Let Us Cross Over the World That Has Become an Offering

It was the original human life of creation to live one’s whole life with a heart of peace. Yet in the hearts of people today there is no peace.

Moreover, in the hearts of human beings who ought to live within an eternal ideal centering on freedom, there is no freedom and ideal in which Heaven can rejoice together with them.

That is why all human beings spread throughout the world today are hoping that at some time complete freedom and ideal and peace may be accomplished. This is the earnest longing of all the people living upon this globe.

Since such a world of complete freedom and ideal and peace is the original desire of human beings, this is in any case something you yourselves must accomplish, centering on body and mind.

Further, centering on you as individuals, it must be accomplished in the family as well, and it must be accomplished in society and the nation and the world as well. Not only that, heaven and earth must join and accomplish that one world in which they can sing a song of peace, sing a song of freedom, and enjoy an ideal love.

If such a world is not accomplished, human beings cannot enjoy true delight and true liberation and true glory. Then why have human beings come to be placed in such an unhappy destiny? It is due to the retribution of the fall. That is why the humankind of the whole world today cannot but cross over such a pass of opposition and strife, and it has become a destiny that they cannot but cross over a pass of pain, a Golgotha of tears; and you too will be feeling through your actual lives that you are living such a han-bound (한) life as we have today.

Not only is the distance great between the world human beings desire and reality, but because the mind aims toward that world while the body cannot escape reality, human beings cannot but live a life of pain even if they tried not to. Even if some person asserts that by setting up a logical and ethical law and, by that law, causing human beings to repent of and reflect on their faults, the ideal world human beings desire can be realized, that is no more than something theoretical and logical; it cannot actually realize an ideal world of human happiness within the sphere of living. The courses of countless prophets and righteous forebears prove this.

Therefore, for us, placed at the Last Days, there remains a road we must walk and a pass we cannot but cross over. It is the road of the offering, by which eternal peace and freedom and ideal can be accomplished.

In order to cross such a pass, there must appear one center that can bring eternal freedom to the mind, and can stand in place of Heaven’s eternal hope, and can stand in place of Heaven’s eternal peace.

If such a central being does not appear, eternal peace and freedom and ideal can by no means be accomplished in heaven and earth. Then how has this han-bound historical process of six thousand years been carried on?

Centering on God and Satan and human beings, some condition has been set up, and this is precisely the pass of the offering. When we look back on the six thousand years of providential history, in the Old Testament Age the pass of the offering was crossed through all things, and in the New Testament Age the pass of the offering was crossed through the substance of Jesus Christ.

Then in the coming Completed Testament Age, based on what will the pass of the offering be crossed? It will be crossed through the saints, that is, through you yourselves. Seen in this way, since the whole providential history is accomplished centering on the offering, we can know that in the Old Testament Age the pass of the offering had to be crossed through all things, and in the New Testament Age the pass of the offering had to be crossed centering on Jesus Christ, that is, the Son of God. But now, the Completed Testament Age, the pass of the offering must be crossed, taking as the condition you yourselves, who can stand in place of the names of bridegroom and bride.

Before you cross such a pass of the offering, a world of true peace and freedom and ideal is not accomplished upon this earth.

Then what is the human history that has passed through six thousand years?

Its form (型) is great, and its scope is broad, but these six thousand years of providential history are, in the end, God’s history of toil to find and establish one true person who can enjoy complete freedom and complete ideal and complete peace. You will know this well through the Principle.

Originally, human beings ought to have lived in the Garden of Eden enjoying eternal freedom and ideal and peace centering on God, but because the human ancestors Adam and Eve fell, such an original world was broken off. Though we are descendants of Adam and Eve who thus fell, because there is an original mind that aims toward the original world, we have come forth toward the world God wills, and that desire of ours has remained as an ideal toward which we cannot but go even if we tried not to, and which we cannot but carry out even if we tried not to.

Then what is that center which God seeks to find and establish through that Providence of toil? It is the original true Adam and Eve who have no relation to the fallen nature.

As you know through the Principle, Adam and Eve, the son and daughter of God who ought to have become the True Parents of humankind, could not become True Parents because of the fall, and thereby became the ancestors of fallen human beings without forming any relationship whatsoever with the original history.

