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1God is calling us to a hopeful future. Those who receive that call follow the path of destiny and not the path of fortune. The path of fortune can change, but the path of destiny cannot. Can you change who your father is or who your siblings are? No, you cannot. They are part of your destiny. God desires to reach and settle in the place that heavenly fortune has determined. History has been developing centered on the path to that place. The starting point of this secure settlement is the True Parents. God has already determined our destiny, which is to become true children with the True Parents at the center. That destiny cannot be changed.
2People hope with all their heart, mind and body that they might finally enter God's direct dominion. Today God has given us not only the mission to work toward realizing this hope and purpose; He is calling us to complete it. To do so, we must restore God's rightful dominion as Lord over us and the creation. We should also praise and thank God for blessing us with His governance. The responsibility to restore God's rightful dominion does not rest with the creation or with the angels in heaven; it is we who must now fulfill that.
3God seeks after each and every one of us. Through us He desires to recover the family, the society, and to expand His domain over the world. However, the path to this goal is still obstructed. Throughout the course of providential history, Heaven came down to earth to find each one of us. Now we as individuals must return to Heaven, but our way is blocked. People have sought to realize goodness, denying worldly things and cutting themselves off from the world. They have striven to find what is original, to recover what has been lost and to bring it back to God. Yet they had to confront their own limitations and have faced an impassable threshold. You should feel God's anguish over this history; you should empathize with Jesus' sorrowful heart. You need to feel God's heart to your very core. During the last six thousand years, He has been going through all manner of suffering and grief to personally find you.
4Even though your field of work may be limited, most important is who is directing your labor. You must work with the conviction that God Himself has called you for the sake of the nation or the world. Although your environment may restrict you, you should believe that you work for the sake of the nation or the world. Even though you are only one person, you ought to work with that conviction. When you receive a work order, the results will vary depending on for whom you are working.
5The path of faith is not easy. Anyone can be called by God, but it is extremely difficult to follow His call. God does not walk behind us; He is always ahead of us. You cannot imagine how fast He moves. He surges so far ahead we can hardly keep pace. Therefore it is hard to come up with a long-term strategy or plan in accord with the providence of restoration. God's providence moves by leaps and bounds. On the basis of our investment of indemnity, it advances from the individual to the family, to the tribe, and so on. It leaps ahead from stage to stage rather than advancing through a steady numerical progression. Therefore if you try to fit your work for God's providence into an annual plan, or a plan based on any other particular time period, you will find yourself frustrated and will fall behind. Considering this, you need to advance on the path of the Will with an earnest heart. You need to constantly adjust your relationship with God, remaining a minus to His plus. You have to find your proper position in the providence and, as you move along, you must adjust to the providential time. However, knowing the proper timing and when to take a particular action is exceedingly difficult.
6You are called for the sake of God and the world. Therefore you should consecrate yourself and apply the knowledge you gained through your education. All of you are commissioned to speak on God's behalf in your own communities, to convey God's love and hope to your neighbors, and to help people work for God and humanity. Utilize your education in your endeavors to awaken the congregations in churches and temples and mobilize them to build a world of peace and freedom with God at the center.
7God called me to save America. When I actually arrived there, you can imagine how earnest and anxious I was. Likewise, when those of you who are here in Korea receive a direction from me, unless you are as earnest as I was when I left Seoul to save America, you can never become my partners in heart. My heart is governed by the principle of self-denial; it does not follow the principle of self-centeredness.
8I have progressed this far despite severe opposition. Such is the path of restoration; such is the history of restoration in the Unification Church to this day. Therefore do not lose your original spirit of loyalty, but follow me all the way, from the individual level all the way to the world level. When you fulfill all your responsibilities before God, He will give you His seal of approval. God will bless you only when He recognizes you as having accomplished your responsibility. You have to remain faithful until you are notified about that blessing. Only then will you advance and share the same realm with me. If you move forward focusing on me, determined to risk even your life on the individual level, the family level and eventually the world level, you will benefit by resembling me and standing in the same position as me.
9When God summons us, we have no right to choose the responsibility we are to assume. Being summoned means that if we are going east and He calls us to go west, we turn around and go west. Simply because we live in the east does not mean we should take directions from those living in the east. We need to take our directions from God, the center of all beings, who represents the standard that is everyone's hope. The person whom God calls must take on the role of His partner and the partner of all things. If God does not call us, we can fulfill our personal responsibility by going in just one direction. However, once He calls us, He will give us missions to go in many directions, even encompassing the whole world. God called me, your teacher, to represent every individual and to connect everybody to Him, the central figure of the world. I will be able to accomplish my mission only when I am qualified to deal with every aspect of life and every direction -- east, west, north and south, plus vertical and horizontal.
10God needs people for various stages: individual, family, tribe, people and nation. So there must be a "chosen people," but what does that mean? It means a people called by God. They are to build the chosen nation, which means a nation called by God. When that chosen nation fulfills God's Will, God's chosen world will come about. Once His Will is accomplished, everyone and everything will return to God and become one. Thus, God is called the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end.
11God is the True Parent of all parents. He is our True Parent, our Heavenly Parent, the King of true families, true nations and the true world. We need to usher in the era of everlasting peace and prosperity in which all people serve and attend Him. There is that Korean song that begins, "Moon, moon, oh bright moon, the moon with which the poet Lee Tae-baek used to play" As the words of the song suggest, our hope is that all humankind will attend the True Parents here on earth for thousands of years. Please understand that each individual's mission and purpose in the Unification Church is to fulfill this hope.
