The Lord is My Shepherd, I Shall Not Want

Mark15

14 Pilate asked, “But what crime has he done?”

“Nail him to a cross!” they yelled even louder.

15 Pilate wanted to please the crowd. So he set Barabbas free. Then he ordered his soldiers to beat Jesus with a whip and nail him to a cross.

Richard: Pilate wanted to please the crowd. This is the 40th day since the false “inauguration” of Joe Biden. Ultimately, President Trump did not want the heaped coals of criticism from the fake media and being blamed for riots, etc. that no doubt would occur. That was probably the dynamic of the false flag Capitol “riot” on January 6th ; to dissuade President Trump from taking decisive action, such as seizing voting machines for audit or other decisive actions. So President Trump did not take action as he should have to prevent the false election and inauguration from moving forward, in my estimation.
None the less, God can work based on the faith and conditions of indemnity set by his children. (See slide 16 and on, here for an explanation of indemnity)

Nehemiah 3

30 Hananiah and Hanun rebuilt the next section, which was the second section[i] for them.

Meshullam son of Berechiah rebuilt the next section, which happened to be in front of his house.

31 Malchijah, a goldsmith, rebuilt the next section, as far as the house used by the temple workers and merchants. This area was across from Gathering Gate, near the room on top of the wall at the northeast corner.

32 The goldsmiths and merchants rebuilt the last section of the wall, which went from the corner room all the way to Sheep Gate.

Richard: This is about rebuilding walls (here the wall around Jerusalem), or protection for our families and nations. That has to be done in each of our communities, by teaching and promoting absolute sexual ethics and the Blessing of Marriage. See Peace Speech 10.
Also, we can take local action, such as sanctuary states and counties, to make sure that Biden’s unconstitutional edicts or other unconstitutional laws are not enforced.

Help and Deliverance

In time of distress, danger, and oppression, the faithful look to God for support and help. in times of crisis, in combat, and when confronting death, even non-believers will pray desperately to God. and time and again, they find deliverance in ample measure. conversely, the scriptures warn against relying on one’s own power, allies, or wealth to prevail in the battle, when true strength lies in God’s saving power.
The passages include expressions of confidence in divine deliverance, supplications for help, and texts which describe God’s grace as an unassailable refuge. there are several accounts of God’s saving deeds in his-tory: from the bible, Moses at the red sea and Paul’s escape from prison; from the Qur’an, the battle of the trench. We include the Buddhist hymn to Kuan Yin, the bodhisattva of divine compassion who is said to be ready and able to save anyone in distress.
Father Moon experienced divine deliverance on numerous occasions, notably when he was a prisoner in a north Korean labor camp. he explains why people normally receive divine help only if they have the mind of devotion and faith. God’s heart of love extends to everyone. however, due to the activities of Satan, whose accusations can cause God to withdraw his protection, people oftentimes must overcome a trial before they can receive divine assistance.

1. Help in Times of Trouble

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want;
he makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters;
he restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the
shadow of death,
I fear no evil;
for thou art with me;
thy rod and thy staff,
they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
thou anointest my head with oil,
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the l ord for ever.
    Psalm 23

Whosoever keeps his duty to God, God will appoint a way out for him, and will provide for him in a way that he cannot foresee. And who-soever puts his trust in God, He will suffice him. Lo! God brings His command to pass. God has set a measure for all things.
    Qur’an 65.2-3

Because you have made the Lord your refuge,
the Most High your habitation,
no evil shall befall you,
no scourge come near your tent.
For he will give his angels charge of you
to guard you in all your ways.
On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you dash your foot against a stone.
    Psalm 91.9-12

Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the lord of hosts.
    Zechariah 4.6

United with me, you shall overcome all difficulties by my grace.
    Bhagavad-Gita 18.58 (Hinduism)

Men of little ability, too,
By depending upon the great, may prosper;
A drop of water is a little thing,
But when will it dry away if united to a lake?
    Treasury of Elegant Sayings 173 (Buddhism)

The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not grow weary, he does not tire,
his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives strength to the weary,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Youths may faint and be weary,
and young men may fall, exhausted;
but they who hope in the Lord shall renew their strength.
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not grow faint.
    Isaiah 40.28-31

A king is not saved by his great army,
a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
The war horse is a vain hope for victory,
and by its great might it cannot save.
Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him,
on those who hope in his steadfast love,
That he may deliver their soul from death,
and keep them alive in famine.
Our soul waits for the Lord ;
he is our help and our shield.
    Psalm 33.16-20

We Rejoice In Our Sufferings, Knowing that Suffering Produces Endurance

Cheon Seong Gyeong 345

What should True Parents do? They should correct the false lineage that is the root of the satanic world, reverse the false life, and open the true path away from the path of false love. The Bible says that those who wish to die will live, and those who wish to live will die. Why must this kind of paradox appear? It is because you must die to the satanic world. (169-37, 1987.10.4)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 747

When meeting the Messiah, what will happen if you believe in and follow him? If you meet him at the time he perfects the ages of the individual, family, tribe, people and nation, you will also receive the benefits of those ages, ascending to the national level. Yet, for those in the age of the individual to receive the Messiah and thereby ascend to the age of the family, they must pay indemnity on earth, just as spirit people do. Also, because they must go through the course of indemnity to ascend from the age of the family to the age of the tribe, the longer they have stayed in the Unification Church, the more indemnity they have paid. The longer they have been here, the closer they are to me.

