The Era of New Creation

From Rev. Hwang’s sermon given at the headquarters church in Cheongpa-dong on July 18

I recently visited China. On June 16, the Family Federation was officially established in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in China. This is the result of True Parents’ endeavors, which go back thirty years. Until last year, the U.S. was Korea’s greatest trading partner; today China is. China is beginning to establish intimate ties with Korea. Many of our people have worked to lay a foundation for success in relation to China.

Following the establishment of the Family Federation in China, I was invited to participate in an education program. In my presentation, “Where China Should Be Going,” I talked about the providential perspective.

In an example about Western society, which has already reached an advanced stage, I explained that the spiritual civilization of man is withering away amidst material abundance. I tried to warn the Chinese people, who are currently heading towards material abundance. I told them that the coming of great abundance or improvement of external conditions is utterly meaningless if one is not healthy in mind and spirit. What is most important is whether our minds are healthy-whether we have hope. I told them that all the phenomena that are occurring today are providential and historic phenomena for a new creation that will build a new world of hope. The Chinese participants were very pure and thirsting for truth.

It was an invaluable experience for me to find that there still are countless people throughout the world who are fervently waiting for the truth that holds the true life of God. I would like to ask you all as well to rediscover your mission and responsibility and do your best in the field.

Dearest, beloved members, our standard of judgment for our thoughts lies in the providence. You must diagnose and observe the world from the viewpoint of the providence. In order for us to have that kind of providential mindset and judgment we need to have eyes that can correctly view the providence. All the many works of God evidenced throughout history have enabled us to have the eyes that can correctly see the true path today.

Two days ago, we had a rally at Blue Sea Garden in Yeosu. Rain had been forecast for that day, but it did not rain. Instead we suffered under the hot sun. As a person in charge of the preparation of providential events, I always worry about whether it will rain or the sun will shine. But all such concerns can be resolved if we change the way we think.

This is similar to the Israelites who in the course of their departure from Egypt and entry into the land of Canaan complained and were dissatisfied with every little thing, complaining because they had no water, and then again because they had too much to eat. As a result, they had to wander in the wilderness for forty years, and they had to be reeducated through hardships.

The same can be said of us today. Just by tilting the angle of our thoughts, everything can seem to be irritating or troublesome to us. We are filled with complaints: “Why do True Parents ask us to come all the way down to Yeosu when we are quite fine here?” or “Why do we have so many of these exhausting rallies?” or “Why are there so many things to donate for?”

Consider the Christian churches. Many believe that they are saved through their faith; the prevailing view of faith today is to just think about salvation and do nothing. If you are also following this path with that kind of mindset, I’m asking you to change it. Please look deep inside yourselves and repent. How can we guide the age into a new providential future if we are filled with complaints and discontent?

A new age, a new responsibility

Dear members, True Parents are at the center of providential history, but they do not engage in the providence alone. As they create the eternal, ideal world, we are the fourth Adams who carry the fruits of their labors. We are the tribal messiahs of the original ideal of the Creation. This speaks of the homogeneity between True Parents and ourselves.

If we, with this status, can engage in an all-out effort centered on and in unity with True Parents, the creation of a new future will be achieved for sure. How can we be dragging our feet in the back when True Parents are at the front, battling against hardships to expedite the providence?

How can we become the central figures of the providence? How can we take leading roles in creating a new future? Now, in the age of the fourth Adam, which was ushered in through bone-wrenching indemnity by our True Parents, we first need to have a solid mindset of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience in order to fulfill our responsibilities as tribal messiahs.

Dear members, I have been attending True Parents for these past eight years since my appointment as president of our organization. Never before have I seen them so sincerely engaged in supervising the providence.

One example I can give you is that on a normal basis, True Parents’ day ends well past midnight-usually one, two or even three in the morning. At times their days end earlier. Yet Father has never once said to turn off the light, since he stays up alone in prayer. These days, whether it is late or early, True Parents send us off first and often remain seated in the living room. Dear members, aren’t you curious as to why they do this? I was also curious and quietly observed what they were doing. I found out that after everybody had gone, they would remain there alone to pray. Seeing this, I was deeply moved; at the same time, I felt guilty.

True Parents are investing their lives completely, treating a day as if to give it the value of a thousand years, for the sake of a new future. Through this, they have brought an end to the time before the coming of heaven and have brought about the complete settlement of the time after the coming of heaven. In order to have an eternal and unchanging world of peace take root, True Parents are investing and devoting themselves completely.

Father has said that we should stand together faithfully with an awareness of God’s providence. This year, he is unveiling the concepts and activities that will begin the era of new creation.

