Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: Episode 386
Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: A Selection of True Parents’ Speeches
Book 9: The Role of Nations in Realizing World Peace
Speech 18: The Path of Humanity and the United States in the Era of the Peace Kingdom, pg 1440-1444
The mission of Christianity
Have you ever prayed for all the people of the world, with such a serious heart that it was almost as if your own children were dying? How much have you sacrificed yourself to save your family, and how much have you devoted yourself to save the tribe, people, nation and world? No one can answer these questions easily and confidently. The person who comes as the representative of such an absolute standard is the Lord of the Second Advent.
God has carried out the providence of salvation ever since the Fall of the first human ancestors. It took two thousand biblical years from the time of Adam for God to be able to find and establish Abraham and select the chosen people from among his descendants, organizing a new family, tribe and people. They were the chosen people of Israel. Because the Jewish people were called based on that victorious foundation to receive the Messiah, they became the mainstream people meant to receive the Messiah in his substantial form. They were supposed to have fulfilled the responsibility of the mainstream people.
If you dig into the core of that mainstream, you will find that we need a standard and a philosophy by which to fulfill the original mission that the first human ancestors, Adam and Eve, did not fulfill. This is nothing other than the philosophy we may call Messianism. From the Christian standpoint, it includes the thought of being the bride of the Messiah. The most important mission of Christianity is to be the bride that can receive the Lord as the bridegroom.
Despite having such an important mission, the very people who were expecting the Messiah sent Jesus to the cross. Thus, the Jewish people, who were called to be the First Israel, dried away, and Christianity, called to be the Second Israel, inherited the mission. Focusing on the one unchanging purpose, God continued to carry out His providence for more than six thousand years, and the present age marks the end of that providence.
Then what would be the essence of Messianism? It is the philosophy to save the world and unite it. It is the teaching by which to restore the position of True Parents and build the original, ideal family, which were lost by the Fall of the first human ancestors.
The teachings of the Old and New Testaments also tell us that the Messiah comes with the authority of the Father to meet the person in the position of God the Mother, who is the substantial form of the Holy Spirit, and restore the position of the True Parents. After the marriage supper of the Lamb prophesied in the Book of Revelation, the bride and bridegroom will pass through the stage of true husband and wife and become True Parents. Jesus was the one who came with such a mission. Although he lost the people and the nation of Israel due to their disbelief, he dedicated his life for the world and the kingdom of heaven desired by God. The course of suffering Jesus followed as he was nailed to the cross was a path of anguish he walked together with God.
Even when he was suffering on the cross, Jesus beseeched God to forgive the sin of the people. Even when he was dying, he blessed Rome and those who opposed him, and promised his victory in the future.
Therefore, Jesus’ life did not end at age thirty-three. It continued through history with the help of God. Christianity inherited his spirit and became a global religion.
The cycle of civilizations
Distinguished guests, the United States is said to be the most powerful nation in the world. However, if it does not stand correctly in the course of the providence, its strength and prosperity will not last. When we study the history of human culture, we find that ancient civilizations originated mainly in tropical regions. Ancient civilizations—such as the civilizations of the Maya, Incas, Egyptians, Indians and Chinese—were situated in subtropical and tropical regions.
As a matter of fact, if human beings had not fallen, civilization would have emerged from the temperate zone, corresponding to the spring season. Instead, it emerged from the tropics, corresponding to the summer season, and then passed through the temperate zone, or the autumn season. The latter, temperate-zone civilization consisted mainly of the free world, with Western civilization at its center. On the whole, the advanced nations of the West, such as the United States, Britain and Germany, which lie roughly between thirty and sixty degrees north of the equator, make up this civilization.
At the close of the temperate-zone civilization of the autumn season, the frigid-zone civilization of the winter season descended upon the world for a period. This was the emergence of communism. Although many intellectuals believe that, after the dissolution of the former Soviet Union, the Cold War struggle of the postwar period came to an end, materialism and atheism still prevail in various sectors of the world, presenting themselves as alternatives to the incapacitated ideologies of democracy and communism. At this time, breaking through the crises of the earlier temperate-zone civilization and the threat of the frigid-zone civilization, we need a new temperate-zone civilization, the true spring civilization that humanity has sought since ancient times. Who can thaw the winter season of the frigid-zone civilization? It is impossible to do so through politics, economic development or advances in technology and knowledge.