The Refining Fire

2. Heaven’s Discipline

My son, do not despise the lord’s discipline or be weary of His reproof,
for the lord reproves him whom He loves,
as a father the son in whom he delights.
    Proverbs 3.11-12
I know, O lord, that the way of man is not in himself,
that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.
Correct me, O lord, but in just measure;
not in thy anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.
    Jeremiah 10.23-24
 
Do men imagine that they will be left [at ease] because they say, “We believe,” and will not be tested with affliction? Lo! We tested those who were before you. Thus God knows those who are sincere, and knows those who feign.
    Qur’an 29.2-3
 
We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance pro-duces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts.
    Romans 5.3-5
 
Yet the suffering
Involved in my awakening will have a limit;
It is like the suffering of having an incision made
In order to remove and destroy greater pain.
Even doctors eliminate illness
With unpleasant medical treatments,
So in order to overcome manifold sufferings
I should be able to put up with some discomfort.
    Shantideva, Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life
    7.22-24 (Buddhism)
 
Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon
 
All difficulties and trials confront you so that you may correctly experience and understand God’s past days. Therefore, when any difficulty comes upon you, you should rejoice and be thankful. It is the proof of God’s love for you. (Way of God’s Will 3.4)
 
The reason why the Unification Church requires its members to live three years of public life after receiving the Blessing is to enable them to taste true love. The reason why I tour the world and give speeches, braving persecution and opposition, is to train you to make beautiful families of true love surpassing all other families.
    We go the way of God’s Will despite the world’s harsh persecution and oppression because we love our children and want to enable them to live in the beautiful nation of God. In this way, we live for our children and love our children more than the people of the world love their children.
    You must carry on this fight throughout your lives. If you see your husband or wife being persecuted and opposed, you must pledge that you will love your children more than your feeling of distress over your spouse’s plight. You must be trained in this way in the midst of persecution and opposition.
    A wife who has received this ‘love training’ will not fight with her husband. If he crosses her with a cutting remark, she will not respond with machine-gun volleys of scolding words. A husband will not beat his wife or dominate her with his authority. Why not? Having been through love training, each spouse has come to know the other’s precious value. (Blessing and Ideal Family 4.4.8)
 
Make us into people to whom Thou canst entrust Thy Will
by molding us according to Thine internal nature. (2:241, June 9, 1957)
 
 

We Need to Renovate Everything through the New Word of God

Mark 6

35 That evening the disciples came to Jesus and said, “This place is like a desert, and it is already late. 36 Let the crowds leave, so they can go to the farms and villages near here and buy something to eat.”

Richard: We are in a desert without God’s Word of truth, and specifically the New Truth.

Luke 19

11 The crowd was still listening to Jesus as he was getting close to Jerusalem. Many of them thought that God’s kingdom would soon appear, 12 and Jesus told them this story:

A prince once went to a foreign country to be crowned king and then to return. 13 But before leaving, he called in ten servants and gave each of them some money. He told them, “Use this to earn more money until I get back.”

14 But the people of his country hated him, and they sent messengers to the foreign country to say, “We don’t want this man to be our king.”

15 After the prince had been made king, he returned and called in his servants. He asked them how much they had earned with the money they had been given.

16 The first servant came and said, “Sir, with the money you gave me I have earned ten times as much.”

17 “That’s fine, my good servant!” the king said. “Since you have shown that you can be trusted with a small amount, you will be given ten cities to rule.”

18 The second one came and said, “Sir, with the money you gave me, I have earned five times as much.”

19 The king said, “You will be given five cities.”

20 Another servant came and said, “Sir, here is your money. I kept it safe in a handkerchief. 21 You are a hard man, and I was afraid of you. You take what isn’t yours, and you harvest crops you didn’t plant.”

22 “You worthless servant!” the king told him. “You have condemned yourself by what you have just said. You knew that I am a hard man, taking what isn’t mine and harvesting what I’ve not planted. 23 Why didn’t you put my money in the bank? On my return, I could have had the money together with interest.”

24 Then he said to some other servants standing there, “Take the money away from him and give it to the servant who earned ten times as much.”

25 But they said, “Sir, he already has ten times as much!”

26 The king replied, “Those who have something will be given more. But everything will be taken away from those who don’t have anything. 27 Now bring me the enemies who didn’t want me to be their king. Kill them while I watch!”

Richard: We should be actively about God’s work, not just sitting and waiting for the Second Advent, which has actually already occurred.

The Refining Fire

1. Judgment by Fire

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Each of us has many different kinds of thoughts, all varieties. Do you think we can easily negate them all to uphold the standard of absolute faith, love and obedience? Is it easy or difficult? How difficult! Even if we were to die and be reborn one hundred times, it would still be difficult.
     It doesn’t matter how many times we say the words “absolute faith, love and obedience”; we should enter the furnace and have our impurities burned away until there is only pure gold left. (320:235, April 5, 2000)
 
Jesus came into the world to cast this judgment, as he said, “For judgment I came into this world.” (John 9.39) Jesus also said, “I came to cast fire upon the earth.” (Luke 12.49) “Fire” here represents the means of the judgment for which Jesus came into the world. Nevertheless, there is no record that in his time Jesus judged the world with literal fire. The verses referring to fire must be symbolic. It is written, “Is not my word like fire, says the Lord?” (Jer. 23.29) Therefore, judgment by fire represents judgment by the Word of God. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Eschatology 3.2.2)
 
The words you are familiar with are connected to Satan. Your beliefs and thought processes have not escaped a relationship with Satan. All elements in the satanic world were created from a humanistic perspective, not from God’s perspective. They cannot go beyond Satan’s realm. That is why we need to renovate everything through the new Word of God.
    Once we know God’s Word, can we also live in harmony with the old words and move on with our lives? Absolutely not. We must completely rid ourselves of the old words. We must clean out all our satanic ideas, beliefs and habits. Then, by living according to the Word of God and its absolute standards, we must establish a new tradition. (21:327, January 1, 1969)
 
To acquire true love, you should invest yourself totally. You should be willing to burn your own name, your pictures, even your own clothes.27 (398:328, December 17, 2002)
 
Oh Father! Look upon us with Thy fiery eyes,
and allow not the bitter roots of sin and death to remain deep in our hearts. Look upon us with Thy fiery eyes,
that today we may pull out all the roots of sin and be unified before Thee. (20:10, March 31, 1968)

