Inaugural Assembly Interreligious and International Peace Council
The New Elimination of Boundaries and World Peace
Founder’s Address, Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon
October 3, 2003, New York City, U.S.A.
Respected guests, as humanity experienced many trials and wars, both large and small, over the past fifty years, it has relied on the United Nations as the only institution capable of resolving issues on a global scale. The world we live in today, however, has reached a point where the United Nations, as it currently exists, lacks the power to successfully deal with all the challenges it faces. We also know that the United States, though it may boast of being the world’s most powerful country, does not have the strength to solve the problems of the world. We must conclude that political, economic, and military might are by themselves inadequate to this task.
Today I would like to take this precious opportunity to speak on the topic “The New Elimination of Boundaries and World Peace” and convey to you Heaven’s message for this age. Truly, this is a joyful, historic, and providential declaration, being made before the hundreds of billions of people now living on earth and in the spiritual world.
On every level today, boundaries cause division and conflict. If we could eliminate all the boundaries in this world, a world of peace would inevitably come about. We must remember who owns the boundaries that exist in the world today. Clearly, it is not God. It was the Devil, Satan, who first created boundaries. Wherever a boundary exists, the Devil and his agents are around. This is a result of the human Fall, through which our first ancestors switched their lineage, causing evil to emerge alongside goodness.
Consider the East and the West: we see that boundaries between these cultural spheres have emerged and that the Devil is encamped there. It was Satan, not God, who created these boundaries, by digging all sorts of traps and enmeshing people in racial discrimination, evil cultural practices, evil traditions and an evil history. God’s desire is for a world of goodness and unity—a world of oneness in which all humanity lives as one great family. Could boundaries exist in such a world? In a world without boundaries, there can be no enemies. The word “enemy” implies the existence of boundaries.
When we love our enemies and become one in heart with them, the boundaries between us collapse. That is why God’s own strategy has always been to love His enemy. There can be no greater strategy than this. This crucial fact has escaped humankind’s understanding, both in past ages and in modern times.
Today, I tell you clearly that God’s strategy for our salvation is for us to love our enemy. You and the adherents of the Unification faith who have followed me until now are the representatives of history and of the current world. You now know Heaven’s remarkable secret. Now all you have to do is adopt this principle, practice it, and thus become true men and women. Do this, and you are sure to become key players in bringing about a world of peace.
Respected guests, when and where are boundaries formed? They form where our heart finds something to be disagreeable, where our body finds something to be disagreeable, or where we find our own actions or words to be disagreeable. When our five senses lead our mind and body into disharmony, boundaries of all sorts come into being. Please take a moment to consider all the different kinds of boundaries, large and small, that fill our lives.
If you set out to practice the maxims, “Don’t have enemies” and “Don’t create boundaries,” there may come a time when you will have to pluck out one of your own eyes. This is because it is possible to have two kinds of eyes. If one eye says, “Oh this is nice, and that is nice,” and likes everything it sees whether good and bad, then a huge boundary will form between that eye and the eye that sees everything as God does. The same is true with our hearing. On the one hand, we like listening to words of goodness and truth; while on the other, we also listen to the evil words of the world and conform ourselves to them. When we do this, we create boundaries in our ears.
When I established the Unification Church, I did not forbid members to listen to popular songs, even though many Christian churches forbade such music. The issue is not whether the music is a popular or classical piece, but whether the content of a particular song can be properly digested. Good and evil are not determined by the kind of song it is. The question is rather whether singing a particular song eliminates a boundary or creates a new one. If a person can build a bridge of true love that is pleasing to God, it does not matter what kind of song he sings, whether it is a popular song or even a song in some exotic language.
From this perspective, the fact that the boundaries found in your environment are the result of sensations received through your five senses, as well as everything that has been passed down to you through the ladder of historical tradition, means that it is not by your own choice that you find yourselves in Satan’s domain. In other words, if there were no boundaries in our lives, we could stand on God’s side. Please remember that Satan is a ruler who has used every means possible to create boundaries in our lives, and that God is the king who hates boundaries more than anything else.