12As leaders whom God has called for the sake of His Will, you must fulfill the responsibilities you are asked to shoulder. The Korean people have to fulfill their calling as Koreans, to become messiahs for the sake of the world. The Korean word so-myeong, contains the Chinese character so (召), which means to call, and myeong (命), which means to receive an order. This "call to receive an order" resembles a marching order in the army. You need to fulfill the mission you are called to with that same unhesitating spirit.
13You cannot imagine how difficult it was for me to climb over each hill in the course of the providence. If anyone says even one word about this, I could weep for a hundred or a thousand years, even after going to the spirit world. So many painful and sorrowful situations have pierced my heart. God wept over Adam and Eve. Yet when I go before God and say, "Here am I, Sun Myung Moon," I would wish to see God shedding tears of joy over the return of His son. God's heart has been filled with unfathomable pain and suffering. Therefore I cannot die until I hear God's own voice say, "Welcome!" as He runs down a stairway of a hundred thousand steps as if He is flying, wraps His arms around me, then climbs back up the forever-long stairway to return to His throne, carrying me in His arms and announcing, "My Will has been accomplished! Aju!" Therefore I can only continue fulfilling the Will on the path of the ironclad Principle that True Parents are destined to walk. In your own path of life as well, you need to establish such a memorable standard as you prepare, during your lifetime on earth, the gift that you will offer to God. Only then can you come close to the Heavenly Parent, because you will be able to claim the right of inheritance enabling you to live with Him and be happy together. Moreover, then you can be given authority in the kingdom of heaven. Please understand this clearly, and walk the path of accepting responsibility throughout your life.
14You need to have a consciousness, that is, an awareness, of yourself, your environment, your nation and the world. Based on a new worldview and with your new awareness, you can clear up and overcome everything and establish Abel's position. Once you have done that, you have to win over Cain, and together you need to attend God. By doing so, you can enter the kingdom of heaven, and you become one who is building Heaven's family, nation and world, that is, the kingdom of heaven. Therefore your awareness is the starting point of restoration.
15Each of us has to recognize that we are the fruit of historical sins. The same applies to our tribe, and we can view the nations of today's world as extensions of tribes. All ethnic peoples stem from tribes that have persisted for thousands of generations. Looking at a nation's lines of descent, we find that they are the extensions of tribes. Each of us is a sin-fill descendant of our people and our nation. Therefore we have to take responsibility for our nation's sins. We need to be willing to pay the price of sin that our nation -- our people -- is supposed to pay. Each of us ought to determine that we will pay the price for the sins of the world and for the sins of the present time. This is how Jesus felt when he came as the Messiah. Therefore each of us has to be extremely serious and reach the level of resolve such that we feel that "if I live, the world will live, and if I die, the world will die."
16None of you has truly been aware of your real self. Only after you came to know the Will did you begin consciously knocking on the door of your personality. Each of you needs to know clearly that you sprang from past ages and that you are called to build the future. You may think you became aware of this on your own. However, God guided you to realize this. Also, countless saints and sages shed their blood to bring you where you are today, and they are working even now behind the scenes, hoping you will increasingly develop this consciousness. Therefore you need to feel as if you personally have negatively impacted history, as well as the present, and that you might do the same in the future as well. You should carry on your shoulders the bitter, historical sorrow of Adam and Eve that is embedded in our past. With that awareness, please understand that you must take responsibility for the present and for the future.
17Why has the Unification Church appeared in this world? It is to show the way of repentance. We need to show people how to repent for their sins. To do that, what do we need to know? The teaching that one can be saved through faith already exists. But people must understand that they represent the world. Men and women must have this awareness. Please understand that you are to become historical sacrificial offerings and victorious leaders of this age. Since Jesus the Messiah was nailed to the cross, you must have the determination to throw your life into your mission and offer indemnity for his death. He will then sympathize with you, thereby allowing you to participate in the glory of resurrection. That is the Principle. Otherwise no one would be able to enter the kingdom of heaven.
18The Fall started when Adam and Eve began to think centered on themselves. In order to reverse this through indemnity, we must not be self-centered, but must put God's family first. From that family emerges a new, ideal world. The obstacle to accomplishing this is our bloodline. Humanity has not known about this until I thoroughly explained it, for the first time in history. This knowledge cannot be found in the realm of self-centered existence. You must turn things upside down within yourself by creating an inner revolution, so that a new kind of family can emerge, focusing on the new True Parents. That family will differ from the families that stem from the Fall, from which developed the perspective of putting oneself first. When we act based on this new family's public mindset, we do not experience a struggle between mind and body.
19What is religion's final objective? Of course we know that religious believers seek personal salvation, but we go one step further and seek the salvation of the family. In order to liberate human beings living under evil sovereignty amid sin and injustice, we must first recover the family. We must find the family that, in the true sense, can represent everyone in history, in the present age and in the future. That family has to set up the standard that all families can follow. It will be the foundation upon which all humankind can rejoice together. Without this family there can be no world peace. Even families that look good on the outside can be in shambles internally.
20No matter how hard typhoons may blow, no matter how many mountains of trials and tribulations loom before you, if you ride on a steed of love, no one can stop you. No one will be able to block you on your path. No force can obstruct parents' love for their children. No means or methods can stop them. Nothing can stop a wife from loving her husband or a husband from loving his wife. That is what makes love supreme. No power can stop a patriot's march of love for his country. His love cannot be bought or sold. The path of a holy son or daughter who clears the way for the heavenly law to save humanity, out of love, cannot be blocked.
