Today, countless people live the life of faith, yet there are not many who think about the road by which man goes seeking God or the road by which God comes seeking man.
God, Whom One Cannot Meet Directly
People think of praying as such a simple matter as prostrating oneself before God and praying when there is difficulty for them. Yet we must know that the place of praying to God is not such a place as when a person meets another person, and they exchange questions and answers. Rather, by offering prayer, God comes to form a relationship with us.
The place in which you live today, this place of praying to God, is not a place belonging to Heaven. Not only that, you yourselves are not people equipped with content over which God can have direct dominion. You must know that when a person who is thus outside the realm of direct dominion prays to God in such an environment, it is no simple matter for God to hear that prayer and concern Himself with it or to respond to it to fulfill that prayer.
Around you there will be many people more evil than you who have stepped forth saying you will walk the road of Heaven. As this is so individually, so it will be so in terms of the family as well. Seen in this way, we can know the fact that families, tribes, peoples and nations on the side of an evil environment surround us worldwide, more than an environment of seeking to live for God. We must know this.
It is not that it is so only in the human world of a plane standard; we must know that the world beyond man, centering upon man, in other words, the spirit world, which is the fourth-dimensional world, is likewise surrounded by companies of evil spirits who cannot form a relationship with God more than we feel while living today.
When each of us who is within such an environment prays to God, even though God would hear that prayer and seek to respond to it, it means that He cannot come to me directly from the deep and high and holy throne of Heaven. In other words, when we consider one nation, many complicated problems arise in the sovereign of that nation, whether it be the sovereign or the president; if it be the president, going directly to the people at the very lowest level to connect with them.
Therefore, when one must form a bond from a position of being unable to go directly, it means that the bond is formed by passing through sequential stages. In other words, when there is a company having an organizational form, we can see through a nation or a society that to communicate from its highest level to the very lowest of the low levels, one must pass through an organizational structure.
It means that it is likewise the same in the spiritual world. When you pray, you do not pray to a spirit directly connected with you; you pray to the Most High and Most Holy (지고지성, 至高至聖) God who is in the highest place. Yet it means that there is a vast distance between the place of God, who receives that prayer, and your place.
Therefore, the problem is what this place is to be filled with. You must know that God, who is upon the throne, is in a position of having to build a bridge centered on countless people to fill this distance. Therefore, men of faith can meet God only by passing over such a bridge, but until now they have not known this. It means that countless connecting bodies are organized so that one can be connected with each of us only by passing through the organized society of the spirit world, which lies layer upon layer. When we consider such things, it means that a long period is required until God directly faces the prayer we offer with devotion upon earth. Yet we must know the fact that the more supreme that person’s devotion is, the more the distance can be shortened.
There is an old saying that where there is utmost sincerity, Heaven is moved.
These words mean that with utmost sincerity Heaven is moved, but merely moving Heaven does not get the work done. One must move Heaven and form a relationship with me so that I can bring about the result I aim at. Yet after Heaven is moved, there is a temporal distance until that result comes. But it means that as such a bond is formed once, twice, three times, more and more frequently, the organizational form that lies between God and me can be more and more shortened. We must know this.
When you come to meet some person you do not know, you are introduced. At such a time, the person who has been introduced comes to form a relationship from the position of the person who introduced him to the other party. We know well that at such a time, whether one is excellent or not, the other party’s evaluation of oneself differs according to the excellence and the devotion of the person who introduced one.
If One Would Meet God
For us to form a relationship with God, we must cross over all the stages that lie between God and us, or they must cross over to us. Therefore, for us to pioneer this road is almost impossible. Because the spirit world, too, is wrapped within countless organizational environments, it means that for spirit individuals to pioneer this road is likewise impossible.
The only method by which this road can be pioneered is for you to offer much devotion. And so the devotion you offer must be made known even to God, and one must prepare a motive by which God can respond. When it becomes so, God commands and gives direction. When one forms a bond by passing through such a process, at last a relationship is formed between God and us.
It means that as such a process is repeated once, twice, three times, four times, and the more that process increases, the more the distance between God and man can be shortened. This is the same as how, when we first meet some person through an introducer, as the number of meetings increases, both come to be intimate inwardly and outwardly, and their circumstances and purposes can become the same. Such a fact we know in detail through our social life.
Therefore, we believers today must pass through the same sort of process. Because we ourselves cannot go in a single bound to the place of the Most High God, we must go centering upon the countless saints who came and went in the historical ages. Among them, if there are people whom God especially sent, to go by making a bridge of those people is the fastest road. And so, if there is someone upon this earth today who teaches the truth that has made clear the way of human ethics or the principle of Heaven, one wishes to go by making a bridge of that person. We know such things well.
Therefore, the most important problem for us today is, before ascending vertically toward the solid world, how widely one becomes a person who casts influence in the horizontal world.
This horizontal world possesses a ground of historical fruition. This present reality of today did not come into being of itself. It exists by passing through a historical bond. Within that historical bond there are the ways of the countless saints who came and went upon this earth and the teachings of true people. Centering upon such things, some form of organization or phenomenon of society comes into being.
Moreover, such things are connected even to the citizens’ spirit of patriotism. That means that the road the saints left behind upon this earth was shortened and concentrated and became one inner bond by which society could be formed.
When we examine such things, one must become a person who does not regard such an inner bond as another’s bond and does not regard the bond of a nation, if it be a nation, as another nation’s bond, but regards it as my bond, as my nation’s bond, and takes responsibility for it and strives to form a direct relationship with it.
We must know the fact that if there is such a person, not only does the environment in which he forms bonds gradually widen, but the direct distance between him and the statesmen of that nation, if it be the statesmen, is also shortened.
When an inner bond thus widens horizontally, that becomes precisely the road by which one can come into contact with the bond taught by the countless forebears who came and went upon the course of history. In this way, when we form a bond with the sages who have gone to the spirit world, it means that those people become a bond behind us that plays the role of a bridge by which we can go gradually nearer to the world of truth.
Therefore, we must know that if we would go seeking the road of the Way today, we must continue to seek not only the saints who came to this earth and taught the way of goodness and departed but also the religions bound upon earth centering upon their teachings.
Seen in this way, we must know that behind any society or the formation of a new culture, religion has without fail been the motive. Religion does not go forward centering upon human ethics alone; it introduces the heavenly order (천륜) and teaches centering upon the way of the heavenly order.
If One Would Shorten the Distance to the Spirit World
When we offer devotion today, centering upon the way that the saints who came and went in the past taught, we must take the highest standard they longed for as our longing and offer devotion so that we can inherit it. It means that only by offering devotion in that way does it become content by which the distance to the spirit world can be shortened directly or indirectly.
Therefore, human beings upon the earth today must serve a true saint among such saints and, pouring out all their lives, keep that saint’s way as their own way and go forward thinking of it as the road they must walk to the very last. When it is so, the greater the sphere in which that saint casts influence in the spirit world, the more that great sphere of influence becomes a bond by which I, upon earth, can form a direct relationship with the spirit world. It means that if one prays to God on such ground, one can form a direct relationship with the spirit world within a short time even without offering much devotion, and that distance too grows near.
