Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: Episode 04
Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: A Selection of True Parents’ Speeches
Book 1: The Principles of True Peace
Speech 1: The Ideal World for God and Humankind, pg 24-27
Christian doctrine is the teaching of service and sacrifice
Let us take a moment now to think about the way in which a person can enjoy eternal life. If we as individuals wish to be respected in this world, we cannot simply praise ourselves. To earn respect, we need to sacrifice. If, for instance, you have ten friends and you have served those ten friends for a long time, you will become the central figure among them. Not only that, their relatives and friends will want to unite with you.
In contrast, let’s say there is a person who tells his ten friends, “You need to live for my sake. Live for my sake.” Those friends will break away from that person. In short, that person will be left alone and, in the end, will have no place to go. You need to realize that this is the point that distinguishes between good and evil in society.
Let us consider a nation’s patriot. When you think about the United States, you surely respect people like President Lincoln and President Kennedy. Why do you respect them? You respect those two presidents because they gave their lives for the United States. Among the presidents of the United States, there are those who died miserable deaths for the nation.
The more they sacrificed themselves, the more they are revered as patriots, and the higher is their position as presidents. The more a person sacrifices out of love for the nation, even at the risk of his or her life, the more that person is revered. Those who suffer miserably through their sacrifice are considered even greater. Even though they are miserable at the time, their misery is only for a moment, and as history goes on, that person’s impact in the world broadens in scope.
This holds true in the death of Jesus. If you were to ask for whom Jesus sacrificed himself, the answer is for the sake of humankind and for the nation. In the position of having loved humanity more than anyone else, of having loved God more than anyone else, and of having loved even his enemies, he died miserably after praying for them to be blessed. At the time, Jesus died without a name, for he was accused of being a traitor to his people. No one could have known that he would give rise to today’s worldwide realm of Christian culture. At this point, we can propose one principle: It is that those who sacrifice themselves for a greater purpose, for the greater good of the whole, cannot fail. We know that they cannot fail. Such people are historical saints.
In this regard, if there is a God and He has a strategy for fighting the world of evil, we can discover His strategy at this point. The nature of evil is to follow the complete opposite of God’s strategy. It sacrifices others for its own sake. If it does this on the individual level, then other individuals will oppose it, and when it does this on the level of the family or the nation, it inevitably leads to a dictatorship that is denounced by history.
You need to understand that the strategy of evil is to promote oneself by sacrificing others, whereas God’s strategy is to sacrifice oneself to save others. That is why the people who asserted goodness in the course of history were not welcomed in their time and were sacrificed, yet nonetheless, the names of those who sacrificed themselves out of their love for their nation and the world came to be known long after their time. We cannot deny that this is the truth.
That is why the doctrine of Christianity is the teaching of service and sacrifice. If a Christian denomination existed only for its own sake, it would come to ruin. However, if there were a denomination whose entire purpose was to save the United States, one that stepped forward and sacrificed itself to achieve this, Heaven would cooperate with it. Having saved the United States, Christianity would thereby become a movement for the United States to sacrifice itself to save the world. This would be the Christianity that could be considered suitable to guide the world.
The reason God blessed the United States
If we ask whether God loves the United States or the world, we would say that God loves the world more than the United States. Because of this, God has placed the United States at the forefront, to have it pay the price of sacrifice to save the world.
American citizens! Do you think that the United States has an ideological tradition? You cannot find it among today’s youth. As you know, the Puritans were among those who pioneered the United States. They were a group who came to the new world, the land of America, leaving behind their nation because it limited their freedom to practice their faith and serve God as they desired.
At the time, a small number of Pilgrims risked their lives and held on to God as they struggled to survive in a new land with native inhabitants. I am aware that their beliefs were based on their reverence for God, and they overcame many difficulties while holding on to Him, which became a founding principle of the United States. I also know that this is the reason they built their homes only after first building a church and a school. Because they stood in such a position, God pulled them out of an environment in which they were oppressed and protected them in this land. He thus made this nation a global power in a period of less than two hundred years. Why did God do all this and give you such blessings? Do not think that God blessed you so that only the people who live in the United States can live in comfort. Instead, you have to take the point of view that God blessed you to make this land the representative nation for saving the world. However, do the American people have a truth that calls them to join forces and save the world? No, they don’t. In contrast, the communist world, the enemy of the United States, has an ideology that can conquer the world, and it is displaying its confidence that it can swallow up the United States without a problem.
American people need to remember that reducing support for Asia or other parts of the world is not the Will of God. I believe that President Kennedy was the president who first began this trend. The United Nations secretary-general at the time was Mr. Hammarskjold. It is a matter of speculation as to why they both met such tragic ends.
I had a meeting with former President Eisenhower in 1965. I pointed out to him, “You may think that you did well to call for a truce in the Korean War. However, it was actually a historical error.” I also said to him, “Do you trust communists? Communists are a group of people whose words and actions differ.” Their actions and words are different. You need to know this. Now, twenty years after the ceasefire agreement, we can see with our own eyes how North Korea has done everything in its power to militarize. Can you deny this fact?
On February 21, a meeting is scheduled between Mao Zedong and President Nixon. Mao Zedong has nothing to lose; he can attack or do whatever he wants to President Nixon. The American people need to be aware of this fact. Communists may announce with regard to the United States, “We are very close,” and suddenly do an about-face. Theirs is a dictatorial system; it can go forward or retreat on command at any moment.
The American people, on the other hand, cannot do that. Let’s say the United States made an agreement, and all its people had gone forward. If they then were told to retreat, do you think every one of the American people would retreat? You ought to know that at least half would break off. I am now thinking about what would become of the United States if such a thing were to happen. From the viewpoint of providence, I believe that God will protect the United States until its fortieth president, or for two hundred ten years of its history.
Ladies and gentlemen! I know that the year 1976 marks the two hundredth anniversary of the founding of the United States. Also, forty-two generations lie between Abraham and Jesus, and two thousand-year historical cycles of forty generations have been unfolding based on the Will of God. Though the actual number of generations is forty-two, since the God of three generations, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, is considered to be the God of one generation, we can say the number represents forty generations.
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