The copyright for this collection of words belongs to the Family Federation and Kogensha. Unauthorized reproduction, duplication, modification, etc. is prohibited.
Chapter 3 Witnessing through Life
Witnessing of Tribe, Friends and Acquaintances
Now that a new foundation of family and tribe was established, you have entered the historically amazing sphere of benefit of the restoration of the tribe in your time. And the time has come for you to witness your father and mother, and to witness your elder brothers and sisters. The history of restoration is about finding families, but how much faster would it be if you could witness your own relatives rather than other families? For you to be able to hear about witnessing your parents and siblings is a story like a dream for me. （1973. 7. 1）
You must know that your family has been given a tremendous mission to restore your tribe. In order to restore your tribe, you must write more letters than you did to the people and friends you loved in the past. You must put in twice as much effort. The women must also show their relatives their devotion with a heart that yearns for them even more than they yearn for their own mothers and fathers. Only then will they be restored. If you do not reawaken your love for them, they will not be restored. You will know whether it is right or not for sure when you go to the spirit world. （1970. 6. 4）
You have reached a stage where, no matter how much you witness your family, Satan will not be able to accuse you. This is the result of the victory I have achieved over Satan. So from now on, you must save your own parents and relatives. This is the kind of era we are living in. So, witness your parents. Witness your siblings. Then, serve God as one. The whole family will do so. Relatives will create such a community. Your tribe will become such a tribe. And they will serve the nation. If they reach the stage of serving as one, this tribe will become a tribe that moves the whole nation. You have entered that sphere. However, you cannot say, “Listen to me, Father and Mother!” You must not do that. Many of your ancestors have sacrificed goodness for evil. However, even if you love God and swallow it all, you must spit it out. You should stand in a position where you can speak to your parents with good words and show true filial piety, and you should stand in a good position and speak to your parents with your life on the line. Even if you are beaten for doing so, when the parent who hits you thinks about it, their bones will shake. Before long, that parent will say to their child, “I was wrong”. (1965. 10. 9）
In order to restore your family, you cannot live a life of ease and eat good food. You have to be told by your parents as follows. “I heard that the church was bad. But when I looked at the face of my child who went to the church, I could see that something had changed. In the past, he would sulk when I said something to him. Now his eyes would become straight, and I wouldn’t know whose child he is. It made me shudder.” You changed a little. Not just a little, but a hundred times. Then you turn 180 degrees, and then the parents believe in you. You have to save your family in that way. (1965. 10. 9）
You guys can’t stand evil. You have public indignation. You publicly get angry. You push them outside the walls, save them, and then you pull everyone together in a joint operation. You must save your family with unwavering conviction. I thought that was the remaining mission… With this many people, there are 10, 100, or any number of family members connected behind you. There is no such thing as being unable to witness. We can prove this by making a relationship in our lives with a sense of responsibility and action, and by taking action within our sphere of life. It is a filial piety to your parents and love of brothers and sisters. If you become someone who has to be there, your family will have no choice but to move around you. (1965. 10. 9）
Until now, you have been witnessing, but you have been doing so in a vague way, without taking responsibility. To witness, you must pray first! Until now, we have not had the opportunity to witness our own parents, whom we truly love. However, now, from Heaven, we are told that we should witness our own blood relations and relatives. Then, choose 12 of your most faithful friends, or if you don’t have any, choose 12 lifelong friends from among your classmates, people you would give your life for. Choose them, and for 120 days, four months, pray for them! If you are going to witness for one hour, pray three times that hour, visit them, and witness. Write down the names of the 12 people and visit them while praying every day and witness. I think that will have a considerable impact. （1967. 6. 19）
Every Circumstance is an Occasion of Witnessing
God is pleased by those who are pleased and by those who are pleased by all things, so that person will surely move in a good direction. That is the perspective of the Principle. Have you been doing that until now? Let’s start now. Waking up in the morning and smiling. If you are a father or mother at home, while the flowers are blooming and you are spraying the fragrance, that is the best thing for your children’s education. It is the same when you meet people at work. It gives a good impression. You can’t do witnessing if you make a sour face. You have to have a harmonious face that radiates something wonderful from within, and you have to witness with hope for the present and hope for the future. You have to do that for everyone. Even people with triangular or square faces have their own kind of beauty. Do you understand? If there is something within you that is contrary, that is something that Satan likes. Goodbye, Satan. Let’s live like that. Do you understand? (1976. 10. 5）