21God established the Unification Church in order to halt the decay of this world. Therefore the Unification Church needs to be equipped with all the necessary tools. In this secular world people are in despair, wandering about without a purpose, facing a dreadful and dismal environment. We need to confront this reality by going the opposite way from the downward path along which humankind is hurtling. Otherwise God's entire providence of salvation may be impeded.
22I am working to give life to the world, to heaven and earth. While I take responsibility for heaven and earth, all of you should save your own families and clans. I urge you to save your brothers and sisters and your own mother and father. In addition, you are responsible to subjugate the archangel. Then five generations, from your grandparents to your grandchildren, must unite and follow the True Parents, taking responsibility to recover the heavenly kingdom. Together, you all are to bring the nation and everything back to God.
23God's resolute work of salvation throughout history has been to build one world of heart throughout the vast universe. You need to consider to what extent you can be useful in the process and work of salvation. For the purpose of salvation, God needs to employ all creation as His material, including all humanity and even the billions of believers in the spirit world. Yet the question is you. When you act, how will the creation respond to you? How many people out of all humanity will respond to you? How many people among the billions of believers in the spirit world will respond? When you cry out here on earth, how far into the universe do the vibrations of your heart resonate? Your value will be determined by the measure of its response. Jesus' death resounded in heaven and throughout the entire universe. That response proved that Jesus is the Savior. He is the Savior because of his heart.
24It should not be your focus every day to satisfy your personal desires. Rather, you need to lead a life of faith, serving others and sacrificing yourself for a higher purpose. Thereby you should come close to the standard of Jesus' heart. He toiled so hard, concerned only for God's Will and for humankind. From there you have to progress to become God's true child and comfort Him, who has been working unceasingly up to the present with a broken heart. You should feel indignant when you witness unrighteousness. With the heart of God, who wants to give more and more, you need to be willing to go to the ends of the earth to pursue His kingdom, establish it and secure His righteousness. You should also be able to comfort the heart of God, who has been toiling to save humanity in the midst of such sorrow.
25God has been striving endlessly to save humankind through His providence. Even though we human beings are fallen, He does not abandon us. Although we fell prey to sin and evil, who is it that rescues us, lives for us and endeavors to guide us to the land of blessing? It is not our own parents, it is not our spouse or our children, even though they love us. It is not our nation, nor is it any of the saints and sages. It is none other than God.
26We absolutely have to recover the original garden that has nothing to do with the Fall. Because we are fallen human beings, we need to find the original state that existed before the Fall. We lost God; therefore we must find Him. We lost the original True Parents of humankind; therefore we must find the new True Parents. We must find and occupy the garden of peace where we can live as sons and daughters with God, centered on the ideal of True Parents. Since we have to accomplish these tasks, the term "providence of salvation" presents a fresh challenge to us.
27God is carrying out His providence to save humankind. He cannot save the world while standing back as an idle spectator, simply observing all the pain on earth. Therefore He engages the fallen world as if all the pain that humanity experiences is His own. He deals with humanity directly in the realm of their pain, taking responsibility for it. Without God's direct involvement, humanity cannot receive salvation. Therefore He has been fighting alongside people on the path of their sad and tragic history.
28We lost God, our Parent. Although we were born from our natural parents, we were born unable to receive all of the Parent's love, which is truly genuine, profound, elevated and precious. We have not been able to live with Him as our Parent. Likewise God, in the position of the Parent, lost His children. Therefore His expectations for us were never fulfilled. He has been dealing with this situation ever since, working in the background of human affairs throughout the long span of history to help us, His children, fulfill our purpose. This is God's providence of salvation.
29We need to be saved. We need to heal the wounds accumulated through our historical struggles. Only then can we find everlasting life and be embraced in the bosom of God's love. Even though our families, the society, the nation and the world are opposing us, we have to overcome and move forward as heavenly soldiers. We have to assume Jesus' position, holding on only to God's Will, and advance to save all people, both from the past and in the present, who dwell in the realm of death.
30In this world, nothing can be accomplished without unwavering determination. We go to battle to fight for righteousness. Satan's natural disposition is to want to be exalted, but we, on the contrary, must humble ourselves in order to fight him, both with our bodies and our love. We should be focused on a single target. If we shoot out like a cannonball but our eyes, ears and hands are looking and flailing about in different directions, we are bound to miss our target. If we want to win the battle, we cannot hold back. God is prepared to make any sacrifice, under any circumstances, to save humankind. This is Heaven's strategy. You need to vindicate God by protecting the sacrificial altars stained with the blood of your ancestors.
1God has been searching for His sons and daughters and for the lost creation, struggling to recover the world of creation's original nature. God yearns to feel eternal joy by bequeathing this great, eternal and sacred achievement to the owner of the ideal world. You need to know that, despite His sorrow, God longs to bless us all the more. Therefore you should be able to say to Him, "We are new sons and daughters in front of the Will. Please let us stand as true families and become Your glorious incarnations who, as true husbands and wives with true children, can govern all creation." You have to fulfill the mission of serving the True Parents by becoming true children with the right to eternal glory given by God. You need to let the True Parents rest, and then, together with the True Parents, all of us should let God rest. When this happens, the absolute, good God can finally reign over us as our Father, and over the whole world as King. The kingdom of heaven will be realized on earth.
