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S.M. Moon: A Providential View of the Pacific Rim Era in Light of God's Will, September 2007
Written by Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon
Saturday, September 22, 2007
A Providential View of the Pacific Rim Era in Light of God's Will:
The United States and the Future Direction of the United Nations and the World
Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon, Founder, Universal Peace Federation
Address first delivered March 17, 2007 in Kona, Hawaii and subsequently given on other occasions, including the UPF Assembly in New York on September 22, 2007
Ladies and gentlemen, my heart is intense and filled with emotion as I stand before you today. It is not because of the Misoo celebrations being held around the world to commemorate my eighty-eighth birthday. Neither is it because, owing to the fact that I am as healthy as a young man, I am filled with the hope of living beyond my hundredth birthday! The reason I am so serious is at the beginning of this year, 2007, I declared a jubilee year in God's providence, a jubilee year the likes of which God and humankind have never experienced in all the thousands of years of history. Heaven has greatly blessed this holy year.
God's heart has been in pain throughout history because Satan's dominion trapped humankind within its evil sovereignty in the shackles of the era before the coming of heaven. That age has finally come to an end. From this year on the gates to the revolutionary era after the coming of heaven are opened wide, ushering in the era of a new sovereignty of goodness when humanity can serve and attend God as the central being.
Without your being aware of it, Heaven's providence has been expanding in extraordinary ways. Now numerous Ambassadors for Peace in 185 nations have received my teachings and are working day and night in response to a special decree from God. Hence, today I would like to convey to you Heaven's message, which is entitled, "A Providential View of the Pacific Rim Era in Light of God's Will: The United States and the Future Direction of the United Nations and the World." This is a declaration of God's plan for His dispensation and the direction humanity should take.
The Progress of Human History
Ladies and gentlemen, if you carefully examine the progress of history, you will undoubtedly discover God's plan and sense His presence as He tirelessly worked behind the scenes.
Consider the history of civilization, which began centering on four of the world's great rivers. We are familiar with the Egyptian civilization centered around the Nile River, the Mesopotamian civilization between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, the Indus civilization on the Indus River, and early Chinese civilization centered around the Yellow River. Civilization shifted over time to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, where the Mediterranean peninsular civilizations flourished in Greece and Rome.
As history continued to progress, the European continental civilization emerged. This continental civilization in turn became the fertilizer for an island civilization, Great Britain, to flourish in the Atlantic sphere. The British Empire, which dominated the seven seas and wielded its might as "the empire on which the sun never sets," then passed its splendid culture on to North America. We know these facts from history.
Civilization arrived on the North American continent and soon took on the armor of democracy, which was rooted in Christianity. This civilization raised the banner of the freedom of religion and respect for equal human rights in its struggle against communism, which sought to establish an atheistic sovereignty of evil. Through victories in the First and Second World Wars, and the third—the Cold War—it won victory over totalitarianism and communism.
However, that victory does not simply mean that America is great, and the development of human civilization did not stop there. Victory came because God had chosen and raised the United States of America as the Second Israel, in accordance with His providential plan, and had raised and trained the American people through Christianity. God worked through America to bring His providence to its present stage of fruition.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is in the present time that the issue of the development of civilization becomes important. Civilization has completed a circuit of the entire globe and has now arrived in the Pacific sphere. Human history has now come to a point in the providence where it should reach fruition through the Pacific Rim region.
No force can stop the providence now. Though there were both victories and defeats during the course of indemnity under the evil sovereignty in the era before heaven, nothing could prevent the rise of the Pacific Rim Era. Herein lies the special reason that Heaven declared this year to be a jubilee year.
Our Mission in the Pacific Rim Era
Ladies and gentlemen, the arrival of the Pacific Rim Era signifies many things. What do you think the world would have been like if Jesus had fulfilled the complete messianic mission during his lifetime on earth? Jesus came as the Savior and Messiah, to save all of humanity. He did not come just to save the people of Israel, a small nation located on a corner of the Mediterranean Sea.
