All people are fallen due to original sin, and it is True Parents' fundamental mission to save them. The centerpiece of this mission is the providence of the marriage Blessing, which eradicates original sin and fallen lineage. The marriage Blessing is the ceremony through which the evil lineage stained by Satan, is converted to the lineage of goodness rooted in God. It is the important ceremony that restores the order of love with God at the center, and eradicates the disordered love engendered by Satan through the Fall. The providence of the marriage Blessing, under the auspices of the True Parents, is the starting point for realizing the ideal of one family under God.
Chapter 1
Overview of the Marriage Blessing
Section 1. Meaning and Value
Lineage and the order of love
In 1960, True Parents opened a new chapter in the history of human salvation through the marriage Blessing. The marriage Blessing is of great significance, because it replaces Satan's lineage with God's, and recovers the order of love rooted in God. The Blessing benefits society by offering the opportunity for people to enter into cross-cultural marriages, which contribute to the realization of one world under God by breaking down barriers between nations, races and religions.
1 Originally, if Adam and Eve had reached the perfection stage in the Garden of Eden, they would have received the marriage Blessing. However, due to the Fall, the marriage Blessing centered on God was not realized. Therefore, God had to work through 4,000 years of history to raise up the Israelites, to whom He sent the Messiah. He intended to give the marriage Blessing at the time of Jesus, but again the marriage Blessing was not realized. As a result, the providence of the Blessing had to begin anew at the advent of the Third Adam, upon his laying a successful foundation in the nation and world. The marriage Blessing of the Third Adam was a historic event. From the creation of the world until then, there had never been a time when God's love, life and lineage were tied together. (215-273, 1991/02/21)
2 Adam and Eve, who were the ancestors of all human beings, fell due to false and immature love. Based on self-centered love, the archangel intervened in their relationship and caused the Fall. As a result, God was in exile and Adam and Eve banished. By introducing a love connection that was not permitted by God, humankind came to bear original sin. It is the enormous responsibility of humankind to remove this original sin. Because humanity was born from false parentage, unless a love connection emerges that is from true parentage, this original sin cannot beremoved. In order to remove the false love and original sin that were sown by false parents, True Parents must create a new foundation of love. (035-215, 1970/10/19)
3 Adam and Eve lost their foundation to establish absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience to God when they entered into a false marriage. As a result, they turned their lineage upside down, lost their realm of ownership, and their family came to ruin. Thus, the restoration of lineage is needed. The pure love of Adam and Eve as True Parents should have been passed down eternally through their lineage. However, Adam and Eve married without establishing a pure lineage, so we have to restore the absolute lineage, the realm of absolute ownership, and an absolutely pure heart through the Blessing. (269-096, 1995/04/08)
4 I know clearly about God and the spirit world. I also know how important God's nation and lineage are. The purpose of the Unification Church marriage Blessing is to restore that lineage. Due to the wrongful marriage of the false parents, the world fell into ruin. But in the name of True Parents, it is possible to return to God's original nation by creating the realm of lineage and connecting it to God. For this reason, becoming a blessed family is a truly remarkable thing. With the Blessing, I have given you the ticket to enter heaven. (337-157, 2000/10/25)
5 Once Adam and Eve had attained perfection, God would have blessed them in marriage and He would have become one with the body of Adam and Eve. Their becoming one in true love would have allowed God to have an embodiment on earth, to have an object partner, and to form a family. This can begin only when the love of the invisible Heavenly Father and the visible Heavenly Father become one. That connection was to have been made through Adam and Eve's first love on their wedding night. Centering on love, heaven and earth, man and woman, God's life and human life, God's lineage and human lineage are united. Because Adam and Eve would have represented the invisible God in the flesh through their lives, God's presence in the human world would have been substantially manifested in the child, husband and wife, and parents. Through Adam's family, God wanted to have His lineage realized in our families. The love, life, lineage and conscience of the invisible God should have been one with the love, life, lineage and conscience of the visible God in humanity. This unity is realized through marriage. (286-017, 1997/07/01)
6 Originally, the Blessing enables the father and mother to bequeath their love to their sons and daughters, as well as the love of a couple, of children, of a family, of a nation and of the world. The holy marriage Blessing of unfallen Adam and Eve would have meant that God became the vertical Parent and bequeathed the ownership of everything in the cosmos to His children. That is the significance of the Blessing. Blessed families should not think of the marriage Blessing as an ordinary marriage of a man and woman. You should know how serious it is to receive the Blessing. The ideal of True Parents existed before the creation of the world. Before God created humankind, He had the concept of True Parents at the center of creation. In order to complete the ideal of True Parents, all things in heaven and on earth came into being. (286-087, 1997/08/09)
7 Centered on true love, everything should unite into one. Unity cannot happen in isolation. In order for two things to become one, the relationship has to be level. When children become adolescents, boys look for girls and girls look for boys, and they come to unite with one another on the same plane. Thus, they will meet in the center. In that center, God will come down through the straight vertical line of the tradition of love. Therefore, the center of love at the wedding ceremony is God. The invisible God, who is the root of love, resides at the center of Adam and Eve's wedding, and heaven and earth unite as one. Their wedding ceremony means that the Heavenly Parent and the earthly parents are united as one, centering on love. The place where God can reside is the place where man and woman become one. God, the internal character and form, enters into Adam and Eve, who represent the external character and form, and these two worlds become one centered on love. (286-088, 1997/08/09)
8 The goal of the Unification Church is to establish the right order of love and to unify the world. What is the most difficult thing in terms of unification? Unification can be achieved by force to some degree. However, force cannot settle the world of love, which is based on internal character. Love cannot be taken by force, nor sold for money or knowledge. Love can be exchanged only for something true. Therefore, both men and women search for true love and when they move, it should only be to pursue true love. (229-182, 1992/04/12)
9 In the Garden of Eden, Adam, Eve and the archangel started a family without heeding God's commandment. Thus young people today, who are descendants of those ancestors, do not listen to anyone. Such is the time we are living in. The Fall in the Garden of Eden is the origin of free sex. What was sown there is bearing fruit today throughout the world. Young men and women fall in the very same way as they did in the garden. The value of human beings has fallen lower than the value of animals. In order to get physical satisfaction, people act like animals.
10 The reason the Unification Church has to give the worldwide marriage Blessing is to help couples prepare for central missions when the age of the family comes. The Blessing ceremony can be given to people from more than 100 nations at once. These people are our brothers and sisters. I see them as our siblings. I do not see them as foreigners. By giving the Blessing to everyone, we will have representative families worldwide. When all families follow True Parents, the parent-child relationship will be formed, and this means there will be families that accomplish the four-position foundation and have a reciprocal base with True Parents. Therefore they can inherit everything from the victorious True Parents. Then, to pass all this on, you need to go back to your family as tribal messiahs. (232-266, 1992/07/10)
11 It is the marriage Blessing in the Unification Church that has established a new family culture transcending race, nation, culture and tradition. Within the realm of the heavenly nation, all countries are included in "one world under God." The Fall of humankind led to the gap between mind and body, the gap between husband and wife, and the gap between parents and children. It was within the family that the Fall took place. It means that Adam’s family fell. Everything was lost through the Fall of that one family. For this reason, we have to find one perfect family. (260-184, 1994/05/08)
12 The unity of the world as a global family is essential for heavenly fortune to come. Astonishing developments in science and technology bind humanity together through a revolution of information, communication and transportation. Thus, international cooperation is needed and a shared commitment is necessary in order to protect the Earth s fragile environment. But what can bring the power to change people’s tendency toward selfishness and their attachment to a self-centered perspective of the world? What can fundamentally resolve the problem of nations competing to satisfy their own interests?
13 Cross-cultural marriage Blessings began between Koreans and Japanese while their countries were still enemies. Historically, for Koreans it was unthinkable to consider cross-cultural marriages; the mixing of bloodlines was something they would die before doing. Through cross-cultural marriages that transcend nations and continents, an integrated lineage can be created. As this lineage transcends national boundaries, no one can block it from expanding. Through the unification of races, the barriers between nations will fall and a new era of cultural exchange will come. Through this movement, unification can come about with the settling of the culture centered on True Parents and heaven. (286-180, 1997/08/10)
True marriage
True Parents said that through the marriage Blessing, we need to establish the traditions of true husband and wife, true parents, true children and true siblings, with true love at the center. They particularly emphasized that true love incorporates the rights of inheritance, equal status and shared participation. So the ideal of the kingdom of heaven can be realized when people inherit the tradition of the true love of God and True Parents through the marriage Blessing and disperse that tradition throughout their societies, nations and the world.
14 According to the Principle of Creation, you do not create your partner. It is God who creates your partner, by the principle that a partner is created by his or her father and mother. Hence, by the principle of re-creation, it is a law in the universe that God, your original Father and Mother, finds your partner. True Parents understand the order of love based on this heavenly principle. Thus, your marriage can be arranged in the name of True Parents under the protection of God. This is the view of marriage in the Unification Church. (083-218, 1976/02/08)
15 Marriage is not for the sake of any one person alone. To love is to complete the top and bottom, and front and back, in harmony with the logic of heaven and earth. It is not for the sake of the man alone, nor for the sake of the woman. It is in tune with heavenly law. It is to make a gown of love that is woven together as one cloth based on a perfect model of top and bottom and front and back. That which is united in love is the core and center of the universe. Therefore, with God's love at the center of the cosmos, the subject partner of love and I, the object partner of love, will follow the path eternally in the same way celestial bodies follow their orbits. Each couple will become like a cell before God, perfecting universal character, with subject and object partners united in one body. (101-038, 1978/10/28)
16 Man and woman were born from love. Thus, marriage is the way for each of us to reach perfection. In order to become perfect, we each need an object partner. The reason we get married is because each of us is only half of the whole, only half of the world. If we compare it to the moon, a man is only a half-moon. In order to become a full moon, the man needs a woman and the woman needs a man. If you demand that your object partner live for your sake, the person will run away, but if you live for the sake of that person, he or she will follow you. (222-098, 1991/10/28)
17 A woman cannot become an owner of love, or make a relationship of love, without a man. A man is the one who completes a woman’s love. A man should not keep love for himself. The fruit of his love should be returned to the woman. Also a woman is the owner who completes a man's love. If you say women were born for women, the women you envisage will disappear within 100 years. Men are born for women and women are born for men. Men and women are born because of God's love. They are born as the object partners of God. To make God the owner of love is not something that can be done by God alone. It is the couple who receives the Blessing who can make God the owner of love. The moment Adam and Eve are married, God becomes the owner of all realms of love. Therefore, Adam and Eve were born because of love. (519-215, 2006/03/04)
18 Many religions guide people to maintain celibacy, but in the Unification Church you will receive the marriage Blessing. There is nothing like the marriage Blessing in all of religious history. You cannot get the Blessing just as you please. It has to come through God's order and by the permission of your parents. This is the tradition. A marriage can happen when it is connected to God and your parents. You cannot get married in just your own way.
19 A marriage is where two people meet God's original standard in order to become one in love. God, the cause, and man and woman, the result, become one, and thus, no one can break this eternal union. Vertically there is God, and horizontally there are man and woman. A man in the East searches for a woman in the West, and a woman searches for a man. As such, they look for each other horizontally.
20 We marry for the purpose of possessing God. We come to possess God because there is a right of inheritance within true love, and therefore in true love God becomes ours. What belongs to the wife also belongs to her husband, and what belongs to the husband also belongs to his wife. Centered on love, we gain ownership. Within love there is the right of inheritance. Also, there is a realm of equal position: The couple go to the same place. They also have the right to participate as equals, which means they can follow God everywhere.
21 The marriage Blessing is for the sake of God and the world. With the Blessing you can love the world and, as the representative of the world, love the person who is closest to you. A woman should love her husband as the representative of her father, husband, older brother and younger brother. A man should love his wife as the representative of his mother, wife, older sister and younger sister. In representing these four positions, we love the person in the position closest to us, respecting each other and stimulating each other to love the world.
22 Marriage is training to love the world. It is also the path to obtain the qualification to love all people. Until now, love was restricted to the family; it was between you and me, and thus it was cut off in all directions, and crumbled like sand. This is how it is in Satan's world. On the other hand, we do not just stop at making a connection between you and me. We go further: We make a connection with the world and between heaven and earth. From here, the kingdom of heaven will be established and the new lineage will start. (037-109, 1970/12/22)
Section 2. Qualifications
The standard and conditions
True Parents said that one should participate in the marriage Blessing ceremony only after working long and hard to become eligible. Blessing candidates should be admired by all people both in the heavenly world and in the earthly world. Additionally, they must fulfill certain basic requirements, such as maintaining purity, attending Divine Principle workshops, witnessing, fasting and offering devotions. True Parents have also said that a couple should commit to one another only after obtaining parental consent.
1 You who are preparing for the marriage Blessing need to critically reflect on your life. Many of you have your own viewpoint about it. You may think, "It is customary in the church to receive the marriage Blessing. I have fulfilled all the necessary conditions, and it has been a few years since I joined, so I ought to be qualified to participate." But you should not think that way. Instead, remember that God has been looking for 6,000 years for sons and daughters who can receive His Blessing. On the Blessing day, God can recover these lost sons and daughters. Through them, the meeting point will be prepared where God's love can be connected. Thereby, the horizontal foundation is made on which God can expand His Will. How many of you are aware, in your hearts, of God's deep yearning to welcome the day of the marriage Blessing? (030-172, 1970/03/22)
2 We know that Satan invaded Adam and Eve. When Satan dominates God's sons and daughters and takes them away, God is robbed of His dignity. Thus, in order to give His Blessing, God must find a couple who can surpass the standard Adam and Eve achieved before Satan's invasion. Therefore, you cannot focus on your own rationale as to why you should receive the marriage Blessing. The marriage Blessing should begin from a place of God's choosing. This is the attitude fallen people should have. If you do not realize this, you will not become mature sons and daughters. If you make a mistake in this area, your descendants and even ancestors will face Satan's accusation. (030-173, 1970/03/22)
3 After you join the Unification Church, you are not allowed to date. The Human Fall involved a love relationship between a man and a woman that excluded God. Separating from God, they kept their love exclusively between themselves. Nowadays people assert that since they live in a free society, they can get married on their own, but this is wrong. If Adam and Eve had not fallen in the Garden of Eden, they would have been married in God's presence. God would have been the officia-tor. When Adam and Eve were young, they were immature, relating only as brother and sister. But as they grew older and became mature, it would have been obvious that they were growing physically, and they would have realized that they were meant to have a conjugal relationship. When the right time came, God naturally would have brought them together in marriage. Their wedding was to have been held in Gods presence. The owner of love is not Adam or Eve. The owner of love is not you. It is God. (042-043, 1971/02/19)
4 Love is one. There is only one husband and one wife in a love relationship. If you have dated and had illicit love relationships before getting married, you should repent. As long as you continue such behavior, you cannot enter the realm of God's love. Originally your first experience of love should be with God. It is important that you separate so completely from your past love relationships that you cannot even remember the names of your past lovers. Even in your dreams your experience must be such that even though it seemed so real back then, now you cannot even remember who it was. Otherwise you are not ready to receive the marriage Blessing. Do you realize deeply that you should love God more than you ever loved anyone in the past? Love the Will to the point that your love for True Parents comes spontaneously from your heart. It is the Principle that you should love God and True Parents first. You cannot maintain the concept of love you had in the secular world. (091-178, 1977/02/06)
5 There are many things you have to get rid of. After you join the Unification Church, you should not think, "I know exactly who I want to marry." People who think this way are still on the leash of Satan's love. You must get rid of that mentality. Just as Adam and Eve, as one man and one woman, were growing up pure, with only platonic love, you should focus on loving God as your Parent, and receive True Parents' love. Once you achieve such a position, the unity of the spiritual world and the physical world is possible. This is the Principle. This is how the Principle works. (091-178, 1977/02/06)
6 In the marriage Blessing, it is heaven and your parents who decide your partner. In other words, Adam's Father, God, should decide who your partner will be. In that sense, the tradition of marriage as practiced in Korea is a method that is very close to heavenly law. In Korean tradition, you cannot get married without your parents' permission. This is absolute. Therefore, if there is someone you come to like, you have to report it to your parents right away. Before saying that you like some person, you must get approval from your parents. At that point, with their permission, you are allowed to date that person. If you date someone and report everything, it is not a sin. However, dating someone without reporting is not acceptable. (030-188, 1970/03/22)
7 The most precious Blessing is when a pure woman and pure man get married within the will of heaven. That makes God happy. Such people have the greatest fortune in the whole universe. Such people have a foundation to be successful at anything in the whole world. On the other hand, those who could not remain pure will be filled with such regret that their whole being is in turmoil and they feel the need to repent to such a degree that all of heaven and earth would be turned upside down. They must purify their minds and bodies and say to God, "Father, I am consumed with shame, what shall I do?" Then God will say, "Yes, I know your heart. I will forgive you. I am happy that you are striving to transcend that painful state." You should participate in the marriage Blessing only at the point at which you have earned the sympathy of God, who knows everything, and whose forgiveness endures within you. (157-344, 1967/10/16)
8 Usually, ideal things are to be found not in the here and now, but in the future. What can we call an ideal marriage partner? A marriage is not ideal simply because the partners like each other. You and your partner are ideal for each other based upon your ability to give birth to outstanding descendants. This ideal can be realized when two very different people are joined together. From heaven’s point of view, what kind of person would be the most ideal partner? The best result is produced when two people who are so extremely different that they hate each other, eventually come to really like one another. If you are willing to take such a difficult path for God and His Will, blessings will come to you.
9 The marriage Blessing is not for the sake of just the people standing there together in the ceremony. Each of these men and women should have such a standard that they are qualified and capable of establishing, without fail, a new family that represents their clan, people, nation and world. The family of a Mr. Kim, for example, does not exist for the sake of the Kim family but represents his people and nation and even the world. Without such a family, the marriage Blessing cannot be realized. Adam and Eve, the ancestors of all human beings, were not just two individuals; they were the origin of history. Their deeds were not to have ended just with them. Through them, a new family, new clan, new people and new nation were to have come into being. The marriage Blessing is the place where such a worldwide foundation could be determined. (030-165, 1970/03/22)
10 In order to receive the Unification Church marriage Blessing, you need to fulfill several conditions. First, you need to make a condition of restoring all things of the creation, the material world. Next, you have to make a condition to restore yourself by separating from Satan, and third, you need to restore three spiritual children. You must have at least three spiritual children. Why? This is due to the Fall. To restore fallen humankind, you need to go through the re-creation process following the Principle of Creation. If you do not fulfill all of this in seven years, you will not be able to participate in the marriage Blessing. Because of the Fall, you have to be re-created and return to God's side. In order to be re-created, you have to stand in the place of God as a creator. To re-create humankind, you need to bring material things to God's side. Through those material things you can go through the process of re-creating yourself. Therefore, you must carry out economic activities for more than three years. You need to go into the world to restore these material things that will re-create you. While making this foundation you sacrifice your body.