2Rebekah, standing in Eve's position, made it possible for her two sons Esau and Jacob to unite, and therefore to resurrect her family's position on God's side. Jacob restored the right of the eldest son, and also restored the family that was lost in the Garden of Eden. When Jacob and Esau fought in Rebekah's womb, Rebekah prayed to God and asked, "Why are these two fighting?" God answered clearly, "Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples born of you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the elder shall serve the younger." (Gen. 25:23) This meant that the eldest son would descend and the second son would rise. At that point in history, however, the reclamation of the right of the eldest son still remained conceptual. Tamar faced a similar situation. When she was pregnant, her twins Perez and Zerah were fighting in her womb just before their birth. "While she was in labor, one put out a hand; and the midwife took and bound on his hand a crimson thread, saying, 'This came out first.' But just then he drew back his hand, and out came his brother; and she said, 'What a breach you have made for yourself!' Therefore he was named Perez." (Gen. 38:28-29) In this case Perez, still in the womb, reversed the original birth order by which he was the second son, thereby reclaiming the lost position of the eldest son and gaining the right to become an ancestor of King David. God's response to Rebekah's prayer is related to the process of restoration. For more than four thousand years until the present day, this process has been a mystery. Only God and Satan knew the answer. Satan is the false parent. God's hope is the True Parents. The True Parents are the original, true owners of the family desired by God in the Garden of Eden. Today the True Parents have unraveled the restoration mystery. God works through the second son in order to fulfill the history of restoration, and He even goes inside the womb to do so. God's lineage cannot be established in any other way.
3Jesus came as the Messiah and with the name of the True Parent, but he was killed; therefore he must come again. He has now come for the second time to work toward reclaiming ownership. I came in accordance with the providential age and resolved all the essential mysteries of nature, the mysteries of God, the secret crimes hidden by Satan, and all the mysteries of history and the philosophers. All who know of this cannot deny it is true. Anyone with an education knows that no matter what your social status, if you graduated from elementary school you are an elementary school graduate, and if you graduated from middle or high school you are a middle or high school graduate. This is a positive heavenly principle. Even if heavenly sons and daughters are born with the foundation of liberation to enter heaven, they still have to go through Heavens Ph.D. course. Therefore the Unification Church needs to show people how to become Heaven's sons and daughters, and even high-ranking ministers in Heaven's realm. This is why everyone needs to walk this path.
4True Parents' words are more precious than the American Constitution. There is only one set of True Parents, and their time only comes once. It did not occur in the past, and it will not occur in the future. True Parents will have existed in substantial form only during this age. For all eternity, there will be just this one time. Therefore True Parents are openly revealing Heaven's mysteries, these previously hidden truths. Furthermore, I have already implemented these concepts to create a new reality. Until now Satan has controlled everything, but since I have revealed the truth, all is now clear, and Satan cannot be in charge anymore. God acknowledges this fact. If we follow this teaching, our perfection is not a problem.
5Invisible love has the power to penetrate infinitely, and its value lies in unseen things. God's infinite love -- love for the sake of others -- is the love that is characterized by investing your life in another and then forgetting what you have invested when you become an object to life itself, suddenly you are stimulated and resurrected in an explosive way. That's why Jesus said, "For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it." (Matt. 16:25) You need to remain at the zero point, unattached. Act as if you are at the point of death. Throughout my life, I have been revealing the secrets of heavenly truth and applying them. So even though the world may shout, "Kill him!" I keep going forward no matter how loud they shout. No matter how difficult, receiving persecution is God's secondary strategy to take back ownership from the oppressors. This is why I never grew tired even though I was persecuted throughout my life. I may look like an insignificant person, but I am the son whom God the owner of heaven and earth and the truth, loves more than anyone else. Receiving persecution can be used as a tactic to take back ownership from one's enemies.
6All people need to perfect themselves by passing through the realm of the Principle into the realm of God's direct dominion. The Fall occurred during this process. Humankind fell without knowing God's love. Only God and Satan knew about this. Adam and Eve did not know. The human ancestors fell due to their ignorance. Therefore all human beings cannot help but face this hidden obstacle. Even the teachings of all the sacred scriptures have not been able to fully reveal this truth. The True Parents, who become the parents of humanity, are destined to reveal it. In order to reveal the reason and logic of heaven and earth, you must clearly know how to fundamentally turn history upside down.
7Why does the omniscient and omnipotent God seemingly do nothing about this miserable world? The answer is that God cannot act arbitrarily. Even though He has the power to exterminate fallen humankind at a single stroke, He does not punish or restrain them. The various world religions have not grasped that the existence of a fallen lineage caused the fallen world. Now finally, in the name of the True Parents, all the facts regarding the spirit world have been laid out in detail. The Unification Principle has revealed the motivation behind the Fall, including both God's mysteries and Satan's secret crimes. With this knowledge, in order to harmonize the spirit world and physical world, which historically have been divided and in conflict, we seek to resolve and reconcile the fundamental issues of the spirit world, the physical world and human life.
8God wanted to use Cain and Abel to clean up the mess created by the Fall of Adam and Eve. Instead God had to bear witness to yet another failure. He had to suffer the horrible event of Cain killing Abel. Although blood was not shed during the Fall, it led to blood being spilled subsequently in human history. Human beings should have learned from this history of bloodshed and reconciled with each other. However, they were unable to do so. Moreover, they did not unite with Heaven. Therefore, for example, God was forced to strike humanity and wash everything clean with the Flood during Noah's time.
9Cain and Abel clashed in Adam's family. Due to their division, ages of conflict ensued. Cain and Abel's enmity exacerbated the conflict between mind and body, between spouses, between father and son, between mother and daughter and between siblings. These conflicts are all connected and have expanded to tribes, peoples and nations. They in turn have caused countless divisions and a history of war.
10Although Cain had the right of the firstborn son, God put his younger brother Abel in that position. Since then, the tragedy of Abel's spilled blood has expanded to the entire history of humanity, which has been a history of war. People in the position of the elder brother, people of influence, have been blocking people in the position of the younger brother who sought to follow their parents' way and become true people. This historical Cain and Abel relationship and the problem of their lineage still need to be resolved. The mother and the sons and daughters also lost their right of ownership, as well as their hometown and their nation. These must be regained as well, and because these incidents occurred first in the family, they must be rectified first in the family.
