Learning from the past for the sake of the future

My dear brothers and sisters, One week ago, True Father asked that we may realize the urgency of the time we are living in. On that 17th of December 2007 he told us to spend our days with real history, going through one year, 10 years and 1000-year history. Jesus taught already that with God one day is like 1000 years and so we are challenged to connect strongly with the heart of our Father in Heaven in order to come closer to living with the right attitude, including a certain sense of urgency towards the fulfillment of His will. We cannot prolong one day into a year but we can go more into depth and expand in this way the dimension of our daily life. Consequently we can understand about the importance of taking the time to review our past and check which points we can improve upon in the future. In this and the following four letters I would like to offer you reflections on the very crucial year 1983, in which Heung Jin Nim became a sacred sacrifice—due to a lack of protection for the True Parents of Mankind and their family. During that morning‘s Hoon Dok Hae (December 17, 2007), Father mentioned the fact that his children were sacrificed for the restoration of the Cain world. But was this the very course which our Father in Heaven wanted His true children to go or has He planned another path for His beloved sons and daughters? 10 years ago Father stated on the Declaration Day of Heavenly Parentism: ―Up until now Satan could come into the True Family freely and play around and kick them around but the time has come that Satan should not do this anymore.‖ Has this been an unavoidable reality or did it come about because we did not do well in supporting the True Family? I think most of us are aware that the latter is the case; just as Jesus could be attacked directly because he did not have the protection of loyal disciples, Satan could invade, and our True Parents and their family had to pay the price because we have not been serious enough about responding to Heaven‘s call with all of our heart and soul as representatives of the True Parents of Mankind. Let us have a closer look at that decisive year of 1983 which started very hopeful with Father giving on the second day a speech with the title ―Let This Be a Good Year‖ in which he stated that a good year must be one filled with love. The core content may be expressed in

Father stating: ―The ultimate consummation of love arises out of the willingness to die for those you love.‖ Our Father declared this standard of true love on the second of January—which was to become the Day of Victory of Love, commemorating Heung Jin Nim‘s offering: his life for the sake of protecting his friends and other heavenly purposes as Father proclaimed. In other words, the year which started so hopeful became one which probably most members finished in tears of repentance due to a most precious True Child‘s life being about to lose his life—because we could not fulfill our responsibility to protect the True Parents of Mankind and their family well enough. During his speech Father declared to his audience: ―I am going to announce revolutionary changes today in our leaders‘ meeting.‖ Looking back one has to rightfully ask, whether revolutionary changes started at that time in our movement, e.g., according to Father telling us: If you have been only a believing member of the Unification Church, you must begin from now on to be an action member… Revolutionary changes will come during 1983. I am truly going to start a new year. Now, it is the men‘s turn: what will you say if I chastise you hard when you fail to live up to my expectations and continue to do things your own way? Would you accept my chastisement? With the American way of doing things, it might take ten years for victory, while with my way it will take only one year. We don‘t have much time. This new year is a year of action. With ―Home Church is the Land of our Settlement‖ as the motto for 1983, Father declared that Home Church is ―the first and the last‖ battleground for the victory of God. He asked: Why can‘t you wake up the people to God‘s providence and direction? If this cannot be done successfully, I will be forced to pull all the members of the church from their missions, including the newspapers, and mobilize them to do nothing but Home Church. This is the year for you to make your victory in Home Church. Make your showdown this year. Personally I had been investing during that year into Home Church activities in Vienna in an area where many old people live. That meant that I could use many opportunities to serve people, especially grandfathers and grandmothers, and get to know their life stories as I shared with them about the ideals which I chose to pursue. My daily life was completely dedicated to Home Church activities but still the question of the quality of my investment remains.

At the beginning of 1983 Father told the brothers and sisters: Now the time has come when you Americans must vindicate me—1983 is the year to do it! The place for that vindication is Home Church. By that, I am not talking about destruction or violence. I am talking about saving America, restoring this nation. Our only form of revenge will be to return love for the hate we have received. I came to America totally on my volition and endured the persecution for ten years. Now you American citizens must march voluntarily toward the Home Church providence and win the vindication for the sake of this world—vindication of the name of Reverend Moon. Sadly, True Father could not be vindicated in that year concerning the court case and had to go to Danbury in the following year. It had been a very serious time so that Father said: Even though I have been doing my absolute best and have persevered through many ordeals, if I do not live up to God‘s expectations I too will be cut off from God‘s blessing. That is the kind of judgment we are all facing. 1983, in particular, is such a crucial year. At the end of his speech Father asked the members: You have been listening to me for a long time today; now it is boiling down to one simple statement. Those of you who can say, ‗I have made up my mind to follow your direction and bring the success. I will not let you down; please trust me,‘ raise your hands and say Amen! How must Father and Mother have felt at the end of that year when they faced the situation that there was not enough unity of the leadership and members with him? The situation of not enough unity of the leadership and members opened the possibility for Satan to invade and necessitated an offering necessary in the form of our True Parents losing their most beloved son. Two weeks later, in the beginning of 1983, Father spoke about ―The Way God Is Pursuing,‖ emphasizing that Unification Church leaders in particular should be aware in which way to center their hearts properly: Rather than your own family, True Parents and True Children should come first. When we restore the world and the entire world welcomes True Parents, accepting our ideology and way of life, then we can love our own children and our own family. This is how the battle is fought. Cain and Abel should unite before they come and offer themselves to True Parents. Therefore, you should love True Parents‘ children, because only through them can you approach True Parents. For the same reason,

the people of the world have to go through you in order to reach the True Parents, so you are their savior. Exactly 10 months after these words had been spoken, our True Parents‘ most exemplary son went into coma from which he did not awake and a most precious mediator to reach our True Parents was lost here on this earth. Considering these very clear explanations by our True Father about what attitude we should have, we must ask ourselves how well are we uniting with the way which our Heavenly Father is pursuing—with His strategy of winning by our really loving True Family first and then our own families but only after all people have come to accept our ideology. After leaving this world Heung Jin Nim went on to fulfill such a mission of a mediator to our True Parents‘ heart in the spirit world from where he returned through mediums to revive our brothers and sisters hearts as we can read in the book ―The Victory of Love.‖ Our most beloved elder brother reached out for the sake of our member‘s heartistic rebirth especially at his Won Jeon, about which True Father spoke also on the 6th of this month (December, 2007): Unification church members go to the Won Jeon. They seek the source of the mother from which they were born. Won Jeon refers to the mother‘s womb. You have to go through that Won Jeon. It means seeking the source that resides inside of God. At the end of his speech in 1983 titled ―The Way God Is Pursuing,‖ Father requested: Therefore, at the outset of 1983, you should resolve to inherit this tradition, make a firm beginning, become a true champion and fulfill my expectations. Is this your determination and pledge today to True Parents? Then raise your hands and make this pledge to me. While Father asked all members to become true champions in fulfilling his expectations at the beginning of that year he was confronted with a lack of faith and unity of brothers and sisters with him. Finally it was his own son Heung Jin Nim who proved to be indeed a true champion in responding to True Parents. He gave his life for the sake of the restoration before that most crucial year came to an end. On January 30, 1983 Father spoke about the theme, ―The Center Of Responsibility And Indemnity,‖ introducing a new way of greeting each other: We must start a new greeting in the Unification Church. Rather than saying ‗Good morning,‘ or ‗Good night,‘ we should say ‗HR,‘ (pronounced like ‗Hur,‘) which stands for Human Responsibility. As we fulfill this

responsibility, the new civilization can be born. When you greet each other with, ‗HR,‘ all the time other people will say, ‗What are you crazy people saying?‘ You can respond simply, ‗You will understand soon enough.‘ You can say, ‗Morning HR!‘ or ‗Night HR!‘ After all, that is easier to say! The problem with the Unification Church is that many members are forgetting the importance of human responsibility. How important it would have been that we fulfill our responsibility especially at that time is obvious when looking back in retrospection at this final 3-year period of the 40 year wilderness course, in which True Father challenged us to change our attitude fundamentally for the sake of living up to Heaven‘s expectations by truly following the path which has been opened by our True Parents. Father emphasized in that speech according to its theme two aspects in which we are generally lacking: Every Moonie thinks he is doing well and understands the truth, but you often forget the two most elementary, fundamental aspects: responsibility and indemnity. Those are like the two ears, the two hands, the two feet. A person who refuses one or the other is like a person with only one foot, one hand or one ear. You certainly can‘t run or make progress in that condition. Unless you use responsibility and indemnity like your two feet, working together with them, you will not make progress. Concluding his sermon he asked: Today you should say, ‗On this last day of January, 1983, I have come to a realization of human responsibility and indemnity. Now I know the greeting, HR, and with that kind of spirit we are going to win the victory.‘ Let us ask, was the victory won in 1983? Certainly our True Parents achieved incredible victories as they pushed forward but they did not have the worldwide membership fully uniting with them, with us fulfilling our portion of responsibility and paying our share of indemnity so that a special offering became necessary along with the need of a Unification Ceremony which our True Parents conducted at the very end of that year. On the first day, Father chose the title ―The Original World and the Enemy World‖ for his sermon in which he called for bringing a ―revolution to our leadership, beginning with those in the highest positions.‖ Did this revolution happen with the leaders of our church changing drastically in their attitude at that time? It was on February 18, 1983 that Father introduced the theme ―The Birth Of A New Providence.‖ The time had come for a new providence in order to further the establishment of God‘s Kingdom 5

here on this earth. But ultimately that time became a new starting point of a new providence in the spirit world to where Heung Jin Nim was sent as the commander in chief, culminating in the Cheong Pyeong providence with him and Daemonim as the central figures for educating people in heaven and on earth. While Father spoke on February 20, 1983 about the topic ―Heaven‘s Side And Satan‘s Side‖ this date became one year later the one marking the day of Heung Jin Nim‘s Blessing with Hoon Sook Nim. Had we elder members as representatives of Heaven‘s side fulfilled our responsibility in 1983 and stood clearly on God‘s side such an incredible sacrifice would not have become necessary for Heung Jin Nim and Hoon Sook Nim that they could not have their own biological children. When sharing about himself and his life, Father stated on February 27, 1983: From this point on, the bridge of love has been erected in every direction. There is nothing conceptual about these things. These are the deeds we must do. Ultimately there will be one thought or idea—Unificationism—on the earth. We can call Unificationism ―lovism‖ as well. Are we aware that our core teaching as Unification Movement members is ―lovism?‖ It is our central task to be representatives of this concept, manifesting true love in our personality, teaching about it through our living example. Sadly, we could not practice such a teaching enough which resulted indirectly at the end of 1983 in the tragic accident of Heung Jin Nim and at the conclusion of the second millennium to Young Jin Nim‘s passing on to the other world because there was not enough protection for the True Children from our side as Cain children of our True Parents. About the value of the education we receive in our church Father explained: As you know, the Divine Principle encompasses a huge area and nothing within it is contradictory. You have received a tremendous amount of knowledge by studying Principle for the past years. This kind of knowledge is not rivaled by anything at Harvard University. No library contains a fragment of this kind of knowledge. You have studied from Reverend Moon‘s ‗heart library‘ and there is no other source like that. If you want to open and study from that heart library, you must open it with the ‗heart key.‘ Once you have such a key, everything will open up to you… Those of you who have decided to work for the ‗heart key‘ because you can make a connection with God, please raise your hands. How wonderful you are!

