Belvedere
Translator - Sang Kil Han
Today is March 1 and two months of this year are already gone. This is the first day tor the remaining ten months. Today is a special day in that sixty years ago Korea experienced a great independence movement while under Japanese suppression and many people shed blood in a symbolic demonstration for justice. This is a significant national day in Korea, and everyone is reminded of that great spirit in national commemoration. I gave a special talk to my children about this day, and that's why I was late this morning.
Through Principle we have learned that religion is needed to learn God's will and His teaching. God's will is one. Since there is one God there should not be many churches and religions believing many different ways, but only one church teaching the correct way. That church is above any country and even the world, and not under any national direction or domination. If there had already been a church on earth teaching the ideal then mankind would have been educated, and God's will would have been moving in a specific direction with substantial achievement. But as we look back in history no such religion is to be found; instead it has only appeared on earth today.
In looking around the world we see that each people has their own way of believing in God, and that even those beliefs varied at different times in history. When we compare the various religions to the branches of a tree, it is not that they are completely in error, but that they are all directed in different ways, each with some cultural development surrounding it, whether small or large. In God's overall plan He must be wanting to guide each religion in one specific direction, wanting to teach the people through religion.
We see today that there is some general direction which each religion is taking. In the same way that the greater religion will absorb the lesser religion, a man of great character will surpass and influence a man of lesser character. Civilizations are the same; the higher civilization will eventually absorb the lesser culture.
America is one of the great nations of our time and people around the world look to America and emulate that way of life. Why do less advanced people follow greater people? By doing so they are benefited. Also, it is convenient and helps ease their lives. When I refer to American civilization I am not referring to the American people, but to the achievements which have become a standard here and around which this civilization was formed. It might be said, that knowledge is what makes America great and what the people follow; it is not Americans themselves who are great but what they know. Science is one aspect of that truth.
If the people don't live up to a standard then they have to catch up with it. As long as the people are pursuing that ideal of those words, always trying to improve themselves and close the gap, they will have a great nation. When men are one with this standard, the most harmonious situation is formed. Goodness should be the result of people's interaction in unity with the standard.
What we are observing now in America is that people are attempting to follow a high standard, but what is amiss is the quality of peoples' interaction with each other. There are such fundamental problems as racial conflict in which black and white people cannot even mix with each other. When this quality of interaction is lost then people lose what standard they have achieved. After that even the standard of truth becomes shaky and people are not sure of its value. They are confused and the truth becomes weak as a result.
At one time Christians in this country pursued a certain standard of love, but now they are uncertain and even that standard is crumbling. lt is not difficult to see that American civilization is no longer strong and healthy but headed downward instead of upward. At first many people followed that standard because it benefited them, but now people feel it is inconvenient and that this way of thinking is a nuisance. Once families were strong in America, but now people increasingly feel there is nothing to be gained from family commitments and so when they leave home they rarely return. Church offers an environment which should help us better ourselves, but people are finding no benefit there so they stop going.
God's religion is unchanging. What is the truth that men are seeking and that God approves of? All major religions teach truth, yet each believes that it alone has the true way; they do not think from the position of God but from a point of view centering on themselves. God cannot approve of that. On looking down to earth God would rate the religions according to His standard. There can be only one which can receive the top mark. This is not difficult to understand because it is so reasonable.
Religions should not be concerned about how they would be rated, but should be looking instead for the one religion which can be rated 100 per cent. This is the problem of' the present day. All followers of a certain religion believe in its doctrine, but they are limited to that one teaching; though within that sphere they may rate 100 per cent, they cannot rate 100 per cent in the overall picture.
Who can teach without any error and be in a position to give that 100 per cent mark? Only God can do this. This is not in any book or stated in any religious dogma, but it is in God himself It is only logical that eventually man will have to come to God Himself to make sure he got everything right; only when God assures him that he has met that standard can he be fully confident. It is logical that through the highest religion every person can come into contact with God and be assured for themselves that they are approved by Him.
We have to be able to confirm whether a religious teaching is completely consistent with Gods own word. Each religion teaches the truth according to its own bible. Truth tells us what to do, how to do it, revealing how to live and what objectives to strive tor. Scientists as well have an objective and a means for reaching it; truth is applied in the same way here.
If a religious truth teaches the individual but not the family then it becomes very inharmonious. Truth should be consistent and in accordance with both individual and family life being able to guide people toward higher and higher value until they ultimately reach God. Truth should be free of contradiction. A person's hands and face belong to him and are part of him, meaning that every part of his body is consistent and none of them contradict the other. They function as one. A person does not pursue two different goals at the same time, but follows one objective and purpose.