11A fight among siblings cannot be settled amicably without the parents' involvement. Parents must stand up to this task. Heavenly fortune cannot manifest until the first son is liberated and the two sons are reconciled. Likewise, your mind and body must become one in order for you to be blessed. This is the Cain and Abel principle. In the relationship between men and women, the husband is plus and the wife is minus. These two represent Cain and Abel; they need to become one and should not fight. Originally the principle was that they become one. However, since they became separated they must unite again.
12In the same way that Cain and Abel became kingdom in Adam's family, Catholics and Protestants have become kingdom on a global scale. To unite completely, they need to enter the realm of unfallen Adam. Jesus lost his body; therefore, he was able to become only the spiritual parent, not the substantial parent. Therefore we need the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. The new Lord must come, perfect the realm of True Parents, and then conduct the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
13You know the story of Cain and Abel in Adam's family. If Cain had fulfilled his providential role, Abel could have started on his path. Knowing this, if you look at Jesus' life in the context of history, the age before Jesus belongs to Cain's world, and the age after him belongs to Abel's world. Jesus, God's second son, became the owner of Abel's worldwide realm. He was, in fact, the first leader to begin to construct Abel's world. Before him, Cain's world had prevailed. It was a world centered on the self. That world must be cleaned up and brought to surrender, and then for the first time the two brothers should be able to stand as children united to welcome the True Parents.
14The True Parents need to come to this world and resolve Cain and Abel's resentment, caused by Adam and Eve. In this process the brothers need to embrace one another, be there for each other and open their hearts to the point where they would lay down their lives for one another. Then True Parents, with the heart to save all people, can bind all humanity together. That way a new foundation for a heavenly life on earth can be built.
15Through the Fall of Adam and Eve, humanity lost True Parents and God. Also, because Cain killed Abel, the love between brothers was lost. Therefore Men humanity was not able to face God and now needs to find God, the parents and Abel. People need to find the type of Abel whom Cain would not beat to death, the type of Abel who would win his fight with Satan. If you find such an Abel, you can become sons and daughters with the authority to judge between good and evil on God's behalf.
16When God created human beings, He created Adam first. Therefore when God raises up the True Parents, He raises up Adam first. God has worked throughout history to find one Adam as a seed. He has been raising this seed to reach perfection. God has carried out His providence throughout history, through Cain and Abel in Adam's family, through Noah's sons, through Abraham and through Jacob and Esau. God's providence has developed from the individual level to the family, tribe and national level, and finally culminates at the time of the Second Advent.
17True Parents can be raised up only on the foundation of Cain and Abel's unity. When this principle is successfully applied on the individual level, Cain submits to Abel. Hence Abel becomes positioned as the elder brother and Cain, standing in the position of the younger brother, attends and obeys Abel even more than Abel would have attended and obeyed the original, unfallen elder brother Cain. Only then is redemption possible.
18The returning Lord's mission is to qualify to be the bridegroom, but more than anything he has to meet the criteria to become a True Parent. To do so, he and his bride have to be acknowledged as the True Parents before heaven and earth and receive God's recognition as a true, filial son and a true, devoted daughter. The feast celebrating the emergence of the devoted son and daughter is called the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
19All the past pioneers who have sought the truth will bestow on us the seal of victors when we digest the sorrow and agony of the ages. Then, before God and the True Parents, we have to stand up as true husband and wife, true children, true siblings, true people and the true nation in the true heaven and earth. Be aware that when you embrace this agonized heart and do not allow it to falter, you will remain as that nation's loyal citizens and virtuous people, and you will assume the position of devoted sons and daughters.
20God, rather than Satan, should have become the owner of this world. In that case, Adam and Eve as humanity's unfallen ancestors, as the True Parents, would have become the owners as well. Then their family, in which true sons and daughters would have dwelled, would have become the owner. The original ideal was that subsequently their tribe, their nation and their world would have become the owners.
21The term True Parents was unfamiliar to you. The distance between all of you and the True Parents is very great. There are many walls dividing individuals, families, tribes, peoples, nations, the world and the cosmos. The True Parents triumphed by surmounting these walls. Thus, in order for you to inherit the name of true parents, you must also surmount these walls. You can do so by first building a family bridge over the wall between individuals. Then you erect a tribal bridge over the wall between families, and go on to build bridges over the walls between tribes, peoples and nations and finally, at the world level. After you have finished building these bridges, you will be able to cross over all these walls at once and go straight to the top. These bridges will be stronger than stone and iron.
22Adam's family could not enter heaven. Therefore True Parents must come and gather all the families of the world. They have to open heaven's gates and enter with all people by perfecting Adam's family, Adam's tribe, people, nation, world and heaven and earth, according to the standard of the kingdom of heaven on earth and in heaven. A path must be opened so the world's people can transcend their nations and move in the same direction. The only viable path is where all families follow the True Parents. That is how each family can be resurrected. Entering heaven will then be possible through resurrection. Adam's kinsmen will be prepared exactly as if Adam had returned and received the Blessing. Adam, who became the false parent, will come again as the True Parent. When that happens, the cosmos will be organized with Adam and Eve as the True Parents at the center of the true tribe, people, nation and world. We cannot enter heaven before this is achieved, before the True Parents have entered first, followed by the children. Therefore we have to be engrafted as blood relatives of the True Parents, connected in a parent-child relationship to the True Parents. We need to become true children of the True Parents. That is what the blessed family is about. The present world is the way it is because the Fall occurred in Adam's family. So the result of turning it upside down is the blessed family.
