This is an unofficial English translation prepared for tplegacy.net. It has not been reviewed or authorized by FFWPU or any official Unification Movement publishing body.
Former Headquarters Church.
John 14:1–6
Prayer
Although the history has passed, in this hour we hope that we may face and encounter the anxious figure of Jesus, who appeared before the people as one whose body would soon be hung upon the cross. How sorrowful must He have been, how indignant, how lonely, how unjustly aggrieved?
Among the chosen people of Israel at that time, many said they were for Heaven and upheld Heaven; yet we know the grievous fact that there was not one who, prostrating before the knees of Jesus—who walked the final path, the path of death, to vanish like the dew for the sake of Heaven—would even grasp the hem of His robe and shed tears.
On that han-filled day, not only the multitudes of ignorant humankind upon the earth but even the Israelite people whom the Father had chosen on the foundation of the blood-stained altars, weaving the bloody history of four thousand years, did not realize the fact that, in that one hour, a han was bound up which could not be released though one wept and wept; and on the contrary, they pressed and drove out Jesus, who was bearing an unjustly aggrieved heart and concerned about the path He must walk.
We earnestly beseech You: please let us know that this indignant fact, this han pierced into bone and flesh, remains as a real and present struggle which we today must certainly resolve, even if we should die ten million times.
He came for their sake, but they drove Him out and nailed Him to the cross. Such a multitude as could not be forgiven before the heavenly law—a multitude worthy of entering even the unquenchable sulfurous fire amid the fires of hell—yet we are still the unworthy figures who cannot dare lift our heads before the Father, who, even crossing the path of suffering, passing through the path of the cross, and traversing the bloody historical course of continuous eras and centuries, has labored to seek and to gather the remaining company.
We have come to know that, in seeking Heaven, one cannot lift one's own figure to boast of it; we have realized that the one who would offer loyalty for the sake of Heaven must cast aside all things, sacrifice all things, and forget himself. We who have gathered here—for whose sake have we come? Let us not be ones who, even in believing, believe for our own sake.
Setting the two letters of “faith” before us, let us be those who know that its purpose, too, is not for our own sake but for the Father's sake, for the Lord's sake, for the sake of the people, of heaven, and of earth.
In the past, we believed for the sake of the salvation of our individual selves, but now grant that we may believe for the sake of the greater providential history of the salvation of the cosmos. Let us not forget that Jesus fought all His life with such a Heart, all His life lived together with the Father, and spoke together with the Father.
Today we stand in a confused era, changing rapidly toward the historic conclusion, yet we wish that our center may be offered up as the Father's own. We wish to offer up all that we have as the Father's, yet we cannot help but be anxious lest we be unfit for the Father to receive.
This day, too, confessing before the Father that we are insufficient, we have gathered, longing for the Father's hand of mercy, the Heart of love, and the bosom of the Father; therefore, in this one hour, grant that we may feel the Father's infinite love, which we have not felt upon the earth, and earnestly we beseech You, grant the gift by which, embraced in the Father's bosom, we may eternally sing of the Father's will and praise the bond with the Father.
Many have bowed their heads before the Father's throne—Father, what shall I say? Above many words, let only that heart be drawn forth which can deepen the bond with You.
Earnestly we beseech You; grant that an earnest revolution of mind may arise, by which, repenting of our past and realizing today's insufficiency, longing for one figure of original nature whom the Father seeks and seeks to establish, we may cry out toward Heaven and stand forth.
Let the heart of the one who delivers and the heart of the one who receives become one. Grant that we may not come before this place bearing anything of the world, but that, returning to the heart of a little child, moved before the Father's gift of command, our bones and flesh may be molded anew in this hour. Earnestly, we beseech You.
In this hour as well, you know that lonely family members are gathered in many places throughout South Korea, longing to pour out their sorrowful hearts before the Father; therefore, in this hour, bestow the same gift upon them. And likewise, we believe that You know that across the distant seas, many brothers, in environments of persecution and trial, are anxious and concerned for the will in this hour; therefore, protect them.
We who fight, holding the will as our standard—until we reach that standard, until we become victors before the Father—grant that we may unite as one heart, one situation, and one family.
Asking that the Father may govern all and that the entirety of us may be established as the Father's own, I have offered all words in the name of the Lord. Amen.
God's Providence of Salvation to Establish the Truth upon This Earth
Of all that exists upon the earth, there is nothing that did not begin from the truth. Because God is true, all that has come through His hand is true.
Since all that exists is true, the purpose for which this universe exists, too, cannot but be true.
Before the true Master who created the world of true existence—the Creator—all created things were to exist eternally as true things. Yet though the Creator remained the true One, all created beings have lost the value of the true. This is a fact that cannot be denied, whether viewed historically or in terms of the environment.
Since they began from the true, they ought to have become a heaven and earth that eternally sang of the value of the true. Had they become such a heaven and earth, then today, regardless of what aspect of human life one examined, there would be nothing not bound to the truth. Yet because human life is not so, there is no greater grief than this and no greater anxiety than this.
Centering upon the value of the true before the Subject of the true, transcending time and eternally able to boast of one's own value of existence—though there be the difference of the whole and of the individual, in value there can be found no difference; had it become such a world, we cannot deny the fact that all existing beings today, even if they would not, must remain in a place of happiness.
Yet that world in which dwells the most true One, the most true Master, remains only as our hope; therefore, the path of human life is one in which we must again seek such a world and return to that most true One.
What, then, is the truth?
The truth is that which, from the day it began, can have no end. As long as the truth exists, for all eternity, transcending temporality and spatiality, its value shines. Yet today, we have neither met nor felt the truth that holds such value.
If there is a Creator, He must be at work to bring back humankind, in our living environment, into a true world of goodness in which we can eternally rejoice together with the value of the true.
This is what is called the providence of salvation, and it is the will of God, who would send the Savior to save these countless multitudes of created beings.
The truth is such that not only is its very existence true, but every phenomenon and every working that arises from it is also true. You cannot deny that we human beings have a consciousness of existence. Had we become true human beings even in this consciousness of existence, we should not be able to lament even if we wished to.