At that time, Rome, based at the center of the Mediterranean, was the center of human civilization. Rome was ready to rule the seas. Heaven's desire was that Jesus first teach and transform Rome and then rule over her, in order to bring salvation to all humanity through the vehicle of Rome's brilliant civilization. Yet, Jesus was cruelly put to death on the cross, as we know through the biblical record.
After thousands of years of preparation, God finally had been able to send Jesus to the earth as His only son. There is no way to fathom God's heart as He anxiously watched Jesus' each and every action.
Jesus' death was a tragedy that broke God's heart. It brought Him anguish even more extreme than the time when Adam and Eve, whom He created as the first ancestors of humankind, were lost from the Garden of Eden due to the Fall. During the two thousand years since the cross, God, in the background of history, has walked a suffering path that is beyond human imagination.
Through this course, He prepared the United States of America to serve as the nation of the Second Israel. As a Christian nation that includes Catholicism and Protestantism as well as the Orthodox world, the United States' mission is to bring harmony and unity to Christianity as soon as possible, and, in the twenty-first century, to fulfill the responsibility that had been the Roman Empire's, but which was not realized in Jesus' time.
The responsibility, within God's providence, to bring harmony and oneness among the world's six and a half billion people and to expedite the creation of a peaceful, ideal world, is on America's shoulders. These are not simply my words: this is Heaven's decree.
Then how can we unify Christianity? God has already revealed the solution through me, the True Parent of humankind. God has given me the supreme command to practice a life of true love, to understand completely the reality of the spirit world to which we go after we die, and to establish a model, ideal family—a true family.
Then what kind of love is true love, and what kind of family is a true family?
True Love and True Family
Ladies and gentlemen, God's absolute true love does not instill a desire to have one's partner exist for one's own sake. Rather, true love's essence is giving, living for the sake of others and for the sake of the whole. True love gives, forgets that it has given, and continues to give without ceasing. True love gives joyfully. We find it in the joyful and loving heart of a mother who cradles her baby in her arms and nurses it at her breast. True love is sacrificial love, such as that of a devoted son who finds his greatest satisfaction in dedicating himself with all of his body and mind to helping his parents.
When we are bound together in true love, we can be together forever, continually increasing in the joy of each other's company. The attraction of true love brings all things in the universe to our feet; even God will come to dwell with us. Nothing can compare to the value of true love. It has the power to dissolve the barriers fallen people have created, including national boundaries and the barriers of race and even religion.
The main attributes of true love are that it is absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal, so that whoever practices God's true love will live with God, share His happiness, and enjoy the right to participate as an equal in His work. Therefore, a life lived for the sake of others, a life of true love, is the absolute precondition for entering the kingdom of heaven.
The path is now wide open for humanity to establish true families. The family sets the pattern for living together in harmony. The warm environment of oneness based on love and respect between parents and children, mutual fidelity and love between husband and wife, and trust and mutual reliance among siblings is the manifestation of the model, ideal family.
This means that you need to establish a true family in which the stem of true love emerges from the root of true love and bears the fruit of true love. In this way the three generations of grandparents, parents, and children should live together as one family and serve the eternal God. God desires to see such families, and it is your responsibility as tribal messiahs and Ambassadors for Peace to seek after and establish them—families of Cheon Il Guk, the kingdom of God.
You should form families that God will miss and yearn to return to after He has been away. You should raise families to which He can come freely as the Parent visiting His children. This is what it means to live in service to God.
In such a family, God is the subject partner over your conscience, acting vertically. Following God as your vertical subject partner, your mind then stands in the position of a vertical subject partner over your body, bringing your mind and body into unity. That is where parental love, conjugal love, children's love, and siblings' love—in short, the four realms of love or the four realms of heart—are perfected.
