Former Headquarters Church
Revelation 21:1–6
Human Beings and God, Wandering in Search of a Better Place
The countless human beings living upon this earth are, at this very moment, wandering searching for a better place that even they themselves do not know. Just as the human beings living upon the earth are so, God, who faces the earth, is likewise so.
If we acknowledge the fact that this earth on which we live is truly not a good place, then we cannot but admit the fact that we ourselves, the individuals living within it, are likewise not true.
If we acknowledge the fact that we have not become a true world and a true self, then we cannot but acknowledge that God too, who faces this world and faces us, does not abide in His original form.
On the historical course in which God Himself has led these human beings, had He been able to set humanity before an immutable foundation, calling them the beings He had awaited as the true ones, then we human beings too would have been able to stand in that true place.
Yet because God today does not abide in such a place, we can see that we human beings today likewise live in this place we do not desire.
To put it another way, because human beings are in the place of longing for the true form in an imperfect state, we must not forget that God, too, who has an unbreakable bond with humanity, stands in the bitter position of being unable to do otherwise than to abide, together with humanity, in an imperfect place.
That heaven and earth are so, and while everything originating from Heaven likewise longs for the true thing, is a fact that cannot be denied, whether seen historically or in present reality, whatever we examine.
The true place, that place we truly wish to go, is a place longed for not only by us in the present but also longed for by the prophets of the past who wove history, and a place our descendants too cannot but long for.
If God is truly love, and the center of all things is God, then God surely has the responsibility to pioneer this untrue human world, and we who live upon the earth, moving together under a common goal with God, must also pioneer that true place we long for.
If we have a conscience that aspires toward goodness, that conscience must move under such a purpose; and if there is a religious body, it too must move for the sake of such a purpose.
If, on the road of human life, we cannot encounter “that place we truly wish to go”—which the mind can enjoy, which life can enjoy, which society can enjoy, and which the whole of humanity can enjoy—then, though history passes on and on, there can be no true happiness for humanity. Whatever ideology asserts happiness, that is impossible.
So long as God exists, the place we truly wish to go, the place where we can live in joy, must surely be brought to completion upon this earth. So long as this is not completed, war cannot end upon this earth, and all contradictory phenomena cannot be removed.
The goal of salvation for saving such human beings is called, comprehensively and borrowing a religious term, the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, unless the Kingdom of Heaven spoken of in religion—that movement to restore the Kingdom of Heaven—is unfolded, we cannot, however we try, go to that world we truly wish to go to.
If God exists, He must surely realize such a world.
If God cannot fulfill the purpose of the Word He promised to humanity, then we do not need such a God.
What Kind of Place Is the Place We Truly Wish to Go?
If God exists, He must bring this matter to resolution; and if there is a person who follows God, that person must walk a path of destiny in which, on the course of his life, he cannot but take up this work and carry it out. The world realized in this way is what is called the ideal world.
If human beings had not fallen, the phrase “the place we truly wish to go” would be unnecessary. Why? Because, had they not fallen, they would already be in that place. Had human beings lived in such a world, the providence of Restoration—that is, the providence of salvation—would have been unnecessary for us.
But human beings lost all such things. Therefore, the countless heroes and patriots who have come and gone until now all set out from the position of having lost.
Since all the people of the past wished to seek that place we truly wish to go, and seek it even now, we cannot deny that we are in the position of having lost everything. That is why we say human beings fell.
By reason of the Fall, the world of hope we long for became irrelevant to us, the world of the spiritual ideal toward which we ought to advance toward eternal existence vanished without a trace, and it became a world preoccupied with realizing the physical ideal.
We lost the world of the ideal that the mind longs for and in which the mind can rejoice—that is, the Kingdom of Heaven. Yet so long as the mind functions, we must surely realize the world of the purpose the mind aspires to.
Then, if there is a place we truly wish to go, what kind of place is it?
It is a place where we can encounter the God we are calling upon. At once a place where we can encounter God, it is a world where there is a true family centered on the True Parents, and a world where true brothers and sisters live. Going further, it is a true nation centered on a true people and a true sovereignty.
Yet though countless people have come and gone on the historical course, there has been no one who saw the true form of God, no one who had true parents, no one who had true brothers and sisters, and no nation that had a true sovereign and a true sovereignty. That is why, even today, we are seeking such things.
Seen in this way, we are in a state of having lost all the elements of the highest ideal. So we must know how to feel what a pitiful existence we ourselves are. I mean, we must feel how pitiful my self is, living in the midst of such a reality.
Here, we cannot but establish a standard by which we can turn the road of human life in a new direction. However happy a person may say the place he is now in is, when we ask whether that happiness can continue forever, it cannot.
Every human being living upon the earth, without exception, is a being pitiful beyond words.
Of course, the person who lives pitifully in this present world is pitiful, but the time has come when even the person with great power and imposing authority must feel that he too is a pitiful being.
The Reality in Which We Human Beings Are Placed
When we look at the actual condition of Korea today, everyone is bound up in their livelihood. They are bound up in social circumstances. They are bound up in a place where, try as one might, one cannot resolve it, and try as one might, one cannot do anything about it. Though the heart of hope toward tomorrow is earnest, they are bound up in circumstances in which they cannot even think of resolving such problems.
It would be good if this reality dragged me toward the eternal welfare of happiness, toward that place I truly wish to go—but it is rather dragging me in the opposite direction. Herein lies struggle, and herein lies suffering.
Therefore, there will be times when you feel the need for a friend in resolving such an environment. Going further, you will wish for a leader who can pioneer such an environment.
Yet if everything were resolved merely by having a friend and a leader, that would be one thing; but when it is not so, one comes to long for a true brother who can resolve such an environment through a deep heart.
Not only a brother, but going further, one cannot but long for a true parent who can take responsibility for such an environment and who can embrace and love me.
Then, is the friend you face in that environment today a true friend?
Is the brother you face in that environment a true brother? Is the parent you face in that environment a true parent? No. I say, no.
Because it is an environment entangled by the bond of the Fall, all the friends here too are friends who have not escaped the bond of the Fall, and parents and brothers are likewise so. We are bound up in such a place.
If, in that place we truly wish to go, an original, ideal family had been formed—centered on God, centered on the original parents, centered on original brothers and sisters—how happy that would be! Yet how pitiful it is that we have become human beings in a position of having lost all such ideal conditions and of having to long for them and think of them only conceptually.
It is God's love that seeks to save such pitiful human beings. Because He is a God of such love, you must realize the fact that, without the human beings upon the earth knowing it, while the human beings upon the earth lead lives gasping, bound up in the realm of death, God has labored infinitely behind us, or before us, to pioneer this path.
Each time you grow weary of such an environment, you yearn for something new; each time you grow tired of the position you are in, you think of something new. But that is not something only you think.
Each time, God, behind you or before you, is leading you toward the world of the original purpose. You must realize that this hand of God is with you.
