The Restoration of a People

The first seven-year course

The period starting with the Holy Wedding of True Parents in 1960 and going through 1967 was the first seven-year course, the purpose of which was to create the foundation for the restoration of the Korean people.

This period was divided into an initial period of three years and a second period of four years. Full-scale activities were carried out accordingly. The seven-year course is a path that everyone needs to follow God's providence. True Parents directly led the providence of restoration through indemnity during each stage of this course.

When the central figures of the providence fulfill their responsibilities, they move on to the next stage, but when they fail, the course is extended. Knowing this, both True Parents and church members lived through a time of extreme tension as they devoted all their efforts toward fulfilling their providential responsibilities during this course.

They established the providential foundation, and so much was achieved during this period that it can be considered the model course for all members to follow.

The seven-year course started with the Holy Wedding of True Parents, and in July 1960, all members were sent out years.

1. Because humankind fell at the completion level of the growth stage, the completion stage as a whole is seven. The completion stage is seven years.

If you add up the number of years in the formation, growth, seven years completion stages, 7 years each, it comes to 21 years, roughly 20 years.

When a person is 20 years old, which is 21 by Korean reckoning, they enter the period of maturity and should be married in God's love.

Adam and Eve should have received God's blessing and obtained recognition as the True Parents of humanity, but they failed to accomplish this. They married without permission while still immature and did not begin the completion stage.

Due to the unresolved sorrow of these seven remaining years, 1,000 years of the millennial kingdom would be added to the 6,000 years of biblical history, and so 7,000 years of sorrow came to be. In short, one year was prolonged to 1,000 years, and seven years to 7,000 years. We are indemnifying this for seven years. This is their seven-year course. (023-217, 1969/05/25)

2. Human beings, who are born as fallen descendants of Adam and Eve, can never go to heaven unless they walk the seven-year restoration course. It is not spoken of in the Bible, but Jesus also traveled such a course, the seven-year period from when he was 27 to when he was 33.

The period from age 34 to 40 would have been his second seven-year course. If Jesus had started at age 20, the period from age 33 to 40 would have been the third seven-year course.

In this way, Jesus could have established the worldwide foundation by age 40.

However, because the people did not accept him and he died, that period remains in the Bible as seven years of great calamity and disturbance.
(021-061, 1968/09/01)

3. The stage at which you receive the Blessing is not the stage at which you have already become perfect.

If the Parents have gone over the bridge of the cross, then you need to walk over that bridge just as it stands. You cannot simply fly over it. If the bridge is dangerous, you may be able to reinforce it, but the fact remains that you still need to cross it.

Therefore, the seven-year course that I have walked remains eternally. Both the seven-year course on the individual level and the seven-year course on the family level remain eternally. Because human beings fell at the top of the growth stage, they cannot ascend into the completion stage just as they are.

Only when they finally rid themselves of original sin can they ascend beyond the place where their first ancestors fell.

Since we are not free of original sin at the top level of the growth stage, it is at this position, not the top level of the completion stage, that you are to receive the Blessing. (035-233, 1970/10/19)

4. The seven-year course is the period that shapes the sons and daughters of God. This is determined by whether you can resolve Jesus' sorrows and grievances. Therefore, you need to sacrifice for your country, and for you to for people to indemnify fully the unremitting anguish of Jesus.

Those who were unable to follow in the footsteps of True Parents and participate in this seven-year course will need to pass through this course someday, regardless of who they are. This is the formula. The seven-year course is unavoidable.

People who join the Unification Church in the future need to pass through the seven-year course. The seven-year course is something that everyone needs to undergo. (017-146, 1966/12/11)

5. You truly must walk the seven-year course. In the three years that constituted the second part of his seven-year course, Jesus was unable to complete his mission. If he had completed this course and had gone on through the next seven-year course, he would have entered his forties.

His first seven-year course should have ended at the age of 33. However, Jesus could not go beyond that stage. He could not go beyond the first seven-year course. He started on his first seven-year course, but he was trapped during its last three years.

Therefore, he could not restore the family. However, the Unification Church restored the family during our three-year course. In the future, we should carry out the work of restoration on the world level. (024-346, 1969/09/14)

6. You need to heal the bitter pain of Jesus and the bitter pain of God. Until Jesus' pain is resolved, God's pain cannot be resolved either. Therefore, you first need to resolve the pain of Jesus, and to achieve that, you need to walk the path of a public mission for three years just as Jesus walked his, three-year course of a public mission.

Can you witness to 120 people in three years? You can do so by offering wholehearted devotion. Thereafter, you must build a shrine, prepare an altar, make a sacrificial offering, and become a high priest.