Father! We pray Thou wilt remove all that is humanistic and private.
Born as descendants of the Fall, we used to wear masks as we saw fit and relied upon our own views.
Purge us of all these elements as we come before Thee. (21:132, November 17, 1968)
 

God’s Gracious Love Can Be Found in the Midst of Hardships

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2188

    If the son advises and teaches his parents to love their country so that they become patriots, and makes them a mother and father whom heaven remembers, is he a filial or unfilial son?
    So, rather than a son who says to his parents, “Mom, Dad, don’t go out! Just rest at home.” he should say, “Mom, Dad, what are you doing? Please, let’s try together to find even one more per-son who can be a patriot, who can work for the unification of North and South Korea, who can work to save North Korea.” Then he makes them shed tears, blood and sweat. Then what would you think if the people in the neighborhood were to praise this achievement?
    Would the parents say, “You scoundrel, you really made your mother and father’s life difficult, so at first we thought you were a bad boy. Yet we became successful and are praised by everyone. My! You really are a filial son.” Do you think the parents would say this, or would they say, “You are an unfilial son”? What do you think? (209-266, 1990.11.30)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1594

Because everything which arose from the false parents comes under the number nine, the numbers one to nine are loathed by Heaven. You persevered in providential history to clear up Satan’s number, the number nine, through the practice of tithing, in the Old Testament Age.

The Refining Fire

God’s gracious love can be found in the midst of hardships and suffering. The person whose mind is fixed on God takes life’s trials and challenges as a means to purify his or her faith, correct flaws and refine character. could it be that such trials are not accidental, but actually expressions of God’s love to discipline and educate his children? (see also chapter 15: Testing.)
Moreover, God’s word presents us with the challenge to live by it. scripture therefore likens the word of God to a fire, which burns away everything that is false. Father Moon explains that the judgment that many Christians fear is actually an opportunity to purify ourselves in the truth and reach the point where we are one hundred percent united with the word of Christ. thus, the purpose of judgment is to save, not to condemn.

  1. Judgment by Fire

I will put this third into the fire,and refine them as one refines silver,and test them as gold is tested.
    Zechariah 13.9

Just as a great conflagration
Can burn up all things,
So does Buddha’s field of blessings
Burn up all fabrication.
    Garland Sutra 10 (Buddhism)

As the heat of a fire reduces wood to ashes, the fire of knowledge burns to ashes all karma. Nothing in this world purifies like spiritual wisdom.
    Bhagavad-Gita 4.37 (Hinduism)

Just as a fire quickly reduces decayed wood to ashes, so does an aspirant who is totally absorbed in the inner self and completely unattached to all external objects shake to the roots, attenuate, and wither away his karma-body.
    Samantabadhra, Aptamimamsa 24-27 (Jainism)

Make chastity your furnace, patience your smithy,
The Master’s word your anvil, and true knowledge your hammer.
Make awe of God your bellows, and with it kindle the fire of austerity.
And in the crucible of love, melt the nectar Divine.
Only in such a mint, can man be cast into the Word.
    Adi Granth, Japuji 38, M.1, p. 8 (Sikhism)

“From His right hand went forth a fiery law for them” (Deuteronomy 33.2). The words of Torah are compared to fire, for both were given from heaven, both are eternal. If a man draws near the fire, he derives benefit; if he keeps afar, he is frozen, so with the words of the Torah: if a man toils in them, they are life to him; if he separates from him, they kill him.
    Sifre Deuteronomy (Judaism)

For no other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any one builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—each man’s work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
    1 Corinthians 3.11-15

Is not my word like fire, says the lord, and like a hammer which breaks the rock in pieces?
    Jeremiah 23.29

With fire we test the gold, and with gold We test Our servants.
    Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh, Arabic 54 (Baha’i Faith)

When Heavenly Families Fill the Earth, the World Will Automatically Become the Heavenly Kingdom

Happy Foundation Day! (8th Anniversary, Declared January 13th, 2013 by the Heavenly Calendar (lunar based)

Today, on Foundation Day, we present a special reading:

Cosmic Assembly for the Settlement of the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind and for the Proclamation of the Word by God’s Substantial Self

January 8th -15th 2012-Public Rallies in Korea

Distinguished guests participating in today’s event, I am truly happy and grateful to see you at this new assembly.

What I am about to proclaim to you today is part of the course of True Parents’ tour that is to proclaim the ultimate conclusion and fulfillment of all aspects of the providence of restoration during the lifetime of the True Parents. The path taken by the True Parents shall serve as a tradition and historic example; thus, I am proclaiming that all of you should model your life course on this path, become families that pledge to inherit and fulfill the will of God that True Parents have already accomplished, and be true to this pledge.

On April 18, (2011) we celebrated our 52nd year of marriage. On that occasion, I brought to a close the era before the coming of heaven, which was marked by sin and indemnity [atonement], and proclaimed the era after the coming of heaven through which a new heaven and new earth will be realized by returning to true love.

Through this tour, I am leading a lifestyle befitting the era after the coming of heaven. Please engrave this point in your hearts.

All the blessed children in the heavenly and earthly worlds, who are related to the True Parents by blood, should keep this comprehensive and final proclamation in mind. This proclamation is being given in order to fully establish the ideal nation that comes from the incorporeal God and corporeal God, the God of Night and the God of Day, and from the ancestors of Jesus and of the True Parents.

The details of True Parents’ life course have already been disclosed and conveyed to you through my autobiography. I pray that you will all become the representatives and heirs of True Parents before the conclusion of the Cosmic Assemblies for the Settlement of the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind and for the Proclamation of the Word by God’s Substantial Self. Please take heed of my autobiography, which is a record of my life’s work to enable the True Parents to succeed in their mission during their time on this earth, and build on my achievements. Please also inherit the teachings I have bestowed upon this world. In doing so, I pray that you will surely be triumphant in your course of life.

