1920: Birth of the Messiah

Chapter four

In the previous chapters we have seen that there were amazing events on and around the day of February 25, 1920.  I would like to tell the importance of a person who was born in 1920.  It is the story of a girl born and raised in China.  Her name was Ruth Bell.  When she was 15, she was, as amazing as it sounds, living a few miles from the spot Jesus gave his mission to a 15 year old boy on Easter morning, 1935.

My letter to Ruth Graham

I was in my 20s when I heard the Divine Principle lectures in a dumpy house in Omaha. I was taught about the providential role of Billy Graham.  I remembered my experience years before and decided to write to him.  I felt a letter to him would never make it because his staff would screen me out.  But I had a feeling that his wife would read a letter from me.  I wrote and told her about the Divine Principle and asked if she had heard this wonderful new truth.  To my surprise she wrote me right back.  I still remember the incredible pain I felt when she told me in her own handwriting to look elsewhere for the Messiah.  I got that letter 25 years ago.  I hope she can hear the Principle in her lifetime and learn God's will.  I will send this chapter of my book to her, but I'm not holding my breath that she can even read this far before throwing it into the trash.  She is old now and I realize that the reality of God's restoration providence is very slow.  If she doesn't open her heart to the truth that hurts, perhaps her children will.  Maybe it will take three generations of the Graham family to see that the Bible is very clear in showing that John the Baptist failed and that God has worked His most amazing, "mysterious way" in sending a messiah who was given his mission a few miles from where Ruth Graham was going to school in one of the remotest places on earth.

John the Baptist asked Jesus: "Are you he is to come, or shall I look for another?" John failed to see the humble Messiah and took his followers and worked separately from Jesus. He expected a glorious Messiah that would come out of the clouds and failed to see that God works in mysterious ways. It is almost impossible for fallen man to see from God's viewpoint. Sadly, Christian leaders have failed to see the new Messiah. The humble and pathetic followers of Sun Myung Moon have had to do what Billy and Ruth Graham have not done -- introduce the Messiah to the world. I am one of those pathetic people.

History constantly repeats itself. What is happening today has happened before. When Rev. Moon came to America in the early 1970s he spoke in every state. He ended his tour in 1974 by giving a speech at Madison Square Gardens to an overflowed crowd of 30,000. His speech was called, The New Future of Christianity. He goes into detail explaining many key passages in the New Testament. Below is a part of what he said about John the Baptist. Most of Rev. Moon's speeches are not only in books but are also printed in full text at several websites such as the one given here that will give you his entire speech.

www.Tparents.org/Library/Moon/Books/Sm-Gww/GWW-17.htm

"'And the disciples asked him, Then why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come?' He replied, 'Elijah does come, and he is to restore all things; but I tell you that Elijah has already come.' ...Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist." (Matt. 17:10-13)

This was a real shock to the disciples. And then they understood, according to the Bible, that Jesus was speaking to them of John the Baptist.

Was John the Baptist Elijah? Yes, Jesus said so. But the people were never convinced. They said, "Outrageous!"

Let us imagine we can transpose these events to our time. John the Baptist of 2,000 years ago was a person of tremendous influence, enjoying great prestige all over Israel as a great man of God -- just like Billy Graham of today, a great Christian leader.

Let us say some unknown young man suddenly appeared and began proclaiming himself to the world as the Son of God. As a student of the scriptures, you would ask him, "If you are the Son of God, where is the promised Elijah?" If this man said, "Do you not know that Billy Graham is Elijah?" what would be your reaction? You would undoubtedly say, "Impossible! How could Billy Graham be Elijah? He did not come out of the blue sky. We all know he came from North Carolina!"

You could not accept that, could you? Precisely this same kind of unbelief confronted our Lord Jesus Christ. People could not accept John the. Baptist as Elijah, simply because he did not come from the sky. The people of 2,000 years ago were stubborn in their belief that the prophecy of Elijah's return must be fulfilled literally, that he must come from the sky. They were the victims of the letter of the Old Testament.

