Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: Episode 95
Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: A Selection of True Parents’ Speeches
Book 2: God’s Homeland and the Peace Kingdom
Speech 15: The Value and Significance of the Family Pledge, pg 321-324
Explanation of each verse of the Family Pledge
The first verse of the Family Pledge is “Our family, the owner of Cheon Il Guk, pledges to seek our original homeland and build the kingdom of God on earth and in heaven, the original ideal of creation, by centering on true love.”
You should know that reciting this verse of the Family Pledge is proclaiming one of the greatest pieces of news in all of history. The “ideal of creation” refers to the ideal world with God at the center. It was God’s ideal of creation that humankind build the kingdom of God on earth and in heaven. However, since that ideal could not be attained due to the Fall, we have to achieve it through restoration. Thus, centering on our original homeland, we must build the kingdom of God on earth and in heaven, the original ideal of creation.
Because the family was lost due to the Fall, we need to build God’s family through the course of restoration. This is not one individual’s task. It is rather the task of families, the owners of Cheon Il Guk. This is what it means that by centering on true love, our families have to “seek our original homeland and build the kingdom of God on earth and in heaven, the original ideal of creation.”
The “original homeland” referred to here is the homeland centered on families. That is why all of you have to return to your hometown and establish God’s kingdom on earth and in heaven there. Once you restore your hometown, your nation, and the world will be unified naturally. Then there will be nothing further for you to worry about.
Once the kingdom of God on earth and the kingdom of God in heaven are one, people who have lived on earth in a united family centering on God’s true love will continue living in that family in the heavenly kingdom. We no longer live in the age of individual salvation. Religions, Christianity in particular, speak to the salvation of the individual; however, that will not suffice. God’s Will is for the salvation of the family. Restoration has to occur in the family because the Fall destroyed the ideal for the family. Now for the first time in history, all this can be resolved. The family has finally entered the era of settlement.
It is as families that we must build the kingdom of God on earth and in heaven, the original ideal of God’s creation. Because the kingdom was lost due to the family, we have to restore it as families. The original homeland is centered on families, not on a nation. That is why I tell you to return to your hometown. If you still have a family there, go back to your hometown and build God’s kingdom on earth and in heaven there. Once we restore our hometowns, our nations and the world will naturally harmonize. We will establish the heavenly kingdom on earth and in heaven automatically. It will unfold, centering on true families.
“Our family… pledges to… build the kingdom of God on earth and in heaven, the original ideal of creation.” Here we say, “build.” Why do we use that word? It is because we must create God’s kingdom; it will not come about by itself. We ourselves must build it. This current world is already hell on earth, and it is connected to hell in the spirit world. We are to create a world that turns this world around 180 degrees.
Again, it is the mission of all families who have received the marriage Blessing from True Parents to seek the original homeland and build the kingdom of God on earth and in heaven, the original ideal of creation. We complete the building of God’s kingdom not as individuals but as families.
This is your first pledge as blessed families.
The second verse of the Family Pledge is, “Our family, the owner of Cheon Il Guk, pledges to represent and become central to heaven and earth by attending God and True Parents; we pledge to perfect the dutiful family way of filial sons and daughters in our family, patriots in our nation, saints in the world and divine sons and daughters in heaven and earth by centering on true love.”
“Our family… centering on true love.” The words “true love” refer to love that appears where there is unity between mind and body, between husband and wife, and between parents and children. If you do not practice this standard of true love, then you will surely be miserable when you go to the spirit world.
That is how fearsome the Family Pledge is. You must live by it always. In your family, if the father violates even one part of the Family Pledge, then the mother and children become jointly responsible. The entire family would have to take joint responsibility for it. This is the significance of the fact that Eve’s fall brought about the fall of Adam’s entire family.
This verse of the Family Pledge also states, “by attending God and True Parents.” We human beings were originally to attend and honor God and True Parents; however, we were driven away as a result of the Fall. Due to the Fall, we lost the value of our existence. By attending God and True Parents, we regain it.
God is the vertical True Parent, and the True Parents, the perfected Adam and Eve, are the horizontal True Parents. We are to be born from the union of these two sets of True Parents. On the foundation of the two sets becoming one, we can also achieve unity and connect to God and heaven. By attending God and True Parents, everything can be accomplished.
What kind of families “represent and become central to heaven and earth”? They are the ideal families that God envisioned prior to the fall of Adam and Eve. A representative and central family in heaven and on earth refers to a family that represents heaven and grows its relationship with God on earth in expanding circles through eight vertical stages and eight horizontal stages. What I mean is that the family comes to the position where it represents God in heaven and the True Parents on earth united at a 90-degree angle.
You need to become the center in such a family by becoming a filial son or daughter. Not only that, you need to become a patriot who lives for your nation, you need to become a saint who lives for the world, and you need to become a divine son or daughter who lives for heaven and earth. “We pledge to perfect the dutiful family way of… divine sons and daughters” means that each family member, as an individual, needs to attain the position of a divine son or daughter. When such divine sons and daughters gather together as members of the same family, they form a family of divine sons and daughters. This is what we are pledging to do.
In pledging “to represent and become central to heaven and earth by attending God and True Parents,” our family needs to make a resolution that it will fulfill the dutiful family way of filial sons and daughters in the family, patriots and virtuous women in the nation, saints in the world, and divine sons and daughters in heaven and earth, everything that Heaven desires. We are saying that as parents, we will educate our children, as citizens, we will educate the people of our nation, and as saints, we will educate the people of the world. By helping them qualify to become members of God’s family in the heavenly kingdom in heaven and on earth, we become divine sons and daughters and constitute families of divine sons and daughters.
That is why we say, “Our family, the owner of Cheon Il Guk, pledges to represent and become central to heaven and earth by attending God and True Parents; we pledge to perfect the dutiful family way of filial sons and daughters in our family, patriots in our nation, saints in the world and divine sons and daughters in heaven and earth, by centering on true love.”
The third verse of the Family Pledge is, “Our family, the owner of Cheon Il Guk, pledges to perfect the Four Great Realms of Heart, the Three Great Kingships and the Realm of the Royal Family, by centering on true love.”
Adam and Eve would have fulfilled the four great realms of heart, and the three great kingships had they not fallen. If not for the Fall, they would have fulfilled these and become God’s royal family. This part of the Family Pledge refers to restoring fallen people and making them into the royal family. Families who receive the marriage Blessing need to fulfill this mission.
In the ideal, conjugal love should only take place among people who fulfill the four great realms of heart and the three great kingships. A man and a woman need to fulfill these before they share love with each other. Otherwise, it is not right for them to love each other. Yet during the course of restoration, conjugal love has been part of what was needed to establish of these realms and kingships. That is because man’s need for woman, and vice versa, is absolute.
You blessed families have to strive every day to fulfill the goals of this verse. However, you cannot fulfill them with only a theoretical faith. It is not enough to imagine that you will be able to fulfill these goals simply because they are set out in God’s Word. You have to work toward them by dealing with practical situations that you encounter directly.
FFWPU, USA