood and sweat; yet He could not show this to human beings in substance. Jesus is the one who came as the True Father of humankind, to show it in substance before human beings and to embrace human beings in substance.
What we must know here is that, as long as Heaven guides a people under some absolute resolve, the people of Israel, who claim to follow Heaven, must also unite under an absolute resolve and attend the Messiah. Had they done so, they would not have become as wretched as they are today. Upon the earth, Judaism remains.
That Judaism—the vanguard who seized and killed Jesus, the persecutors, those who, as instruments used by Satan, betrayed Heaven—remains, I tell you. And so God has not yet avenged the enemy. He has not yet avenged the enemy.
Jesus, Who Could Bless His Enemies Even in the Place of Death
Where lay the original heart by which Jesus could pray for his enemies even in the place of death?
Jesus knew thoroughly and to the very core that God was carrying out His providence to completely restore humankind, to restore the world of goodness, and to destroy evil, under a certain resolve.
Knowing that, even at the cost of his collapse, there remained a ground of battle on which he must fight against evil, Jesus, when he looked upon the people of Israel who were driving him into the place of death, could not utter words of curse.
It was not his life of suffering, having come to this earth, that was the matter; rather, Jesus knew that he was the one who must take responsibility for the whole people and resolve the han of God’s historical sorrow, God’s pain, and God’s aggrievement. He knew that, more than his agony or the pain of shedding blood, God had suffered hardship many times over his death in leading the pitiful people of Israel through the course of history; and therefore, he could not open his mouth to curse. Was it because he had love? No. When you come to understand it, you see that there was such a heart.
From Noah to Abraham to Moses, men followed God’s will in vague uncertainty, made resolve and determination, sowed their blood, and threw down their lives; but Jesus, who knew the pain, the tears, the aggrievement, and the toil of God in awakening and managing ignorant human beings to advance toward one purpose, considered the death of his own single self no matter at all. We must come to feel the heart of Jesus.
Jesus reflected upon how much blood, sweat, and tears God had shed in His toil to raise a people of hope through whom He could send the Messiah, and on what would happen if even these were to collapse.
Had Jesus, in that place, judged the people of Israel and cursed them, saying, “Be destroyed,” they would all have perished that very day. Those throngs who had supposedly been blessed all became caught in the judgment, is what I am saying. Yet you must clearly know the heart of Jesus, who, even at the cost of striking himself ten million times over, prayed a blessing upon them.
The Reason Jesus Walked the Path of Blood, Sweat, and Tears
In this way, passing through some thirty years of his life, Jesus shed tears. He shed tears that pierced his bones and flesh. Though it is not recorded in the Scriptures, Jesus lived steeped in sorrow. Upon this earth filled with sin, many lived joyful lives in ease.
Yet Jesus, who should have lived in the glory of glories, lived in tears. Not only tears, but sweat as well. In the end, at Golgotha, he shed blood. It was not enough to shed tears and sweat for this earth; at last, he shed even blood.
What was that blood?
It was the tears that God had shed throughout the two thousand years from Abraham and the four thousand years from Adam—tears that Jesus had inherited on behalf of the people, even though the people should perish. Unless he inherited those tears, the moment Israel perished, God’s providence too would have been cut off. Jesus was the one who had to inherit God’s tears. Though the people of Israel might betray him, Jesus was the one who had to inherit the sweat of God, who until then had toiled in leading them. Jesus, having appeared on behalf of history, was the one who had to inherit the tears; and so he could not but shed tears.
To lead the people of Israel out and have them meet Jesus, God had sacrificed countless prophets and let them shed blood and die; so if Jesus had there severed the people of Israel, God’s toilsome history of tears would be cut off, is what I am saying. The history of blood would crumble. It is for this reason that you must clearly know that Jesus walked the path of shedding blood, the path of death, so as not to demolish the tradition of the history of blood—that arduous history—through which God had toiled for four thousand years.
Though the people of Israel fell away, the four-thousand-year history of providence carried out toward the people of Israel, the four-thousand-year history of heart entangled through God’s heart, was, through Jesus, handed over to those who today believe in Jesus, and thereby the Second Israel was created. Had Jesus cursed them and repaid the enemy with enmity, he might have satisfied the desire of his own single self, but the historical bond would have been cut off. The historical bond would have been cut off.
