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.
April 24, 1960 (Sunday), Former Headquarters Church.
Matthew 10:32-39, 22:1-14, 22:34-40
Prayer
At this hour as well, Father, Your sons and daughters who are placed in the destiny of having to form an eternal bond with Your heart and receive Your blessing have flocked to this place.
We have come to know who Father is; we have come to know — at least in outline — what Father's heart is like, and we have grasped through experience portion by portion of Father's sorrowful heart.
Yet because we have not known the heart of the Father who bears the entirety of the Will, have not known the entire vista, and have not been able to grasp it all through experience, we have stood in a position of partial enjoyment but have not stood in a position to enjoy it as a whole. At this hour, please let us realize how greatly Heaven grieves over us in this state.
The more earnest the heart wishing to lift Your hand and bless, the more Father has longed for Your children to mature and become companions of heart. Yet we know that in the course of history there has not been one figure, victorious, centered upon Your heart, who could be displayed before the satanic world.
You also know that such a figure is the standard of our yearning, the standard of the hope we long for. They were your sons and daughters who, even at the cost of forgetting all things, throwing down all things, having all things taken away, lifted and yearned for that one figure alone as their sole possession, as that which could stand in place of their whole life.
Therefore, please now open our narrow hearts and gather our scattered hearts, and let our hearts become such that they can be offered before Your altar.
Therefore, Father, we earnestly desire and beseech that we may become sons and daughters who can receive Your recognition, who, as the original object partner You sought, as the children You wished to embrace, can be embraced together with that heart in joy.
Knowing that this has been the hope and the purpose for which we have longed until now, and that to strive to fulfill this Will is the course of restoration, please cause us today and tomorrow to advance and fight toward this standard, and please cause us to resolve to fight again should the fight not end, though we fight and fight.
We know clearly that we are placed in a destiny in which, even if we have not attained this purpose and are weary, even at the cost of growing wearier, we must rise upon it.
Although Father always cares for us from behind with the hand of love and embraces us, when we look upon ourselves, we are sorrowful beyond all words. We know that, until now, Father could not stand at our forefront, but Satan has stood there; we know that Father, following behind us, looking upon our pitiful figures, our wounded figures, has shed tears and has watched over the course of history until this day.
Now we have gathered here, hoping to turn around and rebuke Satan and to become sons and daughters who, embracing Father, can know His own circumstances and the historical circumstances; therefore, at this hour, please make Your promise and grant our request. At this hour, please admonish us with what You wished, through heart, to admonish us, and please send down the words You wished to counsel us.
We earnestly desire and beseech that, Father, You bless us to help us prepare the qualifications of saints in this not-far-distant Last Days era.
We earnestly desire and beseech that, to Your sons and daughters who, having crossed one ridge of the resentful course of restoration, yearn for that one day of Father's glory, You hand down the shield of victory whereby, the promised sovereignty being established, joy and glory may overflow forever and ever.
At this hour, we earnestly entreat that You embrace, with the same hand of grace, the family members who could not attend here and Your sons and daughters scattered throughout every place and that You send down a blessing upon them as well. Please govern alone, Father, in the time that remains. We have prayed in the name of the Lord. Amen.
We know that, before the Fall, our ancestors were given the qualification of being the masters of all creation. We know that they received the blessing: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. Have dominion over all things.”
The History Walked by Human Beings Who Could Not Fulfill God's Blessing
Although such a blessing was bestowed upon our ancestors of old, until today, there has been no one on this earth who has governed the whole heaven and earth in accordance with that blessing of God.
If that blessing had been fulfilled, this world would not have become a world of lamentation or a world of suffering, and humanity would not have struggled in a world of resentment.
Yet because that blessing was not fulfilled, until today, human beings have struggled along a wretched course of history. Whatever history one examines, the stories of sorrow and pain are entwined within it.
We know all too well that we have woven such a history. The history of humanity has thus not been a process of fulfilling God's blessing.
Considering this, one can see that human beings have lost their blessed position and have fallen into a position that is not blessed. This is a fact that even common sense cannot but acknowledge.
You who have gathered here are also placed in a position that is not blessed, not in a blessed position. We are not living in a happy place, but in an unhappy place.
There is no way to deny that we are not living in a world of peace but in a world that is its opposite.
In the consciousness of your being, the more highly you esteem the value of life, the more you wish to form a bond with what? You wish to form a bond with the elements of joy, the elements of happiness and freedom, and the elements of infinite liberation.
This is a fact you have well experienced in your actual life and in the life of conscience — a fact among facts that cannot be denied.
Throughout history, sages, and many masters of the Way have fought to pioneer this, but they have not found the absolute standard by which they could rejoice together with the elements of such a true ideal. Thus, we who have not yet found and established such a standard cannot but continue a life of grief and lamentation. This is a self-evident fact.
You must feel that this is not the purpose of the creation of the God who made all things of heaven and earth, and not the purpose for which He blessed humankind so that they might govern all created things.
Because a world that was not intended has been formed, the world that ought to have been has not come to be, and the history of humanity has become a history of salvation seeking to recover that original world.
That the noun “salvation” is necessary for human beings means that human beings are not in their normal state. For salvation is to return to the original state what is not in the original state. This is a fact that nothing whatever can deny.
Beneath the goal that God desires, human beings have come forth gazing toward some world of purpose, however vague. Therefore, when one scene unfolds in this heaven and earth in which the goal God desires and the goal we human beings desire are brought to completion at the standard of our hearts, and we can rejoice and offer praise, from that point on, the world of joy will begin for humanity.
When will that time be?
Where will such a place be? When will such a world come to be? Human beings have, toward such a time and place, continued struggles they themselves did not understand.
We are the sorrowful descendants of such ancestors. On the other hand, Heaven has carried out the work of recreating the lost human being and recovering the lost world.
Our True Ancestors, whom in the Garden of Eden He embraced lovingly and looked upon, pouring out a heart of hope, saying “Today, tomorrow”; the heart of God, who dreamed together with them — those who knew no sin — and yearned for the day to fulfill the ideal of creation together with them — that heart has vanished without a trace from today's human world.
God's heart, ideal, and worldview must have been astonishing, an astonishing ideal, an astonishing worldview that we cannot fathom even in our dreams; yet we have become human beings struggling in a position that seems to have no relation whatever to such an ideal world of heart, in a position as if that world had vanished forever.
Therefore, we must clearly know the fact that, to recover again the blessing with which He blessed Adam and Eve before the Fall, God has, until today, embraced the history of humanity and turned it over .
The God Who Drives History Toward the World of Purpose
Human history is not a history that has been moved by people alone. It is not a history that we human beings have driven forward with some goal under some plan.
Although there have been many revolutions through period after period, age after age, century after century, the worlds formed by those revolutionary ideals over decades or centuries have all vanished.
That is because human history is not a history brought about by the dreams human beings dreamed, nor a history brought about under any creative plan of human beings.
Human history is a history that proceeds toward one ideal destination beneath the goal and plan of the great heavenly law of kinship. Thus, within human history is contained Heaven's program to develop the world of natural form through a course of suffering. If history did not contain such a program, there is no God.
We must know how to long for the hand of God's blessing by which He blessed unfallen Adam and Eve.
If God set up unfallen Adam and Eve and lifted His hand and blessed them, where has that hand of God's blessing gone? Where has the authority of that blessing gone? “Blessing” must mean a condition of joyful and happy bonds, but where has the world-ideal that He gazed upon, centering on that condition, gone?