This hour is a solemn hour in which God opens the door of our pitiful and grievous mind in such an environment and enters in, striking us to make us go to the true place. Therefore, you must realize that this very hour is an important hour, indispensable in my whole life.
Through the new shock and feeling received in this hour, we must analyze the life we have led until now, criticize the self, and advance toward tomorrow as a new me. You will experience much of this through your individual life, family life, or social life.
The Problem That Must Be Resolved First
On the historical course until now, to save human beings who are in a pitiful state, like orphans, God has carried out the providence from the position of a friend, or from the position of a brother, or from the position of a parent, and going further, from the position of a teacher. And when even that would not do, He carried out the providence from the position of a servant.
You must realize that, in this hour today as well, Heaven appears before us as Savior, or as parent, or as brother or friend.
That the historical sages and great figures came to this earth, contributed to human history, and departed, was not because they themselves were so great as to become so. They were people sent by Heaven to feel indignation against the environment and against evil, to criticize the age, and to present a new direction before the multitude.
We know well the fact that, on the historical course, our ancestors never once welcomed such people. Rather, they persecuted them and, in the end, drove them to the brink of death.
For this reason, however fine a figure one may be, going about brazenly with head held high, seen from God's position, this is an unforgivable race of rebels.
I mean that in your body remains the blood and flesh of ancestors who killed those people sent by Heaven—those who revered Heaven and lived for the sake of Heaven. It is not only those who, in olden days, killed such people who are traitors, and not only those who betrayed Heaven who are betrayers; we ourselves today, in whom that blood and flesh continue, are in such a position.
Heaven has not worked only on the historical course of the past, but is also working in the present reality in which you live. Though you do not know it, there were times when Heaven came seeking you as a true friend. At some times, he came as a true brother, and at some times as a parent, as a teacher. He came seeking you. Yet we did not attend to God as a friend, did not attend Him as a brother, did not attend Him as a parent, did not attend Him as a teacher. Where is there a sin greater than this?
Those who were sent did not represent a single nation. Though they were people sent by the Creator on behalf of the whole created world, from the heavens above to the earth below, the human beings on earth betrayed such people, persecuted them, drove them out, killed them, and did as they pleased.
Reckoning from this standpoint, because we are beings who obtained life through the historical lineage, all of us, you and I alike, cannot but be betrayers and sinners, difficult to be forgiven before Heaven.
Where there is sin, there can be no happiness. Where there is sin, suffering follows, and through colliding with circumstances of suffering, it ends in destruction. The countless multitudes of humanity living upon the earth have not yet, to this day, settled the accounts of the historical suffering steeped deep within their minds. They have not removed the historical sorrow from their bodies.
Then how is this historical despair, this historical suffering, this historical sorrow, this historical power of death to be set in order?
How is the historical power of death that comes seeking in through historical suffering to be settled, and how is this sorrow and suffering to be done away with?
Humanity must resolve this problem. This is the pressing destiny of us who are placed in this age. Therefore, we must gather our minds, gather our devotion, and set it in order, pouring out all our sincerity.
Now is such a time. It is a time to set the environment in order again, and going further, to set in order even the mind and the heart. The problem is how, centering on oneself, one is to set such a life in order.
Humanity, advancing toward the gateway of the historical judgment that comes at the last, cannot but bring this power of death to resolution.
So long as this problem is not resolved, even if there is a place we truly wish to go, that place comes to have no bearing on us whatsoever. Therefore, the whole must be settled.
God's Greatest Indignation
We know that God exists, and we also know that there is Satan, who is opposed to God.
What kind of being is Satan?
On the historical course, he is the highest of sinners. On the historical course, he is the highest sinner and their ringleader.
Until now, for six thousand years, Satan has opposed God, who has been carrying out the providence. For six thousand years, he has opposed Him without missing a single day, and at this very hour, he is opposing Him.
However evil a human being may be, in his mind, he thinks of following Heaven.
He thinks of the truth. But Satan seeks to destroy even this mind of the human being. Because Satan has opposed the work of Heaven in this way, the whole world has become his stage, and at the same time, even you yourselves have become Satan's stage.
Then, to make this Satan submit, what must be done?
The sins of history must be settled. The suffering accumulated through history must be removed. It is not the suffering of the age that is the problem; the historical suffering must be removed. To banish this Satan from me, what must be done? I must be liberated from the historical sorrow.
Must it not be so?
If there is anything fearful in the world, there is nothing more fearful than Satan. However fearful this age may be, this age will pass away one way or another. But from the very day human beings fell, there is one enemy that does not depart from human beings—and that is Satan, the devil, the evil spirit.
If, while we live upon the earth, there is some enemy, we can take revenge upon him.
If we cannot take revenge in one generation, we can take revenge even through later generations.
Yet humanity has not been able to banish the enemy Satan, who has acted in God's stead for six thousand years, and has not once been able to take revenge upon that enemy. The greatest of God's indignations is that this enemy has not been avenged.
What is the Great Judgment?
It is not the annihilation of human beings upon the earth, but the destruction of the great enemy, Satan. This is the Great Judgment.
To utterly cut down this Satan—who is the historical enemy, the enemy of this age, and one who can be an enemy in the future as well—is the Great Judgment.
Until now, Satan has tangled this way and that, the path of the saints who go to become true people, the path walked by people of true conscience. For example, suppose there is some sovereign nation in this age.
If one lives well, or conscientiously, under that nation's constitution or that nation's ideology, one will be acknowledged as a righteous person.
However much such goodness was acknowledged, when the age passes, it is overturned. When that happens, what was called good in the past cannot be good in the present, and what is called good today cannot be good tomorrow. Is it not so? East cannot become west, and west cannot become south.
Such goodness is not absolute goodness. It can be temporary goodness, but it cannot be absolute goodness. To compare it to a tree, such goodness can carry out the work of goodness corresponding to the leaves, but it cannot carry out the work of goodness corresponding to the trunk or the branches.
Therefore, as the age changes, the definition of goodness changes, and the definition of evil changes as well. Because, after human beings fell, the standard in the world wavers back and forth, it has become a world tangled beyond words.
If God exists, He must do one of three things with this tangled world: acknowledge it wholly as good; or else shatter it wholly and remake it; or cut it off wholly and do away with it. Without establishing one of these three methods, this earth can by no means be led into a world of goodness.
The Immediate Problem of the Last Days
God does not, without any condition, pronounce the people upon the earth good or evil.
Of course, there is a difference between the good person and the evil person, but that difference is no more than the difference between a sheet of paper. The standard of goodness is God, and the standard of evil is Satan.
The human being is in a position where, between good and evil, he can come into contact with good and can come into contact with evil. Then, in the Last Days, how must this be resolved?
Satan, the master of evil, must be struck down. Only then does evil end.
Among the three expedients I mentioned earlier, what does it mean to smash something?
It does not mean to smash people. It means to smash Satan, who is opposed to God, the highest goodness.
If only Satan is removed, human beings cannot, try as they might, do evil deeds.
Is that not so?
