Sacrifice - The Historical Formula for World Restoration

. ’ God’s original intent was to hcwe one unified world, in which individuals, families,

‘tribes, and nations live together in hannony. Our existing world is not the fulfillment

of God’s ideal, there is disunity everywhere. There are two ideologies, Communism ,

and Democracy, fighting for supremacy; and: on an individual leve I, man 1s inner good

desires fight with his sluggish physical body for the accomplishment of every task. Why

does such a divided world exist from the individual level up to the notional?

Cod is absolute good, and if all men ~re to be ooe with this God there could ( be no divisions. If God is not the author of evil or division, the important thing for

man is to discover the source of dishannony and overcome it •

Hence, the most important thing is to find the individual with his inner ~ires

and his extemal expression or body, both centered on .God and His will. With one

such individual, God ·can show the way for al I men to restore their individual natures

to God. The way to God and the wc.y to evil are very different: self1acrifice vel’5us

self-indulgence. The good or God-centered person wants to give himself out to others

while the evil selfish person wc:nts to dominate or control others. The history of evil

is the history of man is sacrifice of others to achieve his own ends. · The history of

Communism is a prime example of this. ·

God has been showing man adifferent pathway. His first task was to find the one individual who was completely on His side. God ~an use this man as an example for the rest of the world. The first thing that God wanted to show through this man wm to love

’ ·’ ._.,. · , .Speech by Sun Myung Moon Page 2 ;-:· ,’,-’: · · December 21, 1971 )

God and through this love become one with God. The second thing that God wanted to

show was that this man must sacrifice himself for the world.

To truly love God, man must go backwards: he must withdraw from the world,

nation, family, and his material self. This man, because he sacrificed most, will receive

the most love from God. Then, spiritually one in love with God, he moves out of him-

self, family, society, and nation.

To really love your neighbor you cannot put yourself before him. God sacrifices

most those whom He loves most. Evil works the opposite: Satan strikes others to protect

himself and his position. But God sacrifices His own for others.

This one individual who can be the pattern for all others is the Messiah. He

comes not for a porticulor nation but for all nations, He comes to show his own nation

the way to set the pattern first on an individual level, then a family, then a societal

and finally a naHonal level. As nations come together, finally the world will be one

world of harmony •

Now you know what God needs. I want to speak of how God’s providence has

been working for th:s 9001. In the Garden of Eden, Adc:m and Eve should have become

one being centered upon God’s love. When they did not do this, but fell away from His

goodness, He sent them from the ~ arden • Adam and Eve fe It sadness • But so did God •

Our ancestors left God’s presence shedding tears of sadness when they should have shed

tears of gladness. They left with no hope of returning to Him, and so their sorrow was

great. Also ~od had almoi;t no hope of regaining His beloved son and daughter. His

pain as pcrent was for greater than theirs. But He could not step in to save them directly.

Speech by Sun 1\tyung Moon Page 3 December 21, 1971

This wocld have been contrary to Hi~ law of creation. ’ If there had been another son or daughter who had not fallen away from God,:

but hcd c:.kecl God to save the fallen b::-other and sister, God could have immediately

saved fol len Adr!m and Eve • But the fact that Goel hod the deep parental longing to

save His children, formed the bc~is for i·he historical providence of restoration.

To save Cc:in, t·here mu::t be en llnselfish Abel to ask for his brother’s salvation.

To stand in the /hcl position one must be able to receive God’s love. To receive God’s

love one must come out of selfishness and evil • Than, to save the s!·ruggl ir.9 brother,

Abel mu:;t sccrifice. This is tl1e law of Cod’s will.

Adc~m and Eve left c: od shedding tears of sodne55. But thoy shou!d have become ( one bei:ig ccn-i·ered on God’s love. Then they would have been ob!e to cry tears of ioy and

function cs the ccr.trcl example of God’s will for all their descendc;1ts. They then would

have been the Messiah and there would have been no need for a scr✓ iour.

He~ce, the:c th~ee ~teps we will see repeated throughout his~ory:

I. N’.c;, must ccme away from evil and be in the position to rer:aive God’s love,

2. M-1n must shed tears for God end His sorrow, and

3. Man must shed tea;s for his fallen brother and make sac:-ifi cc, for his brother’s

Thfa pr.i~cm we see in Noah’s time. Noah had first to tepamte him’.lelf from evil

and me:-:~ receivins God’s love. He did this by constructing an C!ik for a Ieng period.

During this time he rec~ived much persecution from the villagers. He lcol{ed crazy. He (_ was bui ld!ng the ark on a mountain c;,d in a d=.:. ~2i1’ •

Speech by Sun Myung Moon Page 4 December 21, 1971

But Noah was adamant. He told the people judgment was coming. Why did God

make such a command? Because God wanted people to see a new example in Noah.