Through what, then, does lamentation arise? Looking toward the highest purpose, longing for the highest value, when in our living environment that hope is not fulfilled, grief arises, and suffering arises.
If our human life had set out from a place where the standard of the true that can transcend such suffering—the standard of the true that can drive away any suffering—was completely established, the two letters of “suffering” would not display the slightest power.
Before an existence that solemnly stands upon the value of the true principle of heavenly law, suffering can manifest no power at all. The reason that today we seek the truth yet cannot live with the truth is that humankind has fallen.
If, then, we ourselves seek the truth in our societal environment today, what kind of truth are we seeking?
We are seeking the truth of the body. Going further, we are seeking the truth of the world of the mind. Because our body and our mind hold a bond by which they can be connected with the greater cosmic ideal, our body and our mind are seeking a true bond. They are seeking a true environment and a true universe.
Unless I am true, I cannot perceive that which is true. However much the other party may appear to bear true value, unless I possess at least a small essence by which I can be true, I cannot weigh it.
Therefore, to seek the truth, we are establishing our conscience and aligning ourselves with the direction of human relationships and morality. This is the historical reality.
When my mind stands in a true position by which it can weigh the true, and when my body lives centering on the true in the living environment, from there the true forms a bond with me, through me forms a bond with the environment, and through the environment can form a bond even with this earth and the heavenly realm.
The Path That Seeks the True Through All Things and Through Substance
When you reflect upon yourselves, you will admit that your bodies are not true and that your minds are not true.
If so, what is needed for us?
What is needed is something that can prove the body to be true and something that can prove the mind to be true. This is not resolved within oneself. Unless a relative standard of the true appears, the true of my body cannot be explained, and the true of my mind cannot be explained.
Therefore, we fallen human beings cannot explain the true within ourselves; rather, if there is some true Absolute Being, we must explain the true through the principled standard of that Absolute Being and clarify the position of the true human being.
What has humankind been seeking until now, passing through the historical course and through era after era? It has been seeking the true I, the true nation, the true world, and the true heaven and earth. Then, where shall the standard of the “true I” be found? In philosophy? In science? In religion? No. We cannot deny the fact that, without passing through the bond by which the root of the mind can be reached, the bond of the true cannot be testified to.
If God exists, and if He is conducting the providence of salvation to lead human beings who have fallen into a position of not-trueness into the world of the ideal of the true, then that God must appear before us in the figure of the true.
Such a God is needed for us. Only when such a God appears before us can our body and mind, through the daily emotions, form a bond with Him. Therefore, God has come seeking us, fallen human beings, in the figure of truth. We cannot deny this fact.
In the historical course or in the course of faith up to the present, in what kind of position have the prophets and forerunners come and gone?
They are the ones who came and went in the position of the true body of Heaven, in the position of the true mind of Heaven, in the course of seeking the true I.
Unless one who possesses a true body and mind comes seeking us human beings—through daily life, through mind, through heart—there would be no way for us today to find the true bond.
In the era of the Old Testament, God came seeking humankind through true things. Setting apart true things as offerings, He came seeking us human beings.
What sort of thing is the true thing?
This thing is something of the fallen world, but it is a sanctified thing in which God can intervene. Through that true thing, God formed a relationship with humankind.
Here, all created things were mobilized. God sought to form a bond with humankind through animals, plants, minerals—every kind of thing set apart on the side of goodness—that is, through the condition of the offering. People living in such an era had to become one with the true offering. Such an era is what is called the era of the Old Testament.
While the human beings, who bore the fate of the Fall and who must seek the bond of true value, did not even dream of it, God labored to enable them, through true things, to form the bond of true value.
Originally, human beings should have dominion over all things. They should not stand in the position of having to form a bond with God through created things—that is, through matter.
Therefore, passing beyond the Old Testament era in which one could form a bond through matter, in welcoming a time when one can form the bond through substance, one must be raised certainly. This is the messianic thought—the messianic thought among the chosen people of Israel.
What kind of person is this Messiah?
He is the One who appears before fallen humankind, before this earthly humanity worthy of death, bearing the bond of unfallen true parents. It cannot but be a grateful gift. The Savior in whom you believe is not some vague Savior.
The Eternally Unchanging Highest Goodness
The fallen human beings upon this earth have not formed the lineal bond of true parents. For such humankind who could not be born as the children of true parents, who have lost true parents, what is the most precious gift?
Before pitiable human beings, like orphans who have lost their parents, there is no more precious gift than to be sent by parents. It is Christianity that awaits such a gift.
What is the purpose of establishing the Savior?
Because we are fallen humankind, we are a clan that has lost true parents. Having lost true parents, we are a multitude that has not become true children. The true parents and the true children, whom God sought to establish at the time of creation as the ideal of the highest goodness, were all shattered; yet God says that, even by passing through the historical course of labor, the course of countless adversities and countless sufferings, He shall again establish the bond of true parents.
At the same time, He shall establish the bond of true children, of true husband and wife, of true brothers, of true nation, of true world, of true humankind, of true cosmos. God does not, from the very first, enter into the heart of fallen human beings and work there; rather, from far away, from a relative position, He connects all things to fallen humankind, connects the true Son to them, and at last enters into the heart of human beings, saying that He shall become the Father of Heart.
This is the final destination of the providence of salvation.
However outstanding and excellent one may consider oneself upon this earth today, no one—without exception—has formed a relationship with the absolute principle of the truth, which God seeks and which He desires to establish as the great ideal of heaven and earth. You must publicly acknowledge this.
Then, to save this fallen humankind—like pitiable orphans who have lost their parents, like widows who have lost their husbands—through what bond did God appear? He appeared not with the bond of situation but with the bond of heart. Not with the bond of hope, but with the bond of the heart of daily life.
After establishing a figure that holds unfallen, absolute value, God seeks, through that One, to form a relationship with all things, with the body and mind and heart of humankind. Unless such an existence appears, the complete salvation of humankind cannot be established.