Only after you have set this condition of having achieved victory can you finally receive the Blessing as the sons and daughters of heaven.

You are restoring the model family, from the family of Noah to the family of Jacob. When you do that, you finally can become the ancestors of an individual tribe, similar to the branch tribes of Israel. This is the road that we must go.
(011-215, 1961/07/17)

7. The Unification Church has passed through the initial three-year period of the first seven-year course that began in 1960. The number three is the number for finding children, and the number four is the number for restoring material things.

We were successful in carrying out this first project. We prevailed during these three years and laid the foundation to advance to the world. Upon this foundation, we need to restore the Second Israel.

Therefore, the remaining four years to the period in which we need to work hard for the restoration of the people. Exerting all our energy, we need to work diligently, and victoriously to restore people and territory.

You are doing in four years what I did in 40 years. In the future, even the matter of taking down the Unification Church signboard will depend on you. Instead of a Unification Church, we need to make a united Korea, and on that foundation, b e need to make a united world.

If you cannot fulfill this responsibility, I will have to get another nation to do it. (013-091, 1963/10/22)

8. For the people of Israel, there was a three-day course before the 40-year wilderness course. Only by going through this three-day course could they finally embark on the path of restoring Canaan. And after the people of Israel went into Canaan, they had to restore the number 40 once again.

Because the providence of restoration passed through such a course, in the current age I too had to go through a 40-year course, as well as a three-year course and a four-year course.

Accordingly, we walked the three-year course, and now we are walking the four-year course. Only after undergoing such a process can we complete the work of restoration and establish the sovereignty of heaven.

After passing through the three-year course with True Parents at the center, we need to go through the period of restoring all things of the creation; this is the current four-year course in which we are expanding in all directions. This is period's struggling seven-year course.

Through this seven-year course, we need to continue working to complete restoration through indemnity. Relative to God's long historical course of searching for True Parents, the three-year course, the four-year course and the 40-year course are short periods.

However, these are the periods during which we have to restore, through indemnity, resolving all historical sorrows, resentments, and the historical cross. (013-287, 1964/04/12)

9. The first three years of the seven-year course are the individual indemnity period, carried out in the smallest possible number of years. It is the condensed form of the corresponding historical indemnity period. Therefore, all Unification Church members need to go through these three hopes

I told you to become one with me in heart, so you all need to understand True Parents' heart. This three-year period is a period of grace granted to you, in which you can come to stand in the position of True Parents, resemble them, and feel their heart, even wondering what they might be doing at this late hour and worrying that they might be staying up all night.

If you were to do educational witnessing work for periods of 40 days during these three years, even twice a year, the total number of days you would work would still be less than a year. It is unacceptable if you cannot even do that.

Ideally, you are supposed to do a fast during this period. I hope that during this period you will be able to find your position and establish the direction of your faith.

If you miss this opportunity, you might lose your position, your direction, and your connection with True Parents. (011-275, 1961/12/17)

10. If you go out believing in me alone, you will never be dislodged. Please overcome just these three years. In 1960, I sent you on witnessing missions to live the life of a servant, almost as if you were going to prison for three years, just as, wearing a blue prison uniform, I set conditions of succeeding in restoration through indemnity.

You need to be placed in an environment where you are hunted because there was a time when I was hunted and forced to move from place to place. Through walking the horizontal path, you need to restore through indemnity the bitter pain in history, which remains indemnified vertically. (025-214, 1969/10/04)

11. The first seven-year course is the path to restore the position of a child of direct lineage from the position of a servant of servants. Therefore, during this seven-year course, struggling hearts you have to take the position of a servant and love Cain. This is why we need to go out and witness. We should try to love others with our hearts focused on the Divine Principle.

We should try to love others, not as a son or daughter of so-andso's lineage, but as people who have made a covenant with God's heart through heavenly love. We should find a point of accord with God's life and hope, and try our best to love others.

Let us try to do this and become one with God in heart, hope, God hopes and action. God hopes to recover the world. His action is to carry out confidently the work of the providence of restoration to save the world.

His heart provides the character that enables us to love the person who seems unlovable. (034-060, 1970/08/29)

12. We know that it was God's Will to conclude the sinful history of 6,000 years through the first seven-year course. We also know that, ever since the time of Jesus 2,000 years ago, Christianity has been constructing a bloodstained altar of martyrdom and struggling to fill the still unfulfilled work of the providence.

We are keenly aware that not only Jesus and the Holy Spirit but also innumerable martyrs have come to earth for the Will of God and have left behind them nothing but sorrows.