As a way of becoming close, you can’t just say “Hey, you, come here. Listen to me.” You will go into that person’s place. If you work at the same place, you can help him out with something. If you visit his house, you can help it clean. That’s how you become close. What is it that he wants most? You’re going to give him that. That’s how people are. When we’re happiest and when we’re saddest, we seek out the people we need. The people we need when we’re happiest are the people we love. The person you need when you are in the most painful situation is the person who can sacrifice himself for you. The person who can be your friend. The person who can help you. We are not there for him when he is happiest. The goal is to be the person who is there for him when he is happy, but when he is in the most painful situation, and everyone wants to avoid him, he himself comes to you and is in a position where you can talk about everything. So, you become his partner in times of hardship. If that happens, naturally… If, after going through that process, the standard of his living space is established as having had some effect based on that kind of relationship, then a happy environment will naturally be created in proportion to that. It’s a natural phenomenon. You get close to each other like that. (1967. 6. 23）
When witnessing, how should we talk about love? You don’t have to say “witnessing, witnessing”, you just need to live with a heart of love. Try living with love. The people you meet in your town will come to you naturally. If a low-pressure system comes, even if you tell the high-pressure system not to come, it will still come. To love is to create a low-pressure zone. That is why all the high-pressure zones gather there. A person like me won’t die even if I go to some remote place in Africa. I complement nature. You don’t have to witness. You just live like that. There is no need to witness. If you do that, God will visit you. There is a fragrance there. When a flower blooms, do you say, “Come, butterflies!”? They come because of the fragrance. They come because of the smell. They all turn their noses to the north, saying, “heresy, Unification Church, bad, bad,” but if they look towards the south at the Unification Church, they come to smell the scent. They say they keep coming. (1986. 4. 25）
Education does not take place only through a teacher standing at a podium with books, but also through the teacher’s words and deeds. The way a person dresses is an education; you can tell a good deal about a person’s character by the way he or she dresses. Just as the body reflects the mind, a person’s clothes reflect his or her character. In this light, our daily life offers constant opportunities to educate, stimulate and influence everyone around us. If we continually strengthen our effectiveness in educating people in our daily life, society surely will develop. That is where new hope for our world unfolds. (7, Section 1, Chapter 4, Book 5, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
Even in prison I strove to live 95 percent for the sake of others. I woke up early in the morning and began the day by cleaning up the dirty places. Then I started working according to my daily schedule. When I was in prison in Danbury, I had the habit of doing tasks instead of relaxing, even when I went to the cafeteria. Other people would sleep or pursue leisure activities when they were not on duty, but I would stand waiting to be given work. I made it a habit to do that. If anything came up, I was the first to go and help. It was inevitable that this would make me well-known in the cafeteria. (44, Section 2, Chapter 5, Book 11, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
The prisoners at Danbury Prison are people who are hungry for affection. Even when I spoke a single word, I spoke it with my heart thinking of them. That is why they all wanted to come near me. When it was time to eat, first I would go to a corner of the dining hall and eat by myself. However, after about three months, when I went to the dining hall, I would find that other people had already taken the place where I usually sat. When I sat down, there were so many people gathered that there was no place for me to sit. If I went and sat somewhere else, they would leave their original spot and moved to my place. This is what happened. Is it because they don’t like it, or because they like it? The heart of man is connected to the heart of Heaven. Since people are spiritual beings, they can understand the correct heart of someone who thinks of them, who devotes themselves to them, and who tries to show them the way to go. That is why we do not witness with words. If the heart of love overflows and flows, flowers will bloom there. Even if a cold wind blows, flowers will bloom between the rocks. Even in the icy world of the North Pole, flowers will bloom, and even in the water, flowers will bloom. (May 1, 1987）
