Cham Bumo Gyeong: Episode 85
Cham Bumo Gyeong
Book 4: Salvation through the Holy Marriage Blessing
Chapter 2: The History of the Marriage Blessing Ceremony
Section 5: Globalization of the Blessing, The 360,000 Couples: The Blessing movement
Section 5: Globalization of the Blessing, Paragraph 12
Section 5. Globalization of the Blessing
The 360,000 Couples: The Blessing movement
The 360,000 Couples International Marriage Blessing Ceremony was held on August 25, 1995, at Seoul Olympic Stadium. This Blessing ceremony was held simultaneously in 553 locations across 160 nations, via live satellite broadcast. Thereafter, the marriage Blessing expanded on a global level, with the number of participants increasing with each ceremony.
1 Human beings were driven from God’s presence because the Fall constituted an act of wrongful marriage. Thus, the 360,000 Couples Blessing is the act of proclaiming the realm of liberation for all humankind in the name of the True Parents with the supreme authority of all-immanence, all-transcendence, and omnipotence. These couples represent the perfected realms of Adam, Noah and Jacob. You must understand that only the number 360,000 is appropriate for this Blessing, since this is a number that represents on the horizontal level the perfection of the realms of Adam, Jesus, and Christ at his Second Advent. So the accomplishment of 360,000 couples should not be a problem. We have entered the era in which I can bless 3.6 million couples and 36 million couples.
2 The Israelites failed to establish a pure national tradition in the seven-year period following the 40 years in the wilderness, and this led to a troubled and ruinous history. We, however, should not fail in establishing a national tradition, a teaching upon which we can build the heavenly nation. We have reached the end of our 40-year course. Within the next seven years we should unite as citizens of the nation filled with its founding ideal of peace and as citizens of a united world. In order to do so, the first generation representing Cain and the second-generation representing Abel should unite. Nonetheless, the first generation has failed and there is danger that they again will fall away in the wilderness. So how can we bind them together? The only way to save the first generation is to bless them as soon as possible, and that is why the 360,000 Couples Blessing will be held. Many already married couples will take part in this Blessing.
3 The number 36 refers to the 36 Couples representing Adam’s, Noah’s and Jacob’s families and is thus an ancestral number. As such, the 360,000 Couples Blessing is like a world-level spinal cord, like a Blessing of the ancestors. It corresponds to the growth stage on the global level. What will happen once we have conducted this ceremony? Presently the world’s families are breaking down. This is a great problem that must be resolved. The whole world has a headache over this issue. That is why all the young Unification Church men and women comprising the 360,000 Couples need to form new families and live well with high ideals. Because of them, broken families will show an interest in the Blessing and it will have a global impact.
4 Since the 30,000 Couples Blessing, we have conducted global Blessing ceremonies open to the public. Vice presidents and cabinet members took part in that ceremony, and even presidents participated in the 360,000 Couples Blessing. We must cross over the summit on the world level. The fact that we conducted the 360,000 Couples Blessing 3 years after the 30,000 Couples Blessing signifies that we have fulfilled the number 3. This was considered impossible. God and True Parents were the only ones who knew it and had faith. I went ahead with the Blessing because I felt responsible. I gave the direction to accomplish this and now we have succeeded. Now we have completely surpassed Satan’s world. On a world level, based on the 30,000 Couples as the foundation in the formation stage and the 360,000 Couples in the growth stage, we have gone over the mountains of mistakes that our ancestors committed. The 360,000 Couples have taken the standard of the 36 Couples to the world level.
5 Although we invested our blood and sweat for the sake of the 360,000 Couples Marriage Blessing, you have no idea how fearful I was as August 25, 1995, approached. It was even more serious than the feeling I had when I held the Washington Monument Rally on September 18, 1976. There was the question of whether our dignity and honor that we had built up before heaven would all come crashing down. It was a gravely serious time, but God had compassion for me, one who has lived a lonely and miserable life, and through His protection and love we achieved it. In fact, we went beyond the goal that no one thought was achievable, exceeding 360,000 couples.