Though the people of Israel should perish, the history of the sweat, tears, and blood shed for the people of Israel must not be severed, is what I am saying. The true intention (本意) lay there. The altar on which the blood of Abel cries out must not be demolished.
Through the figure of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, sweating drops of blood, and through the holy figure of Jesus carrying his cross toward Golgotha, even though the people of Israel became a band of traitors who betrayed Heaven, the sorrowful history of God who toiled to raise them was handed over. You must clearly know that what inherited this history of tears, this history of sweat, this history of blood, is Christianity. One who does not know this content perishes.
The people of Israel perished because they did not know it. You, too, must not merely carry the Bible and hymnal and frequent the church; you must know the Jesus who stood in the place of the bleeding God, the Jesus who stood in the place of the weeping God, the Jesus who stood in the place of the sweating God. To go forth and occupy the world through such sacrifice and death is the tradition of Christianity, the traditional course by which God comes to seek human beings. Talk of which denomination, or of orthodoxy, is no matter at all.
The Essence of Christianity
If there is anything that obstructs this, we must take up the Final Judgment and fight. Such a throng must come forth in these Last Days.
Furnished with the bond of heart, they must resolve the deep grievance (원한) of God, entangled through history, and the han of Jesus and the Holy Spirit; and, becoming victors, they must be able to say “Father,” so that the Father can answer “Yes, my child.”
God has surely been carrying out His providence considering such a figure. This is so when one thinks of it by common sense, and so when one examines it by reason. Otherwise, it is all heresy—heresy.
However well one believes today, no believer can match the Jewish believers of old. They were that thorough. Day and night, they awaited and prayed for the coming of the Messiah.
What, then, was lacking?
They climbed by trampling upon the historical tears. They disregarded the historical blood and sweat and stood upon a position centered on themselves. And so they had to perish. They had to perish.
Heaven cast Jesus out into the place of death and shed tears. Surely there was no lack of desire to make the teachers of the law and the priests His disciples? Had even a few among those who for four thousand years had devotedly awaited the coming of the Messiah become disciples of Jesus, all of Judaism could have stood before the will of God.
Yet Jesus was pitiful. We must know that Jesus came holding the resolve to stand in the place of the will of glory, but had to go having set up a new resolve to stand in the place of the will of suffering.
The resolve of suffering was brought to its conclusion in the cross. That will of glory which stands in the place of the heart of glory, that resolve of glory, has not yet appeared in the course of our faith, and he did not see the Marriage Supper of the Lamb—the one day of hope on which the Bride and Bridegroom meet.
This Present Age Is the Time for the Movement to Re-manifest Jesus
Is your purpose in reading the Bible, your purpose in believing in Jesus, to suffer, or to obtain glory?
You must discern which of these two positions you stand in. You must know from what motive of heart Jesus spoke his words.
If you know that, you go to Heaven. It is simple. Even this young man speaking here today—if it were merely a matter of believing and going to Heaven, he would not be doing this work. Having walked on, he found it to be a path he could not but walk; that is why he does this work. This, at least, you must thoroughly know.
It is said that today, with two thousand years having passed since Jesus came and went, and six thousand years since Adam, is the time of the consummation of history, the Last Days on which the final verdict must be rendered.
What is it that we who live in such an age must cause to erupt again?
We must cause the spirit of Jesus to erupt again.
Now, in this age, what must be done, and how, to manage the historical bonds and to establish a new foothold for the future?
What movement must be carried out?
The movement to re-manifest Jesus (예수 재현 운동) must be carried out—the movement to re-manifest Jesus.
The movement to re-manifest Jesus is not a matter of eating well and living well.
Since tears were sown, they must be reaped with tears. Since sweat was sown, it must be reaped with sweat.
Since blood was sown, it must be reaped with blood. That is the conclusion. In the reaping, one must reap furnished with the very heart with which it was sown. Only then can one be acknowledged as a re-manifester (再現者) furnished with the heart of two thousand years ago.
The history of Christianity is a history of blood, tears, and sweat. The blood was offered for Heaven, the tears were shed for humankind, and the sweat was shed for the sin-laden earth.
You! Now is not the time to ask anyone. It is not a time to follow some teacher and settle the destiny of your life. Neither is it a time to follow your parents and render a verdict on some matter. Therefore, today’s human beings are all in an individualistic position.
