The copyright for this collection of words belongs to the Family Federation and Kogensha. Unauthorized reproduction, duplication, modification, etc. is prohibited.
Chapter 1 The Age of Putting into Practice
The Age of Firm Establishment of Cheon Il Guk
Of course, it is Heavenly Parent who wished to establish, on earth, His dream for the creation of heaven and earth. The 60-year history of our Unification Church was a course through the wilderness. We could not establish ourselves, nor could we achieve firm settlement. Through True Parents, however, a new nation began on Foundation Day: Cheon Il Guk. And the people who should be at the center of the nation called Cheon Il Guk are Heavenly Parent of course, True Parents, and the true children that are you, the blessed families. True Parents have opened a new era, a new history, Cheon Il Guk – something fallen people never dreamed of in 6,000 years. And you have received the blessing of qualifying as the people of Cheon Il Guk, which means what? To be CheonBo families, right? (True Mother, November 25, 2021)
Please keep in mind that all of you gathered here are not only proud true children of victorious True Parents, but also the hope of Heavenly Japan. I hope that you will become true children who will support and assist for the sake of Heavenly Parent’ will, for the sake of the reconciliation of Korea and Japan, and for the Korea Republic, the homeland of providence, to become the Heavenly Unified Korea, attending Heavenly Parent. I also hope that you will become CheonBo families that complete the mission of the Heavenly Tribal Messiah by following the path of true parents, the path of true husband and wife, the path of true children, and the path of true blessed families to build a united world overflowing with freedom, peace and happiness. (True Mother, July 18, 2020)
Your hard work and devotion will be harvested as healthy grains fit for Heaven’s granary – eternally unchanging over the generations to come. I hope and pray that you will become blessed CheonBo families and true families who can fulfill your responsibility as central figures in realizing the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, so that our Heavenly Parent, True Parents and all of humankind can live together on earth as one peaceful family. You are the ones who will bring that hope to all people. (True Mother, August 13, 2022)
The Time to Establish Family
If you had inherited the lineage of true love centering on God, you would now be a true being imbued with true life, true lineage and true conscience. However, due to the Fall, you became a false self; that is why your mind and body are in conflict. Now, however, the time has come for all of you throughout the world to join the family of the original Adam. Indeed, all the people of the world must perfect themselves based on this family. What must we do to reach perfection? Fallen families have to take up the task of restoration through indemnity. Individuals and families throughout the world have to invest themselves to accomplish this, under the guidance of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification. Perfection has to be achieved by Adam and Eve, a man and a woman. God cannot do it for them. True Parents cannot do it for them. For this purpose, the Family Federation was created. It is a global organization; it will assist you all over the world to leap beyond fallen Adam’s lineage. When you are climbing to the top of a mountain, if on a slope you make a misstep and tumble down, you have to climb up again. It is the same when climbing up the course of restoration. Every time you make a misstep you have to climb back up again. You have to repeat it again and again until you are successful, even if it takes millions or tens of millions of years. (23, Section 2, Chapter 5, Book 11, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
Your body and mind are like two people. If these two people cannot become one, you cannot become a citizen of Cheon Il Guk. The kingdom of heaven has been something vague until now, because the individual’s body and mind were in conflict and so no individual could serve as a foundation for the nation of Cheon Il Guk. Cheon Il Guk refers to the settlement of a family on the basis of unity — unity of an individual’s body and mind, unity of husband and wife, unity of parents and children, and unity among brothers and sisters. If there is no unity, there will be no settlement. (39, Section 4, Chapter 2, Book 12, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
Where religion takes root is in God’s family. Religion started out to restore the family lost in the Garden of Eden. So, in the Unification Church, we have conducted Blessing Ceremonies centering on true love, true life, and true lineage that connect us to God. After that, we will go beyond the religious realm. Therefore, the “Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity” will cease to exist, and we will proceed with the “Family Federation for World Peace and Unification” as the center. When the family becomes established with true love, true life, and true lineage as its center, the responsibility of religion will be complete. (True Father, December 12, 2001)
Until now, religions have had as their goal the salvation of the individual, and they have taught how to save the individual from evil. However, the world does not need a religion that places the individual at the center, but one that is able to prepare a foundation for family salvation. The salvation of the family begins when it can receive and secure the Will of Heaven and be recognized by the will of humankind. If a family appears that can endure any trial, from the position of having combined the love of Heaven and the love of humankind, the religious movement based on it will spread throughout the world. This movement would not have any particular place or any special society like Korea at the center. It would be a movement that has the concept of the family at the center and goes beyond the society and nation. A religion carrying out a movement like that will be absolutely necessary for the future. (1. Book2, Pyeong Hwa Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
