203. The Unity of the World and Humankind's Responsibility
Book 2: A Model for the Family Ideal and World Peace
Part 1: The True Love Movement and the Role of Women
Chapter 4: The Unity of the World and Humankind's Responsibility
This speech was given at the founding rally of the Women's Federation for World Peace (WFWP) held on April 10, 1992 at the Seoul Olympic Stadium.
Distinguished guests, representatives of the Women's Federation for World Peace from seventy countries, women leaders and members of the Women's Federation for Peace in Asia:
First, let me express my deep gratitude that such a tremendous crowd has gathered today for this grand occasion, to establish the Women's Federation for World Peace and to hold the Seoul rally of the Women's Federation for Peace in Asia. By your presence, you bring blessing to our federation's future, and inspire us to redouble our determination to achieve world peace. This may be the first time that women have taken the initiative by gathering in such a large number in one place. I am certain that from this day forward, women around the world will come to understand their noble role ordained by God and that a road will be opened for us to build an ideal world filled with peace, happiness and freedom. To mark this occasion, I would like to speak to you on the topic of The Unity of the World and Humankind's Responsibility.
Unification through the true love of God
On November 30 of last year, I accompanied my husband, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, on a visit to North Korea. During our one-week stay, we met President Kim Il-sung and other leaders and toured a number of sites.
Throughout the years I have been at my husband's side, I have been a witness to the countless sleepless nights he has spent praying for the unification of our homeland, and to the great sacrifices he has made to bring the reality of today's world in line with the direction of God's providence. His recent trip to North Korea was another illustration of his willingness to place his life at risk whenever necessary. Reverend Moon is a well-known religious leader, and this fact alone makes him someone the communists depise. In addition to that, he is also the world's greatest leader working to bring victory over communism. North Korea is well known for its rigid ideological regime. The leaders of that society long ago identified Reverend Moon as their greatest enemy and launched thousands of malicious attacks against him around the world. Yet, Reverend Moon visited North Korea with only the spirit of God to protect him, and preached the commandments of Heaven to its highest echelon of leadership, saying, “Unification cannot be brought about through your Juche ideology. We must unite through Godism.”
The purpose of our North Korean visit was not to establish joint ventures or to seek ways to make money. Neither did we go there hoping to visit our hometowns or to meet our relatives. We went in accordance with the Will of God, carrying with us God's heart of true love that seeks always to give unconditionally. Our purpose was to testify to the commandments of Heaven, so that the leaders of that society could realize what they must do in order to open the floodgates for true unification. Reverend Moon was received in North Korea as a state guest of the highest order, yet he did not rest comfortably for even one night. Every night during our stay, he spent his time in fervent prayer offering God a foundation of devotions and calling on Heaven for help in establishing the conditions for reunification. Unification of the Korean peninsula will not be brought about solely through political negotiations or commercial trade. Unification is possible only through Heavenly fortune and God's true love.
This is because reunification is connected directly to the providence of God as a necessary step toward global unity.
True Parents are the culmination of history
Today is a historic occasion in which women leaders have gathered from around the world. I would not want to detract from this occasion by merely giving a few words of ceremonial greeting. Instead, I want to deliver a declaration emphasizing the teachings of Reverend Moon, which are rooted in the heart of God that transcends past, present and future. My words today are a declaration before heaven and earth, with history as my witness. The concepts I am going to speak about may seem unfamiliar to some of you, but the heavenly truths that they deal with are something that all women today need to understand.
We live in a diseased world whose destruction is inevitable. Every day we hear the ugly sounds of its final death rattle. We can trace the origin of this disease to our first ancestors, who lost their position in paradise. Our first ancestors contracted a serious disease. In religious terms, this event is referred to as the human Fall. History began in a diseased state. Satan and this diseased state have been the central focus of human history. The tragedy of human history is that it originated with Satan, the lord of evil who took a position against God's ideal of creation, and with the marriage of Adam and Eve, who had become separated from God through the Fall. Inevitably, human beings inherited Satan's love, Satan's life and Satan's lineage. The human reproductive organs, by which husband and wife were created to join together in virtue, were originally intended to be temples of true love, true life and the true lineage. Love needs to be an experience in which a husband and wife join in a virtuous union to procreate children who will carry on the lineage. The center of life is love, and the human lineage is transmitted by means of the love and life of a husband and wife. The linkage of love, life and lineage is what gives history its continuity.