Noah went out early in the moming and came home late at night and had no time for his

family. His wife didn’t understand why he needed to do this and she began criticizing

him. As soon cs she started this, the children felt free to criticize. How great must have

been the pain in Noch’s heart to have a family who didn’t understand hi~. No one

bothered to prepare his lunch or fix his clothes, instead, they laughed at him. Noah

bore the persecution of the villagers, but the persecution of his family was for more

difficult to endure.

The more persecution Noah received, the more steadfast became his heart. He

was separated frcm selfishness and evil. If he had resented those who persecuted him and

rejected them, God’s will could not have been done. He had to sacrifice to save those

who persecuted him. Noah had tostand in the position of unfallen bro:·her, Abel, and

ask God to forgive th<Y.le who were still fallen, persecuting him. Noah had to deny

himself completely in order to advance God’s will.

Abraham had the same task. God ordered him to leave the land of his forefathers

and go to a land which God would show him. Abraham had no guarantee, but he left

h:s homeland on faith and wandered from place to place like a gypsy. God led Abraham

to many strange places and put him under great difficulty. Like Noch, if he hod resisted

he would have held up God 1s providence. But Abraham never protested. He always

thought of others. Thus, in direct proportion to his pain and suffering, could God’s love

come to him; and God could promise to multiply his descendants to the number of the stars.

Speech by Sun Myun9 Moon Page 5 December 21, 1971

This path of sacrifice was the. path Moses followed. N,oses lived for 40 years in

t he splendor of Pharaoh’s palace, but remaining loyal to the Hebrews, he came out of

Pharaoh’s palace when he sow the suffering of the Hebrews. The Esyptian whom iY’loses

killed represented his killin;:J of evil. Seeing this act, the Hebrews should have recongnized

his faith in God and they should have had faith in him. · .V\oses was taking the position of

unfollen brother petitioning Cod to save the fallen. But the Hebrews didn’t have faith

in him, they caused him to be expelled to the desert of Midian where he had to sacrifice

even harder so God’s will could be accomplished.

This pottem is visible in the time of Jesus. John the Baptist lived in the wilder- r ness for 30 years. He hod left home and relatives thinking only of Cod’s desire to save ( man • John was concentratin:i on the Messiah’s coming • He was .looking toward the Messiah’s

love • J~hn was to witness directly to this love • Living as he did by begging food he

received great sympathy from e:.:od.

Jesus’ life revealed the some pattern of sacrifice. The Jewish people waited

for 2000 years for the coming of the Messiah. The churches also hod been waiting for

his coming_ If these-two groups.coukU,ove--recognized him and become one with him,

(.:.od’s will could have been done. The!e two Jroups should have worked according to the

will of the Messiah. The Hebrews should have been separated from others and stood on

the same basis as the Messiah. The Jews had to become the nation to receive God’s love

and be the example just the way Jesus wcs the individual example. By forming one nation

around Jesus, Hebrews would have sacrificed their notion for the rest of the world.

But because the Jews did not receive Jesus, he himself hcxl to sacrifice for the fallen

brother. All people at this time were in the position of fallen Adam and Eve.

Speech by Sun Myung Moon Page b December 21, 1971

Jesus prayed for the Hebrews and begged God to forgive them for what they were doing •

Jesus practiced the formula of salvation for all other men. Whoever follows him can rain

salvation • If al I don’t become Christians, then the Christians must go through this sane

path of suffering for other people •

The reason Jesus was crucified was that the church and nation would not receive

him, become one with him • ·God wanted to use him as a powerful exam.pie, but it was not

. possible beccuse Jesus did not have the support and following of the unified church and

state behind him to put God’s will into practice. But the Hebrews failed by being too

proud of themselves as the rulina nation. They did not fulfill the formula of sacrificing

themselves for other notions. By killing Jesus they lost the previlege of being the chosen

notion. Thus Josus had to take the burden of sacrifice upon himself. He had to l!lerifice

himself for the whole world. ?resent-day Christianity is trying to form one world centered

upon itself. But if a spiritual movement centered on sacrifice for the-whole ~mes along,

it will grow more r:;pidly then even Christianity.

This idea of sccrifice is familiar to us from everyday life. If on the job,’ one em-

ployee is willing to do more wo:-k, the boss will advance him, put him in charge of others

so that h~ must toke responsibility if those under him do not come through.

This teaching of sacrifice is Cod’s teaching. I’m for you, we are for the nation, the

nation is fer the world, the world is . God’s • When I become one with God, He and I stand

on the ~ame level. ~ove makes t~~ on_s.. This process of sacrifice is the pathway for everyone

to become one with God.

All people are God 1s children. He loves all so He is sacrificing those whom He

loves most to save others •