Former Headquarters Church
John 3:16–17
The Grave Problem One Must Stake One’s Whole Life On to Solve
We know well that this world in which we live is not good. Even looking at our individual selves living in such a world, there is no way to deny that within our individual selves, we hold the factor of struggle. That is, our body and mind are fighting.
Environmentally, we cannot deny that it is a sinful world, and from our standpoint, we cannot deny that it is an age in which it is exceedingly difficult to set up any center.
Then how did this world and we human beings come to be like this?
If God exists, God is the great Sovereign of heaven and earth, the center of all centers. We human beings were created by that center, so we ought to pass through the environment and process in which we were created and go, without losing the center, all the way to the world of purpose; yet today we ourselves cannot set up a center.
We cannot but admit that this fact came about through some complication. To borrow a religious term, this is called the fall. From this, we can conclude that the countless human beings living upon this earth are leading their lives within the realm of the fall.
Then will our body, mind, and environment wish us to remain perpetually in such a fallen place? Absolutely not. They wish to break through this realm of the fall and live through the original, absolute center.
However wicked my mind and environment may be, I must discover a self that, overcoming and overcoming it, must go forward in a consistent direction toward some purpose. This is a grave problem we must stake our whole lives on to solve. This is a problem that arose because the human being fell.
Then how did the path of the Way and what we call religion come to appear?
It is to turn the fallen human being back into the original human being before the fall.
Then, here, what is salvation?
It is to return to the state before one became ill. This can be paralleled with the term “restoration.” Therefore, salvation is none other than restoration.
What is the fall?
It is the loss of one’s original value.
Then who is the supreme center of that value?
It is God. Therefore, the fall means the loss of God and the loss of the true human value by which one could face God from a place that always made one one with Him. It is also the loss of the foundation of value in the social environment in which the human being lives.
What came forth to recover the human value that can secure this environmental foundation and the heavenly value that can have dominion over such a human being and so decide the original place is the concept of salvation.
Then let us examine the content of the fall concretely.
At what stage did the human being fall?
In the beginning, in the garden of Eden, there was God, the ancestor of humankind whom God created, centered on the purpose of creation, Adam and Eve before they sinned, and the angels who, centered on that original Adam and Eve, assisted God’s work.
Then what was the purpose of God, the purpose of Adam and Eve, and the purpose of the angels?
It is not achieved by the angels alone being able to live joyfully, nor achieved by Adam and Eve alone being able to live joyfully, nor completed by God alone being able to dwell joyfully.
When God, Adam, and Eve, and the angels all achieved that purpose under one common goal, then the angels too could rejoice, Adam and Eve too could rejoice, and God too could rejoice. Not one side alone is to rejoice.
In other words, only when, equipping the whole content, God, who is the center of heaven and earth, Adam and Eve, who represent heaven and earth, and the angels who represent the environment, can all rejoice—only then, when the purpose of creating the human being is brought to completion, can the purpose of salvation, that is, the original purpose of creation, be achieved.
But that purpose was shattered. That standard fell away.
When it fell, in what order did it fall?
It was not God who fell first. It began to fall from the opposite standpoint. At the very first, the archangel of the angelic world began to draw away from the will centered on God, and, taking that as the motive, Adam and Eve came to fall; and God too, because there is a principle by which He created the creation centered on the common goal of this whole world, to accomplish that purpose, fell into a position where He could not but take responsibility for the sorrow of the fallen Adam and Eve. This is the order of the fall.
To Restore What Has Fallen
Since it fell in this order, how must one act to restore it?
One must fit the providential course by the reverse route. Therefore, God, in the course of history until now, comes seeking a person who comes forth with a true heart of God, feeling God’s circumstance, holding a desire made one with God. In just that way, it is the path of restoration by which He comes seeking a loyal subject who can take the place of the true archangel of the heavenly world upon this earth.
Then what kind of being is the angel?
It is a being that, from the position of a servant, must fully render the way of loyalty before God and become a fence for Adam and Eve. For all ages, it ought to have made a glorious atmosphere in the heavenly world and, centered on God’s love, lived happily together with Adam and Eve.
In other words, the archangel was created for the sake of Adam and Eve. The purpose for which God, the Father of Adam and Eve, created the angel was for the sake of Adam and Eve. That is the purpose for which the archangel was created.
But through the fall, that fence was broken, the sons and daughters were broken, and God too came to have His realm of dominion encroached upon; so this must be secured again. The fact that Adam and Eve fell bore fruit as a decisive sin in Cain’s killing of Abel. To secure this again, God has carried on the providence, passing through the long course of history until now.
Here, what is it that must remain to the very last?
The spiritual world must be reorganized into a world like the angelic world that can be centered on Heaven alone, and upon this earth, new parents centered on Cain and Abel who can be centered on Heaven alone must be established.
Upon this earth, countless human beings are living. But humankind has lost God and lost the True Parents and has still not formed a true bond of brothers centered on God. So the aim is to restore that once again.
For that, God has outwardly aimed at the development of history and inwardly set up religion. And so the outward world develops the outward environment while struggling in a position ruptured from religion, and inward religion, emphasizing the heart, severs its bond with the world and comes forth for God alone. These are the Cain-type world form and the Abel-type world form. Heaven has made it so.
That He said, “Have dominion over all things,” is the blessing God bestowed upon Adam and Eve, His son and daughter. That is, it is the content of God’s blessing to the human being.
Humankind, born as the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, cannot but go forward toward the destination of that blessing. Therefore, when the world reaches its Last Days, the worldview of Cain and Abel appears. And so, securing all complications, Cain and Abel must become one.
Then, Cain and Abel having become one, what are they to do?
They must attend to the parents. Because Adam and Eve fell, one cannot stand before God just as fallen. Passing through the process of the fight between Cain and Abel, setting up Abel and inheriting all that is Cain’s, and offering it before the parents, the fallen position of the parents is restored.
Because this is a heavenly principle, in this present world, which is the Last Days, at the same time as the worldview of Cain and Abel appears, a worldview centered on the True Parents must come forth. And, at the same time, a worldview of the heart centered on the true heart of God must come forth.
The content of the time of the fall must appear once again in this socially and historically present Last Days.
The Purpose and Mission Jesus Had to Complete
Then what responsibility has religion until now sought to bear?
It is to complete the responsibility of the archangel. For that, one must complete the responsibility from the position of a servant, and on that standard, complete the responsibility that the archangel Lucifer failed to fulfill and appear before God as the loyal subject representing heaven and earth. And so, centered on him, one must connect with the bond of God’s son and daughter.
Therefore, God promised to send a Savior before humankind came to this earth.
Then what kind of being is that Savior?
First, coming with the mission of God’s son, and then, having completed that mission, he must advance to the position of true ancestor upon this earth.
So God set up the realm of the chosen people of Israel and made it able to confront the wicked, satanic world.
What was the purpose of setting up the Israelite people?
It was, in the satanic world, to set up an archangel-like nation that could give full loyalty before God and, confronting the satanic world, to smash Satan and prepare a foundation of victory.
Upon the foundation of an archangel-like nation that could give full loyalty without betraying God—that is, after inheriting the whole content of the Israelite people—He sought to raise it to the standard of the stage before Adam’s fall. Therefore, Jesus came upon this earth with the mission of God’s son.
