Father in Hungnam Prison

Usually, the leader gives the representative prayer. Before everybody finishes "Amen", I sometimes hear someone talking to others. I'd like you to stop doing this kind of thing. I don't think I can fully understand the meaning of "Amen", but I think we put it in at the end of the prayer with a strong desire and sincerity that God may accept what we've prayed. We should pause after saying "Amen". That pause is to see whether God accepts the prayer or not. If you start talking just after "Amen", your prayer becomes only a formality. We don't know whether God accepts our prayer or not, just after we finish praying. It is one-sided if you start to talk to others without checking to see whether God accepts it or not. It is bad manners to God.

I had a meeting with a certain leader once. He said he would like to pray together first. He prayed and said "Amen" and talked to me while I was still saying "Amen". He is not a person who prays, but one who makes use of a prayer. Such a prayer is not good. God will not accept such a prayer. A prayer is the voice of your heart. We can tell a lie in front of people, but we can't in front of God. Some people pray with a special feeling towards a particular person. God doesn't accept such a prayer with joy either.

I'd like you not to start talking until you have put a sufficient pause in after "Amen". You also think it is much better, don't you? Now I'll continue yesterday's story.

Father was moved to Hung Nam, which was quite far from Pyongyang, together with Mr. Kim. Father was taken to the police station on February 22nd, 1948, and was sentenced to five years' imprisonment at the trial on April 7th. He moved to Hung Nam on May 20th. He found that many prisoners were dying because of the poor food. The hard, forced labor raised the death rate. Father felt that he would not be able to survive for five years when he saw the contents of the meals.

Father knew that Heavenly Father had worked on the Providence for 6,000 years, looking for one person: Father. (Father always thought of what would happen to Heavenly Father, who had worked His Providence for 6,000 years, if Father died.) You can imagine how difficult the mission of the Messiah is if I tell you this story. Father himself knew more than anyone else the difficulty of the Messiah's mission. Once, he wondered whether he could transfer the mission to anybody else or not. If he could have transferred it, he might have found things easier, but that person would have had to walk the difficult way that Father was walking. So he changed his mind again and decided that he would like to bear the cross, rather than make someone else go this difficult course.

Many people want to become leaders to control their members. However, if they can understand how difficult it is to fulfill the responsibility of a leader, they will never fail to wish that they could transfer the responsibility to others. Usually, people think that the leader is a person who gives orders and is attended by members. They don't realize that the leader has to take a harder course than the members.

If the leader has never thought of his responsibility from the viewpoint Father took for his mission, we can conclude that he is not qualified as a leader. If he rejoices in himself when he becomes a leader, his starting point is already wrong. Father was worried not for himself but for Heavenly Father, who was trying to fulfill His will through Father. Therefore, he determined firmly that he had to survive to fulfill God's desire.

First of all, the Father had to get the spiritual victory, so that he could survive even with this amount of food. If he had a weak mind, thinking that he wouldn't be able to survive with such a small amount, he would die regardless of his prison term, in a far shorter time than five years. For the first three months, he gave away half the portion of his meal to others, and he determined that he had to survive for five years with half the food ration. Some prisoners in the same room died whilst eating because they were so starved. When someone took a small stone out of his food, the others tried to get it, even though it was a stone. If they ate the meal quickly with big mouthfuls, they felt they ate less, psychologically. Therefore, they ate the meal bit by bit, taking a long time, to make it seem as if they were eating a lot of food.

Can you understand their heart? How can you understand if you have never had such an experience? Do you mean that you can understand in your mind? After three months, his Father stopped giving away half his ration to others and ate his whole portion himself. With what heart did Father eat the whole portion? He thought that the half portion was the normal amount that the prisoners were usually given, and the other half was especially given to him by Heavenly Father as a blessing. Father thought that he was eating twice as much food as the others. Therefore, he could satisfy himself psychologically.

Now we are engaged in Home Church activity. European members were told by Father that they could go home when they each had brought a dedicated member. How would Father think in your situation? He would surely determine that he would gain three dedicated members. When you are given a very difficult mission, you can always overcome it if you have the same heart and attitude Father had to overcome the food problem in Hung Nam.

The third seven-year course will finish in 1981. We have to prepare our minds for the second 21-year course. You should not think that everything will be over by 1981. You must be eager to continue the second 21-year course after 198,1, the third 21-year course, and the fourth. You must have the zeal and enthusiasm that you will go on until the Heavenly Kingdom on earth is truly realized. Without this heart, you get frustrated on the way.

I'll tell you an interesting story. When Father came to Pyongyang, the spiritualists gathered around him. They all believed that Father would proclaim himself as the Messiah in three years. They believed it. Just after three years, his Father entered prison.

He had come to Pyongyang in 1946. 1946, 1947, 1948. He entered the prison in 1948. The spiritualists came to question why he had entered prison when God had given the revelation that Father would appear as the Messiah in three years. The spiritualists should have witnessed all the people in Korea and the world during these three years because God had told them that the Father would be acknowledged as the Messiah in three years. But they thought Father would be acknowledged as the Messiah without their having to do anything. This is where the spiritualists made their mistake.

If we were to just sit around without doing anything, the Messiah would not appear if we had been waiting ten years or even one hundred years.

