Toronto, Canada
Master Speaks
Translated by Mrs. Won Bok Choi)
Mrs. Choi's Prayer:
Dear Father,
We are in the relationship of Father and children, the relationship of Creator and created. We are friends, but not only friends, we are brothers and sisters under you, the Father. Give us strength today and show us the way we have to live. Dear Father, we are beyond the boundaries of nations and countries. You did not make the boundaries. Originally, humankind were just children under you. Oh Father, when Satan took the sovereignty of all mankind, how sorrowful and grievous you were. We are now able to know, Father.
Thank you Father, that we are gathered here, around the Master whom you gave the great mission of leading the world into one ideology to make all mankind the same, children under you. Oh Father, give us today your loving kindness, strength, and fire rising and burning through us, so that we can be melted into one, and share with each other the joy of God and even the sorrow of God, in order to know your heart. Dear Father, guide us, so that we can understand these words, understand your heart through his words. May we become one with you God, the Father. Thank you for this rich atmosphere, thank you Father. We feel your presence here, Father, dear Father, please, please make us real brothers and sisters under the True Parents. Oh Father, be with us all through this meeting. We pray this in the name of those whom you sent to us. Amen.
Master:
This evening I am going to talk about God's providence for mankind, how He began this providence and how He has been leading it.
There must be a perfect goal for which all men are headed. There must be a goal, a final one, which God wants us to attain. If the desire of God and the desire of man differ, God's will cannot be achieved. How to make those two, God's desire and man's desire, into one is the question. How to make the two into one. Even fallen men desire that the true one be one, unique, unchangeable and eternal. God, being the absolute one and the eternal existence, wants the same thing. The core or cross point of those two, of God's will and man's wish, will be one point.
But what will it be and what should it be? That is the problem. Man's desire and God's will are not in human honor, human knowledge, material wealth, nor human beings themselves. There must be something, a goal that we are headed toward. That goal is the love through which God and man can unite into one throughout eternity. Love is eternal. Those who love each other want to be eternally in that position. Love is one. Love alone is the core of human desire. It must be unchangeable.
Where would men want to meet God? What would be the first situation where man would want to meet God? That is, the situation where man can meet God as his Father, and God can meet men as His children. The situation or place is the home. That is why we call God our Father and He calls us His children. When children have grown up what would they do? If a man and wife are united, they build up the tradition of love among their family on the basis of their own experiences of having received God's love.
Mrs. Choi: He is emphasizing the Father and son relationship between God and man.
As husband and wife, they are going to live or build up the tradition of the love which they have respectively experienced. In the first stage, the individual receives love, vertically from God. Husband and wife, when they are united, have give and take of love horizontally. Then, when they give birth to children the vertical love goes down. When a couple have children they are experiencing God's love for His children. When spoken of, with man as the center, we experience God's love from above, vertically. Man and wife love each other, and play the role of father and mother giving love to their children. If that tie is unchangeable and strong, God is right there in the family and He will be unchangeable. He will always be with the family. If this had been realized, there would have been no need of faith or prayer to believe in anything that is not seen or felt or touched. That is what our human ancestors were deprived of. That is, the pattern of how their families should have been. I know you have learned of the human fall. We have no time to give a lecture on the human fall. But due to the human fall we were deprived of those ideal families. The human fall meant degradation from the original status that was God's intention. We are not the way God would want us to be.
Men of course could go without material things which are lost. Even though we may lose the things we have, we can go without them. We may still be deprived of material wealth, family, friends, all these things, but still we can live on. But when we are robbed of love, we cannot live. In the Garden of Eden., when the human ancestors fell, the most important thing that was lost was love. Love between God and man was lost. Due to the fall man lost three kinds of love: parental love, marital love (conjugal love) and the love for children.
Men of the fall have not been able to receive God's true love as parental love. We have not been able to receive God's true love as parental love. We have not experienced true love in the real sense between husband and wife. We have not experienced true love with our children centered on God. If that were the case our children would be in the position of God's grandchildren. There are no people who have experienced these three types of love in the true sense.
Due to the human fall men were deprived of those three loves. However, fallen man did not know what kind of love or what value the love was that he lost. However God knew the value of those three kinds of love and was extremely grievous and sorrowful after the loss of love between God and man.
Let us imagine the first human couple. They were true children of God and God was the Father to them. But due to the human fall, the love between them was cut off. Those who fell did not feel that much sorrow, but can you imagine how sorrowful and grievous God's heart was at the time of the human fall? God is the Father. Man broke the law of God. God being their Father had to drive them out of the scope of His love even though they were unwilling to leave God. He had to because they failed to keep His law. Imagine what fear they must have felt. God is the center of man's love, life and happiness and man is the ideal subject through which God can develop His providence.
