Cham Bumo Gyeong: Episode 41
Cham Bumo Gyeong
Book 2: The Birth of True Parents
Chapter 3: True Father’s Childhood and Youth
Section 2: God’s Call, God’s Call Through Jesus
Section 3: School Days, Paragraph 3
Around the time True Father joined the Presbyterian Church, and while he was receiving a modern education, his thinking grew wider and deeper. He began asking serious questions about the present and future realities. Even as he faced many incomprehensible calamities in his own family and clan, he witnessed the innumerable tragedies of his people under Japanese rule, and personally experienced Korea’s pain and sorrow as a weak nation. At the same time, Father struggled to find the solution to the fundamental questions of human life.
Father turned 16 (by Korean counting) shortly after he transferred to Jeongju Primary School. Then, during Easter week, on April 17, 1935, while he was tearfully praying in the mountains at dawn, he met Jesus, who shared with him many profound and amazing truths. The two of them had more discussions over the following days. After True Father accepted his call from God, he continued studying in his hometown, in Seoul, and abroad in Tokyo. During that time he went through a period of preparation to deepen his faith and cultivate his sense of mission for his future role as a providential figure.
5 My encounter with Jesus in the year I turned 16 was a profound spiritual experience. It was the first of many revelations. After that special encounter, I have continued conversing with the living God and with Jesus even until today. I also had conversations with the saints and sages in the spirit world. I cannot describe in words all the things we shared. God chose me in accordance with His providential timetable.
6 I was 16 years old when I had my first experience of actually knowing God. Before then I was merely in the position of a humble seeker of truth. Ever since I entered boyhood I had been contemplating the fundamental questions of human life: Who am I? Where did I come from? What is the purpose of life? Will our life continue after we die? Does God really exist? Is God omnipotent or is He powerless? If God is truly omnipotent, why does He not solve the problems of humanity? Why is there so much suffering on this earth?
For nine years following that first experience, I lived together with the omnipotent God and with Jesus. I visited the spirit world on numerous occasions. Little by little, God revealed amazing truths to me. It felt as if the morning sun was rising after a long night of darkness. In that truth I could see the dawning light of a new, glorious culture. These special revelations, based on the New Testament, are higher than any previous religious teachings. I felt that they had the power and ability to embrace all religions and unite them. The revelations that I received are the core of what is now called the Principle. God has commanded me to spread this Principle to the ends of the earth.
7 I cannot describe the seriousness of the position in which I stood when I was 16 years old. It was the most difficult time for God, for Jesus, and for the churches that God had specially prepared for the Second Coming. Korea was under the rule of Japan, and those churches were driven into a corner with nowhere to run. At that moment God, heaven and earth, the five founders of the world’s great religions and the religious sphere all joined together around one point: the position of the Lord at the Second Advent. They called me to take responsibility for that position, and I accepted the call. Once I accepted that position, my own family and my country of Korea were also placed in a serious position. Hence I could not sleep at night. I tried to eat, but I could not swallow. I could see everything clearly. Heaven and earth were about to collapse, and the responsibility to save them was on my shoulders. Imagine how serious I had to be!
8 The new revelations that I received explained God’s Will very clearly. That Will is aimed at bringing salvation to this world. The Unification Church is not just another denomination. The Unification Church is leading the movement for the salvation of the world. Those who join this movement study God’s Word, by which they clearly understand the concept of a God-centered individual, a God-centered family, a God-centered nation and a God-centered world.
9 Adam and Eve fell when they were 16 years old. God was only able to raise them until the age of 16, relating with them by a bond based on their inner heart and original nature. In my case, God chose me at the age of 16 years and specially raised me so that I would be able to begin uniting the spiritual world and the physical world that had been separated as a result of the Fall. Ever since the age of 16 I have grown up connecting to God’s original heart. That is why Satan and his world must follow me. Satan, who has been ruling human beings from the positions of older son, father and grandfather, also governs from the position of the nation, which rules over the realm of religion. Such is Satan’s sovereignty. In human history to this day there has never been a time when this order could be reversed. Nations always have been in the front, leading religions. In other words, nations have been dragging religions around. However, I am now reversing this order. I have been engrafted to the work of God ever since I was 16 years old, when I began to discover the secrets of heaven, of Satan and of human history.
