President David S.C. Kim
May 1984
Speech given by Seminary President David S.C. Kim at Manhattan Center to members at the May 1, 1984 Thirtieth Anniversary of the Unification Church.
It was in the first week of February 1954 when I accepted Father as the Messiah to come as prophesied in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, as the Second Coming of the founders of the major world religions in other, non-Christian, sacred books, and as the Righteous Man, Chung Do-Ryung, in the book called Chung-Gam-Rok, a prophetic book written during the Lee Dynasty in modern Korean history.
I accepted him before I met him in person and even before hearing the lectures of the Divine principle from the late Mr. Eu. "How could that happen to anyone?" you might ask. Well, it happened to me, 30 years ago; thus, your curiosity must be magnified right now. Wait and see as my story progresses.
When you work directly for our Father, or with him side by side, you notice, if you are spiritually sensitive enough, that our Father does everything according to spiritual laws and certainly heavenly formulas which are so important for us to understand, learn and practice in our missions.
Before explaining my remarks about accepting Father even before meeting him or hearing the Divine Principle, I'd better describe my family background briefly.
I was born in 1915 as the only child to a father of Christian background and a mother of combined Buddhist and Confucian background. My grandmother was a devout Buddhist follower and spiritually open, having association with many religious groups in Korea. Many astrologers, Buddhist priests with psychic powers and other interfaith spiritual groups and people came to our home continuously. My grandmother influenced me very much from nine years of age to understand psychic phenomena. This interfaith-oriented background in my family helped me to research higher truth not only from Christian churches but also from religions such as Buddhism, Confucianism, Shamanism, and other small groups with Messianic expectations in the various mountainous regions in Korea. I know now that God prepared me from an early age to meet our Father and to help God's dispensation.
After graduating from Chosun Christian College (C.C.C.), now Yonsei University, in 1939, I served for many years as deacon and choir director of the Presbyterian Church in Kunsan City, Chollna-Pukto Province, southwestern region of the Korean peninsula. My life was well-to-do under the Japanese occupation of Korea. In 1945, Korea was liberated and I served for 14 years in various departments of the Korean national government until 1959.
I married my wife on Jan. 6, 1942 (solar). This is the lunar birthday of my grandmother and, of course, the birthday of our True Parents. My wife and I have been married for 42 years now. She gave to the only son of the Kim family five children-one daughter and four sons-all of whom are now living in America. We also have seven grandchildren. In 1961, I and my wife were blessed as one of 36 Blessed Couples. So, that is my family background. How about my religious and spiritual experiences before I met Father?
In 1950, during the Korean War, I experienced God's intervention in a time of crisis which saved my life from the communist atrocities in the southwestern region of South Korea. I retreated deep into the south to avoid the communist guerrilla attack, near the mountainous area of Namwon City. However, it was too late to continue southward because communist guerrillas had already blocked one of the two highways leading to safer places. In the midst of this total chaos and terrible confusion I prayed desperately to get inspiration about which road to take. Suddenly an "old, gentle, loving man" with purple robes appeared in the midst of my deep prayer, clearly giving me instructions about what to do from that time until the United Nations troops liberated that region. Thus my life was spared. I clearly remember that "old, gentle, loving man" and his clear voice instructing me on how to survive in the midst of the communist occupation.
This was my first encounter in which Supreme God presented Himself to me as an "old, gentle, loving man." I later interpreted it as God's divine intervention to save me for the higher purpose to meet our Father in 1954, four years later. During the three months I hit in the remote Buddhist mountain temple, I had a chance to learn from the Buddhist priests how to communicate with the spiritual world and research how to apply Buddhist doctrines and philosophy to Christianity and other messianic groups scattered in the land of Korea at that time.
My daily time for those three months consisted of an interfaith style of intensive prayer and the total concentration of my soul, mind and spirit to prevent capture by North Korean communists. I prayed three things:
a) that my life would be saved.
b) that my family remaining behind in a northern city would be safe, and
c) that I would pledge to serve God for the sake of humanity all the rest of my life.
As you know, those three prayers have been answered. I thank God for saving me and my family to meet our True Father in 1954, four years later.
When our Korean government returned from the temporary capital of Pusan to Seoul, I made contact with Mr. Aum, Father's classmate from college days in Japan (a very dear friend, now heavenly Unification architect), through my college junior alumnus, Mr. Lee. For several months, the three of us would meet regularly at a cafe to talk about the Korean and other world religions. We were talking seriously about the unity of all religions in the future.
At that time, Father came down to Pusan from the North Korean concentration camp and started his work again in South Korea. Already a few members in Pusan and Taegu were gathering together. Father had to start all over again since his followers in North Korea were scattered, some coming down to South Korea as refugees.
My alumnus, Mr. Lee, visited Father's small Taegu group around the latter part of January 1954 and returned with a report that this group, so spiritually powerful, could communicate directly with heaven, and so forth. Based on his strong and persistent pressure, I finally decided to make an appointment to see the leader of the group.
Based on my own spiritual experience, Mr. Lee's excitement and fascination did not impress me at all. I just took a wait-and-see attitude. Finally, dates were set up to visit Father's small group in Taegu, a very strong Christian city which severely persecuted Father and our movement in the early 1950s and '60s.
