Authors
Background
On January 3, 1993, at the world headquarters church in Cheongpa-dong, Seoul, True Parents proclaimed the completion of the New Testament Age and the beginning of the Completed Testament Age during the sermon, “A Review of Providential History and the Completed Testament Age.”
Later that month, on January 10 at the Belvedere training center in the United States, True Father declared that the Completed Testament Age had begun. He made this proclamation based on the foundation of completing 40 years of indemnity from 1952 until 1992, made necessary due to failures during the seven years immediately after World War II.
He then said that he would proclaim “True Parents and the Completed Testament Age” in a speaking tour of 160 countries beginning on April 10, 1993.
1. In the Old Testament Age, while looking forward with hope, Relievers practiced the law. In the New Testament Age, they sought and practiced faith. In the coming Completed Testament Age, believers will seek and practice love.
In the Old Testament Age, the providential age for finding hope, the practice of circumcision was the condition to be called a member of the chosen people. In the New Testament Age, believers emerged and established faith in front of God through baptism by water and by the fire of the Holy Spirit.
Next, in the Completed Testament Age, believers will enter into and form a relationship of love with God through receiving the seal of God's love. (005-109, 1959/01/04)
2. The Old Testament Age was the age of the servant, and the New Testament Age was the age of the adopted son. The Unification Church promotes the Completed Testament Age.
In the Completed Testament Age, one can advance from the position of adopted son to that of son and gain the ability to relate naturally with the parents. In the Completed Testament Age, believers become children of the direct lineage, no longer adopted children.
Adopted children have a different lineage; they do not have a direct blood relationship with their parents.
An adopted child embraces just one standard, namely that of the adoptive parents. On that basis, adopted sons form a limited father-son relationship with the father. Accordingly, because there is no son in the direct lineage, the adoptive father provides a standard for the one whom he will adopt, and if the one who applies to be an adopted son does not become one with that standard, he will not be chosen.
However, for a child of the direct lineage, that issue of standards is not relevant. From the moment such a child is born, if the father goes this way, the son will go the same way, and if the father goes another way, the son will also go that way.
Even if they separate, at some point they will come together. If they feel it is not the right path, they will search for the right way where they can be together. That's the way it is.
That is what is different about an adopted son. An adopted son meets the parents based on a one-time encounter. But a child of the direct lineage meets the parents in the eternity inherent in the father-son relationship.
The adopted son has a different lineage. Lineage passes down and is connected from the origin of history until the end of history. Even after tens of thousands of generations flow by, the descendants carry the lineage of the previous tens of thousands of generations. (024-322, 1969/09/14)
3. When we examine the providence of restoration, we see that the Completed Testament Age must fulfill the New Testament Age, and the New Testament Age must fulfill the Old Testament Age.
If the Will is not fulfilled in the Old Testament Age, it passes over to the New Testament Age, and if the Will is not fulfilled in the New Testament Age, it passes over to the Completed Testament Age. With this understanding, in the Completed Testament Age, we must have the capacity to carry out all the unfulfilled historical missions. (046-113, 1971/08/13)
4. The Old Testament Age is the age of all things, the New Testament Age is the age of the Son, and the Completed Testament Age is the age of the Parents. Parents, sons and daughters, and all things are included in the family. When seen from this standpoint, all things are in the formation stage, children are in the growth stage, and parents are in the completion stage. Parents, sons and daughters, and all things exist centering on the family.
God made all things in heaven and on earth for Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. To recover all this, God has carried out the providence for 6,000 years, establishing the servant and the adopted son. The Old Testament Age was built on the age of the servant of servants.
The servant of servants went to God through the creation. The New Testament Age is the age of the adopted son. God established Jesus as the Son and carried out spiritual works in his age. The Completed Testament Age is the time when the Parents go through hardships.