All has gone, has it not?
Therefore, Heaven, gathering this human-centered world, draws the world of distant sight into the world of close sight and the world of distant sense into the world of immediate sense.
We must know that history has, beneath the purpose of joining the external world with the internal world of the heart and connecting it to a world in which the value of “I” as one being can sing the bond with the value of the whole, turned and twisted to bring this world about.
At first glance, it seems a history flowing without purpose, but looking back, one can see that, beneath some consciousness of purpose, things, one by one, have been worked out.
From this, we may know that the whole of history is a history that moves under some consciousness of purpose, some absolute plan that we cannot know.
We are, according to the program centered upon the great ideal of the Creator, carrying out the mission of pioneers. Yet our prophets and saints, the sages and worthies, have first inherited and divided this mission. Thus, it is undeniable that not only humanity but also Heaven has been mobilized to bring about such a great, purposeful world.
Then what would be God's greatest hope?
What would be the hope by which God, with joy and with His whole heart at stake, can bless? This becomes the issue.
What is the greatest hope of God's blessing? This is precisely what I wish to think about together with you today.
The Value of One Person in God's Providence of Salvation
When you open your eyes in the morning and look upon nature, that nature, gently bonding with my own original nature, sprouts in me the emotion of a new ideal.
But you well know the fact that the more one looks upon the world of human beings, the more it stirs feelings of despair and sorrow.
If this were originally a world inhabited by unfallen, original human beings, the value of human beings would not be such as to make those who look upon them feel sorrow.
Human beings are not made to be of a value such as a single blade of grass, a single flower, or a single tree. They are precious human beings whom nothing in all creation can be exchanged for, beings whose value cannot be compared with anything, who were to come forth in the place of the heavens.
Yet from the day they lost their position to stand before the great cosmos and lost their value, human beings have become, without recourse, sacrifices that add sorrow and lay the cornerstones of a bridge of suffering. We must know this at this hour.
Then think this hour with what figure you will go before the Creator, who possesses the great ideal of creation.
If, in your relationships with people, you appear as a symbol of sorrow and suffering, you are, of course, an object of sorrow and suffering before Heaven, which seeks to establish the ideal of the whole. But if you can appear as a symbol of joy and delight, from there the world of hope will be linked.
Therefore, today you must judge for yourself in what position you stand and determine that position, and you must possess the substance whereby, wherever you stay, people love you; wherever you go, people follow you; and through you, something is left that can be boasted of before the whole.
If you cannot, you will become sinners who cannot be received in the human world or in the heavenly ideal world.
The problem lies within oneself. It is not something to blame on the country being bad or society being corrupt. Those are secondary problems. The problem is in “I.”
In carrying out the providence of salvation, Heaven cannot do the providence of the family apart from the individual. Therefore, centering on the individual Abraham, He sought to save Abraham's family; centering on the individual Jacob, He sought to save Jacob's family; centering on the individual Moses, He sought to save the people of Israel; setting up the individual Jesus, He sought to save the world.
Therefore, you must know that Jesus, who came to save the world; Moses, who came to save the people; Jacob and Abraham, who came to save the family — all of them walked such a road for your sake.
Today, people, with one voice, say “the Last Days.”
What sort of time are the Last Days?
It refers to the time when the hour of meeting God, who governs the entire world, draws near. It refers to the time when one can draw near before the Lord, the King of kings, who comes bearing the sovereignty of the entire world.
Then what kind of person must one be to greet that time? One must be a person who can take the place of Abraham of old, who can take the place of Jacob, who can take the place of Moses, who can take the place of Jesus, and beyond; who can stand in place of the world.
Therefore, when the figure of that one person whom the world needs, that one person whom Jesus needs, that one person whom God needs, that one person whom society needs, that one person whom the family needs, that one person who each one of us as individuals needs, from then on, the world will be gathered.
The Path of the Way Found in the Place of Despair
Today we live in a country, but in a country that is not a country. We live in a society, but in a society that is not a society. We live in a family, but in a family that is not a family.
Jesus said, “I have come to the earth not to bring peace but to bring division.”
Because this earth has become a negation that cannot be received under the ideal of the Creator, Jesus came to raise a revolution here. You must know this.
The Christians scattered throughout the world today must become the world's revolutionary army. Yet because they do not have this awareness, they cannot help but struggle under the encroachment of communism.
Then, where is the origin of our beginning?
Where did we set out from? We did not set out from God's embrace of love, but from the place where God dropped sorrowful tears. Because we are such human beings, we must suffer pain. We must endure injustice, we must be killed, we must be placed in a position of weeping aloud and despairing.
The path of the Way is a path that goes forward, accepting suffering as natural, a path that justifies the road of despair, a path that establishes hope in the seat of despair. Why? Because human beings are betrayers, all the things sown by the seed of betrayal must be indemnified. Since we are human beings who must receive recompense, we must endure.
From this principle, one can easily see what kind of people will rule the world to come. Hereafter, the people who gladly accept sorrow, the people who gladly endure suffering, the people who receive injustice as natural — and yet hold fast to Heaven — those people will rule the world.
Therefore, since ancient times, those who have walked the path of goodness have hoped in their hearts for a world of joy and happiness, but their actual life has been a life of walking the road of suffering. “Come, suffering. Shall I let you take my hope from me? Come, sorrow. Shall you block my joy? Come, death. Shall I let you take from me the worldview of an ideal that yearns for one day of victory, one day of glory!” — Under such resolution, they walked, and we know well that this is the path of the sages and worthies and the history of Christianity until today.
Jesus accepted as natural the suffering inflicted on his hands by enemies, the suffering inflicted on his feet by enemies, and the suffering inflicted on his side by enemies. History is gathered through such a multitude as Jesus.
The God Who Sets Up the Stragglers and Carries Out His Providence
Why must Heaven place human beings in such an environment to carry out His work? It is because the world has already entered Satan's realm. The one who governs this world is Satan.
So Heaven could not stand at the forefront and lead humanity.
Until today, He has carried out His work from behind.
In the Last Days, evil is, by principle, blocked off. Because this history set out toward a worldwide stage, its end is also accomplished on a worldwide stage. Since evil began by rolling, it rolls on until the Last Days.
For 6,000 years, it has rolled in this way. Yet evil, going on, is bound to be cut off. Why? Because the orbit of evil is not normal. At some point, it must derail. When is that time? It is the Last Days. In the Last Days, it is cut off.
Knowing this, Heaven did not seek to block this world of evil head-on. Beneath this world of evil rolling on, He has gathered the stragglers. This is Heaven's history. It is a sorrowful matter.
Heaven, who has had the entire heaven and earth taken by Satan, gathers not the bright and stately ones, but the stragglers who fall in despair behind the authority of the world of death that runs toward evil.
This is also the mission of religion. Therefore, when one is left behind in this world, falls into great despair, fails, or is shocked by something so that one can no longer rely on anything, the great majority of people seek out the path of the Way. If there is a sorrowful matter, nothing is more sorrowful than this.
If human beings had not fallen, Heaven could have governed this world freely through its direct children. Yet from the day human beings fell and Satan came to govern this world, Heaven has been placed in the position of pleading with the stragglers. It is grievous, grievous. Therefore, those who believe are criticized as inadequate people. But the uneducated, the powerless, those who cannot discern anything — they have come forth as stepping stones by believing in Heaven.