Contrary to my expectations, the leader of the group in Taegu (supposedly Father) was not there. Only Mrs. Se Hyun Ok was in the house. She is very spiritual and one of the psychically sensitive people in our church. She had been following Father from the time of his North Korean ministry.
In Korea it is very unusual to break a previously arranged appointment. So, when I came to Taegu, with all my pride and arrogance, I was very upset that the leader of the group was not present. However, my anger and indignation softened when Mrs. Ok talked about her visions seen in her early morning prayer. She saw the vision in which a young man speaking a foreign language was talking to her, but she was unable to understand him. When I arrived at her home, she realized that the young man in her vision was me. That information made me pay more respect and become attentive to her, and softened my resentment toward the group. She treated me very nicely with good meals, and prepared my sleeping room with comfortable bedding. When evening came, some very important spiritual phenomena occurred.
In that house, Supreme God appeared a second time in front of me, this time through Mrs. Ok, during a very deep conversation with her. Suddenly her body shook and jerked and the voice of God controlled her and totally occupied her body and mind, causing it to act differently from Mrs. Ok. Now God was speaking directly with a man's voice, just the same voice as I heard in my vision in 1950, on the mountain during the Korean War, in the form of an "old, gentle, loving man" in purple robes.
With awesome feelings and deep reverence, I listened, immediately humbled myself and became obedient. I heard God's voice solemnly say:
"Listen, dear Sang Chul! I have been training you for 30 years, since the age of nine, for your search of the truth through various religious experiences and groups. The time has now come and this is the place I wanted to lead you to. Unconditionally surrender. From now on your new name is David, after King David who destroyed Goliath in the Old Testament. You will be going overseas for pioneer missionary work for this group."
Then God left the body of Mrs. Ok. Without hesitation or doubt, I heard the message and accepted it, then bowed with gratitude and appreciation. With my spiritual experiences in the past and my psychic ability, I had no doubt God was talking directly to me, giving me instructions about my future mission for our True Parent.
My destiny corresponded exactly to His timetable. I was sent by Father to England as the first overseas missionary in our movement in August 1954, the same year as the inauguration of the Unification Church 30 years ago today. Again, in 1959, I was sent to the United States of America as one of four pioneer missionaries and now I am running our Father's seminary in Barrytown, New York (even though I am at the age of retirement).
When I went to bed late that night with great excitement and thanksgiving, God gave spiritual confirmation and evidence of His message to me through Mrs. Ok. At around 2 a.m., in a state of semi- consciousness, rather like a trance, a dramatic and dynamic scene occurred. Someone was running straight toward me in the distance from the opposite direction. At the same time, I was running straight toward him from my direction. Both kept running, shortening the distance rapidly. Finally, he and I approached one another and I reached out my right hand to shake his right hand. Immediately there was a powerful surge of electricity which penetrated my hand and entire body from him. I clearly looked at his smiling and joyful face, when I received that tremendous shock. Immediately, I awoke from the trance trembling because the electric shock was so great. Whether you believe it or not, the face I saw in my vision was the very same face of our beloved Father whom I did not meet until three months later in Seoul. Father was 34 years old at that time. Glory to God and our True Parents. Hallelujah! Amen!
With these two spiritual experiences in Taegu, I realized that Father was the Messiah, even before I met him in person, and even before I heard any part of the Divine Principle at that time. Since then until this day, I have never doubted about who Father is and the contents of the Divine Principle.
On May 1, 1954, according to the dispensational timetable, centering on Father a trinity was formed including Mr. Eu, Mr. Lee and myself, who pledged to follow Father and his truth. The next day, Father called us, and one other person residing in Seoul, and explained to us the need and purpose of starting an organization even in the midst of continuing persecution to Father and his early followers in both Pusan and Taegu. Three names for the organization were given by Father to the four of us. Two of them were so complicated that we could not even comprehend the meaning of the Chinese characters.
Among the three names Father showed us we agreed to adopt the present name which is made up of eleven Chinese characters. We translated these characters into English as "The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity" (HSA-UWC). The objectives of the HSA-UWC were:
a) Our movement should unite all scattered Christian denominations throughout the world, without initiating a new Christian denomination.
b) Based on the unification of world Christianity, our movement should bring unity among all major religions of the past and present in order to build the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.
Although the sign, written in both Chinese and English letters, was hung out on May 3, the Association was officially inaugurated retrospectively on May 1, 1954, 30 years ago today. We translated Shil-Ryung (two of the Chinese characters) as "Holy Spirit," but it actually means "spiritual". The name is sometimes confused with the Holy Spirit (one of the three persons of the Trinity in traditional Christian belief), by outsiders and theologians, but no other translation was adequate at the time. The name actually means "spiritual association to unite all Christian churches."
The house in Seoul that Father and few followers resided in had only two small rooms: the one for Father had barely enough space for one person; the other, a little larger than the first, was where Mr. Eu lectured and stayed. There was also a small kitchen. This house was called "House of Three Doors." In contrast to the great name on the sign, the house was small and miserable-looking to the outside world. Now it is the origin and very root of our worldwide movement, which includes many wonderful buildings in the United States such as our World Mission Center.