11 Those who have fasted know that it is not easy. But in order to become a full-fledged church member, you have to do a seven-day fast in prayer. Ordinary people think that if they do not eat for seven or eight days, they will die. Why do we need to do this kind of thing? It is to have confidence and confirm that we are risking our lives for God and humanity. Also we fast with a strong conviction that it helps separate us from Satan. As we abstain from food, we eliminate our fear of hunger. Fasting for seven days is a great tradition that gives us the conviction to move forward toward one global goal. (073-010, 1974/07/21)
The matching of couples
True Parents first gave the marriage Blessing on April 16, 1960, when they blessed three couples. As they continued to match and bless more couples, they always took into consideration not only the individuals and their families but also the descendants who would be born from the couples they matched. True Parents matched couples transcending nationalities, races and religions, and sometimes even matched couples by photograph.
12 I have matched many couples, and this is possible because I am sensitive to the spirit world. When I focus on one candidate, my hand spontaneously moves toward their future spouse. It is like doing a puzzle. The question is, how do I know? As I walk among the candidates, my feet will come to a halt. Furthermore, my eyes will turn in a certain direction. I have a certain spiritual ability to do this, as if I have some special equipment. When I go to the mountains to train and discipline my mind, I become aware of a triangle of desires: Satan's, God's and my own. When I am able to unite my mind and attain a state of perfect self-denial, my hands and feet will start to move in a certain direction. That spiritual ability that I have is one of the reasons I could survive until now. (300-088, 1999/03/01)
13 I know how to read people very well, which is why I can choose people's future spouses. From the time I was eight years old, I was the one in my village who could do this. Adults would show me photographs of their child and a potential spouse. If I saw a shadow over them, it meant they were not a good match. I would know immediately when there was a gap between the two. Because of this, I became famous in the village. People came to me with the photos of two persons, and if I laid the photos down next to each other, it meant they were a good match. But if I just tossed them away, it was not a good match. If they got married anyway, their marriage usually did not work out. It is the same today. There are many blessed families around the world whom I have matched. I have matched couples from among hundreds gathered in one room. Among those people, some had already seen their ideal spouse spiritually. The spirit world told them who their partner would be. Through my spiritual sensitivity I was able to find that very person. (300-323, 1999/04/15)
14 1 have matched many people. Taking responsibility for other people's lives is a serious matter. When I look at people, I can identify what talent they have and what type of person they are. "That woman is fated to be a widow." "That man is fated to die young." I even know this sort of thing. When I am doing this, I am physically on earth, but I switch into spiritual high alert and extend my antennae. I enter a spiritual state in which I can see people’s ancestry from a high vantage point. When I am in this state of mind, there are no mistakes in the choices I make. However, the matching candidates do not always listen to me. One time I had to match a young man 13 times. Why should I help him get married if he does not like the women I suggest? The point is that I do everything I can. It is because it is better for him if I match him than if he does it on his own. For the sake of giving the marriage Blessing now that I am here on earth, I have been offering complete devotion and have established all the necessary conditions. (157-211, 1967/04/02)
15 Because I have guided so many people, when I look at somebody I know immediately what kind of person he or she is. I can know what type of child will be born to a man with a certain kind of face paired with a woman with another kind of face. When I am looking for a man's partner, the face of a woman that complements that man will simply emerge. When I match them by photograph, my hand just moves to a photograph as if on its own. Even if I do not see a person visually, as I am walking around I will come to a halt and my hand will go to the right photo. If after such a matching, a couple casually breaks the tie that was made this way, something terrible will happen. (331-233, 2000/09/03)
16 When I am matching people, I gather a few thousand people in one place. If I tell them, "Jot down the names of five people you would like," everyone writes down the same ten percent of the candidates. There was one person in whom 100 people were interested. It is impossible for a matching process to work based on that. That is why you have to trust my guidance. The amazing thing is that some people receive in a dream who their spouse will be. If they have had such a dream, they wait for the one they have seen with wholehearted anticipation. What if I were to make a mistake? Then what the Unification Church has been teaching will be disproven. How can I choose the person they saw in their dream? There is not a single person in the whole country who could make that match. My hand knows and my feet know. The person I point to matches exactly with what the spirit world showed them. (390-098, 2002/08/05)
17 If a man is warm, then the woman should be cold, and if the woman is warm, then the man should be cold. Partners should be matched this way. When I look at a person, I know immediately if that person is warm or cold. I bring them together so they can harmonize. This cannot be done by just anyone. I heard that one monk said it would be hard for him to match even one couple like that in his whole lifetime and he wondered what ability enables me to do it over and over. It is because I see hundreds of thousands of couples. All the people I married are doing well.
18 When I look at people, I can see some have a destiny that is falling and others have one that is rising. It is true that you can perish by marrying the wrong person. If both the man and woman have a destiny moving upward, they will fly away. On the other hand, if two people have a falling destiny, they will die young, and their sons and daughters also will not live long. Destinies need to be adjusted. When I choose your partner, I match one who has high standards with another who has low standards. Only then can a balance be achieved. If both of them are trying to take the upper position, everything will fade away. That is why marriage and the path of love can be a fearful thing. Depending on how your destiny is adjusted, the course of your life can be dented, can become oval, can disappear by becoming flat, or can become round. It must be round in order to sustain a long life. (2009/11/18)
19 When Unification Church members pray, the spirit world answers saying, "Your ideal spouse is this type of person." It will reveal to a white person who lives at the North Pole a person from a distant tropical island, saying, "Your ideal spouse is someone from the black race." The answer the spirit world gives you in prayer will follow that pattern. When the white person goes to the matching location, he looks around thinking, "There are only a few black sisters here. Where is she?" But then I find her, and match him to a black sister who was sitting in the corner all the way in the back. The white brother may sit among other white brothers thinking, "There are no black sisters here. What the spirit world told me about my spouse was a mistake." At that very moment, I find the sister and then match the two together. How can I match people that way in full accordance with what the spirit world showed them? All five colors of humanity are participating there, and yet I will match them without fail. (449-161, 2004/05/13)
20 When I conduct a matching with thousands of people in the room, if there is one person ready to be matched, all the way in the very back, I immediately know it. I can hardly see anyone else except that one person. If someone received a revelation about that person as their spouse ten years earlier, they will without fail be matched to that person. My hand will move in that direction. My feet will move in that direction.
21 There is no shorter route to building a world of peace than marriage between enemies, uniting them as one. When half of all Japanese and Koreans marry one another in cross-cultural Blessings, they will change. If we hold that kind of ceremony twice, things will be changed completely. So the issue is how we can quickly have enemies receive the marriage Blessing together. A world of peace will absolutely come faster if that process is welcomed. I am the champion of conducting interracial marriages. I have set the record. I never act carelessly when it comes to making a match. No matter how hard any of you try to create a match, you will not be able to surpass my standard. Even if neither of you feels good when you meet one another for the first time, as you live together, you will come to like each other. Marriage is a once-in-a-lifetime occasion. How serious do you think I have to be as I take responsibility for this most important event in your lives? It is not a joke. I am taking into consideration how you can change your destiny in terms of your descendants. (250-033, 1993/10/11)
22 I do not see anyone as an enemy. I never think that I have enemies who should perish. If you have enemies, you cannot build the kingdom of heaven. If you have enemies, you cannot build a strong foundation. That is why I have given the Blessing to both saints and murderers. Not only that, I have blessed the children of saints and murderers with each other. Since we are moving into this kind of age, Koreans and Japanese have cross-cultural marriages. Japan and Korea have been bitter enemies, but through cross-cultural marriages it will be possible for Koreans and Japanese to unite. (325-056, 2000/06/29)
23 On what basis do I look for your marriage partner? I choose a person with whom you can have better descendants than you would have with the person you like externally. That is what I mean when I say you should marry for the sake of your descendants. If I match you with someone you want to marry, but then it turns out that no one in the world wants to marry any of your children, what would you do? Nothing could be more unfortunate than that. It would mean a lifetime of unhappiness. That would be worse than having a serious physical handicap or lacking in some other way. Marriage is for our descendants. The point is how to match people despite the way they look externally, knowing that their children will inherit only their good qualities. (028-304, 1970/02/11)
24 You may say you will find your partner on your own, but based on my experience, the one you find will not be very suitable for you. If you look for a spouse based only on qualities that please your eyes, the children you have may not be so good. If the second generation members of the Unification Church are not strong and do not become extraordinary people, the nation will not prosper. I think about this very seriously as I look for your partner. Matching by photograph is truly an incredible thing. Your mothers and fathers will ask, "Could it be true?" Before you marry, you normally first meet the person with just the possibility of marriage in mind. But with us, some start dancing the moment they see their matching partners photograph. There were probably people who did not even look at the photograph and yet were happy. The standard of finding one's spouse that way surpasses the worlds standard. Satan's world can never do anything like this. Besides True Father, there is nobody who can do this. (183-077, 1988/10/29)
25 If you do not like the matching partner I pick for you, you may limit your investment in the marriage as a consequence. Those who have faith in the matching and work hard for it will receive heavenly fortune in the end. In the beginning you may not blend well. But nothing ever fits smoothly right after marriage. Each side inevitably has to adjust to the other. Initially you may even feel you were not given the right partner. You have to be willing to adjust and maintain hope. If your heart is not in it, you will not be able to invest yourself to the degree necessary. It is like the cap on a new make-up container not fitting well. The same is true of your new husband or wife. It might take three years for you to train yourselves in adjusting to each other. Emulate three generations. Watch what your grandfather and grandmother are doing and watch what your mother and father are doing. You will fit together by emulating three generations. (300-323, 1999/04/15)
26 Your marriage is one of the most important matters in your life. It is your desire as a human being, and God's desire as well, that your beloved partner be better than you. Because I know this as a parent, I want to take good care of you. When matching couples, I need to tie together two people, one who goes upward and the other who goes downward, so that soon they will reach the same level and become united. Combining races, such as black with white, is no longer a problem. Skin color is not a problem. In that sense, the marriage Blessing ceremony that I have inaugurated has become the world's tradition. As time goes by, everyone is realizing that True Parents' matching is better than the choice they would make themselves. The sons and daughters of these couples are better than their parents. This tradition has been established. This is why tens of thousands of couples are willing to marry even after only seeing a photograph. (233-034, 1992/07/20)
27 The matching for the 30,000 Coupies Marriage Blessing was done by photograph. This is truly an amazing fact; it is unlike anything in Satan's world. In getting married, those couples stood at the zero point of absolute faith. Eve fell, so she was unable to receive absolute love, but these people have surpassed the boundaries of their countries and found a path of love that cannot be found in Satan's world. This means that they stood in the position where they absolutely loved me and loved God. (277-132, 1996/04/07)
28 People are saying that my matched couples are ideal unions. I advise you to try living together for three years and then make an assessment. Try having one or two children. After you have one or two children, you will know if I made the right or wrong choice. I think you will say, "Oh, if it were not for True Father, this son never would have been born. Thank you, Father." Your marriage is not for your sake, but for the sake of your descendants. You must know that you marry for the sake of your ancestors and your descendants. (118-226, 1982/06/06)
Section 3. Marriage Blessing Rituals
Engagement, holy wine and indemnity stick ceremonies
The marriage Blessing includes a series of restorational rituals which symbolically indemnify the process of the Fall. Through rituals such as the engagement ceremony, the Holy Wine ceremony, the Blessing ceremony, and the indemnity stick ceremony, one goes through the process of rebirth as a child of God. The engagement ceremony is the ritual that restores us to the position of Adam and Eve being engaged before the Fall. The Holy Wine ceremony eradicates original sin and changes Satan's lineage to God's lineage.
1 According to the Unification Principle, what is to be created through the foundation of faith and the foundation of substance? The goal is to restore human beings to the position of being engaged prior to the Fall. Adam and Eve right before the Fall were an engaged couple. What has to be done in order to restore people to that stage of engagement prior to the Fall? Adam and Eve fell because of false love and became false parents. As false parents they had three sons: Cain, Abel and Seth. There were eight people in Adam's family, including the wives of his sons. All of them stood in a fallen position. Setting the foundation of faith and the foundation of substance is an internal and external process of restoring this group of eight family members.
2 Each of you must cleanse your lineage of the stain of the Fall and restore it as the original lineage of goodness that was to have existed at the time of creation. Unless you perform a ritual to settle all accounts and restore the entire 6,000-year history through indemnity, you cannot advance to the position to receive the Blessing. The engagement ceremony is conducted in order to restore people to the position of Adam and Eve as an engaged couple before the Fall. (035-210, 1970/10/18)
3 The Holy Wine ceremony is a ritual that removes Satan's blood, which defiled the heavenly lineage through the Fall. In other words, it is a ceremony to remove original sin. A person with original sin cannot advance to a position to receive the Blessing. Since you are in the position of transmitting Satan's blood lineage, there is no way for you to advance to the position to receive God's blessing. To do so, you must completely eradicate your original sin. This original sin was derived from and is transmitted through the false parent’s love. Therefore you must take steps to eradicate it by establishing an indemnity condition within True Parents' love. Without doing so, there is no way to get rid of original sin. If original sin is not removed, you cannot receive the Blessing as a perfected couple that is one with God's love. (035-216, 1970/10/19)
4 In order for human beings to be fully restored, they once again must enter their mother's womb. Literally this cannot be done, but by becoming one in love we can establish it as a condition. You must return to the restored Adam, unite with him, and then receive God's blood lineage. Eve first fell spiritually, centering on Satan. She then united with Adam and committed the physical Fall. The Holy Wine ceremony reverses that process by having Eve meet the completely restored Adam and become one with him conditionally. It is the ceremony to restore the relationship of love. This condition is essential. A woman has to conditionally unite with the restored Adam, return to God and then restore a man in the flesh. This is what the marriage Blessing ceremony is about. (035-211, 1970/10/18)
5 The Holy Wine consists of 21 essential elements. It is constituted this way for the sake of converting the lineage. Both kinds of conditions, those connected with the lineage of the fallen world and those connected with the lineage of the restored world, are in this wine. Without connecting these conditions you cannot restore Satan's world. Children born from a couple who received the Blessing on the foundation of this connection can stand above and step beyond the fallen world. By virtue of their lineage they can overcome this world. This is not a simple matter. The Holy Wine ceremony is a ritual of converting the lineage. True love directly connects an individual's heart with God. Without conducting this ceremony of converting the lineage, you cannot return to the position of Adam and Eve before the Fall.
6 You are struck with the indemnity stick after the Blessing ceremony because human beings fell by misusing their lower parts. This ritual is a condition by which you pass through that critical point in time when the lineage of three ages was defiled. When the pain from that bitter moment is washed away, the children will be liberated and will be able to cry out in joy to heaven with both hands in the air. At that time all things of creation in heaven and on earth, and everything in the heavenly nation, will respond in kind.
Separation and three-day ceremony
Following the Blessing ceremony, couples commence their family life after a 40-day holy separation period. This period indemnifies the number 40, symbolizing the 4,000 years from the time of Jacob to the Second Coming and the 40-year course walked by True Father. During this period the husband and wife offer devotions while yearning for the heavenly kingdom and for the fulfillment of God's Will. At the conclusion of this period comes the three-day ceremony, which sets a condition of restoring the three ages of formation, growth and completion of the growing period.
7 After the marriage Blessing ceremony, the 40-day period of sanctification corresponds to Father’s 40-year course. You must pass over the number 40. In the course of restoration, the Returning Lord arrived 4,000 years after Jacob’s time. In the Principle the number 40 connects to passing over this 4,000-year period. Indemnity must be paid centering on love. By overcoming this 40-day hurdle of connecting to God, a connection of love finally can be made. This is to indemnify the 4,000 years of history, the period from Adam to Jesus, the purpose of which was to establish God's love on earth.
8 The Unification Church has the three-day ceremony that must be observed. This ceremony is like getting an injection that pierces the source of all illnesses, counteracts the poison, and heals you. The one who makes love on top represents heaven s side, and when a couple first makes love after completing the 40-day separation period, the woman is to make love on top. She makes love on top for the first two days. Satan's side humiliated heaven during the two stages corresponding to formation and growth. This must be reversed, so on the third day the positions are reversed. It is a ceremony of reversing the lineage in heaven and on earth. (273-315, 1995/10/29)
9 Women are in the position of Eve, and men are in the position of the archangel. Therefore the woman has no marriage partner, and she must give birth to one. The three-day ceremony is a ritual for giving birth to that substantial marriage partner. It is about giving birth to a man on the foundation of the 40-day separation period that represents all of history. In this way he is born again through three stages. Only when the man goes through the Old Testament Age and the New Testament Age to reach the Completed Testament Age does he become the woman's husband. Therefore, on the third day the husband takes the upper position when making love with his wife. For the first two days the wife takes the upper position, but on the third day she can finally take root on earth and the husband takes the upper position. The three-day ceremony is a conditional ritual of being absolutely obedient to True Parents' words so that the man can rise to the position of husband in the Completed Testament Age. While he is going through the Old Testament Age and New Testament Age, he attends his wife as his mother. (355-235, 2001/10/05)
10 There are no sons or husbands on God's side. They have to be reborn through a woman. Because of the Fall, Adam needs to be born through Eve. The ceremony of this substantial restoration is held over the course of three days, which represent the formation, growth and completion stages. To restore and give birth to the man during this three-day ceremony, the woman is on top in the formation and growth stages. Finally, after the man is restored from the position of archangel to the position of Adam, he can be on top and form a sphere of life with the woman. Then for the next three years, the man must follow his wife. (229-075, 1992/04/09)
Chapter 2
The History of the Marriage Blessing Ceremony
Section 1. The 36 Couples
Blessing three couples
On April 16,1960, the marriage Blessing ceremony of three spiritual children and their spouses—Kim Won-pil and Jeong Dal-ok, Eu Hyo-won and Sa Gil-ja, and Kim Young-hwi and Jeong Dae-hwa—was held at the original Cheongpa-dong headquarters church in Seoul. By having performed the engagement ceremony of three spiritual children before True Parents' Holy Wedding, True Father set the condition that three main disciples attain an ideal unity with Jesus. True Father said that all Blessing candidates should have three spiritual children engaged prior to their own Blessing, and that those three children should receive the Blessing afterward.