Since the Fall, the human race has been held captive by Satan's love, Satan's life and Satan's lineage. Adam and Eve were in their youth when they sowed the seeds of false love, false life and false lineage.
Thus, when the Last Days come, we can expect the increase of moral decadence among young people to expand into a global phenomenon. In fact, we live in just such a time now. Satan has used fallen love as a condition to create a lair of sin in which a devastating blow could be struck against God's ideal of true love. With the relaxation of standards concerning sexual behavior, the increasing moral decay among young people and the plague of drug addiction in our societies, Satan has been able to work to destroy family structure and traditional values in order to turn this world into an earthly hell.
Thus, it has become impossible to find anywhere a true man, true woman, true brothers and sisters, a true husband and wife or true parents. Until now, there could be no hope of creating a true society, true nation or true world. The world has to understand that Satan exists and that he has brought about the fallen reality we face today. With this knowledge, we can find the cause of the disease and uncover the origin of the Fall.
We must reveal to the world that Satan, Adam and Eve formed a trinity of evil, and that it is up to us to restore the original Trinity of God, Adam and Eve that is in accordance with the ideal of creation. For this issue to be resolved, someone must testify to the fact that Satan committed sin, and clearly explain the fundamental truths concerning the sin committed by our first ancestors. God and Satan have always known all the details about the Fall.
There were many things that Adam did not understand, however, because he Founding Rally of the Women's Federation for World Peace (April 10, 1992, Seoul Olympic Stadium) was still young at the time. In the Last Days, the restored and completed Adam will come and make all this information known. He will reveal the sins committed by Satan through the course of history. When he comes, it will finally be possible to expel Satan from this world. For the first time, human beings will be able to make a fundamental change in direction toward a world of hope, peace, happiness and freedom.
Grafting onto the true olive tree
In order for humankind to make a total break from the false love, false life and false lineage that derive from Satan as their false parent, it is necessary that we be grafted onto the true olive tree. That is, all people need to be grafted onto God and True Parents in order to recover true love, true life and true lineage. This will make it possible for us to build heaven on earth as well as in the spirit world. This, in fact, is the final purpose of God's providence of salvation, restoration and re-creation. Thus, the appearance of the True Parents is an event of the most historic importance. They represent the conclusion and final fruit of human history. The True Parents have ushered in the completion stage of human cultural history. They signify the victory of religion and philosophy within history.
Prior to the emergence of True Parents, however, there is required a period of restoration through indemnity, that is, a period of re-creation. I would like to speak for a while about this historical period based on the biblical record to illustrate what a difficult process it has been. By understanding this, we can understand how important it is that we fulfill our responsibility today.
In the record of the Old Testament, history was a course of indemnification—an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth and a life for a life. The responsibility for the Fall passed from Eve to Adam, with Satan at the center. If we look from the standpoint of Eve who received the seed of false life, the Fall occurred when Satan took over God's position as Eve's father and became one with her to bear Adam. In the course of the Fall, Eve placed the archangel in the position of her father and Adam in the position of her son. Consequently, women who, in the course of the history of restoration through indemnity, have come to stand in the position of Eve have risked their lives, when necessary, in order to ensure that God's Will is passed on to the next generation.
When we study the historical record in the Bible, we come across a number of events that seem to defy explanation. God's original intention in His creation was that Eve would become one with God, her Father, and with God's son, Adam. As a result of the Fall, however, she became one with Satan and Adam who was now a false son. Immediately after the Fall, God began working through the family of Adam to reverse the course of the Fall, and restore it through indemnity. Even though Adam's family had fallen, God could still work with them, because He had created humankind as beings with eternal life.
The struggle between good and evil
Cain, the first fruit of the love by which Satan took Eve, was recognized as being on the side of Satan, and Abel, who was born as the second fruit, representing Eve's love with her intended husband Adam, was positioned on the side of Heaven. This was the beginning of the history of the struggle between good and evil, aimed at fundamental restoration through indemnity. It was necessary in history that the second son be blessed so that the second son, representing Heaven, could restore and claim the birthright of the first son, held by Satan. Exemplifying this, Cain and Abel made offerings to God simultaneously, yet God received only the offering of Abel, the second born, while refusing the offering of Cain. The reason was that the second born at that time stood on the side of Heaven. Had Cain made his offering through Abel, an orderly, reverse path could have been established between God, Adam and the archangel, and restoration could have been accomplished. Because Cain killed Abel, however, Heaven chose Seth and extended the providence to the generations following.
