Chapter 2 The Unification Movement in Korea

 

 

 

 

 

1975 - The Realization of the Kingdom of Heaven

 

 

Reverend Moon gave the motto The Realization of the Kingdom of Heaven on God's Day morning which marked the beginning point of the third seven-year course, and also signified that seven years remained until the end of the 21-year course. He spoke on the meaning of the third seven-year course.

Reverend Moon emphasized the fact that the realization of the Kingdom of Heaven must begin from the individual and expand throughout the family, tribe, nation and world. He said:

"The realization of the Kingdom of Heaven is possible, no matter where one goes, when the mind can extend substantially and horizontally, starting from the individual to the family, tribe, race, nation, and world, and when the world's people realize one common heart.

Because I have become the center, the universe comes with me to the world. Ultimately, the messianic ideology for the whole world will itself emerge and become the source of all responsibility. It will have the subject outward to the objective world. Then the Kingdom of Heaven will be substantially realized."

Reverend Moon also shared the following on January 5, while speaking on the third seven-year course:

"This third seven-year course is the time when the forces of evil will go down and when the forces of goodness willow rise up, and the time when the spiritual and physical worlds will intersect with each other... You should amass good results so as to become a model standing on this point of intersection, and be the vanguard in building the super-highway on which humankind advances"

To briefly summarize the character of the year 1975, one could say it was the year when Reverend Moon established the model foundation to begin the third seven-year course by connecting the heavenly fortune manifested on the front line of the worldwide mission centering on the United States with the providential history of Korea.

Reverend Moon returned to Korea on December 29, 1974, and stayed until February 10, 1975. Thereafter during the year, he was only in Korea from March 26 to April 15, from April 23 to June 28, and from December 27 to December 30. Reverend Moon's long term stays in Korea in recent years can be attributed to the significant position assumed by the church in Korea in relation to the beginning of the third seven-year course.

Above all, with the engagement ceremony for Korean members beginning from January 8, there were high expectations and excitement about the Blessing Ceremony that was to be held for the first time in five years (on February 8).

At the same time, Reverend Moon advanced his work, announcing a plan to hold a Day of Hope banquet in the Chosun Hotel on January 16, and sending out invitations. The response being even more favorable than expected, the banquet was successfully held with many dignitaries attending.

Seven hundred dignitaries including II-kwon Chung, speaker of the National Assembly, Minister Do-sung Shin, chairman of the then Cultural and Information Committee, In-su Yuk, Suk-chong Lee, Rak-seo Sung, Kyung -san Son, Bong-rae Lee, Hang-nyung Lee, Byung-jik Lim, Myung-kwon Min, Tae-sun Park, Chul Paik, Yong-wan Kim, Sang-myung Pae and Sang-ho Shin were among those who participated.

The banquet began with a prayer (Reverend Jong-sik Hwang), congratulatory speeches (II-Kwon Chung, Duk-shin Choi, Do-sung Shin), and a report (Col. Bo-hi Pak). In his after-dinner address, Reverend Moon spoke on the theme "Existing for Others."

Subsequently, it was announced that the Blessing Ceremony would be held on February 8. Reverend Moon presided over an engagement ceremony in Tokyo from January 20 to 22 and returned to Korea to engage members from many nations including Europeans, as well as the remaining Korean members.

At the Blessing Ceremony 1.816 couples, including 892 couples from Korea, 811 couples from Japan, 111 couples from America and Europe, and 2 couples from Taiwan, were blessed.

After arriving in Japan on February 10, Reverend Moon held a conference for prospective missionaries at the Japanese church headquarters. He selected ninety-five nations in which to establish church missions, and decided to dispatch three missionaries??one each from Japan, the United States, and Germany?”to each mission country. The number of nations having Unification Church missionaries thus exceeded 120 in number, and the Unification Church emerged as a truly international religious body, the religion of the Completed Testament spreading the word of God throughout the world through the service of the missionaries.