1 In 1960, before I conducted the holy marriage Blessing, I engaged three couples out of the 36 Couples. After the Holy Wedding, I conducted the Blessing of those three couples. The Blessing of those three children, who are in the positions of Peter, James and John, established the condition of three children standing in the realm of God's ideal centering on me. I set the victorious foundation whereby there can be absolutely no separation from me. (055-164, 1972/05/07)
2 Jesus came representing Adam, and the Lord at the Second Advent comes representing Jesus. The Returning Lord also must have three obedient children of faith (that is, three spiritual children) because, in accordance with the formula of restoration, otherwise he will not be able to stand in the position of the True Parent. I must have three disciples who will absolutely follow me as filial sons, even in the midst of persecution, even if it means giving their lives. In April 1960,1 was able to find and establish these three disciples.
3 The Holy Blessing ceremony of these three couples is God's hope, representing His ideal. It is the marriage ceremony God wanted to have for Adam and Eve had they reached maturity. This ideal of creation had been held within God's heart, so this was truly a historic event. Please be aware that it was the first time since the beginning of the world for such a ceremony to take place. During Jesus' time, the three disciples should have lived and died together with their teacher. From now on, all of you must live with the heart that your body is in the position of an offering. One son and one daughter with substantial partners have appeared as the object partners of the invisible God. The man is the substantial object partner representing God's masculine character, and the woman is the substantial object partner representing God's feminine character. (009-083, 1960/04/16)
4 Will your spiritual child offer his or her life for you? Do you have a spiritual child who does not think first of himself or herself? This is not an easy thing. It is more difficult than raising ten of your own children. The same was true for me. Before marrying Mother, I held the engagement ceremony for three children, and only after that were we married in the Holy Wedding. Each of you needs to do the same thing. Although my Holy Wedding was held first before they received the Blessing, the condition of engaging these spiritual children had to be set first so that they would not complain. 1 did this because it was necessary to connect them to the world of the original Adam and then save Cain's world. That is why you too must find your spiritual children in the position of the three archangels and return all that you have to God. (141-218, 1986/02/22)
5 Those people who have received the Blessing in the Unification Church have changed their lineage. The Blessing is the change of lineage. Though blessed families have changed their bloodline, they still live in Satan's realm. This must be restored. In order to do this, you must individually maintain absolute obedience centering on True Parents.
The 36 Couples: Restoring the ancestors of humankind
The 36 Couples Marriage Blessing Ceremony was held on May 15,1961, at the original Cheongpa-dong headquarters church in Seoul. The 36 Couples established by True Parents consisted of three groups of 12 couples each, representing Adam's family, Noah's family, and Jacob's family, respectively. True Parents said that these couples are the ancestral families in the physical and spiritual worlds. The first group was composed of already married couples. The second and third groups were composed of people who had been single. The 36 Couples refer to three couples blessed in April 1960 plus 33 couples blessed in May 1961.
6 The 36 Couples stand in a position of having restored the history that was violated by Satan. They have accomplished this by completing the missions that our ancestors who were called before heaven in the course of restoration left undone. These couples must inherit God's heart and become perfected people. In other words, they must become not ancestors who failed in God's providence but victorious ancestors. They should establish the standard of what an ancestor should be on earth. That is the significance of the 36 Couples being the restored ancestors of humanity. (055-167, 1972/05/07)
7 Within the 36 Couples, the first 12 couples are people who married of their own accord. By these already married couples receiving the Blessing on earth, those people in the spirit world who married of their own accord when on earth can unite with them. This gives all such ancestors in the spirit world a way to return and work on earth. Next, that which was lost due to the mistakes from Noah's family through Abraham's family is being recovered. In finding three sons, the mistakes of Noah's family were rectified. Abraham's generation includes Jacob's family, and this means that we have restored through indemnity, horizontally, the vertical history of the three generations of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The condition of restoring those families was established when the already married couples, who had married of their own accord, received the Blessing.
8 The Blessing of the 36 Couples took place in order to restore through indemnity horizontally, in a single moment, the mistakes of our ancestors. The fight to do this centered on the 36 Couples. The people of the secular world probably will not understand the Blessing. People who are preparing to receive the Blessing should not consult with their parents or the people they would normally relate to in the secular world. You should not consult with or even talk about what God wills with people in Satan's world. So, extending this divine privilege, I sent all of you an invitation after deciding on the path you will take. I blessed the 36 Couples, since I stood responsible to restore through indemnity God's historical pain at having lost His children. I had to restore through indemnity the vertical history horizontally, in the present time, in order to recover our ancestors' root and the standard they tried to establish. (016-061, 1965/12/26)
9 The 36 Couples satisfied the historical indemnity conditions and then rose above them. We must place heavenly families at the forefront and have them move forward based on a standard of actual practice. The 36 Couples are representatives of the past, while the coming Lord is the representative of the present.
Section 2. The 72 Couples, 124 Couples and 430 Couples
The 72 Couples: Restoring Cain and Abel tribes
The 72 Couples Marriage Blessing Ceremony was held on June 4,1962, at the original Cheongpa-dong headquarters church in Seoul. The 72 Couples were established as two types, Cain and Abel, and they indemnify on the tribal level what the 36 Couples indemnified on the family level. It was at the time of the 72 Couples Blessing that True Father organized the Marriage Blessing Ceremony Committee, which published an explanation of the purpose of the Blessing ceremony. The 72 Couples Blessing Ceremony was held in three rounds of 24 couples each.
1 Conflict was initiated by Adam and Eve's sons, Cain and Abel. They passed their spiritual corruption on to their descendants and so created a world of strife, bringing the world to ruin. All this needs to be rectified through paying indemnity. As part of this, sons and daughters of 36 generations have to establish the condition of having united in front of God without conflict. This is why I established the 72 Couples, which is 2 times 36, with the 72 being divided into Cain and Abel. By establishing these 72 Couples, I built a historic ancestral foundation on which Cain and Abel can build the four-position foundation without fighting. This means I established an absolute realm of reconciliation that can be a bulwark against Satan. (019-121, 1967/12/31)
2 God's hope does not stop with individual salvation. He longs for the salvation of the family and the tribe as well. Therefore, it is not enough to just have the leaders of the 12 tribes of Israel. The leaders of the branch tribes are also necessary. There have to be 36 couples representing Cain and 36 representing Abel, so I horizontally connected these two groups of couples, internally and externally, and established them as the 72 Couples. This was done in order to begin the salvation of the horizontal world. They will become the tribal leaders. The realm of tribal leaders will arise. (115-279, 1981/11/22)
3 The 72 Couples correspond to Jesus' 70 disciples. The 72 Couples represent the tribe that Jesus tried to organize through his 12 apostles and 70 disciples. In other words, the 72 Couples are the restored tribe of Jesus' 12 apostles and 70 disciples in the form of families. To put it another way, the 36 Couples and the 72 Couples are the same as the 12 tribes of Israel and the 70 disciples of Jesus. They are the restored representatives that can lead the people of Israel. This is the model by which we have recovered the basic numbers that God has been seeking through Israel.
4 The 124 Couples Blessing was the first time we held our marriage Blessing ceremony publicly. These couples represented the entire world. I judged that it was time to set up 124 Couples as representatives of the world. This is because, from the perspective of the Christian realm and of the present world, Korea is the leading nation, which promotes the providence of God for the future good of the world. The 124 Couples represent the world. I conducted the 36 Couples and 72 Couples Blessings within our church. Through them we were securing the internal foundation centering on our church, similar to how the foundation of a people was built through the course of Judaism. Next, from the external point of view, we were expanding to set a worldwide foundation to connect to the global Christian cultural sphere in history, centering on the 124 Couples. There had to be 124 member nations of the United Nations when the 124 Couples were blessed, and there were. In Korea, a nation representing all others, this Blessing was a condition of historical importance on the world level establishing an internal condition of indemnity. (110-123, 1980/11/10)
5 The number 120, which is 10 times the number 12 of Jesus' 12 disciples, is the number that represents the horizontal world. This is why I blessed 120 couples in order to match 120 disciples. Technically there could have been 120 couples, but I blessed a total of 124. The extra 4 couples represent the 4 directions. The 124 Couples, who represent Jesus' 120 disciples, also represent the world. This does not mean that those couples have the authority to govern and control the world, but rather that as world representatives, they can serve as the basis on which I can establish world-level indemnity conditions. This is how establishing the 124 Couples set the condition for God to be able to work in an unprecedented way on the world level. When the number of United Nations member nations topped 120, we entered the Last Days. (016-063, 1965/12/26)
6 When I blessed the 124 Couples, I included four husbands who were exconvicts. It was absolutely necessary for me to include such people in the group. The work of heaven is not the work of condemning people but rather of saving everyone. God seeks to redeem all people, not only religious believers but conscientious people who are non-believers as well as those who have sinned and those who are in prison. Therefore^ I established representatives of the nation on the world level, created a door for the family, and opened it. Thereby all people in the world can enter, including those who have sinned and are languishing in jail. As the foundation to achieve this purpose, I established the Blessing of the 124 Couples. (100-172, 1978/10/14)
7 The 124 Couples Marriage Blessing Ceremony was truly magnificent. After the ceremony, all the couples got in taxis and drove around Seoul. The people on the streets were amazed by the motorcade of 150 taxis. The city of Seoul and the nation of Korea were turned upside down. Don't you think this wedding ceremony is one that every man and woman would find worth trying just once? We will wait and see if the world will follow us or not. I plan to bring non-Koreans to take part in the next Blessing. (012-346, 1963/08/11)
The 430 Couples: Indemnifying 4,300 years of Korean history
The 430 Couples Marriage Blessing Ceremony was held on February 22, 1968, at the Seoul Citizens' Hall. The 430 Couples restored through indemnity the 4,300 years of Korean history. By including one Japanese couple, True Parents set the condition of connecting the Blessing to non-Koreans. After the ceremony, the brides and bridegrooms rode separately in tour buses and cars in a motorcade through downtown Seoul.
8 The Blessing of 430 Couples took place when the Unification Church had not yet been able to pay indemnity on the national level in Korea. What does the number 430 mean? The year the Blessing ceremony was held corresponds to the year 4,300 in the Dangun Era, and also to the 430 years of Israel's suffering in Egypt and in the wilderness. With the goal of the liberation of a people, which was the ideal of the people of Israel, the 430 Couples Blessing opened a path for all Korean citizens to stand before God's Will. This is the path to the marriage partnership ideal. It is useless to open a path centered on the ideals associated with the individual, as religions until now have tried to do. The Unification Church has opened up the path to the marriage partnership ideal in every direction. We therefore need to mobilize all the people of this nation and substantially establish indemnity conditions within our generation. (055-170, 1972/05/07)
9 The year that marked year 4,300 since the founding of Korea was the year that 430 Couples received the Blessing. Therefore, the 430 Couples joined the Blessing as representatives of the Korean clans. Even if some Korean surnames were not directly included among them, all were actually included when we consider relatives of the participating couples through their mother's side or their fathers. The 430 Couples brought people from every family name. Every type of person was included, even those who had committed unforgivable sins. The way of salvation was opened to all the people of Korea, even to those who could not stand in front of heaven because of the sins committed in the course of 4,300 years. A line leading to redemption was attached to each one of them, and a bridge of salvation was laid down. Thus, a path was paved by which Korea can naturally survive and connect to the heavenly kingdom. (133-197, 1984/07/10)
10 The numbers 3 and 4 symbolize heaven and earth. When you multiply 4 and 3 you get 12, the number of harmony. The number 12 represents all numbers and harmony between heaven and earth. This is why after 4,300 years the Blessing corresponding to the number 430, containing 3 and 4 was held in the Republic of Korea.
11 Starting in 1960,1 progressed from the 36 Couples Blessing to the 72 Couples and 124 Couples. And I intend to bless 430 couples as we cross the final hurdle of the seven-year course. The number of blessed couples has to be greater than the number 666. The number 6 is the number of Satan, who is in the position of God's enemy. We have to go over this number. This is why a total of 760 couples, including the already married couples, will have received the Blessing within seven years. (019-113, 1967/12/31)
12 Now that I have restored Eve and the archangel, I have fulfilled my responsibility as Adam. When the time comes that I can love my sons and daughters in the family environment brought by the restoration of Eve and the archangel, the age in which good people pay indemnity will change to an age in which evil people pay indemnity to benefit good people. From now we will enter a realm of good fortune for the Unification Church. When you receive the Blessing, become one, and set the four-position foundation on the family level as tribal messiahs, progressing in all directions like me, heavenly fortune will shine upon you. Heaven s providence of restoration cannot proceed except through this principle. We cannot build the kingdom of heaven without reclaiming this physical world. Therefore, your families have to become completely one with True Parents' family. A branch cannot exist without its root.
13 The world now revolves around the second seven-year course, which started in 1968. Just as Cain and Abel fought, the left wing and right wing are fighting worldwide. We need to resolve this conflict and develop a new family, a new society, a new nation and a new world. This is the view of the Principle and is the mission of the Unification Church. This is why, on January 1,1968,1 established God's Day. It was the day of victory on this earth for the Unification Church. Shortly thereafter, I conducted the 430 Couples Blessing. I had to connect this victorious day horizontally to the world, so I blessed the 43 Couples while on my 1969 world tour. This was an extension of the 430 Couples Blessing in Korea. By conducting the 43 Couples Blessing, I connected 10 nations on the horizontal level. We need to globalize everything that we have accomplished in Korea. (058-223, 1972/06/11)
14 The 43 Couples Blessing was largely intercultural. Everyone was matched internationally, such as American with German, Dutch with English, and so on. In most cases I did not match the Blessing candidates with someone from their own country. In order to restore the world, we need to transcend our attachment to our own people and instead love the world. This is why I conducted a marriage Blessing ceremony with people from different countries. All of them were thrilled to participate and it brought me great joy to look upon them.
15 Through the Blessing of 430 Couples, Korea came to stand in the position of connecting to the Unification Principle. What this means is that, even though most Korean people may not believe in the Unification Church, they can reap the benefit of being the Third Israel because we have established an indemnity condition for them to do so through the 430 Couples. Thus, the nation of Korea has become the realm of the chosen people.
16 The already married couples are those who married and formed families on their own before joining the Unification Church. For them to be recognized as families of God's ideal, the husband has to become a historic, representative central figure in God's work, restoring his family based on the Principle. Also, he has to become a man who can inherit the historical tradition. A man with a family is a representative person who can inherit completely the original tradition of upholding the work of God, as practiced by our ancestors from Abel to Noah, Abraham and Moses. Then what ideology, worldview and life course must such a man, who is the head of his family, adopt? The answer is, in such a newly blessed, already married couple the husband needs to love his wife more than ever before. When he does this, this husband and wife will transcend and put aside their earlier conjugal love relationship and, as a blessed couple, dwell in a new bond of love higher than the world has ever known. (058-171, 1972/06/11)
17 The already married blessed couples need to stand as a protective fence around the blessed couples who were newly married. To put it another way, they need to become the couples who can indemnify the mistakes of Abel in past history and whom Abel can trust in the family-level providence of God. In the past, the differences between the two types of couples caused conflict between them. Now however, the already married couples need to be mentors to whom the others can come with any problems they may have. Moreover, the already married couples have to sincerely care for and protect the others.
18 Since the already married couples lived together as husband and wife before the church, their present is little different from their past. Since both the man and the woman are in the same position as before, even though they must never do so, they can easily fall back into old habits. The question is, what has changed for them after receiving the Blessing? They have renewed their family through the Blessing, so it must become a historic family. In their previous married life they may have lived for the sake of each other, but now the husband has to live for his wife and the wife for her husband in a new and different way. That is, now they must not simply live for each others sake but go beyond that and live for the sake of God.
19 The children born to already married couples after the Blessing are different from the children who were born before their parents received the Blessing. The blessed children are also remarkably different from their parents. The responsibility to determine that remarkable difference lies first with the husband and then with the wife, but the couple has to fulfill this responsibility together. Then what must this couple do? The wife must not attend a fallen husband and the husband must not attend a fallen wife. When all is said and done, they will be able to boast that they have established the standard of the unfallen Adam and Eve and have attended each other virtuously.
20 The already married blessed couples need to know that the previously unwed blessed couples are closely watching them. Since the previously unwed couples have just started their families, they do not know much about spousal relations. When it comes to raising children, they can easily watch how the already married couples are doing it and follow their example. In light of this, the already married couples are in a most important position. They need to set an example that is dramatically different from their past. If they do not do this, they will not be able to stand as families of heaven's ideal.
21 I have granted amnesty and opened a path to the Blessing even to those who lived as they liked in their families. Through this, these mothers and fathers can be recognized as having the same value as those standing in the position of the unfallen Adam and Eve or unfallen sons and daughters of the heavenly kingdom. If the Unification Church recognizes them as such, the entire world has to do so as well. Through the founding of the Women's Federation for World Peace and the movement for women's liberation, I opened the door by which Adam and Eve, who had fallen at the family level, can return to the level of an unfallen family. I am granting amnesty to all families in the world outside the Unification Church. This is not something that happens every day. After this period passes, already married couples will have to go to a tribal messiah to receive the Blessing. Tribal messiahs are those who will bless them. (233-055, 1992/07/30)
22 In the morning, when it is time for the sun to rise, it rises naturally. In the same way, even through difficult circumstances, I created an environment where everyone in the world can receive the Blessing. This is historic. The Blessing began in 1961 and it was globalized from 1992. We waited patiently until 1992 and then started to expand it. From that point, we conducted Unification Church Blessing ceremonies for the general public. We did this in keeping with the dawn of the era of women. (325-317, 2000/07/02)
23 Christianity and Islam see each other as enemies and cannot even dream of uniting. Nonetheless, they need to become one. This is why True Father and True Mother blessed them in the International Couples Blessing Ceremony on April 10, 1992. Because Jesus was crucified, he could not find his Bride, who was to be the True Mother. But I resolved everything through the already married couples wedding. This Blessing created the realm of the resurrected Jesus on the national level. In that position I went beyond Rome and came to stand on the worldwide level. Transcending 2,000 years of history, I have built and restored a victorious domain and have thus established True Mother in the worldwide realm of Eve. This is why the era of women's liberation is coming. It is the end now. Everything will be completed when I have finished blessing everyone. The path that leads to hell will be turned around 180 degrees. (230-055, 1992/04/15)
24 Now, all blessed couples across the world have risen to the same level. Regardless of whether they are Christian or believe in another religion, I am exercising my prerogative as a True Parent to establish all couples on the same level. I blessed Abel in order to bless Cain. This is why I am establishing them in the same position. The parents of blessed couples married on their own and even opposed the Unification Church. As tribal messiahs, you need to raise your parents to the position of the unfallen Adam and Eve. By doing so, they can connect to True Parents at the center at all levels: family, tribe, people, nation and world. This is why at the time of the World Culture and Sports Festival in August 1992,1 will open the door to all married couples around the world. When they receive the Blessing, the path will open for them to enter the realm of heaven's lineage. (233-201, 1992/08/01)
Singles Blessing
The first Singles Blessing ceremony was held on March 28, 1963 at the original Cheongpa-dong headquarters church in Seoul. Those who could not be matched and blessed with a spouse on earth, due to considerations such as age, were given the opportunity to receive the Singles Blessing so that they would eventually be able to meet their spouse in the spirit world. Forty-one members, one man and 40 women, participated in this ceremony. All had been members for at least six years and were at least 60 years of age. Since then, many Singles Blessing ceremonies have been held.