Setting an Example
Throughout history up to the present day, individuals have modeled themselves on other individuals. Societies change, modeling themselves on more developed societies. Many people, and many nations, have tried to do this. However, there has not been a family that people have tried to emulate. In the history of the world, there has been no such family to this day. Nor has there been a teaching that guides people to emulate a certain family. There have been many assertions about emulating certain nations or individuals, but no such assertions about families. Then what is the problem that still remains? It is not that we need an individual or a nation to worship, but that we need a family that everyone can revere. It is only that kind of family that can found a new world and bring eternal happiness to the universe. If we settle down with such a family, it will become the basis for our happiness as well. (7, Section 4, Chapter 2, Book 2, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
We are now in the era of witnessing to families. With my family, an official center has emerged. Since now is the time when this center will be connected to you, we are entering the era of family witnessing. The center of a family is a woman, the mother. The mother must move forward while embracing two children. If sons and daughters become united centered on their mother, everything will be fulfilled. Then there will be no problem with the sons and daughters. Therefore families in secular society who have problems will come to you seeking answers. If they ask, “How do you solve this difficult problem?” you can answer, “You just have to read this book,” and give them a copy of the Divine Principle. Once they understand the contents, they will be able to solve their children’s problems. If they borrow the book from you during a visit, and if they have any questions, they will ask you when they return. At that time you need to be prepared to teach them in detail. (18, Section 2, Chapter 1, Book 9, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
When you return to your hometown, what should you do? Inspire the people to unite with you. The method to achieve this is simple. Sons should become teachers who can demonstrate through example the heavenly tradition. Thereby you will be teaching, “The kingdom of heaven will be realized when you do such and such a thing.” Furthermore, mothers and fathers should show other mothers and fathers in the neighborhood that “by doing this, the village will become heavenly.” The family of love, in which the husband loves the wife and the wife loves the husband, the parents love the children and the children love the parents, is what you hand down to them. (18, Section 3, Chapter 2, Book 9, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
If you work day and night practicing love based on the Word, then even while elderly citizens sit around smoking and drinking or pursuing other vices, they will praise the Unification Church and say, “I have to let my son or daughter follow the example of that person.” If they do that, the evil spirits attached to them, trying to influence them to carouse, will flee. Further, if those elderly citizens see a violent young man become good-natured after he joins the Unification Church, then they will think, “Our children also should become like Unification Church members.” If this happens, the evil spirits within them will take flight. In every aspect you need to become a model representing the Principle. You should set the standard as the ancestor in your family. You must become a guide for the ancestors in your family by becoming like a signboard displaying Heaven’s principles and rules. The True Parents are the ancestor among all ancestors. (23, Section 4, Chapter 1, Book 9, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
Second generation members must proudly show that they are the children of True Parents, whether at school or anywhere else. That is witnessing. Students must become the best students at school. You must be number one. No matter what kind of environment you are in, you must be the best. You must know that the people of the world are watching the second generation. So, how should you behave in such a situation? You must study hard and grow up well and become a great person before Heaven. When the second generation stands in a position where they can fulfill the Will that True Parents are trying to accomplish, what do you think the people of the world will say? You will become victors. (True Mother, August 3, 2013)
The Israelites adopted the culture and traditions of the seven tribes of Canaan, and this was a problem. It led the Israelites to ruin. This is a critical point. Nonetheless, it is different now. We are the center. There is no hope in the outside world, which is declining. The world is looking at you as their only hope. Starting now, unite and complete your responsibility as messiahs. Just as God said to Joshua and Caleb, I am telling you to be bold and strong. You now have the Parents, Heaven and a foundation of all the things on earth necessary to restore the right of the eldest son. Hence just move forward with all your strength. From behind, God will support you, and the power of True Parents and True Family will protect you, just as they do today. All you need to do is march ahead on one path. That is the way that will lead to victory. (19, Section 1, Chapter 2, Book 9, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
