Keeping the Promise
Reverend Won Pil Kim Speaks at UTS


Reverend Won Pil Kim, the first disciple of Reverend Moon, visited UTS on the afternoon of April 9th. The following is an edited version of unofficial notes taken by UTS student Mark Snell.
I think you know many of the old stories already, so today I would rather focus on important points that can help you to understand True Father more. In the early days, many attended Father because God called them. However, even though those people received revelations from God, they did not know logically why that happened to them, according to the Principle.
When Father was first arrested, it was a Sunday morning when people were preparing for Sunday Service. Even though Father didn’t say anything to us, some spiritualists said that we should come to church the night before, to prepare to receive God’s word. In that type of situation, Father was arrested. I was arrested also, along with True Father.
The spiritualists thought that 2000 years ago, the disciples were arrested but because of angelic help, the jailer was blinded and the disciples could escape. Therefore they thought that since Father was the Messiah, then surely God would blind the jailer. Why didn’t this happen? This negative thinking grew, until the spiritualists separated from True Father. Father said spiritualists are like blind people following the sound of a bell in the darkness. The sound of the bell is God’s word, so as long as they hear that, they will follow. If the ringing stops, they won’t know where to go. Therefore, they should stand on the base of the truth. There are many episodes in Father’s life which demonstrate the importance of standing on the base of truth.
In Heung Nam Prison, we know Father suffered a lot from starvation. Even healthy people could not survive there for more than seven months. We heard Father gave half of this food to other people for one month. That half was a gift from God to enable Father to survive for 5 years. After one month, Father started to eat all of the food. In this way, he trained and strengthened himself. In that kind of situation, Father witnessed to one person in the prison. This person denied Fathers word three times, but God gave him a revelation, so he became a disciple. That person was Mr. Pak, as you know.
Now this is an important story. Mr. Pak afterwards became the leader of 2000 prisoners. When he was given that assignment, he thought he should consult with Father first and he informed the commandant that he had a teacher he had to consult. He asked Father if he could accept that position and Father said yes, so then Mr. Pak gained power in the prison. Though he was only a prisoner, he could arrange food and jobs. Therefore he asked Father whether he should give the easiest jobs to him. Father rejected his offer, and instead asked for the heaviest job in the prison. Father took that work, and so was awarded the “Best Worker” title three times.
When you hear this story, you might think Father was different from us. Please remember that Satan took Father into prison. The prison was the place where he could use his power to kill Father. No one knew Father in the prison, so if Father were killed, it could be blamed simply on sickness. We should realize that even in that situation, if you make a condition Satan cannot use, then he cannot touch one hair of your head. This is the point. So in the situation of no food and heavy work, Satan wanted to hear Father asking for more food or less work. He was expecting Father to say such things, but Father gave half of his food away, thinking the remaining portion was a gift of God. Father thought, “Heavenly Father loved me, so he gave this food to me.” So when he started to eat all his food one month later, then he thought, “God loves me twice as much now.” Thus Satan was thwarted.
2000 years ago, Satan tested Jesus through the 40 Day Fast. Satan gave up at that moment, in terms of tempting Jesus with food. God told Mr. Pak that Father was the Messiah. Then God put him in a top position, and Satan used that point. So when Mr. Pak offered the easiest job, Satan tried to make Father think that this was from God. But Father rejected this offer, and instead chose the most difficult work. This is a very important point. Whenever Satan tries to test us, he is going to try to use Divine Principle or God’s word. Satan is so clever. So Father separated from Satan like this, and thus gained victory. Since Father rejected those temptations, Satan could not touch Father anymore.
God liberated Father from prison, but Father motivated God to do this. If Father had any condition through which Satan had invaded, he could not have been liberated from the prison. This is a common test in our daily life. Suppose you are fasting. A spiritualist may say, “God told me you don’t have to fast.” Then what are you going to do? We have to always understand the Principle centering on God and True Father. Heung Nam was like many similar experiences in Fathers life.