What is the purpose of faith?
It is, centering upon the good body, mind, and heart, to advance to the worldwide stage and, going further, to the cosmic stage where the value of goodness can be sung.
Why do people revere the great historical figures and forerunners?
It is to pattern themselves after them and form a bond with them. To form a bond in daily life, to form a bond in body and mind, to form a bond with their ideal. And not only to form a bond, but also to become one with them and live together with them.
This is the figure of those who have believed in any teaching and the figure of those who have followed any “-ism” until now.
If you, who are living in today's reality, examine yourselves coolly and critically, in what position do you stand? God, while we did not know, has caused us to form a bond with all things and has caused us to be able to form a bond with His son. Yet despite this, have you yourselves formed such a relationship?
Are you aware of the fact that the absolute standard that God has established is sweeping through your daily life, sweeping through your mind? If you do not know, you must repent. You must repent. Among sinners, there is no greater sinner than this.
The history that began from the individual has spread to the world—where shall it conclude? If there is the Absolute Being, that is, the principal substance of the highest goodness, then it shall move until humankind forms an eternally unchanging bond with the Absolute Being, that is, with that principal substance. The highest goodness is eternally unchanging. There is no further development.
When we look at the world today, peoples of different daily emotions are gradually coming to share daily emotions in common. And the many ways (道) of differing ideals are advancing in the direction of sharing the ideal in common. The root is one.
Toward this absolute single value, history is in total advance. Therefore, we must understand that the value manifested in present reality is no more than a relative value manifested by the principle by which one can pass through the Creator's view of purpose.
The True Father and the True Children
We have said, “The True Father and the Children”; here, you must consider what kind of One the true Father is and what kind of beings the true children are.
What kind of One is the true Father, and what kind of beings are the true children?
The true Father is the One who, in the historical course, has suffered infinitely to seek true sons and daughters. He is the One who has suffered greater pain than anyone in the historical course of thousands of years, who was beheaded and killed for the sake of goodness. Because He is not a principal subject of an era but a principal subject of history, He has come bearing historical grief. He has come bearing historical suffering and historical unjust grief.
God, to resolve the suffering and unjust grief of this earth, sent one Savior to form all heavenly bonds with humankind. Yet that One who came to this earth bearing such a mission was driven onto the cross by human beings. He went to His death.
What kind of One is the Jesus who went to His death?
He is the One who came as the True Father with whom we must eternally form a bond.
Though Jesus died upon the cross, when He comes again seeking you from the fallen world, He does not come bearing the thought, “I bore the cross for your sake.” He comes again seeking you with a mind that loves us pitiable human beings.
What kind of One is the true Father?
Though He bears, pierced into Him, a han of the cross that cannot be released even after hundreds of millions of years, though He has suffered for our sake and stood in unjustly aggrieved positions for our sake, when He sees us shedding tears in pitiable places, He does not show this; rather, He sheds tears for us pitiable ones and seeks to walk the path of suffering ahead of us. Such a One is our Father.
Therefore, even in the Last Days when He carries out the judgment, God does not judge by setting up the historical han of the convolutions in which He was struck, persecuted, unjustly aggrieved, and put to death for the sake of human beings upon this earth. He is not a God who judges, holding up the content of His past labor; rather, you must understand that He is a God who, with a Heart of love greater than that suffering, faces humankind and, with a Heart of love greater than the mind that feels unjust grief and sorrow, faces humankind and judges.
Does He cast down a thunderbolt of fire and kill all? By no means. Such a God is not needed by us. You must clearly understand this.
What kind of One is our true Father?
He is the One who, even being struck a thousand or ten thousand times by His children, does not remember it. Because He is the principal subject of such a Heart, He can forgive us who were born as a clan of the six-thousand-year history of sin. Such a One is our Father.
Then what kind of person is one who walks the true way?
The one who can attend to the true Father is the true seeker of the way. What kind of place is the heavenly kingdom? It is a place where the word “sin” cannot be remembered. Therefore, the one who has sinned cannot go there.
How is the world of today?
Even between brothers, between husband and wife, between parent and child—if one has done a small thing for the other, one says, “I did this much for you, so should you not do this much for me?” —and seeks to remember it eternally. We must tear down such walls.
If, in this real world, some would open the gate of heaven and possess the name of children to attend the heavenly Father, they must pattern themselves after the Father's mind in which love wells up even when struck a thousand or ten thousand times.
We must become individuals who, thinking of the bond with God, can step over and cross every difficulty of our own. The place to which such people go shall be the world of goodness.
What kind of place is the fallen world?
It is a place where one has done one labor and demands ten in return. Going on so, one perishes. The world of evil is the place where there dwell those who, having helped someone once, having shed one drop of blood for someone, seek to draw upon it for hundreds of millions of years. Here lies the difference between the world of goodness and the world of evil.
Our Father, in the long historical course of six thousand years, has passed through unspeakable convolutions, yet He does not remember them and comes seeking us.
When we are naked and hungry and trembling, He, not remembering the fact that we are a clan that has betrayed Heaven a thousand and ten thousand times, but remembering only the bond He gave to the original human being, halts His footsteps and sheds tears—such a One is our Father.
You all—is it not so even in the world?
Even though a beloved child leaves the parent's side and goes about doing every kind of wicked thing, the parent's mind that thinks of that child grows all the more anxious.
If they are parents who hold true love, before raising a fist against the child, they will hold him fast and weep aloud. Such parents will certainly bring that child to repentance. The parent who, pierced by such a heart, faces the child shall certainly make even the most ignorant and stone-hearted child into a good child.
Why? Because God is so. Because God has such a mind, however evil this earth may be, He can seek and establish good sons and daughters in the world. The iron rule is so.
Were there a hundred million kinds of sin, if we attend as Father, one who, with the mind of love going first, does not remember the sins, how happy we should be! For a fallen human being, even to meet such a Father once would be without regret.
The Path to the Encounter with True Parents
You all—look at the history of Israel. How great a band of villains were the people of Israel! Look at the Bible.