Suppose that someone were unable to acquire a position that brought authority, power or recognition, and had nothing to be proud of. However, suppose that person had a family with true parents, a true spouse and true children, a peaceful family that was the envy of his community. Such a happy family should share its genuine happiness even beyond the tribe; it should impact society, the people and even the nation. There is no question that such a family would be admired by the people and the entire nation. If such a family emerged on earth, representing both the people and the nation, without doubt the world would honor that family. (13, Section 4, Chapter 1, Book 5, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
Loving with Heart of Parents
When walking the course of the providence of restoration, Unification Church members need to progress through the levels of the servant, the adopted son and the direct son. After growing through these three stages, each member needs to love his or her spiritual children or followers in the same way parents care for their children, love them and are ready to die for them. Even as we sacrifice ourselves, to become God’s blessed children we should naturally feel gratitude for our blessings, while at the same time hoping that all of them will go to someone else. (18, Section 4, Chapter 1, Book 8, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
You can become an owner only when you act with the heart of a parent and the body of a servant. This is how God has been working to fulfill the Will. Hence, you too can fulfill it only if you have the heart of the Father and shed your tears, sweat and blood. In order to become a true leader, you need to receive true leadership training. You need to inherit True Parents’ way of tears, sweat and blood, which is the way of Heaven. You too have to shed tears, sweat and blood; then you will leave it behind as your tradition. (4, Section 4, Chapter 5, Book 2, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
You should always be in the position of a subject partner, centered on God’s love. You should be able to influence others. How can you influence others? By giving. When you give, how should you give? You should not give leftovers. If you give leftovers from your meal, even if people eat them, afterwards they will spit them out in disgust. Let’s say you have five rice cakes to give out to people. If you pick up one, put it down and then pick another, wondering how much to give, it is worse than not giving at all. Without any hesitation you should just pick up a handful of them and give them out. Then people will thank you. But if you hesitate in giving, people will criticize you even after you do them that favor. Thus, when you give, you should do so with God’s parental heart. (3, Section 3, Chapter 3, Book 4, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
Just as you love your children and grandchildren and want to give them the best, the most beautiful home, the best education, the best job, and a life of peace and prosperity, God wants to do the same for all humanity, not only on earth but also in the spirit world. And just as parents can sacrifice everything for the sake of their children’s well-being, so can God. In fact, the parental nature we discover in human beings is derived from God, our Heavenly Parent. If we develop and practice the “parents’ perspective” toward all people and all things, the world will begin to change. In the light of this new perspective, we will come to see others as our brothers and sisters, as members of our family. We will not be able to think of using or deceiving our own family. The closer we come to God’s heart, the more we will be able to understand the heart of True Parents. (Trute Mother, March 1, 2015）
The Way of Voluntary Submission
We do not witness with weapons; rather, we witness with love. Our victory is based on saving Cain through the love of Abel. It is to restore with true love those who were conquered by false love. This is the only way we can return to the original world, a world devoid of conflict. If we were to witness by any other means or method, Satan would still have some tricks left up his sleeve; he could employ other means and methods. Jesus, even on the way to his death, until the final moment of his life, established the way of love. Since he was not able to completely establish the course of saving Cain in his lifetime, through his death he demonstrated the way to open the gate to Cain’s salvation. (21, Section 5, Chapter 3, Book 9, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
How many people have lived based on God’s viewpoint of life? Sometimes I see you vent your personal anger on your church members and say anything you want to say. You need to know that in a relationship between brothers, the person who was born first is in the position of Cain. Without saving Cain, you cannot become Abel. That means you cannot become the restored Cain. Abel is in the position of the restored Cain, once he saves Cain; that is, eventually he has to stand in the position of the firstborn son. To be able to attain that position he needs to restore Cain, the elder brother in Satan’s world. Abel cannot restore Cain by striking him and forcing him; Abel needs to move Cain’s heart to submit voluntarily. Abel needs to show him a new view of the world, a new view of the nation, of life, of the future, of character, and a new lineage and heart. In short, Abel needs to show him something entirely different. (16, Section 6, Chapter 3, Book 9, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
