Sermons of Rev Moon - April 12, 1959 - The Path of Faith Which Should be Examined Carefully 2

[대태양/김현수]

The People Who Can Establish the World of God's Ideal

Since Heaven has an inseparable tie with human beings, He has not abandoned them and has been moving history for their sake. He gave a new ideology in each new age. When the clan age turned into the tribal age, He provided the ideology that enabled this passage. An ideology far beyond the tribal level would be impossible for a clan to follow; therefore, He gave an ideology just one step in advance, within the limits of their consciences. Whether we study the history of faith or the history of humankind, we cannot deny that God gave the tribal ideology in the clan age, the national ideology in the tribal age, and the worldwide ideology in the national age.

What will remain in the course of history? The clan that can hold onto the heavenly way and go through the transition from the clan age to the tribal age will remain. The tribe of people who can go forth for the ideology of the state when the heavenly way indicates for them to do so, and for the worldwide ideology beyond that, will remain. Such people will remain in the end, building and ruling the world. Only when we complete these clans, tribes, nations, states and world can we stand as historical victors.

There should be a tribe that seeks to find such an ideology and serve such a providential will. There should be a nation struggling to serve the providential will. That is why Christianity and Judaism came into being. Herein lies the reason Jesus insisted upon a unified family, state and ideology.

Who is Jesus? He came as a hero of the original nature, the substantial being who embodied the heavenly ideology for the first time. He perfected the ideology through which to live with God eternally. He is a leader for humankind as a whole, a father for each one of us, and a bridegroom from the standpoint of regaining the original world of the ideal of creation. This is what Jesus left behind.

What kind of ideology will be upheld when the world, garden and country of one ideology are realized? It will be an ideology that is unchanged, even by historical transformation and revolution. It will be an ideology of love, parental love, for instance. shimjung, through which parents relate to children, never changes. Revolution cannot exist in the world where people are closely bonded centering on the unchanging love of God, where loving feelings come first wherever one goes. It is the world where God's shimjung is revealed through everyone's lives. It is the world where everyone experiences the shimjung through which God thinks of all people as His children. Thus, it is the world where everyone must inevitably think of one another as brothers and sisters. Such a world is the final destiny to which human beings should find and go. When Jesus came, he called God Father, and himself a bridegroom. Having uplifted us, he called us brothers and sisters. This is a word of grace for which to be truly thankful.

Jesus did not come to this earth simply as an individual. He was the person whom God had promised to send through the numerous saints during the prior four thousand years. Jesus came on the basis of the heavenly way and the will of providential history to bring human history into order. This is why the world has been moving centering on him and why his name remains to this day.

The Hero of History Who Must Appear in This Age

What kind of age is the present one? It is the age when good and evil are intersecting, merging into the good. What will happen as we find ourselves in this age? What kind of world will come into being when good and evil cross each other and merge into one? What kind of world will come after this world passes? These are curious problems. Conscientious young men and women today should pause and understand the existence of Heaven, the hopes of all things of the earth, and that they themselves, and not the world, are the locus of hope.

God has been working to solve these problems for us. If Adam and Eve had not committed sin in sight of God and had not gone the sorrowful course of the fall, Adam would have been serving God's will even now, after six thousand years. Have you ever thought about this? If Adam had received God's blessing, served God's will, took the responsibility for God's providence and lived with God, we would have avoided the tragedies of the murder of countless saints, ancestors, and people of goodness.

For what do we hope and long? What are we trying to find? It is the character that is not fallen, that can remain eternally in history, the one that can make order of history and establish the ideal of goodness. If such a character appears in the last days, we will not lament. We will not despair.

About what should we lament and despair? We should lament over the fact that there is no hero of history who can stand in front of the will. Since the purpose of history is to find this historical hero, we are walking this path again at this time, unable to stop even if we fall here and there.

There is something for which the whole of humankind today must plead. It is expressed in the question, "Where is the hero of history, the age, and the future?" We should be eagerly awaiting this hero. History has already passed. When will the hero come? If there were no heavenly way, the hero would not come to humankind. Since there is, however, he will certainly appear one day. You should learn in what form he will come.

Although the hero came in the past, he was not recognized. Today, inasmuch as you know that there is the heavenly providence to bring the heavenly will to completion, you should think about who this hero of the age might be. If you do not have the confidence to become the hero, you should at least be able to bow your heads and make a determination to act to find him.

The hero we demand is not simply a hero for this age but also for the future. For this reason, in today's Christian thought, we should be thankful for the idea of the Second Coming. Humankind needs Jesus because he will come as the hero of the future, after having come as the historical leader representing the four thousand years and the age. Humankind needs the returning Jesus because he can take the responsibility of being the hero. He is needed by humankind. No one can deny this.