Keeping the Promise
As you know, Father went back to Pyongyang for 40 days after being liberated, and visited all the members. Father’s family was living not far from Pyongyang. But he never visited his family. It means Father loved the Cain tribe more than the Abel tribe. Father knew in prison that his Pyongyang followers were falling away, but he never thought they were betraying him. He thought that they became like this because he was in prison. He thought that if he was in Pyongyang, this kind of thing wouldn’t happen. So he prayed 3 times a day for those members.
So then he began meeting them. He said “I came back alive.” Whether they followed Father or not was their own responsibility. Father’s responsibility was to inform them he came back. Father is really a principled person; even if people don’t believe in Father, he believes in them. Though others may break their promises, he will keep his.
Usually, if we have a 20-year friendship, if the friend betrays you, the relationship will be broken. Father was not like that. Everything started from the first promise between God and man. Between families and nations, it all started from the promise. When you don’t keep the promise, then war occurs. Look at Father’s standard of love. We sing holy songs, but some of the authors of those songs already left the church. So in our case, we wouldn’t want to sing that song. We would throw it away. But Father didn’t want to do that. Why not? If one person keeps the promise, then what happens? Even though the other person breaks the promise, if one keeps it, the promise-breaker may return, or another better person may come to replace him. Why is that? If you give 10 and the 10 didn’t come back, but you determine to keep giving, then your love is higher than before. Therefore, if another person comes, that person will be a better person.
Adam and Eve broke their promise to God. If, at that time, God also broke the promise, there would be no salvation. Why is the providence for restoration possible? The reason is that God kept the promise, and never gave up. Do you understand? Therefore, the third Adam is much better than the first Adam.
The authors of the holy songs loved those songs. However, Father loved the holy songs more than the author loved them. Everybody has an original nature and wants to come to the person who loved them the most. We want to make that person my own subject. Nobody loves the universe more than God and therefore God is the subject. Though the author of the holy song left the church, if you ask the holy song who should be its ruler, the song will answer, “Father.” Therefore the song became Father’s song, not the song of the person who left the church.
If Father abandoned the holy song, this would mean Father abandoned God. Therefore, if someone leaves the church, if that person really loved something, that heart will remain. Therefore, we have to keep his work. That’s a very important point to remember. We have to understand this aspect of Father’s thinking. Whenever Father sees people, he thinks “That person is standing on the foundation of his ancestors.” Based on their good ancestors’ actions, they are standing on a historical foundation and they could be guided to True Father.
Then such a person came and worked hard together with True Father, but then he left the church. Still, the foundation he and his ancestors made remains. If we cut off everything, then we cut off all kinds of good foundations from God. So you can cut the bad evil foundations, but if you cut good things, you will be cut. So this is very important, and you have to be very careful. So though people left Father, he could not cut them because their good foundation remains. That belongs to God. You need to understand this.
Father is always looking at us with an unchanging heart and mind. Because of this, because Father has faith in us; even though people left the church, they can come back. That’s the point I wanted to make. In the outside world people respect the wealthy, and mistreat beggars. Father doesn’t make these external distinctions. Father is always looking at people from God’s viewpoint. We say many times we attend God and True Parents. An important point we miss is that Heavenly Father is attending us. This is our great misunderstanding. To understand this point, let me tell you a story from 2000 years ago.


God’s people must gain recognition
Why did Jesus have to die? The people didn’t accept him and therefore, he had to die. If he was recognized, why would he have to be killed? Therefore, being recognized is very important. Because Jesus was not recognized, Jesus had to tell his disciples not to spread the fact that he was the Messiah. If you are not recognized by the people and you say you are the messiah, you will be killed. In the same way, after being blessed, we have a wife and husband relationship. If we have children, we have the title of father and mother. If you bear children, actually that is only a title. You have to become parents, you have to become a wife and husband. We have to be recognized by each other.
What does it mean to be recognized? When a husband says “There are many wives in the world, but you are the first one for me,” that is recognition. There are many husbands in the world, but you have to be recognized as substantial by your wife. When you are not recognized, the possibility for divorce exists. Even in the relationship between parents and children, if parents or children don’t recognize each other as the best, the relationship can be broken. After your blessing, that’s only a name or title. You have to become a real blessed family. Even signing a membership card doesn’t do much. You must become a real, substantial Unification Church member. Unless God and True Father, who established the Unification Church, recognize you, you are not really a Unification Church member.
Jesus’ three year ministry was the process of gaining recognition. 12, 70, 120 disciples represented Judaism and the world and he loved them with this attitude. Whenever he spoke to a disciple, he spoke about his own experiences of God’s guidance. Therefore, before the crucifixion, when Jesus gathered his disciples, he himself washed their feet. He showed through this that that he loved and served them symbolically as the Messiah. This is why he told them that they had to show true love toward all people.
Think about True Parents and True Father. 50 years ago, because of God’s revelation, we attended Father. At that time, what kind of love did Father give to his disciples? He gave true parental love. That means he loved them like True Parents. The message is, therefore, that you also have to love people with true parental love. You can’t say that if you only give servants love, you expect them to respond to True Parents love. Through serving people through true parental love, eventually Father could be recognized as the Messiah. Before that, he couldn’t say anything. So the people who received that kind of love could recognize him as the Messiah.
This is why Father was able to announce his messiahship in 1992. He proclaimed the identity of the True Parents. Before that moment, it was all preparation; that was the Eight Stage Indemnity Course. Unless we are recognized by people, we can’t act like that. So in our Blessed Couples, we make many mistakes like this. You have to be recognized. Therefore, you have to love totally with the attitude that “I’ll live for you or die for you.” Our couples must love like this.