Then what should the Israelite people of that time have done?
Centered on God’s Son Jesus, whether dying or living, they should have become one with him and cooperated, becoming entirely one in accomplishing the world God desired. That was the original purpose for which God chose the chosen people.
Despite this, the Israelite people failed to become one with Jesus and, being divided, lost to Satan in the showdown of the four-thousand-year course of history, so that Jesus could not but bear the cross.
And so, re-extending the providence that was to be accomplished, centered on the First Israel, Christianity has, centered on the ideal of founding a Second Israel, borne the historical mission until now.
And so it draws this world along. Here we must make a worldwide cultural sphere centered on Christianity and complete the archangel’s mission, and at the same time, greeting one day of the Second Advent, prepare a foundation on which the son can render filial devotion before the Father, and prepare a foundation of loyalty on which the people can give full loyalty before God.
That is the final point of purpose to be accomplished in the Last Days. And so the mission of the son must be completed.
Then what is to be done thereafter?
One must receive the proclamation of being a true child, the proclamation God originally made when He created Adam and Eve.
From God, the great Sovereign of the Cosmos (천주), one must hear the word welling up from His heart: “You are my son, my son who can have dominion over heaven and earth.”
Connecting such a point of oneness of heart, one must connect it to an absolute standard that no one can trample. Because the human being fell, not once until now has one advanced to that place.
So God, holding a vague hope and putting forward what is called love, has guided religion today, especially Christianity, toward the standard of the purpose He aims at.
Then how must one act to complete the mission of the son? Had Adam and Eve not fallen, this world would not have become a wicked world. But Adam and Eve fell and, centered on themselves, became fallen parents whom God did not desire; so one must shatter that and decide the position of parents centered on God. This was the greatest purpose and mission Jesus brought.
Therefore, Jesus came with the ideal of bridegroom and bride. Then what is the noun “bridegroom”? Within this noun “bridegroom” is contained the content that can bring to completion the whole of the desire God has desired ever since the day in the beginning when He created heaven, earth, and all things centered on Adam and Eve. Therefore, Adam and Eve too could not but desire, before God, the standard of bridegroom and bride by which they could accomplish their purpose.
Had such a standard been decided in Jesus’ day, this history of sorrow would have passed from this world today, and a new history would have set out worldwide. But because that standard was not decided, God once more, gazing toward a moment of hope, draws the history of humankind along.
The Supreme Center of the Providence of Restoration
Therefore, today’s history is flowing in the historical direction of having to seek the parents.
If God exists, there must be true parents who, centered on that God, can bring to completion the purpose of creation—that is, can bring to completion the purpose of salvation—and those true parents must fully render filial devotion before God.
At the same time, the angels must fully render the way of loyalty centered on the sons and daughters of those True Parents.
That is the original principle of creation, but it was broken. So we must reproduce it and indemnify it. If it was lost, we must find it in the very form in which it was lost.
There is the spiritual world, and there is the earth; then what kind of world is the spiritual world?
It corresponds to the angelic world of Adam’s age before the fall.
In what position is humankind placed on this earth in today’s Last Days?
It is tumbling in the process of having to connect the world of the fallen Adam and Eve with the world of the unfallen Adam and Eve.
Jesus came seeking to connect these two worlds. But Jesus, as soon as he came, could not set out on a path of preaching the gospel. Why? Because the responsibility of connecting these two worlds—the fallen world and the unfallen original world of God—was Jesus’, so that without inheriting all the fallen world, Jesus could not set out for the unfallen world.
Since Satan first had dominion over this world, it was not a matter of beating Satan down and seizing away all his realm of dominion outright, but of bringing Satan to natural surrender and, in the midst of his rejoicing, having him offer all authority before God; without setting up such a standard, one could not set out for the unfallen original world.
At such a crossroads, Jesus, leading the Israelite people, had to pass from the true world God providentially governs—that is, from the fallen world on earth into the unfallen world. And so the Israelite people had to receive the determination of being a people standing eternally upon a foundation of victory, a nation chosen by God. But leaving that hope behind, Jesus died on the cross. Therefore, the supreme center is the bridegroom and bride, and the inner significance of that bridegroom and bride is the True Parents.
As you know through the Principle, the human being, through the fall, lost the truth. He lost faith. And he lost character and lost heart. The human being was originally in a relationship with God upon an eternal, unchanging foundation of the heart, from which one could not part even if one tried.
If only the recognition that God is my Father is equipped, then however much the world denies it, God is our Father. Who in the world can explain his parent away as not his parent and make him submit? No one.
Likewise, had Adam and Eve not fallen, they could say, “God is my very Father. He is centered on me.”
If only such a standard stood upon this earth, from there the heavenly way would take its place and set out.
The Standard of Parent, Standard of Child, and Standard of Archangel That Must Be Restored
How must a person become to be happy in the world?
One is not happy because one has much money, nor is one happy because one’s environment is blessed. When, in an environment where the foothold of the heart is set up, one comes to possess an eternally unchanging center, from there happiness sets out.
If that standard of heart is a standard that can move the eternal world, one is within the realm of eternal happiness. So if the standard of the heart is temporary, one must quickly pass beyond that realm.
Originally, our human ancestors should have been centered on God, centered on God’s heart and love, and become completely one with God.
Furthermore, because God created heaven and earth to bring to completion the purpose of the heart, He must, centered on love, bestow heaven, earth, and all things—the object of this heart—upon the sons and daughters He loves. Because God created heaven, earth, and all things not for His own sake but for the sake of Adam and Eve, joy too arises not from God Himself but from Adam and Eve.
You—do not even worldly parents rejoice at the sight of their children? Joy arises by way of an object partner.
Had the most high love of God, by being inherited to Adam and Eve, made it so that the whole of all things under heaven could not exist apart from that bond; had God’s heart been connected, centered on Adam and Eve who held that bond, to the descendants of thousands of generations living in this horizontal world—then this world today would not have become so wicked a world. It would not have become a world that does not even know whether the spiritual world exists or not.
Just as the unfallen Adam and Eve held question-and-answer with the angels and question-and-answer with God, if only we could do the same, then the countless people of today’s Last Days could not fail to recognize God and could not say that there is no God.
Because one is connected with God in heart, when God sorrows, the human being too feels sorrow, and when God rejoices, the human being too feels joy. You can know this at once if you have spiritual experience.
However much one is in an environment in which one could dance for joy, if God sorrows, one cannot do so. Had it become a foundation in which one made one with God in shared mind and shared feeling, the environment could move in accord with that; the fall could not have been.
Because the bond of bridegroom and bride centered on Adam and Eve did not set out from God but set out from Satan, we must restore it.
Since the creation of heaven and earth, much history has passed until now, yet Adam and Eve have still not advanced to the original position of bridegroom and bride centered on God.
What happens when one advances to the original position of bridegroom and bride?
Good ancestors arise, and good children arise. But through the fall, the standard of the original good parents, the standard of the original good children, and the standard of the original good archangel were broken. So we must restore them.