25 I asked those who were 60 years or older, and too old to marry a physical partner even if they wanted to, to gather on Parents' Day 1963.1 did so in order to create a model for their family paradise in the world after death. Up until now paradise has not been for families. In it, people have not had a spouse. Their situation was the same as that of the angelic world. At this time, however, abiding by the principle of partnership, I need to equip elderly people on earth so they can reserve their place in the family paradise of the spirit world. According to God's original intention, the kingdom of heaven in the spirit world is a place where one is surrounded by one's family: parents, spouse and children. But if our members 60 years and older are unable to form families, I need to create a kingdom of heaven for them that is like God's originally intended paradise. I must protect these people. At least I need to promise them that if they die and go to the spirit world without a spouse on earth, they will have one there. (152-037, 1963/03/03)
26 Only when I, in the position of Adam, restore fallen Eves, can their spouses be restored through them as restored Eves. What this means is, by restoring Eve now, she comes to stand on heaven's side and can save her future husband. Adam fell by listening to Eve, so once you become a restored Eve through this ceremony you will need to receive a man in the spirit world who will listen to your words, and make him one with you in order to restore him. You will find a spouse candidate in the spirit world, and become engaged. It begins with this Blessing ceremony for the restoration of Eve. It is followed by a ceremony to restore love spiritually through holy wine. Once you have done these, then when you go to the next world you can choose your own spouse. There are many spirit men waiting there hoping to be chosen as a partner. You have this privilege. However, the fact that you have this privilege does not mean you can go there first and tell someone, "Let us live together." You have to wait until I go. I have to go to the spirit world to give you my consent. You cannot do just as you please. (101-310, 1978/11/07)
27 Heavenly Father, at 5:53 in the afternoon of November 7, 1978, I am performing the engagement ceremony of 101 couples, and I pray that You will permit it in Your holy name. Please allow this connection, by which Your daughters on earth and Your sons in the spirit world can be united as one. By matching Your daughters on earth with Your sons in the spirit world, I am bestowing upon them the right to form families when they go to the eternal world in the future, in the name of heaven and in the name of True Parents. So Heavenly Father, please accept them. I know that each and every one of them will remain as the objects of adoration hoped for by all spirits in the spirit world. I have determined right here and now the one connection by which after they have spent some time on this earth, they can go to the spirit world and be linked to their spouse. So Father, please grant this. I hope that, in this way, they can form eternal relationships of husband and wife when they go to spirit world by becoming one with their spouse in the name of True Parents. So Heavenly Father, please permit this. I wish to open the way for those here on earth to receive the Blessing conditionally, and for it to become substantial when they arrive in the spirit world. So Father, please allow this. I pray that You will permit the engagement of these 101 couples, and that You will also permit their future wedding ceremony. (101-310, 1978/11/07)
Section 3. The 777,1800,2075 and 6000 Couples
The 777 Couples: Opening the era of the international Blessing
The International Marriage Blessing Ceremony of 777 Couples was held at Jangchung Gymnasium in Seoul on October 21, 1970. There were 790 couples from ten nations participating, with 539 couples from Korea, 235 couples from Japan and 16 couples from Europe and America. After the ceremony, the brides and bridegrooms rode in a convoy of 42 buses through downtown Seoul. True Parents said that the 777 Couples Blessing signified the expansion of the marriage Blessing to the world.
1 In 1969,1 blessed the 43 Couples as representatives of all the world's nations. The 43 Couples are the global-level counterpart of the 430 Couples on the national level. All the tribes in Korea received the grace of entering the realm of heaven, and that is the internal foundation for all peoples in the world to enter that realm. Once these relational standards are connected, the tribes of the external world can connect to the Korean people, who have set the standard of indemnity in the internal world. On this foundation, we entered the age of international marriage. The Korean members will no longer belong just to the Unification Church of Korea on the level of an ethnic group; they will be members of the global Unification Church. By the same token, the German Unification Church members, for example, will not belong to the Unification Church of Germany on the level of that ethnic group; they will go beyond that and enter the realm of Unification Church membership on the world level. It is the age of a federation based on international marriage. We are entering this age, the age of international marriage, and it began with the 777 Couples as its foundation. (100-033, 1978/10/04)
2 The world will enter the realm of the fortune of the Unification Church and begin a gradual shift. That is why on October 21,1970,1 was able to conduct the first international marriage Blessing ceremony, the Blessing of 777 Couples. Now everything is coming to us on the world level. Before this Blessing, True Parents went overseas to conduct the Blessing. We could not bring the couples to Korea and bless them here. Now, however, we can. People from ten nations participated in the ceremony. Through this the path by which any country can return to God was completed based on the ideal of the family. At that time it became possible for the world's fortune to enter the realm of the fortune of the Unification Church. (055-171, 1972/05/07)
3 True Parents had couples from ten nations participate in the 777 Couples Blessing Ceremony in 1970. They represented the world, indemnifying the number 10. By this we can organize a new tribe on the world level, based on the family. Since some of the couples were matched internationally, the tribe we are organizing is an international one. In short, we have established a standard by which we can organize a new tribe on a transnational scale. Had we not done so, no one other than Koreans would be able to join this movement. If we were to go forward prioritizing the Korean people, we would not be an international movement. By doing what we've done, however, we have opened up a path beyond the level of one ethnic people. Christianity had created a worldwide foundation. These 777 Couples were formed as a people in front of the providential Will, to represent that lost world-level foundation. They are a people formed to pay indemnity. (054-297, 1972/03/26)
4 Through the 777 Couples Blessing, we built a bridge by means of which all peoples in the world can enter heaven. This providential work was fulfilled centering on ten nations. The 43 Couples were also from ten nations. There had to be at least ten nations. The 777 Couples Blessing was a worldwide declaration that opened the gates through which these ten nations can travel back and forth horizontally and these families can go anywhere without hindrance. Three 7s make 21. We restore through indemnity the critical moment of the sorrow of the numbers 3 and 7 through the 21 year course so that we can free ourselves from Satan's accusation, based on the spiritual and physical worlds and on man and woman. The foundation of these ten nations frees all blessed families across the world from the realm of accusation. The 777 Couples embody this foundation. Now that this work is done, what belongs to Korea belongs to the world, and what belongs to the world belongs to Korea. (058-061, 1972/06/06)
5 The 777 Couples need to stand in the vanguard for three years. They have to fulfill their final mission. Until now, blessed families have never been in such a situation. Now that the Blessing is being held across boundaries, God's wish is coming true on this earth. Cain and Abel must unite as one and go from the individual to the family, tribe, people, nation and world. For us to progress through these stages, Cain and Abel need to be victorious. That is a fundamental rule. Therefore, you need to offer sacrifices for the sake of the world. When every nation does this, world unity will come automatically. My work today is based on this strategy. (055-108, 1972/04/29)
The 1800 Couples: Attracting global attention
The International Marriage Blessing Ceremony of 1800 Couples was held at Jangchung Gymnasium in Seoul on February 8, 1975. Participating in this ceremony were a total of 1,816 couples, consisting of 892 couples from Korea (including 18 who were Korean residents in Japan), 811 couples from Japan, 111 couples from Europe and America, and two couples from Taiwan. Among them, 87 couples were matched internationally. A total of 20 nations were represented. The minister of the Board of National Unification gave a congratulatory address, and after the ceremony the participants held a motorcade through downtown Seoul.
6 On February 8, 1975, the 1800 Couples Marriage Blessing Ceremony was conducted. Not only True Parents' family but also all members of the Unification Church worldwide need to appear before the world on the individual and family levels. Since this is God's Will, we need to show our victory on the family level, based on the accomplishments during the first and second seven-year courses. Held on the basis of the third seven-year course, the 1800 Couples Blessing Ceremony was a demonstration, an aggressive campaign to plant your families on the horizontal plane with True Parents at the center. (077-217, 1975/04/12)
7 The 1800 Couples Blessing took place at the first moment we entered the third seven-year course. From the viewpoint of God's Will, we have entered the realm of completion, no longer the fallen realm, through the third seven-year course. So you need to plant this in history as a shining tradition. The 1800 Couples Blessing is a world-level Blessing with people from 20 nations participating. In the work of establishing the standard for supranational traditions, you, as representatives of Korea, must not feel there is anything to be ashamed of. Korea is in the running with every other country. Since many couples in Korea have received the Blessing, as people of the leading nation you need to establish a shining tradition. You should not fall as Adam and Eve fell, by doing whatever you feel like. Relying absolutely on the words of God and True Parents, you should become families whom God and True Parents desire. (083-255, 1976/02/08)
The 2075 and 6000 Couples: Gaining a global foothold
On July 1,1982, the International Marriage Blessing Ceremony of 2075 Couples was held at Madison Square Garden in New York City. It is of great significance that it took place while True Father was embroiled in a court case. The Blessing ceremony included, among others, 705 couples who were engaged in May of 1979, another 843 couples engaged in December of 1980, and 653 couples engaged in June of 1982. On October 14,1982, the International Marriage Blessing Ceremony of 6000 Couples was held at Jamsil Indoor Stadium in Seoul. The 6000 Couples Marriage Blessing Ceremony drew couples from 85 nations, including 1,500 couples from Korea, 3,600 from Japan, 90 from Southeast Asia, 150 from the United States, 100 from Central and South America, 400 from Europe, and 60 from Africa.
8 On July 1, 1982, the Marriage Blessing Ceremony of 2075 Couples was held. When there is a wedding in a village of even only one couple, it is cause for celebration, so opposing a wedding of thousands of couples is surely wrong. I am sure the police were shocked to see that there were no protesters at this Blessing ceremony. It must have been a huge shock to Western society. From now on, you should all be very proud of our marriage Blessing ceremonies. (119-009, 1982/07/03)
9 Right now I am in a court struggle in the United States. If I were an ordinary person, I would be making a commotion as if someone had died. Instead, however, I officiated at a wedding of more than 2,000 couples. This has a very great significance. When my history is recorded, it will be seen that days like these carry the most value. The fact that I am doing such public work for the sake of a country that opposes me is enough to turn history around. Why am I rushing these things? It is because we still have a long way to go before we can hold the Moscow rally. (119-011, 1982/07/03)
10 In view of God's providence, the 6000 Couples Blessing Ceremony was an event by which we reached the conclusive end of a phase of history. If the Unification Church, which started in Korea, had remained in Korea, it would not have had any influence on the world; much less would it have achieved this result, gathering the hearts of people from across the globe. Through our movement for global expansion, by which we spread out to the international stage, the Blessing was a good way for us to rally the heart of all the people in the world. People from 85 nations participated in the event. Not only people of the free world, but also people of the communist world participated, and this is truly historic. From a spiritual point of view, the ceremony itself was an occasion for innumerable ancestors from the spirit world to join forces, all the ancestors from the 85 nations.
11 The Unification Church conducts marriage Blessing ceremonies in order to build a world of love. The Unification Church does not permit racial discrimination. In true love, no one can say that white people are different from black people. This is why the Unification Church is great and its members are different. When I conducted the 6000 Couples International Marriage Blessing Ceremony, I blessed about 70 African-Japanese couples. I did not force them; they did this of their own volition. (140-260, 1986/02/12)
12 The people who participated in the 6000 Couples Blessing came from the world over. By this event, the races are being bound together and both vertical history and horizontal history are being turned upside down. The upper and lower in history are completely reversed, and east and west are interchanged. Thus, all historical currents are changing. The tides are shifting. The ideal of the family is achieved based on love and, through this Blessing, the incoming tide of love has started to flow from God's side for the first time in world history. Finally, rejuvenated love will come to the planet Earth. This is coming about through the 6000 Couples Blessing. The number 6 is Satan's number and the 6,000 Couples can destroy Satan's realm from the inside. Flying the 6,000 Couples' flag of love will bring Satan's world to a complete end. (122-111, 1982/11/01)
Section 4. The 6500,30,000 and Second-Generation Couples
The 6500 Couples: Opening the era of cross-cultural Blessings
The 6500 Couples Marriage Blessing Ceremony was held at the Ilhwa Yon-gin Factory on October 30,1988. Candidates from 17 nations participated, many of whom were cross-cultural couples from Korea and Japan, including 1,435 couples with Korean bridegrooms and Japanese brides, and 973 couples with Japanese bridegrooms and Korean brides. In addition, 3,660 couples in which both bride and groom were Japanese took part. At the engagement ceremony for this Blessing, True Parents matched most couples by their photographs.
1 When I blessed the 6500 Couples, I matched Japanese with Koreans, making cross-cultural couples. Why did I do this? Korea is the Adam nation and Japan is the Eve nation. The world was lost because Adam and Eve married according to their own will, and this event was to turn that around on the national level. (188-314, 1989/03/01)
2 Through the cross-cultural marriage Blessing of younger generation members on the national level, Satan's world broke down. And on the foundation of the era of True Parents' full authority, the ideal of heaven and earth could be established. The 6500 Couples represent this history. It was arranged within one week. At first, the Japanese leaders were in an uproar, saying, "We cannot do something like that," but as they did their utmost to follow my direction, the Japanese government and the Korean embassy helped it happen. The nations of Japan and Korea both set conditions by supporting this event. (190-282, 1989/06/19)
3 On October 3,1988,1 declared Foundation Day for the Nation of the Unified World. Based upon this declaration, a country can emerge. Since Adam and Eve fell as individuals and went to Satan, in order to restore this through indemnity, we must advance based on the second generation of the Adam and Eve nations, which represent Satan's world. It is the same as restoring the second generation of Israelites who entered the land of Canaan. The people of Israel returned to Canaan, where they were influenced by the seven Canaanite tribes. Through intermarriage they were morally corrupted, and the society fell apart as the result of their wickedness and promiscuity.
4 Korea and Japan are enemy nations, but I ignored this and conducted a cross-cultural marriage Blessing in Korea. Neither Korea nor Japan could oppose this. There has never been a time in history when people married a person simply after having seen a photograph, much less a person from a foreign country with whom they could not even communicate. Because this Blessing ceremony of 6,500 such couples was conducted in the name of God amid a warm reception from everyone, Satan could not invade. (183-347, 1988/11/09)
5 When the Seoul Olympic Games were in full swing, on September 27, 1988, we True Parents conducted a Ceremony for Providential Unification and Transition. On that foundation, we could declare Foundation Day for the Nation of the Unified World on October 3 of the same year. This was the basis for joining in matrimony the youth of Korea, the Adam nation, and of Japan, the Eve nation. Because at the Olympic Games we made bonds among the youth of the world, in the position of the second generation, we then could give the cross-cultural marriage Blessing to the young people of the Unification movement. This Blessing joined together the children of the Adam nation and the Eve nation as representatives of Adam and Eve on the individual level, and restored the Fall in their family. On this foundation, we came to stand as the Parents on the national level. (204-273, 1990/07/11)
6 On October 30, 1988, I conducted the 6500 Couples Blessing Ceremony. It was a cross-cultural marriage between Japanese and Koreans. People talked about how I got Unification Church members to marry each other after looking at their photographs. People assumed that the brides and grooms would be able to communicate with each other, but they could not. Since I had matched people who did not know each other s language, thousands of them sat in silence holding each other's hands tightly. Why were they so silent? It was because they did not know each other s language. Wherever they went, they would not let go of their partner s hand. Fifteen thousand people gathered there, so if they had let go and lost their spouse, it might have been difficult for them to find each other again! Even at mealtimes they stayed close. They could not converse with one another, but it was beautiful the way they held each other s hands. The Unification Church is the only place where one can see such a thing. (186-027, 1989/01/24)
The 30,000 Couples: An international and interracial marriage festival
On August 25, 1992, young men and women from 131 nations participated in the International Marriage Blessing Ceremony of 30,000 Couples held at the Seoul Olympic Stadium. The significance of this Blessing, which was part of the first World Culture and Sports Festival, was that it opened the age of the globalization of the Blessing. This was the first time a Blessing Ceremony had been broadcast by satellite. Blessing candidates in six nations who were unable to reach Korea due to difficulties with flight reservations or other issues, were thus able to participate.
7 In 1992, the International Blessing Ceremony of 30,000 Couples took place. The number 3 is the number of completion and it represents heaven. It refers to the 3 stages of formation, growth and completion. The fact that 30,000 Couples were blessed raises it to the worldwide level. This means that opposition to the mass marriages of the Unification Church is beginning to disappear. The worldwide level is beyond nation, race and culture, so there are no barriers.