We all made the decision to study from Reverend Moon‘s ―heart library‖ and to use the ―heart key‖ in order to solve problems, but in how many situations have we been successful in applying it? Have we been constant enough in walking the path centered on heart and true love? Father explained: In the process of restoration, God mobilized the angelic world first, then all things and then men and women. Loss of life and bloodshed was inevitable in the process of restoration because of the principle we are discussing that regaining God‘s love is greater than our life. That is why sacrificial offerings were needed. Because the heartistic development and ability to love our Unification Church members as Cain children had not been enough ultimately the life of direct children of our True Parents became sacrificial offerings and had to move on to the spirit world. On March 6, 1983 Father chose again the theme ―Myself‖ as main theme of his speech in which he encouraged us to realize our own value more: When someone asks you to name the most valuable and precious thing in the world, what would you reply? You may say true love, but love always depends upon relationship. In fact, you are the most important thing in the world because without you there is no love. You are the center of true love. Our True Parents are surely longing to see each one of us to be a center of true love with the ability to share unconditional love with others. It is indeed much needed that we can feel and understand our own value with unique qualities in expressing our love. Each one of us is in the position to build unique relationships of true love which move the heart of God who is the center of our existence. In this way we become a united worldwide family in which harmony and mutual understanding prevails. Father concluded his sermon on that day with the following words: Those who understand what I have said and will truly pledge to live in this way for the rest of your lives, please raise your hands. If you sincerely practice this kind of life, there will be no fighting within the Unification Church! God bless you. As parent it is certainly his core desire to see us as his children united with one another without any fighting among us. Such a unity among us centered on our True Parents would have provided the foundation that a physical sacrificial offering was not necessary because the needed indemnity conditions are fulfilled on an internal 7

level. In other words, had we managed to take such words or our True Father close to our hearts and bring an end to all fighting within the Unification Church through our heartistic unity with True Parents then the physical life of our beloved elder Brother Heung Jin Nim could have been spared. ―Perfection of Restoration By Indemnity Through Human Responsibility‖ was the title of the speech Father offered on March 1, 1983. He stated: ―The discovery of man‘s portion of responsibility is a cosmic discovery… it is truly the greatest discovery of history.‖ Our True Father‘s core concern at that time is expressed in the following words: I chose this first day of March to launch a new movement in our church. My strategy and purpose is not to benefit the Unification Church or myself, but to make all Unification Church members people who accomplish man‘s portion of responsibility. Father chose that date because the first day of March refers to the Korean independence movement around the time of Father‘s birth. Sixty-four (8 x 8) years after this—for Korea historic date of March 1—Father started a new movement in our church for the sake of promoting the fulfillment of our responsibility: God is our parent, so we must faithfully do whatever He needs us to do. In that way we will be doing our mission properly. Such people are called holy, sacred people— Saints. That is exactly what we ought to be. All Unification Church members must become saints before they are eligible to be sons and daughters of God. Sons and daughters of God is a level, which is above that of saint, not the other way around. Therefore, we must surpass the level of the saints. He wanted to see the members of the Unification Church becoming true saints and going even beyond that level to become indeed sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. To reach such a level in our heartistic development is of course not easy at all but requires that we invest all of our heart and soul and strength in expanding our ability to love. This means in reality walking a tearful path on which one goes beyond self-centered tears to share the tears of our beloved Heavenly Father. For this reason Father told the brothers and sisters on that day: This is what my life has been focused on. Year after year, day after day, my life has been filled with tears. I pray to God, ‗I pray that by my shedding tears Your tears can be stopped and those of all of mankind, I don‘t mind

shedding tears if that can happen.‘ I am confident now that Unification Church‘s members will no longer shed tears for themselves. How do we feel when we hear about Father‘s life being filled with tears, day by day? Our True Parents have been longing to see profound changes in our hearts, leaving all self-centered emotions and concepts behind and to be fully dedicated to be holy people whose standard is even higher than the ones of the saints. What Father expected of his followers is expressed in the following lines: All of you must repent because you were not serious enough. From this moment on, American leaders and members must take the road of shedding tears all day long for the sake of God and mankind. When that happens, you will be able to inherit what the Parents have and God‘s blessing for you. Heaven can bless us only if we make the path of our True Father and True Mother our own, sharing their tearful heart. Father asked for an immediate change, ―from this moment on‖ as it was a very crucial time in God‘s providence in which everybody should have been completely dedicated: The liberation of mankind and the liberation of God are more important to me than anything else. All Korean members must start shedding truly serious tears now. If America does not inherit that tradition, then no matter what you do you will have nothing to do with my tradition. Do you understand? This is serious. Father told the ones who listened to him in Belvedere: I have decided to launch a campaign during the next three years, during which I will plant God‘s tradition in the soil of America. How will you encounter God, who has been seeking after His lost children? Do you think you can just casually meet, like two strangers shaking hands and saying, ‗How do you do?‘ You must shed the deepest tears possible; only by such tears can God and the newly recovered people meet each other. Therefore all leaders must weep for their areas, for the state they represent and serve. You must shed those tears in the place of God and for the sake of all unknowing mankind. If you did that, you wouldn‘t have to worry about witnessing; the people would come to you on their own. I had a very vivid experience during an intense time when I was deeply weeping for God and the future of mankind. Many people came to me directly, guided by spirit world. I didn‘t even go out to witness to them. I cried so much that those around me were worried about 9

me. I disregarded eating and getting dressed. All I did was cry, so the people came to me and fed me and clothed me. This was the beginning of the Unification Church in Korea. People told me, ‗I will go out and witness for you, Father.‘ That is the typical formula or pattern for the Unification Church. From such words it is clear that our True Father had been desperate that we inherit the original tradition of our movement which was founded in tears shed for God and mankind. He urged all members to connect internally with the early times of our church and to practice the kind of dedication of heart which had been a reality in those days. Our True Parents had been desperately longing to see the right tradition to be practiced in our movement, the one which Heaven can bless so that our witnessing will be indeed successful based on the total investment of heart offered by each member. Father put it into the following words of appeal to us: This is our mission to cry out and proclaim the truth. If they absolutely refuse to listen, then they are already buried by their sin. What else can you do? There is nothing else to do but burst into tears. At that point God will listen to your prayers. If you just pray calmly, God will not respond. If you pray while you are being persecuted and working hard, God will respond. Our True Parents wanted to see a profound new beginning and internal cleansing of our movement: Starting today on this occasion, we must decide to clear up all the misunderstanding of our own church leaders and make a brand new start toward establishing the genuine, correct tradition of God and True Parents in our church. Did such a revival of our church membership happen in spring of 1983? Did we return to our roots and practice the original spirit of our movement which is one of investing all of one‘s sweat and tears and blood – all of our heart and soul? True Father asked the ones listening to him: How do you like that? For one thing, I would like to see Heavenly tears rolling out of those American blue eyes. Until now, I have seen only brown-eyed tears. When I see blue-eyed tears, I can say, ‗How wonderful you Americans are.‘ The era of perfection does not come through laughter, joy and glee. Instead, we must go over the hill of misery and tears before we can bring in that era. This is the time for us to go through those tears and sorrow to accomplish that great era. By working this way, we will 10

fulfill man‘s portion of responsibility, the restoration through indemnity. Only through shedding tears will the restoration through indemnity take place. Then we can move into the time of joy and laughter. These words express a basic truth of the course of restoration which applies of course also to us today. Unless we go beyond our own situation by shedding Heaven‘s tears we will not be able to move into the realm of a truly happy life for which we are certainly all longing deep inside in our hearts. There is no other way ahead of each one of us if we want to make the Cheon Il Guk our own. We cannot avoid walking a course of offering all of our heart and soul in profoundly tearful prayers and dedication if we want to make the Kingdom of Heaven a reality in our own lives. Providentially we live already in the time after the Coming of Heaven but we each have to enter that realm internally ourselves by doing exactly what Father asked of us on that day just as well as in so many other speeches in which he emphasized that we have to return to tears. At the end of his speech Father stated plainly: We can conclude that doing the right thing is the happiest way to go. We have to remind ourselves of this as we follow the right way. It is not enough to just know what is right; we must do it. Do you want to do what is right? Shall we march on? Those who pledge to do that, please raise your hands. God bless you. These words had been spoken at a decisive time in God‘s providence, in the final period of the 40 years wilderness course, in order to fulfil it victoriously and to march into Moscow by 1985, about which Father spoke repeatedly during the year 1983. But the original course had to be prolonged due to the lack of response to the True Parents of Mankind from the side of their followers. The period 40 years from 1945 to 1985 was extended to a 43 year course to enter Canaan by 1988. Again this course had to be prolonged until 1992 when True Parents were proclaimed to the world. Due to our lacking to unite fully with the word of God as we received it through His True Son and His True Daughter their most beloved child had to be offered to Heaven. Our elder Brother Heung Jin Nim paid the price for God‘s side to be victorious at a crucial time when Satan had a base to attack our True Father directly because his followers not being united in heart with him. Had we elder members taken our True Parents desire to see a complete revival in our church in 1983 close to our hearts and really started this new movement in that year, the life of Heung Jin Nim could have surely been spared as it had not at all been God‘s 11

original providence that he should have to go to the spirit world at such an early age just as well as Young Jin Nim should be on this earth at this time. We have to face heartistically the fact that we failed to respond to Heaven‘s expectations and therefore True Children lost their lives which brought the deepest pain to our beloved Heavenly Father and to the True Family. Based on such an inner realization we are called to do now what we could not achieve when we have been asked to return to our roots as members of the Unification Movement. Because Heung Jin Nim gave his life for the sake of all members of the Unification Church to be protected from Satan‘s accusation in a similar course that Jesus went by offering his life on the cross, he could be resurrected and come back to this earth. Just as Jesus appeared to his disciples Heung Jin Nim came back from the spirit world and appeared to many brothers and sisters in his desire to help them directly. He spoke through many members as a medium, longing to each out to all members to touch their hearts and to help them to be heartistically reborn into the realm of God‘s true love. On page 779 of the English version of Cheon Seong Gyeong we can read about Father telling us that based on our unity with Heung Jin Nim we will be able to go to a high place in our life in the next world: The Seunghwa Ceremony began with the death of my son, Hyung Jin. It was established at that time. At the hospital I had to remove the oxygen mask. I had to arrange the way for him to pass into the spirit word. By doing so, he was free from the fallen realm. That is why, when Heung-jin came down again in the spirit, he said that there is no way to repay me. He was the first from the True Parents‘ family to go to the spirit world as a young adult. Heung-jin went to the spirit world as the messiah to the spirit world in the same position as the Second Coming. By uniting with him you can go to a high place in the spirit world. About the meaning of Heung Jin Nim‘s going to spirit world Father tells us: ―Heung-jin‘s ascension brought down the walls of death.‖ This refers to physical death but our beloved elder Brother is also contributing continuously for the sake of breaking down walls in the hearts of people, overcoming spiritual death or stagnation, and leading people to true heartistic life. Heung Jin Nim supported God‘s providence very substantially especially concerning the fight against communism when he worked through Faith Jones as a medium in Europe, centered on England and Germany which was still divided at that time. In the nineteen eighties he reached out to our members in countless meetings at which he spoke through various brothers and sisters as mediums. The core content of these special events had been 12

compiled by the world itinerary work of Rev. Zin Moon Kim and published in Spring of 1992. Through this precious book many brothers and sisters found new hope and inspiration for their spiritual lives. Due to the lack of response from our side when True Father had called for a new movement in our church, the worldwide membership had been addressed through our elder Brother Heung Jin Nim for the sake of a heartistic revival. In 1987 and 1988 at the time of the conclusion of the 43 years wilderness course Heung Jin Nim worked intensively for the sake of moving brothers and sisters to repentance and a new beginning so that we would be able to enter Canaan internally at that time. Meanwhile some 21 years have passed and I am convinced that the time has come for this to become a reality most substantially for all brothers and sisters worldwide. The gates of the Heavenly Kingdom have been opened by our True Parents for all people to enter in this time of the new Fourth Israel. The doors are wide open but it is up to each one of us to enter. Of course we have to be qualified to live in the Heavenly Palace on a heartistic level by going through a profound and thorough purification that leaves no trace of fallen nature in us. Heung Jin Nim and Daemonim encourage us to reach that level for which our True Parents are calling here on this earth. We can achieve it by practicing the content of the peace messages and of the Cheon Seong Gyeong, while we are well advised to make full use of the foundation which has been achieved in the spirit world through the exemplary work of Heung Jin Nim and Daemonim. Through the Cheong Pyeong providence we can liberate ourselves from the influence of evil spirits and bless our ancestors, with the Absolute Good Spirits coming down now to help us to solve family problems. We are all called to receive education at the Heaven and Earth Training Center – the official name of ―Cheong Pyeong.‖ But we must also achieve our own complete liberation and freedom from any fallen habits and conditions by becoming people of true love, indeed true children of our Father in Heaven. For this purpose it is important that we also go to the Won Jeon, about which I shared with you in my previous two letters. We are all longing to live in God‘s presence, to be a temple of the living God. It is up to us to make this a reality by going beyond the borders which hinder us to be free to love unconditionally. To do this we cannot avoid shedding profound tears of repentance and purification which will liberate our hearts to love more and more deeply like our Creator, the Cosmic Parents, who shed endless tears for us.