If the parent is good, the child is bound to be good. The law of heredity is so. If the parent is evil, the child is bound to be evil. When the root of evil is severed and made unable to function, evil is naturally dissolved.
The nearer the Last Days draw, the more evil comes to occupy even each one of our cells. For this reason, however fine a person in the world may be called, Satan occupies even that person's cells. His living and his eating are all governed by Satan. The world today moves within such a realm. Yet on the other hand, goodness centered on God is coming to occupy ground. So it comes forth in two streams.
Hereafter, God's side will be acknowledged as the highest goodness, and Satan's side as the highest evil. Is it not so? Is every person of the Republic of Korea a good person merely for being a citizen of the Republic of Korea?
A person of the Republic of Korea calls a person of the Republic of Korea right. A person of the right wing regards what the right wing does as right.
Even so, is it right when seen from above?
If it holds some reciprocal relationship with the subject, it is acknowledged as righteous in the overall sense. The details can be adjusted. The problem is where the center is.
Countless people have lived on the historical course, and countless people live upon this earth, yet the problem is whether they are on God's side or on Satan's side.
If you say you do not believe in God merely because God is invisible, you have no way whatsoever to escape from within the realm of evil.
You have no way to escape from the iron net of Satan, tangled and tangled over six thousand years. But if you only have the conviction to say, “I am on God's side,” in the place where the decision between life and death breaks out, believing in and relying on the Word of God, you will not perish.
Then, to cross over into the realm of goodness, what must you do?
You must confess directly, “I was such and such a sinner.” I mean, you cannot cross over just as you are. You must settle the accounts and cross over. It is for this reason that the term “salvation” was established and the term “forgiveness” was established. And so the Last Days are a time when one can be greatly forgiven and also a time when one can be greatly punished. You must realize this.
On the day of judgment, the one who confesses directly before humanity that he was a historical sinner can cross over into the realm of historical goodness. In that place, those who can style themselves as being on God's side can govern the heavenly world and the earthly world.
Only by standing in the position of having settled the accounts of everything that wandered in the den of sin can one drive out Satan.
For this reason, the root of sin is the problem. We bear sin from the sin Adam and Eve committed down to the sins of the present age.
For this reason, we must present the condition: “O Heaven! We are a historical race that betrayed Heaven within the Will of the providence.
We are historical sinners who betrayed the prophets and forefathers who came in age after age, representing the Will of the providence of salvation—that is, from the family of Adam, the family of Noah, the family of Abraham, the family of Moses, Jesus, and going further, even the Lord of the Second Advent, should he come.”
The Requisites for Realizing Hope
Every person, without exception, holds hope. To realize hope, the circumstances must be made to connect.
For the circumstances to connect, a standard of heart must be set up. Is it not so? No one can omit these three—heart, circumstances, and hope. That is why the Bible says faith, hope, and love must always abide.
Then what is God's hope?
God hopes to arrive at that place we truly wish to go and to live there together.
Because such a world has not come about, we too are advancing toward that world of hope, that place we truly wish to go. Again, while God has hope, He also has circumstances. What kind of circumstances are those? They are sorrowful circumstances.
If, with joyful circumstances, the whole world were full of mirth and merriment, that world of hope would be joyful. But because we are bound up in sorrowful circumstances, even should joyful hope come seeking us, we must pack up our bundle and leave. Until now, it has been so.
However much you pray and however much grace you receive, the time of hope, or the Will one hopes for, cannot act as something eternal, centered on us who live within the realm of sin and sorrowful circumstances. Morning differs, midday differs, and evening differs.
Just as spring, summer, autumn, and winter change, the circumstances change in myriad forms, so the grace of Heaven, holding a foundation of hope, moves enduringly through our lives. The grace received in that way amounts to no more than something temporary.
Beyond such grace, God gives grace worldwide. He gives grace, but not to one person only. He gives it to the countless saints upon the earth. Even when He gives grace in this way, those who collapse in the midst of it are the more numerous.
Yet Heaven, even if nine of ten people collapse and only one remains, sets up ten centered on that one person.
If even one person sets up a standard of the proper form, centering on that, He raises it one stage, and raises it again, and goes on. It is in this way that the countless religions and the countless forms of peoples have come forth.
We hold hope. But because the environment and circumstances do not connect, we pioneer a method to set this in order.
Centering on love, or on a doctrine, at the last, with the unification of the ideal as the goal, we proceed from the unification of life to the unification of the environment. And so, only when hope and circumstances are completely established as the hope of goodness and the circumstances of goodness, is the garden of the heart of goodness at last built.
This is the Kingdom of Heaven on earth that Jesus came to this earth to realize, and that he must realize when he comes again.
Then what kind of place is that true place, that place where we will live forever?
It is a place where my hope appears not as a relative value, but where it can appear, together with my heart and circumstances, as a four-directional value (사방성).
Going further, it is a place where it can appear as a three-dimensional value (입체성).
At the same time, in that place, even living while forgetting everything, one cannot become unhappy and cannot become sorrowful. It is a place where, the more one thinks of it, the more joyful one is; the more one thinks of it, the more thankful; the more one thinks of it, a joy that my feelings cannot restrain seeps into my body.
If it only becomes so, everything is accomplished.
The Victorious Son and Daughter for Whom God Waits
Is it not so with you as well?
When the mind is exceedingly joyful, one can forgive everyone's faults. God too wishes to forgive the billions upon billions of sinners on the earth. Though they have sinned, He wishes simply to forgive them.
God wishes that someone upon the earth would come forth and comfort Him, saying, “Have You not, with such and such a heart, such and such a hope, and such and such circumstances, toiled for humanity and carried out the providence of salvation?”
One person must come forth who, embracing the historical heart and circumstances and hope, the heart and circumstances and hope of the age, and the heart and circumstances and hope of the future, appears upon this earth in a victorious form and can say, “Father! Release now the historical sorrow and han until today.” Why? Because, to forgive the historical sin, it is so.
If there comes forth a son who, through God's historical, present, and future circumstances and hope and heart, can say, “O Father!”, then God, rejoicing greatly, will say, “Yes, my son! What is your wish?”
Then what will that son answer?
That son will have found it very difficult to come out of the world of death. He will have found it very difficult to pioneer the course of death. Yet he is a son who knows well that pioneering this hard path is the work of the Father, and that to struggle to pioneer this path, heedless even of death, and at the last to build the rampart of victory is the common destiny of humanity.
How could such a son make the demand, “Take me to heaven, give me blessing, and just let me live without limit”? He will say, “Your wish is to save the sin-laden humanity of the earth and to make the six-thousand-year enemy Satan submit; I will do that.”
Because human beings could not, staking their heart, call God Father; could not, staking their circumstances, call God Father; could not, staking their hope, call God Father—human beings today are gasping in this way. But even so, it is not as though, by suddenly calling God “my Father” and saying to Satan, “Hey, you wretch, Satan,” Satan would submit.
