Chapter 6
Father in Pyongyang Jail

I'd like to continue the story I started yesterday. I told you about that group which prepared to welcome the Messiah and about how they prepared. They were given two revelations: one was that the core members would gather at one place where someone would welcome them; the other was that they would welcome the Second Advent in prison as in the story of Chunhanchon.

After Father came to North Korea, he preached desperately from morning till night. At every meeting Father and the members would shed tears and the spiritual atmosphere was very high. Naturally, our church was always noisy, which drew the attention of the neighborhood. They won- dered what kind of people were gathering inside and what the church was doing.

Father happened to have no identification card when he came to North Korea from the South. It was four or five months later when he was captured by the police, suspected of being a spy of President Lee disguised as a minister. All the leaders of that religious group were already captured and being questioned by the police. As the revelation said, all the leaders of the group had gathered at their church. They had interpreted the revelation that the Second Advent of the Messiah would welcome them, but actually the police of the Communist regime welcomed them instead.

I'll explain why the police captured the leaders of the group. The members of the group sold all their property and used the money to prepare for the Second Advent, so the police could make a pretext that the leaders of the group deceived the innocent members in order to rob them of their money. The Communist party is hostile towards the capitalists and landowners who exploit the poor farmers and laborers; the Communists unify the people centering on this hostility. Therefore they could capture them on the pretext that they cheated innocent people out of their money. After they were captured, Father was arrested. The police investigated them but couldn't find any evidence. They had to change the charge against them.

As I told you before, there was a sign in the founder's belly as if a baby was moving inside before Jesus gave a revelation to her. All the leaders of the group firmly believed in this. The police gave them an alternative: they would be released if they denied this. They had absolutely believed this experience for a long time and they thought it more important than their lives; to deny it was the same as killing themselves. It was just after World War II. The Communist police tortured them severely, as the Japanese imperialists had done to the Korean people. The white dress of a woman member soon got many holes through being beaten. She died and was taken out from the police station. It was a sad story. But they didn't change their faith in the fact that their founder's belly moved, in spite of the severe torture.

Father was there in that prison with the leaders of the group. One of them was attracted by Father, even though he didn't know who Father was, and started explaining the group's history. Father pitied them very much and explained the meaning of the revelations from the viewpoint of the Divine Principle. Father told him to deny his belief for the time being and go out of the prison. He obeyed Father's word and was released. Father had to let the lady founder know that she should get out of prison too. Father put a note deep inside her lunch box. He risked great danger, as he himself was being tortured heavily, suspected of being a spy. What would happen to Father if this note were handed to the police? The content of the note was simple: "Deny the fact and get out of prison. Pray to God to know who wrote this note. "

Father was tortured almost to death because this note was found. He vomited much blood. He was forced to stay in the prison for 78 days . . . 80 days . . . about 100 days. After much torture he was declared innocent and was released. He was almost dead. The lady leader didn't follow Father's advice and all the leaders of her group were killed in the Korean War.

I have given you a short story about this group; I feel I should give you more details though. One question is: why did they have to be killed in this way after they got so many revelations from God, especially in such detail? God told them that they would meet the Messiah like Chunhanchon; actually they met Father in the prison. The police worked in order to make the revelation come true, then God was supposed to give them the next word.

What was the failure of this lady spiritualist? She didn't obey Father's word to get out of prison and she didn't pray to God to ask who wrote the note. This is the very point where the spiritualist leader made the fatal mistake. If she had been humble enough to pray to God, God would have answered her prayer without a doubt. It was her own responsibility to fulfill. This is extremely important. God had taught and educated them for a long time. However, because of this small failure, everything piled up and then came to nought. Then why did she have to overcome it by herself? Why did God want her to do it? Everybody follows God's revelations. At the final stage, she had to decide by herself through her prayers, as God wanted to grant the blessing when she had achieved everything herself.

I've seen many spiritualists meeting Father. Father always invited and treated the spiritualists or newcomers in a very polite manner and listened to them until late at night. He listened to stories which he already knew. He never failed to treat them well. He thought of the importance of their good merits and of the heartistic efforts which they had made for God. When the newcomers didn't have any good merits of their own, Father thought of the importance of their ancestors' good merits. In cases where they neither had good merits of their own nor of their ancestors, Father accepted them, thinking of the importance of the heart of God, who had worked until that time in order to lead them into His way.