We must know that countless stragglers on this earth have come forth as offerings in the world of the Way, throwing stones into the gutter again and again, filling and filling it, until at last the gutter became level.
Heaven has labored infinitely to gather the stragglers of the world and to set up an individual who would not lose to anyone on this earth. The people He thus set up are Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and Jesus. Jacob gathers the family, Moses the people, and Jesus the world.
You must know that Jesus Christ is the One sent as the representative who gathers the world by setting up an individual to gather the family, the society, the nation, and the world. From the day Jesus came and went until today, Christianity has come forth bearing the thought of the Second Coming — that Jesus would come again.
Then, with what mission will the Lord, who comes again to this earth in the future, come?
He will come with the mission of representing the world. Even from the perspective of this present situation in which democracy and communism confront one another, a person of personality with a new ideology that can gather up this situation must come to this earth.
So Heaven has worked, beginning from the inadequate people, laying a bridge connecting shoulder to shoulder, body to body, to send forth one ideal representative who will not lose to anyone in heaven and earth.
In the past, many grandmothers were mobilized and offered devotion. And many women offered much devotion. Looked at in one way, religion, until today, has been a religion of women. It has not been a religion of men.
Upon the foundation that frail women built up with hearts pierced by sorrow through their devotion, the form of today's worldwide religion was prepared. Thus, this gradually spread to the whole society and built up the democratic camp that can move the world.
Heaven's True Loyal Subject, Filial Son, and Faithful Wife
Then what kind of time are the Last Days?
These are the times when this world must be gathered. Therefore, blessed representatives and a blessed multitude who can gather this world must come forth.
When Jesus came to this earth, he said, “I am the Son of God, the only-begotten Son of God”; he said, “I am the Bridegroom, you are the bride.” But there is not a single person on this earth who has been recognized, in accordance with this word: “You are my bride representing heaven and earth.”
Although today the countless Christian believers scattered throughout the world all boast self-proclaimed brides, there is no person whom Heaven has publicly recognized: “You are undoubtedly the bride representing heaven and earth.”
Furthermore, although they call God “Father,” there is not one person who has received from God the blessing: “You are truly my beloved son, or daughter.”
We say that Jesus Christ is the “King of kings.” We say “Lord of lords” or “Subject of the Absolute.” But there is no person whom He has blessed as a loyal subject before Him. We must know this. Heaven's loyal subject has not come forth; Heaven's filial son has not come forth; and Heaven's faithful wife has not come forth.
If there were a person of some absolute faith whom Heaven wished to set in the position to govern heaven and earth and bless, that one would be advanced to the highest seat.
To do so, he must bear the name of the highest loyal subject of that nation, must bear the name of the highest filial son of that nation, and — since believers were called brides — must bear the title of the highest faithful wife of that nation.
Yet though God has carried out the providence of restoration for 6,000 years, there is no person whom He has blessed, saying, “You are my unparalleled loyal subject in the history from the day heaven and earth were created until today.”
There is no person whom He has blessed, saying, “In the history from the creation until today, you are a true filial son before me,” and no person He has blessed as a faithful wife.
Why is this?
Only when there is a nation that Heaven can put forth is there a loyal subject. Only when there are True Parents whom Heaven can put forth are there filial sons. Only when there is a true Bridegroom whom Heaven can put forth is there a bride.
The nations of this earth have not been nations with sovereignty that Heaven can put forth; the families of this earth have not been families with True Parents whom Heaven can love and watch over forever; and the people of this earth have not been a true Bridegroom and bride whom Heaven can trust forever.
Therefore, the Creator, from the creation until today, has not put forth a person among the human beings living on this earth, saying, “You are my beloved son or daughter," and has not put forth one saying, “You are a filial son in the place of all heaven and earth.” There is no one He has put forth saying, “You are a loyal subject before me,” and no one He has put forth as a faithful wife.
Think of it. Suppose there is a person who possesses much wealth. If he had a filial son who could guard the wealth he possessed and commune with his heart, how happy he would be? How proud and how at ease would he be?
It must be the same with God; yet because Adam, whom He created and blessed in the place of the great cosmos, fell, from that day God has come forth bearing infinite sorrow. The whole heaven and earth that God Himself was to govern have become a world governed by the enemy, and the families of this earth have become families consisting of the enemy's sons and daughters who serve the enemy.
Though there are filial sons and loyal subjects of the enemy, there are no filial sons or loyal subjects of Heaven. Though in the world of the enemy, faithful wives are serving the will of the enemy, there is not one faithful wife serving the Will of Heaven.
Because this world had to be overturned, Jesus came to this earth and cried out. Jesus prayed: “Make me a loyal subject as You demand! Make me a true filial son as You hope! Make me a true bride as You yearn for!” This was the wish of Jesus, the Prince of Heaven, who came to gather up the world.
We who are fallen yearn. What do we yearn for? We yearn for a nation in which we can become loyal subjects whom Heaven recognizes.
What do we yearn for?
We yearn for a world in which we can attend to True Parents and become filial sons and daughters. We yearn for the original world in which, becoming true Bridegroom and bride, we can be embraced in Heaven's bosom. This is the greatest goal humanity longs for.
The Reason Jesus Must Come Again
However blazing the passion with which we render full loyalty to a nation on this earth, Heaven cannot accept it as it is.
However devotedly we have given filial piety to our parents, Heaven cannot accept it as it is. That loyalty, that filial piety, may become some condition, but it cannot become the loyalty and filial piety that Heaven can wholeheartedly accept.
However many faithful wives there have been on this earth, they may have set up some condition, but they cannot become Heaven's faithful wives whom Heaven can wholeheartedly bless. It is a sorrowful matter. We must know this.
Because I know this historical current, I once prayed thus: “Send to this earth a loyal subject who can stand on the standard of God's loyalty, a loyal subject who can stand in place of the heavenly nation.”
Saying this would brand me a heretic, but even Jesus did not become the perfect loyal subject of the heavenly nation.
Why did he not?
If one were a true loyal subject of the heavenly nation, he should have fought Satan worldwide and gained victory. He should have made the enemy completely submit, completely driven him away, and set up the sorrowful Master in a seat of joy.
Only thus does one become Heaven's perfect, loyal subject. But Jesus, while fighting, fell. He left without completing the great cosmic purpose for which he sought to set up the chastity and resolve of the loyal subject.
Therefore, he must come again. He should have made this earth a free heaven and earth in which we render filial piety to God, attending Him as True Parent, but because he could not complete this work, he did not become a true filial son.
So he must come again. Although he did so in word, he did not accomplish it substantially.
Although he cried out, “I am the Bridegroom,” he did not become a true Bridegroom equipped with substance, so he must come again.
Thus, Jesus, though he received the blessing, went without exercising substantial authority. This is the sorrow of Christianity.
The Path of the Loyal Subject Paved by the Foundation of Filial Sons and Daughters
We must know. When God lifted His hand and blessed Adam and Eve, what did God, as their Father, hope for in His heart? “Oh! May you embrace the great cosmos I created and, attending me as King, become loyal subjects.”
That was God's heart. Therefore, Adam and Eve were to set up the resolve of loyal subjects in this heaven and earth and leave it as a tradition for ten thousand million years.
Had Adam and Eve become true filial sons and daughters who attended God as True Father, the chastity of loyalty and filial piety they set up before God would have become a tradition, and the history of this earth would have descended centered on the heart-bond between God and Adam and Eve.
Then evil cannot govern.
If evil could govern God's world of the heart, the providence of restoration, the history of salvation, would be absolutely impossible.