Because of these things, in the Old Testament Age, when the people made sacrificial offerings, they used the things of creation. In the New Testament Age, the sacrificial offering was the Son, and in the Completed Testament Age, True Parents offered themselves as the sacrifice. In the Completed Testament Age, True Parents must pay the indemnity. (046-262, 1971/08/17)
5. The Old Testament Age is the time when the worldwide condition for the sake of restoring all things is completely established. The New Testament Age is the time of preparing the global foundation to restore the people of the world.
The Completed Testament Age is the time of bringing the world together through the sovereignty of oneness. These multiple missions exist.
To create this sovereignty, first, there must be one who creates an autonomous territory. This person must also lead an autonomous people. Next, on the foundation of becoming one with that people, he must represent God.
This is the creation of sovereignty. In other words, the territory – that is, all things – and the people become completely one-centering on the one Parent who represents God. This is what we call the earthly sovereignty that represents the nation of heaven.
What is the sovereignty that God is searching for? It is not sovereignty as we see it in the world today.
The Old Testament Age was for the restoration of all things; the New Testament Age was for the restoration of the children, and the Completed Testament Age was for the restoration of the parents.
If we examine the nation and world, we see that the Old Testament Age was for restoring land and all things, namely the age to restore territory. The New Testament Age was for restoring citizens. The Completed Testament Age is for creating sovereignty. (055-247, 1972/05/09)
6. True Mother proclaimed “True Parents and the Completed Testament Age.” What is the nature of the Completed Testament Age? It means that God is beginning a revival. He is beginning a life based on love.
The great work of God's creation is still moving forward. The completion of the ideal of love, namely the four-position foundation and the human portion of responsibility, marks the completion of the ideal of creation.
With this, all people renew a revival based on the love of God and people, a revival that could not be achieved in the historical ages until now.
The beginning of the family of God is the start of the revival, centering on God.
Accordingly, people and God become one centering on love and the family. But it is not our family alone.
We must go forward side by side with the family of God's nation as it begins. This is the world of the absolute authority of God. By proclaiming the True Parents' ideas and by proclaiming the Completed Testament Age, we are rising above Satan's world. (248-012, 1993/05/30)
7. God chose my husband, Reverend Moon, and gave the new words of truth to Korean Christians. However, the leaders of the Korean Christian world did not perceive that my husband was selected to convey new words of truth.
They saw only a humble young man and treated him with silent contempt. The New Testament Age is an extension of the Old Testament Age and, just as the people at that time could not believe that Jesus manifested God, the Korean Christian leaders were unable to believe that the Lord at the Second Advent was born on earth with a physical body.
If at that time, Korean Christians and my husband had become one, the kingdom of heaven would have been accomplished on earth and in heaven. During the 7 years from 1945 until 1952, the whole world would have united, following the providence of God. However, Christian leaders blindly opposed my husband.
To raise Christianity and develop it to receive the Returning Lord, God nurtured nations such as the United States where Christianity had absolute authority. Even if they say they did not realize it, the Korean Christian pastors at that time were in a position representing worldwide Christianity. However, after World War II, America and world Christianity were unable to become one with my husband. From that time, America and Christianity entered the path of decline and began losing moral authority.
After World War II, America and Christianity stood on the victorious foundation on which Cain and Abel had become one, and the time was ripe when they could receive the Lord at His Second Advent.
However, they failed to welcome the Returning Lord, and in the same way, the rest of the world also opposed my husband. Therefore, he was driven out into the wilderness and, after being pushed down to the very bottom, had to climb again. (True Mother, 1993/10/04)
8. If we liken America, which was established with Christian civilization as its root, to the New Testament Age, we can liken Korea to the Old Testament Age.
Accordingly, for the first 20 years, my husband passed through a course in Korea and indemnified the Old Testament Age through the Unification Church, which was in the position of Judaism, and through Korea, which was in the position of the nation of Israel. On this foundation, in 1960 we accomplished the Holy Wedding of True Parents on the national level.
Thereafter, in 1971, I went together with my husband to America. For 20 years, we walked the course of indemnity for the sake of completing the New Testament Age in America to enter the Completed Testament Age. Based on that result and centering on God, we were able to establish the True Parents family, which became the origin of true love, true life, and true lineage. (True Mother, 1993/10/04)
9. Today's women, who are in the position of True Mother at the turning point of the providential history of restoration, must form the foundation to welcome True Father. After Christianity could not welcome the Bridegroom, the providence of God was prolonged for 40 years until 1992.