When God created the universe, He acted with absolute faith. God created us to be His absolute partners of love. Absolute obedience means that we invest ourselves completely to the extent that we give up all self-centeredness. Furthermore, we totally forget about the investment we make and invest all over again. We continue this process until we reach the zero point, having no concept of self. Since God poured out all of His faith, what is left is zero; since God poured out all of His love, what is left is zero; since God poured out all of His obedience, what is left is zero. Nevertheless, Heaven’s true love is such that the more it is invested the more it grows. We must come to resemble God in this way. Even if our love is rejected, we must continue to love more; even if we invest everything that we have, we have to continue to invest until we can make our enemy voluntarily surrender. Our Heavenly Father walked such a path, and the Parents of Heaven and Earth walked such a path. The person who invests love continuously without expecting a direct return becomes a central person, who can inherit everything. He or she becomes the person of greatest filial piety. In a family of ten people, including a grandmother and grandfather, the one who lives for the sake of others the most will become the central person. (4, Book 2, Pyeong Hwa Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
Satan is a spiritual being, and at times he would attack directly in a spiritual manner. At other times he would incite his representatives to stage a wide variety of attacks. Satan is the false king who claimed for himself an ephemeral power. He transcended time and space to plot against me and obstruct my work. There was only one path to overcome such an enemy: the path of giving out of true love and of making indemnity conditions by sacrificing myself. This is because it is God’s Principle that not force but only true love can bring an enemy to surrender naturally. Throughout my life, I lived continuously for the sake of those who opposed me, unable to understand God’s truth. Without anyone knowing, I invested more love for the children of those who persecuted me than for my own children. When countries or governments opposed me, I lived even more for their sake. Today the world acknowledges me, and those who oppose me express their respect for me. In this, we can discern the difference between the ways God and Satan pursue their purposes. Heaven’s strategy is to allow itself to be struck and then receive something in compensation. Satan’s strategy is to strike first, but he ends up suffering a loss as a result of that strike. (12, Book 7, Pyeong Hwa Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
He has to establish the condition of having loved Satan regardless of what Satan does. God can only have complete victory when Satan confesses to Him, saying, “You truly are a God who loves me. I surrender to You.” This is the problem. Because of this, God is in the position of being tied up by Satan. Since the principle path of the providence of restoration is for God to bring about Satan’s surrender by loving him, we who are His children have to walk this same path. It doesn’t matter that we are persecuted and abused and regarded by everyone around the world as an enemy. We who are God’s children must establish the condition of having loved those who oppose us. From this perspective, there is amazing truth in God’s teaching, “Love your enemy.” In fact, this is one of God’s strategies in His battle against evil. These words sound simple. Yet few realize that they mark the boundary line between victory and defeat in the battle between God and Satan. (13, Book 8, Pyeong Hwa Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
Through the victorious foundation of Cain and Abel’s unity, the Parents can appear on the earth. Once they are here, for the first time, we can receive blessings and heaven can start anew. We go to heaven not on our own, but by attending the Parents. We can say that the Parents have already appeared in the Unification Church, but the world-level Cain-Abel indemnity conditions are not complete, and the foundation of the blessed couples is not secure. As an Abel-side family representative, you have to be victorious and receive Heaven’s blessing. The neighbors should bow down in tears and say, “Even if the world is destroyed, your family should be blessed.” You can only stand in the eldest son position if your community bows down to you and reveres your family. (17, Section 2, Chapter 3, Book 8, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
Settlement of Family Church