The Position (格位) and Mission of John the Baptist
Today’s Christian believers say that Jesus will come again riding on the clouds with the trumpet sound of the archangel, but it is not so. Before that, upon this earth, there must come forth a loyal subject of Heaven who can complete the mission of the archangel. And so there must come forth one who proclaims, “I have come not for my will but for the will of God’s son.”
Such a thing happened in Jesus’ day too. The representative central being of that mission was John the Baptist. So he said, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand! I have come not for myself but to bear witness to him.”
That John the Baptist came as a servant and had to restore, representing the whole nation of Israel, the position of Adam immediately after the fall. He had to restore the position immediately after the fall, the position that could be connected to the position of the unfallen Adam.
John the Baptist was the representative who, in this fallen world, was to restore the position of the unfallen Adam and promise to inherit to him all the authority of the world.
The words “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” were not the words of John the Baptist as an individual. They were words representing the whole history of Israel, representing the Israelite people, representing four thousand years of history, representing all humankind living upon this globe.
Moreover, the place where John the Baptist gave baptism to Jesus was a place of inheriting all historical responsibility. From then on, Jesus came to set out.
What does this mean?
It means that until now, no loyal subject of Heaven has come forth upon this earth. For a loyal subject to come forth, a true son of God must come forth upon this earth. The archangel, by attending to the Son of God, must fully render the way of a loyal subject before Heaven.
By loving the son of God, the standard of the loyal subject is decided. Therefore, in this historical end time, a son whom God can love must without fail come forth. Only then is the loyal subject decided.
That God called and set up John the Baptist was to have him take the place of the archangel who pledges loyalty for God’s sake—not the archangel, the ringleader of Satan, who had confronted God for four thousand years until then and betrayed God, but one who comes forth pledging loyalty. It was that he should give full loyalty to Jesus and stand for Jesus. It was that, regarding Jesus’ difficulty as his difficulty, he should use all his strength to break through it. But John the Baptist failed to fully carry out that responsibility. And so the historical sorrow could not but be all the more aggravated.
The disciples of John the Baptist should have become the disciples of Jesus, and John the Baptist should have entered among the three disciples of Jesus.
The countless multitudes who welcomed John the Baptist should have become the multitude who welcomed Jesus. And so John the Baptist should have appeared as the representative substantial being of the angelic world who gave loyalty before the son and daughter of God, bearing the original names of bridegroom and bride, and, leading the angelic world, should have guarded against the substantial satanic world. He should have become a John the Baptist who completed the substantial purpose of the archangel by which God could come seeking, but because he failed to complete that mission, Jesus could not help but take responsibility for that mission as well.
And so the way of becoming a servant arose. He said, “I came not to be served but to serve.”
Where is there such a rule for the Son of God?
It was a thing that could not be, for a bridegroom. That is why Jesus, who should have set out in glory, could not but set out wearing the sorrowful and grievous yoke of a servant. Because such a historical process remained, what came forth to cross that ridge is the two-thousand-year history of Christianity.
And in this way, God has drawn the national providence into the worldwide providence. In leading history along, one must liquidate the whole interior of history. In liquidating, one must liquidate it all—individually, in the family, nationally, and worldwide.
Originally, it was Heaven’s providence that all people should uphold and develop it, yet because human beings failed in that responsibility, history has developed little by little. God, keeping step with such an outward history, has inwardly prepared to accomplish the purpose and the time of history.
In Christianity, they say, “In the Last Days the Lord must come.”
Who is the Lord?
He is the lost True Parents. The parent cannot be by a spiritual standard alone. Because, through Jesus’ death, the foundation of the heart of the True Parents centered on spirit and flesh was not prepared, we must prepare that foundation and become, within God’s realm of blessing, the true blood relatives centered on Jesus.
But today in Christianity, they merely say that one believes and goes to heaven. Go and see, I say. That is impossible. If you do not believe it, try praying.
When One Enters the Central Axis
If there were a direct blood lineage of God that could not be parted from God even if one tried, and that Satan could not deny even if he tried, they would be the blood relatives of God and the blood relatives of Jesus. But because there is no such blood lineage, the apex of the heart has not been established.
Because the direct blood lineage of God has still not taken its place at the center but is going around on all sides, Satan can encroach from all sides. But once one enters this central axis, because God directly has dominion, Satan cannot encroach.
Once one enters the axis and begins to turn it, Satan has no way to block that force. But because the human being has still not entered the axis and all are going around the periphery of the axis, neither can God have dominion nor can Satan have dominion.
If the human being goes to Satan’s side, Satan moves him at will, and if he goes to God’s side, God comes to have dominion over him. In the midst of this, God has carried on the providence until now to decide the center.
Then what kind of time is the present age now?
Seen from Abel’s standpoint, it is a time when Cain and Abel stand opposed; seen from Cain’s standpoint, it is a historical time like the time when Abel was killed.
Where is there a Cain who welcomed Abel?
In this—if Jesus is now Abel, then those who follow Jesus, seen horizontally, are Cains for Jesus. What must these Cains do? They must smash Satan. Only then is the wickedness of the world removed. The responsibility to carry out such a mission lies today with Christianity.
This world is divided into the communist world, the world on Satan’s side, and the democratic world, the world on Heaven’s side—that is, into the physical world and the spirit world.
What is now to come forth here is a worldview centered on Christianity.
What God desires is not a Cain who betrays the will of Adam and Eve and betrays Abel. It is Cain who welcomes God’s will, welcomes the will of Adam and Eve, and welcomes the will of Abel. Such a world form is the democratic world. What tries to strike against this and overturn it is the real Satan. But there, for Cain to cooperate with Abel and have him fulfill, worldwide, the true Abel-type mission, one must carry out the mission of the son.
Otherwise, one cannot rise to the position of parent. Without deciding the position of a son, one cannot rise to the position of a parent. Why? The fact that fallen Adam and Eve bore Cain and Abel is a thing that cannot be acknowledged as God’s son. They could not be decided as the sons and daughters of God.
Therefore, in the age of restoration, without setting up the standard of being sons and daughters of God, one cannot rise to the position of parent.
The Path the Abel-type Being Must Go
So, in what position are the Christians of the whole world?
They are in a position where they must become not the Cain who opposed God, but the Cain who follows God’s will, the Cain who is for Abel’s will.
Only then does the Lord come as the worldwide central figure of Abel. But the Lord who comes cannot come as a bridegroom. Because Jesus, as the son of God, came upon this earth and failed to fully carry out his responsibility, only after fully carrying out that responsibility and integrating the Cain-type world can he, before God, rise to the position of bridegroom and bride. Such is the principle of restoration.
What kind of time is the present?
It is a time when Cain and Abel fight. At such a time, Christianity must become one centered on Cain. And the democratic world must set up a standard of becoming absolutely one with the Lord who comes as Abel.
When what unfolded in Adam’s family of old, going round and round, reaches the final terminus of history and such a phenomenon unfolds, it is God’s will that here, centered on God, while preparing a foundation of heart, the bond of the True Parents be decided.
So in this world, an individual Abel must come forth, an Abel-type family must come forth, an Abel-type kindred must come forth, and an Abel-type nation must come forth.
Then what kind of nation is the Abel nation?