How greatly did God admonish them! He admonished them in this way, and they would not listen; He admonished them in that way, and they would not listen. In the end, He admonished them while striking that clan, but they did not realize. God's lifting of the rod is not to kill.
The purpose of lifting the rod is to make it alive. God has worked so. And so He has come the long course of six thousand years up to today.
What kind of time, then, is this present era?
This era is the Last Days, when one must form a bond with all things and form a bond with the environment.
In Christianity, the Lord is called the bridegroom and the believers are called the bride. You who wish to become the bride! What kind of life must you live? You must not fail to know the Heart of the Lord who comes seeking the bride.
You long for the Lord who shall come in the Last Days; yet, passing through the two-thousand-year historical course, the Lord has regarded each day as the Last Days. Such a time shall come, and even now He has said it is that time.
You long, in the Last Days, to stand before the Lord as a bride and receive glory.
Yet that does not happen easily. Jesus, upon this earth, did not lose for one moment the hope of meeting the bride, the earnest standard of heart toward the bride. This is the mind of the bridegroom. There may be among you some who say, “I have believed in Jesus for decades,” but in those decades, how truly did you long for Jesus?
And how much did you prepare to attend to the Jesus who shall come?
If the Last Days come, in those Last Days a value must be established, certainly centered upon the eternal highest goodness. That value must appear as a cosmic value.
When does it appear as such a value?
It is when the True Father and the true children meet. Nothing else. It is when the True Father and the true sons and daughters meet. Such a time shall certainly come.
The True Father and the true sons and daughters do not come about by remaining still. They must be sought. God must certainly carry out such a history. Why? Because it is to bring the world to its conclusion as one world.
If God is the kernel that seeks to accomplish a world of such purpose, then we must certainly make a world in which God and the entirety of heaven and earth are united and, under the name of "eternal," can pass through the daily emotions with the same value.
Then how must you go to reach the world of such a purpose?
God is calling us with the Word, so we must go according to that Word. What is the path by which the true Parent and the true children can meet? It is to pass through the true Word. That Word is the Father's Word. Without knowing the Father's Word, one cannot become His child.
If the Father's Word is an absolute and true Word, then though one hears the same Word for a thousand years and ten thousand years, one does not weary of it. There is no end. We must seek such a Word.
That Word is not such that, just because it fits some logical condition, that is the end of it. It is a great principle, yet it is a Word that, hearing and hearing again and hearing for all eternity, can become life. We must seek such a Word.
The Word of the parent who loves is eternal. It transcends time and space.
Therefore, the Word of God transcends history. It transcends eras. It transcends -isms. It transcends thoughts. So it is more precious than the word of anyone. This Word, whether one hears it by night or by day, whether one sees it by night or by day, flows infinitely into your mind. We must seek such a Word.
In Christianity today, they say that this Word is the Bible. Yet the Bible is given in parable and symbol. It is not the word that the true Father has spoken to true children.
Why was this so?
Because on this earth where we live, there is the enemy Satan. Human beings have fallen and have become hopeless. They do not even know whether God exists or not.
Even now, in the twentieth century, how many cry out that God does not exist?
You must understand that God could not speak even one word as Father to fallen humankind—to those who do not know the Father as Father, who, though they are children, do not know themselves to be children—by which the Heart could be communicated. He could not speak even one word. Even when He spoke, He did so by signs of the eyes or by things of the world.
The Children Who Can Move the Parent
If it is the word of the true Father, its content must be such that it can pass through eternity, and it must be able to transcend our living environment. The evil living environment cannot swallow up the true word.
If it is the Father's true word, you must understand that nothing in the evil world can restrain that word.
A mind must be stirred up that can, with the word, cross over and over the evil environment; because this has not been possible, today, worldwide Christianity has entered into a state of confusion.
Then where would the place be in which the Father, who comes with a mind of love, can speak true words to His beloved children? Such a place must certainly exist somewhere. We must seek that place out.
If we should find such a place and hear the word, what would it be like?
Though heard a thousand times, it would be new. Its content would be such that it can pass through eternity by the value of true goodness. If you cannot find such a Word, you cannot become true children.
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me.” In my view, I would have liked it had he added one more noun there—"love"—saying, "I am the way, the truth, the life, and love…”
Since he said that no one can go to the Father except through him, what becomes the issue in passing through the Word is the principal substance of the Word.
What is needed is the very One who speaks the Word. Who is that very One? It is the True Father. To stand in the position of true children before this True Father, one must seek and enter into the true Word.
In seeking the True Parents, have you felt the true Parents' Word, the value of the true Word that binds you with eternal value?
If you have not felt it, even when the Father comes who speaks the Word of true value, you will not know it. To clearly know the value of such a true Word, you must pray with your mind.
The human beings upon this earth must seek the true Father's Word. They must seek the true Father's Word, the true Word. That Word is a Word that moves the Heart of Jesus and, likewise, a Word that moves the Heart of God, who has conducted the providence for six thousand years.
When that Word comes forth upon this earth, it shall illumine the convoluted history of six thousand years; it shall illumine God's indignation, God's unjust grief, and God's grievance. So God's Heart cannot but be moved.
You all, is it not so?
If a child moves from his parents, his demands and wishes will not be met. He must speak of the parents' history, knowing how the parent labored and suffered for the child's sake—feeling the parent's suffering as his suffering, the parent's labor as his labor. Such a child moves the parent.
The parent who faces such a child shall feel his bosom break open. He shall say, “Yes, my son!” God is the same. The same.
We must now make explode, layer by layer, the han buried deep within God's bosom. We must know in detail the labor with which the Father has come seeking us. So when we say, “Father, who labored thus and so to seek me!” — At that one word, God shall say, “Oh, my beloved son!” God is such a God.
Many are those who weep looking at the Bible and weep clinging to the cross, but none weep embracing the Father's mind. Such are most of the Christian believers of this earth. But we must not weep clinging to the cross; we must weep clinging to the Father's mind, who, even crossing over the cross, had to bear and to love. Such a one goes to heaven. The cross does not save.
