Rev. Hwang's Sermon given on December 10, 2000, at the Headquarters Church, during the final weeks before the blessing ceremony. Rev. Hwang read a section from the speech, "A Day When We Welcome the Blessing" (from the section found on page 457 of God's Will and the World).

About forty years ago, there was a boy called Young-suk in Hae Nam, South Cholla Province. All of his friends entered middle schools but he could not. His family was too poor to send him to middle school. He had to carry an "A-frame" to carry wood on his back instead of carrying a bag full of books. He had to climb hills to gather wood in the morning when his friends walked to school and he would climb down the hill in the afternoon when his friends walked back home from school.

One day he prayed to God, "If you allow me to go to school like my friends, I will do anything I can do for You." He constantly prayed like that but he did not receive any answer. So, he finally wrote a letter to God. He wrote, "Dear Heavenly Father, please allow me to study, then I will work very hard for You." On the envelope he wrote, 'To God.' And he put it in a post box.

This letter actually found God for Young-suk thanks to a postman. When the postman saw the letter, he wondered what to do with it. After finishing his day's work, the postman was sitting on Hae Nam Bridge, thinking about the problem, when all of a sudden, he heard a church bell ringing. He ran to the church and handed the letter over to the minister there. The minister brought Young-suk to the church. The church paid the tuition for his education. Young-suk became a well-known theologian in Korea. He was actually my advisor for the thesis I did in graduate school.

God's responses can come very subtly. I was called by God while I was in the army. There were five hundred and twenty new soldiers in the training program. I wanted to do something meaningful without letting anyone know. So, I started cleaning the toilets at five in the morning. Sometimes a tall man would come and help me out. We did not know each other then, but I thought he must be someone special. After the training was over, out of the entire 520 men, only two of us, the tall man and I, were assigned to the same unit. He was a member of the Unification movement and eventually I came to join the movement, too.

All of you must have had this kind of experience, too, to varying degrees. For unknown reasons, God put all of us here on this path. Sometimes, we hear God's booming voice, but at other times, it is so faint we hardly notice it.

Moses never dreamed of guiding all the people of Israel to the land of Canaan. After he left the palace, he spent forty years as a shepherd. God called to him on mountain of Horeb one day. Moses thus ended up bringing the Israelites out of Egypt. God also called Paul in such a way. He appeared to him while he was on the way to Damascus, asking him, "Saul, Saul, Why do you persecute me?" That moment was the beginning of Christianity.

True Father's life of faith also started that way when he was fifteen years old, praying on Myo Doo Hill. Two important goals True Father has worked for until now are to save humanity and to liberate God. The fundamental unit through which to realize God's purpose of creation is the family. When God's will is realized in a family, God's kingdom on earth can come about. On that foundation, God's liberation can ultimately be achieved.

Let me first talk about Father's way to save humanity. True Parents started their family, the unit needed to achieve God's purpose of creation, in 1960, and a forty-year course followed. The realization of God's purpose of creation comes through completing the four-position foundation centering on a family. Providentially, the four-position foundation can be completed through the registration blessing.

There have been many blessing ceremonies, starting from the 36-couple blessings. 1960 was the starting year of the blessing. After many difficulties and hardships, this forty-year providential history was completed through the registration blessing ceremony.

True Parents came to this world to indemnify all the providential and historical sins, and to help the world find God's original ideal. There are times that they take responsibility for us, but there are times that they cannot. They take responsibility for us until the historical junction at which we become true parents ourselves after having been reborn into the good lineage.

We have all the conditions to reach perfection through having received the blessing, tribal messiahship and the registration blessing. We are all descendants of fallen Adam. But we have been changing. We are changing to be like True Parents. Although we are descendants of the fallen Adam, we can change through the blessing and tribal messiahship. True Parents are Messiahs on the cosmic level, but we are messiahs on the tribal level.

The model course for tribal messiahship was Jacob's course. We had to leave our hometown and victoriously make the foundation in the Cain realm and come back to our hometown to be tribal messiahs. Father told us that we were born different from him. However, the more the providence develops, the more we can resemble True Parents. On Chil Il Jeol (July 1st) 1991, Father instructed us to go back to our hometowns. The door was open for us to go back to our hometowns with the authority of tribal messiahs.

Our blood lineage was changed through the blessing ceremonies that started in the 1960s. The next step was to walk the path of tribal messiahship and then to register in heaven as blessed families.

The other goal Father has tried to achieve throughout his life is to liberate God on the cosmic level. What this means is for God to have a nation on earth centering solely on Him. True Parents are advancing the providence to build a nation based on the world's blessed families starting from this year. They are also paving the way to make the foundation for the Heavenly Kingdom to settle in the spirit world on the cosmic level.