John the Baptist, man of failure

Yet Jesus Christ continued to preach with power and authority in spite of scornful public opinion. The people could not dismiss such a man lightly. They wanted to be sure of themselves. So they decided to go to ask John the Baptist himself and settle their questions once and for all. They asked John,

Who are you?' He confessed, he did not deny, but confessed, 'I am not the Christ' And they asked him, 'What then, are you Elijah?' He said, 'I am not.' 'Are you the prophet?' And he answered, 'No.' (John 1:19-21)

John the Baptist denied everything. He said, "I am not Elijah." He even denied the title of prophet. Everyone knew and recognized him as a prophet of God, but he said, "I'm no prophet." Why? He evaluated the situation and knew that Jesus Christ was treated by his own society as an outcast. Jesus seemed to be a loser, and John decided not to side with Jesus. He thought it would be much better to deny everything.

By doing so, John the Baptist pushed Jesus into a corner, making him seem a great impostor without defense. After John's denial, Jesus had no further recourse on this point.

Then why was Jesus crucified? First, he became the victim of literal interpretation of the Old Testament. Second, Jesus was rejected and finally crucified because of the failure of the mission of John the Baptist. We can read in Matthew that John the Baptist, waiting in prison to be beheaded, sent two of his own disciples to Jesus to ask the following question:

'Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?' (Matt. 11:3)

Jesus did not get John the Baptist as his mediator, and Rev. Moon did not get Billy and Ruth Graham to be his mediator. The Bible says the first shall be last, and the last shall be first. Jesus' followers were the "last" in society. Rev. Moon's followers are also the "last."

 

 

They are so ridiculous it would be funny if it wasn't so tragic. Nevertheless, Rev. Moon has pushed his ragtag little group to do their best to teach the Divine Principle which the Grahams look upon as being as filthy as Rev. Moon's followers. Thankfully Christian leaders have progressed from burning heretics to supporting Rev. Moon's freedom of speech and religion. But they have one more hill to climb. They must study the Divine Principle and change their beliefs 180 degrees. The official teachings of the Unification Church is called Exposition of the Divine Principle. Everyone should buy, read and accept this book. I have written my version called Divine Principle In Plain Language: The basic theology of Sun Myung Moon. You can read the entire text of my book at my website, www.DivinePrinciple.com  

Ruth Graham

God was preparing her to be the wife of Billy Graham, the most famous Christian evangelist of the 20th century.  We learn in the Divine Principle that contrary to the traditional teachings of Christianity, John the Baptist failed in his mission to be the liaison between the people and Jesus.  He separated from Jesus and went his own way.  He did not know his mission and became one of the reasons Jesus was not accepted by the people of Israel.  God had raised the Israelites to be the chosen people.  God had put them through 2000 years of spiritual boot camp and when it came time to accept the humble man who said he was the Messiah, they rejected him.  John the Baptist was respected.  If he had traveled the world with Jesus and introduced him, people would have accepted Jesus as their savior.

John the Baptist

John the Baptist was the 2nd coming of Elijah.  The people, including John the Baptist, thought Elijah would come in a miraculous way, such as out of the clouds.  But God never works that way.  His messengers of truth are always the last person you would choose.  No one was smart enough to see that God works in mysterious ways.  And you can't get more mysterious than having a carpenter in a small town from a remote, dirt poor country be the glorious Messiah.

Billy Graham = 2nd Coming of Christ

In 1920 the 2nd coming of Christ was born in what is today North Korea.  God had been working with the Korean people for thousands of years to prepare them to accept him.  And he was working in other countries also.  The Christians were his new chosen people and America was in a position like Rome was to Israel.  Jesus was to go to Rome and guide the emperor to begin the building of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.  First, Jesus needed to have the leaders of his own small nation follow him so that he would look impressive to the Emperor.  God was working in America to raise up Billy Graham as the 2nd coming of John the Baptist.  He was an obscure young man who would become the most seen Christian in the history of the world.  Billy Graham does not know why he has become so famous.  It is because God was working to make him famous, not to witness for the first messiah, but for the 2nd and last messiah.