Is it America? Upon a foundation of the fight by which Abel is to subdue Cain, the nation that offers sacrifice before God with all its devotion, the nation that, staking the question of death or life, offers all that it has before God, the most wretched nation, the most complicated nation in today’s democratic world—that is the Abel nation.
It is so with the outward problem, and likewise with the inward problem. If the Abel-type individual, Abel-type family, Abel-type kindred, Abel-type people, and Abel-type nation come forth, the world is no problem. Where is such a place?
You—there is Panmunjom in our country, is there not?
Panmunjom is the only one in the world. It is a place where God and Satan can both accuse at the same time. When one goes against the law of heaven and earth, an accusation is made there.
Korea is split sharply into South and North, centered on the 38th parallel. Seen through the Principle, the offering must be cut apart, must it not? So Korea’s economic condition becomes extremely difficult (極難).
You—when the priest offers the offering, all, high and low, bow their heads before the altar. Before the offering of atonement, even the monarch of that nation bows his head, and the whole people cultivate a standard at which all can bow their heads.
If that cannot be done, the Teacher thinks the mission of the Unification Church will not be completed.
What is the offering?
The offering is the preparation of the path of death. It is not the preparation of a path of life. It is to make ready to mount cleanly upon the altar of atonement for the people at some one time. That it eats well and dresses well is to be offered up in holiness, and that it lives is to offer up that life in holiness.
The better the environment of the offering, the more it must seek a path to offer its life, a path to die. The better it is treated, the nearer its day of death draws.
Likewise, in this world, there must be people who go down such a path of the offering of destiny. The Unification Church must play the role of the offering. Therefore, you must make ready to die.
Today, the Unification Church meets much hardship, so it must first cross the crisis of hardship that the thirty million people will meet hereafter. That is the path of the offering. By the offering sacrificing itself, the people who can only die can be saved and atoned for.
By the one who has become the offering crossing the difficult ridge, being struck first and sacrificing first, and shedding blood before God, the people can receive that grace and be restored. And by that, the one who has become the offering can receive grace and revive (回生).
Our believers in unification must go down such a path. This mission ought to be done by young people, but they say they dislike it.
When the Teacher this time toured the whole world, centered on the democratic world, what did he see?
He saw nothing else. He looked while thinking: In which nation can God dwell?
Which people can God love?
Whatever the people, they must love God. Now, environmentally, the social conditions are such that it is easy to lose God.
The Qualification of the Offering and Its Path
In the place of offering a sacrifice, one must not hold the notion of a parent. One must not hold the notion of a child either. Suppose the son of a priest sinned, and that priest prayed, “He is my son, so God, for my sake, forgive my son’s sin.” — Would that do? Such a person is not an offering.
If the notion of child, the notion of parent, and this whole kinship—that is, the notion of brother, the notion of kindred—remains, one does not qualify to become an offering.
The offering must be public. The offering is a thing of the nation, not a thing of some kindred or some individual. Therefore, it must take the place of the common purpose.
From the position of the offering, one must not pray, “Atone for the sin of my family.” One must, without fail, become an offering that takes the place of the common purpose. Would it do for the offering to pray, “Atone for my people”? It would not. The one who has become the offering must pray largely, “Forgive the sin of the people and forgive the sin of the world.”
Going further, one must pray, “Forgive the countless pitiable people of the world.” And so, when one is forgiven, naturally one’s own family or kindred too is forgiven. That is the path of the offering.
In driving forward the providence of restoration, an offering is without fail necessary. On the battlefield of Cain and Abel, without an offering, one cannot indemnify. To restore through indemnity centered on Cain and Abel, there must without fail be an offering.
Six thousand years ago, Abel in Abel’s way and Cain in Cain’s way ought to have offered before God an offering of utmost sincerity, pioneered the environment, and cultivated a foothold on which Adam’s position of parent before God could be decided; yet Cain and Abel failed, through the process of offering such an offering, to prepare a foundation on which the position of parent could be decided. And so in the end, the victorious foundation of the parent could not be accomplished.
Seen thus, do you know in what position the leaders of the established churches are today? They are in the position of a priest.
Then, in what position must the priest stand?
When the lamb to be offered in sacrifice dies, the priest’s heart must be moved, and he must shed tears. From the place of common ownership, like the lamb absolutely, he must offer the offering of atonement before God in the stead of the people. He must feel that he offers the lamb in place of the price of the blood of his body.
What is the offering?
It is the priest’s own body. The priest himself is the offering. The responsibility to offer his own wretched figure before God in the stead of the people lies with the priest. Despite this, if the priest fails in that responsibility, he perishes. And those who took part there too are not saved. So, one way or another, a point of solution must be found.
The Crisis of Three and a Half Years
Can God love us?
Even meeting a few people, no one knows God’s world of the heart. In my thinking, the members of the Unification Church are blessed people. I do not say this because I am the teacher of the Unification Church.
These people have no way to live unless it takes the direction in which our Unification Church goes hereafter. Wait and see. When that time comes, the people will have to turn back partway, and if there is no one behind to guide them, those people will perish.
That guide has the responsibility, when people go wrong, to lead them onto the right path. If they do not follow as led, there will at any rate come a time to turn back, and so one must also be able, when they turn back, to guide them from behind, saying, “Follow me.” A religious body able to have such a two-sided leader must come forth.
In the highest place, one must fully carry out the responsibility of God’s son and daughter, and in the lowest place, fully carry out the responsibility of a servant.
In order thus to perceive God’s heart from both sides, what must we do?
For this, the Teacher is guiding you from behind. So that, when there is no power to guide standing in front and the people turn back, one can have a system of guiding ideology able to say, “I walked thus, so if you too walk just so, you will live”—such a system must be set up.
If these people follow that path, it will live, and if it cannot follow, it will turn back; and so one must, without fail, set up, in God’s stead, a two-sided leader who can guide at any time.
Therefore, seen by the ideology of our Unification Church, the responsibility is exceedingly great. And seen also from the side of action, there is an exceedingly great responsibility.
That our church does not develop by leaps is because of the young people. It is because of the young men attending university. In the process by which our church is now pioneering, going to university cannot be called the issue.
This path of sacrificing and becoming an offering is not a path one goes after finishing all one’s studies. The members in the provinces, knowing this, threw up even their schools entirely and all went out and fought for the will. And so they do well for one year, two years, three years, or so, but it is difficult to cross the crisis of seven years.
For about three and a half years, they have done well in a state of not knowing what is what. They do well, saying they are for the world and for the people. Then, once three and a half years pass, they come to think of themselves. The first three years are the time of offering.
Having done well through this period of offering the offering, they come to look centered on themselves, and just at that point they fall away. This is a side-effect arising in the process, and it cannot be evaded. Therefore, one must cross the seven-year period.
It is the switching of Cain and Abel. But is there a true Cain?
Where is there a true Cain? Where is there a Cain-type true individual, a Cain-type true family, a Cain-type true clan, a Cain-type true religious body?
There is no prepared person who has given loyalty to God and repented and prayed a thousand, ten thousand times for the Lord who is to come.
So because we Unification members are in the Abel-type position, we must enter the satanic world, set up a true Cain, and, until Cain follows our will — that is, until he takes over the position of true Abel — teach him and inherit to him the will of Abel. And so we must lay a bridge to the position of Abel and cross over.
