Successful Christmas Festival at the Hachioji Family Church-FILJAP members attended

The One Family Christmas Festival that was successfully held at Hachioji Home Church last Dec.24, 2023 had the themes of LOVE, HOPE, PEACE, and UNITY. Through the multicultural concept and Christmas, Jesus' and True Parents true mission of transcending religion and borders and the message that the world becomes like a family has come closer to realizing the vision of Hachioji PEACE Center (Hachioji Home Church). This is an event that we wish to show to True Mother.

The whole 2.5 hours program can be viewed in below link which was aired live with more than 1K viewers online and more than 400 attended at the venue.

It was a witnessing platform to include the international community where many foreigners coming from Philippines, Malaysia,Korea, Pakistan, Bangladesh, US, some African countries represented and also Valenzuela.

The Christmas Message shared by the main speaker, Rev. Satoshi iida, Director of the International Blessed Families in Japan is provided below with the English translation.

Here is the linkof the recorded Youtube Live broadcast . The actual program starts from 17min30secs of the recorded video if you wanted to skip the standby part.

This is the opening video for the event introducing the overall theme of the event.

Christmas Message by Rev. S. Iida:

I have many fond memories of Christmas, but I remember what happened in America. I was doing my mission in America for a while. I was in Chicago, and the first Christmas I had in the winter, I bought a lot of Christmas gifts, parked my car, and just went to the store for about 10 minutes, but when I came back , the window of my car was broken and everything was taken away. Ah, I thought, this place is different from Japan. Sorry if there are any American people here.

It's not all bad memories. During the season, houses start to be decorated with lights, and when you go to a certain town, every house is decorated with countless lights, making the whole town sparkle. I would go on a tour with my family and members by car, driving slowly to have a good look at the decorations in each house. We stopped the car in front of a house with a big tree, and we all took pictures in front of the house.

I have had a great respect for Jesus since I was a child. The reason is because the kindergarten I attended was a Christian church. It's not that my father was a Christian. My father was a devout Buddhist and could even become a chief priest if he wanted to. The kindergarten my father sent me to was actually a church. Why did my he let me go there is because it was the closest.  The kindergarten also had Sunday school. We also did a Christmas play. My role was a shepherd. As a child, I thought it was just a supporting role, but it wasn't until 30 years later that I began to realize that it had great meaning. Because a shepherd is a pastor. I also graduated from seminary and became a pastor, so I think that was a revelation. If my father hadn't sent me to church, I might not have respected Jesus or thought about God, and I don't think I would have come down this path. By the way, due to my father's influence, I also greatly respect Buddha, the founder of Buddhism.

Today is the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus, so I would like to tell you a story about Jesus. Christmas is said to be the birthday of Jesus Christ, but this is actually not the case. It is not the birthday of Jesus, but a day to celebrate his birth. The day Jesus was born was not well known. Why did you choose to celebrate on December 25th? It is said that it was because it was the winter solstice according to the Roman calendar, and there is also a story that it came to be used because there was a religion called Mithraism, whose celebration day was December 25th. Do you know when Jesus' birthday is? True Father said January 3rd. It would be nice if Adam was born on January 1st, Jesus on the 3rd, and the True Parents on the 6th.

Christians believe that Jesus came to die. However, that is a theory based on the results. They believed that Jesus did what he had to do because of his conviction that he was the Messiah. However, Jesus passed away to the spirit world halfway down the road. The truth is that Jesus came to become the True Parents. Jesus did not go to the spirit world alone; He should have gotten married and became True Parents. But since that didn't happen, it was assumed that what he did it as an individual was all that mattered.

Not being able to become True Parents is the reason why Christianity remained a religion characterized by individual salvation. Recently, there was news that the Pope would compromise and allow same-sex marriage, but I think this also symbolizes the doctrinal limitations of Christianity, which is based on the individual. This happens because we don't have a solid view of marriage, and we don't have a perspective that God is the parent. As True Mother said, Christianity seems to have reach some kind of limit of its role in this era.

However, even though it was unacceptable, Jesus did the best he could and opened the way. Even when he was on the cross, he forgave humanity. But not everything was done on the cross. If Jesus had not been resurrected, Christianity would not exist today. He was resurrected and met with believers for 40 days. Christianity is a religion of resurrection.

However, the resurrection of Jesus alone could not have led to today's Christianity. What we must not forget is Pentecost. This happened when a group of 120 people gathered in the attic of Mark's house and were praying together when the Holy Spirit descended on them. It is said that they spoke in tongues, words that were not their own. There, the believers experienced the feeling of being completely one with heaven. And so, an explosive evangelism began. Originally, the Holy Spirit was supposed to appear in a physical form, but that did not happen. Providence was frustrated, and only Jesus appeared as a reality. However, many people were spiritually reborn through Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and Christianity developed. Right now we are only celebrating Jesus, but wouldn't it be nice to have a day to celebrate the Holy Spirit? If there is no substance, this is what will happen.

Jesus said, ``I will come again.'' Because they knew that God's will never changes. But he didn't say when he would come. You knew it would take quite a while. However, there were no lies in Jesus' words. According to True Father's words, there was a chance to send the Messiah in 800 A.D., but that didn't happen. 2000 years have passed, but the time has come. Jesus has come again. God has sent the Lord of the Second Advent. God in turn gave birth to the Holy Spirit on this earth. This is True Mother, the Holy Spirit who came for the first time. Through the Lord of the Second Advent and the Holy Spirit of the First Advent, we were able to become the substantive True Parents. That was in 1960, and for the first time since then, it became possible to perform the providence of liquidating original sin and converting lineage.

Today, what Jesus wanted to do 2000 years ago is being done. It was Jesus who desperately led the way for 2,000 years until the Second Advent Lord and the First Advent Holy Spirit appeared. Nothing would have begun without Jesus being born, and although Jesus was not accepted, he did not abandon His mission and connected us to it. Let's celebrate the birth of Jesus and applaud in gratitude to comfort him.

True Mother is the first physical Holy Spirit to appear in human history. Through Jesus, the image of the Messiah as an individual had permeated humanity, but there was no image of the Messiah as a couple or as parents. Now we are clearly seeing images of the Messiah as a couple and as parents, and this image is also the image of Heavenly Parent. Let's be grateful for that.

Just as Heaven and the saints became one when Pentecost happened, let us unite with True Mother, the substantial Holy Spirit, become one with Heaven, and create miracles!