Cain and Abel were born into this world as brothers. Because of their inability to accomplish God's Will, His next dispensation needed to be carried out within a mother's womb. Thus, when Rebekah asked God why it was that Esau and Jacob fought within her womb, God said to her, “Two nations are in your womb … the elder shall serve the younger.” (Genesis 25:23). From that time on, Rebekah came to take greater care of the second born, Jacob. Jacob had to restore through indemnity the birthright of his brother Esau. For this to be successful, Rebekah had to fulfill her responsibility in the position of Eve. The blow struck at the firstborn of Egypt during the course of the Israelites' Exodus, and Jacob's crossing of his hands when he blessed Joseph's sons Manasseh and Ephraim, both represent the hidden Will of Heaven to bring about a reversal of the rights of the first and second sons.
In her Fall, Eve deceived God, her Father, and Adam, who was in the position of her son. Rebekah stood on the side of Heaven and deceived the father, Isaac, and her son, Esau, so that Jacob could receive Isaac's blessing. Jacob purchased the birthright of the firstborn, and initiated the lineage of the Israelites on the foundation of a victory won through the cooperation of a mother and her son. He conditionally claimed the right of the first son and that of the second son for the side of Heaven, and established the foundation of victory for the nation of Israel that was to descend from him. Jacob, however, was more than forty years of age at the time that he took full control over the birthright of the firstborn.
Thus, the period of human life prior to age forty remained without the condition of having won victory over Satan. Therefore, God carried out a dispensation for the purpose of claiming victory in the womb once again. Tamar, the daughter-in-law of Judah, had in her womb the twin sons, Zerah and Perez. Perez was about to become the younger son because his brother Zerah was being born first, but he pushed Zerah aside in order that he would be born first instead. In fact, the name Perez means to break through.
Revolutionary women and the only begotten son
At the beginning of history, the lineage of Satan was planted in the maternal womb. With Tamar, the womb was restored to the side of God. The side of Heaven took control over the right of the first son and the right of the second son so that God's original lineage could be established. It was in this way that the tribe of Judah came to form the foundation on which the Messiah would later be born. As a woman, Tamar placed herself in the position of having deceived father and son. She denied her father-in-law and his sons in order to separate the position of Eve from Satan. As a result of Tamar successfully separating the womb from Satan, the necessary condition was established in her lineage whereby God's children could be conceived and given birth to without Satan's invasion.
It was then up to the Israelites and Judaism to carry on this standard of victory in the womb until such time that the Messiah could be sent as the True Parents. Because Satan had already been able to establish his nations in the world at that time, the sending of the Messiah had to wait until such time as the Israelites could establish a national base sufficient for indemnifying the other nations of the world.
God waited nearly 2,000 years until there was a sufficient foundation and a woman who could stand in the position of Eve, to carry out His providence. This finally took place through Mary, the mother of Jesus. When Adam and Eve fell, they were already engaged to marry at a later date. In the same way, Mary and Joseph were betrothed to each other in accordance with God's providence. Similar to Rebekah and Tamar, Mary was a revolutionary woman called by God to take part in the process of re-creating Adam. Mary risked her life to form an absolute unity with God, and placed herself in the position of having deceived father and son in order to fulfill the providential history of restoration through indemnity.
It was in this manner that Jesus was conceived. During the time that Jesus was in Mary's womb, Satan could make no claim on his lineage. Jesus was born of the womb of a victorious woman as the first fruit of the first love, which could be claimed only by God. It was the first time in history that a child was born as God's only begotten son. Even among the saints, there exists no one else whose birth followed such a process for making a separation from Satan's lineage. Thus, we refer to Jesus as a saint among saints. This was the reason the Christian cultural sphere was able to spread throughout the world.
Finally, in this century, God has worked to use the victory of the Second World War and the Christian cultural sphere to accomplish the unity of the world. The Second World War had a particular meaning in the context of God's providence. In this war, the effects of the Fall transmitted by Eve to the brothers Cain and Abel were magnified onto a global scale. Thus, the island nation of Great Britain stood in the position of Eve. The United States, a nation historically given birth by Britain, stood in the position of Abel. France stood in the position of Cain, holding the birthright of the firstborn. These three countries formed an alliance led by the United States and cooperated together as the Allied Powers. On Satan's side, the Eve country, Japan, the Adam country, Germany, and the archangelic country, Italy, formed the Axis Powers. God's hope was to establish a united world on the basis of the victory of the Allies, who had been placed on the side of Heaven.
