San Francisco Church, U.S.A.
The people living upon this earth, every one of them without exception, all hope to receive God’s blessing. They hope to be blessed, centered on themselves. And the person who has received God’s blessing comes to hope that that blessing will reach his neighbors or his nation.
So tonight I should like to speak under the title, “What is the process by which God comes to give us His blessing?”
The First Condition for Being Able to Receive the Blessing
People easily use the word blessing. But they do not know how much hardship and suffering lie on the underside of this blessing and how difficult the process is up to the point where it comes to be.
The One who gives us the blessing is God. And the ones who receive that blessing are we human beings—you yourselves. Yet in the fallen world, unless the human being sets up a fitting condition by which he can be blessed, God cannot bless the human being.
We can find a good example of this through Noah’s time. Before he was blessed, Noah received a command to be wholly faithful while undergoing extreme hardship over the long period of a hundred and twenty years.
The period he toiled to set up that condition was not twelve months or twelve years, but a period of a hundred and twenty years. Moreover, the command he received was to build an ark not by the sea but on a mountaintop.
When Noah received such a command from God, all the people were skeptical. It was thought to be a kind of mad fancy (狂想). Because the people of that time thought such a thing could not be dreamed of, they ate and drank and indulged in pleasure as usual, living while forgetting God. But to Noah, God’s command was absolute.
No one truly understood the heart of such a Noah. Only he himself knew. His wife could not understand it, and his children could not know Noah’s circumstances. How much more, then, his relatives—can you not readily imagine what they must have said?
The circumstance God required of Noah was to give up his relationship with the whole of humankind completely. To carry out such a command of God, Noah had to cut off all bonds. He could not love his wife or his children more than God’s command.
Noah could choose nothing apart from the command of God, which was absolute and could not be shaken in the slightest, like a rock. How would the people of that time have treated such a Noah? That you can readily imagine.
In fact, at that time, the one who was his wife ought to have followed her husband. It is not recorded in the Bible, but at that time his whole family forsook Noah, so he undertook the building of the ark alone. Noah’s family refused Noah’s plan.
They opposed his will. Had he been able to get even a little cooperation from those close to him, he could easily have endured the persecution coming from outside. But, in a position where he could not, Noah, passing through ten years, twenty years, thirty years… a hundred and twenty years, and becoming an old man, came to be known to the world as a madman.
At that time, only one person, Noah alone, followed God. All the people apart from Noah came, as the days passed, gradually to depart far from God.
So at that time, from God’s standpoint, there was no choice but to choose the one person, Noah. God had no other way but to rely upon Noah’s faithfulness. He could find no other foothold upon the earth.
God needed, above all, a foothold. The foothold God needed received extreme persecution in the world. The world repeated its rebellion toward that foothold and toward God. The condition of such a foothold was set up by Noah. Therefore, God could, taking that foothold as a foundation, judge the world. This is no more than one example.
Before God blesses the individual, or the family, or the clan, or the nation, or the world—to say nothing of anything else—that comes to bear Heaven’s mission and responsibility upon the earth, He first makes sure whether they can endure any hardship whatsoever. Therefore, the one who has taken on Heaven’s mission must fight, and in that fight he must without fail win. You must know that this is the first condition required before being blessed.
The Pass of Trial and Suffering
Let us examine Abraham again. God commanded Abraham to depart from Ur of the Chaldeans, his beloved homeland. For Abraham, there was no path apart from the path of obeying God’s command. He could not help but go to a strange foreign land he had never once visited. And yet he believed God alone.
Because Abraham in this way was wholly faithful toward God, God could set him up as the center of the providence.
God can choose some individuals only in a position where He does not receive Satan’s accusation. Therefore, the chosen individual must have escaped Satan’s accusation. This is the condition God requires of the very first individual. You must know that this principle applies in the same way in the providence of today.
It was the same in Jacob’s case. In order for Jacob to receive the blessing God had promised, he had to go to Haran, the symbolic land of Satan. He had to set up a condition of sacrifice. He had to undergo hardly endurable drudgery for twenty-one years. And only then, receiving in the land of Haran, which symbolizes Satan, the name Israel, which holds the meaning of victory, he came to return to Canaan, which symbolizes the land of the heavenly world. But he and his family of some seventy had to set out on yet another wanderer’s path for the drudgery of Egypt. This is the trial at the clan level.