May each one of us be able to make the enormous foundation which True Parents established our own by using precious help provided by the True Children who are in a mediator position for us to develop a closer relationship to True Father and True Mother. Sincerely, Your brother Nikolaus

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Learning from the past for the sake of the future

Nikolaus Beutl Letter 2 of 5, December 24, 2007

My dear brothers and sisters, It is Christmas time and many messages have been sent through the internet to the various virtual rooms in the cyberspace where brothers and sisters share with one another as internet groups besides the many personal greeting cards that are offered. One mail which caught my attention are Father‘s words regarding this special time of the year in which he states that ―Christmas Day is the perfect day for repentance, for checking how much you have truly lived as Jesus representatives and loved the world as he did.‖ This statement can be found in Father‘s speech with the title ―The true meaning of Christmas‖ (December 25, 1979). Do we welcome such an invitation to use the ―Merry Christmas time‖ for serious repentance for our shortcomings rather than just for celebrating with our families, relatives and friends? Is it important for us to consider first of all the true meaning of Christmas related to our task to be a messiah ourselves, at least on the level of our families and tribes? In my previous letter I mentioned that it was just a few days ago that True Father asked us to be more aware of the urgency of the time we are living in. If there is an emergency situation then unusual measures should be taken according to the circumstances, which may include at this time reflecting deeply about how well we do in responding to our True Parents asking us to be not just their representatives but to be their heirs. For such a reason I am not offering you some nice Christmas card with some good wishes but a big and heavy present of many pages of reflection about our True Parents words, about their expectations of us as their children. It may be not easy to read through the given pages of quotations from our True Parents along with my personal thoughts and questions related to them. But at the same time I know that going into depth, dealing with issues thoroughly brings profound liberation to us – if we do our part well and leave our past fully behind on the foundation of having repented sincerely and knowing that we are forgiven. Hyung Jin Nim spoke about the theme of forgiveness in a recent Cheon Il Guk Family Service which can be viewed through the Internet. He is making so much efforts to make sure that we are not stuck in the past but free to celebrate with our Heavenly Father this New Era After the Coming of Heaven. Personally I am fully convinced about the importance of liberating ourselves from 15

burdens related to the past but this must be done most sincerely as there is no easy shortcut to liberation. If mistakes have been made, then one has to realize them first and go into the realm of complete forgiveness before one can experience the lasting liberation and complete freedom on the level of our soul and mind. Considering these facts I would like to continue to share with you core contents about which our True Father spoke in 1983, the year Heung Jin Nim met the tragic accident that caused him to lose his life, becoming an offering to heaven. I went through all the speeches Father offered in that most crucial year and chose the parts which I see as relevant for us to have a closer look at and to take close to our hearts. Personally I am convinced that it is ever so important to recognize clearly what went wrong in the past in order to avoid repeating the same mistakes in the future. For example some 21 yeas after having offered his most beloved son Heung Jin Nim for the sake of Unification and other heavenly purposes our True Father spoke about the failure of the Third Israel. As we are now in a position to restore and overcome this sad reality it is inevitable to have a really thorough look at what heaven has been longing that we achieve at crucial periods in God‘s providence. On March 20, 1983 Father gave a speech entitled ―Victor Throughout Three Ages‖ in which he summarized his goals in the following statement: The 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, starting from 1945, can be extended by as much as three years more. But I don‘t want to see that and neither do you. The actual time of the Israelites‘ slavery in Egypt was 430 years; for that reason, the dispensation could continue until 1988 but I definitely do not want that to happen. Furthermore, I would like to see it completed in less than three years. I would like us to finish the American dispensation by 1985 and then consummate the Moscow dispensation by 1988. This is the program in a nutshell. These lines describe the original timetable of what would have been possible to be achieved already two decades ago. But to reach these goals appropriate conditions of indemnity would have been necessary, which meant a total dedication to do God‘s will as it is expressed for example in Father asking our sisters at that time: You women who have been mobilized, raise your hands if you received a telephone call from your husbands asking if you were truly going to go out. How did you answer them? Did you answer with a strong, confident ‗yes?‘ What if your husband says, ‗If you leave me and go out on this mission, you will not be my wife anymore?‘ Would you be able to tell

him goodbye? That‘s too easy. You must say to him, ‗Get behind me, Satan! The will of God is first, before our marriage. God comes first in our home; that is our tradition.‘ The attitude of seriousness which was required is also expressed in Father telling the members: ―We want to tighten our belts and really fulfill in the most heroic way during this time.‖ True Father tried to encourage all members to do their very best by telling them: You will gain the position of liberator of Jesus and God Himself. You are creating an incredible history. I want you to feel the historical significance of this time all the way down to your bones. With that deep feeling, you must reach out to fulfill this responsibility you have been given. No matter what difficulties you might encounter, you must feel, ‗I shall go beyond what the world has ever seen before. I shall become a truly victorious person at this turning point in human history.‘ The great expectation of our beloved Heavenly Father and our True Parents was for us to become really the starting point of a new history of goodness at that time when the 40 years wilderness course was coming to an end through our going forward with deep conviction that we are writing ourselves an incredible history, with a profound sense of responsibility entrusted to us to become the liberators of our Heavenly Father and Jesus, ultimately of our True Parents, by taking the burden from their shoulders in the period of the children‘s course. Explaining about the utmost seriousness of that period as the highest point of seriousness even in Father‘s life he proclaimed: This is the time of the consummation of Judaism and Christianity within the Unification ideology. It is a new beginning for the world. We shall become the victorious persons throughout the three ages Old Testament era, New Testament era, and the Completed Testament era. This is the goal we are marching toward. I want you to understand that in the history of the dispensation of God, this is the most critical moment. In my entire life under God‘s dispensation, this is the most crucial moment. Likewise, in the history of the United States, this is the most crucial moment. The task which should have been fulfilled as the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness came to an end can be seen in Father encouraging the members: ―We are going out now to recruit more soldiers to consummate the Home Church dispensation during this special three years‘ mission.‖ The yearly motto of our church had

been centered on the theme of Home Church during the five years from 1979 to 1983 and it was decisive that we win the victory on this level, a task which remains to be fulfilled until this very day. The level of dedication of brothers and sisters can be understood from Father telling them in that speech: We shall give our whole heart, soul and mind to this. Everybody should exert more energy than a mother giving birth to a physical child, because we are giving birth to the new United States of America and to the new world under God. How difficult that is! We must commit our very lives to this battle. When you actually commit your life, you will find that you will not only live but you will become more and more prosperous. God will never let you die. But when you try to escape from difficulty and thereby save your life, you will not escape. Since we are in the wilderness period, you must, follow your leader, your Moses of this time which is Reverend Moon. We study in the Divine Principle many pages about the course of Moses which had been prolonged up until the 3rd course due to the faithlessness of the people. Great sacrifices had become necessary at the time of Moses for the First Israel and only the Second Generation of Israelites could enter the promised land as their parents had lost faith. Most sadly, absolute faith in the Moses of the modern times could not be found at the end of the wilderness course and therefore a prolongation became inevitable, causing incredible sufferings for so many people, a path which could definitely have been avoided. Being fully aware of how important a proper life of complete dedication is, our True Father asked all brothers and sisters: You must center everything for the sake of God—sleeping and waking, going and coming, avoiding evil and doing good—all must be centered upon God, not yourself. Do you understand? He told us: You must become the victor of the three ages. By doing that, you open the door that links the past, present and future. The spirit world shall open before you. The entire world will open up to the Kingdom of Heaven. Our children will move into the realm where there is no more war, no more killing, no more suffering. Therefore, we must consummate human history and become the victors throughout three ages. You shall become the tribal messiah, the messiah at your work, and the messiah to your children. That means you will liberate your ancestors in spirit world,

you will liberate your clan or tribe here on earth and your future children shall live in the realm of glory. God will not have to worry or suffer because of your tribe. In that way you will liberate God. Again, Father encouraged the members: This is an extraordinary age we are in. Do you understand how important it is to become the victor throughout the three ages? The Old Testament era was the time of the offering of all things; the New Testament era was the time of the offering of the son; the Completed Testament is the offering of the True Parents. We are going to conclude the liberation of the world in our time. The challenge which Father put in front of us as his followers is expressed in his request: How can you inherit the heart of true love of the True Parents? Your role is to become like Adam and Eve before the fall. You should not be invaded by any accusation from Satan. How can you be free from Satan? Only in one way— by going down into the world and fighting against Satan until he surrenders voluntarily. He warned everybody: ―Those people who are living a comfortable life within the Unification Church at this time are actually the cursed people. They will soon become the prey of Satan.‖ Such words are surely not easy to digest but at the same time can be well understood if we realize how desperate True Father is as a parents who wants to protect his children from falling into traps which Satan has set up in so many ways as he centers his efforts on destroying the foundation which we are working so hard to build. Instead of taking it easy we are called to take Father‘s guidance close to our heart as his children: How do you inherit the heart of True Parents? How do you know the agonies of God? By going out to the front line and coming face to face with Satan, fighting against him and subjugating him. The answer to the key question of how the members of the Unification Church can inherit the true heart of True Parents is this: you must gain the position of Adam and Eve before the fall, with absolutely no room for satanic infiltration. In order to do that, you must go out to the front line and overcome Satan face-to-face so that he has no more accusation against you. No matter how long you pray, if you avoid going out on the front line, you will not accomplish anything. God will not respond to your prayers, even if you pray for hours and hours. As our Parent who longs to pass his foundation on to us, True Father is eager that we understand core aspects clearly as expressed

in the following lines: ―I want you to learn the most important lesson—how to inherit the True Parents‘ heart. You cannot come to that level unless you subjugate Satan in your own life. If that heart was attainable easily, why should you be suffering so much? Why should I have suffered as I did?‖ How desperate our beloved True Father is about us being able to have the right kind of heart and mind can be recognized when we read: ―Day and night I have prayed that you would experience a total spiritual awakening and voluntarily participate in this crusade to win the victory.‖ About the attitude while walking on this path of winning over all evil Father emphasized in that speech: It is most important that you can go this way voluntarily and joyfully. God cannot walk in front of you along your path—that is the Principle. He can only stand right behind you. You must be the one to take the initiative. As God watches you, He can be so happy to see you going the right way… Because you will take the initiative, God can say, ‗My child is going the right way on his own.‘ Father‘s conclusion on that day was simple but affirming: ―If you go the road that pleases God, I guarantee that you will become the victor throughout the three ages.‖ Two weeks later, on April 3, 1983, Father spoke about total indemnity, a theme which is not really well understood: Why do we need the indemnity taught by the Unification movement? We must know the reason clearly. None of you in the Unification movement understands clearly the meaning of individual indemnity, family indemnity, clan, race, and national indemnity. Why do we have to do such a thing? This is a serious matter. Father made a statement about which we must reflect seriously as it applies also to us at this time when we are called to go through a revolution of indemnity and challenged to understand clearly what it means to live in the period of the completion of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth: The condition of indemnity is paid by fulfilling the condition of absolute denial. When this standard is fulfilled in all eight stages, from the individual, family, clan and so on, one can reach the ideal world at the consummation of human history. You must necessarily go through the process at each of the eight stages. Otherwise one cannot reach the ideal where he can communicate with God. To walk this course of total self denial is surely not easy at all but there is no other way as we have to leave the past behind completely

and develop a new self, purified and fully aligned with our Heavenly Father. We are each challenged to completely resolve the issues with which we are confronted because, ―for God to make a new start, He must clean up everything,‖ as Father emphasized in that speech. On May 13,1983 True Father spoke about the theme of three spiritual children being a foundation for a family. He expressed his ―doubts‖ in respect to the basic attitude of members: One thing I am really concerned about today is the decline in religious life. Such a decline tends to occur when practical matters become more important for you. I worry very much about that. If you focus only on external activities, your religious life weakens. If your religious life declines, then you will have absolutely no assistance from the spirit world, and eventually, you will have no relationship with the spirit world, either. It is essential for you to seek spiritual assistance whenever you gather together. Reading these lines, the speech about how to gain spiritual help comes to my mind. Many of you will be familiar with its content and other references to the conditions which are necessary for us to secure the support of the spiritual world. It is indeed crucial that we do our very best to apply them in our daily life, including to call upon the guidance by our elder Brother Heung Jin Nim as the leader of the spirit world and of Daemonim, who both have offered incredible conditions in order to make the way easier for us. When True Father spoke about ―Original Root And Self‖ on May 22, 1983 he appealed to brothers and sisters: Please take this opportunity to reunite with me after so many days, weeks and months of separation. As you look at me this morning can you say, ‗I understand that I must return to the original self. To do so I will completely cut off all my past habits. I know that it is very difficult and that only through enduring many hardships, as Father has done, can I accomplish it. But I will take this opportunity to pledge once more to make the change.‘ Once again all members present responded on that day when Father asked at the end of his speech: ―Those who will make this pledge, please raise your hands.‖ The re-determination was made but how well has it been put into practice? Of course it is not easy at all to follow the required path of overcoming all kinds of sufferings and denying oneself completely. As a loving parent True Father continues to encourage us as he did on June 26, 1983 when he asked:

You must follow the direction I am giving you. Are you willing to do that? Think of yourself as pure gold. Last Sunday I urged you to ‗bet your neck,‘ and put your life on the line. This Sunday, I am teaching you that you must become pure gold. Father concluded his sermon entitled ―Our Ideal Home‖ by encouraging all members: ―Let us pursue now the golden home, instead of just the ‗home sweet home.‘ Those of you who pledge to do that, please raise your hands.‖ How decisive that year 1983 was may be also sensed when Father gave a serious speech with the topic ―Our Front Line‖ on the fourth of September in which he explained: I am giving you such a strong sermon today because this is such a critical time. We must tighten our belts and rededicate ourselves to these clear goals which I have pronounced. We will bring direction and guidance to America. Like a locomotive, we will pull this country and the world. For this goal, we shall go to the front line. In the month that followed Father encouraged everybody again to make a new beginning as it is expressed in Father‘s words on October 2, 1983 to the theme ―My New Self‖: Now you can start the month of October with this knowledge, making a brand new start and marching courageously toward the goal. Now that you have received this understanding, how many of you have determined to become completely new selves? On the Day Of Heavenly Victory, October 4, 1983, Father put once again the concern for God‘s providence as the highest priority and made an important statement: I am now giving the same direction to every member in the Unification Church: if you know that your central figure is not going in the same direction as Reverend Moon, you are now authorized to leave that IOWC commander or leader and go where you know the leader is following my direction. This shows clearly that for our True Parents it is most important that we respond to their guidance and center fully on God‘s will rather than putting an emphasis on just following one‘s leaders. Father continued: The same thing applies to all you state leaders. If you want to protest to me, saying, ‗Father, you are not living up to the principle which you have taught me,‘ that is fine; you can go where you feel you can do it better. But then you have to make your report to God! You can tell God that you don‘t

think my method will work and that you are taking over as chief restorer. Who knows, God might accept that! Is that fair enough? The same principle applies to every state leader, commander, Korean leaders, and so forth. There is no exception. What Father declared on that day shows clearly that for him it is the highest priority that we do the will of God and act in line with his words, rather than just centering on the personalities of leaders. This concern is emphasized when he asks: Are you state leaders going to follow me as your leader and example? I asked the major leaders not to hold conferences among themselves or with the state leaders unless it concerns ways of pursuing my direction more effectively. That kind of conference is needed, but any conference which has the result of watering down my direction should not be held. If you hear someone saying something contrary to my direction, you should point it out to him. Don‘t just sit there and be polite; tell what you know to be right and wrong, even if it is your Abel you are speaking to. Will you really tell what you know to be my direction when someone is wrong? This will ensure the strength of our activity. Our True Father wants us to stand up for what we know to be right according to his directions. It is such an attitude which is behind my writing to you in detail about what our True Parents have been teaching us and asked us to fulfil in order to advance God‘s providence in the best possible way avoiding a delay in its realization by what he calls ―watering down‖ his directions. For such reason I offer you many quotations from Father‘s speeches as they emphasize clearly certain attitudes which are crucial for the will of God to be fulfilled. Of course it is so very difficult to live up to the high expectations of Heaven but we have to strive again and again to reach that standard of absolute obedience because otherwise the fulfillment of God‘s desire is further prolonged and more sacrifices may become necessary. About the right attitude to have in the chain of command or in the hierarchy of our movement Father pointed out: Suppose it happened that a leader was the target of someone pointing out an error in thinking; he ought to say, ‗Thank you for that.‘ This is a way of self-protection for you ordinary members of the movement. You cannot blame your Abel figure later for some misdirection he gives because you have the responsibility to follow my direction, regardless. The one who gives misdirection is not Abel, but Cain; he is standing on Satan‘s side. If your leader cannot exercise proper leadership, then I will do it in his place.

Father made it very clear who the primary central figure is for all of us whom we are supposed to follow absolutely: Now you understand clearly what ‗central figure‘ means. You must know clearly that the primary central figure is God. The main central figure for our movement is Reverend Moon; the rest of the central figures are all in the position of intermediaries. How can you ever think of giving the same consideration, even less, to the main central figure as you do to the lesser ones? It is no wonder that the Unification Church is inefficient with such an attitude. Sadly, such a reality of a certain ineffectiveness of our movement due to some wrong understanding of what it means to follow the central figure existed at that time and our True Parents have been desperate to see it changed. How far do some aspects of this problem still exist in our movement today? This is a serious question to ponder as we surely want to avoid the ineffectiveness of our movement to continue. On that anniversary of our church holiday based on the victory of Washington Monument in 1976 Father proclaimed: This is certainly the Day of Victory of Heaven and at the same time it is the day of victory over evil‘s domain. It took us a long time to get to this point, but now we have a clear path. I have truly told you everything you need to know. From now on, no matter where I might be, you shouldn‘t try to seek me out for additional instruction. What our True Parents expect of us as Blessed families can be seen in the following lines: Each of you must achieve your own Day of Victory of Heaven before you can achieve your perfect unity as a couple with God. Unless you do that, you will not rise above the situation you are in; you will be unable to settle. You should be grateful that I am so concerned about your own day of settlement. You want to love your spouse, don‘t you? The Day of Victory of Heaven will be transferred to you and you can establish your own day of victory by following the victory of True Parents in the two or three years to come. When this happens, the Unification Church will not have to face anything like the persecution we faced in the past; nobody will have to be martyred again. Exactly 8 times 10 days after Father made this statement it was our True Parents‘ most beloved son Heung Jin Nim who became a martyr in a position to give his life for the fulfilment of the will of God. He became the target of Satan‘s attack at the end of Father‘s speaking tour—while Father offered his last speech in Gwangju – as

it is precisely at the end of a certain condition that Satan attacks, a fact which our True Parents have taught us. For such a reason it is crucial that we are especially at the very end of laying conditions most careful not to make any mistakes in our attitude because even a false anger may lead to tragic consequences as in the case of Moses destroying the tablets with the 10 commandments or his striking the rock twice. Knowing that there is so much at stake Father asked for our readiness to risk even our lives: You must think about the current world situation. Look at it through God‘s eyes. Who can solve the problems for God? If we can solve these problems, we will be the greatest people of history. We must proclaim to God, ‗We will do it! No matter how difficult, even unto our lives, we will do it!‘ God will be so grateful that we took care of His problems and that we are making one ideal family. About the significance of that time Father explained: Like the three days of darkness of Jesus, these next three years will be our chance to rise above the cross. If we are determined to even go to jail for the next three years if that can bring life to America, we can go over the time of crucifixion. But if nobody does anything victorious, we will certainly be defeated. Referring to the brothers and sisters who had come from Europe to work in America Father said: The European leaders have their own pressing timetable and responsibilities. However, there is nothing more important than the crucial moment the world is facing, centered upon America. That is why those Europeans were called here; in the long run, their work will be of greater benefit to their own country than if they stayed home at this time. If those European leaders do not see this clearly and have left America without seeking my permission, they are really short-sighted. They will leave a big stain on the history of the dispensation. Father wanted us to understand very important aspects on that holiday: This is supposed to be a day of celebration, so why am I giving such a harsh and principle-oriented talk? It is because this is the most crucial, basic point. I must be sure that you understand this because until you do, you are not really qualified to listen to the meaning of the Day of Heavenly Victory.

Speaking in symbolic terms Father tried to motivate everybody to face challenges: Certainly, I agree that the climate of the American movement has been shiny and bright, but that brightness will never bring rain. Only with clouds and pouring rain can America receive the outpouring of spirit; without that, America will just dry up. There are two ways to go: the easy way of constant sunshine until you dry up, or the difficult way of clouds and rain which will bring the outpouring of spirit, and ultimately prosperity. As a parent Father showed his desire to avoid sending us through hardships: I want to make it as easy as possible, but there are certain principles which I cannot bend or alter. I want to tell you members who have been in the movement for many years that if you have the ears and the eyes to receive what I am saying here, the American church will begin to prosper. Not enough members are doing that. Father addressed in this way especially elder members to take his guidance really to their hearts and to go ahead according to our True Parents‘ most painful course: The True Parents have worked at the risk of their lives, with backbreaking effort, to make this road passable for individuals, families, nations and the world. Can you try to follow that path now and expect it to be easy? Can you say, ‗No matter what Father says, I will go the way I choose.?‘ Father repeated to emphasize in what a decisive period of God‘s providence we were in 1983: Nothing is more important than God‘s dispensation at this time, so everything else must be subordinated to it. Have you ever stopped to think that it is up to you whether or not America will accept and welcome True Parents? That is a truly honorable and important task in God‘s dispensation. Again Father encouraged everybody to be aware of the significance of that time: These next three years will be the most crucial time for you and at the same time for me in the worldwide dispensation. Do you realize that if I go out of my way for your sake, there is someone who will accuse that it is unfair? From now on, I will not regularly appear for all the public gatherings. I know when I pray each morning what is in store for me that day; so when I feel that a day is Godly, certainly I will come and share with you. If I feel it is not wise, then I won‘t. Please understand this.

How amazing that our True Parents sense in advance clearly what lies ahead of them while walking daily on the path of restoration. They want us to really walk in their footsteps and to act according to their example as it is expressed in what Father asked on that day: Instead of looking for me, put yourself in my position and do the same as I would do. I would like to stand in the front line forever, but it is best for the overall purpose that I do not. You must also have the opportunity to establish your own victory. I ask you to do your very best during these next two or three years. Will you do it? Father spoke on that day also about the special importance of women as the ones who excel in having a loving heart and shedding many tears: What is the true women‘s essence? The number one element of the women‘s essence is heart: a heart of pure love for husband, for children. Women have an abundance of tears; they are very rich in that realm. Why did God create her that way? God made women closer to the heartistic world. Father stated that women are, ―full of the flow of heart. Because of that power of heart even though they are smaller in stature and physically weaker than men, women have the power to overcome men. A man‘s love is more external, like skin, while woman‘s love is like a seed inside—the heart.‖ He went on in his praise of the female manifestation of God‘s nature: A woman has much more ability to move the heart of the parents by her tears, by the heartistic approach. A man will go out and be active all day long, and then come back home. What is home? Woman‘s embrace, her love. A man cannot survive without that warmth and love. Look at children. They always miss their mother, mother‘s heart, mother‘s bosom. Woman is the symbol of love, like the torch of love. The husband comes home, the children come home, all the members of the family come to the mother‘s bosom, the place of love. That is historically the women‘s position. What is our most important goal can be clearly seen when we look at Father declaring on that day: The only thing we really care about is reaching the goal of true love. Everything else is subordinated to that. This is the most wonderful of news. Once we penetrate that point, everything will be accomplished; we will not have to do more. This core task has to be of course also our first priority today and therefore I would like to finish this second part of my reflection on 27

the most crucial year 1983 with my sincerest desire for all of us to be able to set our basic priorities right so that true love will really be the center of all our activities. May we each succeed in achieving precious victories of true love day by day! Sincerely yours, Nikolaus

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Learning from the past for the sake of the future

Nikolaus Beutl Letter 3 of 5, December 26, 2007

My dear brothers and sisters, On December 18, 2007 True Mother spoke to our brothers and sisters in Washington asking in tears that we evaluate ourselves every day and reflect on how much closer we have become to God on that day. She emphasized that in this age we can nurture and develop ourselves greatly. At the end of Hoon Dok Hae she added: If you think about it, you‘ll understand that life in this age is somewhat fearful for blessed families. I mean you cannot live at your whim. Every day of our life should have been giving joy and glory to God, but honestly, so far we have been giving Him burden. We can‘t deny this. Knowing that this is a reality it is surely worth the time to reflect not only on a daily basis but also especially now as this jubilee year draws to an end to think not only about what has happened in our lives during this year, but also about what has been our reality in the past years or decades in order to be well prepared to avoid repeating mistakes and to ensure that God‘s blessing can be with us in this upcoming new year 2008 which represents a time of new beginning. 10 days earlier, True Mother was also alone at the time of Hoon Dok Hae due to True Father‘s physical limitations. At that time she spoke of the fearful position we are in as we live at the same time as the True Parents of Mankind. She encouraged the ones who attended to bring everything in order and to make a new resolve to become grown-up children, establishing true families, as Father‘s work on earth depends on our efforts. When we know that our True Parents are tearful about our situation is it not appropriate for us as their children to seriously take the time for reviewing our life to see clearly what kind of path we are pursuing? In line with the here mentioned aspects I would like to continue my reflection on the most crucial year in God‘s providence, 1983. Let me quote first from Father‘s speech on October 30, 1983, in which he tried to make us aware of our reality in relationship to him and what he expects us to achieve. Our True Parents really are surely longing that we become one with them in heart and mind, that we resemble them fully. Such a desire is expressed in Father‘s concern: The Unification Church has true Moonies and false Moonies. Which one are you? I see only one true Moonie here, and that‘s myself! There is still a certain gap

between my thinking and yours. That means you are not yet a true Moonie. How do we feel when we hear such statements? Are we upset how Father can say this or do they inspire us to do our very best to become not only true Moonies, but really Sunnies through whom God‘s love can shine in this world until we finally reach the level of kings and queens, of true sons and daughters of God? Father continued: Our title today, ―The Final World Centered Upon Good and Evil,‖ indicates the goal or target for anyone to become a true Moonie. You will achieve that goal only by principled living, by completely uniting yourselves with this principle. Then you shall survive and prosper. Just analyze yourself and your deeds from this standpoint and way of life. You have to abolish your self-centered family, nation, and world concepts and change them to God-centered concepts, as I have been teaching you. You need to receive these concepts and forsake your old ones. Have our old concepts been left behind at that time, being substituted through new attitudes which would allow our Heavenly Father and our True Parents to work most closely with us? To which extent do we realize what kind of path our True Parents had trod throughout their lives? Father spoke about reality when he stated: I have suffered ten, even a hundred times more than you. I face problems all the time. Witnessing and fundraising are ten times easier than that. How can you complain or doubt or be wishy-washy when you know what I face? Father wanted us to realize the importance of completely uniting with him: We still have a long way to go to reach the final world… God is not looking at only you; He is looking through you at the world, your nation, your family. You are at the center, like the chosen champion—that‘s the way God expects you to fulfill your responsibility. Do you think that kind of responsibility is easy? You may cope on the individual or family level, but what about the national or world level? I am coping with that level all the time. Therefore, all you have to do is unite with me and then my triumph becomes yours. The proper attitude to have is expressed in Father telling us: Thus you should always ask me to give you more suffering, more challenge, ask me to let you do more for the sake of the world. Such men and women shall truly become the children of God, pious sons and daughters. But I want you