What could make any father reject a beloved child, saying, “He is not my child”? Nothing.
Likewise, had Adam and Eve attended to God as True Parent and, as filial sons and daughters, formed a bond of heart with God, this earth today would absolutely not have come to be like this. Because Adam and Eve lost the chastity of the loyal subject and lost the resolve of the filial son and daughter, human beings come forth being restored in an inverse course, hanging up the nouns “Bridegroom” and ”bride.”
Originally, to become a Bridegroom, one must first set up the chastity of the loyal subject and become a loyal subject who loves the country, become a filial son who loves his parents, and only then become, as one man, a Bridegroom. But because of the Fall, it is done in an inverse course. The course of restoration was thus inverse.
Today's Christian believers are intoxicated with the nouns “Bridegroom” and ”bride.” But this alone will not do. Where is the purpose of becoming a bridegroom and bride? It lies in revering God as True Parent.
The love of the bridegroom and bride alone will not do. One must receive God's love. Not the family-level God, but the God of hosts, Jehovah, who governs the great cosmos — one must receive the love of that God. Human beings need this.
Is it not so even in our families?
Upon the foundation of the bond of affection with parents, upon the foundation of the love of one couple, to receive the recognition of one sovereign — this is the ethic of human life. The iron rule is so. Without a country, there can be no family, and without a family, there can be no couple.
Today, the world's humanity remains stopped at the noun "Bridegroom and bride.” But we must take one more step and pray, “Heaven! It is said that the Lord comes as Bridegroom, but rather than a Bridegroom, please send the True Parents who can give birth to me again.”
We must not stop at the love of the Bridegroom and bride but set up the standard whereby we can say, “I, as a filial son and daughter, will attend the Father.” Then we must build the stage of loyal subjects who can attend to God as the Lord of hosts, the King of kings.
Until today, countless Christian believers have prayed, “Let me be saved in the name of Jesus.” But what salvation is salvation?
Is it salvation merely from going to hell? Do you believe in Jesus because you fear hell? The purpose of salvation is not just to meet as the bridegroom and bride.
After meeting as Bridegroom and bride, we must become filial sons and daughters before God. This is the purpose of salvation. Beyond this, only after becoming filial sons and daughters can one become a loyal subject. Is it not so even in the world?
Can a child unfilial to his parents become a loyal subject?
Only after becoming filial sons and daughters can one become a loyal subject before God or before a sovereign. Therefore, one must not stop at being merely Bridegroom and bride, as in today's Christian thought; after Bridegroom and bride meet, the two must unite and render loyalty before God. And they must hold fast to the Lord and pray, “Please grant us recognition as filial sons and daughters.”
What is the lamentation of this earth? It is that there has not been a heavenly nation with sovereignty that Heaven can recognize as loyal subjects.
Because there is no original Adam and Eve, free from the lineage of the Fall, whom Heaven can publicly recognize, the True Parents have been lost. Because we have lost the True Parents, who, at the level of the heart, can guard us, Satan tramples upon us. That is why we are orphans.
The Marriage Supper of the Lamb to Realize the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth
However splendid a Bridegroom and bride may have become, only after they have received the blessing of being filial sons and daughters from True Parents do they at last become eternal Bridegroom and bride.
Although until now there have been countless saints who, having believed in Jesus, are in the next world, there is no saint who has attended Jesus as Bridegroom.
Why is this?
Because only after first forming the bond with True Parents as filial son and daughter does one become Bridegroom and bride. The principle is so.
Therefore, however much one has formed the bond of Bridegroom and bride, if one has not formed the bond of True Parents, it is held in reserve — held in reserve. It is the same as an angel of the spirit world.
So with what mission must the Lord, who comes hereafter to this earth, come to bring it to its conclusion?
Of course, he must come to conclude the qualifications of the Bridegroom. But, above all, he must complete the substance of the True Parent. Then he must receive the recognition of “True Parent” before heaven and earth and the recognition of “true filial son and daughter” before God.
The representative banquet at which one appears as such a filial son and daughter is the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Do you understand what this means?
The day on which, for the first time after heaven and earth were created, human beings appear as Bridegroom and bride who have become filial sons and daughters before God; the banquet at which God says, “How you have labored, even in every adversity on the earth, to seek out the heart of Heaven, to seek out the Heavenly Parent!” — and bestows upon them, in place of the formless God, the substantial blessing of True Parents — that is the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
Upon the standard prepared with the promise and ideal of the true bride, and upon the standard of the true filial son and daughter, the wedding ceremony is held — that is, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
From the day this Blessing is received, they become True Parents. They become the True Parents of humanity, bearing substantial form in place of the formless God.
Originally, had human beings not fallen, they would have grown well in the world of goodness and, receiving the blessing of God's love, become children who could commune with God's heart. Yet because of the Fall, that bond was severed.
Therefore, in inverse order, one must pass through the process of being a bride and become a child. Thus, the bond of the heart must be brought to completion, whereby God can say, “You are filial sons and daughters who can stand in place of my heart.”
Without communion of heart, can one become a filial son or daughter?
One must know what God's heart is like, and one must know along what course God has struggled. Thus, one must prepare the form of the original Adam and Eve, who can be presented before the ideal of creation. The Marriage Supper of the Lamb is the ceremony at which this form is prepared.
Today's Christian believers must rightly know.
What is the Marriage Supper of the Lamb?
It is the banquet at which, having passed through the process of the promise of Bridegroom and bride — God's greatest hope for the human world — and having received the blessing of a true filial son and true filial daughter before God, one becomes true filial son and daughter, is set up as the representative of all humankind on this earth, and becomes the ancestor of filial sons and daughters.
The ceremony at which one appears as the true filial son and daughter who can stand in place of God's heart, as the True Parent of humanity, is the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
When this banquet unfolds, the family-level standard is established. After the new family-level standard is established, the standards of the nation and the world centered upon the sovereignty of Heaven must be established.
Only then can the Way of the loyal subject be set up before Heaven. From there on, it is a life of attendance. It is not religion. It is a life of attendance. As one attends a king, so one attends God. That time is the era of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
The Standard for Becoming Heaven's Loyal Subject, Filial Son, and Faithful Wife
We must hope with all the devotion we have. Where does God's heart incline?
What is the bottom of all sixty-six books of the Bible?
It is the heart. Heart, heart. What would be the center where that heart can dwell? It is the seat of the bride, Heaven's faithful wife, who appears for the first time after Heaven and earth were created. To come forth prepared with the chastity of the faithful wife — this is the first stage.
Throughout 6,000 years, countless people have come and gone. Among them, there must have been those who poured out their utmost for their husband and those who did all sorts of things for their bridegroom.
Yet they could not advance to the position of Heaven's faithful wife. They were all faithful wives of the satanic world. They may have set up the standard of a faithful wife in the position of goodness in some age in which good and evil collided, but in the entire ideal world, there has not been one person who came and went as Heaven's faithful wife in a position where God's heart could be fully communed.
Jesus, when he came to this earth, left a promise that he would select a worldwide faithful wife — that is the word, “I am the Bridegroom, you are the bride.” That he intended to seek and establish a faithful wife worldwide.
Today on this earth, one is called a faithful wife if she gives her life for her bridegroom. Giving one's life—all is bound up there.
The filial son also refers to the one who gave his life for his parents, and the loyal subject also refers to the one who gave his life for the country. But Heaven's standard is to render loyalty and filial piety with eternal life at stake. This lump of flesh dies.