So it is for the parent, and so for the child. Now is the time when every existence upon the earth must furnish its value and offer up to Heaven the beauty (美) of its fruit. One made of soybeans must bear fruit as soybeans, and one made of red beans must bear fruit as red beans.
Even if there are ten brothers born under one parent, just as all ten are different, the time has come when each must bear fruit according to his form.
In the Last Days, it was said: anoint your head with oil and go into your inner room to pray. There is nothing whatsoever to believe in, follow, and lean upon.
Neither the ideal of a people nor of a nation is something to stake one’s life upon and believe; nor is a worldwide current of thought something to stake one’s life upon and believe. It is so for all of them. Had there been something one could believe in, the matter would already have been resolved. Believe in no one is what I am saying. Do not vaguely believe even the one speaking here.
You are listening to this person’s words, but you must analyze whether they are true. You must analyze, compare, find out the value, and weigh whether it is content with which you can form an eternal relationship.
The age of blind faith has passed. Do not believe even a teacher. Do not believe teachers who are sold for a bundle of money. Do not believe such teachers who, with sweet words, bring a whole life to ruin.
Let Us Awaken the Sleeping Conscience and Press Forward
There is something that, if only awakened from its sleep, can inherit the eternal patrimony of Heaven and Earth; what is it? It is the mind. It is the conscience.
Your mind is asleep. It sleeps without knowing whether the place where it sleeps is a place of death or a place of life, whether it is a mountain, a seashore, or a wellside.
Unless a movement appears in the time of the consummation of history that can awaken this sleeping thing and have it heed the voice of conscience, humankind will flounder this way and that.
You must know that, swept along by some current of thought or some ideology, you may at any time fall into hardship.
You may say, “I am a person of upstanding character; what could be wrong with my conscience?”—but your conscience is asleep. Your mind is asleep. It is surely asleep. The conscience does not wish to be restrained or ruled by anyone. The conscience does not rest.
However dark the depth of night, in a bright place or a splendid and luxurious place, it does not lead you to go wrong. Commit even a slight wrong, and the conscience strikes the body, crying, “Hey, you wretch!”
Where could there be such a teacher as this? What you must clearly know is whether the words of this young man, who says your conscience is asleep, are true.
Let us awaken the sleeping conscience. Let us awaken the conscience of a people who sleep without knowing the heart of God. Let us awaken the conscience of the world’s humankind who sleep without knowing the heart of God.
Following the will of God, who would embrace Heaven and Earth and build one world, let us awaken the conscience of human beings who are placed in a position where, try as they might, they cannot but go toward the world of the consummation.
Is the religion we believe in today a religion that can give teachings to all the world’s humankind and awaken the sleeping conscience?
Is there an ideology or vision furnished with such content?
The shock, the resolution, the resolve that comes into the conscience as it awakens must appear as a power that can trample down all the affairs of the world at once. Is the sword to be feared? Is death to be feared? Who can block this that arises in my conscience? No one can block it.
Receiving such a shock, you must hold in your bosom the ideology and vision you have resolved upon and advance toward one purpose. By night and by day, even while I sleep, my conscience urges me, saying, “Why do you sleep?
You must go on again.” Have you felt that voice, that wellspring of power? If you have not felt it, repent. This is the sort of thing to repent of.
If God has determination and resolve, what would the purpose of that resolve and determination be? It is to awaken the sleeping conscience of human beings. It is to awaken this conscience that He has laid the ground until now—teaching this way and teaching that way.
God’s providence is worldwide. He has endured until an age when, looking at it historically and in reality, one can say, “Oh! That is right.” Do you understand what I am saying? He has carried out His work until, placing countless peoples in complicated environments and awakening them, they can say, “So the providence of Heaven was thus.
When I came to understand, it was so.” Because it is God’s purpose to bring the whole of history to its conclusion upon a worldwide stage by way of complicated environments, He has been awakening the conscience of human beings. And so people live, furnished with directionality according to their conscience.
It is for a mighty hero who can take hold of the helm of such a conscience and move Heaven and Earth that God longs. Have you become such a one? To become so is our purpose.
Just before God carries out His judgment toward this earth, there will come a final stage of realization, where it is decided whether God’s resolve will be realized in human beings. Were God to carry out His judgment without such a time coming, that God would not be a God of love.
How Will the Judgment Be Carried Out
Your bodies are being swept, unawares, into the fortune of the Cosmos (天宙), yet your minds are somehow uneasy. They cannot find stability.