23What will happen in the families that become one with the True Parents and receive the Blessing? What will happen when they enter the realm of ideal oneness in a subject-object relationship with the True Parents? By following and inheriting True Parents' entire life course, the blessed family that becomes their object partner will be able to make the transition without paying indemnity. You will be able to stand as a true object partner in the realm of the True Parents, qualified to inherit their heart on the level of the family, the tribe, the people, the nation and the world.
24If I had not appeared as your teacher, it would have been impossible for all of you to unite. Unity cannot come about without the True Parents. The words True Parents should not be pronounced lightly, just to hear the sound. The world needs to learn the inside story of how far I have run and how high I have climbed to become the True Parent. True Parents are proclaimed now because all the conditions for them to become the True Parents have been fulfilled based on their recognition by God and all the pioneers and prophets in the spirit world.
1If I am the first generation, all of you who have received the Blessing are the second generation, with the responsibility to nurture your sons and daughters. They are the third generation, whom you have the responsibility in God's place to raise as His substantial object partners who can witness to the ideal of creation God had in mind when He created Adam and Eve. The True Parents are the substantial essence of the invisible God. You as their children are in the position of Adam and Eve. Through your blessed families, the family-level foundation will be created to reveal the children, siblings, couples and parents representing the heavenly nation in the perfected Garden of Eden. Please understand that we have a responsibility to become this type of family and move toward Heaven.
2I could have taken revenge on many people, but I have been patient and have restrained myself all this time because I know God. Even facing the worst kind of enemy, the kind one can never forgive, I bowed my head and walked in silence in order to uphold the authority of heavenly principles. I bowed my head even though I was treated contemptuously. I had no other choice but to go on in stony silence. Because in the beginning there was no church, I had to find each person one by one. That is why in the 1950s I hardly ate, barely slept and worked tirelessly. I started out by embracing each person with tears. On the personal level, I sought to alleviate each person's pain, and on the family level, I sought to resolve our people's deep sorrow.
3No matter how much fallen people might dance and enjoy themselves, they cannot silence the sounds of anguish deep within their conscience because they have lost touch with their original, infinite value. We inevitably walk a thorny path because of this situation. This kind of anguish exists within all people, men and women alike, and can be resolved only through the cooperation of all people. When I make this connection and go before God, everything turns out well. The whole universe belongs to me.
4In my life, I have worked without rest. It has been like a dream. The situation of this tangible world, the world of history, and today's political society all prove my words correct. The Unification Church movement is a profound social phenomenon. We can be thankful to be standing here holding up the banner as we accomplish incredible things. You should feel honored and proud of that. You must have no regrets, even if you die a thousand times, over having been part of these achievements. In the name of God, as a soldier of righteousness and love, you should feel a burning passion welling up inside of you, knowing that, even if your body is destroyed in the process of opening the gates of heaven, it was all worth it.
5You know God because I taught you about Him. If I had not taught you, you would never have known Him. It is the Principle that an upright teacher must teach what he knows. The parents must teach the path of love, and the teacher must teach about social institutions. The families that learn these concepts then need to be accepted by other families in society. I also have to teach you how to be accepted by the families of the world.
6The providence of salvation was a history that unfolded through God's Word. Therefore humanity has struggled to find the words of truth. After finding the truth, you must pass through the stage of becoming a substantial being. People have long resented that they have been unable to come into their full being. Therefore our hope is that a central figure of substance will come to the earth. This is the idea of the Lord of the Second Advent. What will you do after receiving the grace of being able to substantiate truth? You can become God's heir only by first presenting yourself to Him in the position of a bride, then entering a relationship of husband and wife, and finally passing through the door of God's heart. Possessing the Word and having a body are not enough to make you an heir. In order to become God's sons and daughters you need to become substantial beings who have embodied the Word, penetrated God's heart, and received certificates of acceptance from God, the great ruler of heaven and the entire world.
7Adam fell because he did not unite with God's Word. Therefore he could not become the perfected substantial being, which is the purpose of God's Word. He could not attain the standard of character and integrity required by God. Consequently, there was no one of perfected character who could connect to God's perfect love. God's Word exists for the purpose of creating a substantial being, but love cannot appear if the substantial being cannot reach perfection. We can find no path of harmony until we become perfected, substantial beings.
8The returning Lord of the Second Advent substantially embodies God's Word. Thus, up to the present, I have been laying the groundwork at the world level for the sake of God's Word. However, people's hearts must unite with the substantial being, otherwise they cannot stand before God. Christian history has been progressing according to this formula, up to the level of perfection. The person in the subject-partner position must embody the truth as taught by Christianity, being united in substance and heart. The Unification movement is based on that truth.
9There are times when a mother has to go out, leaving her beloved children at home. From time to time she thinks of them, sensing that something has happened to one of them. A mother knows this, but since she cannot return right away, her child must overcome that difficulty alone. Children must surmount these obstacles by themselves. Once they overcome them, they will not stumble again. They must prevail over each obstacle one by one, as a growing bamboo tree forms each joint, one by one. If they cannot do this they will fall down again. Therefore God absolutely does not make a relationship -- nor does He interfere -- with a child while he or she moves from the individual-level victory to the family-level victory. The child must fight and overcome these things alone until the family level is reached.
10A parent's love stretches far beyond national boundaries. Say a mother's son has gone to America, while she lives in Korea. The love of this mother is not restricted by her nation's borders. Even though her body is in Korea, she sheds tears for her son in America. Her sweat and hard work is all for the sake of her son. This would be impossible without love. Can a mother be forced to do this? Only a heart of love can compel her.