6 No one thought that the 360,000 Couples Blessing Ceremony could take place three years after the 30,000 Couples Blessing Ceremony, but I said that it would. No one believed it. There is no one else in the world who can do this kind of work. There are not even countries that can do it. This is a world record. We were able to rise up and leap over the families in Satan’s world. Through this victory on the growth stage with the 360,000 Couples, we rose above Satan’s world and now we stand on top. Now what is left is the Blessing of 3.6 Million Couples. This is the era of absolute authority. We are entering the era of the absolute authority of marriage. Because we have triumphed over Satan’s world on the national level, we are expanding the family-level foothold to the world level. Because of this, the era of True Parents is passing and the era of kingship has come.
7 I began with confidence that the 360,000 Couples Blessing was possible. I never wavered. This is why God is protecting us. But you all felt there was no hope, even during the 30,000 Couples Blessing. To you, the 360,000 Couples was something unimaginable. When we began this work, I received God’s affirmation and told you that it was totally possible. Then, day or night and wherever I went, I stayed focused on that point and offered devotions. All the devotions offered all over the world combined will never surpass my devotions. No one knows this; only God and I do. A perfect subject partner creates a perfect object partner. The faith of that perfect object partner is what God has the responsibility to establish through the perfect faith of the subject partner, His substantial embodiment. That faith was thus established.
8 The Blessing brings the realization of the ideal family, the true family. God’s Will is for the realization of the ideal family. Where on this earth is there a mother and father who do not hope for their sons and daughters to have ideal families? But even though parents want this, it is impossible to achieve. They are just dreaming. Ideal families cannot be accomplished through political power, economic power, diplomacy or even through the use of military power. However, True Parents’ teachings are now all over the world. They have reached beyond national borders, sects and denominations. The Blessing has gone beyond these boundaries. This too may seem like a dream, but it is reality.
9 After receiving the Blessing, you should want to be the best couple in the whole world. In order to do this, the wife must seek an ideal nation more than she loves her own husband, and the husband must long to find the ideal nation more than he loves his own wife. If you do not do this, your family will not come to peaceful settlement. I was not able to govern you as the perfect Parent because I had not accomplished the completion level of the growth stage on the global level. So I could not interfere. But now that time has passed. Passing over the 40-year hurdle, a breakthrough was made with the 360,000 Couples Blessing. This means that starting from the 30,000 Couples we accomplished the formation and growth stages. That is why no one in Satan’s world can block the Unification Church. We have overcome that hurdle.
The 3.6 Million-40 Million Couples: The open Blessing
On November 29, 1997, the International Marriage Blessing Ceremony of 40 Million Couples was held at RFK Stadium in Washington, DC, and also broadcast live via satellite worldwide. Originally, 3.6 million couples were scheduled to participate, but the number grew to such an extent that it became the 40 Million Couples Blessing.
The Blessing ceremony held on that day was part of the Third World Culture and Sports Festival. Congratulatory messages included those given by representatives of the world’s six major religions. During this Blessing Ceremony, a Blessing for people in the spirit world was also conducted.
10 When the 3.6 Million Couples are blessed, there will be a unified world. What is the anchor of this unified world? Around what does it revolve? The anchor is the 3.6 Million Couples who can liquidate the evil that is woven into the habitual and defiled lifestyles of the contaminated earthly world under Satan’s dominion. You should always hold on to this anchor by means of the rope attached to it. The rope is your family and clan. Because I’m afraid that rope might break, I am binding national messiahs to your clans.
11 Now you have to take responsibility for the ancestors of your family. True Parents have taken the responsibility for all the providential families from Adam’s time until now. Through the 360,000 Couples Blessing, liberation took place that transcends the family, nation and even the world. In this realm there are no longer any boundaries between nations, religions, customs and cultures. This realm ascribes the same value to all people. We have sent families to villages all over the world, and have inaugurated the original family standard that God wanted to establish with Adam before he fell.
12 Once the 3.6 Million Couples are blessed, heaven’s blessing will connect to the world level and every day will be the Sabbath. Touching the creation throughout the world, the Blessing will be a divine day in all four seasons. I am conducting this work right now in order to prepare for that. In the past we have celebrated the sacraments in the presence of God and True Parents only on Sundays. In the era of the Declaration Day of God’s Eternal Blessing, and the era of complete transcendence, complete immanence, and complete authority and power, we can move higher than the world level through the 3.6 Million Couples Blessing, and come out of the realm of suffering that the creation has been lamenting. We are entering the age of attendance, when we can eat and sleep and do all things in our daily lives while attending God and True Parents. We can do this all week long from Monday to Sunday.