Therefore, the standard of the principled son and daughter that God sought to establish in the heavens must be grasped, and on earth too, the standard of the principled son and daughter that God sought to establish must be grasped. That principle is evil and cannot govern. Only on that day does Satan at last submit.
Such a believer of great historical victory must come forth and return the joy of victory before all people.
If such a one comes forth, by him, human beings can cross over the ridge of judgment. But Satan alone is not forgiven. Such a time is the time of the Great Judgment.
Judgment is not the destroying of the earth by hurling down thunderbolts of fire.
If God were such, how could He be called the God of love?
Is it not so even in the world? When one finds a lost child, or holds a wedding, or has some joyful matter, one forgives even a past enemy and forgets entirely even the sorrowful matters of the past.
God too wishes to forgive the countless sinners on the earth on the condition of joy, but no son or daughter can rouse the joyous stimulation by which He can forgive human beings.
Jesus, too, was unable to say, in a glorious, victorious form, “Father, Your heart was thus, Your circumstances were thus, Your hope was thus. O God! I have accomplished what You wished; look upon me and rejoice.”
God has, until now, forgiven human beings from a place of sorrow. He has been forgiven from within the realm of sorrow. So even when He forgives, Satan rushes in again.
Before the foundation of sorrow is dissolved, one is forgiven and yet sins again and sins. God is waiting for a human being who, meeting one day with joy, can say before heaven and earth, before the whole universe, “O Heaven! O earth! Exalt My Son. Let this joy of today remain forever, for myriad generations.”
Look at the Republic of Korea today as well.
Now that the Second Republic has been established, are they not granting amnesty, holding up the condition of joy, to those who were caught up in incidents before?
The spiritual world is the same.
When we think of such things, you should not grieve that this earth is evil, but should grieve over the fact that you yourself have not found the point of resolution.
If I cannot resolve it, then God will surely work, even by raising a substance who can accomplish that purpose; so you must open your eyes wide, keep your spirit alert, and seek, watching whether such a one will not appear somewhere.
Do You Have the Content by Which You Can Make Jesus Your Friend?
To drive you into the eternal pit of death, Satan fights day and night. To drag you to hell, Satan fights without rest, by night and by day. And what about you? You eat all you wish to eat and do all you wish to do. Will this do? This will not do.
Even though the body may lead a comfortable life, in the heart one must fight day and night.
We call Abraham the father of faith. He is one who attended to God with all his devotion. God demands a child of the heart who, with such devotion, has joined the bond of the heart.
For this reason, Abraham's true child is not the child Abraham begot, but the person who, following Abraham's heart, knows how to call God by the God Abraham called upon. He is precisely Abraham's child. Again, the person who, following Jesus' heart, knows how to call Father the God that Jesus called upon, becomes Jesus' brother.
The Savior is something needed in the world of sin. After being saved, the Savior is not needed. At that time, he became a friend. Not only a friend, but a brother as well—a brother. If you become a person who, with boldness, can say, “Jesus is my elder brother,” you do not go to hell.
Then, do you possess the conditions by which you can be called Jesus' friend?
Do you possess the content by which you can make the historical Jesus, the Jesus of the age, the future Jesus, your friend?
If you have only that, there is no problem. If you have only that, you do not need to worry over how this world, tangled in complex environments and circumstances, will become a world of goodness.
In a tense world where left and right are in confrontation, today your right foot treads upon the right wing and your left foot treads upon the left wing. Your right hand grasps the right wing, and your left hand grasps the left wing. These come to fight one another. When they fight, they do not strike the chest but strike the head. At such a time, one must not fight without an ideal and without God.
We who look upon such a world must clarify the purpose of that struggle. It is not that human beings fight because they wish to fight—the legs of the compass turn without knowing who is turning them. The head of the compass is elsewhere. The human being is only watching the line being drawn.
There is not a single person, of whatever kind, who wishes to be ruined. Go to Myeongdong Street and look. With eyes burning, they try not to lose even a mere ten won. Everyone goes about trying to gain even ten won.
Who makes it so?
It is not oneself who makes it so. Even if I wish, it does not become as I wish. The reason it does not become as one intends is that the prime cause is not oneself.
Everything, by reason of the fortune of heaven and earth, unfolds in complete complexity according to the four-directional nature of that age.
One Must Become a Person Who Can Call God Father
Today, centering on the UN General Assembly, the heads of the non-aligned nations have gathered and are turning the assembly into a scene of chaos. But no grave matter is settled by being done among human beings alone.
When it is done among human beings alone, even when concluding, one must collide to conclude, and when uniting, one must collide with one another to unite.
So in the Last Days, such things break out again and again. But here, if God exists, we can be at ease. Conversely, if God does not exist, we are anxious.
If there is a God who adjusts everything, then to accomplish some purpose, to make some point of resolution, He cannot but lead things to fit it.
Otherwise, we cannot, try as we might, be at ease. If there is no God, we worry; but if God exists, there is some room to think.
Here, if God brings resolution, He surely brings resolution through a person. If God established the Will alone and resolved it alone, there would be no need to create human beings.
The Will of God is set up to be connected to this earth surely through a reciprocal relationship—that is, through human beings in a reciprocal position—and not by God alone. It is not set up for Him to do directly. The law is so.
For this reason, so long as God exists, in the worldwide era of the end, He will need a human being who has an intimate relationship with God; and what kind of person must that person be? There is the best God, and there is the worst Satan; the problem is how to resolve this.
One must, by whatever means, cut down this historical Satan and become one who can call the historical God “my Father.” To do so, as I said earlier, one must become a son and daughter of God through the heart of the past, present, and future, whom God can receive as a true son and daughter. If only it becomes so, there is no problem whatsoever. Is it not so?
However much one wishes to be filial, if one does not know one's parent, one cannot be filial.
Can one suddenly be filial upon meeting a father from whom one was separated decades ago?
It does not become so. Looking closely at the father's face, knowing whether I resemble my father and whether our life-feelings connect, and matching even to a certain extent the standard of heart—only then does one become filial. One cannot do it all at once. It is the same between human beings and God.
Had human beings not fallen, they would forever have been the sons and daughters of God. But by reason of falling, they lost God and could not attend to God as Father.
God set up a servant and taught, “I am your Father.” He had a servant do it, and had an angel do it, and taught it. Such an age is the Old Testament Age. Next, he worked through a son. That age is the New Testament Age. Thereafter, He worked through the Holy Spirit.
Do you know what kind of spirit the Holy Spirit is?
It is the Mother Spirit. He set up the Mother Spirit and worked. Thereafter, He sets up the Father and works. He worked through a servant, He worked through a son, He worked through the Holy Spirit.
Now, in the Last Days, He works by setting up the Father.
For What Does the Lord Come?
Until now, in this heaven and earth, there has been no true filial son of God. Of course, Jesus came as the Messiah of all people and as the only begotten Son of Heaven, but upon this earth, he departed without being able to fulfill all his filial piety before God. In his mind, it was earnest, but because the environment was not in place, he could not fulfill the role of a filial son.