Therefore, for man to serve God while living upon this earth, he must without fail pass through something like religion, or a form of religion based upon a historical way. And so one must become a person who knows the road that the countless religious leaders of the past have walked until now as a road that he too ought fittingly to walk and who pledges that he will long for that road and walk it. Thus, when one becomes one with the countless religious leaders who came and went centering upon religion, one naturally takes one’s place in that world of the Way, that world of religion.
If one prays upon such a foundation, because one comes to stand in a position of being able to cross beyond one's religious sphere, one can shorten the distance with God by that much. You must know this. Therefore, a person who goes seeking the road of religion upon earth must offer devotion.
Then does God always set such people in the middle and work through them?
It is not so. Among us human beings, there are people who must offer devotion and go seeking the road of religion, but there are also people who, having many good forebears, go straight forward toward what those forebears desired. Then what is it that they desired? What they pursue is the world of the purpose that religion pursues.
The purpose of religion is to find one true person and to find a true family and a true nation and a true world. This is the purpose of religion and, at the same time, God’s purpose. That is precisely the purpose for which God carries out His Providence toward the earth. Therefore, when we come to stand upon the ground that religious leaders have offered devotion for, we come naturally to a state in which we can come into contact with the sphere of God’s purpose.
Therefore, when there is a person who believes in some particular religion, that person believes not only in the highest leader of that religion. He comes to believe in the people who follow that religion and in the leaders who are offering devotion to that religion in every quarter. Not only that, if that religion has a worldwide foundation, he seeks to believe in and follow even the countless leaders of the world. Why is that? It is to shorten the distance between the spirit world and the sphere of religion.
When we look at the organization of the administration centering upon one nation, just as the organization of the central government office and the organization of the provincial office and the organization of the county office and the organization of the township and the organization of the village each differ in form but are similar in content, it means that the heavenly kingdom is likewise. Because the heavenly kingdom too has the same organizational form as the organizational form of our society today, the way the heavenly kingdom moves is likewise the same.
In the heavenly kingdom too, there are countless spheres of religion divided into east, west, south, and north. Above there is the highest sphere of religion, and below that there is the spirit world of miscellaneous ways, and below that again there is a spirit world composed of conscientious people and good people, and below that it is connected to the evil spirit world. Therefore, if I offer devotion and form a relationship with the world of the sphere of religion, I can transcend what has been related to the lowest world until now.
Therefore, one must become a person who knows the teaching of a saint who offered devotion centering upon the Way not as a teaching for others but as a teaching for oneself and who strives to live according to that teaching. If one becomes such a person, it means that one can be connected directly from earth to the spirit world through the saint who taught the Way. You must know this.
When one’s beloved son is in London or Washington, that place and here, Chungpa-dong in Korea, if it be Chungpa-dong, are at a very great distance. This distance cannot be shortened. Yet it means that if there is a power of faith centered upon the hearts of one another, that distance can be transcended. It means that the bond that can thus give and receive with one another, transcending time and space, is a bond of heart, a bond of faith. Herein lies also the reason that Christianity emphasizes absolute faith.
The Road of Faith and Absolute Belief
What is absolute faith?
If there is a leader of a religion in whom one believes, though that leader and I are historically at a far distance of thousands of years, centering upon a believing mind, I can enter within a sphere of the age level with him upon a plane. That is why one is told to believe absolutely. When one believes absolutely, one comes to know that one is together with that person. Moreover, one comes to know that one is living together with that person. You must know that faith is for the sake of newly making one recognize and be stimulated by such things.
The believer must know the circumstances in which that religious leader prayed bitterly for God. Yet one must not end merely at the standard of knowing those circumstances. The more one knows those circumstances, the more one must form a more profound bond of feeling, or a bond of loyalty. Then the person who has gone to the spirit world is bound to cooperate. It cannot but cooperate. That religious leader is bound to cooperate.
Then, in making him cooperate, through whom is he made to cooperate?
He is made to cooperate through a person who, while living upon earth, formed a bond with God from a place of fulfilling loyalty before Heaven and left behind the way of truth upon the earth. And so, if I stand in a position of knowing that leader’s inner heart and stand in his stead and offer devotion together with him, it means that I can leap over even thousands of years of history and take part in the place where that person faced God. We must know that this is the road of faith.
Therefore, in choosing a religion, one must choose a true religion, and within that true religion, one must know the historical bond that true men of faith have left behind.
When we look, centering upon Christianity today too, it would, of course, be good if Christians could enter a place of forming a direct relationship with Jesus, but it means that it does not become so. To go as far as a place of forming a direct relationship with Jesus, one must without fail build a bridge. To fill the gap between God and us, or between Jesus and us, the fastest road is to rely upon those who have toiled upon earth and pioneered a ground of devotion and go on offering devotion.
Therefore, to find that road, one must pray from a position that the ancient sages or the leaders who were loyal in the course of passing through a long history, centering upon Christianity if it be Christianity, walked that road in my stead. Then they are bound to cooperate with the road I walk.
Why is this? Because, according to the principle of restoration through indemnity, they too did not see the world of completion, and so there remains a bond by which they must draw along the people of later generations who follow the road of the Way, that is, the road they walked. Therefore, it means that if one prays and offers devotion from such a position, a religious leader or a leader of the Way in the spirit world will without fail contact the person upon earth. You must know this.
The Life of Faith That Must Be Trodden Stage by Stage
Such people are those like the Apostle Paul or Peter in history. When I come to find one thing and two things that such people sought with devotion but could not find, then at that time the guest and the host are reversed. It means that if one comes to find one thing and two things that Peter, if it be Peter, who guided one, or Paul, if it be Paul, sought at that time but could not, then one’s position is exchanged with theirs.
Yet to make an innovation and go seeking a place beyond Paul, if it be Paul, and beyond Peter, if it be Peter, one must first go seeking the place where they offered devotion. And from that place one must grope out a road beyond that. It means that otherwise one cannot go seeking a road beyond that. You must know this.
Then what must one do to go seeking the road that Peter walked?
If Peter is the representative of faith, one must stand in a place, taking the place of that position in which Peter went forth as the representative of faith. If that place is a strong and dauntless place, one must go seeking a strong and dauntless place. Otherwise, one cannot pioneer a new field. You must know this.
The road of faith must not be walked as a road judged in one’s own way, a road one beholds oneself. Upon the road of faith, one must form bonds with the countless leaders of the Way who have gone to the spirit world and ascend one by one to a high stage. It means that only when one advances to a place beyond these three disciples, Peter, John, and James, can one at last form a relationship with Jesus.
That is the same as how, when you meet a person higher than yourself, it is a discourtesy to introduce yourself directly to that high person. For example, it is a discourtesy for a primary-school teacher to introduce himself directly to the president. It would be another matter if he were a person in a position closer inwardly than anyone in that nation, but otherwise it amounts to a crime of irreverence.