They underwent hardship in Egypt for four hundred years. Only upon the foundation of having gone through such drudgery could God push forward a greater providence, by which He could restore the Israelite people to the land of Canaan under Moses’ leadership. But the course of trial and suffering grew harsher the further it went.
The Israelite people had to cross an ever harsher path of trial and suffering to establish the foundation to greet the Messiah. Yet the Israelite people, chosen by God at that time, did not know the reason they themselves had to walk the course of suffering in the restoration of the heavenly world that was to be realized, centered on the Messiah.
Had the Israelite people at that time known the reason it had to be so, and, after setting up the people-level foundation, greeted the Messiah upon the national foundation and become one with him, the history of humankind today would be utterly changed.
But, unfortunately, the Israelite people did not fully carry out their mission, and they nailed Jesus Christ to the cross.
So we have come to be able to move only in the direction of realizing, spiritually, a national and cosmic foundation. Because the Israelite people in this way did not fully carry out their mission, after Jesus, the Christian believers had to face hardship and trials.
So Christianity had to move to the Roman Empire, the land of Satan. And so Christianity, by courageously enduring hardship amid the persecution of the Roman Empire together with the spiritual Messiah, accomplished a new foundation by which it could carry out a worldwide restoration, even if only spiritually.
In fact, Jesus should not have died as a sacrificial offering upon the summit of Calvary. Had it not become so, the saints who followed him could have entered the Roman Empire together with the living Jesus within forty years.
Until such content was revealed to us today, there was almost no one who knew the heavenly providence. Had Jesus not died, he could have won not only spiritually but actually, achieving victory on both sides.
The Roman Empire of that time was known as a worldwide empire. The Roman Empire was the center of the whole world and was in a position symbolizing the whole world. Had the multitude who followed Jesus at that time attended to the living Jesus as their center and gone forward, they could well have subdued the Roman Empire, and there, again overcoming worldwide trial and suffering, could have completely achieved the will of worldwide restoration.
The Meaning of the Blessing God Has Given
History repeats in principle. And while doing so, history is preparing one dramatic day, one day of the end of the world, on which the purpose of human history is achieved. That is, it moves in the direction of arranging things in the same state as at the time of Jesus’ first coming.
During this, God does not simply remain still. He moves in the direction of forming better conditions and an atmosphere, and a better environment, to set up a religious focal point with a new vitality. He has prepared everything by which a new religion can be born, setting up freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion.
This is why democracy, as a new political form by which a free world can be built, came into being. We must clearly know such a fact.
The United States of America today is in the same position as the Roman Empire of two thousand years ago. America, which may be called the Rome of the twentieth century, must not be like the Rome of the first century, which boasted only of its culture. Nor must it strive only to dominate other nations.
God’s blessing is absolutely public. That blessing is not for some individual alone, nor for some family alone, nor for some nation alone, nor for some world alone. God’s blessing is for the whole universe.
You American brothers gathered in this place today must know how much hardship God has received until He gives a great blessing upon this earth, until He prepares this place at this moment.
Now a great ideal must, in truth, be born upon this earth. A great ideology that the whole world is one brotherhood must be born.
Let us examine recent world history. After the Second World War, the tendency of the whole world inclined in the direction of granting independence to all nations and peoples. The history of humankind, which sought to be set out truly and rightly, was destroyed by the fight between the two brothers, Cain and Abel.
Cain killed his younger brother Abel. In this age, in which such a tragedy of human history must be restored, brotherly love must be set up again on a worldwide footing.
The brothers and sisters of the Unification Church, who have set out to carry on the Principle Movement (원리운동), must know the fact that God has shed much sweat and tears and blood to bless us.
Therefore, just as God has done so for us, we too have the responsibility to do so. We have already resolved that we will not spare tears and sweat and blood for the sake of our comrades.
We must share the blessing we have received with all people.