As you know, the Korean peninsula, where I was born, is still divided between North and South near the 38th parallel. Those who like having this division along the 38th parallel are on Satan’s side, while those who offer their lives to fight for its elimination are the champions most pleasing to God. If all 70 million Koreans were determined not to leave this division in place, even at the cost of all their lives, the unification of the Korean peninsula would be accomplished automatically. This will not be an easy task.
Wherever such a “38th parallel” exists, Satan is the lord, and wherever a 38th parallel is eliminated, God becomes the lord. For this reason, the members of the Unification faith who follow me are engaged in a reform movement to digest and remove all of humanity’s 38th parallels, that is, to eliminate all boundaries.
When the day comes that people all over the world are eager for their sons and daughters to marry the children from present or former enemy countries in bridge-building “exchange marriages,”1 everything created under Heaven will automatically be unified as one.
Respected guests, this message from Heaven is my gift to you today. Let me remind you again: Wherever there is a boundary you will find Satan’s kinfolk living; wherever people live in harmony and peace without a 38th parallel, there you are certain to find God’s kinfolk—true people of goodness who have inherited God’s lineage.
Respected guests, I am now very interested in developing the leisure industry. There are places around the world where millions of people would like to pursue leisure activities and even go to live. Whether they are near an international border or in a desert, such places should become peaceful areas that all humanity has common access to. They should be administered through a new international and interreligious organization on a par with the United Nations. To accomplish this global task, I have already proposed to everyone who follows me that we collect a Total Living Offering Fund, to be placed under the newly created Interreligious and International Peace Council.
During the Old Testament era, animals symbolizing all of creation were sacrificed as substitutes for human beings. We read in the Bible2 that animals, representing all creation, were cut into two parts and their blood was drained. The left half represented Satan’s side, and the right half stood for Heaven. This procedure symbolizes how the struggle over ownership has been carried out. When Jesus, God’s only-begotten and first-born son, came to earth and shed his blood on the cross, he too was divided into two, in that his physical body was claimed by Satan, while his spirit returned to God. This separation of his spirit and body came about due to humanity’s disbelief.
After his ascension, Jesus said he would come again because he must once again assume bodily form. The tragedy is that because the spirit and body of Jesus, God’s only-begotten son, were separated, the spiritual world and the physical world remained divided. Jesus came for the purpose of healing the divisions between men and women, and between mind and body, which have been divided against each other. For the purpose of reunifying them he claimed the right of ownership in the spiritual realm, but he must come again to earth to claim ownership of the earthly realm as well, thus to unite the two realms together. What will he do when he comes? He will marry in a way that establishes the inheritance of the true lineage, and thereby create a true family.
Satan, who had seized the physical body of Jesus, God’s first-born son, continued to hold possession of the earthly world, while God held the heavenly world. After going to the spiritual world, Jesus spent two thousands years preparing the path. He has been working in the spiritual world to bring the minds of everyone there to focus in one direction, and he has worked on earth to establish the Christian faith. Christianity, however, became divided between Catholicism and Protestantism. They became adversaries, fighting each other like the brothers Cain and Abel up to the present day. The model of Cain and Abel shows how conflict has been one aspect of history’s development. The first-born, in the position of Cain, has tended toward the side of Satan, while the second-born, in the position of Abel, has tended toward the side of Heaven. In the midst of this, people increasingly adopted ideas and concepts that resulted in the creation of boundaries. We must free everyone from all these.
The Lord who comes again will establish a unified Kingdom of Heaven. He will establish a unified country on earth that fulfills the ideal of the biblical nation of Israel. He will establish a new model of marriage that creates oneness for the first time between heaven and earth, and between man and woman, who have been fighting each other throughout the millennia. This marriage is what the Christian faith refers to as the “Marriage of the Lamb.”
Historically, the period immediately following the Second World War was an excellent opportunity to unite the spiritual world and the earthly world centered on Christianity. The Christian cultural sphere was in the ascendancy everywhere This was the best opportunity for Jesus to come again on the earth, together with the Holy Spirit. He could have stood as the victorious supreme leader of the unified Christian cultural sphere on earth. Then, with himself as the groom and the Holy Spirit as the bride, he could have initiated a new marriage that would have resolved the problems of humanity that stem from the struggle between mind and body and between man and woman. The chance was there, right after World War II, for everything in God’s creation to be elevated into the heavenly kingdom of peace. This is not a vague or ambiguous notion.