Only in such a family can the upper and lower, front and behind, left and right be connected as one and spherical motion ensue. This leads to God's everlasting, model ideal families and nations, and His peace kingdom. If only the entire world were filled with such true families! It would be an orderly world where people govern themselves by the heavenly way and heavenly laws, with no need for lawyers, prosecutors or even judges.
The Future of Humankind Rooted in the Future of the Pacific Rim Region
Among the 6.5 billion people on the earth today, almost five billion are our neighbors, relatives, and brothers and sisters belonging to the Pacific Rim region. Many of us share the same roots in the sphere of the Mongolian peoples. There is nothing we cannot do if we receive the Marriage Blessing and pull together centering on God's ideal for peace! The future of humanity is in our hands.
God's providence has now spread from the North American continent and has blossomed as an island civilization, the Japanese archipelago, which is in a position similar to that previously held by the United Kingdom. It is now about to fulfill its destiny by coming to fruition on the Korean peninsula, the homeland of the True Parents who have emerged on the earth as the Savior of humanity and the returning Messiah.
The Korean peninsula, which stands in a similar position to that of Rome in Jesus' time, is regarded as an area of conflict between the sphere of the religions and the sphere of politics, which have the mission of resolving the world's problems. From a geo-political point of view, the Korean peninsula is still an arena of intense confrontation despite the ongoing work to secure world peace.
The principles of restoration through indemnity dictate that civilization must bear fruit in the Pacific Rim region, centered on the Korean peninsula. Fortunately, during the Korean War, the UN forces, centering on the United States, were mobilized to protect the peninsula. Yet, they did not recover the homeland and hometown of God's desire as they should have according to God's will, and they left the job half done. As a result, global conflict and strife continued during "the Cold War." People were deprived of their possessions and displaced, leading them to search for God.
In order to restore this through indemnity, I established the Universal Peace Federation. (UPF) I then organized the "peace kingdom corps" and the "peace kingdom police force," comprising women on Heaven's side who have received the Marriage Blessing, who love peace, and who are willing to serve and sacrifice for the work of UPF. I have taken the lead in educating those involved with these organizations. As the peace organizations that stand in the forefront of actualizing a world of peace with God at its center, they will create the peaceful, ideal world that God desires.
You may not be aware of this, but I have been assisting the Six Party Talks now being held for the sake of resolving the nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula and finally reconciling the democratic nations and communist nations. I am presenting a solution based on the principles of peace and harmony rooted in the new ideology with the Heavenly Father at its center.
At such intense times, what exactly should be the role of America and the United Nations? Hawaii in the Pacific and Norfolk on the Atlantic bridge East and West, link North and South, and represent the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and all the great oceans of the world.
With the support and protection of the American continent, the Korean Peninsula should protect and defend the Pacific Rim region by bringing together all the island nations of the Pacific. I say this because the future of humankind lies in the preservation of the Pacific Rim region centering on Korea, Japan and the United States.
As I was well aware of Heaven's plans for this area, I invested thirty-three of the prime years of my life in the United States beginning in the early 1970s, for the sake of world peace. I first visited Hawaii and prayed at a critical moment when I was on my way to meet Kim Il Sung of North Korea in 1991 with the purpose of bringing an end to the Cold War era.
On that victorious foundation, I have now returned to Korea and I am working to complete the providence of establishing God's homeland and hometown. This year, in particular, a jubilee year in the providence, I visited Hawaii as the first stop on a trip to America.
Ladies and gentlemen, I ask that you closely analyze the current state of affairs in the world. Although the days of communism are gone, even now powerful nations such as China and Russia are constantly on the lookout for opportunities to aggressively pursue their own interests with the powerless and small island nations. Regardless of what nation it may be, no small island nation by itself can deal with these powerful surrounding nations and their economic, political or even military ambitions. Those nations are so powerful that, if they wanted to, they could dominate any of the smaller nations in a single day, without shedding blood.
