Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: Episode 104
Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: A Selection of True Parents’ Speeches
Book 3: The Mission of Religion in Achieving God’s Ideal
Speech 2: The New Future of Christianity, pg 360-363
The New Future of Christianity
March 9, 1974
Hyatt Hotel, Birmingham, Alabama, USA
Thirty-two-city speaking tour in the United States
Ladies and gentlemen who have gathered here this evening:
I thank you with all my heart. The title of the speech I wish us to consider together this evening is “The New Future of Christianity.” Please allow me to share with you for a while on this topic. As you may well know, when people talk about the United States, what often comes to mind is that this greatest nation in the world is based on Christianity.
The Lord comes to fulfill God’s Will
What I am going to speak to you about is not something that can be learned and understood through today’s life of faith or theologies. It deals with a completely new perspective, and so I believe that you Americans need to listen to it. This is the reason I am appearing here.
Since the Last Days are almost at hand, it is important that we clarify crucial facts of history beyond any doubt. Since hearing the command of God to go to America and speak out to you for three years, from 1972 through 1973 to this year, 1974, I have stood on podiums in every corner of the United States. I hope you will understand what is happening here.
I hope and pray that you will realize that you and I are in the position of brothers and sisters who are living for the sake of God’s Will and working to fulfill His Will. I hope and pray that, with a tolerant heart, you will not make a judgment right away if what I say offends the faith you have lived and believed until now. I pray that you will make a judgment only after you have searched and investigated extensively through prayer and meditation. We know that for the past two thousand years and up until this day, Christian faith has called believers to wait for the Lord. However, now that the Last Days are almost upon us, the time has come to do more than just believe in him; we need to make preparations to receive the Lord who comes in the Last Days. I believe that it is unacceptable for us not to make such preparations.
Even when we are planning to hold a small event, it is only when we have drawn up a program and taken steps based on the exact details of that program that we can bring that event to a satisfactory conclusion. This event of the coming of the Lord in this day is the greatest event since the onset of history, the most important in the course of human history, and so we cannot think that it could be carried out blindly and without preparations. I believe the time has come for us to know clearly the exact details of what is to come. If you came here on a train bound for Birmingham, all you had to do was to ride on that train at your ease. Now that you have arrived, however, you must understand clearly the new direction and purpose you need to follow. It makes perfect sense that, within the order of Christianity you have believed in until now, there must be a certain organization that is making preparations for the coming of the Lord.
The Lord must come without fail. Then for what purpose does he come? He comes for the Will of God. Then what is the Will of God? We, the believers of today, know that God carries out His providence through a Will behind the providence of salvation. What we also need to realize is that there can be only one essential Will of God.
This providence of salvation of today is something that was not necessary in the world of the ideal of creation, the world as originally planned by God. Because that original Will was not fulfilled due to the Fall of humankind, the providence of salvation emerged as the process of working to complete the fulfillment of the Will. We need to clearly know this.
God cannot go against the Will He has set. Since He is the Absolute Being, only when He has perfected that Will can He stand in a position of authority and dignity. Because this is the truth, we need to realize that God cannot become the absolute God unless He perfects fallen humankind by lifting us to the standard He originally purposed.
God’s Will for salvation and the mission of Christianity
Then, if Adam and Eve, the first human ancestors, had not fallen, what kind of a world would have been realized? If they had reached perfection under the protection of God’s love, He would have called them and conducted their marriage Blessing ceremony. That was the reason for His creating man and woman.
If this had come to pass, we would not have the fallen ancestors of humanity on this planet; rather, there would be the sinless, perfected, and true ancestors of humanity beloved by God. Adam and Eve would have become the True Parents. After that, the true bridegroom and bride whom God could truly love would have been on this earth. Moreover, instead of brothers who are each other’s enemies, true brothers would have been born on this earth, who could cooperate completely with the Will of God, who would live in the midst of His love, and who would belong to Him. This would mean that a family, centered on God, would have been formed on the earth, where sinless parents would have given birth to sinless sons and daughters, who would, in turn, have formed a sinless clan, a sinless people, a sinless nation, and a sinless world. Thus, the human beings living on earth, would have been under God’s dominion both in name and in substance, and God would have become the King of this world. Such is the conclusion we can reach.
If all this had taken place, there would have been no need for a Savior. Neither religion nor prayer would have become necessary. We did not know until now that the reason we need a Savior, the reason we need religion, and the reason we need salvation is a result of the Fall.
Salvation presupposes the Fall having taken place. When one is ill, one needs a hospital to cure the illness, and when something is broken, one needs a shop to repair it. What is religion? It is similar to a repair shop or a hospital. This all refers to salvation. You need salvation because you are ill. Today’s Christianity has not set the standard based on this principle; it advocates believing in Jesus unconditionally without an understanding of the true meaning of salvation. This will not be enough.
Then let us find out through the Bible what kind of world we are living in. It is written in John 12:31 that the devil Satan is “the ruler of this world.” How could that evil Satan, the devil, become the ruler of all humankind, who are beloved by God? It is because humanity fell. For this reason, God and Satan are enemies. As a result of the Fall, we came to have fallen, sinful human ancestors.
A false couple came into existence, and false brothers who killed one another came into being. That couple gave birth to sinful sons and daughters, and this sinful family expanded to become a sinful tribe, a sinful people, and a sinful world. Consequently, Satan, the devil, naturally came to stand as the ruler.
From this evil world, we need to move to a sinless world, and this is what salvation is. This move refers to salvation, and we need to know that it is nothing other than restoration. The original Will of God did not include the process of salvation. Therefore, we need to return to His original Will.
The purpose for the coming of the Messiah is to fulfill God’s Will. What is God’s Will? It is to save all people in the world from Satan, the devil, and then to exile Satan from this world.
In the places where you live today, there is the devil Satan, who accuses you when you commit a sin. You need to exile him. Today’s Christianity does not know what purpose they need to pursue. Saying, “I will be saved and will go to the kingdom of heaven” refers to a trivial salvation. We did not know until now that it is the Will of God to save humanity and that it is also His Will to eternally exile from the earth the devil, Satan, who ruins and violates humanity.
If the Messiah, who needs to begin such a world, comes as a lone individual before Satan, Satan will seize and kill him. That is why the Messiah was sent to govern the world only after God had laid the foundation of forming a nation, passing through the restoration stages from the individual to the family, tribe, and people, so that the nation and the people could unite with the Messiah at his coming.
However, the followers of Judaism did not know that the purpose of their religion and the reason for them being called as the chosen people was to make preparations for the Messiah’s coming. This resulted in God’s providence being extended, but even when the Lord comes again for the world, God’s Will remains the same. Thus, we need to realize that, when the Last Days come throughout the world, Christianity will be required to expand the Will and build a global foothold. This is the mission of Christianity.
FFWPU, USA