11When a son calls out, "Mother," his mother's heart melts. She is so overwhelmed that her very bones feel soft and warm. When mother and son grasp each other's hands, they exchange a power greater than anything in the world. Unity occurs through parents' noble sacrifice. Their love is not a humanistic love. To enable heavenly law and to ease the bitter pain of Heaven resulting from unfulfilled desire, human beings must voluntarily go the way of the cross and embrace all humankind with the love of a parent. The solution to the problem of unification lies on that path.
12All men come to surrender before their mothers. No matter how powerful a world leader may be, even if he is as fierce as a tiger, when he experiences his mother's love, he has to surrender. Everything surrenders before love. That is why a mother who raises many children naturally has a heart of goodness.
13A mother's loving heart knows no boundaries. A mother's heart of love is not rigid, but round and limitless. Her heart is connected to an infinite peace. That peacefulness and roundness are even more beautiful than the mother's face. To a son or daughter, the mother's face is more beautiful than any other. You need to connect to your mother's love every day, even if you do not like your mother, even if it means you will never go to the most beautiful woman in the neighborhood, or to your aunt's place, or even to your grandmother's home where three generations reside.
14The father must be strict, while the mother must embrace with love. If the father's love can be described as a vertical love, then the mother's love is a horizontal love. The children who are born within the harmony of the vertical and horizontal love will come to say, "I am so happy. I wouldn't trade my father for anyone, not even for the president, not even for God." This is because they have come to know both the subjective, vertical, fatherly love and the horizontal, motherly love. In this case, absolutely no one would ever want to change their vertical father and their horizontal mother.
15Who can harvest true love? The couple can. True love needs to be harvested and placed in Heaven's storehouse. You are all hauling your sons and daughters with true love, as if you were a freight train. You can transport your children if the mothers become like the tracks and the fathers like the boxcars. Mothers and fathers also need to become like instruction manuals and textbooks on the path toward a world of true love.
16I was born because my father gave me bones and my mother gave me flesh. There is no concept of "I" in such giving. There is only love, life and lineage. Within me is my parents' love, my parents' life and my parents' lineage. Therefore even if your parents want to cut you off, you cannot be severed from them.
1You cannot become sons and daughters of God, the great ruler and owner of heaven and earth, or receive His inheritance simply by attending Him. You too will become a ruler and owner of heaven and earth when you receive the Blessing and inherit the lineage of the Parents of Heaven and Earth, who truly attend God. Then you will flourish and grow through being fruitful and multiplying. By fulfilling the positions of true owner and true parents who can rule heaven and earth, you make an internal connection with those who have attained the position of the True Parents. However, you cannot become an owner until you first become a child who fulfills the moral duties of developing the heavenly parental heart and inheriting the heavenly lineage.
2In any family, what child would not want to live with and attend his or her mother and father? What parents would not want to fall asleep embracing their beloved child? Who would not want to invite God into such a family? I would certainly want to do that. However, that cannot happen until the Will of God is more firmly settled. Thus we have been walking a path of misery. I did not set out on that path for my sake but to establish the moral laws and traditions of the family. I did not mind that I was bloodied and bruised in taking on this responsibility, or that my face became gaunt, or that I suffered terribly and was spit on by others. My main problem was how to establish the right traditions on this earth before I died. I had to do just this one thing. It didn't matter that I would face violent storms time and time again; it didn't matter that I might be as pitiful as a beggar; it didn't matter that I would be imprisoned and branded a traitor. These were not my most serious problems. Up until the present, it has been my whole life's purpose to do only one thing: to leave behind the unchanging traditions of Heaven.
3We are united on the road to unification. Therefore it stands to reason that we follow a common path of blood, sweat and tears. When you learn of God's tragic situation, it should make your blood boil. Upon knowing God's sadness, you should naturally shed tears. Even if I face disappointment after investing all my flesh and blood, I will still do anything to alleviate God's pain. I will do anything for the sake of the Will, even if it means that thousands of my disciples have to lead a sacrificial life. That being said, it does not mean I do not love all of you. It is because I love you that, through the Unification Church, I ask you to advance, shedding your blood, sweat and tears, first as a servant, then as an adopted child, and finally as a child of the direct lineage. To be a child of the direct lineage you have to become a person who does not mind facing death, because then you will be able to walk the path of the cross. Just as God called our ancestors to take on the mission of restoration through indemnity, the substantial True Parents today have the mission to pioneer the world indemnity course by calling upon their beloved children. Therefore this work must continue until one people in one nation is completely resurrected.
4The essence of the universe is that humankind is one family. Nestled in this web of love, people must discover the love that exists for the sake of the family, not just the individual. They must also find a love that exists for the sake of the tribe, the people, the nation, and the world. This is the path of love and the path of God's Will. A patriot's duty is to move forward, willing to ignore himself, his family and his tribe for the sake of the nation. A filial son chooses to follow his parents' will, even if he has to put aside his own needs and those of his wife and children. The duty of a devoted son requires this. For this reason, the path of God's Will is the path of love, the path of loving greater things first, rather than individual things.
5We are now close to being able to return to God's bosom, so each of us should consider what we should do. We do not follow God's Will in order to receive blessings or obtain our own salvation. In following the Will of God, our families are needed to contribute to humankind, and our tribe is needed to contribute to the people, the nation and the world. You must be able to live like this.