Likewise for man, what people 1,00() years ago and people today strive for should be in the same general direction. Orientals and Westerners should not live in a contradictory way; if they do it means that only one is right and the other has yet to come into accord with it.
What is the truth then? What is the truth in a man? For man to meet woman and for them to love each other is a truth. The fact that man and woman can love each other in perfect harmony was true 1,000 years ago and today as well; this truth is consistent. Truth for the ear is to listen well to the right way. The nose must smell correctly, and if it fails to meet that standard then it is not a true or real nose. Truth for a hungry man is to get food. For instance, some food that makes him happy is a truthful thing; on the other hand, if some smell offends him then his nose will try to avoid it. If music is very pleasant then your ears are eager to listen and transmit that pleasure to your whole body. The whole community will be directed to the truth and benefit from it at the same time. Men must be happy before God can become happy. God can rejoice when men are happy in the right relationship.
When you hear a word of truth you are really happy in response. If you are hungry then you eat; you ate yesterday and the day before, but are you happy every time you have food when you are hungry? When you listen to truth are you always happy? How about those people who are dozing-are they full and unwilling to partake any more?
An ultimate religion will eventually have to emerge in history, but truth is only words, whereas the substantial entity is your character. The Bible records that everything came into existence as God spoke, having His body and character of development. Just as God spoke and formed everything according to His words, religion is meant to give some words and teach people so they can come into accord with what the Word meant them to be. When everything became as God told it to be, the Bible records that it was good to behold. That goodness results from the unity which is formed when the word and entity become one. This is what the whole idea is-unity.
Once this unity is achieved you can go in any direction you desire and meet no resistance and never become unhappy. No matter how far or near or often you go, you will be unrestricted, but you have to have that element of unity to be welcomed. Love comes into being here. When we come to cherish love we want it always to stay with us, and God's will is to fulfill that desire. We want to be in love wherever we go.
What is that one element that we never get tired of? No matter how much and how often we are loved, we never tire of it. Food is different; when you are hungry you want to eat, but when you are not hungry then eating can even be painful. But there is no moment when you feel you can do without love. Could love be real if it were cherished only by white people? That would not be love because it could not be true in those circumstances. If only blacks or only Orientals liked love then it could not be true. As long as one is human, whether he is old or young he will like love. Everyone has this in common.
God had an ideal which he desired, which is unity, and God's words are called truth. Reality must come about according to God's desire, and after that God wanted to wrap the whole thing up in love. After this is complete you can circulate in any direction. This is the full content of God's creation. As long as you have love, you can skip one of the steps above; for instance, if you have love then you' don't need words.
If people are thinking according to the wrong standard then eventually God will have to judge that, which is the judgment of words, and point out whatever is wrong. Also He must give some character judgment, or judgment of personality, according to how they have developed. Finally there is judgment of heart, and here too God must evaluate. All three must be given clearly. The fall was the result of failing to become the true entity ot' the word; thus Adam did not come to possess true heart. Now in returning to God we must restore the words that Adam and Eve lost and check whether we have become as He wanted us to become. When these become reality then true heart will automatically emerge. We have to make sure that love is within us.
Human history has been following that pattern as well. At each period in history man had a certain ideal, such as godism or humanism, which guided people in a certain direction, and man developed accordingly. Communists today are pursuing a goal based on words, for instance. Earlier in history pagan deities, and later God, were related in man's thinking to events in every area of human life. Later that degenerated into humanism and people paid more attention to man than to God. Now that has passed and the emphasis is not even humanism but materialism.
Originally man was supposed to possess material things, plus his physical body plus his mind, and all three were supposed to be united harmoniously.` Now little emphasis is placed either on man's character or on God, so there is no way man could feel complete or satisfied. Materialism is not wrong, but it deals with only one portion of man's life. At the same time man must pay attention to the human element, but most of all he needs God. He can never hope to be happy without God.
Religion must ultimately deal with all these areas of godism, materialism and humanism and give a satisfactory explanation in all these things. The channel or order flows from God to man to material things; material cannot come above man nor man above God. In earlier times man concentrated exclusively on explaining events in religious terms and was not so concerned about man or individual human life later, reaction against that elevated man's value but concentrated on him exclusively. Eventually man completely eliminated God from the picture. Certainly man should not concentrate on just one or the other, but should follow an order or sequence. Now the attention that was paid to man has swung to another extreme and men think that they need only material things, diagnosing social problems in terms of lacking material prosperity.