8 The 30,000 Couples Blessing was an international marriage Blessing that transcended nation, region, religion and ideology. If you have 30,000 couples it is 60,000 people. This large number of people got married, not in ten days, but in one. They were not all just from one nation. People from all races and more than 130 nations participated. Notwithstanding skin color, human beings are basically the same. We are one. The culture of living for the sake of others is the same everywhere. It is a humble lifestyle, but these families will spread it across the globe. Think of how it will be if people like us occupy most of the world. In 20 years, it will become one world, becoming one nation. That time will come. (248-184, 1993/08/03)
9 At the 30,000 Couples Blessing, I blessed even people who did not have much merit. This was done in order to send them as tribal messiahs to liberate their clans. Until now, members' parents opposed the Unification Church and whole clans opposed it. The parents whose children joined were among the most intense opponents. I am liberating those parents who opposed us. (242-105, 1993/01/01)
10 The families of the world must come together in an alliance to create one world nation and give rise to a global family federation that transcends the nation. The International 30,000 Couples Blessing Ceremony represents this. This was a world-level ceremony of resurrection for families. As we carried out this world family resurrection ceremony, not only Japan and America, but the whole world opposed us. However, the time will come when people turn from opposing me to welcoming me, even when I ask families to relocate. Witnessing to your family will go smoothly once each of you has the real capability to fulfill your role as a proactive leader. (234-342, 1992/08/27)
11 When the tide turns, it takes six hours to reach the high water mark. It is a long, slow process for the water to reach this horizontal level, and so too is it with the providence. But the time has changed, and if we restore through indemnity the national and worldwide standards, everyone can stand on a level plane within one hour. This is due to the merit of the age. True Parents come to give the Blessing to all people of the world, regarding them as being on an equal footing. Were there no accusations from Satan, the heart of God would swing all of humanity back to His side all at once. For this reason, on the condition that they attend a one-week Divine Principle workshop, anyone can reach high tide and True Father can give them the Blessing on the same high tide standard. This we achieved through the 30,000 Couples Blessing. (257-206, 1994/03/15)
12 Adam and Eve married wrongfully, so it is only through the marriage Blessing that we can create a unified world of all nations. That is why the Blessing ceremony takes place in the name of God. The 30,000 Couples Blessing was conducted by True Parents on the horizontal plane. This means all participants inherited the same realm of merit. Cain and Abel are no longer fighting, but have become one. Cain and Abel are far away from heaven, but because we have to realize the will of heaven to unite all worldwide Cain and Abel territories with God's love, we hold the international marriage Blessing ceremony. Heaven has banished Satan and retrieved the world. For the first time, the foundation is laid for the family, tribe, nation, world and the universe. Heaven will arise on that foundation. Through becoming one with the Returning Lord, we can begin to form families that cast out Satan. The global age representing such families was the three-year course based on the 30,000 Couples Blessing. (269-011, 1995/04/06)
13 The Fall occurred due to the absence of a God-centered marriage. Therefore, we must marry centered on God and True Parents. Only then can we be part of God's lineage. At the time of the 30,000 Couples Blessing Ceremony, I had to make preparations so that these couples' names could be placed on the official family record. I took full responsibility and raised humanity to the position where they could be liberated. People can believe that for anyone who attends the seven-day workshop and receives the Blessing, True Parents will liberate them through indemnifying their history. (249-249, 1993/10/10)
The second generation: Blessing and responsibility
The first marriage Blessing ceremony of second generation members, children of blessed families, was for 36 Couples and was held at the Little Angels Arts Hall in Seoul on April 12,1986. On that day, True Parents told the participants, "At this point in time when a new history is about to unfold, you are not marrying just for yourselves; instead, you are getting married to advocate a great revolution in the Unificationist family. You should understand this clearly. Therefore, you should take part in this ceremony bearing the weight of the all-important mission to create a new chapter in history."
14 True Parents are the root of the second generation blessed families. Therefore you have to hold my words in higher regard than those of anyone else, even those of your own family members. By attending True Parents you inherit the tradition that will bring forth a God-centered nation and a God-centered world, in heaven and on earth. Your family is the first doorway. It is like a tree whose leaves and branches are to connect vertically the traditions of heaven, the world and the nation. Accordingly, your family is the horizontal representative of heaven, the world and the nation, and therefore, you have to own the traditions of the nation, the world and the kingdom of heaven. This has to be the mainstream of your thinking. As two individuals, you become one and make a beginning as a new clan, separated from the history of Satan's world. (145-063, 1986/04/30)
15 Why must I bless members of the second generation? If the world is persecuting a blessed family, this should mean that I cannot bless the second generation. But now, from the providential perspective, Unificationist blessed families have passed beyond the time of persecution. Who made this possible? Did your mother and father make it possible? True Parents did. Who is above True Parents? Heavenly Father is. Restoration can take place only when you attend three generations of parents. With God and True Parents as the vertical center, you have to attend the three generations of parents at the point where the vertical and horizontal connect. I did not fail in attending the vertical Parent, but attended Him completely. That is why I could establish myself in the world. Connected with heaven above, my roots have gone deep. I came to earth, and the horizontal realm extended from the many families including those of your parents. Their mission is to be the models that can connect to all families of the world based on the ideal of peace. (144-070, 1986/04/08)
16 It is remarkable that we can bless the second generation of the Unificationist families. So far, some blessed families have made mistakes, creating the conditions by which Satan accuses them. Now that their children are receiving the Blessing, they are forming God's second line of defense. You have to realize that I have given you the Blessing on the national level. Upon the worldwide foundation that True Parents established, all the people of the Republic of Korea follow, spiritually, the direction of the Unification Church. (145-064, 1986/04/30)
17 Those second generation couples who have received the Blessing have to become the heads of blessed families. This is like the lead goose who guides the flock in the right direction. All of you were called here to represent your clans—the Kims, if you are a Kim, and the Paks, if you are a Pak. You must recover a nation. From that point of view, you did not receive the Blessing for yourselves. (187-205, 1989/02/11)
18 For 40 years, I have struggled to create the foundation for heaven at the family level. I have reached this point by fighting intensely and undergoing severe battles with nations. When the foundation for a family-centered heaven centered on God's love and on True Parents unites completely with the foundation for the four-position foundation based on Cain-type parents, that is where heaven begins from. This is why members of the second generation are being put in leadership positions, and why I blessed the 36 Couples of the second generation as an indemnity condition for restoration. (145-349, 1986/06/01)
19 Each second generation blessed couple has to restore the authority to knock out Satan with one blow. They have to be able to proclaim, "I cannot represent the world and the universe, and I cannot speak for God, but there is no doubt that as an individual, I am a son who can knock out Satan."
20 Second generation blessed families are original families that Satan cannot invade from any direction: from the north, south, east or west, from above or below, front or back, left or right. You must reach out to the north, south, east and west with love. The second generation families have to shoulder this responsibility. Members of second generation blessed families must not get caught up in illicit love relationships. (187-206, 1989/02/11)
21 In regard to second generation education, I have emphasized the importance of giving up all bad habits they have had until now. They have to start with the Unification Church, inherit the church traditions and cultivate new habits with God and True Parents at the center. Second generation members who did not receive the Blessing and chose to live just as they wanted to have to come back. They cannot marry outside the Unification Church. According to Mosaic law, adultery was punished by stoning to death. A time more terrible than that may come in the future. The life of someone who acts against heavenly law and brings ruin to his or her nation and the world has no value. This is a very serious problem. (148-213, 1986/10/09)
22 Unification Church members should not be secularized. The day of a great movement for purification will come. All of the second-generation 36-couple blessed families need to follow True Parents' exact directions. Should you all make mistakes, the ancestral lines of all 72 of you will be affected. They will demonstrate in the spirit world. They will protest, saying, "These children were born after their parents joined the Unification Church and received the Blessing! What is this?" If that happens, your sons and daughters will not turn out well and their path will not be smooth. True Parents have no choice but to move forward, not cutting these children off but carrying the burden of their sins and bearing the cross. Parents must not think, "My son and daughter have received the second generation Blessing, so we can now live without regard to principles."
23 You blessed second generation members need to listen only to the words of True Parents. You must do so. If you do not, you will fall. The second generation members must take up the cross. You are in such an important position, to bear the cross for what your fathers and mothers did wrong, or even for the wrongdoings your sons and daughters may commit in the future. To minimize this, you must be responsible, carry the cross and make sacrifices for three generations. True Parents also go through this, even if they have to put you into a situation of sacrifice.
24 I spent 40 years turning around and patching up 4,000 years of history. I straightened out the crooked paths beginning from the origin of heart and even showed humanity the way of liberation. The fact that God could descend and build the kingdom of heaven on earth is like a dream. It sounds like a lie, but it is the truth. We are in a blessed position. Until I have founded a nation, I will not show my legs. While I was in prison, I covered them up. I did not want them to be seen by Satan's world. I did not sit just anywhere. In this way, I took care of my body. Before I sat down, or stood up from where I was, I never failed to sanctify the spot with holy salt. I have lived in such a way that I did not defile anything. The path I have walked was the original way, designed to be entirely separate from Satan's world. Your father and mother suffer in their hearts because they could not inherit that tradition. You members of the second generation must strive to inherit and live up to that tradition. (182-160, 1988/10/16)
25 As a second generation member, you should not be complacent. You must begin a new history based on our tradition. Only then can you become a huge tree. You still need to face persecution. If there is no external persecution, True Parents and your parents will persecute you. This is because you are to drive in roots that cannot be pulled out. You have to do it with love. You have to drive in the root of our teaching so thoroughly that no one can pull it out. If you make that your foundation, a sprout will grow from there. That new existence will grow in proportion to that foundation. God showers His blessings on your clan in that same way. (206-016, 1990/10/03)
26 Second generation blessed families must be trained properly. The second generation must go out to pioneer. If you want to become a huge tree, you have to plant your root deeply. How do you plant your spreading root deep in the soil? A tree that is planted at the top of a mountain cannot get its root down deeply enough and it will naturally dry out. The roots of a tree must go down into a deep place in the valley so that they can receive protection and nutrients. If the roots are exposed to the air, they get cold. When the wind blows, such a tree can easily topple over. That is why your root should also be planted deeply in a valley.
27 I am giving you the Blessing so that your offspring will be more outstanding than you. If those who received the 36 and 72 Couples Second Generation Blessing do not follow the Will, a big problem will arise. Because of God's Will, I abandoned my country, my parents, my wife and my children. What does it mean that I abandoned my nation? It was not my doing; it was Satan's world that pushed me out. In relation to the work I am doing now, I feel as if I have been swimming across the ocean and just came upon the island to which I am exiled. In order to inherit this tradition, you have to create your own foundation. Just as I have done this work in order to establish a worldwide foundation, so too the members of the second generation have to build their own foundation. Do not be indebted to your relatives, your colleagues and those associated with you. (206-022, 1990/10/03)
28 You all have to be grateful for the fact that the Unification Church already has entered the blessed land of Canaan after completing the 40-year course to restore Canaan. On the national level, there is no way the Unification Church can be stopped. We are at the stage where the learned people and general public feel that the nation will not survive if it does not follow the ways of the Unification Church. This is the point from which we have to go forward. This is the point from which the second generation blessed families must march forward, becoming locomotives, cannonballs, and breaking through to a new history. It has to be all of you. Getting married is not simply about being an individual. In the Unificationist family, people are marrying in order to advocate a great revolution. Third parties are not welcome to impose any of their ways, ideas or opinions into this relationship. No matter what, you have to turn to True Parents. No third party intervention is permitted. (144-127, 1986/04/12)
29 Jacob had 12 sons. Among them, Joseph and Benjamin, the 11th and 12th sons, received the most blessing. Their ten older brothers, who did Satan's bidding, hated those two. But despite receiving opposition and contemptuous treatment from ten in his family, Joseph showed the example of overcoming a terrible ordeal with an absolutely loving heart. Although Joseph's brothers tried to drown him by throwing him in a well and later sold him, he did not accept the fact that his brothers were trying to put him in a position to be killed. Instead he loved them, putting aside his authority and desire. The love that Joseph had for his brothers became a condition for the whole nation of Israel to live.
Section 5. Globalization of the Blessing
The 360,000 Couples: The Blessing movement
The 360,000 Couples International Marriage Blessing Ceremony was held on August 25, 1995, at Seoul Olympic Stadium. This Blessing ceremony was held simultaneously in 553 locations across 160 nations, via live satellite broadcast. Thereafter, the marriage Blessing expanded on a global level, with the number of participants increasing with each ceremony.
1 Human beings were driven from God's presence because the Fall constituted an act of wrongful marriage. Thus, the 360,000 Couples Blessing is the act of proclaiming the realm of liberation for all humankind in the name of the True Parents with the supreme authority of all-immanence, all-transcendence, and omnipotence. These couples represent the perfected realms of Adam, Noah and Jacob. You must understand that only the number 360,000 is appropriate for this Blessing, since this is a number that represents on the horizontal level the perfection of the realms of Adam, Jesus, and Christ at his Second Advent. So the accomplishment of 360,000 couples should not be a problem. We have entered the era in which I can bless 3.6 million couples and 36 million couples. (269-057, 1995/04/07)
2 The Israelites failed to establish a pure national tradition in the seven-year period following the 40 years in the wilderness, and this led to a troubled and ruinous history. We, however, should not fail in establishing a national tradition, a teaching upon which we can build the heavenly nation. We have reached the end of our 40-year course. Within the next seven years we should unite as citizens of the nation filled with its founding ideal of peace and as citizens of a united world. In order to do so, the first generation representing Cain and the second generation representing Abel should unite. Nonetheless, the first generation has failed and there is danger that they again will fall away in the wilderness. So how can we bind them together? The only way to save the first generation is to bless them as soon as possible, and that is why the 360,000 Couples Blessing will be held. Many already married couples will take part in this Blessing. (269-217, 1995/04/23)
3 The number 36 refers to the 36 Couples representing Adam's, Noahs and Jacob's families and is thus an ancestral number. As such, the 360,000 Couples Blessing is like a world-level spinal cord, like a Blessing of the ancestors. It corresponds to the growth stage on the global level. What will happen once we have conducted this ceremony? Presently the world's families are breaking down. This is a great problem that must be resolved. The whole world has a headache over this issue. That is why all the young Unification Church men and women comprising the 360,000 Couples need to form new families and live well with high ideals. Because of them, broken families will show an interest in the Blessing and it will have a global impact. (269-301, 1995/05/01)
4 Since the 30,000 Couples Blessing, we have conducted global Blessing ceremonies open to the public. Vice presidents and cabinet members took part in that ceremony, and even presidents participated in the 360,000 Couples Blessing. We must cross over the summit on the world level. The fact that we conducted the 360,000 Couples Blessing 3 years after the 30,000 Couples Blessing signifies that we have fulfilled the number 3. This was considered impossible. God and True Parents were the only ones who knew it and had faith. I went ahead with the Blessing because I felt responsible. I gave the direction to accomplish this and now we have succeeded. Now we have completely surpassed Satan's world. On a world level, based on the 30,000 Couples as the foundation in the formation stage and the 360,000 Couples in the growth stage, we have gone over the mountains of mistakes that our ancestors committed. The 360,000 Couples have taken the standard of the 36 Couples to the world level. (272-027, 1995/08/30)
5 Although we invested our blood and sweat for the sake of the 360,000 Couples Marriage Blessing, you have no idea how fearful I was as August 25, 1995, approached. It was even more serious than the feeling I had when I held the Washington Monument Rally on September 18, 1976. There was the question of whether our dignity and honor that we had built up before heaven would all come crashing down. It was a gravely serious time, but God had compassion for me, one who has lived a lonely and miserable life, and through His protection and love we achieved it. In fact, we went beyond the goal that no one thought was achievable, exceeding 360,000 couples. (271-215, 1995/08/28)
6 No one thought that the 360,000 Couples Blessing Ceremony could take place three years after the 30,000 Couples Blessing Ceremony, but I said that it would. No one believed it. There is no one else in the world who can do this kind of work. There are not even countries that can do it. This is a world record. We were able to rise up and leap over the families in Satan's world. Through this victory on the growth stage with the 360,000 Couples, we rose above Satan's world and now we stand on top. Now what is left is the Blessing of 3.6 Million Couples. This is the era of absolute authority. We are entering the era of the absolute authority of marriage. Because we have triumphed over Satan's world on the national level, we are expanding the family-level foothold to the world level. Because of this, the era of True Parents is passing and the era of kingship has come. (275-282, 1996/01/01)
7 I began with confidence that the 360,000 Couples Blessing was possible. I never wavered. This is why God is protecting us. But you all felt there was no hope, even during the 30,000 Couples Blessing. To you, the 360,000 Couples was something unimaginable. When we began this work, I received God's affirmation and told you that it was totally possible. Then, day or night and wherever I went, I stayed focused on that point and offered devotions. All the devotions offered all over the world combined will never surpass my devotions. No one knows this; only God and I do. A perfect subject partner creates a perfect object partner. The faith of that perfect object partner is what God has the responsibility to establish through the perfect faith of the subject partner, His substantial embodiment. That faith was thus established. (272-117, 1995/08/30)
8 The Blessing brings the realization of the ideal family, the true family. God's Will is for the realization of the ideal family. Where on this earth is there a mother and father who do not hope for their sons and daughters to have ideal families? But even though parents want this, it is impossible to achieve. They are just dreaming. Ideal families cannot be accomplished through political power, economic power, diplomacy or even through the use of military power. However, True Parents' teachings are now all over the world. They have reached beyond national borders, sects and denominations. The Blessing has gone beyond these boundaries. This too may seem like a dream, but it is reality. (272-197, 1995/10/05)
9 After receiving the Blessing, you should want to be the best couple in the whole world. In order to do this, the wife must seek an ideal nation more than she loves her own husband, and the husband must long to find the ideal nation more than he loves his own wife. If you do not do this, your family will not come to peaceful settlement. I was not able to govern you as the perfect Parent because I had not accomplished the completion level of the growth stage on the global level. So I could not interfere. But now that time has passed. Passing over the 40-year hurdle, a breakthrough was made with the 360,000 Couples Blessing. This means that starting from the 30,000 Couples we accomplished the formation and growth stages. That is why no one in Satan's world can block the Unification Church. We have overcome that hurdle. (272-074, 1995/08/30)
The 3.6 Million-40 Million Couples: The open Blessing
On November 29, 1997, the International Marriage Blessing Ceremony of 40 Million Couples was held at RFK Stadium in Washington, DC, and also broadcast live via satellite worldwide. Originally, 3.6 million couples were scheduled to participate, but the number grew to such an extent that it became the 40 Million Couples Blessing.