The purpose for which God set Jesus before the people of Israel was to have him lead them and make the world recognize that the people Heaven had chosen are more wondrous than any people or nation of the satanic world and to receive acknowledgment from them. Yet Jesus did not get to be filial before God from a position of having been acknowledged.
For this reason, one must come who, on behalf of heaven and earth, fulfills true filial piety upon this earth. That one is the Lord of the Second Advent. Do you know for what the Lord who comes again comes?
Because Jesus, having come upon the earth, could not lead the people of Israel and fulfill all his filial piety before God, he came to do this. God, looking toward such an hour, has passed through the six-thousand-year historical course. Tumbling over and over through the course of thousands of years of history, He has taught the heart of the Father. He has taught: I am your Father; how you grew up; what your sin is; how you have become; what enemy dragged you away.
Now you must know what Satan is. You must know how Satan came to be the enemy. So you must be able to say, “You wretch, Satan! Did you not commit, in the past, a sin unpardonable before Heaven?
Did you not sin unpardonably by us human beings?”
We must know Satan's sin. That Satan is the enemy who has opposed the work of the heavenly Father for six thousand years…. Do you have the confidence? Can you say to Satan, “Until now you have governed this world, but presently depart from before me”? A victor who can do so must come forth.
You all hold fast to the Bible.
Do you think everything will be done merely by holding fast to the Bible?
The established churches denounce Moon so-and-so for not doing as the Bible says. One must live not by the letter of the Bible, but according to the content of the Bible, according to the heart that flows through the Bible. Words are not the problem. The mind may be this way, yet the words can be said this way or that way.
If one talks with a technician, would one not use words suitable and fitting for that person?
According to the time, place, and level, one expresses it differently. In other words, one must seek the content, and in the content, one must seek the heart.
Satan works, taking God's words as his condition. However much one delivers words that do not pass through the heart, Satan does not oppose them.
So when one looks at people who say they have received grace, one knows at once whether they are people who have truly received grace or are madmen or the mentally ill.
Therefore, the problem is whether one passes through the heart of God or not. The problem is not whether one knows much of the Bible or not, but whether one is connecting with the heart of God hidden behind the Word.
When, from a place of having passed through the heart of God, one says, “You wretch,” even Satan can do nothing.
You Must Become Warriors of God
However piercingly you gaze upon the face of Jesus, however much you touch the face of Jesus, however much you go about with Jesus, however much you have lived together with Jesus, if the heart does not connect, it is all of no use.
One must touch through the heart and live together through the heart.
The center of the Bible is Jesus, and the center of Jesus is the bridegroom and bride. Then what is the center of the bridegroom and bride?
The bride—the bride. Will the bride be realized with words alone?
Within this Word are the traces of God's tears. Within this Word is steeped the blood of God. Within this Word are connected the drops of God's sweat. Tears and blood and sweat…. That is not all. Because that would not suffice, even the ridge of death is connected to it. At every scene where God shed tears, He waged a great pitched battle with Satan. At every scene where He shed blood, He waged a pitched battle with the great enemy. Each time He crossed a ridge of death, He confronted Satan. Do you know this fact?
However much you know history, what use is it?
One must become a person who can pass through history. Is it not so?
Now you must seek God's tears through the Bible. You must seek the drops of God's sweat through the Bible. You must seek the blood of God through the Bible. You must seek the heart of the dying Jesus through the Bible.
You must become warriors of God. Satan has set himself against God tens of millions of times. Each time, you must resolve the han of the tears of grievance God shed and the ridge upon ridge of His injustice and indignation. And so you must be able to say, “Satan, you are the enemy of our Father. This One is our Father. This earth is my earth. You are my servant and at the same time, my enemy.”
Today, there are countless ways and countless religions, yet they have not resolved this problem. So long as this problem is not resolved, peace cannot come to this world. It cannot come.
Seen from this point, our Korean folk song is truly a wondrous thing: “O moon, O moon, bright moon, moon where Yi Tae-baek once played…. Let me bring my dear parents and live for a thousand, ten thousand years.” How wondrous is this! To bring one's dear parents and wish to live for a thousand, ten thousand years….
Our people have, until now, asserted filial piety and have exalted the filial son, the woman of fidelity, and the loyal subject. You have, for hundreds of years, carried this national spirit.
Now all that remains is whether this comes to fruition in one hour.
Together with what?
Whether it comes to fruition together with Heaven hangs in the balance of a moment. Until now, how many countless Christians have died for the sake of God? The problem is whether that comes to fruition at this time.
Do not boast that you know much of the Bible. Do not boast that you have become a learned doctor. You must become sons and daughters who know that there is a weeping God and who know how to weep together with Him.
You must become ones who, knowing how busy and how tense Heaven is, are so anxious that you do not know what to do with yourselves. When the Father cries out that He is dying of pain and cries out that He is in agony, does the child only sleep? Such a child is an enemy.
The most precious thing in faith is grasping through experience (체휼). Through grasping it through experience, one must shed tears without limit that even one's own self cannot account for.
Have you ever, transcending consciousness, felt tears falling from your eyes?
It is not that one is indignant and sorrowful because someone reviled one. A solemn, sorrowful heart that one cannot account for must come over one, and ceaseless tears must fall.
The essential life aspect of a believer must be so. A suffering one cannot account for must steep into one. It must steep to the point that the breast is choked and one does not know what to do with oneself. That my mind is so, when one comes to know it, because Heaven is so.
The Most Precious Thing in Faith
Only when it becomes so can one be called a son or daughter of God. God is crying out for us to come, and is it a son or daughter who consciously refuses to hear and only dreams?
Over the six thousand years of human history, how anxious Heaven has been, and how many ridges of death must He have undergone! When He underwent such ridges, was there among our ancestors anyone who comforted Him, saying, “Father, how sorrowful You must be”?
I mean, there was no fellow participant in His tears. There was no fellow participant in the place where He shed sweat. Only after everything has passed do they weep and wail and make a commotion.
During Jesus' lifetime, his disciples did not know the tears Jesus shed. They did not know the value of the sweat Jesus shed and the blood he poured out. Only after he died did they know.
If God comes seeking a human being in the Last Days, what kind of person will He come seeking?
As I have said, in God's breast remains a temple of tears and grievous circumstances. There remains a temple of blood and sweat and the ridge of death.
Even though you could not be a fellow participant on that historical course, you must feel that painful and anxious heart.
When you think of Noah's toil, your breast must ache; when you think of Moses' injustice and anxiety, you must be anxious as though it were your affair; when you think of Jesus' loneliness and solitude, you must not know where to put yourself.
Though history has passed, you must advance even to the place of a friend who can grasp through experience the grievous heart of those people of that time and weep.
Though I am at a historical distance from the age of Moses, in heart I must be able to weep like Moses, who shed tears, his grievous heart steeped in him each time he looked upon the people of Israel. Such a person is the true Israel.