What should you do, having arrived at the last days? You yourselves should become heroes of this age and of the future. You must prepare for this. You should not forget that this is the final and central question facing people who are going toward Heaven.

If you cannot clarify this and assert this ideology, you will be swept up by a certain flow. You should know that unless you have the confidence to prevent this sweeping up and wait for something new, you will become the tribe of a fallen nation who must retreat before the final judgment.

Unchanging in a World of Change

This world must change. It should change on a great scale. Can you go without changing in such a world? You should become selves who do not change in a changing world. What, then, do you have to do? The solution to this must be provided by religion and truth.

History has been, is and will be progressing toward one purpose. The human mind, however, is changing. Your mind changes many times even in one day. The ideology you uphold also changes several times in your lifetime. We should feel in our daily lives that we are people of viciousness, descendants of the fall, the betrayal of Heaven.

The time has come to shout aloud, baring our chests and lamenting the sorrow of the cosmos, wondering whether there is a religion or leader who can stop it. History has been changing in every age and century. In God's history of the providence of six thousand years, there was the age of sacrifice, the age of the law, and the age of faith. There has been the Old Testament and New Testament Ages, and the Completed Testament Age will come. Now the world of the new ideology should come. However, without changing the present world, this world of ideology will not come.

We should know, however, that today we are fruits of historical sorrow, who sleep comfortably even when we change thousands of times a day. No matter how proudly one boasts of his beliefs and justifies himself, it is pride and excuses that will change.

As people, history and the earth change, what heartistic attitude will bring them to order? The only way is to be careful. The only way is to look around carefully. Wherever you go, you should hold your breath and be careful. To go over the age of change, you should have the heart to yearn for the new world and to avoid changing things, proceeding carefully.

The prophets of the past bravely came forward when Heaven called them. However, they all lost when they confronted Satan. Was it not the case? Although they started off with the joy of the heavenly call, when they had to march against Satan to realize the purpose of the call, they all collapsed. We should understand this history of failure.

What Should We See Carefully?

What should we see carefully? We should be able to see carefully that Heaven is making an effort to find humankind, even though we deserve to die thousands of times in the realm of death. We should never forget that when Heaven comes to us in the realm of death, He comes with something more precious than anything in the world. When He saves us from the realm of death, He does so with anguish and a worried heart. Do you understand this? When Heaven claims us away from the realm of death, He is willing to sacrifice everything.

Thus, we should understand the toil, the loving heart, and the path of battle through which He came to find us. Originally, the Father and I were one. Thus, since His heart is my heart and His purpose is my purpose, we should go where He tells us to go. We should go, deeply seized by the heart of taking responsibility. Despite the countless paths of suffering, no matter what walls of the cross lie before us, we should go forward with confidence. With the determination and conviction to rise above all the historical details with conviction and the Father's heart, we will necessarily win.

Only when you have such a soaring shimjung will you be able to reject the world. You must keep the heart that can hold onto the Father's heart of desire to bring the providential will and the historical battle to a conclusion. If it disappears from you people of faith, you will change along with history.

The Book of Revelation tells us not to lose our first love. Our first love cannot be exchanged even with life. You should cherish what Heaven gave you as the most precious thing in your life. You should feel its value at a higher level than the present conceptual one. The one who feels that this grace cannot be changed for anything in the world, even if he has to die tens of millions of times, can possess the great works of God because he stays within God's shimjung and love.

For what should we be carefully looking? When has Heaven given us precious gifts? Looking back upon history, our ancestors were historical gifts. Jesus, who came two thousand years ago, was a gift of love for humankind. The moment we wail loudly with gratitude for such a history, our hearts will connect with Heaven. Heaven's work of re-creation will begin based upon this shimjung.

Only the one who is consumed with such a shimjung and who has the confidence that nothing can suppress his passion can appear as the greatest winner in the real course of history. Jesus was such a person. God has come to us and sacrificed for us countless times. Have you ever thought about the grace that we can never repay? We should admit being historical traitors. Lamenting over being sinners, we should at least repent.

You members of the Unification Church are here to follow the path that others refuse. I would like to ask you why you have come here. We should be grateful, representing our ancestors even when Satan takes away all that we have. We must have an unchanging heart which says, "I can never forget the heavenly grace which protects me and worries about my work," even when everything is sacrificed and we go to death. Only then can we remain until the day when the ideal of unification is accomplished.