to know that I will never let you do it alone; I will always be with you. Those who are determined to become champions and be centered on goodness at the end of the world, raise your hands please. God bless you. On the 1st of November, a day on which Christians are reminded of the saints who walked before us on this earth, Father chose in that year the following title for his sermon ―The Historically Highest Career.‖ In this speech he characterized the ideal world in the following way: It is the world in which people are intoxicated with true love and live in everlasting joy. Father called himself ―the utopian pioneer and champion‖ and concluded: Thus you must listen to me and follow my teaching in order to build a utopia. Starting from the top leaders, if you become the best followers then everybody will join together and do the same. Then he defined the Unification Church as the utopian religion or Unification religion and mentioned shortly what this means: What is the utopia for a true mother? It is when she is caring for her children, serving them meals and giving them their baths. While she is doing that, she doesn‘t have any time for herself, but that is her true utopia because she is expressing her love. In the utopia, everything is done because of love. Don‘t ever think that utopia is something unreal or fantastic. Instead, we must convert the everyday things of life into the utopian way; you can only do that through love. Father made it once again clear what our movement is all about: The Unification Church way of life is a basic training ground to entitle each of you to the eternal utopia in spirit world… Historically, Reverend Moon is the alpha— the first—in discovering as well as teaching this truth. Likewise, I am the first to practice this. The Unification Church is truly a historical religion and we are going to live the highest, most honorable career. That is the creation of the true utopian way of life. About the deep meaning of his speech Father told the brothers and sisters: My sermon is not being given just to the people here at Belvedere today. Rather, it is a historical declaration that people of the future will be eternally grateful for. These statements will be studied and pored over by people who

stay up all night long because they are so eager to understand them. Meanwhile, some of you are sitting here with bored faces. History will listen to this message very differently. This type of message is so valuable, you should feel that you are sitting on a razor‘s edge if you nod off even slightly you can be cut in two. People in the future will fight for the ability to hear this extraordinary message. Referring to the sad reality of a lacking appreciation of what our True Parents teach us Father had to say: These words should not be weighed and dissected by your critical minds. There have been many cases of discourtesy to this greatest message of all, and they have come from within our own movement. Think of yourself: how much have you felt love and respect for the True Parents? The love of True Parents is not any type of love that you have ever known before; it cannot come within your grasp. You must become fundamentally changed, newly-awakened men and women. Such a fundamental change and new awakening should have been achieved at that time in order to bring that decisive year of 1983 to a victorious conclusion. Therefore Father repeated to emphasize: The historically highest career is your goal; this is the whole purpose of your training in the Unification Church… At this time, you are in the position of applying for a Ph.D. course with the True Parents. Do you think you can just treat this half-heartedly or lightly? Could such an attitude possibly win you a Ph.D.? You must be fully aware that this is a fearful place, in a way. It is definitely a place of responsibility and the consequences can be very grave if you do not fulfill that responsibility. Thus I used the word ‗historical‘… Your ancestors in spirit world are very proud of you for merely being here. However, if they see that you are not serious and are even dozing off, they will be totally disappointed. I want you to understand that this is a historical place.‖ Emphasizing absolute faith in the True Parents Father declared: The Unification Church is something that is far beyond your comprehension; therefore you must follow me. The church will not change but rather you must change. The concept and essence of love will never change for eternity; God will not change it. Utopian love must be tested in hell; that is why you must suffer. From the very bottom of hell you must rise up into heaven… There is absolutely no compromise with the Principle.

Father appealed to the brothers and sisters, asking whether they want to go the easy or the difficult way, and then reminding them of what has been asked for already 2000 years earlier: It is so difficult that it requires your very life. As Jesus said, ‗He who loses his life for my sake will find it‘. Without that attitude, you cannot go all the way. This is your destiny as the descendants of the fall. Unless you shed the ―skin‖ of the fall and take on a new skin, you cannot enter utopia. How can you remove that fallen skin? It is far more difficult than… No matter how difficult it becomes, you must clench your teeth and go forward. Father asked that we may realize essential aspects of our spiritual life: I want you to understand, therefore, that the Unification Church is the historically highest religion, and the way you are living is the historically highest career. My teaching is always directed toward achieving this goal— that every one of you can fulfill this historically highest career and achieve God‘s ideal of love. Do you understand? That is our goal and our path. Sometimes you get tired and you feel weak. That is the point of your showdown and that is where many people crumble. You have to go down below that point and rebound; that is how you reach true love. From that most desperately suffering point, if you still love God and yearn for the True Parents, you will rebound. God is not at the highest places; He is at the lowest places in the bottom of hell. Thus you must go down there, too. The deeper into suffering you descend, the greater the amount of universal love you will find and be embraced by. The attitude he wanted all members to have at that time can be seen through the following lines: Immediately after the Washington Monument rally, instead of deciding to take it easy, I declared that our next goal was Moscow. That is a most difficult and far away goal. Do you think I will stop after the Moscow rally? After that, I will organize a rally in hell, in order to liberate it. Do you think that will be easy? If you get so tired and discouraged in your activities in America, how can you win the battle in Moscow or the communist countries? It is not easy to liberate Hell, either. Look upon everything in your life as training for the future, including this three years‘ IOWC work. This is not even on the level of dress rehearsal for the battle, yet you think you are ready to enjoy the banquet of victory? That is the attitude of a thief. You have to rush to the

forefront of the battle. You must become people of the greatest strength and pride because you are the soldiers and pioneers for the true utopian world. Addressing the ones who were not sure to dedicate their life to the cause or not Father warned them: Certainly, you have the right to go away; you can do that. But later your children and your grandchildren will see you and know that you betrayed the True Parents. Your very tombstone will weep for that. He challenged brothers and sisters and offered his encouragement: Become the champions who are determined not to leave behind any shame for history to record. Be proud and fit to charge bravely forward into the enemy camp, winning God‘s victory. We suffer now, but the reward of suffering will be great. We may see greater suffering in the future, but there is even greater love ahead of us. It is not easy to love one‘s enemy; that enemy will not love you back. But you can love him on the basis of this understanding. Love the enemy nation for the same reason. Until you do, you cannot march into the heavenly utopia. The speech Father gave on November 5, 1983 is recorded under the simple title ―Children‘s Day‖ but in it Father conveyed a very deep content, asking brothers and sisters to walk a path of total dedication: Therefore in order to return to that lost original love, one must be able to give his life for that purpose. Without that attitude you cannot return. Moonies are those who are voluntarily taking the road of death, going beyond it and reaching out to the true love of God. We are telling Satan, ‗My neck is on the line for the sake of God‘s restoration so if you want to take it, go ahead.‘ That is the dedication of this new breed of people. Is that true or not? Unless we do that, we simply cannot reach that goal. Do you think I am walking a different path than you? No, I am living by exactly the same principle. Suppose the president of the United States joined the church in the future. Do you think he would have a separate set of rules to go by which would be easier? How about the pope? This is a universal principle which everyone must follow, regardless of who he is. Only those who live by this principle will be able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

About the meaning of sacrificial offerings Father explained: God created the angelic world first, then all the things of creation and finally people. Therefore in the process of restoration, God mobilized the angelic world first, then all things and then men and women. Loss of life and bloodshed was inevitable in the process of restoration because of the principle we are discussing that regaining God‘s love is greater than our life. That is why sacrificial offerings were needed. 8 times 8 days after Father clarifying this point for everybody, the World Seung Hwa Ceremony for Heung Jin Nim took place. Our True Parents own most beloved son had become a sacrificial offering for the sake of the victory of love. He willingly offered his life, exemplifying the attitude Father emphasized in that speech. Father tried so hard to make us understand what the right attitude in front of God and True Parents would be like: None of the churches on the earth can claim that they belong completely to the domain of the love of God. That is because they have never yet seen the True Parents and therefore have never yet belonged to the messiah. Under these circumstances, for you to be sitting here listening and learning from the True Parents, belonging to the True Family and gaining the position of true children, is an incredible honor and a privilege. This base alone can break through the satanic realm and lift mankind up to restoration. Father asked the ones listening to him on that Children‘s Day: How much do you understand the value of the True Parents? Do you appreciate being able to listen to their teaching? Do you know that this is more valuable than your own life? It is important to know if you have that kind of dedication. Even the leaders of the church have not realized the importance of putting their lives on the line for the sake of God‘s love. Our True Parents‘ expectation that we become really one with them is expressed in Father speaking of his hope that someday we will have a moment of inner awakening and we will say, ―Yes, I am truly linked with the True Family.‖ He told the members: These next three years will be your opportunity to come to that poignant realization. It was for the sake of achieving true unity on many levels that Father offered the Unification Ceremony before Heung Jin Nim passed on to the spirit world. He wanted everybody to be aware that, ―Only when you are true brothers and sisters can the True Parents completely accept you.‖ 35

About the two basic tasks of Abel Father explained: God wanted to work through Abel not so much for Abel‘s sake but for the sake of saving Cain. Therefore, Abel is in the position of mediator for Cain. Abel‘s responsibility is to subjugate Cain and Satan, who surrounds Cain. Abel also must separate Satan from himself. Therefore, Abel‘s first responsibility is to save Cain; second, to separate Satan from himself. These are the two main purposes of Abel. Thus any Unification Church leader who likes to sit back in a comfortable chair and order other people around is going against this rule. Those who are in the central figure position within the Unification Church have the job of saving Cain and then separating Satan from themselves. Can they do that by hating Cain? No, only by loving and winning the heart of Cain. Abel is privileged to have been given the GL love seed. This GL love starts on the individual level. The only way of reaching the love of God is by Abel sacrificing himself for the sake of Cain. Satan knew that Abel‘s mission was to subjugate Cain and he didn‘t want that to happen because he didn‘t want to lose Cain. In this way Father reminded everybody once again that as Abel we have to walk a path of self-sacrifice and he explained further: I am looking at each of you with this viewpoint: who among you can be my best representatives here after I leave. The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is significant. Abraham prayed to God. ‗Please forgive these cities if I can only find five righteous men,‘ but he could not even come up with five righteous men. Therefore Sodom and Gomorrah were given up to their judgment. Today‘s Unification Church members are in the position to be like the five righteous men in each city; because of them, this nation will be able to survive. But who are those five truly righteous Moonies, those who have given up their lives for the sake of the country? Only those Moonies who are willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater purpose are the righteous ones. It is our True Parents‘ most beloved second son Heung Jin Nim who gave up his life substantially for the higher purpose and entered into spirit world 8 weeks after Father spoke about this crucial point of our readiness to sacrifice ourselves. Father told us on Children‘s‘ Day in 1983 that he wants to be proud of us and asked that we grasp his vision and charge forward bravely into the enemy camp to win the victory.

His final request was: Can you pledge to me today that you will bring unity on the international level? Once you are in the position of the true children under the True Parents, there will be no boundaries for you. Please stand and make your pledge. If you can say, ‗Father, we pledge to accept your direction and become your true children, bringing the world into harmony. By living the Divine Principle we will bring God‘s Kingdom on the earth,‘ please shout, ‗Yes, Father! Yes!‘ The next day Father spoke about ―Our Position From Now On‖ and concluded with the following words: If you want to dedicate yourselves to a higher love and make a deeper commitment to sacrificial living, and if you can pledge this unconditionally, raise your hands and say Amen! God bless you. Had we been able to respond wholeheartedly to such a desire of our Father for us to lead a sacrificial life, the death of their most beloved son could have surely been avoided because in this way a precious foundation of protection could have been established for our True Parents‘ family. Father‘s sermon on December 1, 1983 was entitled, ―Original Palace Of Utmost Happiness.‖ In it he encouraged one more time all brothers and sisters to be dedicated to a life for the sake of others so that when the time comes for us to go to spirit world, We will be able to say, ―I have lived for the sake of others; I have no regrets.‖ Father asked: Or will you say, ‗I wish I could live longer and change my ways. I didn‘t live fully for the sake of others.‘ What would you choose as your dying attitude—one of satisfaction or one of regret? We are once again reminded of the crucial importance of the year of 1983 when we read what Father wanted the brothers and sisters to be aware of: A few months ago I directed all the women who had less than three children in their care to go out to IOWC. Imagine how close God would feel to the woman who had three children yet still determined to go out to IOWC. That would be going beyond what I directed and she would be giving such a precious offering to God. It is even more precious to see a woman with three children going out than a woman with two children. What about the mother with five children, who knows my direction and still goes out to IOWC? That would be the highest, greatest person. At this time of national emergency, she would realize that there

was no room for just thinking about her own family. Certainly if the nation ceases to exist, the family will cease to exist. How very serious that time was may be sensed when we read: This is literally the great emergency time for the entire cosmos—not only for this world but also for the spirit world; not only for now but also for all of history. What exception can we make? What can hold anyone back from concentrating on the central activity? Looking back the following words are like a final appeal from Heaven in this last speech to our American brothers and sisters in that most decisive year: Today is the first day of December, the last month of the year. As you listen to a sermon such as this, you must immediately think to yourself, ‗Oh, I regret that I have not lived up to this standard for the past eleven months. But for this one remaining month I will live this standard to the utmost so I won‘t feel regrets about 1983.‘ This month is a special month of temptation, when people naturally yearn to return to their hometowns to visit their loved ones for the holidays. Your minds tend to float here and there during this time but you must anchor yourselves down. While everyone is going home and enjoying Christmas, we are staying in the most difficult, hellish circumstances. While others are enjoying a heavenly time, we continue to serve this nation and the world. Would you prefer to be in this Hell or to go to that Heaven at this time? The wise person is the one who goes into Hell at this time because in the future he will go to that original palace. Our True Parents called for an attitude of utmost dedication because they have been aware of how crucial that year was and still our response had not been enough so that 21 days after this urgent appeal their own most beloved son became a sacrifice what should never have happened according to our Heavenly Father‘s original desire for the True Family. Before Father left America he told the members on that day: I am looking forward to a trip to Korea now because Korea desperately needs a revival. The Korean nation is suffering; there is so much turmoil and the government doesn‘t know what to do. I will go there and inspire them and then I will return to America. My trip to Korea will entail a lot of hard work; it certainly will not be a vacation. Do you understand? From this excerpt and so many other parts of the content our True Father spoke about in 1983 it can be clearly understood that those