Who was supposed to be the first couple to marry according to God’s ideal of creation? It was Adam and Eve. Unfortunately, Eve fell, and then Adam fell; and this resulted in humanity becoming ensnared by thousands, even tens of thousands, of boundaries. But when three things happen—the walls that originated with the Fall of Adam and Eve are torn down to level the land, man and woman are restored to the positions of Adam and Eve before the Fall, and they are married anew—God and our ancestors will feel happy. They will be dancing. The resulting world will be the Kingdom of God on earth.
Yet this has never happened in human history. People have remained slaves, entangled and oppressed within countless boundaries. They have lived their lives groaning in agony. If we could only find the answer to the question of how to abolish all boundaries, it would be the first step toward peace for humankind. Yet until this moment, humanity has lived in ignorance. Now, I have appeared on this earth in the capacity of a True Parent. This is the first time in history that this has been fulfilled. I am providing this answer, and giving the new Holy Marriage Blessing, in the presence of God, to all good men and women and for all to see. Although this world may be divided up by a million boundaries, they do not pose a problem for me; they can be eliminated easily. How can it be done? By practicing true love. However, it is impossible to eliminate them unless we know God completely and stand in the same position as He does.
In the spiritual world, there is hell and heaven. We can compare heaven to the daytime and hell to the night. How can a person who has not experienced both day and night exercise control over the borderline between heaven and hell? There is no way. Only a person with that knowledge can naturally come to exercise control. Only a person who knows with certainty the content of hell can wipe away the darkness.
God is omnipotent and omniscient, so He is able to wipe away the darkness. The problem is for us to come to know God. How well do you know God? Does He like money? Does He like power? Is He only interested in knowledge? If God were like this, we could not be certain of humanity’s eventual liberation. It is only when we know God fully that we can banish Satan completely and bring total resolution to the problem of boundaries. We need to know by what method God will resolve the age-old problem of boundaries. This is important.
Since God is the Lord of the universe, shouldn’t there be a neighborhood and a kingdom where this Lord lives? If we are to know God, then we must develop a relationship to Him as His beloved counterpart and then go in search of that kingdom where we can become members of His royal family.
When there are all kinds of boundaries dividing everything up, it is by eliminating those boundaries that we can set about creating a world with which God can be happy. When this is done, all creation will want God to dominate us directly. People everywhere will want to be liberated from the rule of the Devil, which has brought oppression and anguish under the weight of countless boundaries.
Respected leaders, it is most important that we know God and the spiritual world with certainty. If you do, you will be able to work out how to deal with any situation in which you find yourself, regardless of the time or place. You will be able to adapt to the tradition and culture of any country.
God definitely exists, and lives in Heaven. How can it be, then, that our present world is divided by countless boundaries? In our world nonsense passes for truth. There is no one who knows God correctly. There is no one who knows Heaven. More specifically, there is no one who knows the content of Heaven’s tradition. Were we to know about these with certainty, a realm of liberation would emerge both in the spirit world and on earth. All we need to do is become true people who understand Heaven’s secrets about how to immobilize Satan. Then we should learn how to live in a culture and tradition that aligns us with the heavenly law.
A true person is one who embodies true love, who lives for the sake of others rather than loving others selfishly for his or her own sake. Such a person acts to enable the people he or she loves to also possess true love. A true person sacrifices everything for the sake of his or her counterpart, to enable that person to dance in true love and live within true love. Such people become the heirs of Heaven. Heaven loves them and protects them. Satan cannot lay a finger on an heir of Heaven.
Can you go beyond feeling anger at the sight of an enemy killing someone you love, and instead live for and truly love that enemy? If so, you can rule the world of your enemy. Satan will automatically withdraw. The world of your enemy will come to respect and serve you. If you live for the benefit of those around you and love them to a greater extent than you would your own children or parents, Satan will automatically flee. God will come and fill the gap left by your loss, and repay you thousands of times over.