Seen in this way, in living the life of faith, you must know which road is the road by which one can quickly come into contact with glory. That is a matter of knowing that I must seek and follow the road of people who took responsibility and walked some road of the Way. Therefore, it will not do to make one’s confidence in believing the principal thing merely because one says one believes in Jesus.
The countless leaders of the Way in history walked a road of being recognized by fulfilling the way of loyalty and filial piety before the church, if it be the church.
Here, the wider the scope of that recognition becomes, the more it is proved that they walked a normal road of the Way centering upon religion. It means that because they walked a normal road, they can be widely recognized.
Therefore, it means that the fastest road is to know that such people went in one’s stead and to form a relationship with them. What that means is that one must know how to build a bridge by which one can go quickly to the destination.
It means that just because I believe in Jesus, I must not say at once, “Jesus!” It means that one must build a bridge and go. When, in our life, upon a plane, one goes to a church to build a bridge, in that church there is, without fail, a leader. The leader of a church is not a person who seeks to attain his purpose. You must know that if there is such a person, that person cannot be a leader.
Because the leader has a responsibility to build an intermediate bridge, he must do so for the sake of the church members who come seeking.
Because the leader of a church exists for the sake of the church members, centering upon God’s will, he takes responsibility even for the members’ spiritual problems and the members’ problems of life. That leader guides the members, centering upon that field for which he has taken responsibility. Then, when God looks upon him, and it is said that that person is in a high place, if the members become one with that person, those members too can go forth to a high place.
If that person offers devotion in my stead and that person prays in my stead to atone for my sins, I can, by his prayer, take part in the place where that person stands. Herein lies the reason that people say they will receive the prayer of a person who has received grace. In this way, one builds a bridge and goes seeking.
Yet the nearer the Last Days come, the more it becomes a time when the inner heart of the spiritual world can appear upon earth, and so among religious leaders many people also appear who directly carry out Heaven’s work.
Among the many leaders who have come and gone upon the road of Restoration until now, there will be some who bear a responsibility like a village headman centering upon one village in the spirit world, and some who bear a responsibility like a township head centering upon a township, and some who bear a responsibility like a county magistrate, and some who bear a responsibility like a provincial governor.
And there will be someone who bears the mission of a responsible person of the central government office, if it be the central government office. It means that you must cross over stage by stage, centering upon such people. You must know this.
Those Who Have Received Grace Must Raise Their Stage
There are many cases in which people who have received grace live within that grace and then lose that grace, and it is because, although the time had come when they ought to have crossed over to the next stage, they could not cross over. So they lose the grace.
When we consider such things, what is needed for us today is that we must gradually develop such a bond. Then what must one do? It means do not live the life of faith alone. It means that one must not live the life of faith by oneself. It means that one must without fail seek some particular person. It is the same as how, if there is a first, there must be a second, and if there is a second, there must be a third, and if there is a third, there must be a fourth. It is the same as how, if there is an east, there is a west, and if there is a south, there is a north. Just as in other kinds of living, in the life of faith too there must without fail be a motive of faith.
When God carries out a work of grace centering upon one nation, He does not set up only one person and do it. He without fail sets up a person who works in the eastern field, and a person who works in the western field, and a person who works in the southern field, and a person who works in the northern field.
We know that in the world of the Way in modern Korea too, many spiritual people came and went. Spiritual people appeared at every level, at the level of pastor, of elder, of deacon, of lay believer, and so on, and carried out works of grace in a thousand shapes and ten thousand forms and departed. Yet today we do not know from what organization and through what line such works were formed and unfolded.
Therefore, centering upon one person who works, centering upon one field, the eastern field if it be the east, one thinks that what he does is the whole of Heaven. And so one comes to devote all sincerity to that. Yet because that is not the whole, one comes to be blocked along the way. When it becomes so, because the problems of conscience and the problems of heart that one had believed until now to be the whole are completely cut off, one meets with the sorrowful matter of losing the grace one had found.
Therefore, in the Last Days one must not pass through only one person who has received grace but must without fail compare several people and then pass through. It means that one must use the wise method of meeting spiritual leaders who have higher content and raising the stage oneself. Yet men of faith living upon the earth today do not know such things.
To give an example, there are many groups such as the Elder Na group and the Elder Pak group and the Pastor Yi Sung-bong group, or some such group. Those groups think that what they do is the whole and is the highest and sustain themselves as such, but if one analyzes and synthesizes their content, they are in a position of having to offer devotion to raise it higher from that stage. Yet it means that they do not know that. Therefore, a man of faith must make a comprehensive observation, a comprehensive comparison, and a comprehensive analysis and go seeking the fastest road for himself.
Therefore, in walking some new road, one must without fail not simply go. When I come to feel that I have now been with a person called the first and have reached his limit line, I must go seeking another person called the second. At the time one seeks to go, one must pray desperately. With devotion higher than the utmost devotion one offered within the sphere of religion to which one belonged, one must pray with a resolve to the death, saying, “O Heaven, is it not so that the road I must walk shall not end here?”
If one comes to be equipped with a degree of devotion by which one can rise to a place beyond the standard of the spirit world one formerly faced, it means that I come to know that the place where I am to abide is not here.
Then what sort of thing is what lies beyond that?
If there is no place beyond that, one must go forward with the resolve that I will pioneer a place beyond that. Then for that person the life of grace is not cut off. Yet it will not do always merely to say that one will receive grace. It means that one must not draw and drink water from a well another has dug, but must strive to follow the vein of that well and find a new stream of living water.
In the same way, when one thinks that one has reached the limit point of the leader who guided one and gave one grace, only by offering devotion beyond the devotion that that leader offered when he was at the height of receiving grace can one cross beyond that road. Yet men of faith today do not know such things.
The Love of God
What is it we must consider here?
If there is a person who has received grace, one must not consider how he presently lives but must compare and judge, taking up the problem of how he offered devotion in the course of living a life of grace until now, that is, in the course of attending God, and how he is now offering devotion and how he will offer devotion hereafter.
Herein, because he offered the utmost devotion and formed a bond with God, the period of drawing upon that devotion is the period of living a life of grace. In this way, because this period was bound by receiving grace through offering the utmost devotion at one time, it means that before we go seeking a place beyond that, when that grace is exhausted and passes, we cannot gather ourselves up. That is why it was said, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.”
To love some leader is not to love merely as a relationship of you and me. It means love with the bond of brothers centering upon God; and if not the bond of brothers, love with the bond of bridegroom and bride; and if not the bond of bridegroom and bride, love with a bond like that of father and mother. There are only these three roads of loving.
Then what is God’s love?
It is the love of parents, the love of husband and wife, and the love of children combined. Therefore, if one divides God’s love into left and right, it is the love of brothers, and the love of husband and wife, and the love of parents. It means that within the way of faith, to go seeking the closest bond of love, with God’s love as its matrix, is the road of the Way and the highest hill that the Way must cross. If we know this, the problem is simple.
Therefore, what road must we walk?
We must go seeking a religion that says it will fulfill the mission of parents. That road is the last.
That is why Jesus too taught that we are all brothers centering upon God.
Moreover, he taught that we are all bridegrooms and brides centering upon God.
After teaching this, he ought to have taught in complete form the content of father and mother, who become the ancestors of humanity centering upon God; yet this he could not teach. You must know that our Unification Church has taught today.
Then what did the countless spiritual people who have walked the road of religion centering upon God’s love until now desire? They desired human relationships in which the bond of God’s love is bound as an earthly bond. Human relationships bound by such a relationship are the relationship of elder brother and younger brother, or if not that, the relationship of bridegroom and bride, or if not that relationship either, the relationship of father and mother. When you look at the life of brothers, or the life of husband and wife, or the life of parents, their form is similar, but the content differs. You must know how to analyze this.
When we look at Peter, James, and John from this perspective, from what position did they follow Jesus?
They followed Jesus merely as a teacher. They ought to have followed with the bond of brothers, or with the relative bond of subject and object, or with the higher-dimensional bond of father and son; yet they followed only with the bond of teacher and disciple. Therefore, at the final crisis, they could not but abandon one another. You must know this.
Then, to walk the final road pursued upon the road of faith, what must there be?
Firstly, there must be the way of a leader who comes forth holding the bond of brothers centering upon God’s love. Next there must be the way of a leader who comes forth centering upon the bond of subject and object, that is, of husband and wife. Next there must be the way of a leader who comes forth holding the bond of parents.
What sort of time are the Last Days?
It is the time when such a history, in which countless religions pursue what has just been spoken of, unfolds upon a plane across the road of the world. Therefore, at such a time, one must go seeking, among religions, an elder-brother religion, a husband religion, or a father religion. It means that the spirit world is divided into a thousand branches and ten thousand branches, each holding its purpose centering upon such spheres.
Therefore, centering upon what content must you pray?
You must pray as to who is the one person having the mission of the elder brother among the countless religious leaders, and who is the one person having the mission of the bridegroom, and who is the one person having the mission of the father. And you must go seeking them. When there is a person who comes upon this earth equipped with all three of these contents, if one takes hold of that one person alone, I can become a younger sibling, and I can become a wife, and I can become a mother. Christianity teaches such things.
Jesus and His Disciples, Who Formed No More Than a Master-Servant Relationship
When it is asked what sort of person Jesus is, it means that he is One who came bearing the responsibility of an elder brother. Therefore, if all human beings become sons of God, Jesus and human beings are brothers. Jesus is the elder brother of human beings, and next, Jesus is the husband of human beings.
Further, Jesus is the father of human beings. We must know the fact that among the countless seekers of the Way in history, there was no subject apart from Jesus who came equipped with these three contents.
Then what road did Jesus walk?
If we believe in Jesus, we must know what sort of road the road Jesus walked was. If it is asked whether the road Jesus walked was a road on which he formed the bond of brothers, it is not so. When we look, centering upon these three disciples, Peter, James, and John, they ought to have formed the bond of brothers with Jesus. And so, when that bond deepened, they ought to have formed the bond of bridegroom and bride, and when the bond of bridegroom and bride deepened, they ought to have formed the bond of father and son. Yet they could not form even the bond of brothers. You must know that because Jesus and Peter, James, and John were such, in the end Jesus came to stand in the place of death.
If, in following Jesus, they had held the notion of brothers who have inherited the blood of one parent, when a Jesus who was like their own elder brother, a Jesus who was like their own younger brother, was placed in a position of dying, they would not have left it as it was.
If their blood boiled and there were a road by which they themselves could die in place of a Jesus who was like a beloved younger brother, would they not have gone seeking that road?
Even in the world, there are cases where an elder brother dies for a younger brother and a younger brother dies for an elder brother; how much more should it be beyond that when centered upon God?
Therefore, we can know that they were in a master-servant relationship in which they had not even formed the bond of brothers. It means that they were merely in the position of teacher and disciple, and that with such a relationship they could not even form a relationship of kin.
In a relationship of master and servant, when the master dies, the servant departs. It means that when the master is ruined, the servant packs his bundle and leaves that house. Yet if it were a relationship of brothers, when the elder brother came into a position of being ruined, the younger brother would invest all his property and devote every sincerity to prevent his elder brother’s ruin. That is the way of true brothers. Seen from this position, it means that Jesus and Peter could stand in no more than a master-servant relationship, that is, the place of master and servant.
When we consider that being bound in this way is the way of brothers, it means that we must advance to a place beyond that. For that, one must enter a place where one can love Jesus more than an elder brother, and this is the problem.
From what position did Peter, James, and John reject Jesus?
When we consider what content there was in Jesus’ emphasizing the problem of love to Peter, saying, “Simon, son of John, lovest thou me more than these? (John 21:15), that content is the content of whether you can become a younger sibling among younger siblings and an elder brother among elder brothers, or whether you can advance to a place beyond the heart of husband and wife.
And it was the content of whether you could advance even to the position in which you are the son and I am the father. In that sense, he asked Simon. Therefore, the words, “Simon, son of John, lovest thou me more than these?” are words that analyzed Peter’s love.
What we today must consider upon the road of faith is who it is that Jesus seeks as a younger brother. A person who gropes that out can advance to a place beyond Peter, John, and James. One must become a person who knows how much devotion and how much loyalty Peter, James, and John devoted to attending Jesus and, taking that as a shortcut, goes seeking a road by which he can do more than they.
That Peter died crucified upside down was well done. Yet we must know that that death was a death as one expedient for crossing beyond the position of disbelief in which he had opposed and betrayed Jesus; it was not a death that promised and pledged the morrow before Jesus. That is, it perhaps is a death of indemnity, but it means that it is not a death that can directly connect to God’s blessing.
Therefore, it means that you must cross beyond the road that these three disciples, Peter, James, and John, walked. Only by crossing beyond that road can one enter into contact with a position of loving Jesus more than they do.
Then, if today there is no one beyond Peter, James, and John, what will God do? It means that He sets up Peter, James, and John and carries out the work of building a bridge to them. When people beyond those apostles of Thine have not come forth, He sets up those apostles and carries out the work of building a bridge. One cannot exceed one’s authority and cross over this.
For example, though there is a department head and beneath him a section head and a subsection head and a team leader, it means that the department head cannot directly tell the team leader to do this and that. If it becomes so, it throws the order into confusion. It perhaps goes well in one part, but it means that it ruins the whole. One must keep one’s own position and move according to reason through the line related to that quarter. It means that the organization of the spirit world is likewise the same.
One Must Become a Standard Beyond That of Good Forebears
Here comes forth the title, the road by which Heaven has come seeking. Then the problem is how God, through the Holy Spirit, seeks a man of faith beyond Peter, James, and John. If among men of faith today there is a person who comes seeking a road of faith beyond Peter, that person without fail has countless courses of indemnity. You must know this. There are countless courses of indemnity.
If there is a person who passes through all those courses of indemnity and comes seeking while offering devotion, how will God work?
Of course, He can work by setting up Peter as an intermediate bridge, but when that is not so, Heaven finds behind the scenes the content that Peter could not identify. Therefore, a person in such a position must cross beyond the place where Peter betrayed Jesus. Peter was betrayed in a place of death, but to stand in a place beyond Peter, one must have a working of mind by which one can refrain from betraying even upon entering a place of certain death.
If one merely follows behind Peter, when Peter betrays, one betrays together with him. Therefore, God, when there is a person who treads Peter’s course, must take responsibility behind the scenes so that, though Peter betrayed, that person does not betray.
And so, when he passes through the stage of the time when Peter betrayed, God sets Peter aside and adjusts what Peter betrayed. Through such grace, a road opens by which one can meet God directly. Do you understand what I mean? It means that if Peter guides him from a position level with that person, then in the place where Peter betrayed, that person too betrays. It means that God, to prevent that, that is, to spare him from such a position as that in which Peter betrayed, has carried out an inner work of grace beforehand.
If you pray much and go forward living the life of faith diligently, you come to know such times. When one comes into contact with it, one has not a feeling like autumn but a feeling like spring. When it becomes so, a bond of new grace is created. The content of prayer too becomes different.
If one analyzes such things, it means that when a responsible person or leader of the Way failed while paving the road of the spirit world upon earth and could not cross beyond that road, if there is a person who again comes seeking while offering devotion for that road, God protects that person. Yet it is not that He always protects him; it means that when that person arrives at the state of failure of those who went before, or even when he has entered such a place, if he offers devotion there, God adjusts things behind the scenes so that that person can escape from within the sphere of failure. And so you must know that He works so that he can receive God’s direct grace.
In this way, it means that God, behind the road that people who took responsibility for the world of the Way walked without completing that responsibility, prepares a ground of grace centering upon countless bonds of the spirit world by which He can always once again lay responsibility and spare those who again come following that road from the road of failure. At this time God does not think centering upon His own position, but works centering upon the position of one who offers devotion for the road of the Way. God thus works so that one can rise to a higher stage by stage. You must know this.
Yet if He faces a person who has no relation to such a world of the Way, how will He work? When it is said that he has no relation to the world of the Way, He works through his good forebears. Therefore, if good forebears went forth thus, their descendants too must without fail follow in the same way. It means that one must take as a model and walk that road in which one’s own good forebears lived, following the way.
Yet though one takes it as a model and goes, because the forebears, in walking the road of the Way, went centering upon themselves and then came to an end, one must go to a place beyond them. It means that without being loyal beyond the loyalty those forebears gave to the nation, one cannot cross beyond the good standard the forebears left behind.
You must know that if there is a person who has paved such a road and come as far as the place where the forebears failed, God will without fail guard that person and grope out for him a road on which he does not fail.
The Road by Which God Can Come Seeking
Because you are all of different tribes and different lineages, and your characters too are different, the courses by which you walk the road of faith are all different. It means that since each individual’s character is different, the road each walks is also different. Because you are people whose characters differ, it means that in the course you must walk as a chosen people, God takes much toil to draw even me alone as far as the heavenly kingdom.
As you know, in indemnity there is an age of individual indemnity, and an age of family indemnity, and an age of tribal indemnity, and an age of national indemnity, and an age of indemnity of the state, and an age of world indemnity. Here, without paying the price at each stage, centering upon the course of indemnity that applies to oneself, one cannot walk that road.
Moreover, since there will be countless leaders and forebears who sought to pay that price and then failed and passed on without accomplishing the Will, one must fill in even what they failed in. Therefore, you must know that it will not do without offering devotion beyond the devotion one’s own forebears offered.
Then what must people on this earth do?
To follow such leaders and to go beyond them, one must offer special devotion in the place where they failed, and you must know that even though one does not know that time, God is offering devotion for you. God, to connect with you by whatever means, comes forth discerning the road of death in your stead and takes responsibility for everything and sacrifices. You must know that He thus draws near to you. Therefore, if you live a deep life of grace, each time you cross over one stage after another, you can experience God’s grace as a leap.
Seen in this way, how greatly must God pray to restore the world! Let us say that a certain person offers devotion following the road of the Way of a leader called the first. Yet because the grade of that leader is a low grade, when, following behind that person, one comes to reach a limit line beyond which one cannot ascend, one cannot but fail.
At such a time, God intervenes in his stead. Because God has a bond of father and son with that person, to protect His beloved son, He settles the matter in his stead in such a place of the destiny of life and death. Therefore, if I come to know the fact that God is offering the sacrifice of atonement in my stead, I can cross over again. Yet it means that it is difficult to know that. When have you ever done such a thing?
When you are within a life of grace, at first it is good without your even knowing what it is, but when the thought arises, “It will not do to be like this,” you must offer devotion. That means that the end has drawn near. The more it is such a time, if one offers devotion, God comes to that place with a parental heart to accomplish it. There is no other road by which God can come seeking us.
Even considering religion, if there is a religion called the first, because that religion too came forth centering upon some standard, it thinks that there is no other road of salvation except that religion called the first. That religion has its laws. Yet when that religion reaches its limit point, it falls. At such a time, it means that for the sake of the one who falls here, God without fail comes seeking that place. At such a time, He comes seeking with a standard beyond, crossing beyond the standard of that religion called the first. It develops by passing through such a process.
Seen from this point, if it is asked what the Way among Ways is, it is religion. And what sort of person is a righteous man among men? God has been coming, seeking that righteous man throughout history. The culture of the world today has developed centering upon true truth. Yet, what is the true worldwide truth is determined by the standard of devotion of the person who asserts that truth. That is, it means that, thereby, a new thought and ideology have been established.
We Who Must Overcome the Position of a Servant
You must know that God, without fail, works centering upon the sphere of religion. It is the same when we look centering upon Christianity. When we ask whether the Will that Jesus sought to accomplish upon this earth by dying upon the cross succeeded or failed, it means that it failed. It means that he accomplished only spiritual salvation and did not accomplish complete salvation embracing both spirit and body.
If the believers who believed in Jesus had devoted every sincerity and thus known all of Jesus’ inner heart, they would have known that Jesus is the elder brother and the bridegroom. Had it become so, they would afterward have been able to know that Jesus becomes the father as well. They ought to have gone forward from such a position.
Again, the place in which Jesus himself prayed was a place in which the relationship of master and servant was formed, centering upon Peter, James, and John. He offered devotion from such a place.
That is why he said,
“I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now” (John 16:12).
It means that there was content he could not tell.
Then what must be done to ascend to a place beyond a master-servant relationship? Jesus taught his disciples only from a position of facing servants. Concerning the places beyond that, the place of brothers, or the place of the bridegroom and bride, or the place of parents, there is nothing even in the Bible.