Like the True Parents have done, you too should become heavenly bridges for all your relatives and the members of your clan that are around you, and also a God-centered leader that can guide your clan to God’s kingdom.

I ask that you take this proclamation of True Parents to heart and pledge to put it into practice.

Aju.

I will now quote from content read at the 44th True God’s Day and the Coronation Ceremony for the Kingship of God. This represents the content in the textbooks and teaching materials that summarize all the content I have taught throughout my life course.

Respected leaders from around the world, distinguished guests from home and abroad, ladies and gentlemen!

On behalf of True Parents, True Family, the Republic of Korea, and Unification Church members who are blessed throughout the cosmos (i.e., spiritual world and physical world), I sincerely welcome and express my deepest appreciation to you for coming to participate in this Cosmic Assembly for the Settlement of the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind and for the Proclamation of the Word by God’s Substantial Self.

In the past year, thousands of representatives and top leaders from 120 nations of the world have honored us with their presence on several occasions, including our Golden Wedding Anniversary and Coronation; the Legacy-of-Peace Memorial Festivals held at the United Nations headquarters building and in cities around the United States and the world; and many other significant events.

Once again, I would like to express my appreciation on behalf of all the people of the Republic of Korea and all of humankind.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is a very eventful time in God’s providence. Last year I celebrated my ninetieth birthday and took my first steps toward the hundredth year of my life. I have been blessed with a long life, beyond the average human lifespan. Last year my wife and I were also able to commemorate our fiftieth wedding anniversary. From a providential point of view, last year was not simply the year of our golden anniversary; it was also a Jubilee year.

We have fourteen children. Five have graduated from Harvard University, and among our forty-plus grandchildren several are already studying there. Moreover, a great number of good men and women from 194 nations have come to recognize and follow us as the King and Queen of Peace and the True Parents.

Throughout our lives, we have established many international organizations and institutions to promote world peace. We have invested unreservedly in many fields including inter-religious cooperation, humanitarian projects to benefit society, intercultural activities, sports, education and the media. We founded all these initiatives with the aim of promoting peace and bringing salvation to humanity. After working to succeed in all these things, some people would commend us and say that we deserve to look back and comfortably enjoy the rest of our lives. They encourage us to forget about the world situation and sit back and enjoy the successes achieved during the past ninety years!

However, my wife and I cannot look at the lives we have led in such a worldly way. We have had to complete the mission of the actual True Parents, given to us by God, who is Himself the vertical True Parent of all humankind. Now, with less than two years remaining in this mission to make God’s kingdom, Cheon Il Guk, a reality, we are leading each day of our lives with more seriousness than ever before.

Throughout my life, I have offered myself for the liberation of God, the one and only True Parent of heaven and earth, to restore to Him His rightful position as Parent, to save all human beings who suffer in the realm of death, and to return them to God’s bosom.

For this purpose I have persevered and triumphed over countless tribulations while leading the people of the world, who are living like lost and unaware orphans searching for their heavenly parent, toward the goal of global salvation. Due to the Fall, brought about by our first ancestors, people are born into the false lineage. Every one without exception wanders in darkness even now, unable to break free of Satan’s bondage. Under such circumstances, how could we be anything less than completely serious in our lives as we guide the 6.5 billion people of the world along the path toward the building of God’s kingdom on earth?

The Three Stages of Life

Ladies and gentlemen, God created us as His children. As the original, absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal being, God created human beings by breathing His love into them to endow them with a soul. If not for the Fall, we would have been able to perfect ourselves, including our spiritual self, as God is perfect, fulfill the way of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience, and attain eternal life.

But unfortunately, human beings are living as descendants of the Fall. In order to live a perfect life, all people without exception must receive new life through the blessing from True Parents and pass through the three stages of rebirth, resurrection and eternal life. Rebirth, in this context, refers to an individual attaining new life. Resurrection is when a family and nation attain new life, and eternal life refers to all of humankind attaining perfection and living forever in God’s homeland after establishing the kingdom of heaven on earth and in the spirit world by attending True Parents, the King and Queen of Peace.

Your ancestors who are in the spirit world shall now return to this earth at this time of the True Parents, who directly govern all life and all things as the substantial entity of God who exists without form. They will go through the three-stage blessings of rebirth, resurrection and eternal life and complete the Original Divine Principle education — the education on absolute marital fidelity — organized by True Parents. Only then can they take part in the original authority granted by the Sunghwa — ascension and liberation — and attain the qualifications to become citizens of Cheon Il Guk while on earth.

We can clearly see that each person’s life goes through three stages. Everyone is conceived as a new being through the grace of God and the love of True Parents through a blessed family. The first stage of life is the nine months spent in the mother’s womb. No one is exempt from this! Whether or not we are conscious of it at the time, all of us without exception do spend nine months in our mother’s womb. Even though a woman’s womb is smaller than some rice cookers, from the perspective of a fetus, it is larger than the entire universe.

What about our birth into the second stage of our lives, which occurs on earth? How could we find words adequate to describe the struggle of a newborn baby as it is faced with a completely unfamiliar, new world? The first lonely cry of a newborn as it experiences the large and wide world that it finds upon exiting the womb also represents the promise of a one-hundred-year future, the blessing and celebration of entering a new time and space.

We have all received the blessing of birth that enabled us to live in the second stage of our lives. Although a hundred years is much longer than the nine months we spend in the womb, please do not forget that there is still a course we must follow to a higher end. Although we have all forgotten the standard of consciousness that we possessed in our mother’s womb, and though you may think that we are now enjoying our lives fully in this big, wide world with a higher standard of consciousness, there is yet one final stage of our lives, which is the way toward eternal life.