Only when peace and security are settled in the Pacific Rim can peace for all humankind be guaranteed. As I have mentioned, the small island nations by themselves will not be able to stop the incredible tsunami of powerful nations moving into the region.
The time has come, therefore, for all these small island nations in the Pacific Rim sphere to unite as one and build the homeland of the new civilization.
The small island nations dispersed in both the northern and southern regions of the Pacific, on either side of the equator, as well as Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, the Solomon Islands, Australia, New Zealand and other countries, should become as one country and form one union to sustain peace throughout the Pacific Rim civilization. This will secure peace and stability for all people.
What I am saying is that we have the responsibility to protect the oceanic realm, which is a lifeline on which humanity's future depends, and save it from the environmental destruction and conflicts that are worsening by the day, and shield the natural resources for the sake of peace in the future.
True Parents' Work for Peace
Distinguished guests, I have surmounted and triumphed over a course of great suffering and tribulation. I have not lived for personal glory or comfort. Even as I walked that thorny path, often coming very close to death, I received Heaven's seal and was made fully aware of the destination of God's will. I held dearly to Heaven's command to bring salvation to humanity as I returned like a phoenix and continued my turbulent life.
I have come to be recognized by various leaders of religion, academia, politics and others, both here in America and throughout the world, as the champion in eight areas of spiritual knowledge and discipline.
The first has to do with knowledge of God. Until now, God has been known only as the omniscient and omnipotent Being. People think God is sitting on the throne of honor and glory as the absolute master, having nothing to do with the created world of all things.
However, from the time when I first embarked on a journey to fulfill God's providential calling to me, I came to know that the relationship between God and human beings was that of parent and child. I learned that God became the Parent of pain, sorrow, and lamentation ever since He lost His first children Adam and Eve.
Throughout my life, I have been doing my very best to dissolve God's pain and sorrow and bring liberation and total freedom to His heart. Finally, on January 13, 2001, through the coronation ceremony of God's kingship, I was able to restore His throne of glory and power and offer it to Him.
The second area has to do with the reality of Satan. Throughout history, human beings did not know the identity of the Devil, Satan who caused the human fall, leading to all kinds of evil.
For fourteen years, I labored desperately to discover all secrets of the spirit world through many bruising spiritual battles. Finally, I came to find out the real identity of Satan, the origin all evil. Taking one step further, I also came to uncover Satan's strategy and tactics to multiply his power.
After I discovered Satan's strategy of defiling the human blood lineage through the Fall, I became totally committed to restoring God's original blood lineage. The heavenly strategy developed for this purpose, and now widely known throughout the world, is the "Cross-cultural and International Marriage Blessing movement."
The third area has to do with understanding of the human condition. Where are we human beings from, how should we live, and where should we go? Why are we fighting between the mind and the body, and struggle in conflicts? What is the meaning of life and death? Does the world after death truly exist? If so, how should we live on earth?
These questions and others are expounded in detail in the Principle of Creation revealed to me by God.
I have the intuitive ability to look into the hearts of men and women and predict their destiny. That is why many young people throughout the world come to me hoping to be matched with an ideal spouse.
The fourth area has to do with knowledge and understanding of the spirit world. The spirit world, the world after physical death, is a world that really exists, and to which all humans are bound to go as an extension of earthly life. Human life is one continuous stream from conception and life in the womb all the way to an eternal life, after physical death ends our earthly life.
We should understand clearly that the numerous saints and sages who have lived on earth throughout history are now actually living in the spirit world. They are assisting God's providence for the earth, reborn as absolute good spirits after having received the Marriage Blessing from the True Parents.
Each moment in our earthly life is recorded in the spirit world exactly as it takes place. On the day when we go to the spirit world, our life's record will become the basis for judgment. That is why all human beings should practice a life of true love and sacrifice themselves for a greater cause.