It is no longer the age of the religious realm. That is why we dissolved the “Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity”. From now on, it is the era of “Family Federation for World Peace and Unification. We are not looking for a religion, but for God’s family. No one can deny this. Father conducted the process of indemnity through one-to-one maintenance. I have pioneered the path of indemnity that multiplies hundreds and thousands of times. In this way, I was able to liberate God. “The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification” is a solidarity relationship that cannot be broken by tying the chain of love together. (August 21, 2001)
Until now the purpose of religion has been to save individuals. However, the purpose of the Unification Church is the salvation of the family, rather than the individual. Although we seek salvation, it is based on the family, and while seeking the kingdom of heaven, we do not speak of a husband going to the kingdom of heaven while his wife goes to hell. Both of them go to the kingdom of heaven together. Likewise, we do not let our parents go to hell. Instead, we bring them to the kingdom of heaven, along with our children. The Unification Church teaches the way for us to go to the kingdom of heaven, bringing our entire beloved family and tribe. Hence it is on a different level from other religions. Religions thus far have emphasized celibacy, but the Unification Church puts primary importance on the family. We go the family-centered way, but our families are for the sake of the world and for the sake of God. This is the way we Unification Church members are to go. (14, Section 6, Chapter 4, Book 5, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
Again, I am saying that we have to change our families, one by one. The organizational structure of the Unification Church is based on families; families are the center. The focus has shifted from the individual to the family. Until today you may have disregarded the importance of the family, but in fact it is essential. Now is the time in which the family, which you have neglected, will emerge with absolute authority. For this reason, the Blessing has unsurpassed value. (34, Section 6, Chapter 4, Book 5, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
God’s Ideal of Creation
God’s Will is the actualization of the ideal of creation; concretely, it is the completion of the fourposition foundation. To achieve this, Adam and Eve must be perfected as God’s children and receive God’s loving blessing on their marriage. Thus they first become God’s son and daughter, and later husband and wife. They should have sons and daughters and build a family that God is delighted to see. This means guiding their children to reach perfection. In conclusion, the ideal world of creation is the ideal family of unified love, where God and His children, Adam and Eve, become one. Then, with God’s love at the center, Adam and Eve become parents and create unity with their children. (4, Section 2, Chapter 1, Book 5, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
God’s ideal for our first ancestors was that an ideal man and an ideal woman would create an ideal family. But the center of that ideal family would be neither the man nor the woman. The husband and wife would be bonded together, with God’s love at their center. A family is ultimately a gathering of parents and children. Accordingly, the completion of God’s Will refers to the perfection of husband and wife and the perfection of a family, all centered on God’s love. (7, Section 2, Chapter 1, Book 5, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
God’s love appears in the place where the three types of love – the love of parents, of husband and wife, and of children – manifest as one. Where these come together, God is absolutely present for eternity. God is always present where unchanging parental love, unchanging conjugal love, and unchanging filial love dwell. The teaching of the four-position foundation in the Unification Church appears on this foundation. (1, Section 3, Chapter 1, Book 5, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
God’s love encompasses parents’ love, the love between husband and wife, and children’s love. Of course, it includes siblings’ love as well, and when that expands, it also contains love for the nation and the world. So we say that God’s love is parental love, conjugal love and filial love. This is the most wonderful statement that can be made. Because the power of love can guide everything, it affects one’s destiny. If we really understood love and its power to determine what happens in our life, we would be able to change our destiny. (7, Section 1, Chapter 1, Book 3, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
The four-position foundation is formed when the three types of love — parental love, conjugal love and filial love – are realized. God will surely appear in the place where this four-position foundation has been fulfilled. God dwells in the place where the love of the four-position foundation is secured. It is there that we live and attend God for eternity. That place is the foundation for the kingdom of heaven. (19, Section 4, Chapter 1, Book 5, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
Heaven Starts with Family
God’s ideal is not something vague that exists only in His mind. It is not intended to remain a mere concept, but is to be realized in the actual lives of people on earth. It refers not just to the personal daily lives of men and women as individuals. God planned to realize His ideal based on the foundation of family life. When the ideal is realized in the family, children who are true and ideal will appear. Those children will bring forth the tribe, people, nation and world that will eventually realize God’s ideal world. God’s ideal is to realize this world, which begins not from the individual but from the family. (24, Section 6, Chapter 4, Book 5, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
