Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: Episode 139
Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: A Selection of True Parents’ Speeches
Book 3: The Mission of Religion in Achieving God’s Ideal
Speech 15: Understanding Life and Death, pg 485-488
My purpose is world salvation
There is one thing that makes me sad. God gave me the responsibility to accomplish His Will, so during my lifetime I need to accomplish His Will to a level He finds acceptable. Until I have done that, I cannot die. For that reason, when I am in the valley of the shadow of death, God leads me out of danger. Whether I am eating or fasting, whether I am asleep or awake, I am always praying for the world and humankind. My suffering is not for the sake of a particular country or people. My objective is the salvation of the world. I have worked to this day and I am ready to die if necessary. I have been sacrificing my life to achieve this objective. You too need to live and die for the sake of the world. If it is for the sake of world salvation, you have to be prepared to die with your wife, your family, your clan and even your entire people.
Some day in the future, you will die. When standing face to face with death, you will look back upon your life. Think about the final words you will leave behind at that moment. On the path of death, your friends will not be with you. Your loving parents will not be there, nor will your loving brothers and sisters. Your spouse and children whom you love so much will not be with you. It is a path you will take alone.
No one can go down that path twice. Once you have gone, there is no coming back. Once you take that path, you cannot take it again in all eternity. The heart you have as you walk that path is important. At the moment you are face to face with death, if you do not possess the hope that can transcend death, it will spell your defeat.
In history many people have upheld God’s Will and worked to fulfill it. They did not retreat when faced with death. Instead, they laughed in the face of death and valiantly transcended death. We know well that these people paved our way to the kingdom of heaven.
You cannot be resurrected without dying first
What kind of person is joyful even when passing over the hill of death, the moment that drives most of us to experience heartfelt sorrow? This is the kind of person who has heartfelt hope and aspirations to reach the kingdom of heaven. For this reason, we cannot reproach the world and lament when facing death. Instead, we ought to feel joy as we stand before the spirit world, with pride in the value of our death.
What happens to us when we die? Up to the moment we die, we belong to ourselves. As soon as we die, however, we belong to God. This is because we are born of a fallen lineage. Until our death, we lack the ability to cut our ties with Satan. After death, though, we establish ties with God. There is no resurrection without death. It is impossible to enter the next period without first passing through the preceding one.
What kind of death is the Bible referring to when it indicates that those who seek to die will live and those who seek to live will die? (Luke 17:33, John 12:25) Seeking to die does not mean that we seek to lose the eternal life that Heaven has given us. It means that we want to lose the life that is connected to Satan’s world, inherited through the fallen lineage. That is why those who seek to die for the sake of God will live. It seems paradoxical; from the perspective of the Human Fall, it is the only way restoration can take place. This is the standard for discussing the possibility of restoration. Success or failure in life is not determined over a period of decades.
Rather, it is determined in an instant. If you consider the entire course of a person’s life, it does not take very long for a baby to be born. Of course, there is a period leading up to the birth, when the fetus is in the womb. Those months in the womb are a time of preparation. The birth happens in an instant. The preparation may go well for the entire pregnancy period, but if something goes wrong at the decisive moment of birth, the infant could meet with a tragic end.
After living out our life on earth, we come face to face with the moment of death. We will see our entire life flash before our eyes. If the person facing death can say, “There was truth in my life,” or, “I am leaving behind something more valuable than my life,” that person has spent his or her life in a worthy manner. On the other hand, in the case of people who recall their past and shake their heads over things they would rather not remember, they are in a tragic situation.
For some people, the more they remember at the moment of death, the greater the expression of joy on their face. If all their problems could be forgotten in light of the ideals they have lived, death would actually be a comfort. The moment of recalling the past would not be filled with fear. If they are leaving something worthwhile behind, then that past record will not die and its reality will not die. Instead, those things will become more evident. The people whose past allows them to feel this way are without a doubt people whom the nation can follow. They are the ones whom the people of the world can follow.
We need to consider whether we can stand alone before God. Truth and goodness begin in a particular individual; they do not end in that individual. Once truth and goodness have begun in a particular person, they have to bear fruit in another person. Alternatively, they can begin in another person and bear fruit in me.
If people spend their life by giving of themselves to others, they will have no fear on the path of death. They have given everything and sacrificed themselves for others. They have led a life that is close to the truth, shedding tears for others and investing their life for others. If a person’s aspirations are for others, all of the life force pulsating in that person is focused and invested for the sake of others. Then that person’s past is one of glory.
A world where intuitive sense becomes reality
The wise take one path, the foolish take another. A wise person tries to live in partnership with history, in partnership with the present world and in partnership with the future. A foolish person lives for the self and tries to make the world exist for his or her own sake. A global environment characterizes the spirit world, and it includes nations, clans, families and individuals. An individual cannot enter the kingdom of heaven without a self-motivated character that makes that person absolutely indispensable to others. The family or clan cannot enter the kingdom of heaven unless they can say that they possess a self-motivated character that makes them indispensable on the family or clan level.
Compared with the spirit world, our planet Earth is a speck of dust. The spirit world is an eternal world, transcending time and space. If a spirit person commands, “The person who lived in such-and-such age with such-and-such a heart, please come forward,” then that person will appear in an instant. It is a world in which feelings and intuition turn into reality. There are no factories there to process food. There are no automobile plants. There is nothing like that.
To register yourself in the spirit world, you need a certificate based on your life on earth. How are you going to obtain it? I’m talking about a certificate of life that will let you say, “This is what I became; this is what I did.” You cannot just create your own certificate. First, Satan has to write one for you. After you receive that certificate, you have to receive one from Jesus. Finally, you have to receive a certificate from God. You will need these three certificates.
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