For that, one must shed tears and sweat and blood. This is like the motto of our Unification Church: “Tears for humankind, sweat for the earth, blood for Heaven” — so it must be shed. But until now, the tears have been shed wrongly. The sweat has been shed wrongly, and the sacrifice has been offered wrongly.
So this must be secured again. The aim is to shed “holding the heart of parents, wearing the body of a servant, tears for humankind, sweat for the earth, blood for Heaven.” The aim is to do just as God did in the course of history. What you worry about in your mind must not be worldly.
The Absolute Condition of Natural Surrender
We who today shoulder the responsibility of Abel, since there is no heavenly Cain who can face Abel, must rear a Cain. Not the Cain who beats Abel to death, but a Cain who can give his life for Abel — such a Cain we must rear. This is our present mission.
Through the fall, all the authority of this world Satan took away. And so the kings and sovereigns of the nations of the world all became Satan’s side. Therefore, one must seize back all that Satan holds. But in seizing it back, one must set up the absolute condition of natural surrender. One must bring about natural surrender, not forced surrender. Why? Because Adam, lured by words, was not forcibly subdued but went along.
So, conversely, one must make those in the Cain-type position naturally surrender before Abel.
Just as Satan inherited everything from the fallen Adam and Eve, in the age of restoration, Cain must naturally surrender before Abel and have all of this world inherited as an Abel-type. It is not subdued by striking with a club. It is God who is struck and seizes back. From of old, a person famed in history is struck in his age. But once it has passed, he comes to be acknowledged.
It is the same with Jesus.
Today, two thousand years on, who would not believe in Jesus, whom history attests? But at that time, two thousand years ago, when he shed blood wretchedly in the position of an offering, no one followed Jesus. They all fled. Now it is easy to believe.
When placed in such an environment, what Abel must do is to subdue Cain. Not forced surrender, but natural surrender. So God sent even His beloved, only begotten Son, to subdue Cain completely. To subdue Cain completely, God sent His most beloved, more perfect son. It is the principle that if Cain does not naturally surrender, Abel becomes the offering. That Abel becomes the offering if Cain does not naturally surrender is an iron rule.
If Cain naturally surrenders, Abel does not die. Jesus, who appeared as Abel before the Israelite people, could only die because the Israelite people did not naturally surrender. Because the heavenly way is so.
It is God’s strategy to be struck and seize back. To seize one person, to save one person, God strikes the family. Only then can Satan not accuse.
You must know this. It is the same in the world. Suppose another’s child and one’s own child fought. Though it is clear that one’s own son was in the wrong, if one beats the other’s child, saying that the other’s son was in the wrong, one is accused by the parent of the beaten child. But if one beats one’s own son, knowing full well that the other’s son was in the wrong, that parent cannot accuse. In this way, history has proceeded.
The countless people who came forth for God in the course of history could not but shed blood, could not but shed tears, could not but go through a course of a grievous life. Why is this so? Because unless the Cain-type world is made to naturally surrender, it is not restored.
So God had this path of a new ideology and new truth explored, and, as that truth became universalized, pioneered the historical environment in which that truth could be pursued.
A truth that can rule the world! A true truth must come forth and seek the true person, true love, true character, and true heart. Because the human being, at any rate, goes seeking such things before true truth, one is bound to bow one’s head. And one is bound to naturally surrender before the person who speaks the truth.
Determining a person equipped with such truth, the Word, and character, one must secure history and, fitting it to God’s inner standard of heart, cross over to God’s side. One must cross over from the left to the right.
One must cross beyond this world’s realm of lamentation. That ridge one crosses is the path of the cross, the path of death.
The path of the Way is a path one goes by, while alive, liquidating the path of death. To cross over that path, one must pass through Golgotha.
Abel’s Twofold Mission
To cross over that ridge, Abel must carry out a twofold mission. He must subdue Cain and set him up before God. Such an Abel, in the middle position between God and Cain, must attend God above and subdue Cain below.
The being called Abel must subdue Cain—not forced surrender, but natural surrender. For that, he must shed blood and tears and give infinitely. To seize back the realm of blessing of the satanic world, he must give infinitely in heart, embrace it wholly, and give a sincere mind.
When what he has given Satan is more valuable than Satan’s own substance, that becomes a fence and brings about natural surrender. Abel must subdue Cain. And so he must offer before God all that he has inherited from Cain. That is to indemnify the position of priest and the position of offering.
The offering originally had to be a person, but since that could not be, the Israelite people caught a lamb that could substitute for a person and offered it as the offering. That lamb is like the priest’s body, and the priest himself is like the priest’s mind. That is, because the priest is in the Abel position, he must make all those in the Cain-type position naturally surrender and connect them with God’s heart. Jesus came to this earth bearing such an Abel-type mission.
So he had to secure the people, make them naturally surrender, and offer them before God; but because he failed in that responsibility, he became the offering.
Today, in the age of restoration, we call ourselves Abel and say that we must carry out the national Abel mission and carry out the worldwide Abel mission.
For that, we, the Unification members, must tell people to oppose us nationally. Even those who oppose are bound, naturally, to be subdued and come into the multitude that goes the true path.
When you go forward in an individual position at an individual age, you do not surrender. But when you, from the Abel-type position, confront them with a family standard, the individual surrenders; when you confront them with a clan standard, the family surrenders. So one must always go one stage ahead and confront.
Therefore, for the one who stands in the Abel-type position, now is at once a nationalism age and a worldwide age.
You have the responsibility, representing the people, to subdue Cain, and at the same time the responsibility to secure the world and offer it before God. You have the responsibility to take hold of the world, save the people, and offer them before God. But to save the people, you must pass through the process of a worldwide offering.
Otherwise, you cannot offer the people before God. That is the double cross. Do you understand? Abel is in the position of having to shoulder the historical sin committed by the ancestors, secure all of it worldwide, and offer it before God.
Unless one shoulders such a great mission and bears the twofold mission, one cannot complete Abel’s responsibility.
One Must Bring Natural Surrender Through Blood, Sweat, Tears, and Heart
Jesus, from such an Abel position, appealed before the people, but among that people there was no Cain. There was no secured Cain. So, taking the three disciples and placing them there, in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus said,
“Whether we die or live, become one with me. You take my pain in my stead, and I, taking your difficulty in mine, let us go even the path of death together.”
The three disciples in the garden of Gethsemane were a human image representing the three ages of the past, present, and future. They symbolized Cain, Abel, and Seth of Adam’s family; symbolized Shem, Ham, and Japheth of Noah’s family; symbolized the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and King Saul, King David, and King Solomon; and also symbolized the first Adam, the second Adam, and the third Adam.
Such three disciples ought to have, in the garden of Gethsemane where the historical period was horizontally compressed, absolutely attended Jesus and carried out the mission of loyal subjects of Heaven who smash Satan when he attacks.
Despite this, they failed to prepare a foundation of heart by which they could be struck in Jesus’ stead before Jesus was struck, and even while Jesus prayed a prayer of decisive appeal before God three times over, they dozed and nodded.
So Jesus commanded, “The hour of darkness has come; go where you will.” This is a word that informs us that Jesus suffered the historical encroachment of Satan.