10 When the 3.6 Million Couples are blessed, there will be a unified world. What is the anchor of this unified world? Around what does it revolve? The anchor is the 3.6 Million Couples who can liquidate the evil that is woven into the habitual and defiled lifestyles of the contaminated earthly world under Satan's dominion. You should always hold on to this anchor by means of the rope attached to it. The rope is your family and clan. Because I'm afraid that rope might break, I am binding national messiahs to your clans. (280-263, 1997/01/02)
11 Now you have to take responsibility for the ancestors of your family. True Parents have taken the responsibility for all the providential families from Adam's time until now. Through the 360,000 Couples Blessing, liberation took place that transcends the family, nation and even the world. In this realm there are no longer any boundaries between nations, religions, customs and cultures. This realm ascribes the same value to all people. We have sent families to villages all over the world, and have inaugurated the original family standard that God wanted to establish with Adam before he fell. (284-119, 1997/04/16)
12 Once the 3.6 Million Couples are blessed, heaven s blessing will connect to the world level and every day will be the Sabbath. Touching the creation throughout the world, the Blessing will be a divine day in all four seasons. I am conducting this work right now in order to prepare for that. In the past we have celebrated the sacraments in the presence of God and True Parents only on Sundays. In the era of the Declaration Day of God's Eternal Blessing, and the era of complete transcendence, complete immanence, and complete authority and power, we can move higher than the world level through the 3.6 Million Couples Blessing, and come out of the realm of suffering that the creation has been lamenting. We are entering the age of attendance, when we can eat and sleep and do all things in our daily lives while attending God and True Parents. We can do this all week long from Monday to Sunday. (285-297, 1997/06/29)
13 Looking externally, it may appear to people as if the Unification Church is following the path of Christianity, but those people do not know the internal reality, that we have gone through a history of struggle. We have gone through many arduous struggles in order to separate from Satan. In doing so, the path of salvation, by which all humanity returns to God's embrace, has expanded through eight successive levels from the individual, to the family, and will surpass the world level based on blessed families, through the 3.6 Million Couples Blessing and the 40-year course. (286-070, 1997/08/06)
14 True Parents have undergone 12 courses. The 3.6 Million Couples was the 12th course. We have to surpass these 12 courses. I interpret the word Arirang with the Chinese characters ae (ft) meaning "love," the character ri (M) meaning "distance," from the word "village," and the character ryeong (IS) from the word for mountain. Thus it means "looking for the village that we love." In the Korean song "Arirang," there are 12 mountain peaks. Passing over those mountain peaks is hard work. Now that I have passed through those 12 courses, everything has been leveled all at once. That is why we can now freely go anywhere. (289-263, 1998/01/21)
15 Until the completion of the 3.6 Million Couples Blessing, which was proclaimed on July 15,1997,1 was consumed with the overwhelming urgency of the providence. But heaven was able to work and bring victory. On August 9, we proclaimed the Realm of the Cosmic Sabbath for the Parents of Heaven and Earth. The time for its settlement will come. The gates of the spirit world will open and spirits will come to earth. Events we cannot even imagine will take place during that time. That is why I proclaimed the achievement of the 3.6 Million Couples on July 15. (289-013, 1997/12/30)
16 Having achieved the 36 Million Couples Blessing, we could also give holy wine to any baby in the womb of one of those newly blessed families. No matter the extent to which you may have neglected your life and allowed it to become stained, you should never forget that the baby in your womb has inherited the absolute pure lineage and is no longer connected to the fallen lineage. You should not fail to set the condition of bequeathing the holy wine to your children. You have to be one with God's nation and pledge loyalty to Him, and as you do so, have them drink the holy wine. Doing this constitutes rebirth. The child in your womb is not Satan's child. (289-063, 1997/12/30)
The 360 Million-400 Million Couples: Planting seeds worldwide
The International Marriage Blessing Ceremony of 360 Million Couples was held at Madison Square Garden in New York on June 13,1998, and broadcast live to 195 nations. The second phase took place at Jamsil Olympic Stadium in Seoul on February 7,1999. True Parents had disclosed earlier that this marriage Blessing ceremony should be held in the United States, the elder son nation, and then in Japan, the mother nation. At this time a spirit world Blessing ceremony was also conducted. On February 13, 2000, the first phase of the 400 Million Couples Blessing Ceremony was held at Jamsil Olympic Stadium in Seoul. The second phase was held at the UN Headquarters in New York, on January 27, 2001 and the third phase was held at the Fencing Gymnasium in Seoul Olympic Park on February 16, 2002. In this way, the 400 Million Couples Blessing took place in multiple phases.
17 When the 3.6 Million Couples are blessed, everything will be completely level. It should be as when a river flows into the sea. When the water from a major river enters the sea, it is at its slowest moving point surrendering and being completely absorbed by the ocean, the subject partner. All movement comes and goes based on the logic of heaven and earth. Why is it good to move immediately to the 360 Million Couples Blessing right after the 36 Million Couples Blessing? It is because we have already gone over the hurdle of the mountain, and have come down into the ravine of the mountain valley. We went over the peaks of the formation and growth stages, and now reached the plateau where we can go beyond the completion level of the growth stage. That is why we have reached the stage of the 360 Million Couples Blessing. This is the realm of completion. (288-149, 1997/11/27)
18 The reason True Parents have been working hard is to find the ideal kingdom of heaven based on ideal and absolute love. That is the reason we have come to this point. After finding the ideal of love, we had to bequeath it. To bequeath that ideal, we held the 30,000 Couples Blessing. The standard process was the 30,000 Couples Blessing as the formation stage, the 360,000 Couples Blessing as the growth stage, and the 3.6 Million Couples Blessing as the completion stage. Because the foundation was set, it was possible to hold the 3.6 Million Couples Blessing and the 36 Million Couples Blessing in 1997. We were so busy then; it was as if waterfalls were rushing down from the sky. Now, when the day of the victory of the 360 Million Couples comes, the unified world of the realm of heart will come to this earth and the whole universe. Then the families that are living in this realm of heart will be the same as the perfection of Adam's family. When you enter the spirit world after living in the kingdom of heaven on earth, the gates of the kingdom of heaven in heaven will be opened. (288-329, 1998/01/01)
19 In the Completed Testament Age, we have to complete the ideal of marriage. Through the 360 Million Couples Blessing, we will restore what was lost in Adam's family. After this has been accomplished, the age will come in which you, as original parents who are not connected to the Fall of Adam, are able to bless your children, based on original love, life and lineage. That is the coming of the era of the Fourth Adam after the eras of the First, Second, and Third Adams. After the 360 Million Couples Blessing, we will enter the realm of the Fourth Adam, in which we no longer need to pay indemnity. Thus, we will enter the era in which parents can bless their children in the Garden of Eden on behalf of God. Later, based on the families and relatives you yourselves have blessed, the direct pathway leading to heaven can be established.
20 After carrying out the 400 Million Couples Blessing, we should hold a pure love pledge ceremony focusing on elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, and universities. We are carrying this out to protect the young people. If we just leave them, eventually they will fall. This is why we conduct the pure love ceremony. Parents, the school and even police officers should join together to make a wholesome environment so that young people will not want to deviate. Young people are in the same position as the unfallen Adam and Eve, so we should create a protective environment to prevent the Fall from ever happening again. In the time of Adam and Eve, they did not have an environment that protected them; their environment allowed them to fall. They fell because there were only the two of them. However, in our time, parents and entire families, teachers and entire schools, mayors and police must create a system that will protect young people from falling. (301-262, 1999/05/02)
21 True Parents can eliminate all national-level persecution and bring about the surrender of Satan, based on the flesh and spirit. Together with God, I was able to set up a unified family foundation, and from there we could make a foundation on the national level, as Israel should have done in Jesus' time. When this foundation expands to the world level, everything will be completed. I have expelled Satan from the spirit world and the satanic world of hell. Through this I have given rebirth to this world and now, with your support, the authority of Israel has expanded to the global level. Because the people of the world can receive the Blessing as the chosen people, and the authority of Israel has expanded to the global level, the Unification Church could bless the 400 Million Couples. Because I have completed all the courses in the physical world and the spiritual world, you can conquer everything through a heart of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience to True Parents. (360-157, 2001/11/15)
Section 6. Ancestor Blessings
Ancestor liberation
According to True Parents, while we are on earth we should liberate our ancestors in the spirit world. Thus, True Parents instructed on February 12, 1999, that ancestor liberation ceremonies be held at Cheongpyeong Heaven and Earth Training Center, starting with the first seven generations of ancestors. True Parents explained that we are living in the realm of grace in which we can enjoy the benefits of this age through the Blessing bestowed on us as True Parents' prerogative. Now our ancestors can be liberated and blessed and come again to earth and cooperate with their descendants. Thus they can go to the kingdom of heaven, even if they are presently in hell.
1 Your ancestors who have gone to the spirit world are like the angels in the angelic world, and the world you are living in now is like the world of Adam and Eve. It is also the world of your future grandchildren. The spirit world has the responsibility to help Adam and Eve, and you are in the position of Adam and Eve. So your ancestors in the spirit world, in the position of angels, will cooperate with you. If you cooperate with your ancestors, eventually you will be able to liberate them. This is the Principle. (119-045, 1982/07/03)
2 You must liberate your ancestors. Their liberation serves to release your descendants. You have to restore Adam and Eve's sons and daughters. Adam and Eve cannot do it. The principle is that the second generation must become one with Adam and Eve to achieve this restoration. This is an astonishing truth. In 6,000 years of human history, this is the first time the ancestor liberation ceremony could be held. The time is right, so I have directed that these ceremonies be held. (412-119, 2003/07/16)
3 You must liberate all of your ancestors. You absolutely must liberate your first seven generations. Then, after the first seven generations of your ancestors, you need to liberate them up to 120 generations. If you do that for your ancestors, you will be able to bless all 120 generations at once. If you were to do that, would the gates of hell tumble down, yes or no? If you do not do that, however, when I go to the spirit world, the spirit world will be in turmoil. On the other hand, if we can put the spirit world in order, spirits there will help settle problems on earth anytime. (301-206, 1999/04/26)
4 Through True Parents' direction and declaration, saints, sages, people who lived a religious life, and those conscientious young people who died before the age of 16 and are carrying bitter sorrow because of their early death, and all other spirits in the spirit world can now receive the Blessing. I liberated the ancestors of all nations, making it possible for them to go through the borders of the spirit world. Furthermore, I opened the door so that all of those ancestors can now receive the Blessing. Heung-jin and Daemonim at Cheongpyeong, in connection with Daehyungnim (True Father's elder brother) and all Unification Church members, have now made it possible for all good spirits in the spirit world to connect to people on earth. As a result, those spirits are now elevated to the higher standard of True Parents and have an unbreakable connection with True Parents. (346-265, 2001/07/01)
5 True Parents came in this era to find the homeland and nation in which to rectify the corrupted lineage of heaven and earth. We are now undertaking ancestor liberation and Blessing ceremonies at Cheongpyeong Heaven and Earth Training Center. Because the spirit world is an eternal world, unlike the case on earth, if you restore something there just one time, that restoration is finished. Because everything in the spirit realm is unidirectional, if the lineage is rectified, it is rectified for eternity.
6 Any spirit who has been liberated and then received education is able to receive the Blessing and become an absolute good spirit. Even if your ancestors are in hell, they can still go to the kingdom of heaven by being liberated and then blessed. Your ancestors who are in hell in this era of True Parents need to know the tremendous value of the grace of receiving the Blessing. They should also know it is not easy to accomplish this. In order to enable them to reach such a position, you must become one in heart and body and offer conditions of devotion with dedication and utmost sincerity. (398-289, 2002/12/15)
7 Up until now, God has appeared in the form of light in the spirit world, like the light from a radiant diamond. God, who is the substantial Being of wonder and heightened awareness, has appeared in the form of light to give instructions, but there was yet no way for God to instruct from the position of the Parent of humankind. God could not freely teach or guide us. From that midpoint position in which He was situated, the things He could solve were the ones He could delegate; He could not solve everything from beginning to end. True Parents, however, have established this beginning and end for both the physical world and the spiritual world.
8 Because the woman, Eve, fell and made this world so wretched, it is women who must liberate and bless the ancestors who are in the realm of the archangel. This work of liberation has expanded the extent to which spirits are able to come down to the world and offer their help. This can bring an immense and indescribably significant outcome.
9 We have to liberate and bless our ancestors. All your relatives and ancestors with your surname should be blessed and should make a foundation for the liberation of the angelic world and the physical world. We have to consider this a matter of grave importance. This must be done even if employing great force of character. People in the spirit world do not have an ideal partner because they never received permission to have one. Your own mothers and siblings there surely grieve because of this. But through the authority of True Parents to give the Blessing, you are able to bless all of your ancestors based upon True Parents' permission. (423-180, 2003/10/28)
10 Your ancestors are brought to the Cheongpyeong training center to be liberated; then they receive education and, after that, the Blessing. Liberation cannot be done in a random fashion. You must pay the price to open the way for all the ancestors in your clan to be liberated. Regarding your ancestors' present condition, if we compare them to a tree, their roots are stunted, as well as their stems, branches, leaves, flowers and fruit. You must liberate everything. Liberation is a wonderful thing. We must create a branch with a healthy root, stem and sprout that contains the life of heaven. We should engraft this branch. In this way the true branch will appear, and then proper leaves will unfold, flowers will bloom and fruit will be borne. We should make sure that groves of true olive trees are the only ones standing. This is the mission of the people of Cheon II Guk, and their responsibility and mission for the settlement of Cheon II Guk. (437-115, 2004/02/10)
11 When you liberate your ancestors, you should bless them as well. Since you are a family who is here on earth in the Abel position, you need to release them from their sorrow over having gone to the spirit world without having had the chance to change their lineage. Through this, your family in the Abel position becomes the elder brother, and your ancestors become your younger siblings. The liberation will also engraft them to the family standards that True Parents have established. This is the shift that takes place through tribal messiahship. When the elder brother and younger brother become one, the whole family can receive the Blessing, and then your whole town can receive it. This is how, when you take responsibility for doing tribal messiahship in your district, focusing on the members of your family with the same surname, you can give the Blessing to all the people there.
12 The day before the 360,000 Couples Blessing Ceremony, I gave the Blessing to my physical parents and my older brother. I joined as a trinity my parents, my older brother and the True Children. Not only that, I gave the Blessing to Daemonims family. By doing so, I tied them all together in the position of our children. By going through these three generations with True Parents at the center, True Parents' sons and daughters and your families were bonded as Cain and Abel. Giving these three generations the position of being blessed built the foundation for the liberation and Blessing of all the ancestors who had been separated. Starting with these liberated and blessed ancestors, over the course of thousands of years the number will expand and ultimately everyone can be liberated.
13 1 directed Daemonim and Heung-jin to conduct a Blessing on behalf of True Parents the day after the 3.6 Million Couples are blessed. Heung-jin and Daemonim are the ones to give the Blessing. Through this, all those who received the Singles Blessing will be able to find their spouses and children in the spirit world and restore their families. That time has come. Because I did not know when this time would come, I conducted the Singles Blessings. If we had not been able to overcome the obstacles on the national level, people could not have been blessed as singles to their original spouses. However, from now on your relatives can be blessed as singles, and even if they receive the Blessing alone, they can recreate their families. Even if your relatives are in hell, you will be able to call them out from there and liberate them instantly. This is because True Parents have laid the foundation for a straight paved road from hell to the kingdom of heaven. Now we can just get in a car and cruise fast and effortlessly along that highway. (285-105, 1997/04/21)
14 The 3.6 Million Couples Blessing is the time when heaven and earth will be connected. This Blessing will connect the vertical and horizontal worlds. This is why I have been waiting for the day when Adam's family and all humanity could stand in the position before the Fall and be blessed. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve needed to have a family. This was because they were meant to become the representative family who would inherit everything and thus have a value greater than the value of the universe.
15 Now that the 360 Million Couples Blessing is being carried out, we are beginning to give the Blessing in the spirit world. Satan's bloodline is now cut off. The era in which Satan could accuse us has passed. The era of True Parents' absolute authority, all-immanence, alltranscendence and omnipotence has come. The era has arrived in which True Parents' authority can be exerted. Just as when God created Adam and Eve, saying, "It is very good," and felt such joy, the era of beneficent authority has come, equivalent to when God brought every living creature to Adam to receive their names. (293-091, 1998/05/24)
16 After the completion of the 360 Million Couples Blessing, Satan's lineage has to be cut off. This is the last challenge. Through this, the gates of both heaven and hell will be opened. All the enemies of the past will welcome True Parents and attend them in a huge celebration. Up to now, we were not able to attend True Parents in the family, tribe, clan, nation and world. For the first time we will hold a banquet on earth through which brothers and sisters who have been enemies can come back and follow God's way. Through this, heaven's way will be revealed. This is the way we should go. This way leads toward the kingdom of heaven on earth. (296-300, 1998/11/18)
17 Everything under God's ownership at the time of the creation was lost through the Human Fall. We need to bring it all back to God. Until now God did not have sons and daughters, but through True Parents God was able to regain true sons and true daughters. This is re-creation. But this is not done by God. Only True Parents can do it. True Parents need to have complete ownership and then return everything to God, which is why True Parents searched for a family and returned that family to God.
18 With the marriage Blessing of 360 Million Couples, we proclaim the liberation of all the spirits in the spirit world, including all those who were enemies of God. Those spirits who are in hell and those in the midway spiritual realm are not yet connected to God's lineage. We have to connect them. When the conditions for Abel to receive the Blessing are established, Cain can be blessed as well. This is according to heavenly law. But to accomplish this, we must establish our position based upon loving our enemies. Through this, we can establish the position of the younger sibling in front of God's direct sons and daughters. It was like this for Cain. Up to now, the saints in the religious sphere worked hard to fulfill such indemnity, and the sinful people on Satan's side have been working in the same way in order to separate themselves from destruction. The breakthrough now is that True Parents have restored through indemnity all those historical figures, and so the historical division of good and evil, God and Satan, and Cain and Abel will end. Through True Parents' sacrifice we are entering the era when everything that was divided will be united. (294-044, 1998/06/10)
19 If Adam himself cannot establish his full authority on the levels of the individual, family, tribe, people, nation, world and cosmos, God's purpose of creation cannot be accomplished and God cannot be liberated. Indeed, God cannot do even a single thing. Establishing the full authority of Adam is the responsibility of True Parents. True Parents have to stir up a great revolution in heaven. This is why we blessed the four great saints and the worst of all sinners. We have to surmount the obstacles imposed by our enemies. This is why we are establishing equal rights for both sides.