Your minds ought to be full of hope, abundant, and at ease, yet not being so, you must look upon yourselves shrinking inward, your hopeful figure vanishing without a trace as time goes on, and yourselves groaning; so you cannot live a single day in peace. That God is here, in this, is a thing to be thankful for.
In such a time, when one can neither manage what is within and without nor discern left from right, a movement must appear—from Heaven, through a human being—that raises a victorious person of character who, with the cry of God going forth, can make our power erupt and judge all the affairs of the world at once.
Were it not so, God would be a merciless Lord of Judgment. What sort of God of love would He then be? Such a movement will surely come in its time, is what I am saying.
Does one not first awaken, first teach what is right and what is wrong, and only then judge? How could He judge those who know nothing whatsoever? Teaching what was before and what comes after, teaching what the way (道) of your mind is, and presenting something to which you can say, “That is right,” He then judges, is what I am saying.
You! God, and Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, and all the forebears until now, have all toiled to awaken your minds. The Kingdom of Heaven is not somewhere else. The Kingdom of Heaven is in my mind. This mind is something that can take even the Kingdom of Heaven into itself, and something that can melt away even the sorrowful heart of God. Must it not be so?
When, toward that God who for six thousand years has wept, shed blood and sweat, and pioneered the path of death, one cries “Father,” God must be able to forget all the agony and tears of death until now and say, “Yes, my child; the purpose for which I have carried out My providence until now was for your sake.”
To bring forth such a mind again, and to revive the fundamental conscience, is the providence of God for the Last Days. We must know that such a providence of love remains.
It is for this reason that you should not bind yourselves to some authoritative, musty tradition or some boastful denomination. That said, I am not telling you to believe in the Unification Church. Come if you will come, and stop if you will stop. That is your freedom.
What Is the Judgment Carried Out
In these Last Days, what is the warning to those who have not awakened their sleeping conscience?
In the place of sleep, the very thing one likes best becomes the condition for judgment. What one says is best is the central condition that catches one in the judgment, which is what I am saying.
If one loves his son, that son becomes the central condition of judgment. He is judged because of that son. Because of that, he could not awaken.
However much one is a person of character and however imposing his authority, he must in any case pass through the gate of judgment and be revived as something new.
If one knows this, one must know that the very thing one likes, to which one pours out his whole heart, all his body and mind, and all his consciousness and awareness, immovably, is the pit that devours oneself.
Even those who say, “Still, I live by my conscience”—does that conscience know God? Does it know God?
Does God acknowledge that conscience? By no means. It may know things in relation to people, but it does not know the will of God. Why? Because it is asleep. Therefore, it must be awakened. One must awaken from sleep. Now is the time when you must awaken.
Look. God’s resolve is so, and so it was for Jesus and the forebears down the generations; so the people who live in this present age too must awaken. Becoming an awakened figure, one must stimulate something new and ideological, and break open the present reality. This is not a revolution. Therefore, we who are placed in the Last Days must be able to disregard Heaven and Earth even if they were given to us, and to disregard any wealth and glory of the world even if it were given to us.
We must hold an absolute mind that can eternally be exchanged for nothing and compared with nothing. A movement must arise within you yourselves by which that mind awakens and comes to know Heaven anew, to know humankind anew, and to know this earth anew.
Unless it does, you will not escape the judgment and will become castaways.
The Resolve We Must Make
As with the title of today’s message, we must resolve. What resolve must we make? More than a resolve to conquer the world, more than a resolve to prosper for ourselves in days to come, we must make a resolve to awaken the sleeping conscience. Before that, all is in vain.
However much you determine and however much you resolve, it is in vain. So we must make a resolve to awaken the sleeping conscience. Unless we do this, however splendid and glorious a world there may be, it has no relation to us whatsoever.
However much the God who governs all the things of Heaven and Earth bears the name of our Father, it has no relation to us whatsoever, is what I am saying.
Now we must sweep away the established notions of the past—any faith, thought, or ideology—and mount a movement to develop the field of our minds. With what? We must mount a movement to develop the field of our minds (心田), departing from human affection (人情) and turning to heavenly affection (天情).
Do you know what heavenly affection is?
Centered upon heavenly affection, we must develop the field of our minds—our mind-field. Now is the time when, having roused it, if it does not rise, we must strike in and awaken it and make it known. We must carry out such a movement.