Only in the position of laying down eternal life and offering it all up as the Father's, as the Bridegroom's, as the Parents' — only there is the heavenly standard of the faithful wife established. We must pour out the entirety of all that our life moves and feels.
That is why the Bible also says to do so with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your character.
Then what is the standard of doing so to the utmost?
One must surpass any loyal subject of the world, any filial son or daughter, any faithful wife.
Otherwise, God's dignity is not upheld. Think of it. There have been so many loyal subjects and faithful wives in the satanic world; if Heaven set up as a loyal subject or faithful wife someone who set up the same standard as the loyal subjects and faithful wives of the satanic world, God's dignity would not be upheld.
How much more, then, would it be impossible for Heaven to set up as His loyal subject or faithful wife someone less than the loyal subjects and faithful wives of the satanic world? It cannot be done.
Therefore, Jesus also said one must love him more than anyone else. He said, “Love me more than anyone in history, more than any ancestor of old, more than any outstanding person of that age, more than anyone.” The “anyone” here does not refer only to people in the environment of the age in which one lives. It refers to all people of the past, present, and future. Therefore, the saying “love me more than anyone” means love me more than anyone of the past, present, and future.
From among today's worldwide Christian believers must come forth a bride who pours out her devotion in such a position.
Even when she prays, she must pray more than anyone of old, and even when she offers devotion, she must offer more than anyone.
The faithful wife who has offered great devotion — if there is to be an exhibition of faithful wives over 6,000 years — must hold the authority before which every faithful wife there bows her head.
Even faithful wives in the spirit world must say to her, “We will praise the chastity of the bride upon whom you offer devotion forever and ever.” And she must receive such public recognition. Only such a bride can Heaven set up and boast of before the satanic world.
Like many people today, who think that simply believing will get them to heaven, who go to the chapel, sing some hymns, give a small offering, come and go, and think that becoming a pastor or elder is enough, this is utterly out of the question. As I know it, it is not so.
The Heart of God, the Heart of the Parent, and the Hearts of Husband and Wife
Then what would be the limit of doing so with all the heart, the mind, and the character?
One must become a loyal bride whom every one of the countless faithful wives who have come and gone until today can silently exalt. That is the standard.
If such a true bride had come forth before Jesus, the Bridegroom, the Will of Heaven would already have been fulfilled in this world. It would not have been dragged on until today.
If such a person were to appear, no matter how rampant evil might be in the world, it would be all right. Why? Because the strength of goodness flowing in through God's heart is several times stronger than the strength of that evil. Even if the world is wicked, it is not relevant.
Because the power flowing into the foundation of such a heart, oriented toward goodness, is such that the evil of the satanic world is no problem at all.
Until today, in the human world, no source has appeared that could explode an infinite power oriented toward goodness together with God's heart; therefore, Jesus, the Bridegroom, has not been able to come to this earth.
If such a bride were to appear on this earth, Jesus would wish to abandon the heavenly throne and rush down to the earth. That is why Jesus has been praying for 2,000 years in the spirit world.
If such a power through heart — that is, not a heart of fear before evil, but a powerful, heaven-rooted power oriented toward goodness, welling up through heart — were to enter the world of humanity even on one side, the world would be conquered before it. Only then can evil be set apart and absorbed.
The goodness that can absorb evil, the goodness that does not avoid evil but stands face-to-face with it and swallows it up, the work of heavenly goodness exploding and welling up at the level of the heart — such work must unfold. The age in which such work can be unfolded is the age after the Second Coming for which humanity has longed.
The heart of a husband and wife is reciprocal. If we liken the heart of the Parent to the trunk, the hearts of the husband and wife are like the leaves, and the heart of the loyal subject is like the root.
All these must move within one realm of life to be furnished as one completed body.
Therefore, in the present setting of going through the course of restoration, in our longing for Jesus the Bridegroom, we must not long with a reciprocal heart alone.
It must be linked, through the trunk, to the root. Therefore, one must, having prepared an individual object partner, form a family and link it to the world.
Looked at as a whole, what is like the root is the heart of God; that we pour out devotion and render loyalty to that God, and that we render loyalty to our parents, can be said to constitute the trunk. Only thus is it completely linked.
The reciprocal heart is just like the leaves. Receiving grace is for a moment—for a moment. See whether it is so. Rejoicing because one received grace, saying this and that — before long, it falls off. It cannot become the trunk.
If there had been on this earth one who, bearing the hearts of Bridegroom and bride, had connected the hearts of the true son and daughter to the True Parents, this earth today would not have become like this. In that world, once one receives grace, that is enough.
Once one is in contact with that heart, however much one tries to detach it, one cannot. That is why even Paul, after meeting the Lord, spoke of the love of God in Christ Jesus: “Who shall separate me from the love of God in our Lord Christ? Nakedness, sword, or famine?”
Therefore, in these last days, you yourselves are the issue. The man speaking here is not the issue; you yourselves are the issue. Whether or not you have a piercing heart that can run on, forgetting the consciousness of life and death, not making life and death an issue — that is the issue.
Even in the world, people walk such a road for the sake of the one they love; how much more, then, those of you who walk Heaven's road must have such a heart. Whether you are pierced with such a heart is the issue.
Even the Christians, when they say “Oh, Lord!” — when the Lord appears, they would run toward him without minding even if their necks were broken or their legs were broken. Whether you have such a piercing heart — that alone is the issue.
Knowing the Bible well, becoming this or that doctor — these are not the issue.
This alone is the issue. Until you pass through that standard, you cannot become a true filial son, a true filial daughter, or a true loyal subject.
The God Who Comes Whose Heart Is Communed
I once thought thus: there are the words “filial son“ and "filial daughter,” and a man who has rendered loyalty is called a "loyal subject"—but what should a woman who has rendered loyalty be called? There is no fitting word for the woman who has rendered loyalty. There is a “faithful wife,” but….
If there are the words “filial son“ and "filial daughter,” I think there should also be the words “loyal man” and “loyal woman” hereafter. And why is there only “faithful wife” and not “faithful husband”? What Heaven desires is not only loyal subjects.
Heaven desires both a man who is a loyal subject and a woman who is a loyal subject. Here, filial son and filial daughter are central. The filial son and daughter are the first foothold toward Heaven.
The bridegroom and the bride are the second stage. In the East, there are the three bonds and five relationships, and these are at the closest distance to the Will of the providence of restoration.
Then what kind of nation will be the nation that God will bless and love hereafter? It is not a nation in which only faithful wives live. It is a nation in which faithful husbands also live.
Where in the world is there such a contradiction?
Where is the law that only women must be faithful? Men must also be faithful. The time will come hereafter when the chastity of men is highly esteemed. Men, too, must keep chastity.
The principle of the great creation is not so confused. If we say a man is plus, that plus is absolute.
If, being absolute, there is no noun “faithful husband,” well and good. But it is not so. Jesus, as the absolutely faithful husband, kept chastity before God for 2,000 years. Therefore, the heart of the faithful wife who can stand before that heart that has kept chastity for 2,000 years must also be likewise.
Today on this earth, there is no faithful wife whom God can bless and no faithful husband. Therefore, Jesus must come again. There is no filial son or daughter whom Heaven can bless. This is because they can appear only after the Marriage Supper of the Lamb is finished. And there is no loyal subject — male or female — whom God can bless. There must come a world in which Jesus holds sovereignty. This is the highest hope God has had until now.