You must understand that what saves is the power of Jesus's love, which could overcome the cross. This is not a denial of the cross.
The Children Who Understand the Parents' Heart
How shall we look at the Bible today?
We must look at it from the heart. When we pray, pierced deeply by grace, we can know the Heart of Heaven. Therefore, pierced by an indignant and sorrowful mind, we must wail aloud: “Father! What is the han pierced into you? What is your han in weaving the history of the Bible up to now?”
What is the han? Do you think God rejoiced when Adam and Eve fell?
If He were such a God, we should grab Him by the lapels and fight, saying, “Are You, God?” But God has han. He has han by reason of the Fall. There is content of unspeakable convolution and han.
What sort of figure is the God who has come forth in agitation and seeking to save humankind? It is a sorrowful figure. Even the lowest beggar upon this earth is better off than God. God has become so.
If God, sitting upon His throne and commanding all things of heaven and earth, could have all things go as He pleased, why would He have led forth the humanity of sin for six thousand years?
He is the most pitiable one. Though He is the Master, He could not play the part of Master. Though He is the Father, He could not play the part of Father. There is no greater indignation than this. Though all is what He created, He could not have things His own way; though they are His sons and daughters, He could not call them sons and daughters. The six-thousand-year history is the providence He has conducted to tear down this wall.
The God who comes seeking us has come bearing han for six thousand years. What kind of figure does that Father bear when He appears before His sons and daughters? He bears a wounded figure, an indescribably ragged figure.
In such a figure, God has come and gone before fallen humankind upon this earth hundreds and thousands of millions of times. Yet human beings did not know.
Even in this hour today, He comes seeking us in such a figure, with such a Heart, but we are people who do not even dream of it—how unjustly aggrieved must He be?
What is now demanded of us is a Word that can move God and stir God. That Word is not some idealism or theoretical ideal. It is not a word that says we shall make a brilliant and splendid environment and live there dancing.
Then what kind of word must it be?
When we draw forth God's convoluted Heart and call out, “Father, who labored thus for me!” at that the Father shall say, “Yes, My son! In the historical course up to now, many have come and gone, but none knew My Heart — yet you understand.” God seeks such a son.
He does not seek one who, in a splendid place, receives glory from many crowds.
Even though one stands in a ragged, pitiable, foul place, when one says, “Is not the Father's grievous situation thus?” — God shall say, “Yes! Your word is right.
From Adam, through Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, up to now in the six-thousand-year historical course, you understand the convolutions of the han deep in My Heart.” It is such a son God seeks. God is a historical One. Therefore, the one who knows the historical Heart of God is God's Son.
Heaven—what kind of person goes there?
It is a place where the sons and daughters who know the historical Heart of God go. The history here means the history of convolutions. These convolutions are not peaceful or joyful. They are the opposite of that. Yet people upon this earth simply say they will believe and go to heaven, will believe in Jesus and receive blessings. It is utterly improper. The company that says it will believe in Jesus and receive blessings all perish.
Look at the people of Israel. They said they would believe in God and receive blessings, and they all perished, did they not? It is not so.
The New Word That Must Be Sought
Then, by believing in Jesus, what must we do?
We must comfort God. We must say, “You are my historical Father. You are my Father of the era. Furthermore, You are my eternal Father.” Because that is what God desires, when His sons and daughters upon the earth speak such words, God shall say, “Yes! Though you were not with Me in the historical course, since you understand My historical Heart, you are My son and daughter. Though you did not stand before this providential will of the era, you are My son and daughter who can stand before the providential will of the era; and you are My son and daughter who can also stand before the providential will of the future.”
You all—even in a dark valley, in a deep valley, you meet God. Going to the highest cross of crosses, you meet God. Wandering, searching for goodness, and being driven out to the very end of the valley of tears, God is there.
God is the King of the cross and the King of unjust grief and indignation. He is the One who stands in the position opposite to all the evils of this earth, the principal subject of the driven and pursued.
By what path did Jesus seek to build the heavenly kingdom?
Of course, there were level paths, but Jesus sought to build the heavenly kingdom by crossing the ridge of death. Only by crossing the ridge of death and building the heavenly kingdom can one have dominion even over the world of death. The path of swallowing up the world of death and building the heavenly kingdom—this is the swiftest path.
Why is this so?
Upon this fallen earth, the gates of God's joy and happiness have not yet opened. The gates are shut. Therefore, between God and us, there are grief and suffering and unfounded reasoning and contradiction.
So turning back from the path one walks and going forth to seek the convolutions which God has borne—this is the swiftest path of faith for meeting God.
Do you know what kind of place the foot of the Mount of Olives is, to which Jesus went seeking refuge after being opposed and driven by the crowds?
That place was a place of shedding tears, a place of wailing, a place of beating the breast. And that place was a place where Jesus's tears, pierced amid suffering, were turning into God's tears and Jesus's indignation into God's indignation.
Today we are seeking the true Word—the true Word. You must enter into a place where, encountering that Word, God lays out all His historical situation and says, “Yes! You understand. You are my son and daughter. Otherwise, you shall regret it.
Knowing that He is the historical God, the God of the era, and the God of the future, you must be able to move the historical God, move the God of the era, and move the God of the future.
Even if you cannot stand in the place of the Father who has borne responsibility for the convoluted history through the past, present, and future, you must become sons and daughters who, knowing the Father's sorrowful Heart, know how to comfort Him.
Therefore, when you look at the Bible, you must look at the most sorrowful—the most sorrowful. Even setting aside the contents about heaven or the Apocalypse, you must look at the most sorrowful.
You all, to become a close friend of someone, you must be able to communicate with and understand their most sorrowful situation, must you not? It is the same.
So it is in seeking the position of God's son and daughter. You must seek the Word of such content.
When such a Word appears upon this earth, and you hear it, an endless sorrow shall break forth from your belly. Without your knowing, wailing shall well up from the belly. Though you weep for ten days, a hundred days, or a thousand days, you shall wish endlessly to weep.