The fifth area has to do with knowledge about Jesus. I came to grasp the terrible tragedy of the crucifixion of Jesus. He came as God's son, the Savior and Messiah, but he was rejected and opposed, even by the people that God had prepared. It was God's will that Jesus, as the second Adam, should fulfill the model of God-centered ideal family, and engraft all humankind to him.
Christianity became the foundation of Western civilization through Rome, and then became the core for the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean civilizations. It has always stood in the position of the Bride to receive the Lord of Second Coming. Therefore Christians in particular must comprehend the sorrowful heart of Jesus, who was driven to the cross, unable to fully unfold God's will for him.
My teachings clearly explain the truth of Jesus' mission, the limitation of salvation through the cross, and the reason and purpose why he should return.
The sixth area is in knowledge of the core contents of the Bible and other religious scriptures. These are books of secret revelation that enable human beings trapped in ignorance after the fall of the first human ancestors to return to God.
Many of the important issues in scripture are described in metaphors and symbols. The meaning of these metaphors and symbols are to be fully revealed only by the Messiah sent by Heaven. Hence, Jesus was able to disclose the core contents and deep meaning of the Old Testament.
In the same way, all the secrets of God regarding His providence of salvation, including the ideal of creation, the Fall, and the path of restoration are now being revealed by my teachings. The Divine Principle lucidly answers all the questions that are raised in all the various scriptures.
The seventh area is in the knowledge and understanding of the goal human history. History is not merely a record of events that take place by coincidence. It is flowing toward a clear direction and purpose. It is a history for the providence for restoration of human beings through indemnity, and a history for restoration for their salvation.
Because of this insight into the origin and direction of history, I was able to successfully predict the sudden end of communism and dialectic materialism, in a speech delivered at the 1985 Professors World Peace Academy Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, a time when the Soviet Union was still at its peak.
Today, I am declaring that it is time for all nations and religion to break down their barriers. Through this, the era of "One World under God" will arrive and last forever.
God is leading history. With the help of heavenly fortune, centering on the Abel UN, we will now make rapid progress toward a world transcending religions and nations, the Cheon Il Guk God's kingdom on earth.
The eighth area concerns true family values. God's ideal of creation is to build God-centered true families. It is the goal of His salvation providence to restore the ideal of true family, the ideal that Adam could not fulfill in his own family, and in this way to establish the foundation for the kingdom of heaven on earth and in heaven.
The Marriage Blessing movement that I have been leading is no ordinary wedding ceremony. It is a sacred ritual through which to eradicate the original sin and engraft human beings to the true lineage of God.
True families are the wellspring and foundation of true love, true life and true lineage. Through true families the true nation, true world, and true kingdom can be built. Families centered on the True Parents can become the base for the perfected relationships of the Four Realms of Heart and the Three Kingships, and become the foundation for the kingdom of heaven.
On September 12, 2005, I founded the Universal Peace Federation. Then, in order to build 'One Family under God' through the twin strategies of proclaiming God's Word and conducting the Marriage Blessing, I completed three world speaking tours with my wife, Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, our children and our grandchildren. In this way we were able to successfully have three generations fulfilling the Marriage Blessing ideal within one family.
Afterwards, 120 Christian representatives in America as well as 1,200 religious leaders and 12,000 Ambassadors for Peace from across the world traveled consecutively throughout 190 nations, representing their own nation by spreading the Peace Messages of the True Parents and sharing the Marriage Blessing. This tour helped spread true family values as the universal values of humankind as we establish a new God-centered civilization.
As mentioned above, I have become well known as a champion in each of these eight areas. The support of all humanity is urgently needed for everything to be fulfilled. With God's grace, we will soon win the victory!
In Jerusalem, in 2003, on the foundation of the victory attained through such blood, sweat and tears, I had Jesus proclaimed as the king of kings before heaven and earth with the acknowledgement of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Following this, in 2004, I was acknowledged as the king of peace both in a United States Senate office building and at the Korean National Assembly. Subsequently, in June 2006, we held the Coronation Ceremony of the True Parents as the King and Queen of Peace in Heaven and on Earth.