This was a most significant event, the first occasion of its Kind in the twelve years since Missionary Bong-choon Choi began his mission in Japan. Missionaries Young-oon Kim, Sang-chul Kim, and Bo-hi Pak did missionary work, and those who had been witnessed by them became missionaries themselves in some forty nations, spreading the word in their mother countries and the hometowns of relatives.

However, new missionaries were sent to former mission countries from which missionaries had been expelled, and to nations without any missionary presence.

Representative of the efforts to engraft the victory in America onto Korea were the Day of Hope tours. The Day of Hope tours were held in all fifty states, and included the 7-city tour that began in New York City 1972, the 21-city tour of 1973-1974, and the 32-city tour the spring of 1974. The celebrations reached their climax at New York's Madison Square Garden on September 18, the first venue of the fourth tour, this time of eight cities.

Including the events in London and Essen, festivals were held to declare the Day of Hope in seventy cities around the world. Three hundred members of the International One World Crusade had arrived in Japan by a chartered jumbo jetliner on January 15, 1975. They began the work of declaring the Day of Hope in seven cities within three months, with its climax at the Tokyo Gymnasium. Finally, 673  members (including three hundred members from the team in Japan) of the Global Team from twenty-six  nations arrived by ferry in the port of Pusan?“in the dreamed-of motherland of faith ?“on March 27 and April 1.

The Day of Hope festivals in Korea were successfully staged, starting in Pusan on April 1 and covering nine cities in total by May 17. Reverend Moon gave his message under the title The New Future of Humankind, preceded by music, traditional dance, and  a video presentation. This was a substantial event of deep significance: a feast of words garnished with music and dance, and a brand new kind of outreach in Korea. These were the largest public events the church had held. It is significant that this revival movement was instigated in Korea by members who, having received God's word, came from overseas to the very nation in which it had first been declared.

The World Rally for Korea Freedom, which took place in Yoido Plaza on June 7, was an event of unprecedented scale and significance. In the first place, despite only eighteen days of preparation 1.2 million people participated. By contrast, for example, only 400,00 attended Evangelist Billy Graham's rally for which two years preparation had been made, and no more than 500,000 visited Expo ??4. In the second place the event was sponsored by just one religious body, namely the Unification Church, without outside assistance, while seventeen other religious organizations actually tried to hinder preparations. In the third place, it had profound significance in the providence of God. Finally, its holding was at an opportune time.

At a time when the situation in South Korea, surrounded by enemies, was like a candle flickering in the wind, God Himself, by virtue of the fact that the providential will has to be accomplished through Korea, successfully held this vast rally by sending spiritual representatives to denounce Satan and to demolish his collaborators with spiritual power. Furthermore, it was an event upon which the will of the members of the Unification Church all over the world was concentrated for the sake of the protection of the motherland of their faith.

The construction of district churches reached its peak in 1975, with 135 churches completed that year. This remarkable achievement is credited to Han-su Kim, director of the construction headquarters, along with the efforts of the 1,800-couple blessed wives, centering on the church leaders.

Significant events of the year also included publication of the Sekai Nippo in Japan on January 1, the first daily church-related publication.

The debate between Unification Church representative Reverend Jae-suk Lee and Reverend Young-kwan Park representing the Christian churches, took place at the YMCA public hall as  curiosity about the Unification Church intensified.

On September 20, the Unification Theological Seminary (UTS) was founded, granting master of religious education and master of divinity degrees.

On December 18, Reverend Moon, invited by both the United States Congress and the Senate, delivered a second address, this time on the theme God's Plan for America in the Caucus Room of the Capitol.

Notable days this year also included:

January 26: Reverend Moon began a tour of the districts.

April 29: Establishment of International Women's Federation for Victory Over Communism     (IWFVOC.)

May 1: Chong Hae Won Sik (Ceremony for the Total Dissolution of Resentment),     Chungpyung Lake.

June 27: Appointment of world itinerary workers.

June 30: Simultaneous nationwide revival meetings held.

September 23: First 120-day workshop.

December 9: Reverend Moon received an honorary  doctorate from Ricker College.

December 17: Reverend Moon granted an interview to News week magazine (columnist     Jack Anderson).

 

 

 

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