If such a shimjung does not sprout in your hearts, and if feelings toward the world of such an ideology do not move in your hearts, what will become of you? Wandering and wandering, in the final moment you will fall into the pit of death, unable to make excuses for yourself. If there is someone who does not know this, he should re-examine things. The attitude of a good person of faith is to examine things carefully in relationship to others. You should have such a heart of careful examination. Without it, one is irresponsible.

History seeks to find a person in charge who is responsible to history, the age, and the future. The saints in the past and our ancestors spoke out for historical responsibility in their ages. This is why their words move our hearts even today, in the final age of history. Their acts invigorate our hearts, and their lives give direction to our own. This cannot be denied.

The Person History Demands

You should look and be careful in your speaking, hearing, seeing and feeling now. How hard have you tried to fulfill the historical responsibility? Have you ever surrendered everything and come forward, disregarding difficulties, anger, being chased away, hunger and death? How careful a heart have you had?

How often have you been overwhelmed by the shimjung that burns with a sense of responsibility, and desired to regain it? How often have you examined whether the heavenly hand was guiding you within your circumstances, reaching out to you, thereby coming to deny your previous position and embarking upon a new reflection? If you have not had such an experience, you should feel that you cannot show your faces.

In the Garden of Eden, the archangel was created first. The archangel had been ruling over the environment. When Adam and Eve appeared, he became an attacker. This was the beginning of history. Human beings, who insisted on habit and tradition in history, always opposed God's way. They never cooperated. As the ancestors are, so are the descendants. Those who were being driven away have been leading history, fighting all the while.

It was thus with Noah as he served Heaven. To those who insisted on the social tradition, he appeared to be a madman. He looked demented, ridiculous and stupid. It was the same with Abraham. He tried to kill Isaac, whom God had blessed him with at the age of one hundred years. It was the same with Moses. Who instigated the people to accuse, betray and drive out the people of mission? They were the ones who clung to the historical traditions. If there is a Heaven, they should receive its judgment. The ideology of restoration is to sever attachment to the historical details, to take off the old clothes of the past, to meet the new morning in the new garden, and to appear in white clothes with new hope.

Since fallen people have come through such a historical course, they have struck out against new theories. Any new opinions or doctrines were attacked. Being struck on the family level is for the mission of the family; being struck on the national level is for the mission of the nation; being struck on the level of the state is for the mission of the state. Being struck by the state and the people of the age is for the ideological mission of that age, state and people.

With the progress of history, democracy and communism are now confronting each other. In the future, a severe battle will occur. Unless this becomes the final point of all history and all problems are solved through this, something new should appear.

What will happen to this new thing? If it comes through religion, it will be smote by religious people; if it comes with responsibility, it will be rejected by the social circumstances. If it comes with a certain ideology, it will be rejected by the ideologies of the world. Later on, it will be expelled by democracy and communism.

Since the present world is fallen, only when something appears that does not bend even under rejection and persecution can this world turn into a new one. We know that something will necessarily appear. We are speaking to introduce such an ideology. We are here to accomplish this purpose and go forward today and again tomorrow, disregarding persecution.

What kind of determination must you make? We must not make a determination for history or the age, nor a momentary determination. We must make a determination for the universe. Heaven, who rules over the universe, will gather those with such a determination. If people gather with a burning ambition, burning with the heavenly ideology, and if they persist without being brought down by the age, they will be able to move the history of a later age.

A New Religion Must Appear

Hitherto, religions have been making proposals. Jesus said, "Let us save the multitude of humankind." Religions have been making proposals to lead humankind to the realm of goodness and to introduce the one world of purpose.

If a new religious ideology appears now, it must save the many great saints who left the earth and even the spirits who betrayed the will and went to hell, as well as the people on earth. A new religion with a new ideology must save all the spirits in heaven, the sinners in hell, and Satan, who betrayed Heaven, not to mention the myriad of people on the earth.

Such a religion must appear. Such a religious ideology must appear, unifying all the religions, kindling fires in the hearts of religious people, inspiring peace and joy in those who do not feel peace and joy. It must help people make a determination and pledge to march toward the new world of the ideal. This new movement should appear on earth.

Have you thought about this? Have you tried to find it? Have you at least imagined it? The purpose of this ideology is to unify everything. It is to unify the earth, to unify the spiritual world if it exists, and to liberate hell, which is consumed with resentment. If it cannot be done directly, a religion should appear with the ideology. Only when a religion with such an ideology appears can the world for which we yearn, the world of goodness, make a relationship with the world of evil.

For what are you looking? You know that the present is the last days. The ideology bearing on the problem of life touches you through one extremely tiny word, one touch of the hand, one footstep, and one symbol. People have forgotten all this.