These saints followed their hearts and stomped upon Satan's world, but they were forced to fulfill their work by sacrificing their bodies and going to their deaths.

As we have seen, the demands of each age focused on a single moment and necessitated a fight to the death between Satan's side and God's side. Then who is responsible for fulfilling the mission of ending this fight?

The outside world does not know that the members of the Unification Church, hounded and hunted by the people of Korea, are the ones who have shouldered this vital responsibility.

God, however, knows it, and this is why He has pioneered this stony path together with us and has worked with us until now. This is a privilege given only to us, and we alone can carry that pride.

On the path of history, the first seven-year course is the fertile period when we can eagerly bring these things into reality. (019-128, 1968/01/01)

13. You now stand at the very point where I began my public course 21 years ago. I was persecuted by Christianity, I was hunted by the nation, and I was opposed by religious people.

However, the present time is not that kind of age. You live in an age where nations, religions, spiritual groups, and gifted individuals around the world will begin to testify to you and welcome you.

From this perspective, you are standing in a place more blessed than mine. In the past, if you tried to accomplish a task and made a mistake, you had to reverse your error and completely indemnify it. But now for you, that age has passed.

All the conditions have improved. Indeed, a blessed moment has arrived in which the age of indemnity is passing and the age of glory is approaching. This applies particularly to you who are in the position of children.

Those in the position of parents made a can and a standard of suffering before humankind was established. However, because I completed my responsibility in the position of parents, you, who are in the position of children, can advance beyond the standard of persecution and accusation.

This period is the first seven-year course. (021-061, 1968/09/01)

The first course for Korea

The first seven-year course was the path that the True Parents themselves took, the model course established for blessed couples. After the liberation of Korea in 1945, True Father triumphed in his 14-year course on the individual level.

During the seven-year course that started following the Holy Wedding of the True Parents, the members began to walk in True Parents' footsteps.

Specifically, according to Father's words, the first three years of the seven-year course were the period to recover the lost parents and children, and the four subsequent years were the period to pioneer the national-level foundation in addition to laying the material and environmental foundations. The members were in the position of children participating in the True A course.

Their primary objective as individuals was to attain maturity and make great strides for the achievement of positive results.

14. What must you do to accomplish these seven years? You need to possess the victorious authority of dominion on the level of an individual, a family, a tribe, a people, and a nation.

However, being a descendant of the Fall, you cannot walk this seven-year course by yourself. This is why God established the True Parents to pave this road in both the spiritual world and the physical world, and you are following in their footsteps. (014-246, 1965/01/01)

15. Due to Adam and Eve's Fall, we lost the True Parents. Moreover, we lost the true children. We also lost all creation. Lastly, we lost God. We need to find these four things that have been lost.

Adam and Eve fell at the completion level of the growth stage and gave birth to fallen sons and daughters, thus becoming the ancestors of fallen humanity. In this fallen realm, the creation also came to be filled with bitter sorrow.

Because humankind came under the realm of Satan's dominion, everything was lost. The Unification Church established the standard for restoring all of this during the period from 1960 to 1967, the first seven-year course.

During this period, we rose to meet the criteria necessary to redeem all that had been lost. (023-180, 1969/05/18)

16. Why did I lead you to participate in the first seven-year course from 1960? You need to understand why we started in 1960 and not before then. The work of restoration is supposed to pass through the three stages of formation, growth, have, and completion. Because you are passing through three stages related to the number seven, you must fulfill a period relating to 21.

Now, due to the Fall, Satan invaded the formation and growth stages. Since those in the position of parents fell, parents are the ones who must restore these two stages. Children cannot participate in establishing the standard of overcoming trials and suffering.

That task belongs to the parents. The children are to walk the path of restoration in the seven-year period that corresponds to the completion stage. This is the period for the path of restoration at the level that did not suffer Satan's invasion.

The work you do during this first seven-year period remains as actual results; you are not paying indemnity. (016-065, 1965/12/26)

17. Centered on God, True Parents appeared on earth after the Holy Wedding. Since the beginning of history, many evil parents have been born, but the standard of good, God-centered parents has not been established on earth.

On the day when this was established, Satan's dominion over human beings, which he had held from the beginning of history until then, started to be taken away from him. This is why the forces of Satan had no choice but to raise a banner of opposition and persecute True Parents with all their energy and might.

Why were True Parents persecuted even after the Holy Wedding? The reason is that this wedding ceremony took place at the top of the growth stage, and the seven-year course representing the completion stage remained unfinished.

The problem was how we could go through this seven-year course. Only when we completed this seven-year course could we arrive at the realm of God's direct dominion.