If America does not share the blessing it receives today with all the people of the world, and if you cannot shed tears and sweat and blood for the people of the whole world, then all the nations of the world will rebel against you. And you yourselves too will perish—this you must clearly know.
Therefore, you must, by taking the lead and setting the example, become a band that is a model in giving everything you have for the sake of all the people of the world.
The former U.S. President Kennedy, whom you respect, set up a new pioneering spirit. This pioneering spirit is precisely that which symbolizes this age. Further, he founded the Peace Corps, which could lead in the age of the Kingdom of Heaven and God’s providence.
We Must Serve All Humankind
In receiving God’s blessing, there is now, unlike in the past, one difference in the method.
In the past, to receive God’s blessing, one had to forsake everything one had and go to a strange land. But today one must forsake nothing whatever. We of today must take everything we have and share it. This is goodness.
In your giving, there is one fine principle. It is you yourselves, holding God’s love and heart, who carry out the role of a servant. In heart, hold God’s heart, but in body, use the body of a servant. And, going to seek humankind, you must give everything you have.
What is the most precious thing you have?
You must be able to give it without any regret, without hesitation. The most precious possession you have is your tears and sweat and blood. You must shed sweat for the sake of all things. You must sprinkle your blood for the sake of Heaven. You must shed your tears for the sake of humankind. This is the motto of the Principle Movement.
We must be able to share these things freely. Only then can we become one in spirit and become one in heart (심정).
Furthermore, we must seek the lost true children and true brothers, the true family and the true nation, the true world. To restore such true things is not an easy and simple matter. The true thing is not found easily. Where it is found easily, happiness cannot be discovered.
We have had the blessing of Heaven robbed away to the satanic world. Because that satanic world belongs to Cain, Abel must restore the satanic world through Cain. So Jacob had to serve Esau. Jesus, too, had to restore everything through serving the chosen people. Therefore, you must serve all people. This is the formula for restoration.
Those within Heaven’s realm of blessing must help those who have not entered the realm of blessing. You must be able to set others before you. Only then can you occupy the best place. Only when you help them and set them in front and push them forward can they reach the destination.
Let us take one example here. However blessed a nation America may be, America as a single nation alone cannot achieve the final purpose of the providence of restoration.
To achieve that final purpose, it must help all the poor people of other nations. It must go forward, setting suffering humankind in front and pushing them from behind.
In fact, America today is drawing near to achieving that purpose. But for my part, I should wish that more of America’s budget were spent for the sublime purpose of helping the people of the whole world.
I think the relationship between America and Vietnam today is a good example. It seems it has no relation whatever to you, but in reality, they and you are entangled by some relation. Such is the age of today.
So America is helping all the regions where problems are arising. You must treat such lands with the same sense of responsibility as your land. You must serve all humankind.
The Principle of Mission First
Do you wish to become sons and daughters who receive God’s love?
God has come seeking you through a place of unspeakable sacrifice. He has walked a path of forsaking everything to seek you, who can achieve the final purpose. God has come seeking you while sacrificing the most precious things. Thus, God has received infinite suffering while giving all of Himself infinitely.
Yet in what place have you been standing?
You have been standing in a place of seeking to receive the blessing. Then have you indeed had any resolve to receive hardship together with God? To become true sons and daughters of God, we must awaken for the sake of one new realization. Further, we must equip ourselves with every preparation for a new practice.
Then, when God’s ultimate purpose is achieved and you come to receive the blessing, can you forsake everything you have held up to now without any lingering attachment? Can you forsake your property, your children, and your family? In the end, can you forsake even yourself for the sake of the whole world?
Can you offer up your children and wife, and your husband, and even your life? That is what I am asking. Whatever hardship there is in such a process, God has walked that path to seek you. To walk such a path, God did not compromise with anything whatsoever.
If the 180 million American people today were equipped with every preparation to give the most precious things they have for the sake of all humankind, for a sublime and sacred purpose, the whole world could be restored in a single morning. But the present state of America today is appearing somewhat differently from what we hope.
So you, who have been chosen as the pioneers of the Principle Movement, must pioneer a model path for the sake of the American brothers and sisters. In fact, the path this Teacher has walked up to now was such a path.