This third stage occurs in the world of eternal life, the spirit world, which we enter upon ending our life on this earth. We were originally meant to enter the spirit world having first perfected our spirits during our life on earth. It is a world that cannot be imagined by people descended from the Fall. It is a world in which we transcend time and space. Just as the fetus in his or her mother’s womb cannot imagine life on earth, we, as people living and breathing air in this earthly world, cannot easily understand the spirit world, where we will be reborn in our spiritual bodies, living and breathing true love.

Ladies and gentlemen, as people face death, they may tremble in fear and terror if they do not understand the true meaning of passing on. Although human history has continued for more than six thousand years, no one, unfortunately, has clearly taught the truth regarding death. Now, in the Last Days of history, I, as the True Parent of humankind, have been able to reveal this truth, this heavenly secret.

The Sunghwa Ascension Ceremony

Ladies and gentlemen, the word death is sacred. It is not a synonym for sadness and suffering. True Parents have created the term Sunghwa [ascension] to explain the true significance of death. The moment we enter the spirit world should be a time that we enter a world of joy and victory with the fruits born of our lives on earth. It is a time for those of us remaining on earth to send off the departed with joy. It should be a time for great celebration. We should be shedding tears of joy instead of tears of sadness. That is the way of the sacred and noble Sunghwa Ceremony, the first step the spirit of the departed takes toward enjoying eternal life in attendance to God, within His embrace. At the moment of death, our spirits should feel more excited and thrilled than a newlywed bride feels when she goes to her groom’s home for the first time.

In order to open the door for all people to experience this kind of precious eternal life, I held a Sunghwa Ceremony at the United Nations headquarters in New York on March 18, (2010) last year in honor of world leaders who had recently passed into the next world.

The following are the names of those commemorated on that occasion:

General Alexander Haig, a former U.S. secretary of state, who with the UN forces saved my life, through the bombing that liberated the North Korean Hungnam Special Labor Camp where I was imprisoned during the Korean War;

Mr. Kim Dae-jung, our former South Korean president, who won the Nobel Peace Prize;

Mr. Hédi Annabi, a Tunisian diplomat and head of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti, who died in the 2010 Haitian earthquake; the one hundred UN workers who died alongside Mr. Annabi;

Mr. Rodrigo Carazo Odio, a former president of Costa Rica, who is known internationally as the Peace President;

Mr. Abdurrahman Wahid, a former president of Indonesia, who gave his entire life for the sake of his great nation;

Mr. Steingrimur Hermannsson, a former prime minister of Iceland, who helped host the meeting of then Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and United States President Ronald Reagan, which accelerated the end of the Cold War;

Shaykh Hassan Cissé of Senegal, who is respected as a great scholar of Islamic authority; and

Mr. Laxmi Mall Singhvi of India, who is remembered as the Ambassador of Reconciliation and Peace by India’s 1.1 billion people.

There are other people whom we also remembered through this ceremony and sent to the spirit world with the Sunghwa Blessing. I’m sure you have heard about the sinking of the ship Cheonan in Korea where 46 sailors suddenly lost their lives in the course of duty. During my four-city speaking tour in Korea in April last year, my wife and I bestowed the grace of the Sunghwa Blessing on these unfortunate seamen who died.

Later, during another event at Las Vegas, I bestowed the Sunghwa Blessing on one Dr. Reiko Kawasaki, a 17th-generation descendant of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the last shogun in Japanese history, who united the Japanese archipelago in the 17th century. She was a medical doctor from Las Vegas, and recently passed away after living a life of continuous service to others. Before her passing, she played an important role for the sake of the realization of world peace by setting a foundation for the future resolution of various issues in Korea, Japan and the United States, including political and economic issues. Thus, I have included her in the list of those who received this sacred Sunghwa Blessing.

However altruistic and philanthropic people’s lives may be, none of them can be guaranteed entry into the world of eternal life without receiving the Marriage Blessing and the Sunghwa Blessing of the True Parents, Rev. and Mrs. Moon. This is because the parent-child relationship between God and humankind was severed due to the Fall of the first ancestors. Please take this point seriously.

Ladies and gentlemen, this era, when God has introduced the heavenly calendar, is a serious one. It is now the time in which all 6.5 billion of the world’s people must understand the teachings I received from heaven, which I bequeath as the True Parent who is responsible to give eternal life to all of humankind. Now is a time that you can share the good news of the coming of the True Parents throughout the entire world.

The time has come to honor and inherit the tradition and spirit of the Korean people, from which the True Parents emerged, establish the heavenly tradition, and bring about world peace by uniting all 6.5 billion people of the world with the United Nations. With the start of the heavenly calendar, please do not forget that the Sunghwa Blessing Ceremony is a sacred rite in which anyone can inherit the worldview of a holy citizen of the kingdom of heaven and celebrate God’s liberation and all humankind’s liberation.

In this way, the ideal of a family based on true love can be completed, and God and all people, the heavenly spirit world and the earthly physical world, can be completely united to usher in a reign of peace over the world. Please take this time to express your gratitude to God and True Parents for giving the keys of the Blessing Ceremony and Sunghwa Ceremony to all the world’s nations, allowing for the establishment of the traditions of God’s kingdom, Cheon Il Guk, through True Parents.

Please join me in giving a round of applause to our Heavenly Father and to True Parents for their benevolence, through which we can receive the grace of precious life without being asked for anything in return.

One Family Under God

Ladies and gentlemen, what is the path that humankind should take today? Even now tens of millions of innocent lives are being lost each year to war, disease, starvation and natural disasters that arise in all parts of the world. In every field you observe, from the individual to the collective level — whether religion, politics, education, culture or ideology — people are deeply mired in the swamp of self-centered egoism, raising walls around themselves. We now live in a world brought to ruin, where genuine communication has broken down.

