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A Life Lived for God and World Peace Reverend Sun Myung Moon’s Life and Work. History. Born in 1920 The Moon home in Sangsa-ri, Chonju in the west of present day North Korea. History.
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A Life Lived for God and World PeaceReverend Sun Myung Moon’s Life and Work
History • Born in 1920 • The Moon home in Sangsa-ri, Chonju in the west of present day North Korea
History • After his family converted to Presbyterianism when he was 11, the young Reverend Moon attended the Methodist church, and later more charismatic Korean churches. Church group in Seoul. Rev. Moon is standing second from right.
History • April 17, 1935, he was praying on a hill near his home, when Jesus appeared to him. • Asked him to continue Jesus’ mission. • The next ten years, until the end of the war, were spent in spiritual search.
The image of Reverend Moon that is most deeply engraved in my heart Is that of him kneeling in prayer, with tears streaming down his face For the suffering of God and the suffering of the world. Chung Hwan Kwak Chairman of IIFWP International and Early Follower
Crown of Glory When I doubt people I feel pain. When I judge people it is impossible. When I hate people, there is no value in my life. Yet if I believe, I am deceived. If I love, I am betrayed. Suffering and grieving tonight, My head is in my hands; am I wrong?
Wipe away your tears and welcome with a smile Those who know nothing but deceit and those who betray without regret…. When I loved those who acted against me, I brought victory. If you have done the same …, I will give you the crown of victory. Sun Myung Moon (Age 16)
History • From March 31, 1941 he attended a technical college affiliated with Waseda University inTokyostudying electrical engineering • Involved in underground freedom movement • Graduated Sept 18, 1943
History • In Nov. 1943, Sun-Myung Moon married. • According to custom, his bride, Choi Sun-Kil, was found through arrangement between the couple's parents.
History • In late November 1944, arrested in Seoul on suspicion of being a Communist. • The police beat him and began routine torture to force a confession. They held him down and poured water laced with red pepper down his nose. They pulled him up, tied his wrists behind his back, hoisted him in the air and thrashed him in a form of torture known as the aeroplane. He refused to inform and spent 60 days in gaol.
History • From 1945 - 48, Rev. Moon connected to spiritually prepared groups. • Around the end of 1945, he joined Kim Baek Moon's Israel Monastery, which had revelations about Christ's second coming and the restoration of the Garden of Eden.
History • On June 6 1946, Rev. Moon informed his wife that he was going to buy rice. • On the way, in prayer, he was directed to travel to Pyong Yang in search of other Christian Spiritual Groups. • Later his wife tried several times, with their baby, to come up to join him, but was stopped at the border by Communist soldiers. • It would be six years before they saw each other again.
Historyin Pyung Yang • Rev. Moon established a house-church group and began teaching the Divine Principle. • Members were deeply affected, spending many hours in passionate services and even refraining from sexual relations with their spouses. • Suspicious husbands accused the group of sexual immorality. • Rumours and complaints led to his arrest on August 11th 1946.
History • Over several weeks his interrogators tried to get him to confess to being a spy for the American military government in South Korea. For several days during the interrogation, Rev. Moon was not given food and not allowed to sleep. He was also beaten savagely. • On Sept. 18 1946, when trying to contact the leader of a Christian group in the same prison, Rev. Moon was discovered and severely tortured. • On Oct 31 ’46 he was declared innocent and released. His followers were shocked when they found him. He had been thrown out into the yard, half dead from the beatings, his clothes were stuck to his body by clotted blood. As they took him home, he was vomiting so much blood that they thought he would die. There was talk of preparing a funeral.
History • Reverend Moon recovered with the care and prayers of followers and began preaching again. • The Communists made use of inter-religious and inter-denominational rivalries to attack religious groups. • By early 1948 the Communist authorities had received some eighty complaints from other Christians that Rev. Moon was swindling his followers, breaking up families and encouraging sexual immorality. • Reverend Moon was re-arrested.
History We had only experienced his sweetness and warmth of love as a father embracing his children. In the court room, however, we experienced another aspect of Reverend Moon which was courageous, determined, bold and fearless. Won Pil Kim (Early follower)
He was condemned to five years forced labour on Feb. 22 1948 and, on May 20, transferred to a labour camp beside the village of Dong-ri near the East coast industrial city of Hungnam.
I never prayed from weakness. I never asked for help. How could I tell God, my Father, about my suffering and cause his heart to grieve still more? I could only tell him that I would never be defeated by my suffering.
After two weeks I was feeble .... I was so hungry I could not sleep..... Many times I thought of stealing rice powder from others ... Teacher Moon always shared his. One night an old man appeared to me in a dream and clearly told me – That young man is the one you have been looking for since your childhood. Two days later Teacher Moon turned to me and said Did you have a dream two nights ago? I was shocked. Jung Hwa Pak (Fellow prisoner)
History • The file of prisoners was led to a mountain of ammonium sulphate which had solidified and had to be broken up and bagged in forty kilogram sacks. The work would keep them busy for over two years.
History • Each ten-man team had to load 700 bags in an 8 hour working day. • Supper was a handful of boiled grain and salty soup. • The skin of their fingertips peeled off from exposure to the fertilizer. • People died even while eating.
History • Oct. 14 1950, they were released after the U.S. Navy bombarded the city. • During the 10 day journey to Pyong Yang Rev. Moon lived by eating rotten crops, saving a little bag of rice flour as a gift to his followers on his arrival.
History • Rev. Moon spent 40 days in Pyong Yang to let his followers know he had been freed. • Then, with a young follower and a former prisoner who had a broken leg, he left for the South. • After an arduous and dangerous trip he arrived in Pusan, South Korea, on January 27, 1951.
The shack Rev. Moon built with ration boxes in Pusan in 1951
Kang Hyun-shil, the first evangelist of the Unification Church
Young Reverend Moon taught with the impact of thunder and lightning. The spirituality in the environment was like a kind of electricity ..... and would bring many spiritual insights. Kim Won Pil Early Follower Reverend Sun Myung Moon with early followers. Rev. Moon top left, Eu Won Hyo top right, Kim Won Pil bottom centre
During those early days, Reverend Moon always seemed to be weeping. Every morning and night he would pray in tears, often for hours at a time. He would pray for each individual member three times a day. Kim Won Pil
History • Reverend Moon’s wife, Choi Sun Kil, finally found him in Pusan in November 1952. • He was devoting himself to his religious followers and they were too immature to understand his personal situation such that his wife was not able to have time alone with him. She resented his followers and could not understand his relentless sense of mission. • Reverend Moon persevered in this painful situation but when he moved to Seoul in 1953 his wife remained in Pusan. Under pressure from her family she later took out divorce proceedings.
May 1, 1954 in Seoul, Korea Founding of The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity HSAUWC, Unification Church
1950s in Korea: Preaching, growth, persecution and imprisonment.
1960 - The Holy Wedding of Sun Myung Moon to Hak Ja Han
World Tour 1965 Reverend Moon established120 Holy Grounds all over the world
USA - Madison Square Garden Sept. 18, 1974
“I did not come to repeat what you already know. I have come to reveal something new ………….. a revelation from God.” Reverend Sun Myung Moon
Teaching Seminary students to fish in the Hudson River
Little Angels School, Seoul, KOREA