People definitely suffer if they lack enough material things and then they become determined to make money, but even with money they don't feel as content as they thought they would. After being dissatisfied with material things they look into communism. Material things are a necessary element, but not a crucial one. People are discovering that material things alone will not make them happy, and they are starting to look to other areas again. Pretty soon we will see a swing back toward re-examining man, and eventually back to God. Young people today are only scratching the surface in their search into mysticism and Eastern religion, but the trend will broaden and continue.
We can understand that God, man, and material must be ordered in the right way before man's matters can be solved, and this is what the teaching of final authority must do. Religion must encompass all these areas and teach about them correctly. Some religions emphasize attention to spiritual matters to the exclusion of material matters, but in the Unification Church we pay attention to material things in the context that it belongs to all mankind and to God. In this context material needs can be satisfied. The Unification Church is also humanist in that it doesn't advance one race over another but embraces all mankind equally and seeks to live for the entire world. We must cultivate our character to live for the entire world.
We don't teach that God is necessary to only one area or country or for one period of time; we teach that God is needed equally by everyone, that there has always been only one God and He has been the most important element. We teach that God is a humanist and also a materialist, that He is a spiritual being but He loves material things. A religion must embrace all these elements before man's life can become consistent in every way. Our criterion is whether the Unification Church lives up to that standard and manifests the heart of unity and the ideal.
No religion which can live up to that standard has ever appeared on earth. The Bible states that it is not possible to worship God and material at the same time, but in the Unification Church we teach that we can worship God even through material as long as it serves God and the world. In this way I am different from any other religious teacher. People try to describe me as an evangelist, industrialist or businessman, or any number of things. I am a fisherman! All these things are in harmony and proportion and there is no part which is not understood by our members. If everyone can follow this teaching and be happy then it will pass all tests.
By joining the Unification Church we become happier and gain some benefit. Being benefited never brings unhappiness. Are you happy? Then you like to do home church and fund raising? Until people understand all these things they are like half people and their focus is blurred, but as they understand they become increasingly happy. When such people assemble in the thousands and millions in the future they will be like a great river or ocean current.
In looking back in history the common element through the ages seems to be war. Why do men tight? Because they have differences of opinion in ideology and different desires for possessing something. People in the free world are convinced that no one can conquer them and communists have the idea that no one can oppose or defer communism.
In a similar vein we can ask why existing churches oppose the Unification Church. Church leaders feel that their congregations belong to them and they don't like to see their members come to the Unification Church. Christians are making one great mistake in not thinking that their churches must be owned by the world and live for the world. The world must own the churches, not vice versa. Neither do they know that they belong to God.
Americans feel that their nation belongs to them and no one else has any claim on it. They feel that other people should take care of themselves, but instead America should belong to the world. Neither does America understand that America belongs to God. Individual Americans think their country belongs to them; they do not know that they belong to the world and to God.
War stems from a wrong concept of possession, and people fight when they think things rightfully belong to them. What is needed now is to eliminate wrong concepts of ownership. For instance, it is holy to think that America belongs to the world and to God instead of to Americans.
Whose notebook is this? Before it belongs to you it belongs to America; before America it belongs to the world. In that sense it is even holy. If you have a notebook and see it is needed by the nation and then give it for that, or the nation offers it for the world's use, then even the notebook will be much happier. If God wants to use it the notebook will be even happier. The entire world will dedicate it to God if He wants to use it.
You may not realize it at this moment but you are going through a great transition in your concept of ownership. Is it necessary that we change in this way? When we offer something for the use of the whole then not only we are happier but the whole is happier also and the value of the object will also increase. By dedicating smaller things to the whole we eventually come to possess the world and God Himself. It is like using small bait to catch bigger and bigger fish. Even in a business sense this is a good idea.
We have to revolutionize this sense of ownership and also change the conventional concept of the ideal from an individual ideal to an unlimited ideal that stretches ale the way to God. Wars have always started over different opinions about these two things. When I earn money I do not feel that it belongs to me, but to God and the world and then to me, in that order. It is ironic that I am scratching money together from poorer countries to aid this richest nation in the world. I feel money from a small country should be dedicated to a larger country and then to God and then it will eventually return.
When wealth belongs to the world, how can the world light itself? When the master of the world appears, that money has to be returned to Him, and as long as everyone understands who that wealth belongs to how could they light over possessing things? Before things belong to God they belong to the world, and before they belong to the world they belong to us. The world is yours, then the world's, then God's.