Ultimately, the problems afflicting humanity can only be resolved through the worldview of One Family under God, in other words, the ideology based on true love, which my wife and I, the True Parents, have learned from Heaven and have championed and taught throughout our lives. This is the only way for humankind to find the path toward peace and happiness.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are living in a historic time of great cosmic transition. It is a time for a great cosmic revolution to change history, to unite the spiritual and physical worlds and to create the ideal kingdom of heaven that God has longed for since the beginning of time. We can no longer postpone or prolong the fulfillment of His wish. I have already proclaimed that January 13, 2013 will be Foundation Day. That day will be the actual beginning of God’s Kingdom of Cheon Il Guk. That day will be the origin. Yet, less than two years remain until then.

Therefore, it is time for all people to be humbly obedient to Heaven’s decree. An unavoidable time is upon us today when we must invest ourselves completely with a life or death commitment for these remaining two years under the guidance of the True Parents who carry out the providence on earth as the substantial representatives of God, the King of Kings. All the good spirits in the spirit world are mobilized and are already moving forward a step ahead of you.

Ladies and gentlemen, do you have any idea how much pain God suffered the moment our first ancestors, into whom God had invested His complete and unreserved devotion since time immemorial, fell and disappeared into darkness, becoming part of Satan’s lineage? Are you even remotely aware that our Heavenly Father — who endured tens of thousands of years of excruciating heartache so great that His bones shed tears and His flesh quivered — had to go through the long, dark tunnel of indemnifying the human Fall in order to save His lost children? How many of you have spent days and nights in tears, yearning to comfort our Father in Heaven?

The Mission of the Korean People

All people of the Christian faith recognize that God sent His true son Jesus Christ to earth two thousand years ago to save humankind. However, Jesus suffered a miserable fate. The leaders of Judaism and the people of Israel were supposed to receive Jesus as the Messiah and follow him with absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. They should never have allowed Jesus’ crucifixion to take place. He suddenly left this world, leaving behind the words, It is finished. Yet these words apply to spiritual salvation only, and he promised to return.

Ladies and gentlemen, God quietly raised and prepared the Korean people over a period of thousands of years. After two thousand years of preparation, His labor has finally borne fruit with the Second Coming of Christ on the far distant Korean Peninsula. The Korean people have, from long ago, served God with the sense that He is their original ancestor and that they are descended from Heaven. They have referred to Him as The Honored One, that is, Hana-nim, and attended Him as the Lord (Creator of night and day). Thus it is, that the origin of all numbers lay in one and two. Because Koreans attend such a God as their original ancestor, the spirit of interdependence, mutual prosperity and universally shared values is alive in the soul and tradition of the Korean people. They have maintained themselves over five thousand years of history, yet not once have they invaded or plundered another nation or people. The spirit of benefiting all mankind still flows in the veins of the Korean people. The spirit of filial piety, fidelity, and loyalty, which are the fundamental virtues of human life, are still alive and breathing in Korean history. These values can be found in the men and women of Korea and reflect the pride and spirit of the Korean people.

I have inherited such traditional values as the true filial piety exemplified in the folk tale Shimcheong, about a devoted daughter who offered her life so that her blind father could see; the profound love and fidelity displayed by Choonhyang, who overcame the fear of death in order to keep the promise she had made to her husband; and the unbreakable loyalty exhibited by Admiral Yi Soon-shin, who gave his life to save his nation and people despite being abandoned by his king and other leaders. These lofty Korean values and traditions are not just matters of historical chance. Based on these values, Heaven has prepared this people; this was all part of the providence of creating a foundation to send the returning Messiah. On the foundation of such preparation, and riding on the energy of this peninsula, I finally came, having received Heaven’s seal as the True Parent of humankind and the king of kings.

The Path Humankind Should Take

Distinguished Guests, your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:

The path that humanity must now take is clear. What would give you cause to hesitate in the face of the D-Day that Heaven has revealed through us, the True Parents? There are now only six hundred days remaining. Heaven’s blessings will be with you on your ambitious and busy course.

If you view the flow of history through eyes that focus on God’s providence, you can see that the changes of the times can be broadly classified into three stages. First was the nature-centered era, a time when instinctual feelings, materialism and a closeness to animals and the things of creation were prevalent. Next came a human-centered era when people’s knowledge, feelings and emotions took precedence and dominated the world.

However, these eras were transitional. They were courses of preparation necessary in order to enter the era in which people could rid themselves of their fallen nature, return to their original selves and live as one united family where they attend God as their father. When that happens we will enter a God-centered era, the final stage in which human beings who know and feel God’s Heart and Will follow the path of living for the sake of others. They will do this through establishing an absolute standard on the foundation of purifying themselves, both inside and out, through the holy Blessing Ceremony. This is the time of opening up the era of God’s kingdom, Cheon Il Guk, a time in which we can return to the heart of the one true God. Please engrave this point on your hearts.

Once the actual era of Cheon Il Guk begins, the spiritual and earthly worlds will be connected and brought into oneness, and all things will be governed under the Union of the Spiritual and Physical World’s Association, which will be established on earth for the first time. Moreover, the providence will be carried out according to heavenly law and the heavenly way. Elections conducted in a purely secular fashion will disappear from the face of the earth. All people will become one family through cross-cultural marriage and the World Peace Marriage Blessing; and we will enjoy tranquility and true love in happiness during the sacred reign of peace. Let me say it again: this day is drawing near.

As part of preparing for that time, on February 14, (2010) last year I proclaimed to all of heaven and earth the start of the new heavenly calendar. The Gregorian calendar and Lunar calendar shall now stand in the positions of Cain and Abel and serve the role of supporting the Heavenly calendar, by which we will record and indicate the progress of God’s providence.

You must all now engrave True Parents’ teachings onto your bones and practice them in your life. We have no choice. If we do not prepare now, we will surely be left behind. We should learn from the courage and fortitude of the white-necked cranes that fly across the Himalayas — which are more than seven thousand meters high — in preparation for winter.