God lost everything. Everything went to pieces. For men too, every hope and happiness was lost. That was a tragedy, it was the saddest thing. How much of a feeling of resentment would God have toward the enemy, Satan, who caused the human fall? What is the human fall? The human fall is to have the linear relationship with Satan. Even in this fallen world, when one has fallen in love with another other ties are more or less cut off . . . (End of tape. Lost some text while changing tape.)
God was the Father. Would He not have the love which would not let His children go? He felt like forgiving His children. But He could not do that. He wanted to forgive mankind. From that point the providence of Salvation began. Suppose there had been a child other than Adam and Eve. If he went to Satan and grabbed his own brother back to God's bosom how would God have felt? Would He have punished him, or driven him out again, or received him? Would He have punished the brother who took him back? Would He have driven him out too? Or would He have praised him; or left him alone? Which would God have chosen? That is the question.
If He had praised him we cannot believe in the words of Jesus when he said, "Those who want to gain their lives will lose them, and those who are willing to lose their lives will gain them," and "those who are first will be last and last will be first". He could not have promised that. Why? There must be regulations, principles, in taking back what was lost. It cannot just be grabbed back. There must be a law, The Law of Indemnity. God cannot forgive man who rebelled against Him, unless he himself sets up the conditions to come back to God, denying Satan. Originally, fallen man rejected God and went into Satan's bosom. So to return he had to deny or reject Satan and come back to God's bosom all by himself. That is the condition.
Had his brother, or anyone else, gone to Satan and tried to take his fallen brother back, Satan would not have let him go without a condition. In order to take his fallen brother back, Satan must be given something which he feels is better than that which he is going to lose. We must give Satan something which he would like better than the one whom we are bringing back. In other words, to liberate him, there should be a brother who is willing to sacrifice himself in place of his fallen brother. That sacrificial brother will become the second Christ. His fallen brother will be liberated on that condition alone. If there had been such a brother who had filial piety towards God, His Father, one who could feel his Father's heart when He lost the fallen brother, he should feel that he would do absolutely anything to relieve the Father's grief and take back his brother. If that were so, he should be willing to sacrifice himself in place of his brother. When man fell, God was tearful. Both God and men were tearful when they had to part from each other. A man, a brother, should come who will experience God's grief and his fallen brother's grief and is willing to do anything to relieve those grievous hearts. The tears of that brother would not be the tears of sorrow. When man fell God shed tears of sorrow, the same as man shed tears of sorrow. But these tears were shed for themselves. Another man must come who sheds tears not for himself, but for God and his lost brother; they will be the tears of hope. With the coming of that man among mankind, there can be the hope of salvation. The gate of the providence of salvation will be opened with those kinds of tears which are to relieve God's sorrow and man's sorrow. Do you understand that point? When you cry for yourself, your tears belong to Satan. As long as man sheds tears for himself there cannot be any salvation. That is the problem. Abel had to reject Satan and come back to the bosom of God by fighting against and defeating Satan. He had to separate himself from Satan.
Then, Abel would be different from his fallen brother. Since he was in that position he could receive God's love. Instead of being arrogant, Abel should have been willing to die for Cain. These three stages are the important formula: First, the man who is willing to save the world should be able to fight against Satan and win the victory over Satan; and then come into the love of God; and then, feeling the heart of God and his fallen brother, he must be willing to sacrifice himself in place of his fallen brother, in order to relieve God's grief and his fallen brother's grief. Only on that condition can his fallen brother be taken back. We are taught about the problem of Cain and Abel in the Principle. Abel should have separated himself from Satan, or Cain; and then come into the love of God; and then by feeling and experiencing God's grief and his brother's grief should have been willing to sacrifice himself in place of them and save his brother at the risk of his life, at the very price of his life. But in the process of doing that, he was killed by Cain. The Unified Family knows the Divine Principle. The members are in the position of Abel. So you must first be able to fight against Satan and separate yourself from the Satanic world. That means you have to come into God's love. But that is not all. From then on you must be willing to sacrifice yourself in order to relieve God's grievous heart and that of the brothers and sisters in Satanic bondage. At the price of your life, your sacrifice, you must be willing to take and save them from the Satanic world. At the sacrifice of Abel, the Restoration and providence will proceed. That is the formula you must remember. This is the unit of God's providence.