Because we thus became a clan of the fall through the fallen Adam and Eve, we must break down such a lineal bond and meet the one day when we can attend True Parents of original nature.

If that one day is not found in heaven and earth — in other words, if there does not appear one central being who can move heaven and earth, and beings who can move together centering on that central being, so that heaven and earth join and aim at one purpose — then true freedom and peace and ideal will not be accomplished upon this earth. If it becomes so, human beings cannot escape the historical process of restoration through indemnity of a cosmic destiny.

If you desire to receive God’s love, you must know the fact that the six thousand years of providential history have come down as a history of toil, and you must also know the fact that you yourselves cannot but walk such a course of toil.

And if the whole providential history is a historical process for crossing the pass of the offering, you too, like the Old Testament Age in which offerings were given with all things as the condition, cannot but cross the pass of living in which an offering is given, setting up all things as the condition.

Next, you cannot but cross the pass of the blood that Jesus Christ shed as an offering when he came to this earth. Next, you must cross that pass of the offering by staking your very selves as the conditional object.

Because there are such circumstances, God cannot come seeking us in glory. Nor can He come seeking us in peace and freedom and ideal. Rather, He has no choice but to come seeking us by staking the pass of the offering. The saints who believe in Jesus today do not know this fact.

When Jesus Christ came upon this earth, because the people of Israel did not believe, Jesus Christ lived in a position lower than that of any of the populace or the evil people of that time.

Jesus desired that, instead of the people of Israel offering all things as an offering, they would believe in him and the whole people would come over to God; but because the people of Israel did not understand such a will of Providence and disbelieved Jesus, they came to fall away from the road of providential destiny, and this grievance is reaching even us today.

In order that God may be able to come seeking us, in what sort of position must we be?

First we must strike the material things that stand in place of all things. That is why Jesus said that the gospel is preached to the poor.

Next, one must be able to strike even one’s beloved sons and daughters, and at the last one must be able to offer even one’s own body as an offering. This is the pass of the offering we must cross.

Most believing saints today do not know that only when we cross this pass of the offering does Heaven come seeking us and form a bond with us. When God sets you upon such a road, you must cross that road with confidence.

The six thousand years of history is not a simple history but the cosmic history of restoration, and the history of restoration of the individual. Therefore, unless you yourselves furnish an unchanging form at a center that can take responsibility for the history of the Cosmos and stand in place of Heaven, you cannot become ones who have crossed over the pass of history, and you cannot stand in a position of conforming to the law of the Providence. Look at Abraham of old.

Abraham was in a position of having to leave, following God’s word, casting away his beloved land of Ur of the Chaldeans and the whole living environment to which he had until then been attached. In other words, we must consider that position in which he came to undergo material pain centering on the physical body.

Job was so covered with sores that he could not endure without scraping his body with a potsherd, yet he by no means resented God but could meditate in silence, and could cross over that distress and grasp through experience (체휼) the heart of the sick from God’s side. Because Job was such a one, he could regain all the things and children he had lost and received a greater blessing from Heaven.

Jesus Christ too, when he set out on the road of spreading the gospel, first cast away his whole environment. That is, he cast away the family living environment in which he had lived for a lifetime of some thirty years. Next, Jesus cast away himself, who had been in the position of the only begotten Son of God, himself who could have stood in the position of the eternal True Parent of humankind.

Thus Jesus did not despair even on the road of the cross, on which he had to cast away his body and his family and his clan and his people and even his own hope.

Jesus, looking only toward the road by which he could accomplish the will he had first set up before God and the Providence he had promised with God, crossed over the road of Golgotha with hope, though his steps were those of one perishing.

Because Abraham went forth hoping for the land of Canaan while casting away all that was his own, his descendants could receive God’s blessing.

Likewise, Jesus too cast away all of his beloved parents and relatives, and his people and nation. That is why, after a certain period, in a later generation there comes one day of finding all those things again, and that day is precisely the “day of the Second Advent.”

Therefore you must know that, taking this day of the Second Advent as the occasion, the Lord who comes again restores all these things.

The countless prophets of the process of history and Jesus walked such a road; then what must we do?