6What is the path of Unification Church members? We need those who can stand up and fight to defend their country. But the bigger question is how can "I" stand in the place of Jesus? In the course of history, Jesus Christ, who was sent as God's son, could not fully achieve his goal, even though he attained unity with God. Therefore each of us must once again construct and lay this foundation. God's Will cannot advance unless we, among our first generation, prepare the foundation to connect to and substantially fulfill what Jesus could not accomplish.
7We ourselves must go forward as historically resurrected beings. We are not meant to just live into our seventies and eighties for our own sake. God's providential hope is for us to live and develop according to His Will throughout the course of our eternal lives. Therefore we must live according to that Will. It is important to learn how to expand the stage of our life, through our own personalities, so we can proudly say, "My life's purpose is to reveal God's Will. I am living for the sake of God's Will, and this purpose will guide my daily life, inspire my worldview and direct my entire existence."
8Even in reading one page of a book, if one reads that one page in serious contemplation, thinking that the Will of God's providence can be revealed through it, he or she will be prepared to act in accord with God's desire. God can use that kind of person.
9God's first wish is, "Please relieve my sadness." His second is, "Please relieve my pain." Who will grant God's wishes? God cannot do it by Himself. Even if God wanted to relieve His own pain, He could not. Because we are the source of His pain, there is no other way but for us to alleviate it. We must determine to sacrifice ourselves a thousand times over for the sake of God's people. God could not tell us this deep truth, but Jesus told his disciples, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it." (Matt. 16:24-25) Now Jesus' paradoxical words make sense.
10All kinds of stories and situations may arise on your path of faith. Some of you may feel you even have to sell your own blood to afford to go witnessing. If you do not have money for travel, you may convince yourself that the distance you need to go is short, and so you decide to walk, climbing at great risk over steep mountains and fields, all the while contemplating God's Will with an unchanging heart. My hope is that even if you collapse you will have no resentment. Please do not hold resentment, even if you fail and end up sacrificing much. How could there be no arrows flying toward you, when you are like soldiers marching forward to build Heaven, holding up the torch? How could the enemy not assail you? This might happen. However, my heart, and the heart of God, do not beat for you alone, but for all people and the world. Therefore once you accept God's Will, walk your path with joy, even if it might be a path of death. Unification soldiers need to take this kind of path.
11Now you know God's Will; therefore you cannot retreat on the road you are traveling. In order to become a patriot and a filial son or daughter of Heaven, you must march on, even before Heaven moves. Now that you know this path of restoration, you have to say, "I regret that, even though I walked the individual path of the cross, I did not know the Will. I am sorrowful that even though I walked the path of the cross for the family, tribe and, people, I did not know the Will. Now that I know, I will take on the national path of the cross."
12For those who embrace God's Will, the more miserable a person's path, the more valuable it is. My whole life has been like this. When I reflect upon what I have, I think to myself that I have nothing. I will leave behind everything for posterity when I depart this life. I am doing everything for the sake of future generations. When I pass on I want to leave behind love for the sake of the Unificationist community, and for all people and the world. I do not spend time thinking about leaving behind what I love and what my own children love.
13Indemnity can be paid only when you ask God what kind of condition you need to make. Furthermore, making an offering simply because God told you to is not all that a condition entails; you need to voluntarily make an additional offering. The offering God requires is to indemnify something, but the offering you make on your own initiative becomes a condition for you to receive glory.
14Sons and daughters of Heaven are ostracized by the world. You all live in enemy territory; you are people who have appeared as leaders in order to destroy Satan's expansion. Therefore you will receive persecution on the family level when you approach your family, and you will receive persecution from society if you go out into society. Jesus, God and all those who died for Heaven were treated this way. Thus a historical hurdle of sorrow lies before you as well. After overcoming these obstacles, you are ready to attend Jesus. Therefore Jesus comes and finds those people who are in the same position as he was and befriends them.
15I cannot ask you followers of the Unification Church to walk forward slowly. You need to move quickly and boldly. How glorious this is! With such an attitude you can receive what Heaven sends you and establish a secure foundation for victory. You must create a region and a world that God will remember forever. You need to create a world where not only you but also your descendants can say to the Father, "May You receive glory for all eternity." The hand that does this work is not only your hand but represents millions of others. You should feel that your hand represents all humanity. You need to realize and believe that your hand will be commemorated by your descendants and that your ancestors can proudly declare it to be the hand of God.
16Do you think that just because God gave me one hundred commands, He only expects me to accomplish that much? Would He compliment me after I finished my assignments, saying, "Yes, yes, good." When you do even more than expected, your value grows. When God gives you a direction, can even one of you offer your life to fulfill it? Doing your best means that when God entrusts you with one hundred commands you accomplish even more than that. When you do this, it is a truly glorious thing and God can be proud of you. If you accomplish only 100 percent of what was asked of you, well, anyone can do that.
17We have nothing to be proud of. After a battle, you can be proud of yourself only if you were victorious. If you are proud of yourself without achieving victories, Satan will accuse you. You need to fight in place of the invisible God, inheriting the unfinished work of the substantial True Parents, and say, "Father, may all glory be unto You."
18You should keep God's original Garden of Eden in your heart, and sing of Heaven's life, love and glory as you go about your daily life. Furthermore, you should inspire others to live this way. In other words, you should represent God, the Creator, and take up His work of recreation. In addition, you need to be loyal to God and offer your time on earth representing all creation. You need to be able to honor the original ideal and to love not only in a favorable environment but also in a challenging one. By doing this, you will become sons and daughters who embody the ideal of creation, and you will live with God forever, in both joy and sorrow, within His realm of eternal love and glory.
Fin de The Believer's Path in Relation to True Parents' Course