When you hear of historical tragedies, of historical sorrowful facts, you must feel something steeping into your bones and flesh, and be able to shed the same tears together with the grievousness of this age and call upon the Father—only then can you be victorious against the historical Satan. Otherwise, there is no chance at all.
Then who teaches these facts that we did not know until now?
When God opens the gate of judgment, He surely sets up a person who can make known, on behalf of His heart. Therefore, upon this earth, a person who can carry out such a mission must come forth. Do you think that a church—externally splendid and gorgeous, where thousands gather—will carry out such a mission? No. Why?
The Phenomena That Come About in the Last Days
In the Last Days, it was said to anoint the head with oil and enter the inner room to pray.
One must not listen to the words of people. It is a time when one must not listen to the words of people. It is a time when one must listen only to the words of the bridegroom. The pastor and the comrade in faith, at the final ridge, cannot be my supporter.
If I go to heaven and he goes to hell, then the person going to hell grasps hold of me. It is the same as when a beloved friend falls into the water, and one enters the water to save him, and that friend grasps hold of one. At that time, it is a time when one cannot show sympathy. No leader can save my life. Such a time comes.
In the region, nation, religious body, and society that first meet such a time, confusion breaks out. I mean, they cannot trust one another. The pastor cannot trust the elder, the elder cannot trust the pastor, the layperson cannot trust the church council, the denomination cannot trust the denomination, and society and political parties cannot trust one another.
The citizens cannot trust the president, the president cannot trust the citizens, and the people cannot trust the nation—in the midst of this, it tumbles over. What is this? It is a confused world in which, look where you may in all directions, you cannot trust. Within it, you are told to trust yourself and to seek a place of faith that Heaven can acknowledge.
One cannot trust even one's own father and mother. Everyone divides. That is democracy. When everyone has divided and everyone has lost, one collides with solitude. In the solitary place, one is brought into contact with the heart of Heaven.
Such a one seems to have utterly nothing, yet is one who has utterly much; seems to be one utterly lonely, yet is one utterly happy. Only in the place where, having lost everything, one collides with a greater and truer form can all problems be resolved.
When we look at this world today, and all the more when we look at the actual condition of Korea—are you attending university, attending graduate school?
Becoming a learned doctor? You have sold off your mind, sold off your heart, and trampled goodness. The Korean people are now placed in an age like the time when the people of Israel were led by Moses out into the wilderness.
Just as when Moses collapsed in the wilderness, new leaders like Joshua and Caleb came forth; this land too has come to the stage where new leaders must come forth.
Then what is needed in this age?
What is the way of life for these people?
It is for the young men and women of this people to arm themselves, on the foundation of the heart, with some national ideal and, going further, a heavenly ideal.
If only they do so, these people can come to lead the world. That Korea now suffers and undergoes hardship seems bad for these people, but this is Heaven moving, so in order to set up a single center. Therefore, something new that can move the young people of Korea must surely come forth.
For something new to come forth, there must be a fight. Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism—all without exception—come to fight. This is because, to go to that place our mind truly wishes to go, all that we have until now been bound to must be severed. Look at the Bible. It said that to walk the path of the Way, one must settle accounts with everything and step forth. It said to settle accounts with everything and set out.
Korea is divided into North and South. Parent and child are divided, husband and wife are divided, and all are divided. The Church is divided as a church, and society as a society.
If a policy for this is not established, these people perish.
Do you know the age of the Renaissance?
When one studies history and probes into the historical heart, it was the Renaissance that gave a new shock to the current of thought of that age. Holding up the feudal society of the Middle Ages, it gave rise to the Renaissance.
The heart of God is flowing now through the underside of history, beneath the very floor of our life. Now we must turn back the steps we have walked and seek the heart of God as He faced the human ancestors before the Fall.
We must seek not the heart of God as He faced our fallen forefathers, but the heart of God as He faced our forefathers before the Fall, cherishing them dearly—the heart of God who wished to boast of the sons and daughters He had made before all things, or before the heavenly world and the earthly world, and who wished to embrace and love them. Now that is what is needed.
The heart of God after Adam fell, no one knows. When one comes to know it, it is a basketful of tears, a basketful of suffering, a basketful of sorrow.
If one knows it, one cannot but wail. If you grasp through experience the scene of Adam's falling, you will come to know that there were circumstances of God welling up such that, though one weep for ten years, one could not bring it all to an end.
What Must Be Possessed in Preparation for the Last Days
Now this history of sorrow, this history of suffering, must all pass away. If the source of all this grief was formed together with Satan, then to surmount it, one must first be able to feel the heart of the Father.
Until now, there have been many expositors of the Bible and many doctors of theology. All such things must pass away. One must return to the pure and innocent heart of a little child, like Adam and Eve at the very beginning, who had never even heard the word theology.
The Bible also said that unless one becomes like a little child, one cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. One must enter into a position like Adam and Eve before they sinned.
If Adam and Eve, held in the Father's bosom, had reached a position where, whatever action they took—whether they scratched the Father's cheek or struck Him—all that action could be publicly acknowledged as good, we would not be in such a grievous place. But from the time of our forefathers, such an hour was never had.
If human beings had become true children, then however much they resented, it would not become a sin. The world in which, however toilsome a place one is sent to, one cannot resent—that bond—is the world of goodness.
The Bible is needed, the Church is needed, comrades are needed, and a teacher is needed. But today this heaven and earth have become a wasteland—and it has not become a wasteland lacking a church. A famine has fallen upon this world—and the famine has fallen not lacking something.
It is a wasteland because there is no true person; it has become a parched land because there is no foothold of true heart.
The Meaning of the Great Commandment
Now what is it that we must demand before Heaven, setting an altar before us? The Bible also said, “Love the Lord your God with all your mind and all your devotion and all your will.”
Did it say to love the Church?
Did it say to love your child with all your devotion? No. The countless churches and denominations and sects, without exception, are fundamentally mistaken.
Even the devotion they offer is for the sake of my son, for the sake of my husband, for the sake of my wife.
Where is there such a law?
If that were so, then instead of the Bible's word to love the Lord your God with all your mind and all your will and all your devotion, it should have said to love your sons and daughters more. Is it not so? But the Bible said to love God more.
Now we must surmount the historical suffering. We must settle the accounts of the historical suffering, the historical sorrow, and the historical realm of death. We must settle them here.
The historical suffering, sorrow, and realm of death are binding my mind and even my heart. I must drive back the footsteps of the bitter, undying enemy who has bound up my life, my body, my mind, and even my heart. I must drive him back, even by striking my body. Your enemy is not the other person.
Toward your mind, the body is the enemy; toward the body, the living environment is the enemy.
We must settle the accounts of everything that became historical grief and welcome the joyful form of God as He faced Adam and Eve before the Fall. God is eagerly awaiting the day when He can dissolve, toward human beings, the feeling of their being fallen sons and daughters.
Even if He saved sons and daughters and set them up before Himself, when God faces them, He must be able to forget the feeling that they are descendants who sinned in the world of sin and children who received such a lineage.
