3. A Prophet Endures Rejection and Persecution

World Scripture

Elijah said [to the Lord], “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the people of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thy altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”
1 Kings 19.14

“Do not preach”—thus they preach—
“one should not preach of such things;
disgrace will not overtake us.”
Should this be said, O house of Jacob?
Is the Spirit of the Lord impatient?
Are these his doings?
Do not my words do good
to him who walks uprightly?
But you rise against my people as an enemy;
you strip the robe from the peaceful,
from those who pass by trustingly with no
thought of war…
If a man should go about and utter wind and lies,
saying, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,”
he would be the preacher for this people!
Micah 2.6-11

Jeremiah stood in the court of the temple of the
Lord, and said to all the people, “Thus says the
Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I am
bringing upon this city and upon all its towns
all the evil that I have pronounced against it,
because they have stiffened their neck,
refusing to heed my words.” Now Pashhur the priest,
the son of Immer, who was chief officer in the
temple of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying
these things. Then Pashhur beat Jeremiah the
prophet and put him in the stocks that were in
the upper Benjamin Gate of the temple…
O Lord, thou hast deceived me,
and I was deceived;
thou art stronger than I,
and thou hast prevailed.
I have become a laughingstock all the day;
everyone mocks me.
For whenever I speak, I cry out,
I shout, “Violence and destruction!”
For the word of the Lord has become for me
a reproach and derision all day long.
If I say, “I will not mention him,
or speak any more in his name,”
there is in my heart as it were a burning fire
shut up in my bones,
and I am weary with holding it in,
and I cannot.
For I hear many whispering.
Terror is on every side!
“Denounce him! Let us denounce him!”
say all my familiar friends,
watching for my fall.
“Perhaps he will be deceived,
then we can overcome him,
and take our revenge on him.”
But the Lord is with me as a dread warrior;
therefore my persecutors will stumble,
they will not overcome me.
They will be greatly shamed,
for they will not succeed.
Their eternal dishonor
will never be forgotten.
O Lord of hosts, who triest the righteous,
who seest the heart and the mind,
let me see thy vengeance upon them,
for to thee have I committed my cause.
Jeremiah 19.14-20.2, 7-12

[The prophets] suffered mocking and scourging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, ill-treated—of whom the world was not worthy— wandering over deserts and mountains and in dens and caves of the earth.
Hebrews 11.36-38

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon

All prophets are unusual. It takes an unusual person to walk the path of Abel in search of the way of God’s Will. Whenever a prophet appears, he acts in ways that are bizarre and out of the ordinary. All the prophets in the Old Testament and [the saints with prophetic missions] in the New Testament Age were unusual people. That is why they were ridiculed, opposed and persecuted.
(89:129, November 1, 1976)

If you are in complete accord with truth and justice, then heavenly fortune will protect you completely. Heavenly fortune will strike any power that opposes you. Hence, if I truly become an object partner to God and dwell in a place of complete harmony with Him, then even a country such as America, or even the Soviet Union, will be struck down if it opposes me. It is because I understand this principle that I can be so bold.
(214:194, February 2, 1991)

In the history of God’s providence, prophets had to exercise their divine office while in the position of servants to the king. Therefore, when they spoke out the rulers attacked them, and many lost their lives. The Lord at the Second Coming comes as the fruit of all their sacrifices; he represents all the prophets of history as he stands in the Abel position before the world’s rulers. Therefore, I, as the True Parent cannot be a petty person. Think about the difficult course of all the prophets of history, who shed their blood and had their heads cut off. I am to harvest that fruit. Therefore, I will speak the truth regardless. Like the prophets I also went to prison—six times in fact. Like them I always stand on the front line.
(343:263, February 17, 2001)

I have been experiencing Thy reality of sorrow,
feeling the heart with which Thou dost face this world of enemies.
I know the sorrow of my Father who cannot come out and live in the sunshine;
the situation of my Father who has worked in the shadows.
I have pressed on in this way of life
anxious that I might become a child who resents his Father
or contradicts his Father at some point.
I know that when Thou didst find me,
Thou wert anxious about it also…
I have determined not to despair or disappoint Thee;
though I am pursued and driven out,
imprisoned with both my hands in handcuffs,
though I experience the lot of a slave or the lot of a servant.
I thank Thee for Thy grace of preserving my life
and letting me remain in Thy presence
from the day I determined to go forth until now.
How much hast Thou worked, Father,
in order to establish someone like me?
How much hast Thou sacrificed
for the sake of the path I must go…
Realizing [the extent of] Thy toil…
each time I wake from sleep I cannot but beg Thee
to forgive me as though I were a sinner.
While eating, I cannot help but put down my spoon
and with tears ask forgiveness for my past wrongs,
and each time I lay down, not being able to control my tired body,
I cannot help but scold myself
for not having a mind concerned about Thee…
Thou art a being to be pitied. However much we might say that fellow named Moon of the Unification Church is to be pitied, it is nothing.
(30:270, March 29, 1970)