The ideal world was not realized at the time of Adam and Eve when they failed to keep God's commandments, and history has continued for 6,000 years since the Fall. Father spoke of the Moscow Rally of 1981. Some of you took it for granted that we would have a rally in Moscow. However, how is it possible when you do not make any effort for it? Father told us to make three dedicated members. But you have not fulfilled the responsibility Father gave you. Then how could the Moscow Rally be possible?

People think that the revelation comes true when the predestined time comes, without any effort being made. It was not the revelations but the spiritualists who were wrong. They came to doubt the revelation they had received because Father went into prison at the predestined time. They started leaving the church. As there was not yet a foundation of Divine Principle in those days, their hearts left the church.

Compare it to the following story: a parent says to his child, "You can take a plane if you get to the airport at eight o'clock." The child arrives at the airport at eight o'clock, but he can't get on the plane because he doesn't have a ticket. Those who have prepared can get a blessing when the time comes, but those who haven't prepared can't get the blessing even if the time comes. Therefore, those who have prepared can enter the Heavenly Kingdom, but those who haven't can't, even if the Heavenly Kingdom appears in front of them. It is wrong to think that God's will should be fulfilled only because the predestined time comes. I'd like you to understand this. The time comes only for those who have fulfilled the mission.

I'm afraid I've taken too much time. Now I must talk about Mr. Pak as an introduction to tomorrow's speech.

Father did not speak God's words so much in prison, as I told you before. However, Father risked witnessing to the people who could work for God in the future. One lunchtime, Father approached Mr. Pak, who was then the overall leader of about 2,000 prisoners.

Of course, Father didn't know anything about him. At their first meeting, Father told him that John the Baptist didn't fulfill his mission. He was against Father as he believed that John the Baptist was a wonderful man of faith. He was a very pious Christian and had a position in the church when he was younger. When the communists took over North Korea, he cooperated with them and neglected his duty in the church. That is the reason why Mr. Pak was kickeoutin the prison, and it also explains why he became an overall leader. If Mr. Pak were to oppose Father, Father would have been in a more difficult position. Father was already a marked person.

That night, Mr. Pak was in pain. When he was going to be, an old white-haired man appeared and asked him whether he knew who prisoner No. 596 was. Mr. Pak's pain became worse and worse. The old man ordered him to obey prisoner No. 596. Mr. Pak repented, and the pain was taken away from him. It was the first such experience in his life.

At lunchtime the next day, Father talked to him again. As soon as he met him, Father asked him if something unusual had happened to him the night before. Mr. Pak was so surprised, and he told Father what had happened. Then Father told him that Mary, the mother of Jesus, did not fulfill her mission. Mr. Pak could not believe it any more than the last time and got even more upset. That night, he was tortured more than before. The old white-haired man appeared again and told him to think what kind of person No. 596 was and to obey No. 596. He repented again.

The next day, Mr. Pak again told Father what had happened. Father told him an even more unbelievable story – I don't remember what it was now. Again, Mr. Pak could not believe and opposed Father strongly. On the third night, he was tortured so severely that he truly repented and firmly determined that he would obey Father. He became Father's second disciple in the prison.

As Mr. Pak was the general leader and he knew what was the easiest and what was the most difficult work in the prison, he recommended that Father take the easiest, but Father refused and chose the hardest job, which nobody wanted to take. Many predecessors died because of hard work or other causes to fulfill God's will, so Father willingly chose the hardest job to liberate the resentment of those people. They had resentment because they had suffered for God's Providence and still had to die without being able to see the Providence fulfilled.

Father thought that he could liberate their resentment by winning over the most difficult situation. Do you understand? Suppose there was a person who died without fulfilling what he wanted to do. He died with a lonely heart because he could not achieve a victory. Then how can we liberate his resentment? He is liberated by the person who gets the victory in the same situation as he was in.

Suppose one person fought with Satan and was defeated, then the next person was also defeated, and the third also. They all fought with Satan for the same purpose. A fourth person fought with Satan, but he too failed. Then a fifth person fought in place of the others, but he failed. At last, the tenth person got a victory over Satan. These are all different people, but they are one person from the point of view of God's Providence to defeat Satan. The resentment of the nine can be liberated by the tenth, as they stand in the position of victors thanks to the tenth person.

So let's think of the first, second, third, and fourth Adams. The first Adam failed, and the second Adam couldn't gain complete success, and therefore, they have resentment. If the third Adam becomes victorious, they can also stand in the same position as victors. The first Adam, the second Adam, and the third Adam are altogether one Adam. Do you follow me?

The Hung Nam prison was hell on earth. Father chose the most difficult job in hell lto iberate all the resentment the predecessors had left in Providence. Father had to get a victory over the hardest job in the prison; otherwise, he could not liberate all the resentment piled up from the very beginning of history until that time.

Father was rewarded three times for being a model prisoner during his two years and eight months, which testifies to his perfect victory. This means that Satan had to admit Father's victory. We must be authorized as children of God by God, the Messiah, the angels, the people, and by Satan; we cannot become victorious until we are recognized by all the people in our Home Church area as the children of God. To be confirmed by Satan, we have to do what Satan cannot do: Satan cannot serve others nor sacrifice himself, so Satan recognizes and authorizes those who sacrifice and serve others. Do you understand? I'll bring an end to my story today here. Thank you very much.