When this hope is realized so that God, having set up true filial sons and daughters, true loyal subjects, and faithful wives, can pour out before them all the resentment and pent-up grief at the level of heart accumulated over 6,000 years and say, “My children, avenge me!” — That is the time when God's Will can be brought to its completion. From that time, the judgment unfolds.
Yet, except for the loyal subject Heaven publicly recognizes, Satan will not consent to be judged. Without the filial son and daughter Heaven publicly recognizes, Satan cannot be judged; without the faithful man and woman Heaven publicly recognizes, Satan cannot be judged.
You — to reign as kings together with Christ?
The words sound fine. But in the words “together with Christ,” there are the twists and turns of 6,000 years. God has come forth together with this history. Jesus too has come forth together with this history for 2,000 years.
In that heart, the bloody twists and turns are deeply pierced. A bride who does not understand this, whose heart is not communed, is useless.
Therefore, today we have stood up. Where lies the purpose of setting out on a road others say is no road? It lies in pouring out our utmost devotion to bring to fruition God's liberation from han.
Therefore, I pray: “There is no loyal subject of Heaven on this earth, so make me a loyal subject. There is no filial son, so make me a filial son. There is no faithful husband, so make me a faithful husband.” Even God will be exhilarated.
Then what must one do to become a filial son, a loyal subject, a faithful wife? One must know God's heart. Until one knows the heart, it cannot be.
Jesus spoke of the Last Days. He said that even the angels do not know the day and the hour, and the Son does not know. That is to say, this can be known only at the time when the Lord comes again. We must know this and pass beyond it.
Try praying for a hundred days, with the heart wondering how we can ever know all the matters of God's heart. Pray for a hundred, a thousand days. Will you go to heaven when you die? You absolutely cannot.
Whether my words are lies, try dying. Try offering every kind of devotion. God cannot come and go. Yet on the day when one letter that can move the heavenly world up from the earth, that can commune in heart, comes flying, God comes and goes.
We are fallen descendants who have betrayed God's heart. Do you know what our ancestors betrayed? Do you think they merely ate of the one fruit of good and evil they were asked not to eat? By no means. They betrayed their hearts. They betrayed God's heart. Therein lies the issue.
What heart did they betray?
They betrayed the heart of the ideal of creation, the heart of hope.
Do you know the purpose of receiving grace? The deeper one enters into grace, the more one grasps God's heart through experience. One enters a position where, even without studying the Bible, one can clarify it through the heart. From this, we may know that the purpose is to grasp God's heart through experience.
Among those called filial son or daughter, faithful wife, or loyal subject, is there anyone who became so by being slipshod or doing it just adequately? There is not one such person. They are people who, even at the cost of having their necks fall off and their lives cut off, would not let go of their hearts for their parents. It is the same before Heaven.
That is why today we have stood up. You have set out following this teacher who is cursed. What I desire is that, even at the cost of being sacrificed and dying before the enemy of this earth, the chastity of Heaven's loyal subject be left behind. I wish to leave behind the chastity of the filial son. I wish to leave behind the chastity of the faithful wife.
If, standing on this standard, there is one who comes forward at the level of the heart saying, “God! You are my Father, You are my Master, You are my Bridegroom” — there is none who can judge him, none who can govern him.
You all know well that on the recent Easter Sunday, I declared “the Day of the Resurrection of Heart.” It is fine if you do not know the Bible well.
What explanation is needed concerning the father and the mother?
But the heart that goes ahead of any explanation, the heart that can refuse any explanation—this must be there.
Unless such an entanglement of heart is bound with Heaven, you will not avoid the seat of judgment. When you meet the Lord who comes hereafter, if you do not feel such a working of the heart, such a feeling that explodes and wells up that one cannot suppress, you will not pass over the ridge of judgment. Absolutely, you will not pass over.
What is God's final purpose, which has dragged on this history for 6,000 years since the Fall of human beings? It is to find sons and daughters whom He can bless with heaven and earth at stake, to find loyal subjects, and to find faithful wives.
This work will be accomplished centering on one region of the earth. In that place, Heaven will be moved by the words proclaimed in the place of Heaven through the heart.
If those words are propagated to the hearts of those with a true conscience, their hearts will be stirred, and on the day when that movement unfolds upon the earth, the satanic world will collapse.
Our Resolve and the Path We Must Walk
You who have, beneath such a goal, raised the beacon today toward the world, toward heaven and earth—having put up the awesome signboard “Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity,” we must absolutely not collapse in this single age.
We must, piercing through the heart of God the Father, prepare the substance to go through the individual, through the family, through the society, through the world, and to the cosmos.
If we cannot, we must take the signboard down. The man who cries out here also does not engage in such a charade.
That is why this teacher who stands here, whom you have followed until now, has set the goal of his life on breaking through this road.
Of course, even if I am alone, I must break through, but with how many people will I be able to break through—that is the issue.
Since these are steps taken to resolve before Heaven, those who wish to believe like spectators do not come. You must resolve with life and death at stake. I have already crossed several such ridges.
Now that the words have come out, I have, in the unseen world, fought countless turning-over fights, with my life at stake like a gambler at the gambling table.
Since the fight unfolded from the day Satan invaded this earth, we must bear the responsibility of gathering everything from the fight in the spiritual world to the fight in the physical world, and we must prepare the substance to gather it up. Otherwise, it absolutely cannot be gathered.
When you pray, if Satan comes and accuses you, shout, “What kind of words are these to a true son or daughter of heart who is praying?” Then they will retreat. Try it, whether it is true or a lie.
Our goal is to break through the gate of the bridegroom and bride and become filial sons and daughters. To break through the gate of filial son and daughter and become loyal subjects. So we must fight.
We must avenge ourselves on the enemies. Since the enemy whom God cannot allow tramples upon the earth, we must conquer the earth. This does not mean that we should fight with a sword or gun. With truth, wherever we go, those who long for the heart will come over.
Those who wish to become loyal subjects for Heaven, those who wish to become filial sons and daughters for Heaven, and those who wish to become faithful wives for Heaven will increase. They will increase. They will surely increase, transcending bloodlines and transcending East and West. I have confidence. Therefore, we must fight against the entire world.
Since God exists as the inner Subject of eternal love and eternal life, when you come into contact with that love and are pierced by that heart, you can lead any number of revival meetings wherever you go. No preparation is needed.
If one is a true Parent who loves their children, there are several words to counsel their children.
If a parent is pierced with the heart of wishing to save the child who has entered into the seat of death, there are any number of words to counsel that child. And if the child knows that heart, even at one word from the parent, all is understood.
The Way of the Loyal Subject
Today, we have heard much of the Word. But what can connect from this end to that end is not the Word but the heart.
Do you know what the words “I am the Alpha and the Omega” mean? Is the Bible made up of Alpha and Omega?
From Genesis to Revelation, every chapter of the sixty-six books is different — how can it be Alpha and Omega? That word is spoken with heart at stake. The heart does not change. It exists eternally as it is. This is the foundation of our life.
Bearing this heart, we must, passing through the seat of the Bridegroom and bride, advance to the seat of the filial son and daughter, the seat of the loyal subject, both man and woman. When one enters such a seat, wherever he goes in heaven and on earth, he does not starve.
Although until now I have lived without a penny, I have never been hungry. Even when I was driven into prison, someone, or other, was made to bring food. You must know this.