Driven this way and that, you came into this place, worn out to the utmost. The most sorrowful thing for the one speaking here is just that. It is sorrowful, is what I am saying. To have come into this place worn out to the utmost, having passed through the flower of youth and the season of vigorous spirit, having spent the season in which one could, with a passion ablaze for righteousness, stake his neck on God’s heart and collapse vomiting blood—that is sorrowful, is what I am saying. Even so, there is no need to despair.
If you cannot do it, there are your sons and daughters, and there are young people who will do your part.
You must become at least an errand-runner for them. At least an errand-runner. And thereby you must develop the field of the mind that stands in the place of heavenly affection, in the place of God’s heart. And so you must hold a field of the mind with room enough to know Heaven, to know the earth, to know humankind; to love Heaven, to love the earth, to love humankind; and further still, to love even the spiritual world (靈界), and further still, to love even the enemy. This is the final resolve we must make.
You! Do not simply turn back after coming here today. Today’s age is a desperate time. Look. This year differs, and next year differs. Korea all the more so. It flounders, unable to find its bearings. It is becoming entangled. From now on, three years are a worldwide turning point. At the latest, it extends to seven years. A turning point—a turning point.
Now you must go and seek the original homeland of the mind. To go and seek the knee of the mother who bore me is in vain. You must go and seek the original homeland of the mind, the master of the mind.
We sought social goodness (善) for two thousand years, and it came to nothing; so we must pursue the goodness of the mind. Here we must look back upon how good our minds are and lament.
We must consider how broad and how precious our minds are, and how much vigor we hold to live boldly as figures of precious value.
If this is not so, we need a helper who can develop it—some doctrine or ideology that can raise my mind with a single word. And thereby, standing upon the standard that this, indeed, is the last thing, holding a value exchangeable for nothing whatsoever, we must be able to embrace Heaven and Earth, embrace the great universe, and sleep a peaceful sleep.
Only after sleeping that sleep and awakening can we become sons and daughters of a new nation. Holding such a mind, becoming victors, and awakening once more—only then can we become the heirs of God. So I understand it.
So, you—do not listen to anyone’s words. Seen spiritually, this present time is growing more and more oppressive. The clever, unaware become objects of reproach. The loyalty of friends is nowhere to be found, and everywhere one goes, there is only what wounds the mind.
The social ground one trusted gives one a jolt. It is so when one enters the home, and so when one goes out into society. And if one asks whether the mind is then at ease, it is not so either.
What is one to do?
There is nothing to be done. However well-made one may be, however clever one pretends to be, there is no remedy.
Humankind Must Develop the Field of the Mind
In this age that has entered the Last Days, you must know how to hear the sleep-talk of the conscience.
Unless, kicking off the sleep-talk of the mind, discerning the time and the age, you furnish in your life one place, one nest, one ideological ground where you can develop the field of your mind, you and these people will become pitiful.
If our people of thirty million should furnish such an ideology in this chaotic world, they will come to rule the world.
Even if the culture of the world, the history of the world, and all the sovereignty of the world perish, if only this people becomes a people indispensable in the new age of culture, that people can rule the world.
If they become a people indispensable in the new ideal age, a people without whom that age cannot take its motive, that people can rule the world, is what I am saying.
If it comes to that, no sovereignty is any problem, and one can rule even those who speak loudly. When the time comes when this is fine and that is fine and even dying is fine, that time is the Last Days.
Now that the Last Days have come, you must make a new resolve to develop the field of the mind. To make a new resolve, what must you do? You must resolve to advance willingly together with God, whether the path is one of tears or one of death. You must transcend death and life.
Therefore, Jesus, too, when he first set out to proclaim the gospel, made a solemn determination. The heart of Jesus, who had to awaken the sleeping people of Israel, was ablaze. He did not seek to awaken their sleep. He sought not to awaken those who were sleeping, but to tear down the house in which they slept. That is Jesus’ guiding principle. He would tear down the house they lived in, the temple, all of it. Since they kept on sleeping in the house, the house had to be torn down first, is what he meant.
The foundation of human living is the heart. It is love. The way that fallen human beings love their parents, love their siblings, love between husband and wife, love this one and that one—it must all be overturned.
And so Jesus said:
“He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10:37–38)
And so Jesus, to awaken the sleeping conscience of human beings, advocated a revolution of the heart. Through the four-thousand-year course of history, countless forebears cried out countless ideologies; but who among them said to love me more than parent or sibling?