20 If God were in an enemy relationship with Satan, we would never have hope to bring about world peace. If God had not been able to rise above an enemy relationship with Satan, and if He had not been able to maintain the ideal heart He had toward the archangel during the time of creation, Satan would never have surrendered. What do we mean by this? When two enemies are joined together through marriage, if they do not form a loving relationship that emulates the way God has loved the enemy, the marriage will fail. If you cannot develop such loving, enemyembracing relationships in cross-cultural marriages, then the path to a peaceful world will be blocked. True Parents have known this, which is why the institution of cross-cultural marriage between enemies was inevitable. This is also why we blessed saints and sinners at the same time. (371-098, 2002/02/24)
21 God has always longed for the liberation of all people, including those in hell, and the realization of peace in heaven and on earth. Only True Parents can take the responsibility to accomplish this. We do it through joining enemies from both sides through the Blessing. This is God's heart. Even if a loved one is blessed to an enemy, we should have the heart that is capable of wishing that enemy success and good fortune. This is why I also have to give the Blessing even to Satan.
22 When the 360 Million Couple Blessing takes place, we will enter an era in which all things that have been divided will be united centering on the name of True Parents and the worlds blessed families. In this era of great transition, we have declared the 360 Million Couple Blessing and the separation from Satan's lineage. If Adam had been able to attain perfection, there would never have been hell or the midway spiritual realm. This is why the spiritual world and physical world need to be organized before giving the Blessing. After this, the saints in the spirit world should receive the Singles Blessing with those ladies who have been leading a single life on earth. This is how the religious sphere will settle into unity. After that, the evil people of Satan's world should be blessed. (294-045, 1998/06/10)
23 For the first time in history there are True Parents, who are able to love sinners just as they love saints. This solves a big problem. For God, it is time to rectify all things in the evil world and resolve everything. This is why everything has reached an apex. There is nowhere else to go to. Even Satan is stymied and can go no higher. Through True Parents binding the horizontal elements to the vertical, sinners who are on the horizontal plane are now connected to the vertical way. The historic moment when this occurred was the 360 Million Couple Blessing. This was a very significant event. Through its success, the gates of heaven were opened and the way from hell to heaven was paved. It was a momentous event that True Parents were able to set the indemnity conditions and were able to share the Blessing with all humankind. (320-241, 2000/04/16)
24 Families who have received the Blessing can go to the kingdom of heaven. Through the 360 Million Couple Blessing by True Parents, the ancestors were able to enter the kingdom of heaven as well. Before this Blessing on earth, we gave the Blessing in the spirit world. It all started on June 13, 1998. We gave the blessing to saints and murderers, with the saints in the position of the elder son and the murderers in the position of the younger son. The younger siblings should be able to follow the elder son with absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience, thereby creating a horizontal balance. In the same way, national-level enemies and world-level enemies are able to receive the Blessing. True Parents gave such a Blessing for all humanity to inherit. Through True Parents having created such a foundation, all people are now able to receive the True Parents' standard for the first time. (306-100, 1998/09/20)
Chapter 3
The True Family Movement and True Family Tradition
Section 1 .The Pure Love Movement
The necessity for this movement
The true family movement comes as the fundamental providential movement for restoring this fallen world to the original world of creation centered on God. The focus of the movement is the international marriage Blessing, transcending race, nation and religion, which seeks to realize the kingdom of heaven on earth and in heaven through ideal God-centered families. True Parents have implemented the true family movement on a vast scale through the marriage Blessing ceremony as well as the pure love movement for children and teenagers.
1 Immorality among youth and family breakdown are among the bad fruits reaped from the seeds sown by the first human ancestors. When Adam and Eve fell, they turned the family upside down. The fruits of the Fall have become manifest throughout the world, with the result that we are now in a time of great suffering. The fallen family is the root and is at the heart of all the problems of societies, nations and the world. People do not know which way to turn. It is a time when grandfathers cannot fulfill the role of grandfathers, parents cannot fulfill the role of parents, husbands and wives cannot fulfill the roles of husbands and wives, and children cannot fulfill the role of children. As selfish individualism takes root, God is not present, both the world and its nations are lost, and a good society cannot emerge. (283-013, 1997/04/08)
2 When people talk about the deterioration of values, they are not referring to the values associated with money, knowledge or power. The most important values are those connected with true love. True parents have to establish the values of true love, true couples have to establish the values of true couples, and true children have to establish the values of true children. Actually these values are not different from each other. The values that must be established by parents, couples, and brothers and sisters are absolute and one and the same. Unification comes about on the basis of absolute values. When we take away parents, husbands and wives, and brothers and sisters, all we have left is selfish individualism, and the one, harmonized world cannot be established. (458-138, 2004/07/08)
3 People say that today is an age of globalization. What is the center of this age, as they describe it? They usually speak of it in terms of economics, academics, sports and so on, and they do not realize that globalization should focus on the family. The problems of the world are not primarily rooted in economics or politics, but in the family. Families are breaking down, especially in developed nations. Many families have been destroyed by free sex. People have to understand that the authentic movement for globalization must be based on the family. In other words, people have to know True Parents' teachings about the ideal family. (278-168, 1996/05/05)
4 From the viewpoint of true love, this world as it exists now is like a vacuum; there is no air of true love. If air were to enter, the world would instantly explode with life. In this age, the Blessing movement is like a typhoon that will storm into this empty world and cleanse the land. The owners of that typhoon-cleansed world are the True Parents. When children, tribes and the nation emerge based on True Parents' lineage, the world of evil will disappear. Whatever obstacles assert themselves will not present a problem, because the power of true love can overcome any problem. The power of true love is like a high-voltage current. Any evil that touches it will be vaporized in an instant. (287-119, 1997/09/01)
5 God's hope, as well as the hope of all people, is for human prosperity and one united world of peace. Ideal peace is established when the subject partner and the object partner practice true love centered on God at the levels of the individual, the nation and the world. Love, of course, cannot be realized by itself. Love can be realized only through a mutual relationship. Parents' love is realized in relation to their child. Children's love is realized in relation to their parents. God's act of creation was to realize the ideal of true love, which cannot occur if God remains alone. That is why He sought to realize the father-son relationship based on true love.
6 Although the Cold War has come to an end, we still face so many problems that challenge us in terms of social morality and love in the family. Corrupt sexual behavior and drug abuse continue to seriously threaten young people. All of the nations of the world have these problems. It has been surprisingly difficult for them to deal with these issues, but we must realize that there is more to these problems than is immediately evident. The world needs righteous young leaders who can understand the true nature of the problems and solve them based on Godism. We have to realize that problems like these arise when we ignore the internal aspect of the mind and spirit. (True Mother, 1994/07/26)
7 Originally, God called for Adam and Eve to perfect themselves as ideal parents. They should have realized God's ideal family as the beloved children of God and as the parents of their own beloved children. Such a family would have been the starting point of the ideal world of love and peace. Unfortunately, Adam and Eve could not create such a family, so the dream to realize the ideal nation and world disappeared. Then how can we restore the ideal family? World peace is not just a spiritual issue. It is a way of life that starts from the individual, expands to the family, and bears fruit at the level of the global family. We will be able to save our young people from materialism, violence and sexual corruption by means of the establishment of strong, God-centered true families. (True Mother, 1994/07/26)
8 If the true family movement does not succeed, then nothing we do will succeed. The true family movement is our only hope. Only True Parents have the authority to deal with the situation in the family. God and Satan are fighting each other over humankind, and only True Parents can resolve this struggle. Neither God nor Satan can do it. True Parents have to eliminate Satan and break the iron chain by which God has been bound. They must liberate God; Satan will have to surrender. The world cannot solve the problems of the family and young people through such means as politics, economics and culture. It is only True Parents who can solve these problems. The problems of youth, the problems in the family, and the problem of the struggle between God and Satan were all created by a false parent. It is only True Parents who can solve all of these problems and thus realize world peace and the kingdom of heaven on earth. (311-139, 1999/08/29)
9 In this world the corruption of young people and the breakdown of the family are the most difficult problems to solve. No one can deal with these. The ministries of education or defense in each nation cannot deal with them, nor can we if we rely only on the power of politics or economics. Neither the physical world nor the spiritual world nor even God can solve these problems. True Parents alone have the special authority to do it. Adam and Eve fell as teenagers, and the tragedy of Cain killing Abel occurred. What should never have happened did happen in the first family, and we must correct it.
The pure love movement
The pure love movement leads young people toward true love and the understanding of the order of true love. The movement is focused on adolescents and teaches about the removal of the fallen nature that was formed as a result of the Fall. True Parents clearly taught that it is only through the pure love movement that we can solve teenage problems and family breakdown, which are the most serious problems facing humanity. Thus, they initiated the pure love movement for middle-school and high-school students on an extensive scale. Middle-school and high-school students are at about the same age as Adam and Eve just before the Fall. True Parents said that we must give these students pure love education, eradicate the Satanic lineage, and help them grow up under God's protection and love.
10 We advocate the ideals of purity and absolute sexual fidelity. To promote these ideals we have created a pure love movement and a true family movement, based on true love. Without true love there can be neither sexual purity nor true families. Also, a true family cannot be established without absolute fidelity between husband and wife. You must honor relationships to the same degree as Chun-hyang, a chaste wife who remained faithful to her husband Lee Mong-nyong, even while facing threats of death from a corrupt court official. In this way we can realize the true family. (286-115, 1997/08/09)
11 We have to establish the pure love movement and the true family movement on university and college campuses. What can we do to deal with the problems of youth? Where can we establish the true family ideal? We can do so by connecting to the middle schools, high schools and colleges. Today young people are easily influenced and polluted by corrupt thoughts. Students from age 12 through 24 have this affliction. How can we cure them? Respected civic and social leaders must act as a fortress to protect them.
12 The true family ideal will become the tradition of the 21st century. What True Parents have to do is simply create the tradition of true family, true parents and true lineage. Satan's tradition has reached even small towns, so we have to manifest the pure love movement just as widely. If we do so, traditional Christians will join us in taking on the role of tribal messiahs. The pure love movement should be developed focusing on the family. It is not the nation that will take the initiative. This is why I encouraged you to start holding demonstrations right away. If we are not successful with the true love movement, we will lose everything. It is crucial that we establish in people's minds that the true love movement is our movement. It is like being the ones who first apply for a patent. Teams of three should be out actively working and demonstrating around the clock The key points are true parents, true lineage and true family. (310-247, 1999/06/30)
13 We can prevent the spread of AIDS by maintaining sexual purity. This is absolute. This is the last task that the Unification Church is responsible to accomplish. Once we transform the free sex tradition of the young generation by connecting them to the Blessing of a new lineage, the kingdom of heaven on earth will be established. Now is the time the world is harvesting the fruit of the seeds that the first human ancestors sowed in their youth. In order to clear the field, we have to establish a new tradition focusing on young people. Then we can secure the kingdom of God on earth and in heaven. Therefore, we launched the pure love movement in middle and high schools. We spearheaded the movements of true family education and pure love. We did what the nation should have done. (349-011, 2001/07/13)
14 True Parents have developed the true family movement throughout the world. In Korea we made a headquarters for the true love and pure love movements and mobilized 10 million middle and high-school students to arm them with the ideal of pure love. How much opposition did we meet while promoting this movement? Even though we met with strong opposition, we felt that we were the owners who have to protect our hometowns and our homeland. We have reached the era when everything is out in the open and we can take the active initiative. (349-015, 2001/07/13)
15 We need to educate young people in order to prevent them from falling. To do that, we made the pure love movement. In promoting the pure love movement, we should publicly recognize young people who exemplify the pure love ideal in their towns or regions. Such students should be treated with respect in their schools. Teachers and principals should honor those students who keep purity. From now on, only those who practice purity will receive the holy marriage Blessing. To receive the Blessing, they will come from all over the world based on the recommendation of their nations. (272-191, 1995/10/05)
16 Before their eyes lead them to be attracted to the opposite sex, we have to lead young people to overcome the evil way of thinking that resulted from the Fall. We must do this in our families, towns and nations. Therefore, we clearly need to expand the pure love movement to the national level. I directed you to create the pure love movement. None of the teachers in the colleges, high schools and middle schools can carry out the pure love movement; we are the only ones. Nobody can argue with this. It is only we who can do it. We have been ordained by heaven to take this historic responsibility. (295-103, 1998/08/17)
17 We now have passed the age of national-level Blessing and have entered into the age of world-level Blessing. That is why we have people eat pure love candy. When a pregnant mother eats pure love candy, it is a ceremony of rebirth. When a baby eats the pure love candy, it is a ceremony of resurrection. When a couple eats the pure love candy in marriage, it is a ceremony of eternal life. At the marriage ceremony, however, they also have to drink the holy wine. Everyone has to drink it. I have made the way easy. Now Satan does not oppose me, whatever I do. There are no conditions for him to accuse me. We can now set up a street fair and give the holy wine to people as they come and go, and if they accept the holy wine, heaven and earth will return to our side. (294-158, 1998/06/14)
18 The Blessing is the realm of the Sabbath in the Completed Testament Age. The Completed Testament Age is the age when the promise will be realized worldwide. Families of all the world's people can come into the realm of grace to receive the Blessing. This is realized through True Parents so that Satan's lineage will disappear. We allow middle and high-school students to eat pure love candy as a condition.
19 All young people are like Adams and Eves that God has created once again. This is why I do a matching ceremony for them. They have to keep absolute purity. The matched fiance and fiancee have to protect each other. Adams and Eves need to encourage each other to keep their purity until the time that they receive the Blessing of love from God and True Parents. They also have to receive their parents' permission and approval. God is the Parent of parents, the Teacher of teachers, and the Owner of owners. Therefore, by analogy, if the Blessing was sponsored by a school, the child could not receive the Blessing without obtaining approval from the principal of the school, and the head of the Parent Teacher Association. Children cannot marry without consulting their parents. This is the policy and tradition of the Unification Church. (300-322, 1999/04/15)
20 True Parents finished all preparations for removing Satan's lineage. The Fall occurred because there was no protection. We have now completed pure love education in some middle schools and high schools. Nonetheless, the purity of students is being destroyed. The Internet's influence is terrible. How can we remedy this situation? Mothers and fathers everywhere have to protect their children, because parents represent the position of God.
21 Children are like God's sons and daughters who did not fall, so we have to teach them well, even during their kindergarten years. At all costs, we have to raise them well from kindergarten through high school, until they are at least 16 years old, so that they will not leave the bosom of their parents. When they are 18 they may marry. From now on, if possible, I will give the Blessing as they graduate from high school and become college students. This would be best. We have to match sons and daughters who grew up in the bosom of their parents, as pure children who have not been defiled by the secular world. (365-131, 2002/01/06)
Section 2. Blessed Family Traditions
Traditions and responsibilities
True Parents instructed that blessed parents, spouses and children need to unite to inherit True Parents' tradition and that before they think of and live for their own family, they need to think of and live for their tribe, people, nation and world. True Parents pointed out in particular that the age of the settlement of blessed families is the age of mother-child responsibility. This means that for a blessed family to unite with True Parents' family, the mother and children need to unite, and the Cain and Abel siblings need to unite.
1 The fact that you are blessed in the Unification Church means that your lineage was changed and you were anointed. But this does not mean that you have fully accomplished the standard. You received this anointing conditionally. This means that you received the lineage, life and love conditionally and you must take them seriously. As long as your conditional lineage continues to expand, Satan cannot take it away. Upon your maturity, you will be connected with true love so that there will be no relationship with Satan, and Satan cannot take anything away. When your love, life and lineage mature, Satan will no longer be able to take them away.
2 The family is the place where parents, spouses and children are united. If any of these three are missing, the family cannot be realized. The family develops into a tribe, people, nation, world, cosmos and the kingdom of heaven on earth. Where there is unity between absolute parents, absolute spouses and absolute siblings, God can dwell. The family base is the base of operations which can connect to a tribe, people, nation, world, cosmos and the kingdom of heaven on earth and in heaven. This is where God's ideal will be realized. Without True Parents, true children cannot exist, and if you do not become true children, you cannot create a true family. An ideal husband and wife, by creating sons and daughters, can realize the ideal family. The connection of three generations is the foundation for realizing an ideal family. Without it, an ideal family cannot appear. (339-212, 2000/12/16)
3 When God's sons and daughters are blessed and become perfect, God's love can also become perfect. Therefore, God can exist eternally as the Parent on the foundation of perfected love. People cannot find love by themselves alone. The absolute embodiment of true love for a man is a woman. Without a woman, a man cannot find the love of God, who is the substance of absolute truth. He cannot perfect true love without her. If you had not married, you would not have known the realms of love. You would not have known the value of parents, the value of sons and daughters, or the value of a spouse. The husband is the only person who can bring his wife into oneness based on love, and the wife is the only person who can bring her husband into oneness based on love. (352-333, 2001/09/01)
4 The responsibility of a blessed couple begins on the day of their Blessing. Their responsibility is not just that a husband and wife live in unity as a family, but that on the foundation of their unity they form a tribe and nation. The families of ten blessed people can form one tribe through this new worldview. Before forming the new nation, we must first form new tribes. These tribes must not be created through conflict-based division, but through unity-based multiplication. Therefore, those ten people who received the Blessing must have the same purpose.
5 You did not receive the Blessing for your family's private gain. Your family can reach the place of Sabbath rest only when you first live for the sake of your tribe and only then live for the sake of your family. In the same way, the tribe can reach the place of Sabbath rest when it lives for the sake of the nation, and the nation can reach the place of Sabbath rest when it lives for the sake of the world.
6 Blessed couples cannot live merely at their own discretion. They have to live for God's public purpose or the nations public purpose. Whether your spouse is or is not attractive is not the issue. The issue is the direction in which you are going. In other words, the issue is how to pave the way of righteousness that your descendants will follow. When I see you asking for love from your spouse, I feel it is wrong. I cannot approve such love. Before you ask your spouse to love you, you need to ask him or her to love the nation and the world. After you do that, you can ask for love from your spouse. This is the way for blessed husbands and wives to live. We have to encourage our spouse to love the nation, the world and heaven, before loving us. (030-179, 1970/03/22)
7 Blessed members have to love their tribe and people, and their nation and world more than they love their own family. Furthermore, they have to love their relatives and other blessed families more than their own family. The family in which each member is connected in this way will stand out from other families and be recognized. In that family in which man and woman are united and in harmony with each other, we will have a model for loving the nation, world and heaven. Husband and wife need to be united in that way.