We completed the first 400-million-couple blessing ceremony in conjunction with True Father's eightieth birthday celebration in February 2000. We also held successful events for the unification of South and North Korea up until May of last year. At that time, Father told us, "After June, there will be a big transition. We need to pass through a providentially important period until August. In order to traverse that period safely, we needed to hold nationwide rallies for the unification of North and South Korea."

At the time of True Parents' birthday celebration, we hosted about forty events. No one ever expected that Father would require us to hold an additional campaign for North and South Korean unification. But True Parents sternly pushed the providence forward.

They felt heaven's fortune. No one ever imagined that there would be such a dramatic change in the relationship between South and North Korea. We could understand True Parents' providence only after things actually started to happen. In fact, True Father already predicted in February that the summit conference between South and North Korea would be held in June. Father set a time period and made an important condition that ended in August. And then we had the Chusok [harvest festival] celebration in September.

At that time, I was preparing for the ceremony to honor my ancestors in Korea, when True Father called me just a day before Chusok to tell me that I should come to the United States by Chusok, which was the following day. Fortunately there was a seat on a plane.

True Parents held a ceremony which they called the Chusok of Total Liberation from Resentment. It was a ceremony for organizing a new order in the spirit world. On that day, True Parents predicted that there would be a big step forward toward establishing a new order in all spiritual matters on earth at the coming of the registration age. Father set up a new tradition based on the Korean tradition of showing respect toward one's ancestors at Chusok and made a foundation for True Parents to stand as true ancestors in the spirit world. And then they held a further spirit world liberation ceremony in Chung Pyung on October 14th.

The ceremony for the liberation of the spirit world was especially to acknowledge the contributions of all the central figures in history such as Moses, other Old Testament central figures, Jesus, other New Testament figures, and figures from other religions.

After the ceremony, True Parents made a special condition for forty-nine days. In Korea there is a forty-nine day period of sacrificial rites [after someone dies]. For forty-nine days from October 14th to December 1st they made an internal condition, with all their hearts, to liberate the entire spirit world. Then, on December 1st they held a special service at the Hotel Americano in South America. They ended that 49-day condition and then started a 43-day condition, which ended on January 12th. True Parents also asked us to make a special condition for forty-three days from December 1st to January 12, 2001, to prepare for the Coronation Ceremony for the Kingship of God on January 13th. That 43-day condition was to prepare for the providential event that would herald God's kingship settling on earth.

This morning we recited the family pledge. Let's look at pledge number three: "Our family pledges to perfect the four great realms of heart, the three great kingships, and the realm of the royal family, by centering on true love."

The four great realms of heart are the heart of children, of husband and wife, of brothers and sisters and of parents that are the foundation to complete the purpose of God's creation. The three great kingships mean the elderson-ship, parentship and kingship, which Satan stole away and which True Parents have gained back. On that foundation, the royal dominion can settle on earth. It means the ideal of the original world centering on God can be realized.

Father proclaimed the age of Family Kingship at the fortieth celebration of True Children's Day, on October 27, 2000. The proclamation of the age of Family Kingship was possible on the foundation of the registration blessing, which has produced the fundamental units of God's purpose of creation. True Parents held the proclamation ceremony announcing that God's kingship has settled in each family. They said that they would hold a grand ceremony announcing the settlement of God's kingship on January 13, 2001.

Even though we do not substantially feel the changes ourselves, tremendous changes are occurring these days. Some of us might say that they themselves could not see or experience anything of the settlement of God's kingship. You have to know that providential changes do not become visible overnight. The changes are made according to God's law of creation. There are two fundamental principles in that law. One principle is that such a change starts with True Parents alone and expands universally. The other is that such a change starts from the spirit world and then expands to the physical world gradually. Since we are not totally together in heart with True Parents, we cannot experience such changes directly. Our spiritual senses are too dull to experience them.

We have witnessed a lot in the lives of True Parents. They cannot move an inch in a way that is not within the Principle. If it does not benefit the providence, they cannot move even a single step. What do you think it is the biggest contribution True Parents have made so far? What clear mission do they have? What unique authority do they have? The answer is: to give the blessing. No one can imitate, replace, or achieve the authority of giving the blessing. Only True Parents possess that authority. And the value of the blessing is exactly the same whether you are from the 36 couples or 400 million couples. The birth and resurrection you receive has the same value and significance. The most important authority True Parents have is that of being able to bless us. And the value of the blessing is just the same whichever blessing you belong to. There is only one thing that is different. What might this be?