Pouring out all your strength, praying with sweat and blood, you must not adopt the heart of saying, “Ah, Father, I prayed a graceful prayer today.” Even after you offer devotion to the utmost, you must not say, “Now this is enough, surely.” Then grace will be lost as time goes on. Therefore, you must always reflect upon yourself as a sinner and stand in the position of feeling the historical record of sin.
Those who insist that they themselves are outstanding cannot lift up their heads before those who come forth with a good heart, those who come forth with a true heart. Even God is so. God too bows His head before one who pours out all his devotion and comes forth with a heart of loyalty.
Even parents bow their heads before the true filial son. Even the Bridegroom bows his head before the true bride.
Do not insist, “I have believed and done thus.” The man who speaks here is also not boasting. But before the satanic world, I have the confidence to stand boldly.
We Unification believers, even after offering sacrifice before the altar built up of hope, must take the posture of realizing that we have been insufficient. Such a posture is the posture for the heavenly people to take.
After offering all devotion, those without repentance and realization, saying, “Ah, this should have been done thus,” are pushed out from there. They cannot enter the deep world of God's heart. They cannot open the gate of God's heart and move all the treasures of heaven and earth.
God awaits the day when sons and daughters of such repentance and realization appear on this earth. Think for a moment.
If God exists, would it be so or not?
Where lies God's highest purpose, sought through 6,000 years? After establishing a nation of heavenly sovereignty, God wishes to teach its people the Way of the loyal subject. But go to the heavenly nation. There is no such thing as instruction telling you, “This kind of person is a loyal subject; go this way.” There is no instruction saying, “If you do thus and so, you will surely become Heaven's loyal subject.” There is no instruction saying, “The nation Heaven seeks to establish is such-and-such, and the enemies must be subdued in this manner.”
Have we today received the teaching of the loyal subject?
We have not. Have we received the teaching of filial son and daughter, that “God's family must be such, and to become true filial son and daughter who attend True Parents in God's stead, you must do this and that”? We have not. Going further, have we received the teaching of the Bridegroom and bride, “You must be such-and-such for me to proclaim you as my beloved bride before heaven and earth”? We have not. Does the Bible teach such things? It does not.
If the road we must walk is such, we must, regardless of life and death, break through such a road. If this is the destiny of fallen humankind, what shall we do?
We cannot enjoy today in mirth and merriment. We are not a humankind that can.
If we spend an hour today rejoicing, our descendants, clenching their fists, beating the ground, fearing the seat of judgment, will lament.
If you are concerned about that, you must shun the seat of an hour's ease today and struggle to know where the heart of Heaven is.
Therefore, we must know not only the splendid Jesus that the 2,000-year history of belief has set up, but also the heart of Jesus growing up as the carpenter's son in Joseph's family, the heart of Jesus persecuted by the Pharisees during the three-year course of public life, and the heart of Jesus driven by the people of Israel.
Do you know the heart of Jesus?
Those who sold Jesus were the disciples who had followed him for three years.
You must know that those who ate and lived with him became the apostles of betrayal who sold their teacher, and you must know the heart of Jesus, who was betrayed.
The Heart of God and the Heart of Jesus
Today, the entire Christianity of the world is not a matter of revolution. It must be overturned. It must be fundamentally overturned.
If it cannot be done by human ethics, then by relying on the heavenly law of kinship, it must be overturned. We have arrived at a wonderful time when, only by setting it on a normal track, it can be done.
The heart of Jesus is driven, the heart of Jesus who, hungry in Bethany, cursed the fig tree without fruit (Mark 11:12), and the heart of Jesus who lamented, “I have a baptism to be baptized with; how I am constrained until it is accomplished!” (Luke 12:50), the heart of Jesus, who said, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me”—do you know?
Do you think he said those words with a smiling face?
By no means. You must know that he said such words while swallowing his tears.
What is this trial set against the Jesus sent at the cost of 4,000 years of labor? Do you know the heart of Jesus, who said to those who tested him, “Woe to you, hypocritical scribes and Pharisees”? Do you know?
You may seem to know, but do you understand the life of Jesus, which moved with utterly unknowable content?
When Mary Magdalene poured ointment upon the feet of the unmarried Jesus and washed them with her hair, those who publicly recognized this—raise your hands. Those who praised it, saying, “Oh, Hallelujah, Amen”—raise your hands. It was the life of Jesus that broke one's heart.
Throughout history, we have known only the Jesus who is exalted, but we probably did not know the heart of the Jesus who was trampled and driven, the Jesus nailed on the cross, the Jesus driven as a traitor of the people.
Jesus was scorned as a traitor of the people, a destroyer of the religious and social order, and a madman. Was he not? Then have you ever thought, “How did you come thus and go thus?
If only I had become at least the garment Jesus wore, I might have heard one word He spoke alone.” Or have you thought, “If only I had become the cushion on which Jesus could rest, I might have felt the inner heart of weary Jesus...”?
Peter, John, James, the twelve disciples — less than a stick, less than a blade of grass, less than a stone — having done all manner of things, having had him killed, then so-and-so... I think that, even when I go to the spirit world, I would not be able to call Paul or Peter “teacher.” When I meet them, I have a heart of wishing to grab them by the lapels and demand, “Why did you have Jesus hung on the cross?”
If I say so, you will misunderstand. Well, since I am already called a heretic, that is fine. But history flows according to fact, and Heaven leads forth according to the law of righteousness.
You who have gathered here, let us not hear it said that we are a Jesus mob shaken by the wind. Heaven lamented over John the Baptist. Even Jesus lamented, “Are you a reed shaken by the wind?” (Matt. 11:17), “Is this the figure of one prepared for thirty years in the wilderness with locusts and wild honey?”
We are sinners beyond all words. Even if we filled heaven and earth with tears and repented, we are sinners for whom there is no way to fully repent, sinners who can find no path of forgiveness even if we try.
Yet for such sinners, there is a path of forgiveness, and that is precisely God's providence of salvation, in which He bears the heart of restoration.
Knowing this, henceforth we must hold fast to the God who was rejected by Adam of old and weep.
Have you ever wept, calling out, “My Father! Where are You?” toward the God who was indignant, looking upon the fallen Adam's family?
Have you wept, holding fast to the God who, after 1,600 years, had set up Noah and made him build the ark with all his devotion and labor, yet, owing to Ham's mistake, could not after all fulfill the Will and grieved without limit?
Have you tried to know the heart of God, who, after seeking out and establishing Moses in the very palace, gathering up the chosen Israelites, having them cross the Red Sea, and dragging them out into the wilderness, suffered every kind of humiliation to lead the unbelieving people?
Have you tried to know the heart of God, who, after such unspeakable hardship, sought to lead them into the blessed land of Canaan, but watched even Moses fall?
Going further, the Messiah — the historic subject of hope, the providential subject of purpose — promised through countless prophets and saints over 4,000 years, was sent to this earth, and they killed him. Have you tried to know the heart of God who looked upon Jesus and thus killed?
The Path of Truly Receiving God's Blessing
The place to which one can go only through the heart is the Kingdom of Heaven. Even Jesus is in Paradise.
Do you know what Paradise is?
It is a waiting room. The waiting room awaits the train to the Kingdom of Heaven. To bring to its conclusion on earth the matter of the heart was Jesus' responsibility on this earth, but he went without bringing that responsibility to its conclusion; therefore, he must come again and bring that responsibility to its conclusion.
Only then can the gate of Paradise be done away with. Only when the gate of the Kingdom of Heaven is opened can the satanic world be subdued.