My Final Words for Humankind

True Parents have already prepared the last words I will give to humankind. These have been prepared based on my triumphs over six or seven life-or-death situations, including six periods of unjust imprisonment. I am leaving behind eight textbooks and teaching materials for humankind to use for all eternity. Altogether, these are published in almost a thousand volumes.

They are:

The Sermons of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon,
Exposition of the Divine Principle,
Cheon Seong Gyeong [Heavenly Scripture],
The Family Pledge,
Pyung Hwa Shin Gyeong [Messages of Peace],
True Families — Gateway to Heaven,
Owner of Peace and Owner of Lineage, and
World Scripture.

These are textbooks you will have to read and study even after you go to the spirit world. They are not just teachings that come from the mind of one person; they are textbooks and teaching materials that teach the heavenly way that God has granted to His suffering children for their salvation.

You should now set up the Hoon Dok Hae study tradition in your families using the books I have mentioned. That is the tradition where three generations of a family start each day by reading Heaven’s word, and lead a life of practicing what they read, with a new heart. Let’s create a world where people in the spirit world and the earthly world can both attend True Parents at the same time, and read the word on the heavenly path together.

Once this happens, no matter how hard Satan may try to worm his way in, to infest your lineage, once he encounters the Hoon Dok Hae tradition he will find no room to move. If a family is aligned with God as at high noon, where no shadow is cast and still does not receive God’s blessings, who then could ever be deserving of them? When such heavenly families fill the earth, the world will automatically become the heavenly kingdom on earth and in the eternal spirit world, fulfilling the vision of One Family Under God.

Ladies and gentlemen, two years ago, my memoirs, “As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen,” an honest and candid account of my life, was published. Through this book I share how I discovered God’s will for humankind and the path that we, as God’s children, should follow. My life has been a typical model of the saying, If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, and try again. I have as much faith in this book as in the Hoon Dok textbooks and teaching materials I have mentioned. For this reason, I recommend it to you, believing that it will show you how to lead your lives according to true principles. It does not subtract or add anything to the ninety years of my life, which I have led under Heaven’s decree. I pray you will carefully read this articulation of true love and find great inspiration.

I have already mentioned that a life of vertical noon-time alignment casts no shadow. If we can all shine as we live such glowing lives, there will be no chance for the shadow of sin to be cast. Those who receive the light will be indebted to the light. I pray that we can now wipe away the tears of people in misery and poverty, and lead an illuminated life of eternal true love that dissipates all darkness.

Proclamation of the Era of the Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind

Ladies and gentlemen, last year in Las Vegas, there was a special proclamation centered on God that was given by the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind on two separate days — one part at 2:20 AM on the 8th day of the 5th month of the Heavenly Calendar (June 19, 2010) and the other at 3:25 AM, on the 15th day of the 5th month of the Heavenly Calendar (June 26, 2010).

The number 3 from 3:25 AM represents the three eras from the saying Success comes at the third attempt. It also symbolizes the Old, New and Completed Testament ages. Twenty-five minutes, or the number 25, is a quarter of one hundred. The True Parents have achieved ultimate unity and offered and proclaimed the era of God’s full transcendence, full immanence, full authority and omnipotence upon the standard of perfection, completion and conclusion.

Furthermore, with the Sunghwa Ceremony for former United States Secretary of State General Alexander Haig, I proclaimed that the ceremony for the victory of the first, second, and third Israels, which completed the ceremonies for rebirth, resurrection and Sunghwa during my lifetime, was transferred to Korea.

Korea will now become God’s homeland and hometown. Declaring that Korea is God’s homeland, the World Assembly for the Settlement of the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind and for the Proclamation of the Word by God’s Substantial Self was completed in Korea on July 8, and again in ceremonies in the United States, representing Christianity, the second Israel, and in Jerusalem. Through these proclamation ceremonies, all the borderlines in the entire cosmos have been abolished. Consequently, centering on God, heaven and earth shall exist eternally, night and day, under God’s reign and with the support of the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind.

Distinguished guests, at this serious and important time, a revolutionary and cosmic change must now take place in your lives. In light of this let us summarize the message Heaven has given to us today.

First, all blessed families should attend God at the center of their families and every day carry out Hoon Dok education, which can completely unite parents and children. In other words, you should thoroughly teach the Divine Principle, the textbooks and teaching materials True Parents have bequeathed, True Father’s autobiography, and absolute marital fidelity taught through the ‘Original Divine Principle.’

Second, Heaven has permitted the grace of the authority of Sunghwa for rebirth and resurrection to be bestowed on the family unit. Here, a requisite condition is the complete unity between parents and children. In other words, you must establish the standard for absolute parents and absolute children, and establish an absolute family in the normal course of events.

Third, humankind has moved out of the authority of the era of restoration through indemnity, thanks to the grace of True Parents who have suffered hardships through which they sweat blood. Therefore, do not forget the fact that during True Parents’ lifetime we all have the responsibility to liberate families, tribes, peoples, nations and the world in which God can dwell, from the authority of hell. Now that the era of restoration through indemnity has ended, what kind of era is dawning? The reign of tranquility and prosperity in the victorious authority centered on God and True Parents shall be eternal.

Fourth, we are now entering the era of the authority of God’s direct dominion. Ladies and gentlemen, I have said that less than two years remain until the D-day proclaimed by Heaven. I beg that you inscribe in your hearts the fact that we have entered the era of the authority of the cosmic Sabbath in which your direct family members in the spirit world shall return to the earth to receive the Original Divine Principle education, and where eight generations will live together in a single family. Aju!

Ladies and gentlemen, these concluding remarks explain the broad outline of all my endeavors. They bring to a close this rally that is being held for the religious circles, the earth, the spirit world, physical world, and Cain and Abel-type world, in order to finalize what I, the Rev. Moon, have achieved through the course of my entire life with God, the master of the spirit world and physical world. This is not something that could have appeared in history before now.