Once I forsook my parents. When I was in prison, my parents came to me and urged me to give up the work I was doing. Because that was just like stabbing me with a knife, I refused their request on the spot. Just after the Liberation of 1945, I was living with my family in South Korea. But when I received God’s command, I realized the fact that it was not good to live there.
So I had to leave South Korea. Leaving my whole family behind, I had to go, all alone, to North Korea, which the communists had occupied.
God always thinks of Himself last. He always thinks first of you who live upon this earth. God does not put the work for His own sake first.
Forgetting Himself, He first worries over and is anxious for and loves you who are upon this earth. This teacher, too, had to walk the same path, following God the Father. What I love most and what is closest to me must be accepted last. Whatever happens, one must go forward by the principle of mission first.
I had an elder brother who truly loved me. He had some degree of spiritual experience, and among my family, only that one elder brother understood my mission, even if dimly.
No one apart from that elder brother knew that I had the will to raise a new movement that could present the final answer before Heaven and earth and the mission concerning the Principle. But I loved my family.
I loved my mother and my brothers. Nevertheless, I could not tell them, ahead of others, the astonishing truth concerning the Principle. I could not reveal the Principle to them ahead of others. This was because, before the center was decided, the surrounding four directions had first to be equipped.
So, to come forward before God’s standard, I had to form a bond with others and further with the world, ahead of my family. The people of the whole world had to receive the Principle ahead of my family. Before the center is decided, the surroundings must first be decided.
America, Which Must Become the Foothold for World Restoration
I attended to people truly, as I would attend to my father and mother. Further, to set up a foundation for the restoration of society and nation, I treated even strangers in the same way.
Under such a principle, I could not worry only about my nation. Even amid the harshest persecution, my prayer and concern were not for Korea. I did my utmost to send missionaries to Japan and America.
At the time of sending a missionary to Japan, it was a time when normal diplomatic relations had not been established between Korea and Japan. For this reason, the missionary had to cross over to Japan in a small boat, without going through normal procedures.
So you can well imagine how much hardship we underwent in sending a single missionary to this America. At that time, for us to send a missionary to America was something no one could even think of. Even in such an environment, I resolved that I must send someone to sow the seed of the Principle in America, and I spared no toil day and night.
The principle of the providence of restoration is to seek inward from the outside to the inside. Therefore, for America to receive a blessing of glory from God, the will of providence must work so that it seeks inward from the outside to the inside.
The work must not be done starting from America. This is your responsibility. Because this is the position, you must set out on a far journey. Your life and death depend upon this mission.
For the restoration of America, for the restoration of the whole world, and for the restoration of the universe, your family is not the issue. Your pride is not the issue. Without sacrifice, a great work cannot be accomplished. I see that the time has now come for America to awaken anew. A new dawn must come to the land of America.
You must take responsibility for all the states in America. Your activity must expand from this state even to other states. Though your numbers are limited, each one of you must fully carry out this responsibility.
Do you know what will happen if you in America fail to carry out this responsibility in America?
Should that happen, America, which is in Abel’s position, will receive hardship through the communist regime, which is in Cain’s position. The whole free camp will undergo tribulation. But if you, feeling such a grave mission, fully carry out the responsibility, you will be able to save democracy, and you will also be able to build freedom. Then the communist world will automatically self-destruct.
The Meaning of the Principle Movement Centered on Korea and America
Seen by God’s providence today, Korea is in a position of having to receive America’s aid in the economic aspect. The relationship between Korea and America today is exactly like the relationship between the kingdom of Judea and the Roman Empire two thousand years ago.
Why must the movement of re-creation set out from a nation like Korea? Its historical ground lies here.
You can discover that this age today has a point of similarity with two thousand years ago, when the greatest thought was revealed in the insignificant nation of Israel. The reason is that the great thought must be spread to the whole world.
Seen in the light of God’s providence, America is the nation that represents the civilization of the Western world. America has achieved such a civilization today through learning, research, and analysis. And upon such a scientific foundation, it has built today’s culture. This I call external civilization.
You too, the more you acquire knowledge upon such a foundation, the more you will achieve worldwide victory.