Only such a one can attend God as God. I mean the feeling of sin must not remain. When one goes before the Father, transcending the feeling of sin, there is no shame. If there is such a one, Satan cannot invade that person.
People today seek the church. Good. Coming to the church, one must come to know, “So the historical heart of God was thus; so the heart of God in this age is thus; so the heart of the Father who comes again would be thus,” and be able to shed tears without even realizing it. And so you must become one who can vow, staking eternity, that you will surely avenge and make that wretched enemy submit. Otherwise, you cannot tread upon and surmount everything historical.
We must go to “the place we truly wish to go,” which we hope for and which the whole Cosmos longs for and seeks. Do you not think about that now and then? We must long for Adam, who, before he sinned, followed behind God and grew up under God's protection.
However handsome and however fine they may be called, they are all a race of the Fall, human beings who have not escaped the lineage of the Fall.
For this reason, you must seek a being who can rejoice upon seeing the original divine nature of Adam before he sinned, and who, through that divine nature, can sing of God. Only by seeking one who has such a heart can one save this world, which is to be burned up in judgment.
Seen from a principled view, there has been no person in the historical course who could resolve this problem. No hero, no saint, no sage was able to resolve this problem.
Now is the time to abandon the ways one has believed until now. Those who believed in Buddhism must abandon Buddhism. Shakyamuni himself did not resolve that problem.
Because no Way whatsoever resolved the fundamental problem and joined the bond with the heart of God, the one who comes to join this anew is the Lord of the Second Advent. You think that one will come riding on the clouds, but it is not so.
One bearing the historical mission of opening a road by which the heart of God and the heart of the original Adam can seep into the heart of humanity must appear, and that one is the Maitreya Buddha spoken of in Buddhism, the True Man (진인) spoken of in Confucianism, and the returning Jesus spoken of in Christianity. These differ only in name; eventually, they are one person.
What Kind of Person Enters the Kingdom of Heaven?
What kind of person enters the Kingdom of Heaven?
A person like a little child enters. To do so, one must restore the bond of that heart with which God rejoiced when He had made Adam and Eve. The problem is how to restore that feeling of joy with which God, having made all things of heaven and earth, looked upon Adam and Eve before they sinned and rejoiced. This must be restored. To do so, one must, equipping the original heart, remove all the historical han and make Satan submit. Only when one does so will it become that, when one says, “Hey, archangel!” he says, “Yes!”
The archangel, who was originally a servant, became Satan. This wretch, a mere errand-runner, trampled the master's son and daughter. Therefore, the human being must sever the bond with that servant and join the bond of the heart with God. Otherwise, one cannot enter that place.
We must open the door. What door? We must open the door of truth, the door of character, the door of the heart. Centering on the Bible, we must completely clarify the fundamental problem. After resolving this problem, we must pass through the door of complete character. After passing through this, we must advance even to the standard of a complete heart. From this perspective, we are still far off.
When you look at people who say they believe today, they plant themselves firmly, thinking themselves fine in their estimation, and say, “I am orthodox (眞端) and you are heretical (異端).”
How can one draw such a conclusion?
Look at the past. At first, the old religion said to the new religion, “You wretches!”—and what happened? As time passed, it was rather the old religion that was driven by the new. As time passed, everything reversed.
Now the level of the world rises while the church goes down. Before the world rose, the church rose. It rose, but it rose above God. So God made the world rise and made the church go down. And so the feudal society of medieval Christianity came to be shattered. Any church or denomination prospers once. Then it goes down. When it goes down, it is not told to settle in, but to repent.
In Korea today, Christianity has moved everything under this regime, has it not?
But now the time has come when it must go down. When it goes down, it must bow its head, unable to lift its face, and pray. It must say it is a sinner. Then there will be hope; but if, instead of that, it bristles and struts, it gets hurt.
The people of the world, the third parties, fall upon it. Things like “Strike down the Jesus-believing wretches” break out. This time I went all over South Korea, and everywhere I went, they called everyone who believed in Jesus an enemy.
If someone here sets a fire to this, what will happen? So when one cannot walk the path one ought to walk rightly, one calls in the wicked enemy and is struck. Look at the history of Israel. It is the same.
Today, the Unification Church should be grateful. We say we are grateful that, while we keep still, the world keeps striking us.
This Path We Must Walk, Looking Toward God
Even if you are in a place where the church collapses and you gasp, unable to grasp a center in your faith, do not despair. Why does one come to despair? It is because one looks at people. One must not look at people.
Our eyes must be looking toward Heaven. Had human beings not fallen and been fundamentally well, one could live looking below ninety degrees; but because they fell, the eyes must look toward Heaven.
For believers, looking below ninety degrees is not permitted. One must look toward Heaven. Yet, going while looking at the earth, one is ruined. Going centered on oneself, one is ruined.
Now in this age, we must set everything in order. From livelihood to the body, the mind, and the heart, we must set it all in order.
Then, where must the foundation of that heart be placed?
Do not place it on a spiritually gifted pastor. I mean, do not place it even on a spiritually gifted denomination. I mean, do not place it even on the Unification Church.
The foundation of the heart is not placed on the historical course but must be placed on the heart of Adam and Eve before the Fall. It must be so. And so, through that heart, together with Heaven, one must digest the life-feeling of today and all the currents of thought of the age and lead a life of bringing resolution together with Heaven. Such sons and daughters must come forth upon this earth.
Think about it. Without even resolving Genesis chapter 1 of the Bible, can one enter the garden of God's heart?
One must resolve, beginning with the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Genesis chapter 2. Without even resolving that problem, how can one…? One must resolve the fundamental problem.
Only by knowing can one do something; in ignorance, one cannot reach completion. Do you think it will all be done merely by believing?
If it were done by believing, the one speaking here would not receive such persecution. He would not be reviled like this.
You came of your own will, seeking a path of persecution that others do not know.
If the path you set out on were a path that ends in ruin, that would be one thing; but if it is not, do not abandon the resolve of the day you first set out on this path—the resolve of that day.
On this path, there will be a fierce, raging storm and a road of thorns. But you must realize that on that path you look toward and walk, the bloodstains of Heaven are steeped. The path you walk is by no means a path you alone walk.
For you, it is a path walked for the first time, but God has walked that path tens of millions of times. You must realize that on that path are the bloodstains He shed as He walked it.
Abraham too walked that path, Noah too walked that path, Moses too walked that path, Jesus too walked that path, and after Jesus, the countless saints too walked that path—and do you dislike walking that path?
Then you must go to the heavens above and receive punishment. To walk that path, one must have the heart of establishing a heavenly orthodoxy. At each step you take, you must feel that the blood of the forefathers boils, and when a thorn brushes your body, you must feel that the very thorn that tore the blood and flesh of the forefathers tears your body.
One who has walked thus is an individual of the age, yet not a figure who ends with a single age. He becomes one who has walked together with the Father for six thousand years. Therefore, you—even if, walking this path, you are bound in chains and become a prisoner—I hope you will become one who sheds tears of awe.