An intensive witnessing campaign began right after the May 1 inauguration. These witnessing activities went well in three locations-Pusan, Taegu and Seoul. In August of the same year, I received a United Nations scholarship representing the Korean government to go to England for two years. This chance was provided to spread and witness our Divine Principle message to England, the Eve nation. IN the 1950s, Father and the early followers were receiving serious persecution from established Christian churches which were supported by Syngman Rhee's regime, especially in connection with Ewha Women's University's expulsion of our members. Eight students and several professors were expelled. At that time, I was in England, enrolled at the Swansea University College, one of the constituent colleges of the University of Wales. From time to time heaven gave me revelation about Father's difficult situations in Korea and told me not to worry too much and to do my best in my mission in England.
While I was in England as a UN scholar, I never neglected my heavenly mission and duty. Whenever I had spare time, I visited many churches and small groups to look for people and spoke many times at the churches as a guest speaker, introducing our Korean group and preaching based on the contents of the Divine Principle, which was available only as handwritten notes exchanged among the early members.
As my stay in England came near its end, I was able to speak about our movement to the International Convention of Apostolic Churches held in South Wales in 1955, which is a very fundamentalist Christian church denomination, having missions throughout the world, except in Korea. I spoke for 25 minutes to the annual general meeting of nearly 3,000 attending participants and delegates from all over the world, appealing to them to establish an apostolic mission in Korea to help our young Christian movement centering on the church leader named Master Sun Myung Moon, to study this new revelation and to protect it from the established Christian church and government persecution. This speech inspired the key leaders of the Apostolic Church. In the summer of 1956, they sent an official messenger, Pastor McCabe, from the Australian Mission headquarters to investigate our two-year-old movement.
Pastor McCabe stayed 80 days, studied the Principle and helped Miss Kim with the English translation of Divine Principle. Seven hundred copies of this English edition of the Divine Principle were published by Professor Kim even before the Korean edition. Mrs. Won Pok Choi, Miss Kim and I, as a trinity, worked together to teach the depth of Divine Principle and entertained pastor McCabe as a special guest of the church in 1956. Except for the Second Coming in human form, he accepted most of the contents of Divine Principle, had spiritual experiences and went back to Australia inspired. However, the Board of Mission Headquarters of the Church failed to carry out the original plan to set up a mission in Seoul to help our movement at that time. Thus, the dispensational plan for the British Empire as the Eve nation failed. Therefore in 1959 Father had to send both Miss Kim and myself to the western world, America, and spread our message there.
Let me conclude by answering a question frequently addressed to me personally from members, both young and old. The question is:
"What makes you stay in the church so steadily and enthusiastically, keeping a strong, fresh, vigorous and determined faith with never- ending zeal and energy?" Or to put it another way: "What makes you constantly and continuously keep up with the movement?"
There are four points I can present as my living guidelines learned from our Father as spiritual laws and formulas:
1. We followers of True Parents are representatives of Heaven. When we observe and obey Heavenly laws, that is, spiritual, ethical and moral laws, we get full cooperation from God and we can exercise our small messianic roles in our mission. My two mottos are: "Obedience is better than offering or sacrifice on the altar" and "I am proud of being a Moonie." I have been practicing these mottos up until this point for 30 years and I will continue. They give me the power and energy to fulfill my mission.
2. I coined a new term, "Unification Optimism," referring to the future hope for you, your family, nation and world. Even though we are still suffering from the scars of fallen nature, from self-centered problems, even in our family life and so on, we are marching forward to the land of Canaan and will not be destroyed by Satan. If we make a mistake we should go through repentance, forgiveness and God's grace and True Parents will embrace all of us with never-ending love and heart. True Parents already paid indemnity for us to the whole world and we will all complete the Kingdom of Heaven within our generation based on this year's motto, given by our Father, "Creating and Building our Fatherland." This is the reason we must spread "Unification Optimism" everywhere, giving humankind great hope for the future.
3. Divine Principle is the "New Light of the World" for all humankind in these Last Days, the consummation of the Old and New Testaments as well as all other sacred books of the past. We are all God's messengers of this age to spread the "New Gospel of Sun Myung Moon of Korea." We must declare boldly and shout loudly, "All Christians, unite-all religions, unite-to build the Kingdom of Heaven right now! Let us work together for good!"
4. Father is the one who fulfills God's original purpose of creation and God's will. No other is to come, nor can we expect another. No matter what evil powers of the world-whether individual, governmental, judicial, national or international-may criticize, persecute, bring to trial in court or plan to do harm, it does not matter. He is one with God, the Creator, and God is in him. He is the center of the Universe. Nothing can change this principle and formula.
Finally, in addition to my four points, or formula of faith, I solemnly declare the following statement to the world, both secular and religious, in the names of the Heavenly Father, Son, Holy Spirit and True Parents: the Messiah is not elected by majority votes of the democratic system. God appoints the Messiah. Therefore, all humankind must be alert and find who is appointed as the Messiah by Almighty God in this contemporary time.