Because a Cain-type foundation of victory has not yet been decided in the human world, the thought of Christianity is what came forth, centered on Christianity today, connecting that history, leading forth a spiritual Cain world, and looking toward a spiritual ideal of the Second Advent.
But will it do to make only a spiritual Second Advent?
One must equip an ideal able to make a complete Second Advent embracing both spirit and flesh. In this respect, the Unification Church is today advancing one stage further.
Then, in what position are the family members of our Unification Church today?
One must cross beyond the place of the cross that Jesus crossed. It is a position of having to cross beyond the place of being driven and pursued by the people.
So our Unification Church has been driven much. Any of the thirty million people will revile the Unification Church and the Teacher. But we cannot help but go the grievous, crisis-ridden path Jesus went.
You are in a position of having to become an offering before Jesus, who, in the garden of Gethsemane, stood in the priestly position in the stead of the people. So you must go out to the provinces and shed tears of blood.
Otherwise, this national mission of atonement is not completed. The Teacher does not refrain from such work and makes only you do it. The teacher, too, has done all such work.
In what position is Abel’s position?
It is a position of having to complete two missions. One must not bring forced surrender by striking with the fist. One must subdue by blood and tears and sweat, by heart. Then the world of the heart is gradually created.
If one goes forward with heart, they cannot but follow.
We must know well the grievous heart of Jesus, who was rejected ten times, a hundred times, by his disciples. So one must become a disciple who, when Jesus was about to die, was not a disciple who fled but one who could block the cross and say, “I will be hung on it.”
Peter was at last hung upside down on a cross and died, but had he done so a little earlier, he would have been resurrected together with Jesus when Jesus was resurrected. Had it been so, Christianity today would not drag on for two thousand years.
You—have you thought about such things?
The Path the Republic of Korea Must Go
Today’s Christians say, “Oh, Peter was the chief disciple,” but what chief disciple was Peter?
He is a chief disciple only because Jesus went seeking him again and set him up.
Was that fellow any good?
What qualification as chief disciple has one who only slept in the place where his master prayed a prayer of decisive appeal at the risk of his life and who fled when his master was about to die? Pitiable Jesus. A forlorn Jesus, who had to go seeking such a Peter again.
When Jesus asked,
“Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” (John 12:15),
Peter answered,
“Lord, yes; you know that I love you.” (John 12:15)
But when he asked, repeating it three times over, Jesus’ insides must have turned over. So three ridges remain for us.
Jesus, from the Abel position representing the people, had to secure Israel—the Abel-type Cain-nation—and connect it into a complete Abel-type nation, but he failed to complete that mission.
So, before the han of Jesus, divided in spirit and flesh, is resolved, the providence of the Second Advent is not accomplished. God cannot rest. How can God’s will be accomplished while Jesus’ han is unresolved?
Can God be at ease?
Where is there a father who, when his son is about to die, would say, “Well done! How good”?
Before resolving Jesus’ han with such complication and resolving the complication of God’s han, one cannot cross this ridge of han. Why? Because they are parents.
Then what mission must we carry out today?
Jesus had the responsibility, from the Abel position, to set up the Israelite people as a Cain-nation and inherit it as a Heaven-side Abel-nation, but because the people did not follow him, Jesus could not fulfill that responsibility and died; so, in these Last Days, what and how must we do?
The Lord who comes again must, centered on the people, spread forth a worldwide will. Therefore, Christianity is now cultivating a worldwide foothold. The form is national, but the will must be spread forth for the world. Hoping for the world, one must lead even the people along.
The providence of indemnity must be liquidated. Therefore, an Abel-type standard in the stead of the people must without fail come forth united with the people. For that, there must be such a nation. What I think with gratitude is that Korea has attended God from of old. Now, Korea has no way forward unless it seeks God.
In the political aspect, the economic aspect, and in any aspect, there is no way forward. One must not use another’s strength. No nation can live by receiving another’s aid. The aid given is all bait. It is bait. Therefore, one must kick that aside and build up self-reliance; otherwise, an affair of shedding blood unfolds.
You—as an Abel-type nation—must live an Abel-type life. We must carry out the responsibility of an Abel-type nation. To accomplish salvation in the course of restoration is the purpose we must without fail achieve. Therefore, to achieve that purpose, one must make Cain naturally surrender.
Having made the national Cain-nation naturally surrender before the Abel-type nation, one must, not having one’s own people rule that nation, offer it to God, saying, “I offer this people as an offering representing the nations of the world; receive Thou it, I pray.”
Only then does He receive it. But if, instead of that, one says, “Ah, the Republic of Korea has fulfilled the mission of an Abel-type nation, so, O God, now set Thou up this nation as the representative nation of the world,” God has no way to receive it. The heavenly law is not so made.
When the Republic of Korea, having fulfilled the mission of an Abel-type nation, offers it to God, one must say, “God, I offer this nation as an offering for the world.” It is not offered to make the countless nations of the world look on and pay tribute and bow their heads.
To Stop Up the Hole That Has Been Pierced
Jesus, who came bearing the responsibility as Abel, should have secured the Israelite people and offered them before God, saying,
“I offer this people as an offering that can save the nations of the world; receive Thou it, I pray.”
Had Jesus, from such a position, offered the Israelite people before God as an offering for the world, he would have crossed over the worldwide course of battle.
But because Jesus failed to accomplish that will and went having set up only a spiritual standard, until today, centered on Christianity, the remaining point of solution has been sought and carried down.
The responsibility of our Unification Church, which has come forth upon such an ideological foothold, is to carry out, from the Abel position, the intermediary mission between God and Cain.
For that, one must subdue Cain and offer him to God. On the path of restoration, we must offer our Unification Church as an offering for the people and the world. Do you understand?
The path the Unification Church goes is a hard and difficult path. One must not think of attending it just like the believers of the established churches. To attend the Unification Church, one must make a great resolve. If this path were not hard and difficult, the Unification Church would be false.
How wonderful it would be if a person who used to go to tearooms and drink could be brought to church, saying, “Let us go to church,” and just by believing could go straight to heaven! But God does not do such a thing. There is a complication.
Since a hole has been pierced, one must make something that can stop up that pierced hole.
When this is called the providence of restoration—God, the almighty God who could strike the world and make it instantly—why did He carry on the providence for six thousand years in carrying out the providence of salvation? Salvation does not come about by forcing.
Since a hole has been pierced in the world, the sons and daughters of God must bring a new thing and replace it. Therefore, the good person is struck and sacrificed.
And so, when one stops up the pierced place with a new thing, it connects and becomes the center. Therefore, what is done centered on the new thing is the providence of restoration. You must certainly stand in such a position of center.
Today, men and women alike, in what position are you?
If one traces back up the history of God’s providence of restoration, what comes out?
The archangel comes out, Adam and Eve come out, and at the very last, God comes out. Then what is it that God aims at? Not the archangel, nor Adam and Eve, but true sons and daughters. What was the result of Adam and Eve falling with the archangel? It was that they became the sons and daughters of Satan.
It is not that God, until today, could not send a person to take the place of Adam and Eve and therefore could not carry out the providence of restoration. He can send, once again, a person to take the place of the mission of Adam and Eve; but if the result does not turn out according to the hope God desires, does not turn out according to what Adam and Eve hoped, and does not become the world the unfallen archangel hoped for, then even if He sends one thereafter, it cannot be restored. You must know this well.