But with the external thing alone, one cannot satisfy all that humankind requires. There is an inner element that is inevitably required. This inner element and the prosperity of external culture must become one.
As mentioned earlier, the more you acquire scientific knowledge, the more you achieve victory. But, on the contrary, the more one acquires religious or spiritual knowledge, the more one loses material possessions. To put it another way, effort in the analysis and research of science makes humankind live well. But this is in every way only external.
On the contrary, the band that is absorbed in inner civilization—that is, in the spiritual or in religion—comes to lose the external thing.
Do you know why this is so?
The reason is basic. It is because spirit is not matter. Therefore, one nation that had lost all material things had to be chosen from among the nations of the East.
Seen from such a historical standpoint, East and West today face the stage of having to become one. At such a time, we must become one.
In this way, in the Last Days, one nation must appear that can unify the civilization of all humankind into one—that is, that can attain a cosmic completion of spirit and body together. Should that happen, the whole world will surely become rich both spiritually and materially.
It is a fact that many nations in the East hold great expectations of America’s external success. At the same time, you in America must hold expectations toward them for inner success. This is precisely what the Principle Movement means.
You must understand that we stand in this way at a crossing point for unification. As I mentioned at the very beginning, for you to receive God’s blessing, you must overcome much suffering and trial. That is a sacred responsibility for you.
You, who have come to know all such things, must now be able to give the most precious thing you have to the suffering people of the whole world. You must equip yourselves with every preparation to be able to answer before that great calling.
I will say it once more here. You must be able to share your most precious thing not only with the people within the free camp but, widening its scope, even with those within the communist bloc. The final victory lies in our giving infinitely and loving infinitely and sacrificing infinitely for their sake.
Only then will the communists bow their heads and submit before us. Only when such a time can come is the true Kingdom of Heaven at last realized. The Kingdom of Heaven begins precisely from such a place.
I love Korea. But I know well that my mission lies in something greater than Korea. My mission lies worldwide. My prayer and concern, beyond Korea, are concentrated upon the whole world.
In the same way, the American brothers and sisters, too, must not pray only for America or have concern only for America.
To Become God’s True Sons and Daughters
You must not give only to the American people. You must not bear the cross only for the American people. You must bear the cross for the sake of the whole world. You must not weep only for America.
If you shed tears, you must shed tears for the sake of the world. You must shed blood and sweat for the sake of the whole world. You must stand in a position of loving America because you love the world. This alone is your rightful love.
Our limit (限界) is not America. Only by going beyond this America and loving the world can you love the spiritual world. Further, you must love the universe. Only when you unify these two worlds, the spiritual world and the earth, into one is God’s ideal made real. This is your sacred responsibility.
To achieve such a grave charge, you must truly awaken and rearm yourselves. You must set out anew for the sake of the greatest movement.
When you set out, you set out from an individual place, but to achieve that purpose, you must transcend the individual, transcend the nation, and transcend even the world. Only then can you achieve a cosmic victory.
Where do you place the standard of your loyalty?
Do you wish to receive a great blessing? I think that you do. Then can you bear the cross with joy?
What did Jesus say? He said,
“Whoever loves his mother or father or wife or brothers and sisters or children more than me is not worthy of me. Take up your cross and follow me.”
Of course, Jesus was the pioneer who opened a new domain and a new path. You too, to become God’s true sons and daughters, must walk such a path.
The time for cultured people to shed tears is precisely now. The time has come for millionaires to shed tears. This age now requires the tears of able people and intellectuals. It is a time that requires their sweat and their blood. This alone is the one path by which the restoration of the Kingdom of Heaven can be achieved even one day sooner.
You must make that preparation from this very place now. You must advance valiantly to fully carry out your responsibility on such a path.
In fact, you have up to now lived for the sake of the individual. But now your individual life must place its purpose in restoring the universe. You are the pioneers who will change the satanic world into the heavenly world.
So you must advance courageously to break through Satan’s encirclement and pioneer a new path. Only then can you become God’s true sons and daughters.
With this, I will let it stand in place of the words I offer to you, who have met a new day of battle for the realization of the new task.