He who has not completed the Kingdom of Heaven of the mind on earth cannot realize the Kingdom of Heaven in the heavens. He who has not found the eternal welfare of rest at the level of the heart on the earth cannot find the eternal welfare in the heavens.
Have you found such a state of rest at the level of the heart?
You are all multitudes who, without having found that welfare, struggle like orphans. Therefore, viewed against God's heart, your heart has no position. With no position, there is no value. How can the world be linked before a being without value?
Therefore, there must come forth a multitude that, as true faithful husbands and wives, as true filial sons and daughters, as true loyal men and women, can stand in place of Heaven's heart and enjoy the ideal of life, and they must multiply good sons and daughters on this earth.
When Adam and Eve were blessed in the Garden of Eden, was it to multiply children of sin in the satanic world?
It was not. It was to multiply sons and daughters with the chastity of the loyal subject, the chastity of the filial son and daughter, and the chastity of the faithful wife.
God yearns for the second loyal subjects and filial sons and daughters thus born. If such sons and daughters do not come forth, this earth eternally becomes Satan's.
Then why can the sons and daughters of the satanic world not be vouched for by God as eternally His sons and daughters? Because the bond at the level of the heart has not been brought to completion. Because circumstances are not communicated. This is the issue.
When you, having believed in Jesus and received grace, pray before the Lord, you must have the feeling that you do not know whether you are inside or outside your body.
You must experience the world of the heart from which you do not wish to step away forever. When you are embraced in His bosom, you must feel as if you were with Father and Mother.
If one is a loyal man or woman, one must advance to the place where God forgets His dignity and holds His neck and weeps aloud.
If there were a loyal subject who, gaining victory in the place between life and death, subdued the satanic world and laid the foundation of God's victory, would God have toward him the feeling, “I am the King, and you are the subject”?
God would forget His own dignity, take his hand, weep aloud with tears of joy, and bless him: “All things in heaven and on earth are yours. When you rejoice, I will rejoice.”
Only when sons and daughters who can do thus come forth on this earth will heaven and earth be overturned.
If such a place comes to be on this earth, that place will hereafter become the center of the world; if such a people come forth, that people will hereafter rule the world.
Unification Members Who Must Establish a Tradition of Loyalty and Filial Piety
But, as said above, Heaven first drives such people into the place of sorrow. He drives them into the place of suffering. He thrusts them into the historical place of adversity. Why? Because God comes searching, bearing the entire bundle of suffering. Therefore, the very place where worldwide suffering takes refuge is the place where God's bundle of suffering is unbundled and settled and the place where a new foundation is pioneered.
Today, the Korean people are said to be the most pitiful people in the world, but I place the foremost hope in the Korean people. Although the democratic world and the communist world stand in confrontation, these people are not pitiful. Wait and see for several years. The Korean people are absolutely not pitiful.
If there is a heavenly movement, these people's lives. The history will be the history of these people, and the world will become the world of these people. This is not my word. Knowing it, since it is so, I speak so.
The fulfillment of God's liberation from han, who follows behind history, has come to be from the back alleys of sorrow. From there, the foundation of joy has been built, and the foothold has been paved.
That is why Korea today is becoming an issue in the world. Currently, it is becoming an issue in the entire world's Christianity. Hereafter, the Unification Church will rise as a worldwide issue. This is not boasting. Wait and see. Those who pray will know. Those spiritually attuned testify. If they do not, they fall under the heavenly law.
Therefore, you who have gathered here must, from now on, resolve firmly. We must not let it end this way. We must have the conviction that, whatever persecution may come before us, we will not make it an issue.
Only one thing — even at the cost of our falling, we must establish the tradition of loyalty and filial piety that we wish to set up heaven-rooted.
If only we set up the tradition of loyal man and loyal woman, the tradition of faithful husband and faithful wife, and the tradition of filial son and filial daughter, the Unification Church would fulfill its mission.
In setting up the tradition, we must set up a formulaic tradition that explains, “If you do this and that, it becomes thus” — not “this may also be,” but “this is.”
Humanity, wandering in longing for the heart, must certainly pass through the gate of this tradition.
However much they betray and oppose, they cannot fail to pass through this gate.
The man who speaks here so believes. He also so practices. You who have gathered here also recognize that it is so. If you cannot recognize it, all of you, leave. If you think it is a lie, leave. You will be a hindrance.
We must shed tears. If that heart is not grasped through experience, we must shed tears. If that heart is not grasped through experience, we must pray through the night. We must pray even while fasting.
Only one with such a heart will gain the final victory and will remain in the final judgment.
If you become such, God will, through you, lay the seat of rest, and the world will move by you. If you have felt and known this, you must now have something to say before the 2.8 billion of humanity.
Now, to become Heaven's loyal subject, one must avenge Heaven's enemy. To become a filial son, one cannot do so while leaving the parents' enemy in place; the enemy must be removed. The faithful wife is the same.
Unless we resolve, with eternal life at stake, to advance until the day this enemy is avenged — unless we fight — you cannot cross over the resentful ridge of the Fall.
Only when this ridge is crossed will God at last pour out all His sorrowful heart and, lifting both hands, bless you, calling, “Loyal subject! Filial son! Faithful wife!” — those for whom He has longed for 6,000 years — and the Triune God will be able to rest. Until the standard of heart is thus settled, He cannot rest.
Knowing such things, this evening I hope you feel how precious each one of you on this earth today is.
Father, we have come to know that we are unworthy to call You “Father, Father.” There are several kinds of fathers. There is the father of another, there is a stepfather, and there is the father of an enemy. We do not desire such a father; we desire the True Father.
We know that, if we can commune with the heart of that Father, much prayer is not needed. We know that the word “Father!” is everything, that with that the heart of all can be communed.
We know that in that place, embraced in feelings of gratitude and awe, we can hold all of creation and gaze upon and console it at the meeting point of joy and grief.
We have come to know that the word “Father” is an astonishing noun. But, Father! We earnestly desire and beseech, Father, that we may not become sons and daughters who only call the name, but sons and daughters who hold fast to the Father grasped through experience at the level of the heart.
By what bond have we gathered here to speak such words and to hear them?
Because we have not been able to halt our struggling footsteps in the resentful course of restoration, today again we are gathered in this place hearing such words.
Please permit us not to forget that this came about not because we wished it, but through the unending labor of Heaven from behind.
We have come to know that our hearts move not by their own creative consciousness, but always in a passive position. We earnestly desire and beseech that we may become sons and daughters who can know that, because we are not at ease unless we move thus, the reason we have come to be in this place is that Heaven, even within suffering, has stretched forth the hand of love upon us to make us avoid the place that is not at ease.
Your sons and daughters gathered here today have already resolved. Since we have gathered with the heart of wishing to offer all our red hearts before Father, without longing for any reward or recompense, with only loyal devotion, to give everything to Father — please take this heart and boast of it before all the heavens, and do with it as You will. We earnestly desire and beseech that we may become such ones.
This evening, some could not attend in this place, and many of Your sons and daughters, from lonely places, shed tears and pleaded. Unless you uphold them, they are pitiful; please personally protect them.
We earnestly entreat that You permit them all to fill in the footprints of sorrow that have been left in the Last Days and to become the joyful companions whom Father can hold fast in heart and console.
We commend all things to You; please govern. We earnestly entreat that You bless what has been spoken today so that it may become a help to the lives of these, and we have prayed in the name of the Lord. Amen.