To Receive God’s Blessing
What Adam desired too was sons and daughters, what Eve desired too was sons and daughters, and what God desires too is sons and daughters. But through the fall, that desire was shattered, and the history of sin unfolded, so one must kick that aside and restore the bond of the true lineage.
For that, you must, through the law of heredity, liquidate the satanic blood inherited from Satan.
Therefore, religion begins from negation. It negates the social environment of its age.
What does it negate?
It negates the self. It says to restrain eating, sleeping, lust, and so on. Without crossing beyond that stage, one cannot have a bond with an object partner before Heaven. That is why the monks of high-order religion—Buddhism, too, is a high-order religion—and the priests and nuns of Catholicism all live single. They negate the world entirely. And so, only when one is struck and offers sacrifice before Heaven and accomplishes a victorious standard as a priest can one at last receive God’s blessing. This is restoration.
But until now, the Cosmos (天宙) Church has not appeared. A religion that God publicly acknowledges and that can have dominion over the law of heavenly principle has not appeared. A standard of parents made one with God’s heart has not been set up. Therefore, to go on setting up that standard is the path of restoration.
So the words “bridegroom and bride” that Jesus spoke fit exactly. The Lord comes as a bridegroom, but to become a parent, he must find a bride. And it is not enough to equip only the bridegroom and bride. There must be sons and daughters.
Do you know what Jesus went and said to the three disciples?
So you must find three sons and daughters. You must find disciples beyond such ones as the three disciples who rejected Jesus when he prayed in the garden of Gethsemane.
And so one must cross beyond that standard. And one must cross over to the pre-fall stage of Adam and Eve. One crosses over to a stage that is not such a place as where the fallen Adam and Eve were tested before God—a stage where there is no need to have Abel offer an offering.
Today, you must know that you are placed in a destiny of having to pass, with the mission of an Abel-type nation and the mission of the world before you, through the process of a national offering and through the process of a worldwide offering that Heaven can acknowledge. Do you understand? (Yes.)
What is the mission of those of us who have become Abel today?
In the stead of the national mission, one becomes an offering, and in the stead of the worldwide mission, one must say, “Set Thou me up as an offering.” In becoming an offering, one must not die.
Instead of catching a lamb and holding the sacrifice, the body becomes the offering in place of the lamb, and the mind, from the position of priest, offers the sacrifice; and so, being granted the authority of atonement, one must make Cain naturally surrender and lead him to the Abel-type position. And so, when one becomes one with them in the Abel-type position, one becomes the son.
Who is the son of Adam?
The true son is not Cain. So one must become Abel. One must become Abel. Only then is a standard set up by which Adam can be liberated.
From the Abel-type position, one must subdue Cain, set Cain in Abel’s position, and Abel must rise to the position of parent. Only then can one at last receive the blessing.
The Place Where a New Heaven and Earth Open
Had Adam and Eve fully carried out their responsibility before God, God would have performed a blessing ceremony for them.
When one receives the blessing, from there goodness sets out, and the oneness of truth, the oneness of substance, and the oneness of heart are accomplished.
The oneness of truth is when God says, “Do thus,” to say “Yes” and accomplish everything according to God’s word. Adam and Eve, seen by God’s will, are originally not two.
Because Adam, led by Eve, broke the heavenly law, they became two; originally, they were one. After the oneness of truth and the oneness of substance, the oneness of heart must be accomplished. When that happens, one becomes one with God. God comes forth, gazing toward the day when that will be so.
Unless these three become one, one cannot bear good sons and daughters. You—do you have the confidence to bear good sons and daughters?
Do you have the confidence to bear sons and daughters who can go to heaven even without believing in Jesus?
Where is there such a law that one obtains salvation only by believing in Jesus as soon as a child is born?
God is not such an insufficient One. Had the human being not died, had he not fallen, there would be no need of a Savior. There would be no need for prayer, no need for faith. It is because he feels that a Savior is needed. That a Savior came to be needed is the retribution of the fall.
Since one fell through not believing God, one must believe and follow the Savior. Following him, what is one to do?
One must prepare a nest of love. It is simple, is it not? And then one must become substantially one and one in heart with Jesus, the bridegroom. And so one must restore. And so, when the place where God, the True Parents, and the true children meet—that is, the place God hoped for in the beginning—unfolds within this heaven and earth, from there a new heaven and earth open.
Now all things of this world are things that have left God’s side. So we must, one way or another, pass through the process of indemnity. You must know that, in such a turmoil today, the Unification members are in a grave and weighty position.
By doing well, we can save the people and save the world. What we have sacrificed until now was to prepare a national altar. Now we must go forward again to become a worldwide offering. We must carry out two missions.
These people must be able to say that they will fully carry out the national mission and the worldwide mission, that we will cross beyond the standard of the national altar called Korea, and set up a worldwide altar. And only after cultivating such a foundation does the time come, the Teacher thinks, when the Unification members can rest. The path the Unification Church goes is such a path.
To Be Saved
What is the purpose of salvation?
Most of today’s believers say, “Oh! O God, save Thou me,” but however much one prays alone, one cannot go to heaven. Seeking (求) centered on oneself, there is no salvation. For me to be saved, there must be a family in which I can dwell.
For the family to be saved, there must be a kindred; for the kindred to be saved, there must be a people; for the people to be saved, there must be a nation; for the nation to be saved, there must be a world.
Otherwise, one cannot be saved. If one says, “O God! Leave me alone. As for the person beside me, whether he is saved or not, I care not,” one cannot be saved, though one dies. Thinking from this viewpoint, today’s individual, family, kindred, people, nation, and world are all gone wrong. So one must shatter them all and renovate them. This is what we must do today.
To be saved, one must make an environment that can save the family, save the family, and say, “Let us save me.” This is the path of being saved, but people do not know it.
Does it do to pray hard before God, and then, returning home, just fight every day, saying, “You wretch! Keep me alive”?
Before preparing a standard of family salvation, there can be no individual salvation.
If one fails to accomplish family salvation on this earth, one must, even going to the spiritual world, carry out the work of family salvation.
Therefore, the standard of our faith today is that, before saving myself, one must first save the family. And so, if one asks God, “Is this not Thy will?” God will say, “It is right.” Is it not so?
The path goodness goes is the path of living for. It is the path of living for the greater. That is the path goodness goes. To sacrifice the family for the kindred is goodness; for the kindred to sacrifice itself for the people is goodness; for the kindred to sacrifice itself for the nation is goodness.
The law of goodness is so made. This is the linked joint responsibility of Cain and Abel, but people do not know it. You must know this clearly.
One may, saying, “Ah, I must obtain salvation,” enter the Unification Church and think, “If I give full loyalty to the will, I will surely be able to go before God,” but leaving one’s environment and one’s family just as they are, one cannot be saved alone.
Heaven is not a place one goes to alone. Heaven is a place where father, mother, sons, and daughters all go together. Seen by God’s original purpose of creation, heaven is such a place.
While the mother is in hell, saying, “Hey! So-and-so, please save me.” Can one be alone in heaven?
