Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: Episode 319
Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: A Selection of True Parents’ Speeches
Book 8: The Reunification of Korea and World Peace
Speech 05: God’s Will and Korea, pg 1180-1183
God’s Will and Korea
December 16, 1985
Jamshil Indoor Stadium, Seoul, Korea
Rally for Global Security and Victory over Communism
My fellow citizens, distinguished guests, fellow colleagues working to defeat communism here at home and abroad, ladies and gentlemen:
I would like to express my deep appreciation that so many of you have come here today to participate in this rally, contributing your time at this most busy season of the year.
Korea is the focal point of God’s providence
The title of my message is “God’s Will and Korea.” In it I want to clearly show that Korea is the focal point of God’s providence, and that the key to the solution of the problems of the world today is to be found on the Korean Peninsula.
Looking at the situation of the world at this time, all of us feel disappointment. In spite of humanity’s cherished hopes for freedom, peace, and security, the world is becoming more and more confused every day. There seems to be no hope for the future of humankind. Despite the constant efforts of world leaders, the problems of the world are becoming more complicated and more difficult to solve.
No religion or philosophy, and no political ideology, whether democratic or communist, has proven capable of solving any of these problems. The reason is that none of them understands the Will of God. Because human history is the history of God’s providence of restoration, no fundamental solution to world problems is possible without understanding God’s providential Will.
God is promoting His providence for the world by focusing on the divided Korean Peninsula. Therefore we must understand the significance of its division. The Demilitarized Zone on the thirty-eighth parallel, which divides the peninsula, is the line of confrontation between the communist system of dictatorship and the free world system of democracy, between the left-wing forces on the side of evil and the right-wing forces on the side of goodness, between materialism and idealism, and between atheism and theism. From the standpoint of ideology and socio-political systems, we see that the world today is divided between the democratic world and the communist bloc, with the United States and the Soviet Union as their respective leaders.
The case of Korea is paradigmatic; it presents in a condensed form the division of the world. Put another way, the situation of the world is an expansion and elaboration of the situation in Korea. Herein lies the deep significance of Korea in God’s plan. God’s Will is first to accomplish the unification of the Korean Peninsula, which represents the world in microcosm, and then, by applying the same method to the world, accomplish the ideological and sociopolitical unity of the whole world.
The thirty-eighth parallel and the confrontation between Hebraism and Hellenism
The thirty-eighth parallel is providentially significant in another way too: it marks the separation and confrontation of two civilizations. One is the Judeo-Christian culture inherited from the Hebraic tradition of Israel; the other is the communist civilization, which is a debased residue of Hellenistic culture. Had Jesus been able to go to Rome, he was to have united Hebraism and Hellenism. Jesus was to have been the center for their unity, but because he was crucified, the center for their unity was lost. As a result, Hebraism and Hellenism have coexisted in history. They developed along parallel lines, sometimes one predominating and sometimes the other, without being truly united. Today they confront each other across the Demilitarized Zone. It is God’s Will that these two currents should unite on the Korean Peninsula. Understood in this light, this line of tension is of great providential significance.
Geopolitically speaking, Korea is at a disadvantage because it is surrounded by four major powers. Providentially though, Korea has the advantage, in the sense that success achieved here can quickly be expanded throughout the world by the major powers. Thus we see Korea’s position as the focal point of God’s providence.
How does God intend to accomplish the unification of the Korean Peninsula? He will establish a central figure, and he will promote His providential Will by putting God’s love into practice. God’s love starts with love of neighbor, extends to love of country, and expands to love the entire world. God’s love is to love our enemies even on the worldwide level, transcending national interests. God’s love is to pray for one’s enemy and if necessary be willing to sacrifice one’s life for the sake of the enemy. Jesus, who two thousand years ago came as the Messiah, was the very hero of this love. Jesus loved his enemies even to the point of allowing himself to be crucified.
The thirty-eighth parallel is a national level cross
As you know, two thieves were crucified with Jesus. The thief on the left accused Jesus, while the thief on the right testified to Jesus and defended him, admonishing the thief on the left. Thus, the thief on the right came to represent the side of goodness, while the thief on the left came to represent the side of evil, and in this way the crucifixion was the focal point in the confrontation between God and Satan. There is deep providential significance in the fact that Jesus, who was the way, the truth and the life, and who loved even his enemies, suffered on the cross with good and evil on either side. This reveals the principle of reconciliation and unity, centering on God’s love. It teaches us that the struggling and warring sides can be reconciled and united through sacrificial love. We can also learn from this the lesson that if we practice God’s love no matter how difficult the situation, we can lead any sinner to repentance.
We must also understand that the two thieves represent seeds that bear the fruits of good and evil that will confront each other at the consummation of human history. The appearance in the Last Days of the right wing, or the free world, as the side of goodness, and the left wing, or the communist world, as the side of evil, originated at the crucifixion of Jesus. Moreover, this confrontation between the two thieves is the prototype of many subsequent conflicts and struggles. The designations “right wing” and “left wing” actually have their historical origin in the thieves on the right and the left of the cross.
The thief on the right, as he was dying, testified to Jesus and opposed the thief on the left. Consequently, after his death, he was resurrected and entered into paradise. This indicates that if the United States, standing as the thief on the right, maintains to the last moment a strong stance against communism, standing as the thief on the left, then it will receive God’s approval and will be able to enter the kingdom of heaven on earth.
The actual situation of today’s conflicts and struggles, whose prototype was the opposition between good and evil at the crucifixion, is intensely expressed by the current Military Demarcation Line across the Korean Peninsula. Therefore, the thirty-eighth parallel separating North and South Korea represents the cross that the Korean nation must bear in order to providentially redeem the divided world. The Korean nation corresponds to Jesus on the cross, even as it is the foundation for the Second Coming of Christ.
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