What did I say is the secret to forcing Satan to run away? Become a person of true love who is determined to live for the sake of others, die for the sake of others, and love for the sake of others. No matter how determined he may be, Satan has no choice but to abandon his boundaries and flee from the presence of such a person. And before he runs away, he must first tear down the boundaries.
What would happen if this occurred? With Satan gone, a process of eternal life would unfold: all those countless numbers of people who had been traveling the path to hell would turn around, 180 degrees, and ascend to the heavenly kingdom. They would be given the blessing of eternal life.
By becoming a true person who knows God with certainty, knows the spiritual world with certainty, and practices true love for the sake of others—which is the traditional philosophy of Heaven—you become qualified for the first time to call God “my Father.” It is only at this point in the Parent–child relationship that the lineal connection is made; and it is only through this lineage of Heaven that the logic and tradition of eternal life are decisively and inseparably instilled in you.
Eternal life is a fundamental attribute of true love. When God created the universe, He did so with the standards of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. Please understand that even though the world may change or even pass away, God pours out His true love for eternity. Hence, there is no being in existence that does not come under God’s governance or does not attend God as the absolute, unique, unchanging, and eternal Lord. God created us to have eternal life. When we become His sons and daughters and are one with Him, His kingdom becomes our kingdom and God becomes to each of us our personal God. God is the Lord of Heaven. Therefore, when we are one with God in our daily lives, and there is no room to doubt that we are His sons and daughters, it will be only natural that we will enjoy eternal life and immortality. Here is the truth in the paradoxical statement, “Those who seek to lose their life for the sake of Heaven will live, and those who seek to live for themselves will die.”
In eliminating boundaries, we must eliminate the boundaries within the United Nations. We must eliminate religious boundaries, ethnic boundaries, and even the boundary between hell and heaven. These boundaries originated with the false parents,3 so no one except the True Parents can eliminate them. Even God cannot eliminate them, because He did not establish them. Satan absolutely will not do it. Who can bring an end to the conflict between Satan and God that has continued throughout history? Because it began from a mistake made by the false parents, only the person who comes as the True Parent of humankind can set it right.
Distinguished guests who are concerned about the world and deeply desire peace for all humankind:
In this time, when the fruit of all human history will be gathered, Heaven has sent me to this earth as the Savior, Messiah, Second Coming, and True Parent of humankind. I received Heaven’s command at the age of fifteen, and I have followed it ever since. My life of more than eighty years has been focused on just one purpose—to complete the Kingdom of God on earth and in heaven that God has longed for since the beginning of time. I have experienced all manner of persecution so unimaginably intense that the six billion people on earth today would not be able to endure it even if they joined their hearts together as one. Even in the midst of that, I stood on the standard of absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience to God and completed all restoration through indemnity for the sake of humankind. The power of Satan has now been completely eradicated from the earth.
Now a new world is opening up. I have already founded the Federation of Island Nations, the Federation of Peninsular Nations, and the Federation of Continental Nations in the spiritual world and on earth. Not only that, although you were unaware of the fact, we are already in the third year of the Peaceful Universal Homeland4. The lost realm of the first Israel has been restored, and I have announced the start of the “Nation of the Fourth Israel” in a declaration before God and the universe. In the spiritual world, five great saints and 120 billion newly blessed couples are united around my absolute standard. They are standing at the forefront of this effort to build a world of peace.
Your mission now is to engrave into your memory the meaning of what I have declared today, “The New Elimination of Boundaries and World Peace.” Please return to your communities and be the first to practice true love in your family, society, nation, and world for the purpose of building the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and in heaven. I believe that you will devote your full efforts to advance the work of the Interreligious and International Peace Council, which we have created together here today as an organization with the character of a new United Nations.
I hope that each of you will resolve to live with true love, and I pray that God’s blessing will be with you as you return home.
Thank you.
Endnotes
1 “Exchange Marriage” is a literal translation of the Korean.
2 Genesis Chapter 15
3 Rev. Moon teaches that our original ancestors Adam and Even fell and became tainted—hence their designation as the “false parents” from which all people are descended.
4 “Peaceful Universal Homeland” is based on the Korean Cheon Il Guk.