Only when a Word that can give such a feeling appears upon this earth can God's bosom be drawn forth. We must seek such a Word.
Above words that are merely glossy and brilliant, we must seek a Word that can give the feeling of the mind being overturned, of bone marrow melting away. A Word such that, when one says, “This is the Word. Come, brother!” — The brother also can say, “This is the Word,” a Word such that I feel so and you feel so.
We must seek a Word with explosive power, crossing kindred and tribe and people, by which all in the world who possess true minds and true bodies can resonate together.
The World That Wears Not Though Endlessly Repeated
If God weeps, can heaven and earth not weep?
If God weeps aloud in great grief, can heaven and earth not wail? Therefore, quickly, swiftly, a Word must come forth that can release God's historical han of sorrow.
Thereafter, the substance must come forth. The substance must come forth. Until now, we believers have wandered seeking the Word. For what? To meet the Lord, the substance.
Then by what shall we discern the true shepherd from the false?
By what shall we discern the true from the false? We can know the true shepherd at once. Though seeing him for the first time, it seems we have seen him somewhere. The first impression is so.
In the course of seeking life, the one who has the will and the necessary bond—though one meets him for the first time—seems to be one already known. Though met for the first time, one feels closer to him than to one's own elder brother, or to anyone in one's surroundings.
Only one who possesses the quality of stirring such workings of the original mind in a level manner is a true shepherd. One who is not so, at some point, shall fleece you.
When in the Last Days we meet the Lord and look into one of the Lord's eyes, we shall not weary of it forever. Even in one eye of the Lord, there is content by which we can rejoice more than at having seen the heavenly kingdom.
Have you met such a Lord?
Even pressing forehead to forehead for a thousand and ten thousand years, you would not weary of it. Therefore, He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”
The path that seeks Him out—even though one walks it a thousand years, even though one comes and goes hundreds of millions of times, one does not weary of it. Is going to church like that for you?
If not, the grace has departed. If the shepherd does not have such moving and emanating content, he is a false shepherd. Why? Because in heaven all is eternal. Even the emotions with which one looks are eternal.
You all are saying such things; you may not understand well. Heaven is a three-dimensional world.
For example, looking at a handkerchief, only the surface is seen. The reverse side is not seen. But seeing the reverse side spiritually, it is endlessly inexhaustible.
Looked upon with peaceful emotion, it appears as the object of peace. It conveys a peaceful sensation.
If there is a complete plus, the complete minus naturally arises. Is it not so? It is so. Such is the physical phenomenon. When a complete plus arises, the complete minus arises naturally. Before a complete being, its counterpart naturally comes to exist.
When you look at heaven and earth with a heart of peace that can pass through the cosmos (天宙), all things become flowers. Heaven and earth are flowers. Their beauty cannot be described.
When you look at people with such a Heart, there is nothing more beautiful than people. Going to the spirit world, even with someone you met for the first time, you can embrace the neck and kiss the lips. It is more than that.
There is no end. Things that we need and that possess a life-giving bond, things that possess an ideal element or an ideational element—though they are the same, they do not weary us. Even though the same form is repeated, it does not weary us. Is it not so even in eating? It is the same.
If, in any work you do, you are weary of it because of repetition, that work is not a true work. The person of the world of goodness, even repeating one work for a thousand and ten thousand years, finds it good and good and again good. You may say, “Where is such a deluded thing?” — But it is possible.
Hereafter, on the day we meet the Lord, the substance of all things shall be resolved. Facing that One, all suffering of the mind is forgotten. That is why we go seeking the Lord.
What is the purpose of your believing in Jesus and of your faith?
It is to meet the Lord—that is, to face that substance of glory. The true principal subject is the One whose content is such that, whether passing through daily emotion or through ideal emotion, there is no part one wearies of. The value of goodness is absolute. “Absolute” means infinite.
Therefore, in the course of your believing in God, you must feel that, at one word from the Lord, all the suffering of the world vanishes away. It must be so not only in word but also in fact.
So that, from the day my eyes, my emotions, my life, and all my value of existence form a relationship with the eternal absolute substance, happiness shall come. You have not yet formed an eternal relationship with the substance.
The Path of Filial Piety: Shedding Sweat for the Father Without Demanding Recompense
After creating heaven and earth and all things, God first created the substance. He created the body first.
Therefore, we must first form a bond with the substance. If that One dies, we die; wherever that One goes, we must go. That One is needed by all, regardless of East or West. Black or white is not the issue. Man, woman, old, or young is not the issue. He is needed by all.
If such a One comes forth, the world becomes one. If God is the One who is omniscient and omnipotent, He must bring forth such harmony. We must encounter such a substance.
Then, after meeting such a substance, what must one do?
One must feel that, even giving and giving for that One, all is insufficient; even pouring out all of one's blood is insufficient—and one must feel the abundance of love.
One must feel the infinite measure of the heart. Even sacrificing for that One and offering up all one's blood and flesh, one must wish to give still more. God is such a One. Our Father is such a One.
Is it not so even in the world?
When one has shed sweat and done difficult work for one's father, one does not demand the price from one's father. To demand the price would make one an unfilial son.
You must hold a pierced heart that, having labored without measure and offered up all you have, still feels insufficient and wishes to offer more. Then, undoubtedly, you become God's son and daughter.
The standard of God's son and daughter is that. Yet we, having lent only a few tens of thousands of won, wonder why even the interest is not given. That will not do. One must give and forget. Even giving and giving and giving again, one must feel insufficient.
Jesus stood in such a place. He knew that, in the realm of infinite love, even though one's body should die, that is not death—that, crossing death, one is bonded to God's Heart. The one who is bound and broken by the suffering and sin of the earth cannot conquer God's heart-world.
No suffering, no fearful thing, and nothing that represents evil can block the touch of love that flows forth from God's Heart. Therefore, it was said that the one who would die shall live, and the one who would live shall die. This word is a word of the heart.
God must establish a person furnished with such content. Why? Because God is such a One. When God speaks once, heaven and earth eternally rejoice. Knowing the content of the spirit world, it is so.
