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H.J.H. Moon: Address to Peace Summit 2023, Opening Plenary
Written by Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, Co-Founder, UPF International
Wednesday, May 3, 2023
Address to Peace Summit 2023
May 2-5, 2023
Respected leaders from Korea and overseas, I warmly welcome you.
Today we are speaking about peace—peace in our world. Throughout human history people have sought to realize a world of peace, yet we have always experienced war and conflict. How and when will peace come to humankind?
Originally, the Creator’s intention was to be our parent. The invisible Creator created a man and a woman in the image of God as our first ancestors. God gave them time to mature and waited for the day when they would perfect their characters. Nevertheless, the man and woman who were to have been our first ancestors failed to uphold God’s divine commandment, and their descendants are the fallen human race of the present day.
Over the course of history, the pursuit of goodness has led to the birth of religions that reflect the region in which they originated. Righteous individuals who were committed to goodness emerged from every corner of the globe and pursued their mission. Despite this, when we observe the problems of the world today, we find that conflicts and disputes between religions, wars based on ideological differences, and numerous countries pursuing their own interests, make the word “peace” feel distant, though it is close. Is there really any hope for us in the present time? The issue is that we cannot rely on a human-centric approach. Although all religions move in the direction of goodness, they have not been able to find the right answer.
What I would like to say is this: Would the Creator of the universe, as our Parent, simply watch quietly as the children suffer? I cannot describe the entirety of Heaven’s providence in the short time I have to speak, but what God waited and waited so long to see was for central people to emerge from among fallen humanity, a man and a woman who could attend God as their Parent. In other words, God has been waiting for the birth of the True Parents who can save everyone in the fallen world. The result of Heaven’s work was that these True Parents were born to the Korean people.
Our Heavenly Parent’s dream is to share life in the kingdom of heaven on earth together with good sons and daughters who have received True Parents’ Blessing. However, the path to achieve this has not been easy. Yet, through the Korean people and the Korean Peninsula, something like a miracle occurred, and we could see the completion of the heavenly providence and the culmination of human history.
To put it another way, through the True Parents, the dream of our Heavenly Parent who has waited 6,000 years and the desire of all humankind can finally be actualized. This is that, through the dedication of Cheon Won Gung and the Cheon Il Sanctum, Heavenly Parent can reside directly with us.
Many faiths have created temples where they can attend God. However, they have not understood the fundamental nature of the Creator. Heaven’s circumstances in relation to the Korean Peninsula after six thousand years…
I know there are many religious leaders present today. To save humankind, God carried out the providence of salvation, and this is clearly in evidence in the Old Testament. Through the people of Israel, Heaven sent the Savior whom God could call “My Son,” who would atone for the wrongs committed by fallen humankind.
However, the Son alone is not enough. In accordance with the principles of creation, God created a man and a woman. The only begotten Son was unable to complete that task. The people of Israel, the Jewish leaders, and Mary who gave birth to him, did not recognize the Messiah. In the end he went to the cross. Before he died, Jesus promised to return. Two thousand years have passed since Christian history began with the disciples of Jesus anticipating his return. However, does Christianity understand the essence of Heaven’s providence? Yet a miraculous event has occurred on the Korean Peninsula through the True Parents, as they are dedicating a temple from which the Heavenly Parent can directly govern the earthly world.
Today, our planet suffers immensely due to ignorance. Due the lack of rainfall resulting from climate change, one-third of the population of the nation of Somalia, located southeast of the Sahara Desert, have been displaced as migrant refugees and are hoping for aid from the rest of the world. How is it that this beautiful Earth, which God created for humankind, has suffered such changes? All of you gathered here today are righteous people that Heaven has blessed. We cannot merely stand quietly on the sidelines. The sole path to our resolving these issues and safeguarding our future is attending Heavenly Parent as our center and working together.
I gratefully receive the kind hearts of the distinguished participants here who have congratulated me on my 80th birthday. Although it is a small offering, I wish to donate $800,000 for the sake of the world. [Applause]
We all need to celebrate that we are living in this miraculous time, attending our Heavenly Parent. This is something to take pride in. I pray that we will all join hands together in this historic and providential flow of blessing, and that we will realize the dream of peace for all people and one family of humankind under our Heavenly Parent.
To go to the Peace Summit 2023 Schedule page, click here.