12 months have been a crucial period in which he called for an attitude of total dedication in order to bring God‘s providence to a victorious conclusion at the end of the 40 years wilderness course. Most sadly our worldwide membership had not been able to respond adequately to the urgency of the time so that a most precious sacrificial offering became necessary in order to advance God‘s providence in the form of the one who has been dearest to our True Parents being sacrificed for the sake of protecting God‘s foundation here on this earth. May we all recognize clearly what our Heavenly Father expects of us personally as we continue our work as chosen central people of His providence in order to advance the building of Cheon Il Guk as individual or as tribal messiah. Some of us are in the position of national messiahs while the task of global messiahs remains to be fulfilled by us—as our Father mentioned a few weeks ago. Hoping that we can all have an open heart and mind to embrace those realms of heart which can be achieved at this time and support each other to fulfill the dreams of our True Parents and their family which remain to be realized. Sincerely, Your brother Nikolaus Jetzt Mails schnell in einem Vorschaufenster überfliegen. Dies und viel mehr bietet das neue Yahoo! Mail.

If viewing this document on a computer that has Internet connection, you can view a photo album of December 18 HDH in Washington, D.C. [click here]

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Learning from the past for the sake of the future

Nikolaus Beutl Letter 4 of 5, December 28, 2007

My dear brothers and sisters, In the previous three letters I offered you quotations of Father‘s speeches during 1983, centered on God‘s and True Parents‘ expectations for us. In this reflection I will continue to share excerpts of what Father revealed to us in the first week of 1984 until Heung Jin Nim‘s Seung Hwa. Through them we can realize how much our True Parents are longing that we inherit the same exemplary standard as their most beloved son. In the first hour 1983 Father had beseeched God in his desire for that decisive year to be one of victory, to which we can look back on with gratitude. He prayed fervently: At this time all the Unification members, representing all mankind, are making a new resolution: to be more deeply loyal and pious in 1983 and to be more united in one heart and one will. Let them pledge to become brave soldiers on the advancing line of the salvation of mankind. Let them determine to become victorious in securing both today and tomorrow. Let them resolve to become unforgettable people in Your heart. Please receive the resolution they are making at this time. Father offered his sincere prayer for our unity in heart – and this is surely also his innermost desire at this time when he asks us not to be just his representatives but his heir, who are one with him and with one another, because this is the inner base required for the success of our investment as we strive to build Cheon Il Gug substantially here on earth. In his midnight address one year later on January 1, 1984 Father encouraged brothers and sisters to support God‘s will in an indirect way by telling them: A railroad train makes a loud noise as it moves along the tracks. Some people might complain, saying, ‗That train must be in trouble since it‘s making so much noise.‘ That is the way the Unification movement appears to others. When the locomotive says, ‗This is the route we are going. Do you have any objection?‘ you cannot ask for another route. Even if the engine leads you to the North Pole, you can‘t say that it‘s too cold for you. As a car behind the locomotive, do you want to be pulling against the locomotive, always resisting it and giving it a hard time? Or wouldn‘t you like to help the locomotive and give it an easier time? Our True Parents are the locomotive working desperately to advance God‘s providence. They certainly long that we may support

them more fully through our heartistic unity with them and their family. For such a reason I am offering you my reflection on what our True Father has asked of us at a very crucial time hoping that we can all be more deeply aware of God‘s expectations and which attitude is needed in order not to fall short in our response to Heaven. About the ultimate goal we are pursuing Father explained that night marking the change from 1983 to 1984: Imagine that we are starting from Washington on our journey. Where are we ultimately headed? To Moscow— Must Go. When we go to Moscow and bring liberation to the people there, it will be such an extraordinary and dramatic experience. Our journey has a final destination and that is not Washington, DC, or New York City, or even Moscow. It is nothing less than the land of God, the Kingdom of God on earth. Would you like that? What kind of place would be God‘s land? It would be a nice place, that‘s for sure. What kind of nice? An ideal, nice place? A nice, nice, mighty nice place? The answer is very simple. The land of God is the place in which the intense love of God dominates. Considering this definition of the Kingdom of God on earth, we do well to seriously reflect at the end of this jubilee year, the seventh year of Cheon Il Guk, 3 ½ years after the proclamation of the Era After the Coming of the Kingdom of Heaven, how our reality looks like in respect to living in a realm which is dominated by the intense love of God. If we are not satisfied with the intimacy we experience in our relationship with our most beloved Heavenly Father then we are called to invest more for the sake of improving our own quality as temples of God. Some thorough cleaning of our hearts and minds may be needed in order to get rid of wrong concepts which are hindering us to build a close heart to heart connection with Him. Hyung Jin Nim and Yeon Ah Nim, who have been recently ―ordained‖ as senior pastors of the Korean Headquarters Church, are really setting a wonderful standard in this respect, giving inner aspects the first priority and educating others as expressed in the Cheon Il Guk Familiy services or lectures, which can be viewed through the internet around the world, besides visiting families and giving them personal internal guidance. Hyung Jin Nim and Yeon Ah Nim begin their days at about 2 a.m. in their home, and then at 3 a.m. they arrive in the Chongpadong church to guide Church leaders and members in half an hour of meditation – mind body unity training – followed by 100 ―Mansey- Kyungbae‖ before going out to the nearby hospital to pray for the

health of the little patients and to clean the hospital yard before coming back to the church to have some personal sharing and prayer until 5 a.m. when Hoon Dok Hae starts with each participant reading in turn paragraphs from the peace messages. As I am blessed to join Hyung Jin Nim‘s family in these morning hours of Jungsung (offering of sincerity) and participated in most lectures and Family services they offered (by the end of the year 21 will be held) I am well aware of how much they invest into helping brothers and sisters to improve their mind-body unity and to deepen their relationship with our Heavenly Father and with one another. Spending these precious hours together with them brings the best times of my church experiences to life in my heart for which I am most grateful. Coming back to Father‘s midnight address I want to offer you the excerpt of his speaking about what is necessary for us to enter that realm under the direct dominion of God‘s love: In order to enter that land, you have to transform everything about yourself into love: your shoes must be shoes of true love, you must have clothes of true love, your very body must be one of true love. When God looks at you, He will see your eyes, ears, nose, even any white hairs on your head as perfect, if you are a person of true love.‖ What our Heavenly Father is longing for to see on this earth in us can be perceived from the following words, offered in those first hours of 1984: There is only one instrument that can accurately measure the status of Moonies and how close you are to perfection— the eyes of God. When those two eyes of God look down upon the earth, He doesn‘t want to look at anything besides the Moonies. He does not even look at the false Moonies; He is only interested in the true Moonies. What about you? Are you a true or a fake Moonie? What about the number one Moonie, Reverend Moon—is he true or a fake? True Moonies are those with powerful magnetism. They have a tremendous pulling power. When another person comes into contact with a true Moonie, that power automatically gets transferred to him. This explanation of our True Father is of course also true today at a time when we live in the Era After the Coming of Heaven. The task remains for us to become true children of our True Parents who are able to transform the people who come in contact with us through the power of true love. Therefore it is essential that we really concentrate in developing our ability to love unconditionally and absolutely even those who are most difficult for us to deal with. While Heung Jin Nim was in coma, going through the last day on this earth, True Father explained in his midnight address about the background of the given

reality at that time centered on his speaking tour for the sake of the victory over communism and the peaceful unification of North and South Korea: All together, we held ten rallies in Korea in ten days… The final rally was scheduled for the city of Kwonju, on the southern tip of the Korean peninsula. At the same hour when I was standing victoriously on the platform, Satan attacked the True Parents‘ family by way of Heung Jin Nim‘s accident. The accident occurred just as I was speaking. Satan wanted desperately to disturb my victory in the city of Kwonju, a city with a reputation for rebelliousness; the government has had trouble there in the past. However, the citizens of Kwonju welcomed our rally unanimously. Thirteen thousand people came. Since the gymnasium could only contain eight thousand, five thousand stood outside in the ten degree below zero weather. Inside, the mood was completely supportive and disciplined. Satan had no room to hit there. Also there has been underground communist activity in Korea. We received the information that, since our rallies had been so successful throughout the nation, they were planning to do something to harm me in the city of Kwonju. All the spiritual mediums and those who were praying for our success warned me that I had to be very careful in Kwonju. They strongly urged me to let someone else speak there and not even to go there myself because of the danger. But I went there and spoke and claimed a complete victory. About the special qualities of our beloved elder Brother Heung Jin Nim True Father explained: Heung Jin Nim was in the Abel position within the True Parents‘ family. He was the most exemplary, obedient son, with the greatest piety. He was the son who gave the most comfort to Mother and me. Through the tradition of Christianity we know that, in order to receive greater blessing, there must be a sacrifice offered. Heung Jin Nim was that sacrifice in front of God and Heaven which humanity and our movement offered. In order to benefit from this precious offering it is inevitable for us to unite not only with the heart of our True Parents but also with our elder Brother Heung Jin Nim who manifested such an exemplary attitude as their most loyal son who brought such deep comfort to them. This is all the more important as Lord Heung Jin Nim has been entrusted to be the central figure in spirit world where he achieved enormous accomplishments together with Daemonim. It was at that hour past midnight of December 31, 1983 that Father explained: This morning I held a special service, called a Unification Ceremony, in the hospital chapel. On the foundation of this

precious sacrifice, we called for the unity of the first, second, and third Israels—Judaism, Christianity, and the Unification Church. Also we called for the unity of the Adam, Eve, and archangel nations, the unification of True Parents and their family, the members of the Unification Church, as well as all the races of the world. We called for total unification. This sphere of total unification remains to be achieved substantially on all levels, including the realm of the 4th Israel and the 4th Adam which we have to establish victoriously in our own lives. Therefore it is crucial that we stand strongly on the foundation which has been established already through the extraordinary work of Heung Jin Nim and Daemonim in the spiritual world and work together with the Absolute Good Spirits who can come down now to advance God‘s providence on this earth. While True Father offered the above mentioned explanations the life of Heung Jin Nim was hanging by a thread. Father told the brothers and sisters who had gathered for the midnight address about his own situation: I am calm; whatever happens, I know that God will achieve a victory for His dispensation throughout the world. As I told Mother, our son‘s life may have to be offered as a sacrifice. If so, that will be an incredible event in which the best possible sacrifice will be offered to God for the sake of humanity. In return, peace, harmony and the unification of mankind will be achieved. Father shared further about the extraordinary qualities of the most beloved son and his own feelings at that time: Heung Jin Nim was a devoted son who loved Mother and me dearly. It is truly heartbreaking to see him lying injured in the hospital. But I know that we must not allow ourselves to become discouraged or saddened by this. God will bring much greater victory for the sake of humanity. What our True Parents expected of us as a consequence of the above described reality can be understood from Father declaring: The important thing is that each of you must strive to succeed Heung Jin Nim in his piety, obedience, and love of the True Parents. You should feel like bringing the victory to True Parents and building the Fatherland on his behalf. That is most important. Heung Jin Nim has longed for and prayed to see the day of the creation of the Fatherland. So his spirit must be succeeded by you; in that way, his sacrifice will not have been in vain. This is the heart and desire of our beloved True Parents: To see that we inherit the same heart as our most precious son by our going ahead to do what he wanted to realize had he been given the chance to continue his life here on this 45