WWII = Armageddon

God's plan was for Sun Myung Moon to have been accepted by certain key people in Korea after he began his public ministry on the day World War II ended in 1945.  Within seven years he was to have had Korea united with him and been accepted by Billy Graham and world leaders as the Lord of the Second Advent. Hitler was the satanic imitation of Christ.  WWII was Armageddon.  With the Free World united around the young Messiah, they would have created such excitement of a Messianic Age that the Soviet Union would have rebelled against Stalin, and Mao tse Tung would never had risen to power in China.  This means there would have been no Kim Il Sung in North Korea, no Fidel Castro in Cuba, and no Ho Chi Min in North Vietnam.  There would have been no Cold War because there would have been no Communism.  By the year 2000 the earth would have been on its way to being restored to a veritable Garden of Eden because mankind would be one family working in unison to build the ideal world.

The world would have honored Rev. Moon and his first wife as the first True Parents of mankind.  Out of respect billions of people would bow to their picture that was proudly hung on the wall of every home.  There would have been no Korean War and no Vietnam War.  All the tragedies of addictions and family breakdown would not have happened.  Why didn't the Messianic age come?  Why wasn't the young Messiah accepted.  I'm not going to go into the whole story now.  I want to concentrate on the story of Ruth Graham.

It is the norm in human history for God's plans to be thwarted by Satan.  As usual, those who God had chosen to be his leaders do not hear God's message and do the very opposite of what God wants.  Moon was betrayed by practically everybody -- including his wife.

The result of a few people failing to unite with God's will is always terrible.  Abraham made a simple mistake and the Israelites had to suffer for 400 years as slaves in Egypt.  Then they didn't unite with Moses and so died in the wilderness, never seeing Canaan.  Then they murdered Jesus and lost their nation for 2000 years.

Korean War

God had raised Korea to be his new chosen nation.  Like Israel, Korea tortured and jailed the young Messiah.  The nation of Korea paid a terrible price because a handful of people rejected the Messiah.  Like Israel, Korea brought punishment upon themselves.  Actions have consequences.  Without the guidance of the Messiah, world leaders made tragic mistakes that ended with a river of blood in the Korean War.  World events relate to the Messiah.  The Korean War happened because of the mistreatment of Sun Myung Moon.  Americans were sent there by God to rescue him.  Again, I discuss this in more detail in my book The Divine Principle in Plain Language that you can read at my website:  www.DivinePrinciple.com.  This chapter you are reading is from my book 1920: The Birth of the Messiah that you can also read at my website.

Jerry Falwell becomes John the Baptist

God had chosen Billy Graham to be the 2nd coming of John the Baptist. Sadly he never heard of Sun Myung Moon after WWII and became the most famous Christian leader in the world.  And like John the Baptist, he failed to see the humble messiah when he did hear about him many years later.  He failed his mission and God gave the honor to Jerry Falwell.  Falwell has not been able to accept the Divine Principle, but he has been a great man of God for literally hugging the Messiah and being his friend.

Billy Graham was supposed to restore the failure of John the Baptist.  He was a Baptist and didn't know that John was working with him from the spirit world.  Like most people he can't see spirit world and didn't know his mission.  He never heard lectures or read the book on the Divine Principle that would have answered the questions he still asks.  He has said his whole life that he wants to ask God when he dies and go to heaven, what happened at the Fall of Man.  The Messiah knows.  You can read the answer to that question in chapter two of the Principle.

God wanted Billy Graham to introduce the Messiah to the peoples of the world.  He has given many crusades in many places.  America is like Rome that had places people could come by the thousands.  The Coliseum in Rome is like the football stadiums of America.  He was supposed to travel with Sun Myung Moon and introduce him like all speakers are introduced.   John the Baptist was a few years older than Jesus.  Billy Graham is a few years older than Rev. Moon.