One day we had a service for senior blessed families. A man called Elder Chung from southern Seoul asked me a question. He said that he joined the movement in the early days. Although he was qualified to receive the 430-couple blessing, he could not. The only reason he could not receive the blessing was that he had not been able to reach a fundraising goal. In the early days, the conditions to be qualified to receive the blessing were fasting, finding spiritual children, leading a public life and, it seems, for the 430-couple blessing, reaching a certain goal in a fundraising campaign.

Elder Chung's hometown is in South Cholla province. Because of the cold weather that year, the harvest was quite bad and he could not raise the funds. That was the reason he could not receive the blessing. Of course he did not complain about the fact that he could not join in the 430-couple blessing. What he was upset about was that receiving the blessing in the old days used to require such hard work, but now it is so easy to be blessed. In the old days, blessed couples had to live separately for seven years. He could not understand that blessings these days are also real blessings.

Today's blessings are also real blessings. The conditions upon which one can receive the blessing have changed, however. Why? The seven year separation period was cut down to three, two and then to nothing. What is behind all these changes? The value of the blessing is the same and the principled standard of True Parents is unchanging, so why are there different conditions upon which to receive the blessing? This is because of the change in kingship.

In the past, under the Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula, the biggest sin was for Koreans to love Korea. But after the Japanese left the peninsula, one's love for Korea under the severe Japanese persecution began to be seen as the greatest achievement. It works the same way in the providence.

When Satan holds the position of king, it takes a lot of indemnity conditions for God to restore us. However, once God is the owner, there is no need to set indemnity conditions. Why is the value of the blessing the same, though the conditions to receive the blessing change? It is a matter of whether or not the indemnity conditions are necessary. The change started from the 3.6 million-couple blessing.

In order to confirm whether or not God's kingship has settled on earth, we need to go to the spirit world. Since we probably cannot, we have to have faith. But the more accurate way is to understand it through understanding the Principle correctly. True Parents' lives are a visible testimony of the Principle. We need to understand the providential meaning of the Principle in the very lives of True Parents.

During the year 2000, True Parents completed the course of all the blessings that had begun in 1960, and tribal messiahship, through the registration blessing. On the foundation of the registration blessing, they advanced the providence of liberation to the cosmic level and then will hold the crowning ceremony in January.

As you know, True Parents never missed providentially important moments. When we were only concerned about True Parents' birthday celebration last year, they were far ahead of us, thinking of how to prepare rallies for Korean unification. And when we prepared these rallies to unify Korea, they were already preparing the liberation ceremony for the spirit world. True Father had already talked about tribal messiahship in 1978. But he proclaimed tribal messiahship in 1991, because only then were enough conditions realized. If we had succeeded in bringing the victory in the home church movement and had made the foundation for the hometown providence, Father could have proclaimed it back then, not long after 1978. Since we could not do it, True Parents alone made indemnity conditions and achieved it in 1991.

Father told us, "You are no longer the descendants of fallen Adam and Eve. You can now be the descendants of goodness in the new realm. Therefore, no matter how much you have to sacrifice, you have to be grateful and not complain. You have a mission to liberate the past, present and future. You have to leave a victorious tradition behind you if you do not want your descendants to suffer."

True Parents told us that we are in the same realm as they are. "The center is the same, but the scope is different. Some of us are in the family range, tribal, national or world range. The center you stand on is the same as mine. There cannot be two centers. As I have a worldwide mission, you have the family, tribal and national level missions. You can expand your range to the degree that you invest your effort into it."

True Parents have blessed us and made us realize who we truly are and given us the chance to leave behind descendants of goodness. So, we are responsible for liberating the past, present and future and for making sure that our descendants do not have to walk the path of restoration through indemnity. We are in the same realm as True Parents. However, the scope is different.

Father told us that our starting point was being the descendants of fallen Adam and Eve. True Parents have pulled us up to the same level as theirs, and blessed us, making us able to liberate the past, present and future. Then what should we do for True Parents?

Each family should bring one couple to the blessing. By bringing victory in the blessing, we can make our mark, taking responsibility for a major change in the providence. That is the providential task we are destined to grapple with. Each family must offer another family to True Parents who have devoted their entire lives for the providence. That is our destiny. Our work is related to a time period. It is most gratifying to drink water when you are very thirsty. When you are not thirsty, a cup of water has no value.

In the Bible, there is a story about Jesus drinking water. I am sure Jesus must have drunk a lot of water during his lifetime. But there is only one single record of his drinking water. That was the water given him by a Samaritan woman. That one cup of water was memorable from the point of view of the providence.

Indeed, we do need to be directly connected to the providence. Only then, can our work have true meaning and value. We found spiritual children in the past and will find more in the future. However, I sincerely ask you to remember our grand providential task: each couple bringing another couple as blessing family candidates during this special period of the settlement of God's kingship.

[Originally published in Today's World, January 2001]

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