earth. We are the ones who are called to become like our beloved elder Brother Heung Jin Nim by showing an exemplary standard in our obedience, filial piety and love towards God, our Heavenly Father. As Heung Jin Nim was born on October 23, 1966 according to the lunar calendar (December 4, 1966) he would have become 41 years old on the 2nd of December this year. We know of the great accomplishments Hyun Jin Nim is achieving at this time along with his brothers Kook Jin Nim and Hyung Jin Nim who stand in a central position for God‘s providence. Therefore it may not be difficult for us to can imagine how much our beloved elder Brother Heung Jin Nim could have done here on this earth if he could have remained among us with his physical body. For 1984 Father chose the motto ―Creation Of The Fatherland‖ and he wanted all brothers and sisters to understand that it is the task of each member to continue in the footsteps of our elder Brother Heung Jin Nim: This year‘s slogan is an unusual one. I am giving you this mission and responsibility so that you can feel deep in your heart that you will succeed Heung Jin Nim. Jesus died and because that one man died, humanity could be saved. By the same token, the life of Heung Jin Nim can make the spirits of billions of people come alive. That is the way God works. Today we know that this ―prediction‖ has become a substantial reality for billions of people in the spirit world that they could resurrect and achieve the level of Absolute Good Spirits due to the incredible dedication of Heung Jin Nim and Daemonim in connection with the Cheong Pyeong providence here on earth. At the same time it remains a fact that Heung Jin Nim and Daemonim are fully dedicated to lead all members of our movement here on this earth to rebirth and new life. This is expressed in their outreach centered on Cheong Pyeong and directly to the hearts of all brothers and sisters who are open to call upon them and to connect with them substantially in heart. Father continued that night to speak about Heung Jin Nim‘s condition and his own attitude: I am totally calm, knowing that our destiny is within the hands of God. If God allows Heung Jin Nim to recover by some miracle, that will be cause for His great glory. But if he is chosen to be a sacrifice for the sake of humanity, then let God‘s will be done. We shall move forward and prosper to an even greater degree upon his sacrifice. If Heung Jin Nim becomes that sacrifice, he shall be buried in the Fatherland. Everything comes to the turning point. Our most beloved elder Brother Heung Jin Nim ascended into the spirit world some 24 hours after True Father had given these

explanations. His Seung Hwa ceremony was held in Korea on January 8, 1984. That time period was surely a turning point in which substantial victories could be achieved especially in strengthening our anticommunist work with expanding the membership of our Korean Victory Over Communism movement to 7 million members in the four months that followed that historic event. In the God‘s Day address of 1984 Father encouraged all brothers and sisters by telling them: At this especially sacred moment, we are consecrating our lives for the highest purpose. We shall move forward to the ultimate victory that God has ordained. That is the mission I give to you this morning. In the creation of the fatherland, we shall exceed all historical standards of patriotism because we are doing it for the sake of God and His country. Father concluded his speech with the following words: This is the message of New Year‘s morning; it is a serious one and also one of commitment. You shall become the fulfillment of this message, becoming Heavenly soldiers, moving forward toward the greatest victory in the year of 1984. If you want to build this Heavenly nation, this unified culture, please raise your hands and stand up. We pledge to God at this moment to become His Heavenly independence army. Amen! Amen! Amen! In the meantime the era has arrived when we finish our prayers with Aju as the foundation for God‘s settlement here on this earth is so much greater due to the incredible achievement of our True Parents, their family, and our worldwide movement. Still the substantial creation of the Fatherland remains as an unfulfilled task – to restore one nation and to unite North and South Korea remains a goal which has not been achieved yet. For such a reason it is inevitable that we revisit the past and reflect on what our True Parents have told us at crucial periods in God‘s provi- dence when substantial breakthroughs could have been achieved but were not realized. Our True Parents have been fully victorious on their course but regarding the contribution of the worldwide membership of the Unification Movement towards the building of God‘s Kingdom on this earth we are still lacking in many areas. In his morning address of God‘s Day 1984 Father spoke about the fact that the fallen process included three generations and that therefore, restoration must go through three generations. According to Father that doesn‘t mean you have to take sixty years:

Through God‘s dispensation and the advancement of modern technology, you can achieve the restoration of three generations even within one day. It may not be easy for us to believe this but we have seen that Father thinks and acts in extraordinary dimensions. One example is the third World Tour to spread the peace message when 12 separate events were held within one day by members of the Second and Third Generation of the True Family who went out to speak to people in so many countries. We are surely all challenged to reach the same level of reasoning and acting as our True Parents represent in their dedication to build a world of peace in the shortest possible time in order to end the suffering of our Heavenly Father and of Mankind. But let us have always an open heart and mind to include even those realms which are difficult for us to believe in or to practice. To conclude my reflection on the crucial year of 1983 I would like to include a few excerpts from Father‘s speech on the Day of Heung Jin Nim‘s Seung Hwa as they are connected with the content I have been sharing with you in these pages. The title Father chose for this day is, ―The Purpose Of Life, Coming And Going.‖ Father spoke in frank terms about the situation which the True Parents were facing as they had to say the last farewell to a most beloved member of their family: The universe is watching as a test is being administered to Reverend Moon in the form of the loss of Heung Jin Nim. God was watching, as well as the rest of the universe, to see who Reverend Moon loved the most—mankind and God, or his own son. Can Satan still try to hurt God at this point? No, God is indignant. He will take away from the satanic world something that they cherish the most, something which is most valuable to Satan. This is because of the victory of the True Parents in their loss of Heung Jin Nim. The satanic forces must watch now as God takes everything in the proper direction of His dispensation. That is the way we have been going—by sacrifice and suffering—we have been gradually moving the universe into the realm of God. An important aspect of the offering which our True Parents made may be sensed when thinking of what Father shared on January 8, 1984: The universe, including Satan and God, saw that Reverend Moon accepted the death of Heung Jin Nim with true love toward mankind and God, not primarily as a personal loss. I understood one principle: when I make an offering to God, I should not shed any tears about it. Thus even though

my love for Heung Jin Nim was so great, there were no tears on my face at the time of the offering. By this rightful offering, we can pay the price for all those things which God initially lost and bring them back into God‘s realm. The satanic realm sees that they cannot continue to hurt God‘s side without losing even more. Indeed, this is the highest point we could come in the way of suffering and sacrifice. But now is the great transition point. From here on, there will be a great change. If Satan hurts us any more, he will have to pay back double and even triple. This transition is most important because until now, darkness and fear ruled the world. From here on, love and light will begin to reign. In order to realize this realm substantially, true love is indeed an absolute prerequisite. This can be also understand from what Father stated on that day: ―Without true love, we cannot separate Satan from the world.‖ True Parents have definitely been victorious in very extreme inner challenges as we can read in the example of their losing their most beloved son: I have established victory over the cruelest test of love— the loss of my own flesh and blood. In the face of that pain, I did not falter in my love of mankind and Heaven. This has proven the victory to the satisfaction of both Satan and God. Even Satan will bow down to me, ‗You are indeed a being of Heaven. I cannot match you.‘ I will continue to live this public way of life and nothing whatsoever can stop me. Although the realm of death struck the realm of love, taking away a most precious life, the strength of love has not even been dented. Heung Jin Nim has gone but he has left a legacy of his powerful love for his parents. Isn‘t it the deep longing of our True Father and True Mother that we take up the legacy of their most beloved son and become ourselves people who love the Cosmic Parent, our Creator as Father and Mother of the Universe most dearly? After having lost direct children and grandchildren, don‘t our True Parent want to have in us true adopted sons and daughters who feel being truly their children? About the World Seung Hwa ceremony for Heung Jin Nim True Father shared in that speech: This morning at 5:00, I received a report from Korea. About 3,000 people participated in the Ascension Procession. The whole area was represented, even the government, which gave an escort all the way to the tomb area. Also they permitted a huge motorcade in

which representatives of 72 countries participated. They allowed the use of enormous flower wreaths, something which they don‘t even use for heads of state. That means they understood—if not consciously, then spiritually— that this is an event of cosmic and historical significance and they cooperated fully with us at this time. This is the largest ascension ceremony we have ever had yet in history. Certainly it is the most meaningful one ever to God. We must quickly rid ourselves of any sadness and begin to take up our righteous cause, with great hope for the victory. For our Heavenly Father, this Seung Hwa ceremony was most precious because of the deep meaning connected to the transition of Heung Jin Nim on to the other world as representative of True Parents. Naturally we are in a position to connect with him who is the leader in the spirit world as our beloved elder Brother who offered his physical life for the sake of protecting all of us. Through my reflection on the crucial year 1983 I wanted to show that from the content which Father spoke about in his speeches during that year it is clear that Heaven expected a high standard of practicing true love in order to protect us from Satan‘s accusation. Had we been able to respond appropriately to Heaven‘s desire at that time then the life of Heung Jin Nim could have been spared and he could have made valuable contributions to the establishment of Cheon Il Guk here on earth. The same is certainly also true for our elder Brother Young Jin Nim who could have done so much for the realization of God‘s Kingdom on this earth if there had been more foundation of protection from our side. The death of the second eldest son in True Parents‘ family led to many elder members repenting deeply about how they had lived their lives so far. Most of us are probably aware that the sudden passing on to spirit world of his most beloved elder brother led to great inner changes in the life of Hyung Jin Nim. Hyung Jin Nim he wrote of the change in his book, A Bald Head and A Strawberry. May this unexpected death of our elder Brother Young Jin Nim also move many of us to deep repentance and a change of heart towards more seriousness in our concern to protect the center of God‘s providence, which is represented by our True Parents‘ family. This is my prayer along with my hope that we learn the given lessons from the past for the sake of achieving what we could not put into practice yet until now. Sincerely yours, Nikolaus Ihre erste Baustelle? Wissenswertes für Bastler und Hobby Handwerker. 50

Learning from the past for the sake of the future

Nikolaus Beutl Letter 5 of 5, December 29, 2007

My dear brothers and sisters, We are all dedicated to conclude this jubilee year in God‘s providence victoriously as we prepare for God‘s Day 2008. In this respect I would like to encourage everybody not to miss having a look at Father‘s recent words offered at the time of Hoondokhae as they are indeed helpful to set the priorities right in our hearts. For example, on December 24, 2007 Father encouraged us to invest ourselves completely until January 13, 2013 by leading a public life: ―During these 6 years invest your sincere efforts and everything you have got. So far, True Parents have walked their path to tread the path for you. Therefore, no matter how thorny and difficult it is, go this way to save your nation and the world. Remember, this is the task you are destined for.‖ Father asked us to feel ourselves fully responsible as we move into the era of liberation and complete freedom, the era of safe settlement and universal unification, ―Now each of you has to take responsibility.‖ as we align ourselves with God‘s and True Parents‘ words. We are to unite with the True Children and together with them inherit everything from our True Parents. Another important point refers to establishing the Heavenly Tradition, which has not been achieved so far. Father asked us not just to believe in the ideal sinless world of God but to accomplish it because this is our calling and responsibility. Father telling us that ―The whole world should be connected to you.‖ means nothing less than us having to connect to the world as we build the ―new Kingdom of Heaven.‖ Please allow me to offer you here one more letter of reflection focusing on what kind of attitude our beloved True Parents would like us to have, especially as we make the final preparations for the highest holy day of the year. On that sacred first day of 1983 Father explained: God’s Day is the ultimate celebration of the year. Before you come to God’s Day, all your ungodliness must be repented for and swept away. You must repent if you have quarrels among your family and you must cleanse these things and create harmony before you attend the celebration. The Bible teaches that before a person makes an offering to God, he must first go and settle his differences with his brethren; otherwise, he is not worthy to make that offering. This is exactly what I am telling you. Do you think the teachings of Reverend Moon this morning are just my own, or are they principles straight from the Heart of God? They are pure, genuine principles. When you

receive these principles, do you accept them with a totally obedient heart? There is no room for exceptions. It is nature’s law that when you are hungry, you need food; when you are sleepy, you need sleep. By the same token, when you are spiritually imperfect, you need the right principles to live by; it is by principle that your spiritual hunger can be satisfied and you can be made whole. We are speaking of the most supremely important principles of all. This is what our True Father asked us to consider on the first day of 1983. As he continued in his God‘s Day morning address he expressed his serious concern: Since 1978, the rules of the Unification Church have been somewhat loosened; I couldn’t feel confidence in even the leaders. I have been observing what the Unification members are doing; from 1983 on we are going to tighten up. There will be no more halfway-type living in the Unification Church. Shall we do this? We shall pledge to God that we will be worthy of attending this God’s Day celebration without any shame or pain in our consciences. That is the way we want to prepare ourselves, isn’t that right? Before bedtime tonight, you must make a covenant between God and you. Tell Him, ‗God, I pledge to You that I will fulfill my promises. Please help me to accomplish these things.‘ Once you have made a covenant with God, nothing must stop you. Even your husband or wife should not stop you; your own children, or even the entire world must not stop you. No matter what, you should fulfill that covenant. When you move straightforwardly toward your goal, you will give great delight to God; but if you take a zigzagged way, God will not be with you. Think about yourself and repent: you always remember your own birthday, or your spouse’s and children’s but how much did you do for God’s Day? What have you done to remember God? These are certainly appropriate questions for us as we entered the last three days of preparation for the highest holiday of the year. Of course the external preparations are very important but we have to invest even more into the inner aspects. His understanding about which attitude is required in order to find the deepest love of God is expressed in the following lines from his sermon on New Year‘s Day 1983: Everybody in the church always wants to make a big celebration when my birthday comes, but I always tell them not to. I don’t even want to dress up nicely; I would rather dress like a laborer and spend the entire day fasting. This is because I know precisely the providence of restoration and what it requires. Unless you hit the bottom, you have no