Ladies and gentlemen, on September 12, 2005, I proclaimed throughout all of heaven and earth the establishment of the Universal Peace Federation (UPF), which will enable God's providence to flourish. Now, it is certainly possible for UPF to serve as an "Abel-type" counterpart to the UN in the era after the coming of heaven.
UPF will help renew the "Cain-type" UN and lead the way for millions of Ambassadors for Peace throughout the world who have taken up my teachings, centered on the Heavenly Father's principles of true love and the ideal of true family, and, without fail to fulfill the heavenly will of creating "One Family Under God."
The International and Cross-cultural Marriage Blessing
Ladies and gentlemen, the Universal Peace Federation will be in the vanguard of carrying out the great revolution of restoring the original lineage of humanity back to that of Adam before the Fall through the International and Cross-cultural Marriage Blessing held on the interreligious and international level. Some may laugh and say that it is impossible. Yet, if it is God's will, there will be a way.
What do you think will happen if people from the United States and Russia marry across the boundaries of their nationalities through the international and cross-cultural Marriage Blessing, according to the teachings of Rev. Moon, who is doing God's work? The two nations will belong to one family under God, the eternal, absolute Lord of all creation. How could anyone harbor antagonism toward, much less point weapons at, a nation which many millions of grandchildren from their own lineage make their home?
Distinguished guests, you who have been called by God! The holy task of building the ideal kingdom of heaven—the sacred reign of peace on earth—is being carried out enthusiastically in all corners of the world, through the recovery of our ideal homeland and hometown. This is God's hope for changing the 6.5 billion people of the world to the lineage of the true tribe. At this very moment, people are competing to fulfill their responsibility to hold hoondok rallies and Marriage Blessings in twelve thousand locations in each of the 185 nations of the world.
The Coming Culture of Women
Ladies and Gentlemen, you have truly come to a meaningful occasion today. Please do not miss your chance to ride on the currents of heavenly fortune that will surge together during this important and sacred jubilee year. Take the lead in protecting and developing the realm of the oceans, which cover seventy-five percent of the earth. Where else will you find a new treasure-store of natural resources that hold the promise to resuscitate the earth, endangered by all kinds of pollution and resource depletion?
The oceanic era that has now begun is a time of great change throughout heaven and earth. A new culture of peace which transcends nations, oceans and continents will start in the Pacific Rim. The women of the world should now work together centering on True Mother to give birth to this new age of a holy civilization of peace.
The families of your good ancestors in heaven are now being blessed. Numbering in the billions, they have come to the earth today, and they are listening to this message with you. This is because they too must perfect themselves through you, their descendants, and advance to the positions of true parents, true teachers, and true lords and owners.
Furthermore, they must become one in heart and body with the True Parent, the king of kings. From the original position before the Fall, they must uphold the True Parents' standard absolutely, take an active role in carrying out their works, and be mobilized for the creation of the kingdom of heaven on earth and in heaven through a life of service and attendance. Please do not forget that in this way, the spirit world and the physical world will unite as one living entity, and move and breathe together.
There is one more special request I would like to ask of you today. Please immerse yourselves in the contents of my peace messages, to the point where you virtually know them by heart, and make them the guidelines for your life. These messages of peace are a summary of my teachings that can be found in more than a thousand volumes of True Parents' speeches. God will stand at the forefront. The spirit world and the physical world will unite to protect and aid you in creating the peaceful, ideal world of God's desire in which you can enjoy eternal liberation and complete freedom.
Again, I sincerely wish that you will engrave on your hearts the words I have conveyed to you, and utilize them in educating your children, other young people, and the citizens of your nation. Aju! May God's blessings be with your families, your nations, the Pacific Rim region and the Peace UN! Thank you very much.