During that period, my husband worked while praying and bringing Korea, Britain, America, France, Japan, Germany, and Italy into oneness for the sake of finding and establishing the worldwide New Testament Age.
Then, together with my husband in April 1992, I proclaimed the arrival of the age of women worldwide and founded the Women's Federation for World Peace.
Upon that foundation, I spent the rest of 1992 visiting seven nations, including Russia, China, and the countries of Oceania. I did so with the heart of a true mother. I energized the women of those nations and founded branches of the Women's Federation for World Peace.
Based on these accomplishments, the nations that were divided into Cain and Abel following World War II welcomed me. We restored the foundation of the lost Bride, and those nations were able to welcome the True Father. On that victorious worldwide foundation, our position as True Parents was proclaimed to the world for the first time. (True Mother, 1993/10/04)
10. The New Testament Age ends when the Returning Lord is welcomed. When the Returning Lord came in the New Testament Age, he could have settled the family, tribe, people, and nation in seven years, thereby inaugurating the Completed Testament Age.
When he does accomplish that, we will enter the Completed Testament Age. This is the time when the Returning Lord, after realizing a worldwide foundation, establishes the form of Adam's family, which was lost from the world. But since he was driven out into the wilderness and left with nothing, how could the Completed Testament Age come?
In this situation, America represents the realm of the bride for which the people of Israel had prepared in the Old Testament and New Testament Ages. On the day that America loses sight of this, it will be abandoning the Old Testament Age and the New Testament Age.
If that takes place, the foundation for the Completed Testament Age will crumble. If we do not maintain the realm of the bride as a condition based on the Old and New Testament Ages, the foundation of indemnity for the Completed Testament Age will disappear. Accordingly, we are establishing America again in the position of Abel. (243-127, 1993/01/03)
11. The Completed Testament Age is centered on spirit and flesh. The New Testament Age is centered on spirit. Therefore, one cannot go into the Completed Testament Age through the New Testament Age.
The Returning Lord opens this age.
If Christianity, after paying all indemnity globally, had united with the Lord at his Second Advent, Christianity and all of its believers would have moved into the Completed Testament Age.
But when they could not become one with the Returning Lord, the foundation collapsed and the need for indemnification arose. If the Returning Lord had not made preparations to rebuild this collapsed foundation, he would not have been able to keep his position and go forward.
If the Returning Lord is going to appear as the Messiah, what must he do first? He must inherit completely the actual spiritual facts of the New Testament Age. Just as Jesus received the baptism of John the Baptist, during the Second Advent the Lord must inherit spiritually from Jesus. This is how worldwide spiritual Christianity can complete the New Testament Age and reach the present worldwide stage.
The Returning Lord has to receive the spiritual inheritance, but he cannot receive it without any effort on his part. He has to triumph over everything. He has to defeat Satan.
He has to prepare the foundation on which the numerous spirit individuals in the spirit world can surrender naturally to him. He will receive the inheritance only when he stands on the foundation of that highest victory.
Second, what he inherits spiritually, he must complete substantially on earth. The providence that was to have been completed in the Old Testament Age was prolonged and became the New Testament Age.
The Returning Lord must restore all this through indemnity spiritually, for the sake of opening the Completed Testament Age. Until now, spiritual and physical perfection could not be realized together. If the Lord does not achieve this, we cannot enter the Completed Testament Age.
In other words, if the Lord at his Second Advent does not realize all that Jesus needed to accomplish and indemnify his disappointments spiritually and physically, he will not be able to open the Completed Testament Age.
(054-287, 1972/03/26)
12. True Parents are the Messiah. They come to clean up history, which started from a standard of false love, false life, false lineage and false conscience. Centering on the original perfected Adam, the ideal man who is united with God, True Parents must emerge, find the mother who was lost, and connect the children to her.