You must say, “That this body, an unworthy descendant of sinners fit only for destruction, can take part in such a glorious place—this path, this place You sought—I am awed. That this filthy body can set foot upon this ground where countless martyrs shed holy blood—I am awed.”
We Must Surely Walk This Path
Warriors of Unification! You must walk this path, this final path. Because there is that one place we truly wish to go, the countless prophets walked such a path; and because it is the path we truly must walk, we must surely walk this path.
When, following this path, your body is torn and you shed tears, those are not tears you shed alone. They are tears wept together with you by the countless prophets who walked such a path and were torn. That is why one who walks such a path upon the earth is called a living historical substance. In the very moment when, in such a form, one encounters God and, grasping hold, says, “Father,” one will feel an emotion as though heaven and earth grow faint.
It is a Heaven that could not speak a single word of its bitter circumstances to anyone, with a nail driven into its heart. That nail Satan drove in. But the nail of love can set in order even sin.
To love, a reciprocal relationship must come about. If there are sons and daughters whom God loves, it is the loving heart of God to wish, through them, to forgive even Satan.
On the day that Satan, who has opposed until now, bows down before God's sons and daughters, He will forgive Satan unconditionally. The boundless nail of God's love can set in order even sin.
If God, toward a son He can love, comes to sympathize with and even long for Satan, He cannot strike.
The reason you are not judged is that you possess the traces of having loved Jesus and shed blood for the sake of Jesus, and that there is a bond of love by which you have grasped and struggled with the bond of heart that Jesus left behind. God, too, cannot strike a being who possesses this bond of love.
You may forget everything I have said today. Our individual self today is a gift of history. Even if one is a blind person, a harelip, or a cripple, they too have the legacy of the forefathers. They, too, are precious gifts sent by Heaven. For this reason, when that body speaks ill, you must realize that history grieves.
When that body falls into pessimism, you must realize that, through the heart, even in the heavens, there is pessimism. When that body despairs, you must realize that the tens of millions in the heavenly nation despair and are steeped in sorrow.
If you feel such facts vividly, then even if you die a hundred times, you must let there be no resenting of Heaven. The more you go and the more you know, you must bow your head, and at the last hold a humble mind that can move even a single hand with care.
Have you passed a year steeped in such a heart?
If you have so passed it, that year remains before you forever. But if such a standard vanishes from you, that year becomes an unspeakably great condition of accusation when one goes to the heavens. When people who have received grace lose that standard, they are ruined. Even in ruin, they are ruined utterly.
Therefore, even if you have been loyal before Heaven, do not think you have been; I mean, do not think it is your own. The strength with which I run forward, even while my body is torn, did not come from myself. It is the Father's strength. It is because the Father gave His strength to me through my arteries, because He governed from an unseen place, that this strength came forth. Seen from this point, that I am torn is the Father is torn. So there is nothing whatsoever to boast of in having walked thus. There is nothing to boast of.
Through such a course, you come to know the historical sorrow and circumstances of God and, while experiencing all the suffering God undergoes, new family members are connected and connected, and you are called before the Father. And so, to set up one people, form one nation, and restore a worldwide world of new sovereignty—this is the final purpose for which God carries out the providence toward the human beings of this earth.
What is its center?
It is to restore the standard of the heart of Adam and Eve before the Fall.
Though the fallen Adam and Eve did not know, we must clarify all the facts of Satan, equip ourselves with a standard of heart that will never again be invaded by Satan, and stand in a place where we can govern even the historical Satan.
We must become direct sons and daughters of God, sufficient to give command to heaven and earth through the heart of God. And so, only by advancing until the day we receive the blessing from God—” My son, my daughter, now is your time and your day.
Now you may do as you will—can one at last go to that place we truly longed for, that place we truly wished to go?
You must settle the accounts of the historical record of sin and settle the accounts of the historical fence of death and equip yourselves with a heart that can fulfill God's ideal of creation.
You must restore the historical power of death into the historical power of life, and settle the accounts of historical sin and restore it into historical goodness. Going further, only by becoming those who know how to establish the historical heart of Heaven can you at last go to the original world you truly wished to go to.
From today onward, I hope you will bear in mind that, from this standpoint, you must know for yourselves in what position you stand, and that in setting yourselves apart as holy, you cannot but wage a merciless struggle.
Prayer
Father, we did not realize that we had lost something great. We cannot but look back upon the circumstances of our forefathers, who passed away bearing such and such twists and turns and historical sorrow.
Because it is the final time when all sins must be settled, our minds today feel deeply anxious. This earth is filled to the full with the groaning of suffering. We earnestly beseech and desire that You grant the coming of one day on which You bring forth a precious son of Heaven here, enabling the settling of the historical suffering and record of sin, so that the heart of the Father at the time of creation may bloom anew; and that You grant that, by him, a victorious new garden may set out.
We know that time, because it is an age in which I can relate directly with the Father, is a world of freedom in which Satan withdraws from each one's body and the Father dwells in my heart, so that we may sing of the eternal bond of parent and child, and at the same time the whole universe may together offer praise.
Since we know that it cannot but become such a world, enable us to endure the suffering of present reality.
We know that on the path we must walk, there remain ridge upon ridge of blood, and that far and arduous, steep mountains and sheer ridges lie across it. Yet this path is not a path we alone walk. It is a path the Father came and went before us, tens of times, thousands of times, tens of thousands of times.
Now we have also come to know the fact that it is not the Father who must pave this arduous path, but human beings who must pave it. For the sake of the Father, who toiled in coming over the rough path, enable us to move the final step.
Since the path to walk remains, grant that, even should we fall while walking, we may go treading the footsteps the Father walked and following the bloodstains the Father left behind.
We have come to know that, when we offer up this torn and wounded body before the Father as a living sacrifice, the Father will set up for us the name of children before the whole world and bless us.
Since we have come to know that we must go even to such a place, grant that we may not grow weary until we reach that place.
Each time we grew weary, the Father held us up; each time we despaired and grew lonely, Heaven urged us on; and before we toiled, the Father had already toiled for us hundreds of times, thousands of times—grant that we may not forget this fact.
We have learned how hard it is for You, an existence without form, to join a bond with human beings who possess substance and to give them stimulation and awaken them.
You were a Father who has pioneered this path without rest. Because there is a Satan who has opposed without rest, You have, without rest, carried out a toilsome work of history to pioneer this path and have fought, untiring, for the sake of the life of my single self—grant that, knowing this, the mind that wishes to grasp hold of the Father with an awed heart may steep deep into us. Grant that the anxious heart, its grievous mind steeped within, calls upon the Father as though maddened, may burst forth in each of our minds.
Knowing that the Father comforts such a one and that He sets such a one in order and promises a new world of promise, a heavenly great work, we earnestly entreat and desire that, until the day that place is fixed, we may become sons and daughters who, enduring to the very end, can raise high the glory of victory and the song of triumph before the whole Cosmos. We have prayed in the name of the Lord. Amen.