When we study the cycle of civilizations that started near rivers and oceans, we see that civilizations are always moving. The civilizations that developed near the Nile River and the Tigris-Euphrates river system moved and formed the Mediterranean civilization centered on Greece, Rome, Spain and Portugal. Then this Mediterranean civilization led to the Atlantic civilization, with Britain and the United States in the central role. Eventually, it will bear global fruit as the Pacific Rim civilization realm that connects the United States, Japan and Korea.
From this viewpoint, based on the history of civilizations, the location of the Korean Peninsula is significant. At its northern border, Korea is at the edge of the frigid-zone civilization connecting Russia and China. At its southernmost end, it is at the tip of the temperate-zone civilization that connects the United States and Japan. Therefore, from the providential viewpoint, the historic temperate-zone civilization of the global spring season, which can absorb both civilizations, will be born at this very place.
In this light, consider the fact that Rev. Moon has appeared in Korea. He has dedicated his life to solve the world’s North-South and East-West problems, which remain as unresolved issues. Moreover, he has appeared at the place where the two types of civilizations have met and borne fruit. We can attribute this only to the outcome of God’s providence.
The “One World under God” movement carried out by True Parents
In fact, I would like to tell you that I have been carrying out the “One World under God” movement, transcending race, belief and nationality, all my life. I have been following this path because it is based on the providence of God. It is grounded in principles that undergird providential history and is not just a convenient theory that I made up.
The Will of Heaven is not just a theory, and there is not a single place in all the oceans and continents untouched by the activities I have carried out to realize God’s plans. Through the foundations laid by my multidimensional mission work, we are carrying out enterprises from Alaska to Antarctica, in the thirty-three nations of South America, the nations of the former Soviet Union and the nations of Asia and Africa. I have made preparations to resolve the pollution and food-supply problems that humanity will face in the new millennium. Recently, I established a substantial foundation for the environmental health of this planet centering on the Pantanal region and Brazil’s Amazon River.
At the same time, on the internal level, I have been leading the True Family Values ministry and have continued to perform international mass wedding ceremonies, in which about 430 million couples recently participated. Thus I have accelerated the construction of the kingdom of heaven on earth based on the ideal family, which God has long awaited.
Respected guests from home and abroad, until now, the world has been ruled by those nations that had superior political, economic and military power. However, a nation that does not stand directly aligned with God’s providence cannot last forever. The downfall of the resplendent civilizations of Greece and Rome are good examples. The position of the United States, which is soaring high as today’s greatest and strongest power, is the same as that of Rome two thousand years ago. Please remember that the decline and fall of the Roman Empire was not the result of external invasions, but was in fact due to the loss of Heaven’s fortune. It was a consequence of its immoral culture, which led to a collapse from within.
Until recently, political regimes based on materialism and the materialistic interpretation of history, which exalted factory laborers and farmers, controlled one-third of the world’s population and two-thirds of the earth’s land area, centering on the former Soviet Union and China. Of course, they did not last forever, and I tell you that a time will come when religious believers who speak for the Will of God will gain influence.
Religious leaders are prophets who ought to proclaim God’s Will on earth and guide humanity in the direction it needs to follow. However, the conflicts and infighting that continue among religious denominations discredit them completely. These conflicts are major obstacles blocking the providence of God.
That is why for decades I have invested more than half of the budget of the Unification Church into interdenominational and interreligious efforts to resolve conflicts between religions. Furthermore, I founded the Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace to bring about peace for humanity through reconciliation and unity among religions. All humanity, transcending race and religious denomination, needs to understand God’s providence for the realization of the world of the ideal of creation. We ultimately need to be in accord with God’s heart.
FFWPU, USA