8 Our Unificationist families must avoid becoming stuck in our current position. We must develop and give birth to descendants who can embrace and ensure the fortune of the nation and world. We marry in order to find among our children exceptional people who can help form a new people and a new nation. People in the world marry for their own sake, but in the Unification Church we marry for the sake of the nation and the world. Our families are called by God to save many families in the course of providential history. Our role is to restore all the world's people through paying indemnity, and to model the love that opens the way for spirit persons in the spirit world and our descendants in the future. We must have the mind-set that our position is to live as saviors to the world. (030-185, 1970/03/22)
9 Now the age of the settlement of the children's families has to come. First, the age of the settlement of the children's families is the age of the mother's responsibility. The mother has to take responsibility as the Messiah. Second, it is the age of the children's responsibility, the age when Cain and Abel have to unite. Cain and Abel as brothers have to unite completely. There have been many sacrifices in history resulting from the separation of Cain and Abel, but from now on children must not fight each other anymore. In any village to which we care to go, there are Cains and there are Abels. The person who sacrifices him or herself, and makes compromises for the sake of the whole village, becomes the Abel and the owner. Because we already know this, we cannot fight. The age of the children's responsibility is the age when Cain and Abel have to unite.
Blessed family life
True Parents said that blessed families have to love humanity on behalf of God and True Parents. They added that blessed families should be examples of how to think of and love one's spouse as the representative of God. They also emphasized that the kingdom of heaven will be realized when this lifestyle of heart becomes universal. The marriage Blessing empowers us to inherit the dutiful way of divine sons and daughters, so True Parents have asked blessed families to follow this way.
10 The family God is looking for is one whose standard is not limited to living just for their own family. The family God can be proud of ought to live on the world level. Because the way to make the family who can represent the nation, the world and heaven is the way of the Blessing, you must receive the Blessing through the family of the Heavenly Parent. When families go the principled way of offering sincere devotion after receiving the Blessing, their sons and daughters will be born with the heavenly fortune of the Unification Church. Even if the father and mother have no special abilities, the children will still be born with heavenly fortune.
11 The wife needs to think of her husband as the representative of God. Also, she has to become like a daughter to her husband. Due to the Fall, God lost the mother, the wife and the daughter, all three. Therefore, the man, as her husband, has to restore God's lost daughter. Thus, it will be a problem if the wife does not trust her husband more than she trusts her father. She has to meet the standard to discover more value in him than in everything she has known before. Without restoring such a heart she cannot recover that which Satan destroyed, the original standard of the ideal spouse. At the same time, the husband has to have the heart that he is a son to his wife. He has to have the heartfelt feeling that she is both his mother and daughter. Husband and wife need to say from the heart, "I cannot live a single day without you. I absolutely need you, day and night." As husband and wife, you must achieve this depth of oneness. (022-205, 1969/02/04)
12 In the fallen world, people insist that they are right and that defending themselves is their highest priority. But now is the era of the teaching that tells us we exist to protect the other before ourselves. The direction is opposite to what it was before. The husband says, "If you are not happy as my wife, it is my responsibility," and the wife says, "If you are not happy as my husband, it is my responsibility." The flowers of love bloom when we assume responsibility. The flowers of love do not bloom when each insists on their own right. When two people are living for the sake of each other to the degree of risking their own lives, the flowers will bloom. When the flowers bloom, both the angelic world and God will seek the light and fragrance of that love. (304-075, 1999/09/10)
13 The husband has to be the person whom his wife thinks is greater than God. The wife needs to think, "I could not see God Himself, but I see God through my husband. I did not know pure love, but I came to know what pure love is through my husband. I came to know what an elder brothers love is. I came to understand a brothers love. My husband is the very man who taught me all the realms of love." The husband has to be the living embodiment of that quality of love which can induce in his wife the heart of an ideal mother, bride and elder sister. He also has to receive the same kind of education, to the point that he feels as if he cannot breathe without this education.
14 Have you loved humanity as God has? When you see children, you have to think of them as your sons and daughters. When you see a child the same age as your younger brother or sister, you have to think, "This is my little brother" or "This is my little sister." When it comes to your husbands and wives, you should hug each other, care for each other and be concerned for each other even more than anyone you have truly cared for up until now.
15 After you enter the Unification Church, a record will be kept of what you do. How did you live as a blessed family? What percentage of True Fathers words did you practice? For how many hours did you engage in activities? These will be recorded. The card shows what and how long you invested, or with what kind of grace your couple lived in the Unification Church. In this way it becomes a basis for evaluation. Nothing that takes place lacks meaning, so it is inexcusable to take it easy. This is so not only in the physical world but also in the spiritual world. There is a name list in the spiritual world of all blessed families of the Unification Church. If we input a name, that record comes up. If the record as it was written down on earth is different from what is recorded in spirit world, it is a serious problem. Lying is inexcusable. Life on earth is important. So I tell you, do not live a life of accruing debts; rather, live a life of clearing up debts. It is not good to incur debts. (233-255, 1992/08/01)
16 If you take a wrong step after your marriage, you will lose the path eternally. If you treat your blessed marriage as if it were a secular matter, you will create eternal pain. There may be blessed families who are now captured in a place from which they cannot return, crying out for True Parents, shedding tears through the night, thinking of the golden days, the precious time of happiness. They may say that they would do anything to get back on the path. There are women who say, "Even if the whole world tramples on me on the way, I want to get back to that path," and there are men who say, "I will do anything, even going to the most miserable place in the world, if it means I can get back to that path." However, they have already deviated.
17 Where do blessed families have to go? Those who focus on their own family will fade away. The purpose of my marriage is not to save my family. Blessed families have to go the way that fulfills the mission to restore the nation and the cosmos. As soon as we wake up, we have to vow to fulfill that work. Whenever we shed tears, we do so in order to take responsibility for the work. Our accomplishments in this work are gifts that, as parents, we must leave for future history. This is our life philosophy related to the family.
18 You, blessed families, have to go the way of divine sons and daughters focusing on heaven and earth. In the secular world, people assert the dutiful way of saints, but we have to stand in a position even higher than that. It is through the Blessing that one can inherit the dutiful way of divine sons and daughters. Horizontally we have to be filial sons and daughters, patriots and saints, and then become divine sons and daughters. This is the ideal of creation that Adam could have achieved. We have to become filial sons and daughters, patriots and saints, and fulfill the dutiful way of divine sons and daughters.
Section 3. Blessing Community Life
The trinity of families
True Parents organized blessed families into trinities and asked them to love their trinity more than they love their own brothers and sisters. They said that community life begins based on the trinity. The trinity is the model through which God's ideal of creation is realized. The three couples represent the restored families of Cain, Abel and Seth—Adam's family in the Garden of Eden.
1 In our church, I made the trinity system with three couples. I made it this way in order to attend the Lord in the future. We have to make a model with a couple representing Adam and Eve, and three couples representing Adams sons and their wives. If the three couples do not unite, this model will be destroyed again. In particular, it is important for the three men to become one. Whether they live or die, they must become one in heart spiritually and be a team that works together physically. They are not to establish simply a temporary foundation, but rather one that transcends time. If they do not accomplish this, they will be ashamed to stand in front of the Returning Lord. The three couples in the trinity must unite, becoming a principled foothold that can represent the Will of God. In other words, if they can become a trinity determined not to change even if heaven were to change, then they will have made a foundation for God's Will to be realized. To provide such a foundation, I organized you into trinities. (003-241, 1958/01/03)
2 The formation of the trinities in our church is the course we take today to restore the number three in Adam's family. Therefore, unless you become one with each other in a trinity, you cannot stand before heaven. When the trinity becomes one, we can fulfill God's Will to restore what was lost in Adam's family. Continuing with that, at the time of Jacob, 2,000 years after Adam, God found and raised up 12 brothers to move the providential will forward. Likewise, based on the number 3, only after you have found 12 disciples and united with them can you attend the Parents and, furthermore, can you enter the tribal realm representing a clan. This is the absolute standard that indemnifies the 2,000 year history from Adam's family to Jacob's family. That is why Moses and Jesus also had to walk this path. (005-119, 1959/01/04)
3 In order to attend the True Parents, you must become a true couple and build a true family. Only on that foundation can you attend True Parents. You trust and follow me, but you also must become a person whom other people can trust and follow. As you become such a person, you have to form the type of family that Jesus sought to create. When you follow True Parents, all human beings become your brothers (005-126, 1959/01/04)
and sisters. I organized the trinities in order to accomplish this. That is why from now on, when you go out witnessing, you should not do it alone. You are representing True Parents, and you should not let your brothers and sisters witness without you. Instead, you should work together with them. The family is established when you and the brothers and sisters in your trinity are united with True Parents. To take this to the national level, there should be 12 such families. You can only set the condition to represent the nation if the number of families is greater than ten.
4 You cannot walk the path of faith alone. You need comrades in faith. Three people or more should unite. That's why you need a trinity. God, who is the subject partner of the human character, also desires the standard of three. When we make mistakes, God cannot directly educate us vertically as individuals. But when three people are united, if one person makes a mistake but the other two do not, God can point out that one person's mistake.
5 From your current place, you have to identify who is the enemy. Once you have done this, you next need to identify whether it is day or night where you are. In other words, you must know whether it is a place where God's grace resides or not. You should not move forward until you prepare the stage where God can help. Therefore, do not move forward alone but rather move forward together with your comrades. In order to do that, you have to know whether your environment is day or night. Without doing that, you cannot express your own abilities.
6 The ideal world of the future will be maintained through trinities of families. The purpose of creation is to realize the four-position foundation. Since human beings first need to perfect the four-position foundation, everyone first is to establish a family. Human beings resemble God, and society should resem human beings whose center is God. I have been establishing the Unification Church in countries throughout the world. I know the whole world should become this way, and although I have not been able to inform everyone, the world will change through this principle. The ideal world resembles the form of a human being. That world transcends nation and people. (026-190, 1969/10/25)
7 It is only when you feel the value of this God-given trinity that you will understand God's ideal and will feel it enough that you can live your life in God's position here on earth. The purpose of forming trinities is to create a unity of action, lifestyle and thought. Actions rooted in faith are systematic and principled. (150-012, 1986/08/17)
Tribal restoration
Blessed family trinities need to live together in one house and experience sibling love. Furthermore, by modeling themselves after the trinity formed by the three sons in the family of unfallen Adam, they need to lay down the foundation on which each of them can restore their own tribe and thus walk the path of tribal messiahs. True Parents explained that blessed families can enter the kingdom of heaven once they perfect their trinity on the family level, and go on to establish the four-position foundation with True Parents' family at the center.
8 Blessed families should form trinities. When a child is born into a family, the four-position foundation is realized. Within the trinity families, if there is a family without a child, you should be willing to send your own child to that family as an offering child. If, later on, that family gives birth to a child of their own, you can bring your child back. (020-345, 1968/07/20)
9 A family is the smallest unit that represents the whole, so a family's mistake is in some respects the mistake of the whole. Thus, while an individual's mistake may be pardoned, a family's mistake is more serious. Your heart should be bursting to transform your individual joy into the joy of the whole. You can be part of a bigger purpose when you let go of your own individualistic situation, subjectivity and hope, and you focus on setting up a situation, subjectivity and hope for the whole. The family exists to save the whole. In this sense your family is like a power station. You should reconcile yourself with the whole through your family. That is why all the families of the trinity should live in one house. It is time to reorganize the families. (012-182, 1963/05/01)
10 In the Unification Church, we use the word "family." Revolving around trinities, you are all brothers and sisters. I have taken responsibility to deeply love people who are in the position of servants, brothers and sisters, and children. By doing that, I have gone through the era of the servant, the era of subjugating Cain, and have risen to the era of the Son.
11 The blessed family trinities must become completely one. They should help each other economically. Trinity families should not be concerned about their own individual and family problems. Rather, each family should comfort and assist the other families in the trinity, so that they can all move forward together as one. Through this, when the families in the trinity attain the standard where they can transcend economic problems, unite together in spirit, eat and live together, they will do new works. An enemy may attack them, but if the three families in the trinity stand together completely united, they can repel the attack. Therefore, let us strengthen a system centered on the trinity. This is an important condition in establishing the standard for families and preparing the new beginning for this era. The trinity must live for the sake of 12 families. These 12 families must stand before God in a public position and devote themselves to contributing something. The trinity families should become the center of this, representing the east, west, south and north. They must become absolute in the view of the public, taking a form that can represent the year's four seasons and 12 months. Your family should motivate you to reach that standard, and then in turn (033-174, 1970/08/11)
you should raise up your family. When your three families motivate and raise each other up, then these three families, as a trinity, can raise up 36 families. This is the principle of development in the Unification Church. We must create this family-centered system.
12 When your trinity carries out group activities, have a clear concept of subject partner and object partner. In other words, always think about the relationship between subject and object partners when you stand before God. You should always be aware of whether your position is that of the subject partner or the object partner. This awareness is necessary in order for the object partner to be an absolute object partner, and the subject partner to be an absolute subject partner. Without this, you cannot accomplish any group activities.
13 It is important that we have a subject partner and object partners among ourselves. The relationship between subject and object partners is a vertical one. The relationship between public and private matters is horizontal. The relationship between the subject partner and object partners, between Cain and Abel in other words, is the problem.
14 We have still not been able to stand in the position of true parents in the family. We have to find this position of true parents in the family, but it cannot be found so easily. Because we fell out of it, in order to find our way back, we need to build a bridge of brotherhood.
15 The blessed families should form a four-position foundation centering on my family. The family established by doing this is the family that Adam was originally supposed to realize. If this is not realized, I cannot take on the will of Jesus and make a start as a tribal messiah. Centering on God, if the families that form a trinity face four directions, 12 families will be realized. Centering on Jesus, three disciples should have received the Blessing and realized the four-position foundation. Then they would have numbered eight people and stood in the place of Adams or Noah s eight family members. But Jesus could not fulfill this. If you do not receive the marriage Blessing, you cannot become children of God.
16 The physical world became the stage where Satan could carry out his activities and the spiritual world became the stage where God could carry out His activities. These two worlds have always been at cross-purposes. There is no doubt that this has remained as a source of bitter pain in the eras of providential restoration, and we cannot leave the situation as it is.
17 In a similar manner to the 36 Couples in our church, which are centered on me, if your last name is Kim, for example, then you should form 36 couples revolving around the first blessed family in the Kim tribe. If you cannot form 36 couples, you should become the ancestor of at least 12 families. You should do this by forming a trinity based on your sons and daughters. Through forming this new clan that has your family at its center, you can become the ancestor of your tribe, which is the formation of 12 clans. You must have 12 disciples for the formation of those 12 clans and, with those disciples at the center, you must have 70 followers and then 120 followers. This is your immediate, direct tribe. (031-277, 1970/06/04)
18 It is through my special authority that I can bestow the Blessing upon you, and through my special authority that you can receive the Blessing. This Blessing is a conditional Blessing. In order to receive it in reality, you have to establish the internal standard representing that position as an internal and external family. In other words, your family should stand in the position of Cain's family in front of my family, which is the Abel family. There is no other way.
19 Regardless of who you are, young men and women who want to receive the Blessing from the Unification Church must find three spiritual children and realize a family. You cannot do much just by restoring your own family. We cannot restore the world with families alone. Therefore, we have to form clans. In order to restore a tribe, you need to receive the marriage Blessing representing the family in place of Adam's three sons.
20 You have to establish the principled order. You must graduate from the positions of servant and adopted child. When your level of loyalty toward God reaches an apex through your relationship with God based on heart, and when your family and the other families in the trinity are completely loyal, God will recognize such blessed families as the sons and daughters who can represent heaven. God will then regard such sons and daughters as husband and wife. This is the path of restoration.
Trinities and community life
True Parents said the world cannot be unified unless we unite as trinities. They emphasized that the three families in each trinity should live together as one family for three years, experience the heart of brothers and sisters in one family, and train themselves to love one another. True Parents added that the tradition of community life wherein trinities go beyond their tribe to unite the nation and world is the direct route to heaven.
21 You must form a trinity. Three families must live together in one house. Until now, since we were all fallen people, we lived separately. However, after passing through the era of restoration, what was separated will be reconciled. Therefore, the era when you were only concerned for your own family centering on yourself has passed. From now on you should not live centered on your own family but live together with two other families. Centering on these three families, at least 12 families should become one.
22 Originally, a trinity of three families should live together for more than three years. Within the trinity you should be able to take turns and live with the children of the other families, treating them the same way you treat your own children. If you think of this as bothersome, you are a failure. Living this way, you do not have to worry if one of the husbands in the trinity dies. In that case, the other two families would shoulder the responsibility together.
23 You are indemnifying the three vertical eras horizontally. That is why I have bundled you all into trinities. The trinity has to go through formation, growth and completion. That is the value of the formation, growth and completion stages, and why you cannot reach perfection by yourself. Three families have to become one. A single family alone cannot accomplish that. Your family cannot stand alone. That is why I formed trinities of three families.
24 What do you have to do in order to realize a trinity? You did not live in one house, so you must restore that through indemnity by living together in one house. Therefore, I am planning to build apartments where Japanese, Koreans, Americans and Germans live together. This will train them in life. Likewise, in Korea, the trinity families should live together in one house, moving out only after living together. Whether you eat rice or porridge, the three families should eat and live together.
25 You enter heaven as a family. From now on, three families should become one, in a four-position foundation centering on True Parents. You should become one, achieving integration making use of the heavenly rules I teach you. Black, white and yellow people have to train for three years in order to become one as a trinity of faith. Therefore, you cannot lead by an individualistic lifestyle. If the surrounding 12 families or 36 families identify themselves as one group, the family that can gain the recognition of that whole group is the one that can be said to be free and liberated. (287-205, 1997/10/03)
26 When Adam and Eve can unite, then Cain and Abel can also unite and make a new start. When that happens, we will have the beginning of a new ideal, centered on Korea and Japan in the East. Then the integration of East and West can be realized. Furthermore, True Parents will return to the nation of Korea. This is the era of God's return to His nation. In other words, Heavenly Father and the perfected True Parents are returning to their nation for the first time.
27 Between four and 12 nations must connect with Korea as the center. If we can connect just 12 nations, then we can form 12 clans. This will lead to a mass migration in the future. Koreans will go abroad and foreigners will come to Korea. Therefore you need to learn Korean. However, not everyone can do that, and therefore you should go abroad and build elementary schools in order to teach Korean. Henceforth, families who have received the Blessing should build elementary schools. You should go out to teach Korean in the churches in every nation. Blessed families should live together practicing the traditional standard of faith, and they should build elementary schools where their children can be nurtured. (194-091, 1989/10/17)
28 If we think of the world as one big tree, your family is like one of its tiny branches. Your family is a branch of a big 1,000-year-old tree. If you form a pure community in which to offer yourselves with all your heart for the sake of that branch, which is the foundation of the community's love, new buds will appear, which will grow naturally into an ideal realm, enjoying the protection of heavenly fortune.
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