First, as ones who have taken responsibility for history, we must become symbolic bodies of God who can stand in place of history. And in the arena of going seeking Heaven today, at the Last Days, just like Jesus, who walked a road of sacrifice for the people and the church and the whole earth and the world, or like Abraham or Job, we must take responsibility for the whole of history and walk the road of indemnity. Unless we do so, you cannot become victors who have crossed the pass of the offering.

Then what form of history of indemnity is there for you, placed at the Last Days?

First there will be a history of material indemnity. To the degree that you receive true grace of spirit, to that degree there is a history of material indemnity. That is why, to find the time when you can stand before the will and the position where you can stand before the will, you must be able to strike all the material conditions you had hoped for upon the earth.

If you who have come to know the will cannot take such a position, you can by no means step into the stage of the Completed Testament Age from a position of having passed through the Old Testament Age and the New Testament Age. A time of striking material things will come. A time of striking centering on the individual will come, and a time of striking centering on the people and the nation will come.

And so a time when such material want is undergone individually, or on the level of a people, a nation, the world, will without fail appear upon this earth. At such a time there will be a people that undergoes want most severely. Then the grief of that people will not be grief undergone because of that people but grief undergone standing in place of six thousand years of history; and even though it undergoes pain, that pain will not be pain undergone because of that people but pain undergone standing in place of God’s historical pain.

But if, even in the midst of undergoing such extreme pain and grief, it fathoms that what saves the world is not material things but people, that people can cross over the pass of the offering. This is because it is not a material offering that completes salvation but Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who completes salvation. Therefore, you today must know that if you hold only to material things and regard them as more precious than life, you can by no means cross over the pass of the offering.

At the Last Days there will be a time of striking material things, and at that time a people that resents Heaven will receive judgment, and an individual who resents Heaven will also receive judgment. God dispenses, centering on such principles.

Therefore, even though you undergo pain and undergo material difficulty, you must not cling to material things. And just as Jesus Christ, the Son of God, transcended material things, you too must transcend them. Otherwise, the road you walk is blocked.

Until now you have believed in and relied upon the leaders of the church in place of Jesus, but this is not eternal. In the process of restoration, until the Second Advent, you believed, centering on the way of the cross, but in the course of restoration that must hereafter be crossed worldwide, what you have believed in and relied upon until now will not suffice.

Then what must be done when that time comes?

At that time you must find and establish, through Jesus, a self whom God can recognize. Otherwise you can by no means cross the pass of judgment that appears at the Last Days.

That is why Jesus said,

“At the Last Days anoint your head with oil and go into your inner room and pray.”

For you who go seeking God, material things easily become an enemy. Next, beloved children and a beloved husband and wife easily become enemies.

That is why Jesus also said, “The members of your own household are your enemies.” Precisely here is bound up God’s anguished and grievous heart, and here is bound up the grief of our saints today. This is the crest that the saints of the Last Days must cross in their totality. You must realize this.

Next, one must reject and cross over even one’s own self. Jesus too, with the cross before his eyes, prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, “Father, all things are possible to You; remove this cup from me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.” Through such a process, Jesus struck himself and passed through a position of denying himself.

Therefore you must be able to offer all at once as an offering everything you have possessed until now — all your hope and joy and faith and heart — and cross over.

In other words, the Old Testament Age crossed the pass of the offering with all things as the condition, and the New Testament Age crossed the pass of the offering by believing in Jesus; but because in the Completed Testament Age the individual must cross the pass of the offering, you yourselves must be able to stand in place of the six thousand years of the history of the offering.

That is, if you desire to stand before the Father, you must offer as one offering the material things you possess and your beloved sons and daughters and wife and even yourselves, all combined. You must know clearly that only by passing through such a road can you cross the historical pass of the offering, and only thereafter can you form a relationship with God.

Even though this be a road that others deny and oppose, you who have set out on this road must not be discouraged. Moreover, as you walk this road, there will be a work in which you cannot but be robbed of your desire to possess material things and your hope for your children and your love for your husband or wife and even your attachment to yourself.

At that time, you must not try to cross over the world while holding on to such attachments. Only when you cut off all conditions of human feeling (人情) — material things, love for children, and hope centering on oneself — can you cross over the worldwide pass of the offering.