Or, while the father is in hell saying he is dying, would heaven be a place where, alone in heaven, one says, “Hey, how good,” and, “It serves Father right to be there”?
Heaven, God’s ideal of creation, is a place where, together with parents, spouse, and children, the whole family goes together. It will not do for only the family to go. Relatives, too, must go together, and the people, too, must go together. It is a place where the whole nation goes, a place where the whole world goes.
Heaven is not a place Adam goes to alone. It is a place where Adam’s sons and daughters, the descendants of thousands of generations, and all the kindreds must go together. Had there been no fall, all the world’s humankind would be Adam’s sons and daughters, Adam’s descendants, Adam’s kindred, and so all would have been in heaven.
Today, this world must be a world neither of communism nor of democracy, but a world of Adam-ism. What is called an ism is a guide, that is, a walking stick. The -ism itself cannot become the substance. It can play only the role of a walking stick when one goes on the path.
Then where is the world of Adam-ism?
This world is a fallen world of Adamism. There are plenty of fallen Adamist families, fallen Adamist kindreds, fallen Adam-ist peoples, and fallen Adam-ist nations, but there is no unfallen, original world of Adam-ism.
Therefore, when God asks, “Where is the true Adam-ist family, the true Adam-ist kindred, the true Adam-ist people, the true Adam-ist nation, the true Adam-ist world, that can complete God’s will and, centered on heart, set up the great law of the heavenly order (천륜) from which all under heaven cannot deviate?” — What do you think God would be like if one said, “Here it is”?
Such a heaven and earth is the earthly heaven. So in the path you must go, complications remain.
The world of Adam, the unfallen original world of Adam, that world which, as the True Parents and true ancestors of our humankind, can inherit the law and tradition of the heavenly order and be made one with God’s will—because it could not become that world, the countless people of the Way until now have carried on the providence through a new chosen people to pioneer that world.
What does the word “chosen people” mean?
Since all lie fallen and dead, the aim is to make a family, kindred, people, and nation that can be a fence to protect Adam. And so the aim is to equip a Cain-type nation, a Cain-type world form, that will give full loyalty to Abel.
The democratic world is the Cain-type world. The communist world is the Satanist world, is it not? It is Satanism, which says there is no God. From here, Abel must come forth. Abel is one like Jesus.
If the logic of our Unification Church is without error, then, for the world and all people, an Abel centered on the heart of the one God must appear, complete the mission of the Son, make the world’s humankind in the Cain-type position naturally surrender, and take responsibility even for the salvation of the spiritual world. The spiritual world has still not escaped from hell, has it? So one must save even the spiritual world.
Then what is it that the returning Lord who comes again must do?
It is to set up an Abel-type standard of victory before the world’s humankind and offer this humankind before God.
It is to make humankind live happily. Many of our ancestors who went to the spiritual world are people who went to hell. Therefore, only by saying, “I will take responsibility for and save even the hell of the spiritual world,” can one set up the original standard before God’s will.
In carrying out salvation, before saving the sons and daughters, one must first save the archangel. Then the logical contradiction disappears.
So they say the Lord comes with the trumpet sound of the archangel, do they not?
What this means is that only when the responsibility of the archangel is first completed can the Lord come and save the world’s humankind. But humankind, deaf and blind, however much it looks, does not understand, and however much one cries out, does not hear.
The Final -ism That Will Appear at the End of History
You— in what position do our people stand?
For the people to enter heaven, the world must stand in the Cain-type position. It must stand in the position not of the opposing Cain, but of the Cain who follows Abel’s will.
For that, one must offer an offering. You must clearly know that such a crisis remains.
There is something the Teacher felt deeply in his mind, touring the world this time and returning. Many say this and that about how the world is today. But such things are not the issue. What Heaven has willed as its goal is what matters.
So we, standing in the place Heaven desires, must, on the Abel-type standard, become an offering in the stead of Cain and become a worldwide offering that fully carries out the national responsibility and the worldwide responsibility.
One must stand in the position of saying that one will subdue Cain for the nation and become an offering for the world. Only then is heaven accomplished.
Jesus, striving to carry out such a mission, in the end could not and died gazing toward the world. Of course, he sacrificed himself for the people.
In substance, he sacrificed himself for the people and was indemnified, but his mind and thoughts became an offering for the world’s humankind.
Jesus thus won the victory by dying; but, substantiating that, the believers of today’s worldwide end-time must connect even to the worldwide stage and the stage of the spiritual world. And so one must shoulder the responsibility of saying that one will save even the spiritual world. Only then can one set up a condition of indemnity in this world. Do you understand?
In the midst of this, the Lord who comes must stand in the position of the True Parents, and at the same time, we ourselves too must stand in such a position. In the providence of restoration, one must at any time pass through such a process.
Looking quietly at the forms of the world’s nations today, it is quite interesting.
By what can one know the end (末路) of democracy?
Democratic nations will hereafter fall into the form of an individualized imperialist thought. That becomes the end of democracy.
In falling, they fall from the underdeveloped nations first. And so, little by little, the whole democratic world falls into an imperialist form. And communism falls away from the form of international communism into the form of clan communism.
And so, at last, what -ism comes forth that is neither communism nor democracy?
Parentism comes forth. Until now, it has been universal-brotherhood-ism, philanthropy-ism, but hereafter parent-ism, heart-ism comes forth. This is the final -ism that will appear at the end of history.
If, having entered the Unification Church, you cannot do such work, pack your bundle and leave.
If such a thing is not found on the standard of heart, you must go and go again. And so you must, without fail, find it.
It is not universal-brotherhood-ism. Centered on the parents, centered on the heart, one must follow the law and tradition of the parents. One must love the parents and then love the brothers.
Only then will the heavenly way stand, will it not?
Brotherly love alone will not do. One must first love the parents and then love the brothers.
Until now, Cain and Abel were brothers, yet brothers who did not offer sacrifice.
So who must come and offer a sacrifice?
The Lord must come and offer a sacrifice. Only then do they become brothers who can greet the parents and enter a new historical world. Do you understand what this means?
Until now, Cain and Abel did not offer an offering that indemnifies the historical sin.
Because Adam and Eve lost the position of parents, to find the position of parents again, just as Cain and Abel fought and Abel won, in this world today, a standard like Cain and Abel's must unfold once more centered on the parents, and, subduing Cain, one must enter the Abel-type position. Only then is the position of parents at last restored. This is the formula path.
So, in what position must we stand today?
We must stand in the position of connecting Jesus’ mission centered on the people. So, since you now love the people, you must love the world.
Today, some people, as the Unification Church widens its foothold worldwide, say, “The Unification Church’s Teacher Moon is presidential material!” — but the presidency of Korea is not the issue. The established churches slander, saying, “The Unification Church is trying to do such-and-such,” but now such talk is wearisome. One must save the world.
One must save the world. For that, we must know that we must fully carry out the national responsibility, fully carry out the Cain-Abel responsibility on the worldwide standard, and fully carry out the responsible mission that can take Jesus’ place. Do you understand? It is that you must stand in such a historical position.
Then who is Jesus?
Jesus is not the Lord but your elder brother. If one says such a thing, the Christians will fall over backward.