To pass through the dominion of the Principle and arrive at the direct dominion, we needed to fulfill what is called the portion of responsibility.

Adam and Eve were supposed to uphold the ideal of love, through which they could become absolutely one centered on God, thus advancing to the position where they could never be divided.

This would have established a foundation for a family, Parentshealedpriority was God-centered love. If they had done this, then on that foundation, heaven, and earth would have become one, and man and woman would have become one.

Based on the foundation of new love, new life, and new lineage, they would have then expanded horizontally in every direction. (196-214, 1990/01/01)

18. The Unification Church family members are the ones to participate in the first seven-year course, the Abel course, in which I the fate of the people. If I go east, you should follow me to the east, and if I go west, you should follow me to the west.

Become a leaf or a branch that must not fall or break off. This seven-year course is the period in which I am establishing you in the position of branches that do not break off and leaves that do not fall off, even if they have withered. Therefore, if it is at all possible, during this seven-year course all of you must be mobilized.

During this period, worldwide Satanic powers will attack you in full, concentrated force. This period started in 1960. At that time, all the the in the Republic of Korea opposed us.

People lined up to file anonymous accusations with the police to have me imprisoned. Unless one receives such opposition, restoration through indemnity cannot take place. (017-140, 1966/12/11)

19. The first seven-year course served to bring an end to my,21-year course. In this course, you participated as individuals, but in terms of your significance in world history, you participated on behalf of many people in history.

The devotions you offered in this period absolutely will not be in vain. They will remain linked for thousands of years and generations, and when you go to the heavenly world, they will become the basis on which countless good spirits will offer you praise. This period will not come again.

We came forward on the Korean Peninsula holding the unification banner had healed historical woes, and we have been targets for the arrows of persecution throughout this time.

However, we did not ease our pace on the path that we had been traveling. Even while being driven out and pursued, we did not neglect our internal growth or our external preparation.

So now there is not one person on the Korean Peninsula who can block the path of the Unification Church. We have a standard that cannot be negated by any weapon imaginable. From the viewpoint of heaven, this is what brought us such a great victory. Because we established such a standard as our center, we were able to create a new history. (019-130, 1968/01/01)

20. In the first seven-year course True Parents, while establishing the standard for the family and the tribe, set the indemnity condition for the people through the church.

This internal standard should have been reached at the time of Jesus, but could not be accomplished and had to be re-indemnified. To piece all this together, we have worked so hard during this seven-year course. (017-316, 1967/04/10)

21. While going through the initial three-year period of the first seven-year course, what must you do to a pitiable race of people? You need to continue running forward, even if you fall on the way. On this road of trials, you train yourselves as construction workers who can build an ideal society.

You need to establish traditions that Satan's world cannot accuse. The traditions you establish in the process of training yourselves should become a legacy that can endure eternally, even in the ideal world of the kingdom of heaven.

Otherwise, you will not be able to say that you finished walking your life's path, and it will not be said that you completed your life's responsibility. The more you aspire to be loyal to heaven as a true filial son or daughter, the more suffering and trials you will undergo, so you need to prepare for that.

You need to prepare thoroughly to stand in a position in which all humanity can praise your value and the entire cosmos can be grateful to you, in which you create conditions that will make the entire cosmos happy. (013-327, 1964/04/14)

22. We need to march forward toward the day when the sound of laughter rings and resonates throughout the Korean Peninsula and all the world, testifying that we have realized the kingdom of heaven.

Since we are in such a position, we have no time to rest. We Unification Church believers should weep bitterly, even while eating.

Why must we become like that? It is so that we can realize the kingdom of heaven desired by God, resolve the bitter sorrow of Jesus and the Holy Spirit over their unfulfilled task, and resolve the sorrow of the thousands of saints who endured starvation and became sacrificial offerings, yet could not restore the kingdom of heaven on earth. How can they be liberated from their sorrows?

Do you think there is spare time for those of us who know this wonderful reality, and who bear this enormous mission, to rest? Even if your legs break, even if you die, there remains the path of restoration for you to follow with all your strength.

That is why I commanded you to complete the three-year course. In taking that path, everyone must risk death. To achieve the goal that you set with complete dedication, you should be ready to lose sleep, go hungry, and face danger. I am responsible for making you carry out this work.

This is why I hope that, when you stand in such a position, you will not complain about anyone. Even if you collapse or are asked to sacrifice yourself, you should not lament.

We cannot avoid being targeted by the enemy, for we are soldiers laying the cornerstone to construct the kingdom of heaven. How can the enemy not try to besiege us? These things will happen.