Jesus sought to bring about a revolution of the heart. Since he sought, by the power of his heart, to bring revolution to what was entangled upon the earth, to what Satan possessed, he met with opposition.
Did not Jesus say to his mother,
“Woman, what have I to do with thee?”
It was fitting. He spoke that word well. When it was said that his mother and brothers had come seeking him,
Jesus said,
“Who is my mother, and who are my brothers? Whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in Heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.”
It is upon seeing such things that one ought to revere Jesus. This was the first proclamation of Jesus, who advocated a revolution of the heart.
The Condition for Standing Closest Before God
The throng who hesitate and wander before the word cannot get past the Final Judgment. Jesus sought to awaken the sleeping human beings to develop the field of the mind. We must know that it is the work of God to throw off the bedcover, to beat them until their backsides catch fire, to cast them down into hell, and to make of them a people who would rise from there, and so to pioneer the path that awakens them once more.
In today’s worldwide age of consummation, the work of God will unfold through the most pitiful people. A nation like Korea is a nation furnished with many of the conditions to be able to receive a blessing. So do not lose heart.
The thankful thing is that God comes to seek a people furnished with such conditions. Now Korea is divided into North and South, the parent in the North and the child in the South, the husband in the South and the wife in the North, longing for one another in heart. This is something by which God has naturally divided the heart. Living the bitterly hard life of refugees, unable to trust one another, they quarrel and fight. Is this not so? It is so for the church elder, and so for the pastor. Seen in light of the principle, such things are not bad phenomena.
If the ideological world that Jesus advocated will surely come, then we know that, through such a people, it will be divided out starting from what is nearest; and we must love Jesus more than ourselves, and love God more than Jesus. Is this not so? As I said earlier, we must receive historical recognition, must receive providential recognition, and must receive the recognition of the age.
What is the condition for standing closest to Heaven?
It is you yourselves. The older aunties and uncles here will have borne and raised sons and daughters. Then, have you loved God more than the heart with which you held and embraced your child and gave him the breast, and cherished him?
If you have not, it will absolutely not do. Hereafter, that child will appear before the judgment seat and appeal. Did you love God more than your husband? Hereafter, at the judgment seat, that husband will appeal.
The Path of the Way
The path of the Way (道) is the path of forsaking—the path of forsaking. I do not wish to say such a thing, but the principle is so. Even a beloved child must be forsaken and left behind. Even when that child is in an aggrieved and indignant place, one must let him be. Look. God did all such things.
He sent His beloved child to this earth and had him aggrievedly despised. He had His chosen forebears aggrievedly received. Was it lacking love that He did so? He loved them, yet because they had to become offerings on behalf of the earth and sow the blood of love, the blood of goodness, He did so.
In that way, He sought to make the individual an offering and establish the family, to make the family an offering and establish the people, and to make that people an offering and establish the world. He sought, by making the people of Israel an offering, to establish the world. You must clearly know this.
The people of Israel perished by the sword. Having ruined a beloved people, one cannot occupy the world.
So now, having placed the world in such a state, what will He have it seek? He will have it seek God. Today, the world is being swept into such a state of misery.
Here we must make a solemn resolve to develop the field of the mind (心田). You must forsake the beloved sons and daughters before your eyes. God called Noah and had him believe for one hundred and twenty years, then drove him onto a path of rejection, a path of persecution. So it was with Abraham.
God told Abraham that He loved him, blessed him, saying, “I will make your descendants greatly prosper, like the stars of the heaven and like the sand of the seashore,” and then told him to leave Ur of the Chaldees.
Likewise, when Jacob, on his way to Haran, slept with a stone for his pillow, God appeared and blessed him, then sent him to Haran for twenty-one years of bitter servitude.
So it was with Moses. Seeing Moses’ blazing national spirit—knowing that the people of Israel were God’s chosen people, the people who must stand before the will of God, and striking dead with a stone the Egyptian who fought with his brother, an Israelite—God drove him into the wilderness of Midian and made him suffer for forty years.