Into the wilderness
God's fervent hope for the postwar world was that God and the True Parent, the Adam who brings true love, could form a central point around which humankind could receive the True Parents. God has carried out His historical providence of indemnification centering on triads of countries. In the context of the worldwide dispensation of the True Parents, Korea has been placed in the position of the Adam country, Japan in the position of the Eve country, the United States in the position of the Abel country and Germany in the position of the Cain country. Japan was once an enemy country of the True Parents; the United States and Japan were once enemies, and Germany was once an enemy of the United States. The True Parents, in order to fulfill what Christianity and the United States did not accomplish after the Second World War, have fostered cooperation among these four countries at the center of the providence and walked a twenty-one year course of re-indemnification. Through their success, they have established the realm of victory. The Unification Church, which has victoriously crossed over the hill of Calvary on the individual, family, national, world and cosmic levels, has given the United States a new sense of direction. It has given new hope to Christianity, as well as to the communist and Islamic worlds.
On the Korean peninsula, the Jacob and Esau of the twentieth century are faced off against each other in the form of the two Koreas. The True Parents, working with true love in this conflict, confronting Kim Il-sung in the position of the false parent, have restored through indemnity the realm of the victorious parent. Through this process, Korea was established as the Third Israel that has accomplished history's ultimate victory and has become the chosen nation of a new and united world. Korea as the Third Israel is the base from which the True Parents and their children are able to accomplish their fervent hope for a united world of peace. It holds a central position for building heaven on earth and in the spirit world.
It has to be understood that, from a providential standpoint, the great prosperity experienced by Korea, Japan, the United States and Germany in the postwar period has been due to the fact that these countries received God's blessing, again, with Korea as Adam, Japan as Eve, the United States as Abel and Germany as Cain. In the garden of Eden at the time the Fall was perpetrated, the archangel was with Adam and Eve. In this age, when the seed is planted on the level of the individual, it bears its fruit on the worldwide level. Korea, the Adam country, is neighbored by Japan, the Eve country, as well as by three archangel countries—the United States, China, and Russia, all vying for advantage on the Korean peninsula. With the protection of God, however, these countries are developing an alliance among themselves centering on Korea. In his time, Jesus was not able to bring about unity among the nations of Asia. Today we are seeing the fulfillment of God's Will to indemnify this on a worldwide level. Similarly, the significance of the coming of the Asia-Pacific cultural sphere is that a substantial sphere, both material and spiritual, such as Jesus sought to accomplish in his time, can be constructed in Asia. In other words, the countries of Asia must now establish a united world centering on the True Parents.
A time for attendance
Now is the time to attend the True Father, who has established the victorious tradition in world history, and the True Mother, the global representative of women, who has gained victory representing all the women of history. By doing so, we must establish a true concept of manhood as well as the true concept of what it means to be a mother, a wife and a daughter. In the context of new families, we must set forth anew, toward a new society, nation and world, and become forerunners in inheriting the tradition of the True Parents and harvesting the victory. We women have the mission to give proper guidance to those who lead lives of moral decadence and disorder, so that the tragedy of the Fall of Adam and Eve may be resolved within the context of history.
Beloved women members, the Women's Federation for Peace in Asia has gathered you here for the important purpose of establishing the Women's Federation for World Peace. In the Age of Women that is now dawning, our members have to embrace our husbands and properly educate our children, so that we may be a model movement for practicing true love throughout the world. We must gain the active cooperation of our husbands and children for the development of the Women's Federation for World Peace.
Our women's movement is not for women alone. First, a movement of true love for our husbands and children must bear fruit in ideal families. The ideal families formed in this manner will come together to form ideal nations and an ideal world. For this reason, the Women's Federation for World Peace must someday develop into a federation of families for world peace. For the sake of world peace, we women have to take the lead in government, finance, culture and society. The basic values we must uphold in this federation of women are found in head-wing thought and Godism. These values are what unite left and right and overcome atheistic materialism. They are certain to be the guiding ideas of the world in the twenty-first century.
As women, let us remember our forebears Rebekah, Tamar and Mary, who fulfilled major responsibilities in the history of God's salvation providence. Let us inherit the strength of will by which these historic women overcame life-threatening dangers and difficulties. Let us establish our families as homes for true parents, true husbands and wives and true children, so that we may join in the holy cause of changing this fallen world into a heavenly world. Let us march forward toward a world of peace centered on the True Parents, who are the center of true love.
I pray God's blessing may be upon you, your families and the beautiful world to come.
Thank you.