We see another example in Noah's act of building the ark on the mountain for 120 years, that long course of years when he fought against Satan. He must have been rejected by his wife, his family, his neighbors and relatives. From his nation and from the whole world, he received scorn and rejection. But if he had even once been tempted to not do the job, he could have been invaded by Satan again. But he overcame all those difficulties and succeeded in carrying out his mission. He fought against Satan and separated himself from Satan. God came to love him and he came into God's love. But that is not all. When one comes into God's love, God lets one go into the Satanic world and be sacrificed -- be put into difficulties and suffer, in order to train one, of course, but also in order to save more people at the price of one who is willing to sacrifice himself in order to save the whole world. Noah, who was a righteous man, a just man, a good man, had to sacrifice himself, always shedding tears with a grievous heart. He had to sacrifice himself for the sake of other people, not for himself.
Let us look at Abraham. God separated him from his father, the seller of idols. He had to leave his family, his native land, his material wealth and everything else. But cutting himself off from the Satanic world he would have come into Canaan. God developed His providence to train him, to have him cry not only for his own nation, bur for other nations, and even for the enemy. He did this by driving him away from his native land, by sending him to other nations. He roamed about like a gypsy. He lived his life always crying in prayer with a prayerful heart and wishing God might save the people through his prayer. That is why God blessed his descendants as stars in heaven, and sands on earth. From the Bible we get the impression that God just blessed Abraham, loved him unconditionally. But this was not so. He had to cut himself off from Satan, leaving his dear family, native land, material wealth and everything else behind and going to the unknown land of God's choice, always crying for God and for the people. He prayed and suffered much for those nations. Only on that condition could God use Abraham as the father of faith, and bless Abraham with so many good descendants. These things are not recorded in the Bible, but it was only because of such a background that God could bless him.
Jacob left his home and went into Haran where he was like a servant, . . . having been cheated by his uncle Laban, he was given Leah in place of Rachel . . . whom he wanted. Once he had Rachel, he had to flee from the land and go back to his home. Upon the foundation of difficulties alone could God bless him after about 21 years. During this time he was cheated 10 times by Laban, but, having gone through all these hardships he was able to leave Haran. Even in his difficulties he had a prayerful heart for those who cheated him. His act of wrestling with the angel was also the act of fighting against Satan, who was blocking his way to carrying out his mission.
The same thing happened with Moses. Moses after spending 40 years in the Pharaoh's palace, also had to leave all glory and wealth, cut himself off from the satanic world. For the sake of his nation he was willing to sacrifice his life. All those people have gone through the same formula.
Just before we look at Jesus, let's look at John the Baptist. He was led into the wilderness. That is, he left his home, cut himself from the past and came into the wilderness, eating locusts and wild honey. He shed tears for the coming Messiah, for God, for his nation and his people. That is the point where he differed from the prophets previous to him. He desired that the Messiah would hold sovereignty over the whole world. And when he prayed he shed tears of a different meaning. He shed tears for the nation; for the Messiah to come, the one who John wanted to take hold of the sovereignty of the Satanic world; and he cried for the sake of God. In that sense he was the greatest of all prophets. In other words, the other prophets had no ruler coming. John was making the way straight for the Messiah. The others did not pray for the ruler who was to come but John had the ruler coming and prayed and worked for him. That is the difference. That is the reason why he was the greatest prophet. But John prayed for the ruler of his own nation, while Jesus came as the ruler of the whole world. His (John's) viewpoint was a little different from the heart of God. That is the very beginning of his not being able to become one with Jesus.
His view of the Messiah was that of the Messiah of his own nation. So he dreamed of the Messiah as coming to save the nation of the Israelites. So he expected Jesus to observe the Mosaic Law, the system of the Israelites, but he found that Jesus was not doing that but was breaking it. But Jesus was going to save the whole world. His scope was wider and different from John's. There was no one nation in his sight. That is what made them different from each other. Thus John the Baptist stood on the side of the Israelites who opposed Jesus, and caused his death. If he stood on the side of Jesus and had become one with him, he would have become the chief disciple of Jesus, and the disciples of John the Baptist would or should have become Jesus' disciples. Then the followers of John the Baptist and the whole nation which believed John the Baptist to be the greatest of all the prophets could have followed Jesus. Do you understand that much?
The chosen nation does not refer only to the Israelites, but also to those who separate themselves from Satan and come into God's bosom. They are the chosen people. With those people as citizens the chosen nation was to be formed. Jesus was to come among the separated people, among the people of God's choice. If the people had received Jesus, then Jesus and the people would have formed a separate nation, and the providence of salvation could have been extended to the whole of mankind. That separated nation must shed tears and make themselves sacrifices for the sake of other fallen nations and for God, just as Abel as an individual did for others. But the people of Israel did not think in this way. They thought that Jesus would, when he came, take the sovereignty of the nation, and under him they would be leading happy lives, and they would be blessed with abundance both on the spiritual and physical level. They desired all those things for themselves, not for others and not for the whole world. It is God's will to send the Savior to save the whole world not just one nation. That is the aim of God's providence.