If you see the world from this standpoint, there is no enemy. When I collide with evil, it spurs me on my way, as does good. From this viewpoint, we should live in such a way that we search and examine things carefully.

Be Children of God Who Have Overcome Everything

Today and again tomorrow, we should have hope toward Heaven and receive a heartistic shock with which we can sever our attachment to sinful reality and the disorderly world and move forward. You should know that whether this shock continues for one day, one year, or for our whole lifetime determines whether you will arrive at the destination for which you long.

Without such a shock, you will be highly anxious. In this age, one can recognize how anxious and fearful one is without knowing quite why. If one has even a small conscience, he will feel driven into anxiety and insecurity. Although many young people feel this, if something that can remove it sprouts forth, the fear and anxiety that have been occupying a person's ground of hope will retreat, and the world of things that square with conscience will appear. Thus, if the heart that carefully searches for this is quickening your walk and your body beyond anxiety and fear, it is not too late. The final point of unity is an earnest shimjung that explodes in my heart and is unaffected by materialistic or humanistic ideologies. It is the shimjung that makes me move to the one place of ideology that remains in the end. In other words, shimjung determines the final me.

The one who holds onto shimjung alone and searches carefully can hear the word, see the vision, and analyze all situations in life. If there is a movement of shimjung such that young men and women search for the new ideology, feeling their own responsibilities and suppressing their anxiety and insecurity, and their voices of outcry are heard, you will be able to all at once feel. through their shimjung, all these historical details and what you have been feeling for a long time.

The master of history, the providence, and the heavenly way is the one who feels this shimjung, awakens himself, and cries out almost unknowingly, "This is the subject of ideology for which Heaven has been looking! This is the true image for which the world has been looking! This is the image that can be presented proudly in sight of Heaven and earth!"

You cannot deny that you cannot stand alone. You cannot deny that we are following the path of life where we must fulfill the responsibility and bring results in the world of relationship.

What happens when we fulfill the responsibility and bring results? You can boast that you are the winner, representing the original human being. At this moment, the world will become yours and so will the universe. God, who has been working for the providence until today, will become your God, and you will become His children, the direct heirs of His work.

What is most important in finding all this is to examine things carefully. I would like you to clearly bear in mind that these things can be accomplished and found through such efforts.

Prayer

We can dare to surmise the hearts of the disciples of Jesus as Peter, James and John said to him, "Teacher, we like being here. So we will build three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." Meanwhile, the heart of Jesus was immersed in sorrow as he waged a showdown battle on the Mount of Transfiguration.

They were ignorant, unable to feel the traces of or see the reality of the world of ideology. Who would not say such a thing where circumstances are unfolding that can more than dominate and encompass the whole universe? Although Peter, James and John knew in their hearts that this was a scene for which they had yearned and wanted to live in, they did not know that it was to be realized after going through a process of reality.

Likewise, Christians around the world yearn for the Kingdom of Heaven in their hearts, but they are oblivious to the fact that a course of battle lies before it can exist. We have the responsibility to awaken these Christians. In this time, history, faith, the human heart, tradition, ideology, and even the heart of love, without which people have sworn to die, are all undergoing changes. Nevertheless, we long for an unchanging ideology, an unchanging image and essence. We yearn for that garden, that world, that sovereignty and leader, that voice, that life, and those circumstances.

Father, please open Your hurting heart. Now, having realized that I am so anxious and narrow today, I yearn to be the self that can go beyond my present one. I hurry on to find the self of tomorrow. Although there may be persecution for the members of the Unification Church, please allow them to use this as a stimulus to push them closer to Your shimjung, rather than as an evil impediment to their progress. Please help them understand that persecution is Your work of connecting the shimjung.

Please guide us to receive Your acknowledgment of us as Your sons by bowing down to You and returning a song of victory to You from the position where heavenly law and the historical course harmonize. You need the sons and daughters who can bring forth such a shimjung that we can share joy with You, and even Satan cannot help smiling with shame before our joy. Please allow us to become Christians in search of this self. Father, we earnestly hope and desire that You allow us to be Unification Church members who come forward as the front-line unit to expedite the coming of such people.

What we have desired has been too small. We thought that what we held dear and valued was the end, but now we have seen that there is infinite love and limitless grace beyond this.