There is no reason for communism and democracy to fight once we know that everything belongs to God. Now that you know whom the Unification Church belongs to, it is millions ot' times nicer than you originally thought. A citizen must really love the country that he lives in because it is God's before it is his. Therefore, I love America more than any Americans do because I know to whom it belongs.
It makes little difference how much we are opposed as long as God approves and recognizes us. Then this teaching will always remain on earth. If the world needs our fancy clothing then we are only too happy to take it off for others to use; we are happier when they use it than we ourselves.
If the world is asked to give something for God to use then the world is happy to do so. If God asks where this coat came from He will be told that it came from the world, but more specifically from America, and most specifically of all from one individual. Then God can give His blessing to the world, America and that individual.
It is easy to understand logically that we will be happier by living this way, so it is our responsibility to teach this and actualize it. Since we understand this we are capable of embracing all varieties ot' cultures and religious ideals. They are not ambiguous religious thinking to us but reality. Someone here now may misunderstand and reject this, but someone who is smarter will understand its full value later.
Are you confident and proud enough as Unification Church members to accept any indignity" Let's consider several things: does the Unification Church have the truth? Has it actualized the truth to a certain degree in reality, in character and personality? Is love in its true sense to be found in the Unification Church? Will this be approved by all races, over all historical time? Then God will approve it too.
Now that we understand Unification Church, we will proceed to heavenly law. God has a way of sorting out or screening things of greater and lesser value. What is the law which the Unification Church must recognize as being of utmost importance? The law of love" Love is actually an end product; to ensure love we have to observe some procedure or goal very strictly; this goal is God's ideal of creation. That ideal has a code we must live by. The ideal of God involves forming the four position foundation, where love comes into existence. In order to achieve the four position foundation we have to have words which teach that ideal which is the Divine Principle.
Law is nothing but words. In a law book legal standards are codified as well as sentencing and punishment for infraction of those standards. By referring to the law it can be determined whether a man has become what the law specifies he must be. As long as you stay within the law no one will bother you, no matter where you go. Are you living within the law? Certain specifications such as fasting for a number of days and waiting a certain number of years after marriage are mere words, yet you keep them strictly.
When worldly law is broken a person goes to jail, and when a person violates God's words he is punished to prevent him from violating them again. Home church is heavenly law. Are we free to follow it or not as we please? If the president does something wrong could the country possibly perish? If I, as the head of the Unification Church, do something wrong could the Church potentially perish? What will determine if it perishes or prospers? If heavenly law is met then prosperity is ensured, but if the Church violates that law then it will decline and die.
A president can be great if he keeps the law, but if he violates it himself can he be a great president? If I sometimes keep the law myself and other times don't can I be called a responsible Unification Church member? If a member sincerely believes I am wrong then he has a responsibility to speak out and tell me what he thinks. Once the law is taught should you follow it, or would only keeping it up to a point be sufficient?
Each individual has a certain law to observe and together as the Unification Church we have certain laws to observe. When I speak of important things and people doze off, would that be a violation of heavenly law? Do those people who are dozing realize this? You must have a clear idea ot' whet is true. Each person must meet rigid standards in order to reach the goal, and the first is the judgment of words. The Divine Principle will judge you if you go against it, whether knowingly or unknowingly. By knowingly going through this process ot' following God's words we can create our character and personality in reality.
If someone loves the word but does not want to practice it then later the person who did everything according to the word will be his judge. Even people who have nothing to do with us will point out how that person did not do what the others did. Satan will judge, and the members and I will all blame that person, and then the angels and God will judge that person for knowingly failing to carry out the word.
You are following the one way to reach God, which is very specific. First you tree yourselves from the satanic world, then become a member of the Unification Church, receive True Parents' recognition through the blessing, go to spirit world and then to God. That is the direction of our path. There is no other way to reach God. It' there is some lack in your character or personality can you tell a lie to cover up'.' If you really didn't want to do this yet grudgingly did so, it would be as bad as not doing it at all.
A chestnut has an outer husk with sharp burrs, but inside is a smooth, tasty nut. If you always think about True Parents and God then you are like this chestnut inside. You will grow to be like True Parents and receive God's approval, and when you have gone through all the steps to maturity then when someone breaks open your thorny husk everyone will see how rich you have become. You live for the sake of God and True Parents because all people in spirit world live centering around God and True Parents. In order to live that way successfully there you must live that way here. When you practice that way with all your efforts here then you will be able to harmonize in spirit world. This earth is only a temporary place.