We have come to today’s assembly through the starting point of the Seoul Assembly that represented both Korea that will become God’s homeland; and the central nation of America, through the Washington DC-New York Assembly. These have been held in order to establish the realm of victory, and to make headlines that summarize my life course, which decisively brings to a conclusion the realm of victory, creating a world in which God, completely victorious in the providence, is liberated and completely freed through the life course of the True Parents; and in order to bring perfection, completion and conclusion to the era after the coming of heaven.

True Parents’ Special Instructions:

(I am conveying the following instructions to the 387 ambassadors of the 194 Abel UN member nations and 193 Cain-type UN member nations, to boon-bong-wangs and Ambassadors for Peace, to the presidents and national leaders of each nation who are present in Washington DC/New York, and to all of heaven and earth.)

Establishment of the New Tribal Messiah Global Federation for Peace in the New World:

1. Centering on Hwang Sun-jo, the President of UPF-Korea, the Sunghwa Ceremonies for the realm of the tribal messiah and for the first, second and third Israels were to be completed between October and December 31, 2010. The three-day ceremony and indemnity stick ceremony (of the Blessing) are also to be completed. Korea is God’s homeland and hometown; because it is True Parents’ nation, we should have all the people of Korea take part in these ceremonies.

2. Those who have accepted the responsibility of boon-bong-wang or Ambassador for Peace should hold and complete spiritual–physical world Blessing Ceremonies at the same time throughout the world, by D-day.

3. The ancestors from the realm of the original lineage and people belonging to the heavenly realm who received the Blessing centering on True Parents — including Adam and Eve, the Moon clan, boon-bong-wangs and Ambassadors for Peace, each nation’s president and leader of the national assembly — should realize the realm of oneness embodying all of God’s all-transcendent, all-pervading, all-capable and omnipotent qualities.

4. With October 14 sixty years ago as the beginning point, now, after sixty-years of restoration through indemnity, and in relation to the three days of the 14th, 15th and 16th day of the 10th month, by the heavenly calendar, in the 10th year of Cheon Il Guk, this proclamation rally being held on the 17th day of the 10th month by the heavenly calendar [November 22], in the first year of Cheon-gi (2010), is one of perfecting, completing and concluding the final stages of all the proclamations given in heaven and on earth up until the D-day proclamation of True Parents, and which correspond with the documented record of proclamations True Parents have made.

5. True Parents’ proclamation at the Assembly to Proclaim the Substantial Word and the Era of the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind — the Washington DC-New York Assembly, the Hoover Dam Assembly in Las Vegas and the Seoul Assembly in Korea, which is becoming God’s homeland and hometown — signifies the ultimate perfection, completion and finalization of the providence. This mission must be completed within the next one year and eight months, by the D-day designated by True Parents.

6. In this way, Korea, which gave birth to the True Parents, will be perfected, completed and finalized as God’s homeland and hometown. Centered on President Lee Myung-bak, who represents the governments of Korea (south and north), which is God’s homeland and hometown, former US President George Bush and US President Obama, whose positions correspond to the presidents of the Cain-type UN and Abel-type UN, and all the presidents and citizens who participated in the G20 meetings must unite to bring about the success of these rallies and perfect, complete, conclude and offer them according to True Parents’ heavenly decree. If any among these are unable to participate, True Parents will select others and bring them to perfect that work in their place.

Advent of the Era of the New Substantial Image

Ladies and gentlemen,

As I believe you have seen in the video today, we are now in a time where God is concluding the providence and harvesting its fruits in the final stages. Not long ago, Prime Minister Danny Philip of the Solomon Islands personally visited True Parents. He was deeply moved by God’s Word, and before he left, pledged and promised that his nation would become an ally nation of True Parents. He showed his resolve to become God’s laborer and a soldier who stands in the frontline of the providence. In Nepal at this very hour, Original Divine Principle lectures received from True Parents are being broadcast by a national television station in Nepal, to educate all its people.

Activities centered on the United Nations are now on track and gaining speed. The Women’s Federation for World Peace, which my wife and I founded, has been recognized for initiating activities that are in line with the UN’s founding purpose and goals. Thus, it is becoming recognized as one of the top tier organizations among the 3,400 plus NGOs registered with the UN. Furthermore, WFWP has achieved outstanding results in its activities promoting women’s rights, and solving problems of poverty and education for children. WFWP has already been awarded for its work on a number of occasions.

Recently, control of The Washington Times, which had been taken from my hands by trickery, has now been taken back. If this isn’t a miracle, I don’t know what is.

Top officials from the Cain-type realm, from the black and white races, will unite to create a federation centering on The Washington Times board of directors in order to promote the truth of God’s will for His homeland and hometown and to protect the nation of God’s sovereignty.

Ladies and gentlemen, the world is now revolving centering on True Parents. Historically, Korea and Japan, Japan and the United States, the United States and Russia and other such nations have been enemy nations. The people from these nations will also take part in the cross-cultural marriage blessing on a nationwide scale in order to eradicate the fallen lineage received from Lucifer and inherit the new heavenly lineage.

The ongoing project to build undersea tunnels between Korea and Japan and across the Bering Strait, which I have proclaimed to all the world, will be spearheaded by religious leaders on a worldwide scale and completed in attendance to our liberated God.

In this world, atheism and communism, which deny the existence of God, will be discarded, paving the way to building the world that God originally envisioned, where all people can freely communicate in harmony.

The historical conflict and strife experienced by the four great representative kings — that is to say, the God of Night, the God of Day, the King of Kings, and True Parents — and which arose because the first ancestors fell, has finally been completely resolved by the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind. A world where all people are equal and all nations become like brother nations to create one family under God is being created right before your eyes.

I pray that all of you will become victors who are part of this historic and providential revolution. May the heavenly fortune that flows through the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind be with you all.

I pray in the name of True Parents that God’s blessings be with you, your family and your nation.

Thank you.