In the Unification Principle and in the book of Genesis, it is written that everything was created for the sake of human beings. The ideal world we long for exists for the sake of human beings. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is the world in which we live for the sake of others, knowing how to love people. The kingdom of heaven does not exist apart from us. The world in which we know how to serve and love others is the kingdom of heaven. Where is that place? When we think of this question with reference to our own life experience, we see that it is in the family, where we love others and where we are uplifted. When parents look at their child, even one who is immature and mischievous, with a zero score on a scale from one to ten, and nothing to be proud of, they still love him or her more than anyone else. The family is where love is abundant. It is the place where you are elevated to manifest your infinite value. It is the place where happiness dwells. (3, Section 4, Chapter 1, Book 5, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
In the world today we hear many people saying, “The world should become one.” They all want to see a peaceful and happy world. In religious terminology, we would say that we need to build the kingdom of heaven on earth; we need to build an ideal world. But even though people say this, and even though the whole world wants this and tries to make it happen, they have yet to learn that this can only come about through the family. For this reason, unless we actually build a worldwide foundation upon which we sing of the ideal in the family, build peace within the family, and sing songs of love and happiness in the family, no matter how much we dream of the ideal world, or the kingdom of heaven on earth, that world will not come about. (30, Section 6, Chapter 4, Book 5, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
The Unification Church has a clear viewpoint. Therefore today, wherever you go, if you are equipped with the Unification Church teaching, nothing can block you. You should build the kingdom of heaven for tomorrow with this confidence. We advocate building that kingdom in our everyday lives through our own efforts. We build the kingdom of heaven of heart in our own families, in our family life, and expand it to the environment, through our own efforts. God wanted to build an eternally blessed paradise so that He could dwell on earth. In our generation we have to build what God intended, together with Him, and offer it to Him. With all material things, with our sons and daughters, with our brothers and sisters, we have to lead our lives in praise of God. Otherwise we cannot call ourselves His sons and daughters, who live in accordance with the Principle of Creation and the principle of the four-position foundation. (32, Section 6, Chapter 4, Book 5, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
Bringing world peace depends on the foundation laid by parents and children in their families. The Unification Church emphasizes individual perfection and family perfection because I knew that this was the overall solution for peace. Take Korea, for example. If North and South Korea reunite but there is no peace within the families, the national peace will crumble. It is said that the leading nations bring peace in the world through international conferences. However, if those Parents who are at the center of the global family do not establish a family foundation capable of bequeathing peace, peace in the world will crumble. (15, Section 3, Chapter 2, Book 10, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
The unification of North and South Korea cannot be discussed simply as a national issue. If you look at it from the broadest perspective, it is linked to the entire globe; viewed from the most fundamental perspective, it is linked to the problem of the individual. Before we can unite the world the nation must be united, and before we can unite the nation the family must be united. No matter how much a couple desires happiness, unless they are united, neither they nor their family can be happy. No matter how much a family wishes to be happy, unless each person is happy, that family’s happiness will be nothing but a dream. We have an old saying, “When all is well in the family, everything else goes well.” The most important thing is for couples to become one and establish families of peace. That is the starting point of all solutions. (31, Section 4, Chapter 3, Book 10, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
Only a husband and wife who love each other can enter the kingdom of heaven. A couple that lives in love on earth is already living in that kingdom. Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is within you, didn’t he? But today the Unification Church says the kingdom of heaven is within your family. If we do not realize the kingdom of heaven in our families, we will not fulfill the purpose of the Unification Church. If we do realize it, we are fulfilling that purpose. With this in mind we should walk the right way, centered on the Principle. (36, Section 6, Chapter 4, Book 5, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
Bringing Fruit to Family Life
The family should be a place where we model all relationships on every level. All people without exception determine their life path within their families. They are born in a family, go out from their family to all directions and return to their family from all directions – north, south, east and west – and encounter ups and downs in their family. This understanding tells us that a person who cannot experience happiness in the family should not expect to find happiness on the national level. Even if he were to recover his nation, where would he live in that nation? He would be unhappy, with nowhere to go. Only in the family can we find our parents, our spouse and our children. (9, Section 4, Chapter 1, Book 5, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