Immediately after World War II, the Christian cultural realm achieved global unity and should have united with me. In this realm, Great Britain represented Eve, the mother nation, America represented the Abel nation, and France the Cain nation.
If this realm had become one with me, the communist realm would not have emerged. I had to spend 40 years restoring this through indemnity.
Because I completely lost the realm of the bride, I had to join the Abel nation, America, centering on Mother. My wife had to become the True Mother who represents the world.
To achieve that, I had to recover Great Britain, America, and France, each of which was lost. I had to recover the foundation of the Allied powers that was lost, the foundation of the united worldwide realm of the bride.
Accordingly, I fought with the world and subdued it.
Then, on this worldwide, victorious foundation, I established True Mother and announced True Parents and the Completed Testament Age. False parents led us to the age of broken and unrealized promises, not to the age of the fulfilled promise.
Now we are approaching the Completed Testament Age centering on God and True Parents, where the promise is fulfilled. That is the significance of True Parents and the Completed Testament Age. On the promise of the ideal of creation, I proclaimed this on the world level. (262-107, 1994/07/23)
13. On the foundation of the settlement of True Parents, I have proclaimed the arrival of the liberation of women, as well as of True Parents and the Completed Testament Age.
The Christian cultural realm could not stand as the bride, so Mother joined women from around the world and in 1992 declared and expanded a great movement. It is the movement for women's liberation.
Because Mother proclaimed liberation and announced True Parents and the Completed Testament Age, the world of Satan is ending.
The Unification Church is the only place where we can save the family and save the nation. Using forming anew the tradition of the family of True Parents as well as the true tribe, true people, true nation, true world, and the true heaven and earth, the true heavenly nation is being realized. Things are developing according to this formula. (247-110, 1993/04/25)
14. The Unification Church declaring “True Parents and the Completed Testament Age” means we are at a turning point. Because we are going to create the ideal family and the ideal tribe, the Family Federation had to emerge.
In the marriage Blessing of the Unification Church, the archangel at the completion level of the growth stage, namely the archangel on heaven's side, marries. After receiving the Blessing, if you go beyond the completion stage, you can enter the realm of the direct dominion as part of the family of Adam.
Accordingly, starting in 1960, I passed from the completion level of the growth stage into the completion stage, and during that course, I entered a time of worldwide persecution. I had to get beyond that period of persecution to achieve a settlement.
The settlement that should have happened in 1952 was delayed; the age of women, centering on True Mother and including the liberation of women, was announced in 1992, and True Parents were able to stand anew in the same position in front of heaven. If we had not liberated women, we would not have been able to complete the liberated realm of Adam.
All people are brothers and sisters until the lost standard of husband and wife in Adam's family centered on the love of Adam and Eve is achieved. We must go over and form anew the ideal family after fulfilling our position as the children of God. (264-231, 1994/11/03)
15. I teach only after first going out and putting everything into practice. Now, because I have accomplished everything for the sake of gathering again the lost realm of the bride and the world that was united in the aftermath of World War II, I asked Mother to join me in the work of establishing the Women's Federation for World Peace. We went out and worked on that together for a year in 1992.
After instructing Mother for over a year on precisely what I had indemnified during my life, I established Mother in the same position as I have and restored through indemnity the inheritance of the Christian cultural realm.
Using our standing in this place of liberation, God was liberated, True Parents were liberated, the people were liberated, and the entire New Testament Age was fulfilled. Now we can embark upon the Completed Testament Age.
(243-146, 1993/01/03)
16. At the time of the Second Coming, the Lord comes as one man, but after taking root on earth, I have horizontally dispatched numerous tribal messiahs. The Devil no longer has the power to seize or remove any of this.
Because these dispatches were from the position of perfection, transcending the top of the growth stage and the top of the completion stage, everything under heaven is bound to unite.
Where must you go to take root? You must take root after returning to your family. Because of the importance of this, I gave the instruction that home church activity being centered on what we call breaking through on the grassroots level. After the liberation of women, we are working to set this in good order.