With the new experiences and training you have had in unfamiliar lands, and with a new mindset and attitude to work hard for the Will, you should bring change to your entire neighborhood. Do not be a follower. Invest yourself as God invested Himself in creating from nothing the realm of His object partners of love. So bring your neighbors to unite with you. The spirit world will cooperate as you attain the highest position among the people of your hometown. (34, Section 1, Chapter 2, Book 9, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
I am giving Unification Church members the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Am I going to the cross to die? No. I am going to a higher place, with hope. Jesus left the earth and did not return for two thousand years. After I die I shall be able to come and go any time as freely as I want. When I return, I will not go to the Unification Church but to your Home Church. Home Church is the place where God can reside, where your parents can reside, where your sons and daughters can reside and where your relatives can reside. The institutional church is merely like an office that serves the families in society. (3, Section 1, Chapter 1, Book 9, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
When we cross over into the new world, religion will disappear. Only Home Church will remain. Families will have True Parents at the center. It will be a unified world, an ideal world that arises like a single tree. By means of the bonds of love centered on the tradition of True Parents, the world is connected like one tree. The spirit world is like the invisible world of nerve impulses, and the visible world is like the world of blood vessels. When the two worlds of nerves and blood vessels are united harmoniously into a single organism, our minds and bodies, which were in conflict, can be united. By the same token, the earthly world and the spirit world must also be completely united. (6, Section 3, Chapter 1, Book 9, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
When God comes to visit your village, your home should be a place where He can freely teach and instruct about anything in the presence of your father and mother. This is how you should be serving and attending God with your utmost sincerity. You are not simply attending the king or the ruler of your nation; you are attending the One, the Lord who governs heaven and earth. Attending Him should be everyone’s ultimate wish. There is no one greater whom we could ever desire to attend, even in our dreams. Then, with gratitude for the fact that you are living in the era when you can actually receive Him and attend Him face to face, you should be able to suggest to your neighbors that they decorate and prepare their houses with cries of “Let’s attend God!” The mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, relatives and all their neighbors should be willing to overcome their tendency to distrust, surmount all the waves of death, and say, “Let’s make our neighborhood a place where we can live with God eternally!” We need such a movement, and therefore the endeavor called Home Church has emerged in the Unification Church at this time. Up to this point, religions have focused on the goal of individual salvation, but the goal of the Unification Church is to save the tribes we establish in our communities. We’re striving to save all tribes at the same time. The Home Church movement does not advocate the idea that, “I will go to heaven when I die,” but rather, “We will receive a communal ticket so our tribe can all go to heaven while we are still alive.” (9, Section 1, Chapter 1, Book 9, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
I am dispatching the blessed families as tribal messiahs because you represent the families of the world. Hence please be aware that you men and women are setting the pace for all couples in the world. The sons and daughters who are born from such responsible men and women become the ancestors of a different lineage, different from the people who have lived on earth up to this time. Thus you need to become individuals who can enter the kingdom of heaven directly, as God’s sons and daughters. You have to believe in God absolutely, believe in True Parents absolutely and love humanity absolutely, with both horizontal and vertical love. When you love with that kind of love, you will settle in the center and secure that place as your own. If you are unable to, you will be unhappy. That is why I exhort you to focus on fulfilling your mission and responsibility on the family level, building an exemplary family, one that really stands out. (27, Section 1, Chapter 2, Book 9, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)
Tribes will emerge centered upon blessed families, so please accomplish your mission as tribal messiahs. In the future we will establish churches around the leaders of tribes. All blessed families are leaders of tribes. In the future, the Unification Church will not have services based on sermons; they will be based on testimony. We will focus on testimonies that can bring honor and pride to our families. Thus, all family members will participate in such services together. We will learn from the testimonies of exemplary families. Families with little to report will receive guidance. In this way we will be able to build the kingdom of heaven in our families. Unless we do so, the kingdom of heaven will not be realized on earth. (35, Section 6, Chapter 4, Book 5, Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk)