The Self That Must Go Forward

Former Headquarters Church.

You must always think about the history of restoration. If God were to call you who are gathered here, charge you with responsibility for this world of death, and say, “From now on, through you I shall restore this world,” what would you do? Have you ever thought about such a thing?

If You Were to Receive the Command to Take Responsibility for the History of Restoration

God has labored for six thousand years, yet the history of restoration is still not concluded—though it must, without fail, be concluded. To conclude this history of restoration, God alone is not enough. God, human beings, and all things must, without fail, come together.

Heaven, Earth, and humanity (天地人)—that is, Heaven and earth and human beings—must unite. Human beings alone cannot do it, nor can God alone. Only when God and human beings and all things are joined can the history of restoration be concluded.

Such a momentous matter… . If you were to receive from God the command, “So-and-so! From now on, you take responsibility for this great mission and carry forward the history of restoration.” What would you do?

We members of the Unification Church have learned and practiced the Principle until now; what, then, is the final position we must come to feel? It is precisely this position.

The whole world is now held captive by the powers of death and darkness. It lies within a realm of darkness where not the slightest trace of the light by which God might take His place can be found.

If you, who dwell within such a realm of darkness, were to be called by God upon a foundation of countless hardships and devoted sincerity, that would be a great blessing.

If God were to say to you, “I entrust to you Heaven and earth and this entire world. I shall make it so that the whole of Heaven and earth may be blessed through you. I shall give you such boundless benefit, so bear this responsibility.”

In what position would you stand?

God came seeking human beings—He came seeking from the individual to the family, society, nation, world, and the whole Cosmos. Thus, God has expanded the scope of His providence of restoration.

In the end, He came aiming at the restoration of the realm (圈) that can encompass God, all things, and human beings—that is, complete restoration.

God has worked His providence by raising an individual, or by raising a family, or a tribe, a people, a nation, or the world. What is the final purpose of His having worked in this way? It is to bring all created things to abide within the realm of the cherished ideal of creation that God desires.

These created things must, without fail, be centered on one perfected person. Only then can God rejoice, and all things themselves rejoice. The one perfected person who becomes the center there must not be someone who stands in a position of having taken responsibility for himself alone, but someone who can bring the whole to stand in a position of having taken responsibility.

This means that when that person does something, all the beings of Heaven and Earth must be able to move together and manifest a value equivalent to having done the work themselves. Only when such a being of value appears is the entire purpose of God’s providence of restoration—that is, the providence of salvation — attained.

Human beings are called the lords of creation, but what kind of people are fit to be lords of creation?

People like you now, who live only for the family? People who claim to have taken responsibility for society?

Or the magnates who move centered on the two great camps of this world? No. What is needed is a person to whom the whole of Heaven and earth can be entrusted. And in entrusting it, it is not a foundation of glory, well-prepared upon the basis of every victory, that is entrusted.

It is this world of darkness—this immense world of darkness where hordes of the enemy are spread across the globe—that is entrusted. Today, there must appear a person who, bearing this mission, holds the conviction that he will take responsibility for the world. Unless such a one appears, this world cannot escape from the realm of peril.

Those who must bear such responsibility and mission are believers who follow the Will of the providence of salvation, people who struggle in their search for the way of the truth. But has there ever truly been someone who, standing in such a place, was called before God, saying he would take responsibility for all these cosmic missions? And even if there was, did he carry out that responsibility? This remains unresolved. You must know this.

What the Unification Church Has Aimed For

Then what has the Unification Church aimed for, and what kind of person must we become hereafter?

You must become a person who, standing alone before this world and receiving God’s call, can answer God’s question, “Will you carry out a worldwide mission within such a realm of darkness?” with, “Father, I will do it. Lay all responsibility upon me.” It is for this that the believers of the Unification Church have, until now, gathered, moved, and fought.

Then what is the one fixed position, the decisive position, where we may finally come to abide?

Though all the world stands in the position of betraying God as His enemy, you alone must stand in the position of receiving the final command handed down by God the Father and carrying out that responsibility. Consider, once, that you must stand in such a position.

The history of restoration up to today is the history of seeking one man, Adam. To find one man, Adam, it has passed through six thousand years. It took six thousand years. It is not a matter of any one age, nor of any one century. It is not a single process within history.

The entire history of humanity has been the history of restoration, of coming forth searching for the lost ancestor. For six thousand years, God has been at work to find one lost man, Adam.

After God has completely found this Adam and laid a foundation of victory, He intends to teach all human beings the strategy of victory so that each individual may stand upon a perfect foundation.

Only from the point where all people stand upon such a foundation, holding the conviction that “I possess the standard by which I can bring the whole world to submission,” and having confidence in the practice of it—only there can the noun “perfection” begin to be established. You must know this. Do you understand?

Therefore, what we must always think about is this: if we were to be called before the Will in a place where neither Heaven nor earth nor anyone at all knew us, what would we do?

Not what we come to know through the Principle of the Unification Church—rather, if, in the midst of a pitch-dark Heaven and earth where we do not even know what the Principle is, we were to be called before God and receive the command, “Carry out such-and-such a mission,” with what sense of responsibility, what resolve, what determination must we go forward? We need to consider this.

Unless you have stood in such a position, you cannot know the circumstances of our forefathers, nor the historical bonds of the countless ancestors of every generation who have labored until now. Only when you stand in such a place can you say, “Ah, so this is how Noah was.”

From such a place, you come to know the circumstances of Noah, who had to carry out responsibility and mission in a familial unit; the circumstances of Moses, who, on behalf of a tribe and a people, had to bear responsibility in the national sphere; or the circumstances of Jesus, who, in the position of the Messiah, had to bear the immense mission of making this Heaven and earth—filled with countless enemies—into one world and of turning the children of the enemy into God’s sons and daughters, His direct lineage. Only when you stand in such a position do you come to know what kind of being Jesus was.

Members of the Unification Church, today, I too came forth standing in such a position. One who does not know how to fathom such a position is an irresponsible person and not a normal person—a person confined within only one sphere.

But you, in this age, must come to know the historical bond of Heaven that has passed through such a course, set it right, establish a standard of victory, and hold a heart burning with the conviction that you will take revenge upon the enemy.

Such a heart must not be momentary. Only one who holds the conviction that he must tread up over the history of the past, smash and set right this age that lies in the midst of wretched tribulation, and build a land of blessing—only such a one is a normal person. Only such a person can walk the path of faith to the end without falling; one who is not so cannot go, however much he tries.

You who have entered the Unification Church today are learning the Principle. You are learning the Principle centered on Adam’s family, the Principle centered on Noah’s family, the Principle concerning the ages of Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and Jesus, and the Principle concerning God, who has worked His providence behind history until now. Yet you are, after all, beings who follow.

Therefore, you must walk on ceaselessly, following the Principle.

Thus you must be able to say: I will set right and establish Adam’s family; I will set right Noah’s family; I will set right Abraham’s family—and not only set them right, but I will even give them commands.

If indeed you today, called by God in this world of darkness, have taken the overall responsibility of carrying out a worldwide mission, then you must stand in a position to say that when Moses led the people of Israel, it should have been done this way and that.

A Principle That Admits No Exception

You must become those who can instruct: such and such things happened in the course of Jesus’ more-than-thirty-year life until his death, and if such things were to occur in this age, they must be resolved this way.

You must take responsibility, from the standpoint of one called by Heaven and one bearing Heaven’s mission, regarding how the affairs unfolding today around ideology ought to be handled.

You must take responsibility from the standpoint that without me, it cannot be done. You must consider that you bear a responsibility to be carried out within a certain bounded realm.

You are still immature before the Will. Now, what is it that we members of the Unification Church must have? There is nothing in this world. It is the heart that says, “I alone am left.”

The Principle is the same for everyone. On the path of restoration that human beings must walk, it is all the same for everyone.

The position of Noah, the position of Moses, the position of Jesus, and the position of the teacher who guides you today—all are the same. There can be no such thing as saying, “So-and-so bore a particular mission, so he had to carry out that responsibility.”

There can be no exception. From a universally valid standpoint, all people must stand in the position of bearing responsibility. To say, “Ah, this person is such-and-such, so we treat him as an exception,” is the fault. “It was because it was so-and-so; it was because it was Jesus—there can be no such thing. Do not treat anyone as an exception. Here, everyone is fair and equal. In the Principle, there is no exception.

The Standard of Heart by Which Tribulation Can Be Overcome

The thing I most want to say, now that I have come to the point of going over the three-year period, is: let us return to the old days. Let us go back to the old days. Do you understand?

Until now, we have come to the very end of the world through merciless struggle, so now let us go back again. From of old until now we have come forth seeking the world, so now we must again go in to seek it. In such a course, it is important to have borne responsibility.

Today we eat and live within the environment of our age and within a limited realm of time. The problem is not decided within such a limited scope. Within a realm that transcends time and space, we must.

An ideology was united with the heart, establishing a real foundation and removing all the enemies who rebelled against this ideology. You must feel the immense mission of having to set up such a standard. Therein lies the problem.

Now, when you pray, try praying like that. Though you have learned the Principle, you know nothing—nothing at all. What do you really know?

Do you really know what the Fall is, or what anything is?

You stand in a place where you know nothing, yet you must seek it out, and you must wrest these things away from Satan.

From such a position, under the standard of what a person of character must be, you must confront the historical enemy Satan, strike that Satan down, and lay a foundation of victory within the environment of your age.

With such a foundation, in the position of a pioneer of the future, even though you receive all the tribulation and suffering that remains in Satan’s world, you must stand serenely, centered on the standard of heart, to build a new world—that is, one world of ideology—without yielding.

Even if you are set in the very center of suffering, you must stand serenely with such a foundation of heart. Seen from this viewpoint, you must repent.

When have you ever felt the sorrow of Adam at being driven out from God when he fell? Have you felt the heart of Noah, who, lest the Will go unfulfilled, bit his tongue and endured for a hundred and twenty years, afflicted before a harsh and overwhelming environment amid countless hardships?

Standing in the same position as God, who at that time counseled Noah and instructed him to “go,” you must be able to instruct people who stand in the same position as grandfather Noah, bearing a worldwide mission. You must be able to instruct people who stand in the same position as Moses.

You must hold the conviction that you can bear such responsibility and more, and you must possess a natural value by which you can set yourself before all the universe and affirm yourself. It is not a coerced value. Are you indeed standing in a position where you can do this?

Looking centered on Noah’s family, all that Noah did was not the work of an individual but the work of a family. What Abraham did, too, was not the work of Abraham himself but the work of Abraham’s family.

What Jacob did, too, was not Jacob’s own work. The twenty-one years of toil Jacob endured, too, were not work for his own individual self, but work for the twelve brothers. It was the same with Moses. He labored for the Israel of hope.

The Work the Representative of God Must Do

Have you at any time stood in such a position? Consider it. From now on, you must think this way.

If, in the position where there is no teacher and no father, you bore such a mission—a responsibility that must be carried out even unto death—what would become of you if you could not do it?

Think about it. Where must you set your hand first?

Even if you tried first to set your hand to Adam’s family, if you did not know the method to resolve that family’s problem, you could not set your hand to it. But how good it would be if there were then a teacher who brought you the materials to resolve those problems!

The other day I heard, through a student attending a certain university, that scholars travel about gathering materials in their fields of specialization, and that when they hear there are materials of worldwide importance, more valuable materials, somewhere, they run about desperately with all their might to obtain them, without even thinking about what may become of their circumstances.

For the sake of their field of specialty, scholars are of a mind to obtain such materials even by stripping away all the property they possess. The more a person is in a position of trying to research his specialty at the risk of his life, the more there is nothing he begrudges.

When, in such a position, you are agonizing over how to gather the materials concerning Adam’s family to take responsibility for and resolve all of Adam’s family’s problems—when you are feeling the distress of trying to resolve that problem—how grateful you would be, how thankful you would be, if there were a teacher who came bearing good materials and taught you that it must be done this way and that!

You may think whatever you will, but having come to know the value of the Principle, I have devoted my whole life to it. The ideology condensed into every single word of the Principle’s Word was not obtained by chance.

It is cosmic material that cannot be bought even for hundreds of millions in gold. It is cosmic material connected piece by piece to the world of the heart. Because the mission and responsibility of setting this world right rest upon me, I thought that if I did not find this Principle, I would fail to attain the purpose for which I was born a human being, and all humanity would fall into the pit of death. When you think of such a momentous matter, how do you suppose you would feel?

Beginning with Noah’s family, the people of the past passed away without knowing this fact. But now that we have come to know this, we must set them right, fit them together, and stand in the position of God’s representative.

God knew all things, yet He could not teach that fact to human beings. As you too will know, having learned the Principle, God set human beings in such a position and waited longingly for them to come forth and seek it out by themselves.

How much He must have longed to teach them that path! And how desperate must have been God’s plight, unable to teach even while longing to!

Someone had to explain what the motive of the Fall was and what its result was, and thereby bring Satan to natural submission; how heartbroken God must have been, only watching, unable to teach this!

Standing in a place where you feel such things, you must resolve it for Him, saying, “Father! I have stood as one who has taken responsibility. I know that Thou hast raised me, holding the Will of hope. I know that Thou hast raised me to resolve the distress of Adam’s family. Is not the distress of Adam’s family this?”

When Jesus too came to be placed in such a situation, in a place where the enemy could acknowledge it, he felt God’s aching heart, saying, “God! What shall I do?”

You, too, must feel such a heart. History has been flowing down until now, centered on such a bond of the heart.

The View of Faith the Members of the Unification Church Must Hold

In walking the path of restoration, the body is nothing. Some say so-and-so is handsome here and such-and-such there, but such things are nothing.

In the course of history until now, among the countless forefathers who went forth seeking the way of the truth, was there any who held his body precious?

All of them went hungry and so on. They, too, felt all the suffering when suffering came. But by what were they struck?

By one thing alone—by the command of God. They were people who, burning with the mission of a pioneer to fulfill worldwide responsibility upon being called before God, did not think of their own single selves. They were people who did not even think of their families. They were people who did not think of their tribe or people.

They were people who disregarded their own individual selves, disregarded their family, disregarded their tribe, and disregarded their nation. And in the end, they were people who disregarded even their lives.

Yet they didn't understand why God called them into this world of darkness and gave them commands, why He called them out from among all the peoples of the world and commanded them. They knew only that there was a Will of God; they did not know how to set right this history of evil. But you, having come to these Last Days and learned the Principle, surmise all about how history has come to be. Has that Principle you have come to know truly become your own? Have you made what you know your own? Is merely knowing it making it your own? Even beggars know it all, if only they hear it.

What is the problem?

It is to form a relationship with this cosmic sense of mission. And in forming the relationship, it must be formed through the heart. Having done so, you must conduct yourself as a resurrected Adam.

You must stand as an Adam who did not fall. You must stand not in the position of the failed Adam who laments, “Had I done it this way, I would not have fallen,” but in the position of the victorious Adam.

Not the failed Noah but the victorious Noah; not the failed Abraham but the victorious Abraham; not the failed Moses but the victorious Moses; not the dead Jesus but the Jesus who lived and won—in such a position you must stand.

Then, standing before the Cosmos, if you say, “Who shall conquer my temple?

Who shall conquer my ideology?

Who shall judge this heart of mine that loves the Will?” — No one can judge it. Not even God can. When it comes to this, Heaven and earth too must acknowledge it, and God too must acknowledge it. The beings of the universe cannot but acknowledge him.

Only when you, through a substance established centered on such victorious glory, form a oneness of heart with God and stand upon an unchanging foundation can you at last be called the fruit of six thousand years.

The reason I say such things now is that there is something I especially want to emphasize. From now on, you must not remain the person you have been until now.

You must become thoroughgoing believers, burning with conviction. You must be thorough. Wherever in this world you may go, it is the same. Believe in nothing.

What is there to believe?

There is nothing to believe in. Do not believe even in me. In the end, only the relationship between the Father and me is the issue. With such conviction, you must say, “Come, historical Satan! Come, darkness!” To go forward with such resolve is our position.

From this standpoint, you must think. Even if you are hung on a cross, do not be hung on a trifling cross. Do you understand? What is a paltry back-alley cross? A cross of one family?

A cross in some neighborhood?

It will not do. Even a cross of one nation will not do. You must hold the conviction that says, “I will bear the cross of Heaven and earth, the cross of the whole of Heaven and earth.”

You must say that you will take responsibility for this world ruled by the enemy Satan, this world toyed with by the enemy Satan, and tear down the enemy’s fortress, the enemy’s altar. The worldwide Golgotha is the enemy’s altar.

So it must be torn down. Jesus tore down Golgotha by his death and departed, but we must tear it down in substance, without dying.

This is the view of faith that the members of the Unification Church must hold. Do you understand? We may say that the view of faith of the Unification Church is to carry out such a mission. To say “a Unification Church member” is to speak of people who bear such responsibility and pioneer the stage of their daily life. Only then can one be called a Unification Church member.

Yet some try to slip away the moment things get a little hard—how can that do?

What do you suppose Jesus bore as he went to die on the cross? You must know this. Jesus carried history.

The Jesus of that day carried Adam, carried Noah, carried Abraham, carried Moses, carried the countless forefathers, and carried all the worldwide tribulation up to that time. Jesus did not avoid the tribulation of the world; rather, he completely took possession of the tribulation of that world.

By taking possession of all the merit of the historical prophets and treading up over the tribulation of his age, he fulfilled before that age the messianic responsibility, the messianic mission.

Jesus’ cross was a cross that carried history in our stead, a cross that carried the tribulation of the age. Thus, Jesus was victorious. It was not God who was victorious. It was Jesus who was victorious.

To Become a Person Who Can Master Ideology

And so Jesus resurrected all the prophets who had departed bearing historical han and pioneered a new path of life for the human beings of this world who lie in the midst of tribulation.

With Jesus’ resurrection, the resurrection of the forefathers also took place, did it not? Thus they too, together with Jesus, rose from the form-spirit level of the spiritual world to the life-spirit level of the spiritual world.

In this world too, the one who has trodden over tribulation, the one who has fought and won against the world, is set in a high place. For this reason, one cannot go to that place without passing through the cross.

For this reason, the outcome of a life is decided on the summit of Golgotha.

Whether one is on Satan’s side or on God’s side is decided on the summit of Golgotha.

So how far have you come now?

The ideology that Unification Church members believe in is truly splendid, is it not? This is acknowledged by all, friend and foe alike. Before long, the people of the world will acknowledge our ideology.

Then will you become a person who can move this ideology, or a person who is moved by this ideology?

You—will you become a sacrifice before this ideology, or a person who moves this ideology? Whether the ideology becomes the servant or the person becomes the servant—that is the issue. Well?

What kind of person will you become?

You must not become a servant of ideology. You must give commands before ideology. Ideology must become the servant.

Here we must create a new history. We must cut clean away all that has been until now and create a new history.

You must become people who can do what has never been done in the world. Jesus forgave even one who, by the law of the Old Testament, could only be stoned to death.

The reason Jesus could forgive a person who ought to have died and been punished on the spot was that he was not a person dominated by the supreme ideology but the protagonist who could master that supreme ideology. That is why he called God, who created Heaven and earth, his Father. Do you understand what I mean?

Then, where can the deciding authority that can govern this ideology be obtained? You must walk a path that, as a fallen human being, you could by no means walk.

Today, the whole world has become a servant of ideology and is fighting among itself; so, where can the authority to govern this ideology be obtained?

Where is the privilege to govern ideology decided?

At the worldwide Golgotha. Do you understand? It is decided at the worldwide Golgotha whether one obtains the privilege to govern ideology.

Since the creation of Heaven and earth until now, there have been the familial Golgotha, the tribal Golgotha, the national Golgotha, the worldwide Golgotha, and the Golgotha where Jesus came, centered on spirit and flesh, but departed having laid only the foundation of spiritual victory.

But in the Last Days, there remains the supreme worldwide Golgotha that combines them all. To tread up over the summit of this supreme worldwide Golgotha, one cannot but pass through the heart of God. Those who bear the mission of treading up over the summit of such a Golgotha are the ones seeking the world of the way of truth. Therefore, a religious view rooted in the heart must, without fail, appear.

That which has crossed over the supreme worldwide Golgotha is, in itself, not a human being. God has worked His providence until now, gazing at that summit. Because God has come forth toward that summit until now, when we cross over that summit, God and we meet.

There, after forming a bond of the heart with God, we must set Satan before us, receive acknowledgment from Satan, and win the hegemony of victory. Only then does one at last become a person who can master ideology. This is the path that we Unification Church members must walk. Do you understand? Do you understand, I say?

How must this final crest be crossed?

Greater than the suffering one undergoes in crossing that crest must be the suffering of the inner battle to carry out the mission as one who has borne Heaven’s responsibility. The greater the motive, the greater the result.

Saying, “I alone have borne the mission of the whole of Heaven and earth, so I will carry it out somehow before I die,” you must grit your teeth and go forward. In a place unknown to others, you must vow tens of millions of times, awaken yourself to your insufficiency, shed tears, and undergo writhing agony.

Only when such inner suffering is greater than the suffering undergone on the summit of the worldwide Golgotha can one take responsibility for a great work. Otherwise, ten out of ten will fall.

Do you understand what I mean?

The Inevitable Course of Humanity

The crest of the final cross, the crest that must without fail be crossed to go over the worldwide cross, is the Golgotha of the grudge of Heaven and earth. This Golgotha of the grudge of Heaven and earth must be crossed—but how is it to be crossed?

Until now, no human being could cross it; God alone, undergoing the inner suffering of the heart, has come forth toward this worldwide Golgotha.

God, who came forth asking, “Where is the human being who can cross this crest?” has for six thousand years been pierced with blood-soaked suffering.

If one has the inner conviction that he must avenge the enemy, then regardless of what enemy in the world appears, it is no problem. Because such cosmic emotion remained, God was able to cross even this worldwide Golgotha without difficulty.

Therefore, before such a God, there must appear sons and daughters of God who, having laid a foundation of victory at the worldwide Golgotha, can master the cosmic ideology.

There must appear sons and daughters who, from the day they were called before God and took responsibility for the inner mission, can bear historical suffering and the suffering of the age and cross over the worldwide Golgotha.

Today’s Golgotha can be crossed only by one who has experienced that the inner suffering is hundreds of times greater than the trial Jesus underwent on the summit of Golgotha. That is why human beings are made to undergo hardship.

So we must undergo hardship. And we must cross such a crest of tribulation. Do you understand what I mean? That is life. Life! It is the inevitable course that fallen human beings must walk.

Therefore, you must go forward standing in the position of sons and daughters who, bearing such a cosmic responsibility, have been called before God.

You must go forward saying, “I am the self who must go forward bearing this cosmic responsibility alone.”

Having passed through a han-laden past and a han-laden course of life, you must hold the conviction that you will cross the summit of the han-laden worldwide Golgotha all at once.

You must hold the resolve: I will not retreat even if I fight there for ten years; even if it takes devoting my whole life to advance a single step, I will leave behind no such noun as “retreat”; I will climb to the summit; even if it means dying as I climb to the summit, I will not retreat. Even if there is a tribulation in which I must offer my life, through that trial I must establish a foundation of victory.

Only one who has laid a foundation of victory that not even billions of Satans can occupy can become a person who masters ideology. Do you understand? This is the standard that the seekers of the way of truth pursue today.

The mission of the Lord who is to come hereafter is precisely this. What is it that the Lord does? He is precisely the one who carries out such a mission. The returning Lord is precisely the one who comes to carry out such a mission. Do you understand?

What kind of being is the returning Lord?

He is precisely the True Parents. What kind of being are the True Parents? They are the ancestors of humanity. They are the father and mother of all the people of the world.

The history of the father and mother is precisely the history of the children. The law of a household is the law that its descendants must keep, generation after generation.

The Golgotha the Unification Church Must Cross

What kind of person does God intend to make of us?

Not a servant of this created world. He intends to make us individuals who can hold this Cosmos in hand, command the world of all things, and master them. That is why God has, until now, been driving humanity to Golgotha. In shaping the history of humanity, the individual Golgotha was borne by Abraham, and the familial Golgotha was borne by Jacob.

The national Golgotha had to be borne by the people of Israel. The worldwide Golgotha has, until now, been borne by Christians. Hereafter, the cosmic Golgotha must be crossed, and this must be crossed by our Unification Church, which must open a new age upon the foundation of Christian history. Is that so, or not?

I always think this: I stand in the position of being the teacher of the Unification Church, but I am not someone who likes being in the teacher’s position. Being in the teacher’s position, I must give thought to everything. I cannot fail to give thought even for a moment.

In the battle that will arise hereafter in crossing the worldwide Golgotha, it is originally we Unification Church members who must bear responsibility, but I do not intend to put Unification Church members at the front of that operation.

Hereafter, I will put at the front those who move on behalf of the spiritual world.

Until now, I have put you at the front. That is why many victims arose. But the sacrifice of a few hundred is no problem. Still, all people must be led forward.

Until now, those who bore the mission of the age, those who came to bear witness to the Unification Church, all bore witness to the Unification Church and then fell away. Nine out of ten fell away.

What does this mean?

They stood at the forefront and carried out the mission of pioneering the spiritual world, and those people became sacrifices. Look.

Until now, countless people bore witness, but all fell away. Each time that happened, I thought it was really for the best. Because it meant we came to seize all their bundles.

God treats them by a standard beyond the merit they labored for. God fulfills His responsibility. They must fulfill their responsibility before God. When at such a time they cannot fulfill it, they are broken off.

Until now, I have judged many people who received grace. Why? Because those who go through the spiritual world are servants. Servants! Is that not so?

Until now, the servants have used the children for their gain, so now the children must use the servants for their gain. This is the course of restoration through indemnity. Because such a principle holds, they must be used, but when they cannot fulfill their responsibility, they are cut off.

You may not know it well, but when one bears witness, all respond favorably. Even so, they fail to fulfill their responsibility and fall away. They are bound to fall away.

Then the merit they have accumulated becomes ours. In this way, we have, until now, laid the path. It is because the time has drawn near that I say such things. So now you must hold a strong conviction. Do you understand?

Now you will roughly grasp the flow of things. You will understand how things are going. Having made you aware of these things, I will give today’s talk, so listen well. Do you understand?

Now each of you must receive the command to stand alone before the whole of Heaven and earth, be called by the Father, and go forth bearing worldwide responsibility. Thereby, you must set right history, establish a foundation of victory, and bring Satan to submission. To bring Satan to submission, you must subdue him on the summit of the worldwide Golgotha. Thereafter, you must become a cosmic ruler.

Because the Lord is the one who comes to carry out such a responsibility, if you would become children of the Lord, you must go forward following the path the Lord walks. Herein lies the cause that has driven countless people onto the path of suffering in carrying forward the history of restoration.

On the path of suffering, there is the familial Golgotha, the tribal Golgotha, and the national Golgotha. Over a span of three years, we are walking this course; at the very first, we received individual persecution, and thereafter, familial persecution, tribal persecution, and national persecution.

Now the age of worldwide persecution has come and will strike all at once. This year is the year of crossing over the worldwide Golgotha that strikes all at once. Do you understand?

The Standard of Faith We Must Establish

Then let us once more talk it through from the beginning. You! Human beings fell, did they not? You know the fact that they fell, do you not? What is the Fall?

The Fall is the loss of the servant. You must know this. The archangel is a servant, is he not? Answer me. The reason I ask like this is that you are dozing. You must not doze. If you doze, you cannot hear such words.

What did I say the Fall is?

It is the loss of the servant. It means the loss of the servant of servants, the faithful servant. And the children were lost. Among the children, the most filial son and daughter were lost. Moreover, all things were lost too. These are what God lost.

Next, what did human beings lose? They lost God, they lost the True Parents, and they lost even all things. Is that not so? So, all of this must be restored.

Believers these days say, “Believe in Jesus and go to heaven.” If going to heaven were that simple, I too would not be playing the role of a teacher of the Unification Church.

If it were that simple, how good it would be! How good it would be if one could be saved with only the faith that says, “Ah, I believe in God. I believe in the Lord too.”

The problem is what the content of faith is. This content of faith must be for seeking the created world, for seeking the Cosmos. It must also be a faith for seeking the true human being, a faith for forming the true family, a faith for establishing the true nation. And it must be a faith for seeking the true Kingdom of Heaven. The content of faith must not be vague.

What—believe in Jesus and go to heaven?

When you say you believe in Jesus, what is the target of that faith? What the content of faith is—that is what is important. Do you understand?

You must be able to say, “This Heaven and earth are mine. All humanity of the whole world is mine. The angels in the spiritual world are also mine; God, who is in heaven, is also mine, and Jesus is also mine.”

You must believe in such a standard. Just believe and go to heaven? Try going. See whether you can. Will you go to heaven believing like that?

In believing, you must believe with more greed than anyone. Whom must you believe more greatly than? You must believe with a heart stronger than Satan’s.

Thereby you must be able to say that even Satan is mine—that he is mine, such that if I want to fetch him and put him to use even at night, I use him, and if I want to seize him and beat him, I seize and beat him.

If you would believe, believe with such boldness.

Now, do you understand how one must believe?

Why is that grandfather over there laughing? Such is the content of faith. To believe, to gain salvation through faith—these words are spoken by professing such content.

If going to heaven were that simple, this teacher Moon of the Unification Church would not be suffering so today. Do you suppose I am doing this work now because I am inept?

You must understand clearly. Now you understand the content of faith, do you not? The standard of faith is precisely what I spoke of just now.

Through falling, human beings lost all things and the whole world and lost both the spiritual world and the physical world entirely. Next, they lost God’s servant, God’s sons and daughters, and the True Parents whom God established.

Therefore, you must be able to enter the realm where you can say that even Satan is mine, that even God is mine, that all things of the world are entirely mine. It means you must be able to say that God too is mine, and God’s love too is, of course, mine.

God established the noun “faith” to make human beings the great sovereigns of the whole world. Yet today, how despised an outcast has this noun “faith” become?

Even after sinning, people say, “I believe because I was asked to believe, so forgive my sins and send me to heaven.”

If one could be sent to heaven that way, how good it would be! Therefore, the standard of faith is an immense thing. Do you understand? You must know this.

The Time to Hold a Right View of Faith

In the view of faith that Jesus asserted, the whole world is contained. Even God is contained.

Only within such faith is the will of the temple fulfilled. Only when Jesus’ ideal of faith—that even God must be contained—is consummated is Jesus’ Will fulfilled; and only when Jesus’ Will is fulfilled is God’s Will fulfilled; so in the end God must enter into Jesus’ body.

Since the body was said to be God’s temple, on the day the will of this temple is consummated, God’s Will is fulfilled. Therefore, only when our body stands at the standard that can represent the whole world is the will of the temple consummated. Is that not so? So how splendid a thing it is to lead a life of faith!

I have, until today, unfolded my view of faith from such a standpoint. From the very start, I set out that way. Even in believing in Jesus, one must believe with such a view of faith. It will not do to believe in a slipshod way.

If one could believe so easily and go to heaven, how would the world have come to be like this? It is not arranged that one goes to heaven so easily. Within the realm of faith of which we speak, one who is victorious in faith is a being of universal history and of cosmic history.

Even the Messiah Jesus, because he could not become a victorious individual upon the foundation of such a view of faith, prays even after going to that world (the spiritual world). Why would Jesus pray? He prays because he did not fulfill his wish.

Had he fulfilled his wish, why would he pray?

The Holy Spirit, too, undergoing the labor of childbirth until now, does so for all such reasons. Your praying and witnessing, too, are all done for that reason. You understand, do you not?

Because they fell, we human beings lost Heaven and earth and lost the angels whom we ought to employ as our errand-runners. Whose fault is this? It all came about through the fault of human beings.

So now we must seek it all again. We must seek the whole world; we must seek the angels—that is, the servant—and we must seek the children. And we must seek the True Parents. Thereby, we must be able to say that even God is mine. We must go seeking it in reverse. To go seeking these things is the path of faith today.

What I spoke of just now, too, was about such a cosmic mission. You must hold the view of faith that says you will take sole responsibility for this world of darkness and the view of faith that says even in the midst of this satanic world, this world of darkness, my faith will absolutely never be broken.

You must become a mallet. Only when you have the standard that says, “I will become a mallet, and though I strike the world and the world breaks, I will not break,” is that battle resolved. The course of history is a course of battle. It is a history that settles everything through battle. So in the age of historical consummation too, a battle will without fail arise, and that battle is a battle of faith.

If you collide with a faith of universal history and cosmic history, the world will all break and topple. When the world is centered on a person who holds such an ideal of faith, this world will become one world through that person, and this world will become a new Heaven and Earth.

How many things have you lost and lived without until now?

When you think of this, even if you lost tens of millions of won all at once, recovering it is no problem. Would recovering that be a problem? “I must become such a person. This is the purpose of life—would my one life be an issue beside it?”

Jesus, too, lived and departed within such a realm of the heart. There are many trifling fellows in the world. But I do not look after such people. If they fail to fulfill their responsibility, it is they who perish, not I.

The Work the Messiah Must Come and Do

In the past, there was much talk of “Teacher Moon of the Unification Church is this and that…” But I fought on from the standard that says, “Even if I perish, even if a few Blessed members perish, the holy Will of God alone cannot perish.”

The forefathers who could not think of such a thing all perished and fell away. People who say, “I am such-and-such a company president, I graduated from such-and-such a university, I am this and that…” do not know this content.

Such cliques must be ruined—utterly so (the word used means thoroughly or severely). Let us see whether they perish or not. If they do not perish, I will make them perish. Such a time will come.

You are fallen descendants, are you not? Are you fallen descendants, or not? You are fallen descendants, are you not? Do not be downcast. You have fallen, descendants.

What did I say the Fall is the losing of?

It is the losing of Heaven and earth, the losing of the servants, the losing of the true sons and daughters, the losing of the true Parents, and the losing of God. The Fall is a loss.

How much have you lost until now?

You have lost things immeasurably great. If you could recover those lost things, what could you not do? If you could recover something greater than your child, then you must sacrifice even your child for it.

You must cast away even your body for it. This is the faith that those who know infinite value must hold. Because of the Fall, things were lost.

So the history of seeking to recover what was lost is the history of restoration, the history of salvation. To put it another way, the course of seeking again what was lost and establishing it in the form it had before being lost is the history of resurrection.

The history of this earth until today is the history of restoration, of seeking to recover what was lost. The one who comes bearing the overall responsibility of restoring this fallen earth is the Messiah.

Then, with what mission must that Messiah come when he comes to this earth?

This is clear even without saying it. What mission must he carry out? To seek the lost Heaven and earth, to seek the lost things, to seek the lost servant, to seek the lost God. The one who comes to seek all these things and, as the ancestor of humanity, bequeath them just so to his descendants is the Messiah. Is that not so?

But Jesus, having come to this earth two thousand years ago, ended up becoming a Messiah driven out. He came as the parent of humanity and ought to have carried out the mission of a parent.

How was that mission to be carried out?

He had to pass through the course of restoration. In going forward on the course of restoration, one must, without fail, pass through the history of re-creation. When God created Heaven and earth, He first made the angels, then made all things, and after that made human beings. Is that not so? Therefore, the history of restoration must repeat this course. It must be repeated in reverse (逆).

For this reason, for Jesus to bear the whole of history on this earth, since his single individual self was a historical substance, a substance of cosmic-historical restoration, he had to consummate, centered on his substance, all the historical bonds and contents. He had to pass through the bonds of the past, pass through the bonds of the present, and even establish the bonds of the future.

Because he had such a mission, Jesus, having come to this earth, staked his life and, to fulfill the given mission, came forth beginning from the position of a servant. Thereby, he had to seek the servant, had to seek all things, and at the same time had to seek the world, and at the same time had to seek the children.

Thereafter, advancing to the position of the True Parent and becoming one with God, he had at last to consummate God’s wish, the purpose of creation.

The reason a oneness of heart was not achieved upon the three-position foundation of God and the True Parents was that, in olden times, Adam and Eve formed a bond of love into which Satan could invade. This is a matter that cannot be dealt with even after hundreds of millions of years.

Even God, once His beloved children have been bound by such love, can do nothing about it. Even in the fallen world, when one’s own child forms such a bond of love, the parents cannot sever that relationship, however hard they try. With God, it is likewise the same.

That the Messiah Jesus Should Be Born in a Manger

God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit ought to have become one centered on the original three-position foundation and consummated one foundation, but because, through the Fall, all of that was shattered, one must go back up in reverse. Do you understand? In going back up in reverse, one does not go from a comfortable place. One must fall from the most exalted and noble place into a clod of earth.

One must fall again into the clod of earth from which God first made man. And one must fall into the position of a servant. Even when the Messiah comes, he comes to such a position.

In passing through the bond of heart with the God who is on high and coming to the lowly earth, if he came to a high position, he could form no bond with the human beings in the lowly position. So he comes to a lowly position. Among lowly positions, he comes to the very lowest.

Jesus was born in a manger, was he not? Is that not so?

The other day, when I was going somewhere by train, a certain woman gave birth to a baby in the train car. At that time, the people gathered a collection and gave it to her. Why did they do that? Because Jesus was born that way. That is how I understand it. It is human nature to feel compassion for anyone who gives birth on a bus or on the road.

Why did such a custom arise?

It must be because Jesus was born that way. That is how I understand it. For this reason, if I should meet a woman giving birth while passing along the road, I am of a mind to take off even my suit and give it to her—and to cradle that baby.

Members of our Unification Church family, when I am passing by, time it just right and try giving birth on the roadside. (Everyone laughs)

What kind of being is Jesus?

He is the Crown Prince of God. A splendid way of putting it, is it not? What did I say Jesus is? He is the Crown Prince of God, who created Heaven and Earth.

Then what kind of being is God?

He is the great Lord, the very Master, of all things in Heaven and earth. He is the One who made Heaven and earth, the One who abides as the King of kings for all eternity. So how great He must be! He is high and great beyond your power to describe. Jesus is the Crown Prince of God, born as the son of one so great. Put this way, it feels real, does it not? “Messiah,” “Savior”—these do not feel quite real, but “the Crown Prince of God” will feel real.

The one born as God’s only begotten Son, the one and only Son, is Jesus. Yet human beings seized and killed such a Jesus—so how God’s heart must have ached!

When the Crown Prince of God, God’s only begotten Son Jesus, was born upon the earth, leaving behind the throne of Heaven, how was he born? He was born in an indescribably wretched place.

Is a manger in a stable a place for the Messiah to lie?

When you were born, there was at least a great fuss preparing diapers and seaweed soup and the like. Jesus was born far more wretchedly than you. What room was there? He was laid in a manger. Is that not so?

Blessed families of our Unification Church—I will not say it outright, but I think one such family ought to come forth from among our Blessed families. Try giving birth to a baby up on a mountain peak and then coming down. Even if eagles circle round and round about it, God will protect it. There are times when I think such thoughts. A splendid thing, is it not?

Who protected the infant Jesus in the manger? Who protected him?

Since he was the Son of God, God protected him, and the angels protected him. Furthermore, the shepherds who followed God kept guard over that place. Though Jesus was born in that manner, he was born possessing every bit of what he was meant to possess.

The Pitiable Circumstances of Jesus, Who Prays in the Spiritual World

Then why was Jesus born that way?

Since he was to save a world that had fallen to the very bottom, he had to start from the very end.

If God is at the very top, Jesus was at the very bottom. Only so could this world be saved. This world—that is, the world of ideology—is round. It is a world of circles.

So it must go around. It must go around to be eternal. To make such a revolving world, God had to raise Jesus and work His providence. To make this non-revolving world, this ruined world, this fallen world, revolve, God had to work at the very top and Jesus at the very bottom. Thereby, going round and round, God comes down to earth, and Jesus goes up to the position of God—that is how it works. Do you understand?

But where is Jesus now?

Unable to go up to the position of God, he is caught fast in Paradise. He is praying in Paradise. He is praying, “God, save the human beings in this Heaven and earth.”

What did you do last night? You know what kind of person I am, do you not? I am good at putting people to shame, standing them up, and even slapping their cheek. Even so, you must listen. I do not always tell such things.

If you hear this evening’s Word, the problem of the path of faith will, for the most part, be resolved. Shall I just stop this? Shall I stop? (“No.”) You, too, bear a joint responsibility.

If you want to sleep, you should go home to sleep. Do you want to sleep that badly? Then sleep. Sleep! Hereafter, those who become exemplary will remain in the history of the Unification Church. It means becoming a historical figure of the Unification Church.

Because it is a revolving world, God comes down on the right side, and Jesus goes up on the left side. For this reason, Jesus’ course is entirely a reverse path (逆路). It is not a normal course. It is an opposite course; it goes against the world. When the world rejoices, Jesus grieves. And so it goes around.

So how far has he gone now?

Unable to enter the gate of the Kingdom of Heaven, he stands firmly in Paradise. It was said that he is at the right hand of God’s throne, was it not?

This does not mean that he has gone up to the top of God’s topknot. It means that he stood in God’s stead. The pastors, elders, and doctors who call the Unification Church a heresy while saying they will go to heaven—let us wait and see. Those trusted in the world become, in the end, the losers. You must hold the conviction that confidently says, “I will fulfill the Will. Oppose me if you will.

How many years will it last?”

Jesus is now placed in a position where, in his mind, he must gaze up at God and, in his body, must gaze down at the earth. So he is a pitiable Jesus.

The path of a normal person is for mind and body to become one and move in one direction, but Jesus—the Jesus who has gone to the spiritual world—must in his mind look up to God and in his body look down at the earth. A pitiable Jesus. Those coming for the first time will not understand such words. To explain the pitiable, Jesus would take days and still not be finished. He is a pitiable Jesus.

Though he came to the most wretched place on this earth, it was Jesus’ original mission to ascend the throne as the King of kings. Yet, having departed, leaving that work unaccomplished, he gazes upon it only as a dream.

Gazing upon a single day of hope called the Second Advent, he comes forth seeking the names of bridegroom and bride. So how pitiable Jesus’ circumstances are! We Unification Church members understand this content well, do we not?

The ones who say they will attend such a pitiable one as their bridegroom are today’s Christians. Full of greed, they say, “Give all the good things to me, and may Jesus take charge of the bad. May Jesus take away all my suffering and make me comfortable.” Even when they pray, they pray entirely to be given blessings, to be made first in the world. That is not how to pray.

One must pray, “I will take up Thy labor upon myself. If there is anything in me that can become Thy joy, take it away whenever Thou wilt.” This is the original, normal prayer.

But do you suppose God will grant the prayers offered in today’s established churches?

Having become sinful descendants, failing to fulfill responsibility, asking only for blessings?

This notion must be smashed. It must be smashed. It must be smashed at its root and shattered to pieces. When I think of such things, my teeth chatter even now.

To Become the Bride of Jesus

Pitiable Jesus! Who truly wishes to attend this pitiable Jesus as bridegroom?

One who does not hold the conviction to grasp the wish of Jesus—who came to this earth and sought to advance even to the throne of God—and to fight for this earth cannot become the bride of Jesus. Because the path of the cross that Jesus left behind remains, and the summit of the worldwide Golgotha remains, unless one holds the conviction that says, “Until I tear this down and make a level highway, I cannot meet him,” one has no relation whatever to Jesus.

Believe in Jesus and receive blessings?

Not at all. Jesus is not arranged to grant blessings. To believe in that way is to believe in Jesus and perish on a worldwide scale. Perishing comes not because of human beings nor because of the world, but because of God; so when God prospers, one prospers.

Now, even in faith, one must hold a right faith. Those who say they will believe in Jesus and receive blessings are all robbers.

Those who walk the way of the truth all walk the opposite path. This is not only of Christianity but of other religions as well. That being so, if Christianity is the church that has established the central principle of religion, then Christianity must be all the more so. Yet to believe in Jesus and ask only for blessings?

Such people are heretics. What is a heretic? They are the heretics, I say. That said, do not—do you—say to the pastors of the established churches, “Our teacher said you are heretics.” Know it only in your heart and do not say it. Then later, a condition is established for God to judge them.

What is this teacher of the Unification Church doing this work now for?

It is to resolve such problems. A worldwide and historical han is entangled, so it must be untangled. If there are thorn-thickets on the path by which the bridegroom comes, they must be cut away; if there are towering peaks and ridges, they must be cut down to lay a level highway.

The apostles who can do this are the bride; yet those who say they will be the bride try only to tear at and devour the flesh and blood of the bridegroom—how can that do?

What is the bridegroom before the bride?

He is a man of fidelity. A man of fidelity! A worldwide man of fidelity. You have heard the term “a woman of fidelity,” but you have not heard the term “a man of fidelity,” have you?

Jesus was a man of fidelity toward all the people who became his bride. He was a man among men, acknowledged by Heaven and earth, acknowledged by history, acknowledged by the age, acknowledged by present and future.

Do you suppose those who say they will be the bride before such a Jesus can become so without even establishing the noun “a woman of fidelity”?

For one who cannot even become a woman of fidelity to say she will be the bride of Jesus is the way of a robber. What would it be like if a woman living in a beggar’s cave called a great national president her husband?

If she said, “Oh! President Kennedy is my husband,” everyone would say she was mad.

Christians are playing just such a game. From a beggar-like position, they are saying to the prince of God, “Oh, bridegroom, come quickly.” Wrapped in a bundle of rags, they are saying to Jesus, “Come here and live with me.”

For this reason, the han-laden Jesus has, until now, been unable to resolve his han.

Since Jesus could not resolve his han, do you suppose the han of God, who sent Jesus, has been resolved?

has not. Since neither God nor Jesus could resolve their han, the things of Heaven and earth created by God have likewise been unable to resolve their han.

So this han of Heaven and earth must be resolved—but how is it to be resolved? The one who comes to resolve this han of the Fall is the Messiah.

In resolving the han, the han of all things must be resolved; the han of humanity, who could not become the true sons and daughters of God, must be resolved; and next, since the Holy Spirit has come forth doing the work of labor on this earth, lamenting, the han of the Holy Spirit must be resolved.

Thereafter, the Messiah’s own han must be resolved. Then, at last, the han of God must be resolved for Him. Only then is the mission of the Messiah ended.

The Purpose for Which God Sent Jesus

Jesus, too, when he came to this earth, came intending to resolve such a historical han. He came as God’s representative, bearing God’s heart as the substance of God’s historical hope.

When God sent Jesus, He sent him as the fruit of hope of four thousand years of history, so Jesus alone was the center of worldwide restoration.

For this reason, on the day when humanity centered on Jesus, all things centered on Jesus, the angels centered on Jesus, and the spiritual world centered on Jesus—that is, when everything is accomplished centered on Jesus—God could at last come to dwell together with human beings. This is the purpose for which Jesus was sent. Do you understand?

The purpose of God in sending Jesus to this earth was not to hold on to Jesus alone and live. To seek the entire world of the original creation, He sent Jesus, after four thousand years of laying a victorious foundation, as the subject who would seek the original world.

So the Jesus who came to earth had to resolve the han of all things, the han of humanity, the historical han, the han of the age, and even the han of the future, and to completely resolve even Jesus’ own han, set the world right, and then advance before God and become united with God’s love. This was Jesus’ highest purpose. It is the principle of creation that, before setting this world right, one cannot have a bond of love by which to stand before God.

So to attain that principled goal, Jesus came to this earth. But did he, having come to this earth, set the world right? Did he set humanity right? He did not. Did he set right all the sovereigns of this earth? He did not. He departed, leaving behind the noun “judgment,” without having set things right.

Such a Jesus, coming again to this earth as the King of kings, sets everything right, establishes the conditions of victory, settles the historical han, advances before the Father, and can say, “I will give this whole world to the Father”—that “time is the Last Days.”

So in the Last Days, Jesus too must be resurrected. It is written in the Bible, is it not: “Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead.

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.” (1 Cor. 15:20–23)

Jesus, too, must be resurrected. Everything is within the Bible. Jesus, who is the first-ripened fruit, must also be resurrected. Resurrected—resurrected how?

Casting off the han he held in Paradise, he must be resurrected, centered on God’s heart, as the King who governs the world, as the King who governs Heaven and earth in God’s stead.

He must look up to Heaven with his mind and look down at the earth with his body. Thus, his body and mind must become one, and he must advance even to the standard where he can govern the world with love. Because such a condition remains, Jesus must be resurrected.

Subsequently, those who belong to Christ—that is, the saints—must be resurrected. It says, “Then cometh the end, when He shall destroy all rule and all authority and power, and deliver up the kingdom to God the Father.” (1 Cor. 15:24) That time is the Last Days.

The Last Days are the time of destroying all things of Satan’s world. Do you understand?

What kind of time did I say the Last Days are?

You understand clearly, I say. The Last Days are the time when, having destroyed all things of this world, Satan’s world, and Satan’s nation, and having established the dominion God gave Adam and Eve at the creation—to govern all things—the descendants of Adam, centered on the one God, form one nation in which they can be connected to God’s heart and say, “God, receive it.”

The Jesus whom God sent could, on the inner standard, represent all things and could represent all people, and represent all sons and daughters. But did those sons and daughters become the sons and daughters of God? No. Because one cannot become the sons and daughters of God without resolving the lamentation of the created world He made, all things must be freed from the realm of lamentation.

Likewise, all people must be freed from the realm of lamentation, and even the realm of lamentation in the spiritual world of Heaven and earth must be completely freed. Satan must be completely brought to submission. Thereby one must say, “I offer this nation before God; receive it.

The nation Thou hast so longed for is this nation, so receive it, and set up over this nation the King of kings whom Thou hast wished to establish as its sovereign.”

Thus, when the nation is offered and the representative being God has longed for is set up as the sovereign of that nation, the whole world is unified. This is the right Christian view of faith.

The Mission of Christianity

But will it do for the Jesus who comes to carry out such a work to come riding on the clouds?

He must set the world right—will it do to come riding on the clouds? That is possible only in a dream. Open your eyes and think straight.

Then what is the wish of us who have become the bride today?

It is to build such a nation and welcome such a one as a bridegroom. That is the responsibility of today’s saints, who are the bride; so what are the saints doing now? To make this world into one world is the mission of today’s Christians.

Now John XXIII is proclaiming a worldwide Christian dialogue, is he not?

It is because the time has come. Is he not saying he will try to unite the Christianity of the world into one? At this time, when such an inner movement is unfolding, the religious people scattered throughout the whole world must unite and create a worldwide sovereignty that no single people or sovereign power can overcome.

Thereby, the sleeping United Nations must be made to come to its senses. As things now stand, if communism objects, the UN cannot budge, can it?

So, a religious United Nations must quickly be created. Subsequently, to set right the worlds of the left and the right and offer them before God is the mission of religious people. Therefore, it is only fitting that we who have become the bride of the Lord set the world right and offer it before God. Is that not so?

But what are Christians doing now?

They say, “Oh! Jesus is my Jesus; give him all to me.” These are all thieves. Is there any separate kind of thief? To take what is another’s and treat it as one’s own is to be a thief. Isn't one who handles another’s things as his own at will a thief? Is a robber anything special? A robber steals without regard to another’s circumstances. Is that not so?

Since the children of Satan are doing the work God means to do, are they not thieves?

They are thieves, undoubtedly. I will ask one thing: if there is anyone who says it is not so, stand up. Seeing that you all stay quiet, it seems you are all thieves. Yes—even your faces look just like thieves. (Everyone laughs.)

The Saint Who Stands at the Last Days Must Possess the Content of a Bride

You! In truth, I am thinking of nothing else now. Waking or sleeping, I think only of such things. You, too, must be that way. I regard this as the posture of a normal believer, and I have come forth consistently with such a posture.

Jesus, as the one who has become our bridegroom, is laboring before God, holding such a wish. So those who have become the bride must become one. They must become one.

In the world too, it is women who break up the family. Is that not so? When a woman becomes venomous and grows two tongues and goes about chattering, that household perishes. When those who have become the bride on this earth split into two camps, they perish. They perish. Look at Christianity today.

The denominations are splitting. The more they split, the more God departs.

Presbyterianism, too, first split into two factions, and from there another faction split off, did it not?

If it splits three times, God departs. To go to such a place to receive grace? However much you try to receive grace, only drowsiness will come.

The Christians scattered throughout the world today must think. When the Lord comes, he will set up the bride among brides and seek to entrust this world to her; what will they do then? The responsibility of the saints is to raise their voices, saying, “In our church there is no one fit to be the bride of the Lord.

Is there such a one in your church?

Let us together seek such a bride,” and thereby seek and establish a world-historic bride. Yet, with no thought of seeking the one to be the bride, they only hurl abuse—“Heresy,” “a cult,” “a horned church,” and so on.

I, too, have heard much such talk. There is even a saying that I grew fat on it; in truth, I am a person who can grow fat even on eating the thorns on which others stumble and fall.

Am I not a truly healthy person?

Is that not so? (Everyone laughs) You! Have you ever thought of this—how Jesus will be as the Last Days draw near? Do you suppose he will laugh with his mouth wide open?

Do you suppose he will say, “Ah, now that the Last Days are near, I can command and judge the whole world all at once, lop off whatever needs lopping, and dispatch this and that quickly—how delightful”? Have you thought of this?

Do you suppose Jesus will be so glad in the Last Days that his mouth will split to his ears? You leap about without even thinking of such things.

You must know that the nearer the Last Days come, the more Jesus comes down to the place of the supreme cross. Why? Because he must cross the crest of worldwide tribulation, the path of the supreme Golgotha, that the bride must undergo.

In the position of bridegroom, he must undergo even the tribulation the brides must undergo. The brides do not know it, but because such a crest must be crossed, Jesus, gazing at the gate of the Kingdom of Heaven, preparing for the Last Days and longing to welcome a victorious bride at that one time, has undergone suffering for two thousand years.

Have you thought of Jesus, who suffers more and more as the Last Days draw near?

When you think of this, seeing the phenomenon of brothers tearing at one another and fighting with drawn swords, you should be unable to sleep. To wish, in such a state, for the coming of the Lord as bridegroom is to invite a thunderbolt.

But since the family is like that, and the church is like that, and the nation is like that, and even the world is like that, what will become of this world? It must perish. It must perish. Was it not said that in the Last Days, nation will perish against nation?

All the signs of the Last Days are showing. At such a time, we Unification Church members, being within such a realm of ideology, must not sleep in comfort thinking we are all set.

Since Jesus is undergoing such suffering, we too, holding such a heart, must gaze upon the world, consider the mission we must carry out, and become people who, from a heart-based standpoint, on behalf of all the people, possess the content of a bride who can reach the heart of the bridegroom.

Only then can we remain before God as the bride of the Lord in the Last Days.

The Life Jesus Led Before He Unfolded the Will

Let us think once more about Jesus. Jesus, leaving behind the throne of Heaven and bearing the mission of restoration, came to the wretched place of this earth.

What did the Jesus who came thus have to do?

He had the responsibility to restore all things, the responsibility to restore all people, the responsibility to restore the servant (the angel), and also the responsibility to restore the children.

For this reason, he had to have, among parents, the heart of a worldwide parent; among brothers, the heart of the eldest brother, the heart of the elder among elders; he had to have the heart of a worldwide filial son and the heart of a worldwide loyal subject.

He also had to have the heart of a worldwide priest. And if there were forefathers who had been loyal before God on this earth and accumulated a record of goodness, he had to have a loyal heart not inferior even to theirs.

Therefore, Jesus, while living in Jerusalem, led a life such that even when eating a meal, he would say, “God, as I eat this meal, receive it as the three sacrificial offerings that were offered upon Abraham’s altar.”

You—do you know the Bible?

Do you know how to read the Bible? When one comes to understand it, that was Jesus’ heart. Why? Because Jesus was one who had to bear worldwide responsibility. Because he had the mission, through the Fall, having lost everything, to inwardly indemnify all the conditions of lamentation of all things and human beings within the realm of lamentation.

So Jesus had to lay such a foundation of historical living, unknown to others. Before unfolding the Will in the human world, he could not but live, unknown to others, in the inner world of the heart, centered on the background of history.

Though it may seem that for thirty years he laughed and lived carelessly in the world, his whole life was a sacrificial offering. All that he saw and heard was such that the Father could receive it. He lived from the standard that says, “My weeping is to form a bond with the Father’s suffering; my moving is to offer this earth, this evil world, to the Father as His own.” Thereby, he made it his absolute purpose to form a relationship with all things of this earth. You must know such things.

Waking or sleeping, Jesus held the heart of wishing that, through himself, the sins of all people might be atoned. Even when he slept, he went to his bed holding the heart of wishing that the sins of all people might be atoned.

In the quiet night unknown to others, he would awake and rise and carry out a priestly mission, praying and offering sacrifice alone on behalf of all the sleeping people. He led a life of hidden prayer, saying, “Father, receive me as a single substance to indemnify the conditions of cosmic han.”

What is it that God lost?

God lost the servant. He also lost all his things and the children. So Jesus had to have a period of preparation, saying, “Receive it before God as something good in place of all things,” and after that a period of serving as a servant before God and a period of showing filial devotion as a son.

Yet Jesus left behind the noun “filial son” but could not leave behind the noun “loyal subject.” Standing in the position of the archangel of this world, he had to set the world right and advance to the position of God’s son.

Before this earth, in the position of the archangel, he had to be loyal, and in the position of God’s child, he had to be filial. That is, he had to become God’s one and only son and had to become the only loyal subject.

Therefore, if there are throngs today who say they will become the bride on this earth, they must first bring to submission the Satan that remains on the earth.

That is fulfilling the mission of the servant. Thereby, connected with Jesus, who fulfilled the mission of the Son, they must advance even to the throne of God.

Looking at Jesus’ life, he placed the value of all things at the infinite and strove to release the han of all things. He also, in the position of a servant, lived the life of a servant of servants. And, holding the mission of a son, he carried out the mission of a son among sons.

Thus, though he lived a brief life course of just over thirty years, during that life he staked the whole han of restoration upon his single self, established the conditions of indemnity, and, by going as far as the summit of Golgotha, brought Satan to submission. Yet the substantial world was not restored within Jesus’ realm of ideology.

Jesus established only the ideal of spiritual restoration. Thus, having departed, leaving behind the noun “Second Advent,” he has, for two thousand years until now, been coming forth searching for that substantial world.

The Three-Year Period of Jesus’ Public Ministry

What work did Jesus have to do during the three years of his public ministry?

In the position of a servant, he had to restore from the individual through the family, tribe, people, nation, world, and to the Cosmos.

Moreover, in the position of a child, he had to transition from the individual to the world. He also, holding the heart of a parent, had to restore it even to the world.

So what did Jesus do while he lived?

Wearing the body of a servant, on behalf of the son, he carried out the work of seeking the parent.

During the three-year course of public ministry, the three-year period of preparation, he ran as a servant. Because he had to fight Satan as a servant. Since the archangel had violated Heaven’s law—the heavenly law—he had to bring the angel to submission and restore the position of the archangel. Because the archangel betrayed God as a servant, the three-year course of public ministry was the period of preparation to restore the position of the betraying archangel.

Through this three-year period of preparation, standing as the substance who restored the position of the archangel, he had to carry out the responsibility of a son.

What did he have to do after that?

In the position of the victorious archangel, he had to establish Eve on Heaven’s side—that is, the bride—and establish the standard of restoration. Thereby, he had to stand in the position of a son. If there is a son of God, there must also be a daughter.

So the man—that is, the bridegroom in the position of Adam, Jesus—comes forth gazing toward the woman, the bride in the position of Eve. Do you understand? Because everything must be indemnified within one generation.

Thus, Jesus had to consummate the servant-level mission of the archangel during the three-year period of preparation and consummate the mission of a child. In consummating the mission of a child, one must make an environment in which one can form a bond with brothers and establish a footing of brotherhood.

Thereby, centered on that footing, one must rise even to the position of a parent. For Jesus to advance to the position of a parent, there must be a bridegroom and a bride. Thereby, the bridegroom and bride, as unfallen human ancestors, must become the True Parents of humanity.

Here, the one who becomes the True Father is Jesus. To stand as the True Father of humanity on this earth, there must be a True Mother. But Jesus, though he consummated the mission of a son, could not find the bride who was to become the True Mother.

So he departed, leaving behind only a spiritual bond of parenthood. Do you understand?

So Jesus, as bridegroom, represented Heaven, and the Holy Spirit, as bride, represented the earth, and they established the standard of spiritual parents.

Originally, husband and wife ought to be formed substantially on a horizontal plane. And this, too, was the purpose Jesus was originally to accomplish. But because it was accomplished only spiritually, the spiritual world and the physical world could not become one.

Thus, the bridegroom Jesus ascended to Heaven, and the bride, the Holy Spirit, descended to the earth and is doing the work of again making the spiritual world and the physical world one. That is why all humanity of the world today is writhing within the realm of the spiritual and physical worlds. Do you understand?

The humanity of the world knows neither the motive nor the purpose of this. So they are just like a child not yet born from the mother’s womb.

Do you understand? You, blinking your eyes now, having lived through all sorts of antics, remain within a realm like that of an infant not yet born from the womb of the True Parents. For this reason, people do not know how to live their lives. They do not know.

The Human Being Who Must Be Reborn

Now, hereafter, the day will come when humanity is born anew; that time is the worldwide Last Days. Sons and daughters are born simultaneously with childbirth.

But for sons and daughters to be born, the things of Heaven and earth must have entered within God’s realm.

Just as before creating man, God created all things of Heaven and earth, so before the true children are born, the outer Heaven and earth must take form, and, without fail, an outer world that God can govern must be formed. For this reason, all the present currents of thought in the world are heading toward one world.

They are heading toward the supreme ideal world, the world centered on the ideal of the Kingdom of Heaven, the world that can sing of peace and unity and sing of happiness and love.

In the fallen human world—and even among the advanced nations such as America—much confusion is unfolding, centered on teenagers, is it not? That is because Adam and Eve fell within the realm of their teens.

How will God now give birth to the true children?

What kind of human being will He give them birth to?

He will give them birth as human beings who know God’s love. The human beings of the past fell without knowing God’s love, but when, today, having passed through the history of restoration, He gives birth at the Last Days to worldwide sons and daughters, He gives them birth as sons and daughters who know God’s love.

When sons and daughters who know God’s love are born, the world that unfolds centered on those sons and daughters becomes the world of those sons and daughters, and so at last God’s nation, God’s world, is realized. Do you understand what I mean?

I spoke just now of God’s love, but you, being now within the womb, have not tasted God’s milk. It means you cannot see God’s face.

Since you have not seen the parents’ faces, it is just like living within the womb. The human beings of today are placed in such circumstances. So one must be reborn.

What is it that we human beings need today?

The spiritual providence of salvation has been consummated, and spiritually you have been reborn and have taken the spiritual milk, but that alone will not do. Spirit and flesh must be reborn simultaneously.

The Lord who is to come hereafter comes as the True Parents. He comes as the father of humanity wearing a body, and as the bridegroom wearing a body, he comes upon this earth and, from among human beings wearing bodies, seeks the bride and establishes her as the mother.

Only then do they at last become unfallen True Parents. Because Adam and Eve, who ought not to have fallen, fell, the True Parents were lost; so the human beings of today have fallen parents but do not possess unfallen True Parents.

For this reason, the one who comes, having passed through the providence of restoration, to wear a body and consummate the mission of the True Parents, is the returning Lord. Do you understand?

Put this way, do you understand?

What mission must the Lord, who comes bearing the historical truth, carry out? Since Jesus laid the foundation of spiritual salvation, upon that foundation he must consummate what was left unconsummated—that he could not give birth to sons and daughters perfect in spirit and flesh.

The Jesus who came to this earth died on the summit of Golgotha.

So how does the Lord who comes come?

He starts from Golgotha. The Jesus who went the path of death over the Golgotha that hundreds of millions of humanity opposed comes again as the resurrected holy body (聖體). By his death, he crossed over Golgotha, yet he won an eternal victory.

So he comes again. Is that not so? He is resurrected and comes seeking again, is he not? The Jesus who crossed over the summit of Golgotha comes, when he comes again, just as he went.

Since he went by the cross, he comes by the cross.

The Mission Unification Church Members Must Carry Out in the Last Days

The organization that has set out bearing such a cross is the Unification Church. An organization greater than the Unification Church may yet appear. But any organization, whatever it may be, that means to carry out such a mission must, without fail, be rejected.

You—when you walk the path of faith, your household members oppose you, do they not?

The Bible said that one’s own household members are one’s enemies. Even a beloved husband opposes you, saying, “Do not go, unless you would have me beat you to death”; parents say, “Do not go”; brothers say, “Do not go.” All of them oppose. They oppose fiercely. They even say they will stab you to death with a knife. From such a place, one must start.

Since Jesus died pierced by a spear, one must start from there. Subsequently, one must cross even the national Golgotha and the worldwide Golgotha. Thereby, one must lay the path.

Just as Jesus, with a heart representing the Cosmos, crossed over Golgotha for the restoration of all things, the restoration of the servant, the restoration of the children, and the restoration of the parents, one must cross over Golgotha.

Since the hope Jesus brought was shattered at Golgotha, one must be victorious at Golgotha. When Jesus’ hope was shattered, all things were shattered, the family was shattered, and the tribe, the people, and the Cosmos were shattered.

To be struck is to win. One must endure. One must endure. One cannot go forth on a national scale all at once. On the path of Golgotha, there are the individual Golgotha, the familial Golgotha, the tribal Golgotha, the national Golgotha, and the worldwide Golgotha.

First, one must without fail cross at least up to the standard of the tribal Golgotha. One must go up to the standard of formation, growth, and completion. To cross this Golgotha is the mission that our Unification Church must take charge of today.

The period in which we must fight for this is this three-year period. Do you understand?

When we come to fight on this summit of Golgotha, we must not live for our own sake. Waking or sleeping or eating—everything, the whole of it, must be done for that. Even the shedding of tears must be shed for that.

When Jesus was about to bear the cross, he shed tears, saying, “Abba, Father! If it be possible, let this cup pass from me,” did he not?

Why did he do so?

It was because he wept, thinking that if he himself went such a path, all the saints who followed him would also go such a path. Jesus prayed concerning salvation. But the Lord who comes prays concerning reality. Do you understand what I mean? He prays concerning reality, praying until it pierces the bone.

You must undergo the indignation and bitterness the Lord underwent. You must let not only yourself but also your children taste such suffering and grudge. You must not let not only your family but even your relatives taste such suffering. You must let not only the family but even your tribe feel such suffering.

You must let even the people feel such suffering. You must know that until then, the path of the cross that the Lord who comes must walk remains. This is not my word. It is the Word of God. Pray, and see whether it is true or not.

Then who is more pitiable?

Jesus, anxious over the cross of suffering, shed tears and prayed that, if possible, this cup might pass from him. But the Lord who comes must offer a heart-rending prayer concerning the children who, in reality, suffer and groan on the course of the cross: “If it be at all possible, let the cup of the cross pass from them.”

The Prayer We Must Offer

When the children cannot fulfill their responsibility, one must feel the agony and suffering of being unable to pray even when one wishes to.

The Lord who comes has, from such a standpoint, the mission of crossing the Golgotha from the individual to the people, the nation, and the world. You must know that the individual course of the cross, the familial course of the cross, the tribal course of the cross, and the national course of the cross remain.

Each time you undergo such suffering, what resolve must you make? You must hold a heart that can say, “I have fought my way through like this. I will walk even the path Jesus walked as a servant. I will walk even the path Jesus left unfinished and unwalked as a son. Come to me and resolve the han that Jesus could not resolve upon the cross.”

Before Jesus, who is the bridegroom, you must establish a standard by which you can say that you have consummated the responsibility you must carry out as the bride.

Not a standard that your single self alone can acknowledge, but a standard that the family, the people, the nation, the world, and the cosmos—even God—can acknowledge.

Only those who go forward holding such content can become the sons and daughters of God. Do you understand?

For this reason, there is a three-year period in the Unification Church. I have, until now, put you through hardship. But it is not my heart’s wish to put you through hardship.

Jesus prayed with future hope in view, but we Unification Church members today must pray with reality in view. We must establish a standard of shedding tears in reality and establish a standard of having lived representing the family.

Since it is the path God walks, we must establish a standard of representing the world, centered on the people, and carry out the mission of atoning for the sins of the people of the world.

For this reason, you are being made to take part in a period of familial tribulation, made to take part in a period of national tribulation, made to take part in a period of worldwide tribulation, and thereby to undergo suffering.

So what must be done?

One cannot but undergo suffering. Otherwise, one falls away. Do you understand? The Self That Must Go Forward