So it was with Jesus as well. He was the Crown Prince of Heaven, sent as the Savior of this earth, the only begotten Son of God. He was the son of God, the Lord of Hosts, and the King of Kings. Yet when He sent such a son to this earth, He had him born in a lowly stable. But Jesus regarded it with thankfulness. This way it is thankful, and that way it is thankful, is what he meant. Having come empty-handed (赤手), he goes empty-handed. Having come into the heart of the Father, in going too, he would hold fast to the heart of the Father. This was Jesus’ aim in life.
Having received the flesh and blood of his parents and been born receiving the seed of love, he must embrace it and go. Since he was sown from it, unless he embraces it and goes, he cannot be received into the heavenly world.
Jesus, who knew this, came to this earth and, in living some thirty years, was met only with rejection and then departed. He was rejected by his parents. He was driven by his people. He was driven by friends. He was driven by the religious body. In the end, he was betrayed even by the twelve apostles who followed him, and further still betrayed even by the three beloved disciples.
At last, did not even God say He did not know him? “Abba, Father, why have You forsaken me?” Even in the place where God forsook him, Jesus said, “Though God forsake me, the very center of this mind that loves You can never change.”
By reason of that, Jesus, even after God departed, became, upon this earth, the central one of the heart who stands in God’s stead—and thereby for the first time the qualified one who can face all people. You must know this fact.
In this present age, we must know such an ideology and will and bring about a revolution of the mind. Further still, we must bring about even a revolution of the heart.
The communists clamor about a revolution of consciousness, but we, rather than that, must present a revolution of conscience, awaken the conscience, and bring about even a revolution of the heart. On the day such a stirring appears in this heaven and earth, the satanic world will collapse. The ground of evil will collapse, is what I am saying.
So you must take hold of your mind, remove all that obstructs the awakening of the mind, set yourselves in order, and, under a solemn resolve and determination, tend the field of your own mind. And thereby, I earnestly hope that, recovering the original figure that was before the Fall, you will become masters of the heart who hold a mind able to embrace Heaven and Earth.
Prayer
Father! Having wandered a difficult path, we have come forth seeking a yet more difficult path. It was said that the way that leads to death is broad and smooth, but the way that leads to life is narrow and rugged.
Father! We thought that once we had gone, that was the end; yet there remains still a path we must go. We know that, to resolve, by our circumstances, all the things of history that have been thrown into ruin for six thousand years, there are countless tens of millions of difficulties.
We long for the day when, causing an eruption of heart able to overcome all these difficulties, we can embrace our figure and sing. To bring revolution to this, we cannot but make a new resolve.
We have come to know that, unless we hold such an ideology and pioneer that standard, we cannot pioneer the world. We earnestly ask and desire that You lead us to a stirring place where, pioneering the field of our minds and awakening the sleeping mind, we behold the original Father, join our two hands in prayer, and—with our bodies and minds and every cell, blood, flesh, and bone all moving—call upon the Father, shed tears of gratitude and awe, and, not knowing where to put ourselves, bow our heads.
We hope that there will appear upon this earth one path, one stirring, one final ideology that cannot be exchanged for anything in the world and cannot be betrayed even at the cost of death.
Knowing that such a movement will surely appear upon this earth before the Day of Judgment comes, today we have appeared bearing the name of unification (통일).
We are thankful to be driven by the people, and we do not consider it aggravating to be persecuted by the social environment.
Each time it is so, we think of how it becomes material for cutting through, strand by strand, the strands of historical han and for tearing down the wall of historical sorrow; and so we have set out resolved to shed sweat, tears, and blood toward the world in which the mind rejoices, toward the humankind the mind would embrace, toward the new land where the mind would dwell.
Therefore, protect us. In this hour too, there are beloved sons and daughters who, in such an environment, heedless of their blood and flesh, are fighting. Protect them Yourself and keep them; this, Father, we earnestly ask and desire.
Before awakening the sleeping people, we must first awaken ourselves and come to know how the people are sleeping and how the world’s humankind is sleeping. Knowing that we have the mission, having come to know all the things of Heaven and Earth, to awaken them, grant that we, furnished with a mind that can commune with the Father’s heart and with the figure of one who has awakened, may call the Father “Father” and call the earth’s humankind “brothers.” And so, we earnestly ask and desire that we may all become those qualified ones to whom it can be said, “You are indeed the resting nest where one can dwell eternally.”
That to raise once more a new resolve, a new mind, and to return to the Father’s bosom is the greatest thing of all—we entreat that these may feel it keenly and return; and as we earnestly entreat this, we have prayed all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.