When God's voice resounds once, all existing beings become utterly solemn. This cannot be expressed. That one word is felt as a Word eternally precious, beyond what one can think of in this world.
When one comes to recognize God's actual existence, one thinks so. Even God, facing humankind, is so. If there is a path for the sake of humankind, He shall walk it even though it should overturn ten million times in one hour.
The world in which such a mind goes ahead, the world bound by such workings, is the world where the Father dwells. Therefore, if you, upon the earth, hear the heavenly Word by which one can enter such a world, you can transcend all desires—for food, for clothing, for sleep—and can transcend even yourself.
If there be a person bearing the heavenly mission, sleeping or awake, he shall be pierced by the heart that, even offering all of himself to that One, still finds it insufficient.
Only then can one become a son or daughter of the heavenly kingdom of which we speak. If such sons and daughters exist, they shall lack nothing in inheriting all things of heaven and earth.
That is the standard of our faith. Consider why this is so. In what kind of figure did God seek to create the human being? He created with the mind that, however much one took into oneself, it would be insufficient—and with the mind that, however much one loved eternally, it would be insufficient. The married women among you will know.
Your child whom you have borne is so lovely that you embrace and embrace and embrace, and even embracing eternally, you do not weary of it, do you?
The principal substance that stirs up such a feeling is God. Therefore, to become His son or daughter, one must possess such a qualification. The Father's Word—even if one hears the same content for a thousand years, like a fish drinking water, it is unceasingly delicious.
Even the same Word, when heard in sorrow, becomes consolation; when heard in joy, becomes congratulation. According to the difference in your state of mind and your daily emotions, it works as a worthy object of corresponding value.
Generally speaking, the Word of truth—even hearing the same content over a hundred and twenty times, one does not weary of it. You must experience this.
If you go to a church that holds the Word of truth, such that, even hearing the same Word over a hundred times, one wishes to hear it again, undoubtedly, you go to heaven. And if you have met a church leader whom, even seeing him a hundred times and a thousand times, you wish to see again, do not part from him. Even cutting off one hand, hold him fast with the remaining hand. If you meet such a leader, undoubtedly, you will go to heaven.
The Six-Thousand-Year History to Bring Forth One Son of God
Only after passing through such a bond does one first become a son or daughter of God who has cast off the han of the Fall, and only then can the Heart of God, who holds no han of the Fall, work in us.
Without passing through such a bond, God cannot forget the emotion of the Fall. He cannot forget the emotion of “These wretched ones! You are children who have inherited the lineage of the Fall from Adam and Eve. You are a clan that has betrayed Me and has carried out every kind of foul deed up to now.”
Only when you become a person who can draw forth God's bosom and stir God can the Father at last forget the historical han and establish the standard of the original Heart of the world of the ideal of creation.
If we do not advance to such a standard, the true Father cannot play the part of Father. As long as the true Father's mind, the true Father's situation, the true Father's wish, and the true Father's Heart cannot meet sons and daughters who, passing through them, call "Father," God shall eternally not become the true Father. Eternally, He shall not become so.
Even if many such sons and daughters cannot come forth upon this earth, at least one man and one woman must come forth.
If such individuals come hereafter, they shall become the True Parents of humankind. Because we have lost our parents, we must meet parents who hold such a Heart.
The history of six thousand years up to now has been the history of bringing forth one Son of God. It has been the history to seek one Adam who was lost.
Originally, had Adam and Eve not fallen, they would have become the True Parents of humankind, and passing through God's Heart and through God's situation would have accomplished all of God's wishes and purposes; yet, they fell, and all was broken.
Therefore, to seek this out again, the history of re-creation must be passed through. That is to say, by re-creating Adam and again establishing him in the position of the lost True Father of humankind, God must lay His hand upon his head and bless him, saying, “You are the Adam I created in My ideal of creation; you are a son who can fathom My situation and Heart."
The One who comes upon this earth bearing this responsibility is the Lord of the Second Advent. Therefore, the six-thousand-year history is the history to bring forth one perfected ancestor of humankind whom God seeks.
In the Bible, it is said that, after creating Adam, He took out Adam's rib and made Eve, but He did not actually take out a rib. Even though I say this and you may think this young man is treating the Bible recklessly, the fact is so. He did not really take out a rib but modeled the framework.
You all, in reading a book, say something is taken out; what is taken out? It is said that the gist (骨子) of the book is taken out. So Eve, too, was made by modeling Adam's framework.
Therefore, on the day Adam alone comes forth, Eve naturally comes forth. When the complete plus comes forth, the complete minus naturally comes forth.
Jesus, as substance passing through God's Heart, could not stand in the position of the true Adam who could boast before the entire cosmos. Because the social environment was not such, Jesus went to His death.
The Path to Becoming God's Son and Daughter
Yet today's era is the era of democracy. It took six thousand years for God to establish democracy. Here, regardless of what one says, regardless of what religion one believes in, one's neck is not cut off.
So when Jesus comes in such an era, though he may receive persecution, he shall certainly seek and establish the lost true son and true daughter. He shall be able to seek and establish, in reverse, what was lost.
God has unfolded the history up to now. He has unfolded it in two forms. One is plus and one is minus, and these must be united. Alpha and Omega must be brought to one conclusion.
The history was to begin from the True Parents, but humankind lost the True Parents and became children of false parents; so when one restores the True Parents and goes again before God, the garden of peace is opened up. Therefore, unless you possess such a bond of heart, you cannot become God's sons and daughters.
Do you think money or worldly position, power, or your sons and daughters become conditions for accomplishing the will? They are in no condition at all.
If there are conditions, go and seek them out. But going there, you cannot become God's sons and daughters.
Hereafter, if a church appears before these people, before this world, bearing a new ideal, the whole world shall oppose and beat upon it. In this evil world, only by being beaten out is it discerned. That church, however much the world drives it out, tramples it, and strikes it, shall spread.
If there is a place where it grows and multiplies in the place of being struck; takes root in the place of being struck; holds hope in the place of being struck; becomes a living figure in the place of being struck; and goes forth—go and seek that place out.