right to climb up to the pinnacle of the mountain. If you really want to taste the love of God, don’t try to go up; instead, dig down to the bottom of life. That is where the deepest love of God can be found, not in the highest place of beauty and honor. That is why I always push you men and women down into the lowest situations of difficulty. Throughout history, this principle has persisted; in order to reach the highest point, you have to go down to the very bottom first. Are you prepared to do that? Usually everybody just wants to take the easiest way to the top looking for loopholes. In that way, they are already caught by Satan’s hooks. Because we want to be free from all evil in this time of complete freedom and liberation, we have to be clearly aware what is required in order to reach such a realm where we can live fully aligned with God under the direct dominion of His love which is now possible in this New Era After the Coming of Heaven. The attitude Father asked all members to have on that God‘s Day may not be easily received by everybody. He asked: ―You must think, ‗Mission is first, second, and third in my life.’‖ How he practices such an mind-set can be perceived when he shared with the brothers and sisters: I always go to the Holy Ground every day to pray at 5:00 in the morning and sometimes earlier. It is not easy for Mother, but she accompanies me. Mother has her own accomplishments; she is only one woman and she has brought thirteen brilliant children into the world. That is very extraordinary and I could easily become sympathetic toward her situation for that reason, but I don’t allow myself to do that. I tell her, ‗You have your accomplishments, but I have my own suffering, too. My path is equally and even more difficult. Therefore, let us move forward without hesitation.‘ About the way Father deals with moments of exhaustion we can read in the following lines: Sometimes I don’t feel very well; I get headaches and soreness throughout my body. Whenever that happens, I push myself harder. Normally people say, ‗I need another two hours rest, perhaps a whole day’s rest, and I’ll be alright tomorrow.‘ However, when I don’t feel well I push my body and say, ‗Get moving.‘ What happens? I find that my pains and headache disappears. Normally I go upstairs around one or two o’clock in the morning, but that is not the end of my day. I often sit at my desk and read reports and work on papers. Often I spend the entire night on that chair. Five o’clock comes very quickly and I always go to the Holy Ground to pray. I can 53

sleep at any time or place. If I sit down for just five minutes, you will hear me snoring very soon. My body is always tired, but I am still pushing myself. Many members think, ‗Father’s body is special. His bones are made of iron and his flesh is not really like everybody else’s.‘ That is the way many people try to justify themselves. A quarter of a century has passed since Father spoke in such terms at the age of 63 and still our True Father is going forward strongly, investing everything day by day. As I quoted above, Father was worried at that time that things have loosened up in our church and he asked for no more halfway-type living. Therefore it is important that we check ourselves honestly to see clearly if we are completely dedicated to the building one family under God through True Love Power as Hyun Jin Nim emphasizes. The motto for the New Year proclaimed after midnight of the first day of 1983 reads ―Home Church Is Our Land Of Settlement‖ — another slogan centered on the theme related to Home Church which represents the key to the practical realization of Cheon Il Guk here on this earth. How serious we should be about bringing the victory in our Home Church activities becomes clear when we read of what was said later on during that night: The accomplishment of this Home Church providence is a life or death matter. When something is so serious, there is nothing you cannot do; nothing should make you hesitate. Husband and wife should go together with their children on their arms, visiting their 360 homes. While you are winning the Home Church area, you will be winning spiritual children as well. You must make your Home Church area a place in which you have a free pass everywhere. You are taking God, the True Parents, your husband and wife, and your children with you. This is the gate through which you must be able to pass. Looking back it may be surprising that already 25 years ago Father spoke about our being able to relate freely to the spiritual world: ―From now on there are no boundaries between spirit world and the physical world. You can communicate freely back and forth.‖ Today, after all the precious foundation established centered on Heung Jin Nim and Daemonim, it can be more easily believed that such a direct connect is indeed possible. We should really include the spirit world fully into our daily life, using their support by calling on our Blessed ancestors and especially the members of the True Family who moved on to the other world already. The change in the spirit of our church which our True Father has been hoping for can be sensed when looking at these lines:

This year should not be the same as those in the past. This year should be different. All you leaders must be aware of the responsibility you are bearing to mobilize everyone this year, without exception. Without this attitude, you will not have your settlement but will always be wandering like gypsies, not only in this life but also throughout eternity. When you enter the spirit world, you will not be able to be near me unless you succeed. In the Christian faith, no matter how much they believe they can only go as far as Paradise. By the same token, unless you fulfill a certain program here on earth, you shall enter only into a paradise level of existence. In that place you will receive all kinds of accusation from those closest to you—your own spouse, your children, and so forth. They will complain, ‗Why didn’t you push me harder while we were on the earth? Because of that, we didn’t work hard enough for Home Church and we couldn’t enter the Kingdom of Heaven.‘ I want you to understand that the accusation of Satan is painful, but the accusation from your own spouse and children is even worse. You cannot truly love and embrace your spouse and children without doing your mission. Father concluded his midnight address appealing to everybody present: This is the reason I have given my entire life, day in and day out, to accomplish my mission. This morning, since you know the truth and you know the slogan, let us pledge to Heaven that we shall march forward to the accomplishment of this slogan and achieve the victory this year. Those who make that pledge, raise your hands and say Amen! You have made so many pledges in the past, but this particular one shall not fail. With that attitude of determination, raise your hands again. Amen! Thank you. How important it would have been that we elder members did not fail to live up to Heaven‘s expectations during that year can be easily understood by the fact of the most beloved son of our True Parents Heung Jin Nim becoming an offering at the end of 1983. At the beginning of his God‘s Day speech Father asked: You received a powerful message early this morning already, beginning at midnight, so do you think you need any more messages today?‖ Father gave the appropriate answer: ―Most people celebrate holidays with lots of food, such as cookies and cakes; we celebrate with lots of words— the word of God! Physical food, when you take in more than a normal dosage, will always give you a problem with your stomach, but what about an overdose of the word of God? It certainly doesn’t give you stomach trouble!

Allow me to mention here that there may be those who feel that the reflections I offer at this time contain an overdose of serious quotations, difficult to digest, but there are surely also those who receive my letters with gratitude, responding with comments like the following: Your message is filled with True Love and Liberation. It is a ‗Heavenly Push‘. Thank you so much for all your investment…‖ During his sermon Father asked everybody to consider God’s situation who is very much interested in observing the audience and their reaction to these words: God is thinking, ‗I know the people in this audience have been having particular problems and discouragement, so I hope this message will renew them and bring them back closer to me.‘ Therefore, God has an intense interest in you, the listeners, and also God knows precisely where you are spiritually. He has been hoping and thinking, ‗My son and daughter have not been doing too well; I hope they can become a new man and woman from listening to Reverend Moon this morning.‘ He is watching closely what goes on here, every minute during this sermon. From these words it is clear that our Heavenly Father has been longing for us to become new men and women through receiving his word from our True Parents. What I am offering you in my reflections are core statements of our True Father related to the heart and mind we should embody as we go forward to build a new world, the New Heaven and New Earth which had been prophesized already 2000 years ago. About the different ages Father mentioned: ―All things represent the Old Testament offering; the children represent the New Testament era; True Parents become the Completed Testament era offering.‖ This means that True Parents stand in a position of an offering along with their family and they need therefore our special protection and complete unity with them. Concerning this task Father explained: While you are here on the earth, you must attend the True Parents in your daily lives. If you fail to do that while they are on the earth, when you enter into spirit world you will be accused by everyone there. The life we lead here on the earth is for the purpose of creating a truly Proper offering to God. You must see everything, at all times, as connected with the love of God. All the material things you use must be seen as having that connection; your children are connected and you, too, are connected. That is the way you must look at

them, every minute of the day. You must look at every day as the preparation to welcome the parents into your home. You must prepare your things, your house, your furniture and together with your children, you should be ready to welcome the parents. When True Parents come to visit you, they will feel completely at home and completely united with you. Father defined the one way possible for us to pursue in order to reach unity with our Creator: We have only one way directly to God—through the way of true love. Once you truly fulfill the position of restored Adam and Eve, you will take all the things of creation under your care and connect them to the love of God. Then there will be no more boundary between God and you. The very reason I am teaching this principle today is that I have the obligation to nurture you and make each of you a Heavenly person while you are here on the earth; this is your only opportunity. Once you pass away, you have no more chance. This is the very time to become a Heavenly person. Meanwhile two and a half decades have passed – time enough especially for us elder members to have become by now truly Heavenly people. Shouldn‘t we at least treat each other in such a way that my brother and sister are the ones destined to be a Heavenly person and therefore I want to support them to reach this goal as soon as possible. I see my sharing with you these reflections on which I have worked many days as my offering for the sake of such a task. Father proclaimed on that God‘s Day that his concern is for one thing: ―How can I connect the true love of God to all things and all people.‖ Would it not be appropriate for us as his followers and heirs to make such a priority also our own and concentrate fully on connecting people with the love of God? Referring to what kind of standard some leaders practice in this respect Father spoke frankly: I feel so much anguish and wrath when I observe the way in which some leaders have actually chased the pure lambs of our membership away. Many members become lost because of the poor demonstration of the leaders of the Unification Church, who are so far away from True Parents’ spirit. For that reason, I am very angry with them. About how Father feels about our general situation at that time can be well understood when we remember what Father expressed two years earlier in his historic Children‘s Day speech in 1981: Today is Historical Children’s Day. What does that mean? God cannot erect His Kingdom alone. God needs a

champion, an assistant to act as mediator. Should God’s children or His servant be the mediator? Would He prefer being served by a servant, or by His children? There must be a unified effort from four directions of north, east, south and west, and we shall be the unifying factor. So far it has been the unification tradition to follow an Abel figure, but how much did we really give the same kind of fidelity to our brothers and sisters? [ http://www.unification.net/1981/811028.html ] Returning to the God‘s Day speech of 1983, the feeling of seriousness with which our True Parents live can be understood when reading how they lived their life expressed in the following lines: This is the way the life of Reverend Moon has gone, day after day, moment after moment. Always I am thinking of only one thing—the salvation of America, the salvation of mankind. Therefore, I declared an emergency. I live day by day in the context of emergency. How about you? You always complain and try to find excuses for yourselves. God does not want that. This is serious. Do you think the same way as I do? When I look at everything from this emergency point of view, how unworthy you are to deserve my attention! This is 1983. At this time, we will decide the destiny of our movement, this nation and the free world. Either we will go down or we will go up. It is up to you to decide that destiny. Because the year 1983 was such an important turning point of our movement I am revisiting it through my reflections at the end of this jubilee year in my desire that we all may be deeply aware of Heaven‘s expectations and respond to it well so that God‘s blessing can be with all of us in 2008. For such a reason I offer you this extensive message rather than just one or two lines with some good wishes for the New Year. I am concerned that we may all lay the right conditions with the right attitude to insure Heaven‘s blessing on our work. Reverend Jenkins mentions in his last video message of this jubilee year two times the point of loving one‘s enemy. He says that there is no other way to world peace than by loving one‘s enemies more than one‘s children and at another point he says that true love means loving one‘s enemy more than one‘s family. How many of us are confident that we are fulfilling this condition which is a prerequisite for peace to be realized on this earth? At the end of his God’s Day speech Father concluded: This God‘s Day we have come here for a celebration, but really we have come for an awakening, a new determination

and commitment. That is the true meaning of God’s Day. In that respect we are celebrating the most important celebration. That is the only way we can make this day worthwhile to celebrate. I am saying all these things today and some people might think I am being very severe. Why am I doing it? I am saying these things because I love you; I do not want you to decline but to become qualified and glorious in the sight of God. Those of you who may have some doubts as to why I offer such a serious reflection at the end of this jubilee year I would like to assure that I am doing it definitely out of love. I share with you what moves my heart as I study our True Parents‘ speeches. I let you know what I am dedicated to achieve in the new year, especially which attitude I try to put into practice. Father‘s final words of his God‘s Day speech were: In 1985, the forty years of Unification wilderness period will be over. But we have to shift into high gear starting today; next year will be too late. This year is the determining year. Those of you who say, ‗We will not let you down. We will do it!‘ raise your hands. Let us all say, ‗Amen!‘ Once again, let me see your raised hands. Thank you. This means that Father was so serious because we stood at a decisive moment in God‘s providence. Seen from the fact that the thousands of years of God‘s work to restore His children is coming to a grand finally during these years until 2013 is surely reason enough to do a thorough check up to ensure we have the right attitude, especially as our True Parents are longing that we really take full ownership of the providence and even shorten it by reaching our goals earlier than 2013, which True Mother mentioned just some days ago. Let us therefore inspire each other to do our very best, sharing our personal inspirations with each other, giving our Heavenly Father the chance to touch our hearts through our brother or sister who is reaching out to us. May we all be victorious together united in heart! Sincerely yours, your brother Nikolaus

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