You read the passages in the Bible saying that you must love God with all your heart, with all your mind and with all your soul; that's the first commandment. Love your neighbors as yourself, that is the second. That means that each of us should be a person like Abel, who is willing to sacrifice himself for others. To love your neighbor means to love the whole world. The first commandment is to love God and the second commandment is to love the people of the world (neighbor). That is why Jesus said those who want to lose their lives will live and those who want to gain their lives will die.
I want to repeat the formula. Separate yourself from Satan, win over Satan and come into the love of God, and then, feeling the same heart as God be willing to sacrifice yourself to save your neighbors, your brother, to save the whole world. Those three stages are God's formula. The great people and saints or holy people of the earth have separated themselves from the fallen world, from the world they used to belong to and have proclaimed or advocated something new. Then, at the sacrifice of themselves, they tried to influence or save all mankind. Always they longed for God. So they are the ones who follow the course which has been explained. The four great sacred men of the earth, have been religious leaders, Jesus, Confucius, Buddha and Mohammed. (All founders of religions.) Because they longed for God and for all mankind, they have gone through torture and persecution for mankind. Let's take an example from our own lives.
Suppose a man has ten friends. He would like the others to sacrifice for him. Because of his selfish purpose there will no longer be friends, they will go away. If that man denies himself, and is willing to do things for his friends and sacrifice himself for the cause of greater value, it is natural that they would be attracted to him. Then those ten friends would bring him their relatives and acquaintances. Then that group could grow in number. That's because God would cooperate with such a group. God is with such a group, and for such a group. In a limited sense one would think the friends foolish to serve others and do things for others, but on the contrary if one does that, he is standing in the center and people will gather around him. He not only becomes the center and core of the group, but many more people would come to follow him and beg him to save, lead and control their lives. They will want to be controlled, and ruled by him. If the leaders of countries were that way, then their subjects would come to their knees, begging them to dominate them. They would be willing to be ruled by those kind of people. Isn't it true? So, to sacrifice yourself is to win people. The individual, the group, or the world based on that formula, will trust God, or else all will diminish. Look at Israel. The individualistic ideal prevailing in the democratic and liberal world is dangerous in that sense. On the grounds of this formula, it is not desirable. It is not part of this formula.
What I want to teach you is this; to love God and to love people at the price of your own life. Then you can gain your own life and then gain the people. That is what God wants from the bottom of His heart, and that is what Jesus wanted us to be like. When Jesus prayed at Gethsemane: "Father, let this cup pass from me, if thou wilt. Not as I will, but as thou wilt". When he prayed that, his attitude was that of a son who loved only his Father. On the cross he loved even his enemy and prayed for him. There had never been such a man in all history previous to him and there was no such man after him. That is the sign of his having loved the whole of mankind . . . (End of Tape. Text lost while tape is changed.)
That is what made Jesus the greatest. If you can do that much, you cannot help but be the friend of Jesus, or the bride of Jesus. You can have his Father as yours, you can have everything he had.
Now let us conclude. Those who shed tears for themselves are fools, great fools. Those who shed tears for others are wise men because they can win the whole world and win God and everything in the world. By doing that, you can be the possessor of God's love. You can hold the position of, and inherit parental love from God, conjugal love between man and wife, and children's love. By possessing all these, you will be the richest of all people. You will stand in the position of having possessed God's love, God's ideal, and man's purpose. So you can become the dominator of the whole world by love -- true love. In order to do that, you must remember the three stages of the formula; separate yourself from Satan, come into the love of God, and sacrifice yourself for the sake of other people. In studying, you should not study for your own benefit, or for your own sake, but you should study to save the whole world for God. So now you know the way to live. Even when you marry, you must not forget that you are marrying for mankind, for the future of mankind. This kind of people cannot perish.
Mr. (Young Whi) Kim: The place where those people meet, that is the Kingdom of Heaven.
When you pray, do not pray for yourself, but for others. If you do this the result will be yours. Do not pray for the Unification Church, Unified Family, but pray that God may use you to save Canada and save the world, at the cost of your lives.
Question: How do we separate ourselves from Satan when we are in the satanic world?
There are three stages of separation. Firstly, you must separate yourself from your Satanic environment, secondly your body should be separated from Satan, and thirdly your heart (love) should be separated from Satan. So your heart should be known to God and not to the Satanic world. So in the Old Testament age, by the material we came to God. In the New Testament age we went to God through our body at the sacrifice of our body, and in the last stage we went to God through our heart (love). We go through these three stages. You have to cut off the environment of your physical parents, and even the fallen husband and wife relationships.