Even though all the guests were fallen people, they still had their original mind within. Father treated them well, thinking of the importance of their original mind. Father treated the guests with kindness: if they didn't have money, Father gave them money; if they didn't have clothes, Father gave them clothes. He helped them in various ways. He made efforts to understand them and treated them well, then in return, by the principle of give and take action, the guests had to understand Father. If they didn't, the merits of those guests were transmitted to Father. If you give something to somebody and he doesn't give something back to you, God deprives him of his blessing and gives it to you. They left all their good merits to Father and left the church.

This passage in the Bible: "I tell you, that to everyone who has will more be given; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away." Luke 19:26) can be explained by this principle. We don't know who God will use as His messenger. We must be careful not to repeat the same mistakes the spiritualists made. We have to listen carefully to everybody, for example, young team members, in the same way that Father did, with a humble heart, thinking that it might be the message of God.

Do you know the story of David and Saul? Saul was the first king blessed and anointed by Samuel, but he didn't obey God's word. God's heart moved from Saul to David. David, as Saul's man, followed and was loyal to him. Saul could feel that God's hand had transferred from himself to David and many times he tried to kill David. David fled from Saul and hid himself in a cave. Saul was no longer David's lord, but rather his enemy. Saul caught up with David and happened to go into the same cave to relieve himself. David cut off a piece of Saul's clothing, but Saul didn't notice. David later showed him the scrap of material he had cut. Saul repented and asked David why he hadn't killed him when he had such a good chance. David answered that he couldn't kill the king whom God had anointed. We also should have a mind to respect a person who has been blessed by God, even though he stands in the position of our enemy.

Can you understand why Father treats us well even though we are so unworthy? Everybody wants to be together with such a person as Father and to be led by him. You may have an idea that you don't want to be led by anyone, but it is in your original nature to want to be led by a person who is really serving towards you. The more you are led and looked after, the more peaceful and happy you become. Until now, you've not met such a person and therefore you didn't want to be dictated to and led by anyone.

I'd like you to believe in the spiritualists' revelations as if they were your own, even though you yourself didn't directly receive them. Such a person is a smart person. Every evening you listen to the older members and various teachers during this workshop. They usually speak for two hours. They condense their 30 years', 40 years' or even 50 years' experience into a two hour story. Through their testimonies you can understand how God has worked and guided them. I'd like you to accept that their God is also your God. I suppose you've met many leaders by now, though you didn't understand what is behind them. If you meet them with this way of thinking, your meeting will become different from now on. When you listen to someone's testimony from their birth to the present day, you feel as if you have been together with them.

Let's suppose there is a person who looks like an ordinary man. You listen to his testimony and find out that his father was a king. Then how will your attitude towards him change? Another example: here is a person working in the kitchen. You listen to his testimony and find out that he once spent all his money to save a dying man. Then how will you change your attitude towards him? In this way it is very important to know people and you can appreciate and care for brothers and sisters.

You try to understand people from the viewpoint of their external appearance, but you must know that the more important things are kept in the heart. You can understand the true value of a person after you have seen the inside of his heart, which doesn't appear so much on the surface. This is why I'd like you to take other people's stories as if they were your own. Then you can do much greater things than the people who receive revelations directly.

When the resurrected Jesus appeared in front of his disciples, some of them doubted. The representative figure of these was Thomas. Then Jesus told him to touch his wounds. What did Jesus say to Thomas? What did he teach?

The people who receive revelations are the same as the people who believe after they see the wounds. The people who believe the revelations given to spiritualists are the same as the people who believe without having to see. Who does God think has more faith: the people who are directly given the revelations or the people who believe the revelations given to the spiritualists as if they themselves had been given them?

I'll make an end to today's speech here. Thank you very much.

Return to the index of the book Father's Course and Our life of Faith, a biography of Rev. Sun Myung Moon by his first disciple Rev. Won Pil Kim.