By taking the last step, namely applying this formula in each family, we are recovering Eve and Cain and Abel, who were lost, and replanting them as seeds. By doing this, we become the patriarchs of good branch tribes in our original hometowns, and in this way we become ancestors. That world will have no relationship with Satan. The kingdom of heaven manifests from there.
(243-146, 1993/01/03)
Tribal messiah responsibilities
Together with the proclamation of the Completed Testament Age, and to conclude the history of salvation globally, True Parents directed that Unification Church members devote themselves with renewed energy to tribal messiah activity.
They made clear that tribal messiahs are the people who take on the mission to restore the family and, going further, to restore the tribe, people, and nation. They emphasized that tribal messiahs must take the lead in making True Parents known to the world.
17. Now it is time for everyone around the world to return to their hometowns. Having assigned tribal messiahs, Mother and Father are now firmly established on earth. The Lord who came in the New Testament Age was one person.
This person must come again and become the True Parent vertically and be established on this earth; then by receiving his Bride, give birth to sons and daughters. Now True Parents have deployed tens of thousands of couples as tribal messiahs on the horizontal plane.
This is the beginning of the Completed Testament Age. From 1993, because we are destined to bring about the unification of North and South Korea for the sake of the world, we are entering the Completed Testament Age.
Since the beginning of human history, Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel have been unable to secure their positions, but now, based upon the inauguration of WFWP on April 10, 1992, which expanded worldwide, and with the Blessing of already married couples from throughout the world, I have brought unity between the right wing, the left wing and the realm of Barabbas. At that time, I brought leaders of eight Muslim nations together and gave them the Blessing.
The path to the Blessing has been one of great indemnity until now. However, after giving the Blessing unconditionally to people without requiring them to fulfill any conditions to qualify for it, including to mothers and fathers from Satan's world who opposed me, I could realize the liberation of all people.
I established those people in the position of parents, of perfected Adam and Eve. (243-137, 1993/01/03)
18. Throughout history until today, people of faith were required to abandon the world, abandon their nation, their ancestors, their hometowns, and even their parent's wife, and children for the sake of the Will.
Now, however, since the age of restoration through indemnity has all passed, we must embrace the world, embrace our nation, embrace our people, and find and join our tribe.
Looking at Jesus' course in the context of the three stages of formation, growth, and completion, he is at the growth stage. True Parents come at the completion stage. But they have become the ancestors, turning history upside down.
Restoration through indemnity takes place in reverse order. It passes from the Old Testament Age through the New Testament Age to find fulfillment in the Completed Testament Age, whose center, True Parents, takes the position of the ancestors. The New Testament Age, which is the second stage, is Jesus' age.
Next, the third stage corresponds to the Completed Testament Age. In the same way, tribal messiahs have to rectify families.
The Revelation of John says that we have the role of king together with Christ. Now we are carrying out the role of king. The fact that we are carrying out the role of king together with Christ, who is coming as the king of kings, means we are rising to the position of parents.
In the Unification Church, we call such a central person with the tribal responsibility a “tribal messiah.” Now is the time when the door of the Completed Testament Age is opening. (243-140, 1993/01/03)
19. I fought and prepared the foundation so you can succeed without having to fight. After being hounded from my hometown and shunned by the world, I did the work of recovering everything.
Because you can receive the world, the nation, and the people as an inheritance from me, who has been victorious, you need only connect to the tribe. The tribe to which you can connect will receive the fortune of the people, the nation, and the world.
There is no greater blessing you can give your tribe. Because of that, tribal messiahs stand in the position of ancestors who possess the authority of kings. This is something everyone must achieve. There are no exceptions.
When the people of Israel entered the blessed land of Canaan, if one of them knew that another person had been left behind, he or she had to take responsibility for that person.
Now since the blessed land of Canaan has appeared, we must recover the national ideal envisioned at the founding of our nation. The Unification Church must do the same. We must recover the nation. We must unify North and South Korea. (243-164, 1993/01/03)
20. If you are going to become a tribal messiah, you first must succeed as a family messiah. If you do not do tribal messiah activity, after your ancestors who are in the spirit world come down you will lose your position.