Let us take a brief look into the providential history that has unfolded in 2004: The crowning of the king of peace was held on March 23 at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington D.C. Of course, True Parents already were the Messiah, Savior and king and queen of peace, but through that crowning, they have acquired a status that is in keeping with the providential course toward the original ideal of creation. Since then they have been creating a new era with their authority and power as king and queen. True Parents are bringing about the providence that will create, on the smaller level, unity between an individual’s mind and body, and on the larger level, the unity of all nations, of the world and the civilizations that have been splintered. Ultimately, this will lead to unifying the spiritual and physical worlds into a single whole under God. That is the authority of the true king of peace.

True Parents designated Ahn Shi Il (“Day of the Attendance of Safe Settlement”) for the new age, and for each Ahn Shi Il until now, Father made important declarations that were in line with the new age. We find the proclamation of Ssang Hab Shib Seung Il on May 5, the first Ahn Shi Il. And as of May 1, the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the church, Father has made a distinction between the time before the coming of heaven and the time after the coming of heaven.

On May 13, the second Ahn Shi Il, Father officiated the Rally for Harmony and Unification of the Yeongnam and Honam Areas. That rally was not simply for the harmony and unification of the two regions, it was a rally to promote the harmony and unification of all that is internally divided. In his speech that day, Father proclaimed to all that all living beings on the earth lived under the principle of the way of living for the sake of others.

On May 21, the third Ahn Shi Il, Father presided over the Rally for the Declaration of Absolute Values for the Sake of Harmony and Unification. Father revealed that “the peace and unification of true love is the absolute value system for the true ideal family,” and proclaimed the unchangeable, absolute message that “the peace and unification of love is the basis of the family, and that family expands to become the world.”

On May 29, the fourth Ahn Shi Il, Father abolished the concepts of Cain and Abel. After first doing away with the age of restoration through indemnity, Father said that on that foundation there is no more Cain and Abel.

Dear members, why did the Cain-Abel conflict come about? Originally, they had a relationship of elder brother to younger. So why the emphasis on Cain and Abel? It was because of the laws of restoration through indemnity. By doing away with the era of restoration through indemnity and mankind’s CainÐAbel-type conflict, True Parents have now established a new order in which everything stands in the position of goodness-the elder son is good, the second son is good and the elder brother and younger brother are no longer divided into good and evil but are both good.

On June 6, the fifth Ahn Shi Il, Father said that “Yeosu is our headquarters.” This means that the headquarters and center is wherever True Parents are staying.

On June 14, the sixth Ahn Shi Il, Father proclaimed the “Completion of local outreach (tongban gyeokpa),” and on June 22, the seventh Ahn Shi Il, “The Realization of a World of Peace through Cross-cultural Marriage.” On June 30, the eighth Ahn Shi Il, Father designated and proclaimed “Cheon yo-il” [simply translated: Heavenday]. 

Do you know what Cheon yo-il is? Until now, a week comprised seven days, but from June 30, a week now comprises eight days, including Cheon yo-il, the existence of which True Parents proclaimed, and which is to come between Sunday and Monday. In designating Cheon yo-il, Father explained that heaven stands on a foundation of all things-the sun, the moon, fire, water, wood, metal and the earth.1

On the ninth Ahn Shi Il [July 8], Father declared that now in the time after the coming of heaven, with all the things on earth existing under the kingship of God, we must attend God in the proper manner. He was emphasizing that this is an era of justification through service and attendance.

On July 16, the tenth Ahn Shi Il, Father proclaimed the “Advent of the Revolution of True Heart and the Era of True Liberation and Complete Freedom.” This was indeed a stupendous proclamation that expresses, in a nutshell, the future world that fulfills the ideal of the Creation.

This year Father has talked extensively about the three great revolutions. First, Father indemnified the past through the revolution through indemnity. Second, Father revived the original mind through the revolution of conscience. Third, Father established the revolution of heart on the level of perfection. On the foundation of this revolution of heart, the era of liberation and complete freedom has now begun.

Beloved members, this time is one of sudden changes in the providence. A stage never experienced before has come. The question is how intensely we are aware of this.

Soberly we must confess that we have not poignantly felt the advent of the new era. This comes from our tendency to fall back on old habits. Our conscience has been numbed by the many changes we have experienced in a short period of time. The problem is in our thinking that this is another change that will go by like other ones....

The past was the process of re-creation. Please remember that we are not in the process of re-creation any more but are in the process of becoming new creations. “Re-” and “new” have very different meanings. 

Please remember the teaching of old that “Crops cannot be harvested in autumn unless the farmer plants seeds in spring.” Let’s live with that kind of attitude in this era of the providential spring.

Everything that was planted in the past was not for the sake of the future, but, rather, for the sake of solving the problems of our ancestors. As a result, the deep pits have been filled, and a level plane thus created. The seeds that we plant on that foundation will become the fruits of the future.

1 The days of the week in Korean, beginning with Sunday, are named after the sun, the moon, fire, water, wood, metal and earth.