However, as you work for True Parents and, God, your heart is not for your own sake but for the sake of the people and the world. Therefore, this position is sacred. Even if this path is long, the footsteps of the unified soldiers should follow it joyfully, finding shortcuts whenever possible. (015-342, 1965/12/07)

23. I fear that the nation of Korea and its people, who are in the position of the people of Israel, may be unable to fulfill their responsibility. I am sending you ahead of me because, if there is any glory to be had, I want to give it to you first.

You need to go through the remaining four-year period of the first seven-year course bearing this in mind. Since now, is a time when anyone could become exhausted, we need to struggle even harder.

Adam and Eve fell, and the fruit of their Fall was Cain and Abel. We need to restore this through indemnity, focusing on our church members, namely the blessed families.

In each region, there should be a family of filial sons and daughters who work with complete loyalty, regardless of what other people think or do.

Such a family is surmounting the sorrows of a people through their tears, sweat, the blood to achieve the goal True Parents set on their behalf. A person becomes True Parents' object partner if he or she lives with gratitude every day, asking with tears for blessings upon his or her people. Such people carry out heavenly labors.

This is why during the four-year period, which is the second half of the first seven-year course, your responsibility is to be victorious leaders of the people. If this is the case, at the same time you welcome the people's, victory, God will welcome it too.

You need to understand this and pray with increasing intensity. After this work is finished, you need to become victorious world-level leaders.

Once you accomplish this, all the world's peoples will come to dwell in a realm of grace and praise God. Then finally we will be liberated, and we will establish God's Day as a day of complete victory. (013-158, 1964/01/01)

24. We need to set the foundations that God can accept for individual victory, family victory, tribal victory, and victory of the people. In this context, the tribe means the blessed families of the Unification Church, and the people means the larger community that is formed around such tribes. In the future, we need to organize a united people.

This is why, here in Korea, we have to restore the heavenly central position that Cain and Abel should have established. We need to make an all-out advance in this mission in the first seven-year course. (016-071, 1965/12/26)

25. The motto of the first year of the first seven-year course was, “Let this be the year of the best result of our lives.” This means that I, in the position of a man, had to find a Father's Mother. The motto of the second year was, “Let us become Heavenly Father's representatives.”

Because I finally found Mother, I could work on behalf of our Heavenly Father to advance toward the restored kingdom of heaven. These mottoes refer to my life.

The motto of the third year was, “Let us have something to show and be proud of.” Spiritual sons and daughters are those who we can show and be proud of. This refers to your restoration course. Therefore, this is both my motto and yours.

Focusing on the first seven-year course, you need to have the greatest year of your life in front of heaven.

This best year of your life must be one in which you, as a completely lost man, find a completely lost woman. Then, as a representative of God, you need to find something to show and be proud of. Thereafter, you need to become a victorious leader. Once you have completely restored the four-position foundation, you need to govern the realm of victory.

In 1960, when I said, “When this seven-year course passes, the complete foundation will be established on which I can work,” you thought I was only dreaming. But now you can see that things have turned out just as I said they would. (025-239, 1969/10/04)

26. Though we, prevailed in the first seven-year course, True Parents shed many bloody tears during this period. Night or day, however difficult the situation was, I always rushed forward to achieve one goal.

You should not blame others who do not follow this path. Even if you have no friends, you should blame no one. You are walking this path with the mission of harvesting the providential results that God has already prepared.

We need to harvest the fruits of goodness that are scattered throughout this world. By harvesting these fruits with the sickle of the heart, you can unite your divided self and even unite the separated feelings of heaven and humankind.

Though our bodies are like dull sickles, they should still be used as tools for the harvest. In this way, these seven years, we base ourselves on the heart of God and guide the world toward a new center. This is the mission of Unification Church believers. (020-192, 1968/06/09)

27. In 1960, we prepared a new foundation for victory, the providential foundation to restore on earth the standard that Jesus hoped for 2,000 years ago. From such an astounding and epochal starting point, we entered a new era of history.

During the period of this first seven-year course, if democracy cannot control the world and communism comes to dominate, the whole world will perish. So this seven-year period is the time when that which is perishing can be brought to thrive.

We need to restore the people and organize them into the form of a nation, and then we need to create one united world. Everything needs to be restored during these seven years,

When Jesus came to this earth he wanted to establish Parents' Day, Children's Day, and the Day of All Things.

Through this, he would have assumed absolute authority without Satan's accusation and finally would have established God's Day, through which he could have returned glory to God. Following Jesus' desire, we established Parents' Day, Children's Day, and the Day of All Things to achieve his goal.

Then, after completing the first seven-year course, we finally established God's Day on the first day of the first month in 1968. (019-215, 1968/01/07)