At this time, please let the heart arise in each of the brothers and sisters that deplores the self for having blocked the way of grace before You. Please allow us to be people who, inspired by shimjung and burning with a sense of responsibility, can come joyfully when You call us and go joyfully when You release us. Please allow us to be brave souls of heaven and masters of the heavenly world who can feel as much gratitude for the command as for the voice of invitation and who can march against the enemy camp. We eagerly hope and desire that You will guide us so that we will never lose and retreat, even if we are shot through with arrows and fall. Please help us understand that just as there are moments when we converse with You in happiness, there are also moments when we fall, shedding blood and tears and crying for Your sorrow.

Taking responsibility for the joy, sorrow, fighting and mistreatment, and denying the historical matter before the final judgment, let us say, "Father, please raise Your hand and bless us. Father, please look at me and hold back Your anger. Father, please look at me and endure the suffering and mistreatment. Father, please look at me and end Your toil." Father, we are ashamed and embarrassed, because for six thousand years You have been waiting for such sons and daughters to appear and You have been searching carefully. We have been oblivious to the searching and careful footsteps with which You have been looking for us.

Today we have heard and this time we have understood. We know that You have told us to come to You with care. Father, You came to us with care. We have realized that we betrayed Your hands several times when You were trying to hold us; we forgot Your dignity. Please guide us to stand before You now, to live in connection with You, and follow the path that we should walk carefully for Your sake. After completing this course, we should teach others the direction they can follow carefully. We have such an order from Heaven. Do not let us retreat, shedding tears of grief.

We know that Your heart, which tried to love and bless traitors, holds anger. Father, we sincerely hope and desire that You will guide us. Knowing that there is no one to console the sorrow of the one who will appear in the final day, offering a higher prayer to You than Elijah, we have the earnest heart to go beyond the condition of sadness and support the one.

We miss the time when You used to say to us, "I am here. Come the way I walk," whenever we fell down, exhausted in wandering. You knew that You could not trust and work together with human beings, and You had to worry that discussing things with them would cause delay upon delay.

We know that there is no need for many people at this time. This is a time to go over, a time to clear up everything, a time to conclude everything. It is time to appear as we are. We have seen that this is a path that is impossible to follow for one who complains or who makes excuses. It is a path from which he who sets himself up will retreat. We have seen that since this is the road of the cross which Jesus walked in blood, an extension of Golgotha, we should follow it without complaint, without boasting, while being trampled upon, although we know anger. We are outraged as we think about the heavenly saints who had to walk such a path in the six-thousand-year course of the providence.

We should repent, however, as we realize that Your heart is even more angered. We know that it is the deepest sorrow and an ineffably regrettable situation. Now that our entire hope is Yours, we as a whole are Yours. You are the center of our shimjung and love. We know that the one who cannot feel this is miserable. As for Jesus, it was because he held onto You that he did not fear death even while bleeding on the cross. We yearn for his dashing and composed character that wished a blessing on the enemy. We yearn for that walk. Where is the victorious prince who can laugh at the every day changes in history, daily life, and himself? Father, we yearn for this again and again.

We yearn for the time, world and garden in which the hero of history, the age, and the future can appear as one substantial being and convey Your shimjung to humanity. A people and a church should appear who can call You "Father."

Please allow us to forget everything and prepare ourselves to find it and to fulfill our responsibility with sincere effort. Please allow us to be the children who can run to You to stand before You, disregarding all the sacrifices. Father, we eagerly hope and desire this.

Father, what shall we do with the nation of thirty million? What will You do with the 2.7 billion people scattered on the earth? We cannot help worrying about the fate of the nation and feel bitter when seeing that the end of humankind is surrounded by dark clouds.

I have spoken because I know Your sad historical heart, which is impossible not to feel. I must arouse this heart in others by conveying it to them. Please permit me. Loving Father, I eagerly hope and desire that as I convey this sorrowful heart to help the people avoid being disloyal, You will permit me and accept this prayer.

We know that the sorrow of Jesus who died on the cross was historical sorrow. We yearn for him, he who shed blood and tears on Calvary. Now humankind is zealously waiting for someone to appear who can laugh at history and scorn the world as his representative and Your substantial manifestation. We know that You also are waiting for him. We eagerly hope and desire that You will make us the sons and daughters who wander about in search of him, today and again tomorrow, yearning for this being.

Please do not let us stop short on our way and shed tears. Rather, make us the kind of people who desire to go again even after completing the walk, who struggle to possess joy after exhausting the road to be traveled. We have learned that only in this way can we become cornerstones for the wondrous and grand will of the providence. Please move us to this will today and again tomorrow.

Since our destiny is such that today's world and our descendants should be mobilized for the will, please issue commands and lead us. We will go. Father! We sincerely request that You know our hearts that desire to report to You and fulfill our prayers. Please protect us on the remaining path of tribulation. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.