Therefore, today we must pursue how we shall overcome the position of a servant. For that, one must offer devotion centering upon the standard of the position of an elder brother, the position of a bridegroom, and the position of parents. Because Jesus could not offer devotion from such a position, what happens if we offer devotion to go seeking such a place? That is, what would happen if we offered devotion centering upon a place beyond that in which Jesus offered devotion?
If one offers devotion centering upon the standard upon which Jesus offered devotion, Jesus will cooperate; but if one offers devotion centering upon a standard beyond that upon which Jesus offered devotion, who will cooperate and teach?
When one offers devotion to find the bond of a servant, the same as that upon which Jesus offered devotion, Jesus has toiled and taught and taken hold and come forth; but the problem is who will teach the bond of the place in which he failed. This Jesus cannot do. Only God can do it. Do you understand what I mean? (“Yes.”)
In the Bible, Jesus said,
“I am the Son of God. I am the only begotten Son of God.”
Then is there anyone among the countless people today who can say that I too am God’s only begotten son? Jesus said he was God’s only begotten Son, but he did not become the only begotten Son.
Then what is the only begotten Son?
He is a person who takes God’s love entirely to himself. You must know the fact that originally, if one takes God’s love entirely to oneself, one is not so arranged as to die. When Jesus came to this earth, the bond of the only begotten Son was already determined in the spirit world, but that must be determined through the earth. Therefore, because Jesus offered devotion beyond John the Baptist through John the Baptist, John the Baptist was in the position of an adopted son, and Jesus inherited the position of a son.
The Final Destination Is a Place Transcending the Master-Servant Relationship
It is the same with you. Since you have entered the Unification Church, you must know how far the Unification Church will go. To say it again, you must know what grade the Unification Church is. It means that you must know whether it is the grade of a servant, or the grade of a son, or the grade of a bridegroom and bride, or the grade of parents.
If the Unification Church were to go seeking that road, it must take over that road upon this earth. It must cross beyond the standard upon which Jesus walked. Yet, just as Jesus took it over through the devotion of John the Baptist, there must be someone who takes it over. Is it not so?
If the Teacher of the Unification Church were to inherit and carry on that road, would he not have to take over everything from Jesus?
For that, one must come forth with content that Jesus can entrust. Then it means that Jesus too bows his head. The reason is arranged so.
Jesus, who came as God’s son, had a mission of accomplishing God’s Will for Him.
Yet because he passed on without accomplishing all of it, and since he himself can no longer accomplish it, it must be accomplished through a person who stands in his stead. Therefore, it means that the person raised in Jesus’ stead can inherit the whole of it.
Then what must the person who has inherited in his stead do?
He must advance to a place beyond that in which Jesus took responsibility, centering upon disciples bound in a master-servant relationship. Do you understand what I mean? (“Yes.”) And so, when a bond of heart is formed of which it can be said that he has stood in a place beyond that, it means that by that bond formed upon earth the content of the spirit world can be determined. Do you understand? (“Yes.”)
Then, when we look centering upon the Unification Church, what responsibility do the Teacher and you have? And what sort of relationship must you and the Teacher become? It will not do if it is such a relationship as a master facing a servant. It means that it will not do for the Teacher to treat you as if handling servants. It must become a position like that of brothers. One thinks of a person older than I as an elder brother and thinks of people younger than I as younger siblings. Only when there is a mind that surpasses brothers does a mind arise that wishes to entrust anything whatsoever.
In the world, there has been no such thing. In the world, it could not be so even between parent and child and it could not be so even between husband and wife.
Therefore, it means that the Teacher is a person before whom one can be at ease even if one tells the whole of the circumstances of past days that one cannot tell even between husband and wife. It means that he is a person who can protect all of one’s life and property. Do you understand what I mean? (“Yes.”) Such a thought must well up from one’s inner original mind.
What happens when one passes that stage?
It means that when men look at the Teacher, he does not seem to be a man. When men meet the Teacher, if they hold the notion that he is a man, it would be awkward even to lay cheek against cheek. Would it not be so? Yet it means that there is no such feeling. When one faces the Teacher after a certain amount of time has passed, the feeling of his being a man disappears, and he seems both like a woman and like a man. It means that somehow it is so.
It means that when men look, in his mind he seems like a woman, but his body is a man’s. It means that it becomes so. It is the same when women look. It means that in mind he seems like a woman, but seen in body he is a man. It means that it is strange. In this way, centering upon a relative relationship, an inner bond that cannot be severed by anything whatever must sprout between us. That is the problem. It means that such a thing must be felt.
Next, it means that the Teacher must be felt as a father. It means that a feeling like that of sons and daughters must arise, who simply rub their cheeks against the Teacher and who wish to follow when the Teacher goes somewhere.
Such a bond of emotion of three stages must be formed within your sphere of life. Do you understand? If one enters as far as such a place, one has gone as far as the final place. That place is a place transcending the Way. Among the countless religions today, there is no religion beyond what Jesus taught.
God’s Realm of Direct Dominion and the Necessity of Devotion
Then what is it that will be a problem for you here?
When you come to the place of facing directly the Father whom the Teacher attends, that is, when you go to the place where you can call Him Father, that is the last place. Because that place is precisely the last place of the road of the Way that Jesus walked; from there one enters within God’s realm of direct dominion. When it becomes so, one enters the place of son and daughter and of wife and younger sibling. In that place, it is not so arranged that the elder brother has dominion. It means that it is God’s realm of direct dominion. Even if one has dominion horizontally, it is a place of having dominion in God’s stead. In that place, the elder brother’s having dominion over the younger sibling, or the husband’s having dominion over the wife, is all having dominion in Heaven’s stead. Moreover, if one betrays Satan and acts against Satan, Satan departs. From here the new fortune of world restoration begins.
Then what is it that you must now do? It is to offer devotion. Following whom must you offer devotion? Who is now the responsible person of the Unification Church? It is the Teacher, is it not? (“Yes.”) Therefore, it means that if you offer devotion centering upon the Teacher, it becomes the same as the Teacher’s offering devotion. Such a life must become the trunk and the mirror in your living the life of faith. Do you understand? (“Yes.”) It means that unless one offers devotion with such a mind, if the Teacher were now to die, one could not take responsibility for the world. Do you understand what I mean? (“Yes.”)
Therefore, you must make an environment in which you can offer devotion beyond the devotion the Teacher has offered. Since, if the Teacher should die while being loyal to the nation, there remains a road of being loyal not only to the nation but even to the world, you must consider how you are to fulfill that loyalty. And so one must go thinking that there is only one road; otherwise, one cannot develop this road worldwide.
It means that even if the Teacher should pass on without fulfilling his responsibility, if you continue to offer devotion for the nation and come forth as far as the place where the Teacher went, God, because this Will must not end in the Teacher’s generation, prepares a road by which you can go forward toward the world. Do you understand what I mean? (“Yes.”)
The problem the Teacher is thinking about is how to form such a bond for you while the Teacher is alive and how to form for you an inner bond by which, from your own free position, you can accomplish God’s world.