If you have found such a place, you must, stirring the historical Heart, the Heart of the era, and the Heart of the future, offer up all that you have and stand in a place where you can extend infinitely and cross over the greatest limit. From such a place, you must call upon the Father.
That one word, “Father,” is enough. Nothing else is needed. Many prayers are not needed. The one word, "Father!" in sorrow becomes consolation and, according to your emotion, responds with the corresponding emotion.
Therefore, the noun “Father” can comprehend all things, judge all things, and resolve all things. When you, in such a place, say, “Father!” —you become God's sons and daughters. Then you shall, undoubtedly, as citizens of the heavenly kingdom, be able to stand boldly before all created things or before the multitudes of spirits in the other world and boast of the authority of heavenly children.
Prayer
Father, we are witnessing the phenomena of this era, which heap upon human beings yet more grief, more complexity, and more convolutions. We can dare to fathom how, by reason of this, sorrow is added increasingly in the world of the Father's Heart.
Father! Broaden the minds of us who have gathered here. Now our bodies stand in a historical Last Days when, re-analyzing the entirety of the consciousness, isms, assertions, and conceptions we have held, we must form a bond with the goodness of eternal value; and our minds stand in an era of judgment when we must form a bond with the eternal Father's heart-world.
Knowing this, grant that we may grasp through experience that You are the Father of infinite love, and let us know that You are the Father who, crossing the suffering of the cross and forgetting the suffering of death, longs to love.
We who are nothing—for our sake, who are insufficient even though we should die ten million times and be driven away—You, the precious and dignified One, have walked the unjustly aggrieved course and have stood in unjustly aggrieved situations; with what shall we release Your han?
We know that, even dying ten million times, even scattering all our blood and flesh, even offering up all our tears and bloody sweat, all is insufficient. Even being insulted, it is insufficient; even receiving opposition, it is insufficient.
The Father has, even in such circumstances, come seeking the figure that can stand as the original true principal subject who melts down even the heart of the enemy; we must become such a figure.
We have come to know that the one who is indignant when persecuted by his brother cannot go to Heaven; and we have come to know the fact that the one who, when driven by his brother, holds toward him a mind of "enemy" cannot form a relationship with the original world.
Today, your sons and daughters who have gathered here are pitiable ones. They are those who have grown weary in church life. Yet grant that, holding fast to the true shepherd and immersed in the true Word, they may be earnestly minded to live in the garden of eternal life.
We felt despair in the course of faith. We know that to awaken those who despair, unless one labors and offers devotion many times more than they, they cannot be raised again. Father, earnestly we beseech You, forgive the tragic state of all the denominations woven of historical grudges.
Today, your sons and daughters who have gathered here under the name of “Unification”—these do not walk this path for the sake of anyone. They do not believe for the sake of any church.
It is a life of faith that, believing in their value, with their minds and bodies, sings of their value and would form a relationship with the Father; and we have come to know that the Unification Church is the body to resolve this.
The Master of Heaven is You, and the masters of the earth are we. Since You know our minds that yearn to be united with You, for the day when You and we shall be united, raise us up as a company who, even offering all our devotion and finding it insufficient, shed tears and, even being struck, know how to give thanks.
You have come seeking us, bearing a historical han and shedding tears. Therefore, when You call out, “Sons and daughters!” earnestly, we beseech You, grant that we may answer “Father.”
Upon this earth, no one knows Your heart-filled heart, and no one can take responsibility, in Your stead, for the unjustly aggrieved and indignant historical sorrow. Awaken the thirty-million multitude, and gather the young people who are sleeping.
Where is one who is concerned for the road ahead of these people, these people piling up on the embankment of death?
Knowing that there yet remain ones with living blood and flesh, choose them. Knowing that You have already prepared a place where they may abide, open up the path they shall walk, and earnestly we beseech You that You Yourself may form a profound bond with them.
Even if it is the first time we meet the Father, grant that the heart with which we face Him may be eternal. What have those gathered here today come to know?
May the bond be formed in their bodies and minds whereby the voice that calls “Father” and that calls “sons and daughters” resounds throughout heaven and earth, the evil retreats, and only goodness sprouts and only goodness can be active.
Before You commanded us to walk this path, You had already wept; before our difficulty arose, You Yourself first took the difficulty upon Yourself; when we were grieved, You counseled and lifted us up.
In the position of the pioneer who must open up the way, when we were grieved, the Father grieved together with us, and when we were challenged, the Father was anxious together with us. We are awestruck and overwhelmed.
Now, if there be glory, let You receive it; if there be anything to boast of, grant that we may boast only of You. Grant that a mind that, even shedding tears, is still more sorrowful, may be pierced into our minds; and grant that we may feel uneasy unless, even after shedding sweat, more sweat is shed.
Even by scattering my blood and flesh and burning up this body, grant that the altar of Heaven's righteousness may be built; and as the blood and flesh of Abel appealed for goodness, earnestly we beseech You, grant that our blood and flesh, too, may leave such a condition upon this earth.
In this hour also, there are those scattered throughout the regions, holding fast to heavy hearts amid persecution, struggling to protect each one.
If this path is not the path toward Heaven, we know it must perish. Many block this path, but we give thanks that You, pushed this way and that, lead us forward.
Beseeching You to lead the path that Your young sons and daughters walk, when they shed tears, weep with them; when they wail, wail with them. Grant that, as a new bloodline that has formed the bond of children of heart, before the thirty-million multitude, they may sing of the heavens and become new figures who fight for the sake of Heaven.
So that, in carrying out the mediating mission of connecting heaven and earth as the Father's garden, they may lack nothing—earnestly we beseech and ask You to take charge and to govern.
Father, abide with us through all that comes to pass after this day. In the course of accomplishing the wish, by night or by day, in our minds and bodies, or in our societal living environments, let only You be the Master.
Thus, at last, accomplishing the bond of Father and children, earnestly we ask that we may be able to praise hallelujah and boast before the Satan world, and all words I have offered in the name of the Lord. Amen.