Please understand you must pass through the rigid judgment of word in reality and personality., Once these two steps are passed then the third, the judgment of heart, will be passed automatically. Why do we have to witness and fund raise under persecution? By going through that troubled situation we learn to love others and our hearts will be formed If we only think about the word without much practice then can we mature in reality? No. Therefore when you hear words of truth you must live them. You have to love better than any people in the world, for without going beyond that standard you cannot know the Kingdom of Heaven.
You want to go to heaven after becoming people of love. Once you reach spirit world God will be judging you as well as Jesus and True Parents. If you pass the test of practice then they will test you for heart. This is our day-to-day practical problem and it is strictly ordered by God. How can a person act rightly if he does not know what to do? First we must clearly understand the law of Divine Principle. The standard course is two-day workshop, where people come to know something about God for the first time; then seven-day training to learn more substantially, and following that the 21-day and 40-day courses. Everyone in Unification Church must go through that within six months of joining. That is our standard course for the whole Church. Then members will know what the word is and what the criteria and standard are that the Unification Church is pursuing.
After forty days members can know the words clearly and set out to practice them. Then they can grow to have the qualification of heart, going through recreation in every stage. God first made material, then man, and then wanted love to be created there. In God's place we are going to recreate all those things. First we re-create material, which is represented by fund raising. Next you take God's position (as a parent) and make God's heart; that is all-creation course, the course of heavenly law which everyone must follow
We don't do this because it is nice and we choose to do so; it is imperative that nothing be overlooked. Every stage must be fulfilled. By knowing the word completely, by carrying it out and then recreating heart and love we will become like Jesus, True Parents, and God Himself. Now you can understand how strictly this must be observed. In everything we do we must have let's love behind us when we go to spirit world. Every activity we do is a step toward that goal.
If the Unification Church somehow acquired a fund of billions of dollars you would still have to do what you are doing now and people in the future will do as well, even though we would have much more money. If every person on earth joined the Unification Church you would still have to serve them, teaching them how to go this course. We can never say that our work will be less hard once we become successful. Until everyone knows this way of life we must continue, and it is the law that we cannot stop as long as it is unfinished.
Once you follow the principle of home church and are successful you can leave it behind. Everyone goes to spirit world; when you go there you have to belong somewhere so you need to be able to point out your tribe and family. This is your identity. As it is written, whatever is loosed on earth is loosed in heaven. As the tribes are organized through home churches, the organization of spirit world will truly begin for the first time. This its heavenly law. The responsibility of faithfully observing the law is the responsibility of the citizens and especially the leader of the country.
Can you choose which laws you will observe" No. Even a small company has rules and regulations, and certainly there is no country without any law. This is a higher law from which no one is exempt if he wants to go to heaven. If this law didn't exist then why should I come to America where I have to speak through an interpreter and have been opposed by the people? I could have stayed in Korea and easily accomplished the foundation there instead. I do so because I come under the heavenly law like everyone else.
If you decide that you will not attempt to keep the law in every detail but will just love True Parents and God, disregarding home church and so forth, you will not be able to pass the three judgments. You must know all the heavenly laws. Furthermore, you cannot promise to do it and then renege. It is a very deep thing to achieve all this and not at all easy. Since we are heavenly citizens we have to realize this more deeply than any worldly citizen. In doing this you are going step by step to heaven; there is no choice about going an easier way to heaven because this standard way is the easiest.
Can the News World members think they are unable to do home church? How can they not do so and still what they have to do? Such people simply have to witness to someone better than they who can take their newspaper position and free them to do home church. There are many, many things I have to take care of, even things that are not really my responsibility, and my schedule is so full that it doesn't include much sleeping time. I have to manage to find time to do everything.
God never scolds a person for doing more than he should. If you cannot go personally to do home church then you can carry on through phoning, and there are other ways besides going personally. If a person has many complex responsibilities, doing many things at once, it is that much more his blessing. I will take notice of such a person and use him more and more.
I speak the heavenly law, but it has not come from me personally. He who speaks the heavenly law must come under it himself. That law is much stricter than earthly law.
Now two months of 1979 are gone. During the next ten months we will always keep that heavenly law in mind and try our utmost. This is why I speak today on heavenly law. By strictly living heavenly law and setting a tradition we are in fact helping the other people who will follow; they are in fact your own children and the rest of America.
Let us pray.