If there is a person who has come seeking such a place and offering devotion, it means that God, because He has come forth centering upon a bond of father and son with that person, goes seeking that place and, in that person’s stead, lays a foundation of inner devotion so that that person does not perish. And so, when the time comes, it means that He hands the Will over to that person as an inheritance and makes him set out anew.
Until now there have been countless religions, but there are also many religions that vanished in the course of history. Yet we must know that God has done the work of gathering the individuals who believed in that religion with a bond of new grace and gathering religion up into one. Do you understand? (“Yes.”)
Do Not Lightly Criticize Other Religions
Seen in this way, how greatly must God have toiled! Consider it with the positions exchanged. We do such work to go seeking God, but it means that God too takes exceedingly great toil to come seeking us human beings.
You at most pass through one direction centering upon your own single lifetime, but it means that God has done such work from the beginning of history until now, centering upon the countless humans scattered in every quarter.
At times, when He could not work directly upon a person called the first, He set up a person called the second and worked indirectly. The work at this time is done not by having a lord of a Way (도주) do it, but by having angels do it. It means that He works centering upon the angels who ought to cooperate before original man, that is, who received the mission of cooperating when God created man. That is why He sent the angel Gabriel to Mary. Is it not so? (“Yes.”) It means that there is no place beyond that. You must know that because the place where Mary said, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word,” is the highest place a woman can go, God did not go directly but sent an angel and had her cultivate the way of devotion.
Then, when Jacob wrestled with the angel at the ford of Jabbok, did God cooperate?
It means that He did not cooperate. Why was that? When we look at Esau and Jacob, until Jacob went to the Jabbok, God drove him in a direction where it could be so. God gave shocks outwardly and inwardly so that Jacob would offer devotion. That is why Jacob prayed through the night. There had to be an inner standard by which he could cross the crisis of death.
So He sent an angel and had him fight an outward fight to indemnify. You must without fail know this. It means that you must know that God has connected countless religions centering upon such works.
Seen from this point, we must know the fact that all religions, whatever their high or low rank, are leaving behind grounds of God’s countless toil during the passage of a long history. Do you understand? (“Yes.”)
In that respect, what our Unification Church today calls unification is not saying, "Let us unify Christianity alone." For us who have come forth holding the ideal of unification, it means that the ideal of Christianity alone is not the whole. It means: do not say that Buddhism, if it be Buddhism, is bad. Buddhism is not bad. It means that it is only that it is difficult to grope out a road by which Buddhism can be connected and that its grade is low; Buddhism is not bad. Yet if a person who has not offered devotion even as far as the limit line of Buddhism’s Way criticizes Buddhism, Sakyamuni, if it be Sakyamuni, who offered that much devotion, rather criticizes that person. Do you understand?
So it means do not lightly criticize other religions. What these words mean is: do not lightly criticize another’s faith, saying this and that. It means do not criticize, saying, “Why is that person like that?” because his road is not the same as one’s own. It means that their lines are different. It means that since the lines are different, they are in a position of being connected, centering upon a responsible person of a different line, and so in that respect they are helping us. And you must know that each time we cross the limit line of that line, God carries out an invisible work of grace of indemnity.
That is why God is pitiful. It means that God is waging a war of attrition to carry out the work of drawing man up each time he crosses one stage after another. So it means that you must know how greatly God toils. Do you understand? (“Yes.”)
A More Important Problem
When we look centering upon our Unification Church, the road the Unification Church walks is precisely such a road. You will not know. The Teacher knows without fail when the Unification Church crosses over one stage after another. At such times, it is truly serious. At such times, some individual or family is not the problem, and the church is not the problem.
Moreover, some nations are not the problem. The problem is solely how to establish and cross beyond the master-servant relationship, if it be the master-servant relationship.
We must cross over difficult crises one stage after another. And so we must ascend as far as a worldwide place. We must thus ascend as far as the highest place. God works in this way.
Herein lies also the reason that we come forth holding up God’s heart (심정). Is there anything that goes beyond God’s heart? (“There is not.”) It means that there is nothing beyond God’s heart. God’s heart is the highest. Within God’s heart, everything is comprehended. Therefore, everything must be done with heart. To ascend one stage within God’s heart, one must, without fail, pay a price of sacrifice.
If I do not pay the price of sacrifice, a problem of responsibility without fail arises in Heaven. That is why a wise person without fail offers an offering and makes a sacrifice at such a time.
Even in offering devotion, if a person called the first offered devotion, one must offer devotion beyond that person. If he fasted ten days, one must fast more than twice that. Only by thus offering devotion beyond the limit line upon which he offered devotion and by offering an offering beyond what he devotedly offered can one cross over. If one’s mind is thus prepared to cross beyond that place, it means that God need not prepare.
What does this mean?
When the Last Days come, a crisis comes of whether one dies or lives. At that time we must reach a verdict, and it means that God prepares first so that we do not perish. Yet if, before God, one knows it on earth and prepares beforehand and offers an offering or offers devotion, it means that God need not toil.
Therefore, it means that what is a problem for you is not so much how you live the life of faith; you must clearly know that He comes forth, undergoing every suffering to cross the hill of faith.
Then how greatly must God have toiled until the Unification Church came forth! It means that God took unspeakable toil to raise the stages, passing through countless courses of indemnity, to individual restoration, family restoration, tribal restoration, national restoration, and restoration of the state world.
The Principle of the Unification Church and the Sanctuary of the Unification Church
Then what is the Unification Church Principle?
It is a doctrine by which one can know beforehand on earth the history of God’s blood-stained struggle that unfolded in crossing such hills and thereby indemnify oneself. This is the Unification Church Principle. Do you understand?
If one only follows this, one can go directly to the place of a son and can go to the place of brothers and can go seeking the place of parents. There is no place beyond that. It means that one can enter as far as the place of a family, accomplished by centering on God’s love.
You must know that the floorboards of the Unification Church upon which you are now sitting are a place found by offering the utmost devotion and by paying the price of countless tears and blood. Do you understand? (“Yes.”)
You must know that countless martyrs vanished for the sake of this place and that we have come upon a ground where a price of sacrifice was paid such that the blood they shed could form a river. Therefore, it means that you must know how fearful this place is.
Then what must we who are in this place do? Centering upon the way of father and son, the way of husband and wife, the way of children, the way of brothers, one must become a brother among brothers, and must become a husband and wife among husbands and wives, and must become a father and son among fathers and sons, and must become a child among children. Do you understand? (“Yes.”)
When it is said that one becomes such a relation, the problem of whether there is or is not another power that can divide that relation determines whether our Unification Church perishes or does not perish. Is there another power that can divide you? (“There is not.”) If one is divided by another power, that person is a counterfeit.
