God is the source of peace. When we look around us and see only conflict and war, when we despair of finding peace on earth, we turn to God, the King of Peace.
When God comes to us, He soothes the anger in our breasts and lets us see our enemy from a different perspective, as a brother or sister. God is love; therefore, with God we gain the power to love even our enemy. (See Chapter 13: Love Your Enemy)
Therefore, the key to peace is to live with God and to manifest God’s love. Father Moon adds an additional insight: since God’s love dwells especially in the thick relationships of marriage and family, the God-centered, peaceful family is the actual building block of a peaceful society, nation, and world.
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men! Luke 2.14
May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. Numbers 6.26
God is peace, his name is peace, and all is bound together in peace.2 Zohar 3.10b (Judaism)
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. John 14.27
Allah summons to the abode of Peace, and leads whom He will to a straight path. Qur’an 10.25
The whole of the Torah is for the purpose of promoting peace. Talmud, Gittin 59b (Judaism)
Thou dost keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusts in thee. Isaiah 26.3
Our Father, it is thy universe, it is thy will: Let us be at peace, let the souls of the people be cool. Thou art our Father, remove all evil from our path. Nuer Prayer (African Traditional Religions)
A man is a true Muslim when no other Muslim has to fear anything from either his tongue or his hand. Hadith of Bukhari (Islam)
Tao invariably takes no action, and yet there is nothing left undone. If kings and barons can keep it, all things will transform spontaneously. If, after transformation, they should desire to be active, I would restrain them with simplicity, which has no name. Simplicity, which has no name, is free of desires. Being free of desires, it is tranquil. And the world will be at peace of its own accord. Tao Te Ching 37 (Taoism)
Sun Myung Moon
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
God is the King of love, the King of peace and happiness, and the core of the ideal.
Therefore, when human beings are blocked in their search for such things, there is no other way except through God. (72:11, May 7, 1974)
If people are quarreling and God appears in their midst, they change and want to help each other. (330:267, August 20, 2000)
True peace, true happiness, and true freedom do not originate from human beings, but from the true God. Therefore, we can expect that people who are not living in accordance with God’s Will, or who are entangled in sinful circumstances, cannot attain true peace, true happiness, or true freedom. (78:103, May 6, 1975)
People have pursued peace throughout history. Nevertheless, this world is filled with distrust, treachery, and hate; our efforts to establish a world of peace are at an impasse.
Therefore, we are led to think that to attain our hope, we must rely on an absolute and unchanging Being beyond time and space. That must be God. We believe that God must be the subject of all ideals—love, happiness, and peace.
Nevertheless, God cannot establish happiness, love and peace by Himself.
God needs relationships with object partners, human beings, to establish these ideals. God needs us to complete His love, His ideal, His joy and His peace. (74:46-47, November 27, 1974)
Why is fighting evil?
It is because God cannot dwell amidst fighting. God is the King of peace, unification, unity, and supreme goodness. Therefore, He just cannot dwell in places of struggle. This world became evil due to the departure of God. (61:291, July 24, 1994)
When people say “peace,” what are they talking about?
They are not talking about peace itself, but a mutual relationship. There has to be love there. There can be no peace unless there is love. (175:196, April 17, 1988)
The Chinese characters for peace (平和 pyeonghwa) signify “horizontal” (平 pyeong) and “harmony” (和 hwa). This means that when a partner goes around, the center wants to go around along with it. This is possible only when there is harmony—not conflict—between the center and his partners. (82:133, January 4, 1976)
The landing place for peace among humankind can only be prepared by people who are grateful to God as their Center and who establish a unified realm of love.
It would be a spherical realm, with love flowing equally in all directions, north, south, east and west. (357:131, October 29, 2001)
What educational materials will God employ to teach people how to realize peace on earth?
He will use materials on love. Since love is invisible, God will find a man and a woman who love each other. Observing them, we learn that the source of peace in their relationship is love. Only love has the power to make peace possible. (193:153, October 3, 1989)
The basic unit of a peaceful world is not a peaceful nation but a peaceful family. A man and a woman, each with mind and body in harmony, who wed with God’s Blessing and make a family— this is the basic unit of a peaceful world.
These peaceful families are the families that have received God’s Blessing through the True Parents—a blessing available for the first time in history. They structure their lives with true love and establish harmonious oneness. As these families prosper, they bring peace to their clans, to their communities, to their nations, and to the world. (December 27, 2002)
Human beings were created as temples of God. The Spirit of God was to dwell with them every moment of every day.
In that situation, could people possibly make war on each other?
In the original world of creation, fighting among human beings would be as if your right hand were fighting your left hand, or as if your hand were trying to pull out your eye.
In other words, in the ideal world of God’s creation, war would be impossible.
People would only be able to love each other and live in harmony. Their only challenge would be to compete in ways of glorifying their Creator. In such a world, there could be no conflict, no misunderstanding. There would only be harmony, cooperation and mutual assistance.
People would be united in the pursuit of truth, goodness, and beauty. It would truly be the world of peace that humanity has been seeking. This world would reflect the nature of God, whose primary characteristic is unselfishness, unselfish love, and unselfish peace. In religious terms, it is called the Kingdom of God on earth. (219:116, August 28, 1991)
Sun Myung Moon