10 Time after time I came up against dark obstacles. Whenever that happened, I remembered God’s voice when He told me, “I am alive.” You would not know that His voice remains in the marrow of my bones to this day. I have not forgotten God’s sorrowful situation, which He shared with me when He called me. I cannot forget God’s plea to me, “You need to focus only on your relationship with Me; you must not forsake Me.” Sometimes I feel sorry for my own situation, but then I remember that God’s situation is more sorrowful than mine. So, although you should feel indignation over history, you must experience even more the aching heart of our Father, who has been enduring unbearable sorrow. Don’t you think you need to do that? You must, and then you can actually become His filial sons and daughters. Afterward you should stand up and boldly proclaim, “Father, because I understood Your heart, I have become a better son or daughter than any filial son or daughter in the world.”
I have fought for this, and I will continue doing so. I urge you to do the same. Then, from now on, it will not matter if this or that religious body opposes the Unification Church and makes false accusations against me. No matter how much they try to suppress me and the church with all their power and authority, they will not be able to destroy the foundation we have established.
Section 3. School Days
Primary schoolsFrom the age of seven to 13 True Father studied at the village school. There he learned Chinese characters and read the Confucian Classics. His memory was excellent, and his calligraphy was so superb that his teacher used the characters he wrote as models for other students to copy. At that time, his dream was to acquire at least three doctoral degrees, and for this he knew he needed a broader education. So he enrolled at the Won-bong Preparatory School to prepare for the entrance examination for a primary school with a modern curriculum. In 1934 he entered the third grade at Osan Primary School. In April 1935 he transferred to the 4th grade at Jeongju Public Primary School, mainly in order to study Japanese.
On March 25, 1938, at the graduation ceremony for the school’s 29th class, he volunteered to speak at the podium. Although the ceremony was nearing its end, he gave a long speech to express his views in front of all the people who were gathered there. One by one he pointed out the wrongs of Japanese colonial educational policy and its hypocrisy. He also pointed out the problems of each individual teacher. Because of this incident, the Japanese police added his name to their list as a person to be watched.
1 I am also talented in drawing; I am good at it. In the village school that taught Chinese characters, classics and calligraphy, there were people of many age groups—from nine and ten-year-olds to grown-ups in their twenties and thirties. To improve our skill at writing we practiced writing Chinese characters every day. The teacher used the characters I wrote as models for other students to follow and copy. This was before I was even 12. The other students would practice by copying my characters over and over, hundreds of times.
When they had done it so many times that it became a habit, I could tell that they had reached a new level. I could see by glancing at the character which direction to move my calligraphy brush—where to place the top of the first stroke and where to end the last stroke. It did not matter how lengthy the phrase; I could write it with ease. My skill was at a different level than that of others.
After studying at the village school, I joined a small private school that specialized in teaching art. There for the first time in my life I learned how to draw and paint pictures. The adults drew pictures on a special drawing paper. As I stood in front of that paper, I contemplated what flowers I was going to draw. Looking at the size of the paper, I calculated their sizes and locations in my mind. With this plan in mind I made a rough sketch of the flowers, the images forming from the simple lines I drew. Next I completed the coloring, and there it was, my first picture. They hung that picture on the wall at the school.
2 The village school where I went when I was young required us to finish one page a day from the book that we were studying. But it did not take me even 30 minutes to do it. Once I focused, I memorized its entire content within 30 minutes. Then I would recite it from memory in front of my teacher. So having finished the day’s lesson, I would go up to the mountain while the teacher was taking his afternoon nap. Since teaching was so difficult at his age, he often took afternoon naps. On the mountain I would study where the frogs were, where the bird nests were, where the coyotes were, where the mushrooms were growing, and so on. I would explore everywhere. No wonder my mother was never able to find me.
3 After I reached the age of ten, I was sent to a school called a geulbang, meaning “a room for learning Chinese characters,” that was in my village. This was because any member of the Moon clan who studied in a distant location ended up dying far from home. Even from a providential perspective we understand that for the sake of God’s Will, second sons face great difficulties in their lives. Thus it was that a notion circulated in the Moon clan that any second son who is sent to school away from home will die away from home. That is why I was not allowed to travel and go to a public school but instead had to attend a local village school.
My whole life has been about pioneering and transformation, and this is where it began. While I was attending the village school, God called me and I came to know His Will. As I began to think about the path I was destined to walk, I realized that I should not be cooped up inside a village school. I clearly understood that I was living in an age when a new scientific civilization was expanding. Airplanes were flying in the sky, trains were traveling overland, and I was supposed to prepare myself to lead humanity into a new future. I thought to myself, “I cannot just stay here in a village school.” That was the point where a transformation began in my life. So I went to a preparatory school and then entered primary school. Back then, that school was called the Osan Primary School. I took the transfer test and entered the third grade. I studied there for one year. During that time, I concentrated on studying hard.
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