Your ancestors in the spirit world are in the position of the archangel. Given that we have to save everything from the position of perfected Adam, when we are obstructing the achievement of this, our ancestors, in the spirit world, will move us out of the way.
As it was in the Old Testament Age, we offer all things as indemnity, and as it was in the New Testament Age, we offer the Son as indemnity. In the Completed Testament Age, the Parents pay indemnity. If you do not act as their substantial selves, you will be struck. A terrifying attack will come at you from the spirit world.
Before this happens, you must work quickly and put your names in the family register. In the age of Jesus, after leading family messiahs and tribal messiahs, Jesus was going to register the nation.
Because he could not do that, in the age of the Second Coming we have to register on the world level and create a nation. If you do not become a family messiah and a tribal messiah, you will not be entered into the family register.
To become a tribal messiah, you must complete the mission of the family messiah. A family messiah is called a messiah too because such a person has no relationship with Satan. (251-266, 1993/10/31)
21. Until now, religions commanded people to renounce the world and abstain from marriage. However, the Unification Church tells you to return to your hometown.
Because I proclaimed the Foundation Day of the Nation of the Unified World and announced True Parents and the Completed Testament Age, we must go out and recover the family and return to the homeland. We must recover the nation. If we hold on to the family of fallen Adam, we cannot unite the world.
Representing the worldwide nations of Great Britain, the United States, and France, which represent the standard of Adam's family, Cain, and Abel have to become one with the bride nation, and after attending me, the Returning Lord, who becomes the Bridegroom, they must become one with God. By doing that horizontally, the perfect authority of the Lord is extended to the perfect authority of the tribal messiah.
As for the authority of the tribal messiah, the second ancestor, Jesus, was going to accomplish what the first ancestor, Adam, was unable to do because of the Fall. Because this was frustrating again, the third ancestor came and indemnified and fulfilled Jesus' course.
Family messiahs are those who perfect their family and thereby represent Adam's family. After doing this, they will be acknowledged as having equal value on level ground. (248-316, 1993/10/03)
22. Today the Unification Church has ended the 40-year wilderness course and arrived in Canaan. Now we must proclaim True Parents and restore our nation. It means to return to our home country and settle there to redeem the realm of Satan.
We must return to our nation. Therefore, the issue is, how do we establish the national ideal envisioned at the founding of our country? This is like the time when the people of Israel settled in Canaan. Therefore, the world – not the nation but the world – is being divided into the side of Satan and the side of heaven. Our territory is the entire world, beyond national boundaries.
(249-246, 1993/10/10)
23. We have come to the time when tribal messiahs, who are branches of the Messiah, will complete the history of world salvation and open the Completed Testament Age.
You must perfect your family and go further to redeem your tribe, people, and nation. We call the people who take on this responsibility “tribal messiahs.” We have already dispatched many couples worldwide as tribal messiah missionaries. It will not be long before ideal families are established around the world.
In the Completed Testament Age, the role of the mother is significant. She is central to reversing what happened at the time of the Fall.
Once the mother and children become one, they can reclaim the husband, receive the Blessing of True Parents, and return to a place in front of God.
(True Mother, 1993/10/04)
24. In your family, there is nothing you can be more proud of than True Parents. The fact that you have become children of God and children of True Parents means you will be called victors among victors throughout all the ages, and the leaders among those leaders who have subjugated Satan in the providence of salvation. In the same way that True Mother and I proclaimed True Parents globally, you must proudly proclaim the tradition of True Parents.
After going to your home village, you must proudly declare in front of the people that you have become children of True Parents. You must proudly declare it in front of your family, tribe, and nation, and proudly declare it in front of the world.
If you do not proudly speak of True Parents in your village, your path will be blocked. You must understand that the people who proudly proclaim True Parents, who go around testifying to them beginning in the family and reaching the tribe, people, nation, and world will become liberated victors. (275-297, 1996/01/01)
Sun Myung Moon