We are not focused on the individual but on the family. Yet it does not mean we are only trying to clean up all the problems in our own family. Rather, we should connect to all. Hence our previous efforts to cultivate our spirituality while living alone are now not enough. We must be determined and resolute to make much greater effort than before. A life of challenging evil is very difficult. We can get tired and easily give up in an instant. When we have a family, we should work much harder than when we were single. The family is where we can secure our center. The family is where we cannot avoid dealing with reality in all relationships. In our family, we should establish relationships between front and back, left and right, above and below. We shouldn’t just maintain the kind of faith we practiced in the past; the onesided life of faith we had before will not work. The Blessing is the point that determines whether we live or die. (11, Section 1, Chapter 4, Book 11, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
We cannot live apart from heart. Even if you were the president of a country or possessed unsurpassed authority over the world, if you did not have a place to express your heartfelt joy, what good would it do you? You would not feel life’s deep joy from those whom you command – your cabinet members or followers. But in your family this is something you can feel. When you return home from work, you should be able to feel this from your spouse and from your children. You need to be able to share it with pride in the company of others. It is the same with God. Even if He were to restore the entire world, without a family God cannot feel joy. So we do ultimately need to have a family. (1, Section 4, Chapter 1, Book 5, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
Some people may say that they are satisfied with their work and need nothing more, but that is not true. There may be some fulfillment there, but the workplace connects people through material things. Politics is where people pursue their rights and interests. Even in religion, people seek God in different ways, from all directions. Though they may be able to find God, they will not find love. True love can be found only in the family. Someone may be successful in his company, earning vast sums of money and being recognized by many, but if he does not have a loving family, he is an unhappy man. Even if someone goes into the field of politics, becomes a member of parliament and even the president of his nation, if he has no loving home to which he can return, he will be an unhappy man. Even if someone becomes a famous pastor and a great spiritual leader who is genuinely loved by the members under his or her wing, that love is not enough. We look for a deeper and more central place of love than that; that place is none other than the family. (10, Section 4, Chapter 1, Book 5, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
The Unification Church asserts that God wants to experience the greatest joy together with our families. The place where we learn to give and receive love, the place where we create joy through harmony, nurture it and experience it, is none other than the family. This is the core of our faith. Without being nurtured with love in the family throughout our infancy and adolescence, we cannot develop the capacity to love our spouse or love our children. (9, Section 3, Chapter 1, Book 5, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
You actualize origin-division-union action through everyday life in the family. When you say goodbye to one another in the morning as you go to work, do so in joy, and when you meet again in the evening, do so in joy. When you return to your family, gather your family to talk about what happened that day, discuss it together, and suggest ways to improve. You have to connect the entire family through love and through laughter. The family becomes the children’s haven of rest when they can say, “Our dad is the best! Our mom is the best! We really like it when you two love each other!” You have to become a couple who can build a family as the base of eternal joy and pride, such that your children will not want to go anywhere else. (8, Section 1, Chapter 1, Book 5, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
The reason we miss the family we have left behind is because that is where love abides. It is the home of the love of mother and father, the love of elder brothers and sisters and younger siblings, and the love of one’s spouse, children and close neighbors. It is a place where love and affection define all relationships. This makes you want to cherish each and every member of your family. Any wanderer who has left his family behind yearns to return to them as a renewed person. He longs for the mountains, streams and trees of his hometown, to embrace his relatives and countrymen, and to sing joyful songs. However, this has not been the situation of humankind, descended from the Fall. Banished from their original heavenly hometown, human beings are destined to wander in isolation and defeat. They are unable ever to go back, no matter how much they miss their family, for they have lost the root of the heart of their original homeland. With the ushering in of the era of a new heaven and a new earth, we have pulled human beings out of the quicksand that was sucking them down and opened the way for them to return to their hometown, which they had never forgotten, and to meet with their true family. Could there ever be a day of greater blessing for humanity? The time of heavenly power and fortune has come, making it possible for us to re-establish the original family that was lost through the Fall of Adam and Eve. (12, Section 2, Chapter 1, Book 13, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)