Why must one walk such a road? It is because the history of restoration until now is a history of the offering, and the history of the offering is a history of cleaving apart, and the history of cleaving apart is a history of striking. That is why, when the time comes for you to cross over the final pass, the Jesus you believed in and followed will strike you, and the Holy Spirit who guided you will strike you. And the God in whom you believed as your hope will strike you, and the world too will strike you. Even though there be such a history in which Heaven strikes and the earth strikes, unless you become ones who can remain to the end, you can by no means stand before God.

You must know that only one who wins victory in such a position can stand in place of the ideal of the King of kings upon the earth and can enjoy the glory of a governing lord (主菅主) even when he goes to the heavenly kingdom.

We can see that this people today is in a grievous and pitiable position. Seen even from God’s Providence, this is a time when the individual is struck, and a time when the people and the nation and the world are struck. But do not lament or resent Heaven because you yourselves are struck. Do not lament because this people are struck. Even though a time comes when the world is struck, you must not resent Heaven.

The only heart you must hold is a heart of relying upon Heaven alone, even though you perish or die. Holding such a heart, you must cross the individual cross, and must be able to cross the cross of the people, the cross of the nation, the cross of the world. Only after thus crossing the worldwide pass of the cross can you meet the Lord of the Second Advent, who comes in glory. That time is the period when the ideal of the Second Advent that human beings desire is realized.

Only after crossing such a worldwide pass of the offering can one possess God’s love and God’s freedom and God’s peace and God’s ideal. This is because, if God’s love and freedom and peace and ideal are given to a person who has not completely crossed such a pass, Satan accuses, and that love and freedom and peace and ideal are broken apart. That is why God did not permit God’s love and freedom and peace and ideal to a person who had not crossed the worldwide pass of the offering.

Therefore, you who have now stepped forth for the will must ask and answer for yourselves whether you have crossed such a cosmic pass of the offering.

If we examine the providential history of restoration, the “tithe” began in the age of Abraham, and the Jewish people, formed of twelve tribes centering on the tribe of Levi, also gave tithes, and the Christians of the world today also give tithes. And one out of ten is one sanctified out of the whole. That is why, if you today cannot stand in such a sanctified position within the Korean people and within the Korean religious world, you cannot face Heaven from a position like that of the tribe of Levi, which was the central tribe of the people of Israel.

If you desire to go forward to such a position, you must be able to cast away everything. And if you desire to find the world and the heavenly kingdom, you must take the adventure of casting away everything of yours. Such a pass remains before you. That is why God, who guides us, has brought us trials in order to have us cross this pass and has us cross the pass of the cross. But even though such a pass of the cross appears as a condition of judgment, you must be able to cross that pass without difficulty.

Such people, gathering one by one and two by two, must form one altar. Just as the tribe of Levi led the people of Israel, formed of twelve tribes, and after Jesus a Christian religious body carrying out a mission like that of the tribe of Levi was formed centering on Jesus and expanded into a worldwide altar, so today too there must be a religion of worldwide priesthood carrying out a mission like that of the tribe of Levi.

If there are those who desire to take part in such a religion, they must cross the pass of the offering, just as has been said. Just as the Jewish people could cross the pass of the offering by giving offerings before Heaven with full devotion, so if you desire to become a chosen people who can stand before the Lord at the Last Days, you must give offerings with full devotion and cross the pass of the offering. Only thereafter can one stand in place of the mission of the priest, and receive God’s grace, and accomplish God’s glory and freedom and peace and ideal.

That is why you must be especially alert. When God strikes your material things, your loyalty toward God must not change, and you must become one who can cut off all the surrounding environment. If you know such a principle, you must be able to strike your own material things before God strikes them, and to cut off love for children and love between husband and wife before God cuts them off, and further to strike even your own selves. If you can become such people, you will be able to cross the six thousand years of the pass of the offering all at once.

You must bear in mind that God is hoping with a fervent heart that many people who have crossed such a pass of the offering may come forth upon this earth, and you must be able to confirm for yourselves in what sort of position you yourselves stand today.

If in actual fact you can sanctify your material things and offer them before Heaven and offer even yourselves to God, and thereby cross over the pass of the offering, you will be able to enter wisely the ideal garden the Father permits, without receiving Satan’s accusation upon this earth. I hope you will bear this in mind and become ones who do their utmost to fulfill the mission each has been entrusted with. Let us pray together.