If a man of the world quietly makes advances to a Unification Church young lady, is there anyone who would be dragged off? (“There is not.”) Again, if the beauties of the world sought to snatch away the Unification Church men, is there anyone who would go? (“There is not.”) Is there not? (“Yes.”) It appears that these days there are here and there such women and men, but such people are not Unification Church members. Such people are like the grime of the body. Grime must be washed off. It means wait and see how such people live. They will all perish. Such people perhaps are needed as beings like indirect teaching material for teaching our sons and daughters, but apart from that, they are not needed. Among genuine Unification Church members, there are no such people.
If One Would Be Restored, One Must Form a Bond of Love
The Teacher teaches you spiritually. Is it not so? Those who sometimes meet the Teacher spiritually in prayer, raise your hands. Those who do not meet the Teacher within the prayers you offer are counterfeit.
If you only pray, the Teacher without fail teaches. It means that the Teacher teaches without fail. Those who say he does not teach still have far to go. It is because they do not pray. It means that they have not offered devotion. If one offers devotion and prays, it is the principle that he teaches.
Teaching is a formula. It means that it is scientific. It means that he teaches according to a formula. It means that if you only pray, he teaches what the first stage is and what the second stage is.
When you see the Teacher spiritually, whom does he seem like?
It means that the Teacher seems like an elder brother. Adam is Eve’s elder brother. Therefore, one must restore such a heart. It means that one must restore the essential spiritual heart. In restoring this standard, the positions of men and of women differ. Men are of the archangel type, and women are of the Eve type, and the Teacher is of the Adam type. That is why it is said that men are all thieves.
If one looks at this from a fallen worldly standard, it means that it is turned upside down. Seen worldly, it means that men are of the Adam type and women are of the Eve type. That is why they fight with the Teacher, who has come as a perfected Adam type. What is the fight for? It is to take back what was stolen. And so all the men are set in the position of the archangel. That is why there is reason also in the saying that the Lord comes like a thief. Every fallen human being must cross the hill of the line of death. Yet the manner of crossing that hill is all the same. That hill cannot be crossed except by the bridegroom and bride. One cannot cross alone. The bridegroom and bride cross together. Because at the time of the Fall one crossed over this hill, at the time of Restoration one must cross this hill in reverse.
When we look centering upon God, because Adam fell, God could not love Adam as a true son. Moreover, Adam too could not love God as God’s true son. He also could not experience true conjugal love. That is, he could not love from the position of a true husband, and next he could not love from the position of a true father, and next he could not love from the position of a parent. It means that he could not experience these three loves. Since it became so through the Fall, it means that to restore this, one must form that bond of love again.
It will be so with the Teacher himself as well, but when you face the Teacher, it means that he must be felt as a brother and felt as a spouse and next felt as a father. Why is that? Because, by feeling these three bonds centering upon the love of one person, one must indemnify the whole of the Fall, and that heart must be restored before Heaven.
When it becomes so, it means that however much the Unification Church members throughout the whole world are told to forget the Teacher, he cannot be forgotten. It means that Western women too are the same as you.
Just as Jesus guided his disciples in a way one hardly knew whether it was spiritual or physical, it means that the Teacher too guides the Unification Church members in a way one hardly knows whether it is the spirit world or the physical world. That is why those people bear witness to the Teacher and attend him. It means that though the Teacher is sitting quietly here, he is doing such work throughout the whole world.
The Unification Church, Which Must Gather the World
Because our Unification Church today is in a position of being able to see the final determination of such a three-stage bond of the love of heart, it means that apart from the Unification Church, one cannot gather the world and cannot gather the world of the Way either. Do you understand? (“Yes.”)
What is it you must know here? It means that such a bond of the love of heart is a treasure found by paying an infinite price while passing through the course of history until now. Do you understand? It is a treasure that cannot be bought even for a hundred million in gold. It means that it is an infinite treasure that has been sought even at the cost of ruining countless nations.
And yet you are visibly agonizing over such things and praying while saying this and that. Yet because this is that in which one’s own life is hidden, one must keep it most carefully and take it as one’s eternal ancestor and go.
To draw you up to such a place, the ancestors of the spirit world must all be mobilized. It means that to form a bond with you, who are utter fools who know nothing whatsoever, they offer the utmost devotion in the spirit world. It is through such a bond of devotion that you have come to enter the Unification Church. Do you understand? (“Yes.”) Therefore, you must know your infinite value.
In the old days, if believers were to meet Jesus in prayer, they had to offer devotion night and day for more than seven years. Otherwise, they could not meet him. Yet these days, if one offers devotion for only seven days, one can meet the Teacher. If one hangs some problem upon it and offers devotion while fasting for only seven days, the Teacher will, without fail.
You must know how toilsome was the road by which God has come seeking. Though the Teacher has come seeking this road, he must also go seeking the road by which He came. One must attend to the God who has toiled until now to come seeking me and go while identifying what went wrong. Then, in going while attending God, from what position must one go? It is not going to center upon you. It is running out at the head before this world with a standard determined through Heaven’s bond from the spirit world. Do you understand? (“Yes.”)
Then who conquers this world? It is not God who conquers. It means that the Unification Principle and the Teacher conquer. Do you understand? (“Yes.”) When a certain time comes, in discerning the world before God, the Teacher stands at the head.
Therefore, it means that the unification of the world is done not by God but by the Teacher. Yet because Adam fell and could not fulfill his responsibility, without setting Adam in a restored position, there remains a lineage that must be indemnified. Would it not be so? (“Yes.”) That is why the Teacher goes forth standing at the head.
Therefore, you must see to it that you do not become a burden before the Teacher. It means to become supporters of the Teacher and become the Teacher’s hands and feet. Will it do for me to be sitting alone in Chungpa-dong? Even the Unification Church members in the provinces must be equipped with a unified heart and fulfill their responsibility in the field entrusted to them. If one thus comes to be equipped with a unified bond, by that bond the spirit world too is entirely unified.
It was said that in the spirit world too there are countless ranks, was it not? It means that the countless vertical ranks of the spirit world are unified and become horizontal ranks. It means that they come to develop into horizontal ranks. This is the principle. Seen from this point, you must know that the day on which the Will is accomplished is not far off.
Since God has come seeking as far as this place by passing through the world, now we must go out through the world. We must establish the Unification Church upon the ground of having made a worldwide domain of Christianity and go seeking in it. In the world there are countless nations. To take one’s place at the center of them, one must pass through an external standard centering upon an internal standard. And so only when one can put God’s internal and external standards into practice is unification accomplished.
Therefore, you must know how toilsome a thing it was that God came seeking before you spiritually and that the Teacher came seeking before you physically. Do you understand? (“Yes.”) If one reckons this by value, it is an infinite value. You must know that it is a final fruit of victory obtained after paying a price such that it could not be bought even for the whole Cosmos.
So it means do not carry on carelessly. Do you understand? (“Yes.”) There is a saying that a child of the gentry does not warm himself at an ash fire even though he freezes to death, is there not?
And there is a saying that even though one starves to death, one does not pick up and eat discarded rice. In the same way, you too must clearly know that you must hold your pride and must not lose the value of the treasure that God has toiled to find for you.