America was the most powerful nation on earth in 1945.  Everyone else was weak, including the diabolical Soviet Union led by the Anti-Christ Stalin.  Billy Graham would have been a powerful influence on White America and White Europe.  They would have accepted an oriental man from a dirt poor country.  America was very prejudiced after WWII because the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor and fought a terrible war for four years.  Korea had also been brutalized by Japan for over 40 years.  They had suffered 10 times as long as America and even worse had been ruled by them.

Mediator

Billy Graham's job was to be the mediator between white America that was often prejudiced against other races and had put Japanese-Americans in prison camps during the war simply because of their race.  America at that time discriminated against black people by having them drink at segregated water fountains, use separate rest rooms for "colored" only, and sit in restricted areas of theaters away from the superior white people.

America was sick with racial prejudice and Billy Graham's monumental and providential job was to be color blind and help the Messiah teach them that the way to world peace is for whites to marry blacks and orientals.  Billy Graham was given the charisma from God to accomplish this seemingly impossible task.  When the world saw Billy Graham bow in respect to a slanty-eyed foreigner from a third world country they had never heard of, the Christians of the world would have followed him.

I could give awesome statistics and tell stories from Billy Graham's life of how so many people have found Jesus because of his world wide crusades.  But I would like to give a personal one.  I remember my mother drove 50 miles to take me to see him when he had a crusade in Omaha, Nebraska when I was a boy in the 1950s.  He was a sensation wherever he went.  He was mesmerizing, not only to America, but the entire world.  No one has ever spoken in person to as many people as he has.

I can remember the magic I felt sitting in the stands with thousands of people.  When he asked for those who wanted to accept Jesus to be their lord to come out of the stands and down onto the field this 10 year old boy bolted out of his seat without saying a word to his mother and bounded down the steps to the field.  People were getting out of their chairs and I was flying by them at breakneck speed.  It was like out of a movie for me.  The spiritual giant was far into the field standing alone on a stage at least 10 feet high.  Hundreds, if not thousands, were making their way down the steps and on to the field.  I arrived before anyone and stood all alone at the foot of what looked like God in the heavens.  The bright lights of the field at night shining around him put a surreal glow around my champion of God.

I was out of breath when I finally got to the tower this John the Baptist was standing on with the authority of heaven.  The beams of light contrasted with his blue suit.  I felt I was in heaven walking on clouds.

Then the most extraordinary thing happened to me.  The most famous man of God in the world focused on me.  He put his hands on the railing of his tower in the sky, leaned forward, looked into my eyes with God's pure love and we smiled at each other for what seemed an eternity.  Time stood still.  I couldn't hear anything.  It was just a simple boy from a remote little town getting love from the greatest man on earth.  He was introducing me to Jesus.

I was snapped out of my trance when someone appeared at my side and started talking to me.  I found myself in a sea of humanity.  Some nice person asked for my name and address so they could send a monthly magazine from his headquarters in Minneapolis.  It came every month for a year.  I treasured every issue and read it cover to cover.  If Billy Graham had introduced Sun Myung Moon that night my mother and I would have accepted on the spot.  So would the rest of the world.

If that had happened there would have been no cold war that tortured and killed millions of people in the godless 1984s of Russia, Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Cuba, China, North Korea and North Vietnam.

Like Jesus, the new Messiah had to suffer when the chosen people rejected him.  And countless people had to suffer.  Alexander Solzhenitsyn was one of those countless souls who endured Satan's nightmare because Billy Graham and others did not get the opportunity to accept Sun Myung Moon as the Messiah.  Fifty thousand young men died in Korea and 50,000 more died in Vietnam because Billy Graham and his wife, unfortunately, weren't aware that Rev. and Mrs. Moon were their True Parents.

By growing up in China, she learned to love oriental people.  She was not corrupted by the West.  By going to school in Korea she was groomed to be a bridge between the young, humble Korean messiah and the rich, powerful white nations.  She would have been invaluable as a helpmate to her husband who would have to grapple with the heresy and the skin color of someone so different than the John the Baptist.   Her acceptance of the young Christ from the East would have been as important as her husband's.  Christians have been waiting for 2000 years for the return of Jesus.  They needed Ruth Graham to help them make the jump to accepting what looked like a blasphemer of God.