Introduction
God is eternal, absolute and one. Therefore, His will is one and the Bible, which is an expression of His will, is also one.
Yet today, Christians, who believe in the same God and read the same Bible, are divided into over 400 different denominations worldwide. The main reason can be traced to the fact that key parts of the Bible are expressed in parables and symbols.
Today, what Christianity needs is not another human interpretation of the Bible, but God's interpretation. We need to have God tell us how it should be interpreted. Then, we can have the correct understanding of God's will and be able to respond to Him according to His desire.
This lecture is a summary of the major topics covered in the Divine Principle, a revelation given by God to the Reverend Sun Myung Moon concerning God's will, His principles of creation, and how salvation is achieved, explained on the basis of the Bible.
The Principle of Creation
The fundamental questions about life and the universe can never be solved without understanding the nature of God, who created all things. But how can we know the characteristics of God, who is an invisible being? The Apostle Paul answered this question by saying, "Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse" (Rom. 1:20).
Just as we can sense an author's character through his works, so we can perceive God's deity by observing His creation. In order to know the characteristics of God's divine nature let us examine the common factors which can be found throughout His creation.
The Dual Characteristics of God
No being, whether it be man, animal, plant, molecule, or even the atom, the basic unit of all matter, can exist except through the reciprocal relationship of its subject and object parts. For example, mankind is composed of men and women, animals of male and female, plants contain both stamen and pistil, molecules are formed from positive and negative ions, and even the simplest atom is composed of a proton and electron. This clearly suggests that all things exist only through the reciprocal give and take relationship of subject and object.
Furthermore, every created being has both an external form and an internal character. Though differing in value or importance according to their level of existence, the external form and internal character are simply the two relative aspects of each existing being.
As Paul indicated, the creation does reveal what God is like, and it shows us that God, the First Cause of the creation, exists as a harmonized being of Original Character and Original Form, as well as of positivity and negativity.
When we speak of God as a holy God or God of love, we are referring to a part of His Original Character, whereas when we speak of God as a God of power, we are referring to his Original Form. God is the causal being of all things. It is God's character that produced the motives, order and purpose for the created world, and it was His form, which took the form of energy, that produced the created world.
Universal Prime Force and Give and Take Action
Every created being which is created by God contains the essential characteristics of internal character and external form, as well as positivity and negativity; in other words- each created being reflects God's own form of existence and contains the elements necessary to maintain its own existence. But then do things exist as completely independent and isolated beings without interrelationships? Or do they exist with some relationship to one another? From an external viewpoint all things indeed exist as separate individuals, but because they were created by God, whose own nature is harmonized, then they, by nature, are designed to exist, grow and multiply only through interdependent and harmonious relationships with each other.
Reciprocal relationships strive toward the ideal of having the action of giving and taking, which we call Give and Take Action. An ideal relationship is established when a subject and object, the two parts that compose all things that exist, enter into Give and Take Action. This action then supplies all the energy needed for that particular creation; in other words, the energy necessary for existence, multiplication and action is generated. Then, what is the fundamental energy which generates this action of give and take? All things which exist in the created world must first have the energy that works within each being, plus the energy which makes possible action between beings; in other words, the power which serves as the motivating energy causing Give and Take Action. We call this energy Universal Prime Force.
The Universal Prime Force coming from God determines the direction and purpose of all give and take actions, and thus all created beings, from the smallest particle to the entire cosmos, are directed into organic relationships with one total purpose. Because Give and Take Action occurs between subject and object only when there exists complete commonality of purpose, we can see that the goal of Give and Take Action lies in subject and object uniting so that they develop into a higher being.
Once a being has been unified within itself it is then capable of higher give and take relationships with other beings, and upon uniting with them in Give and Take Action, is thus elevated into a still higher being. Since all things are directed by two purposes, the purpose of self- maintenance (individual purpose) and the purpose of maintaining the whole (whole purpose), the universe could be said to be one huge organic body, interwoven with the dual purposes of all creation.
Origin-Division-Union Action and the Four Position Foundation
When a subject and object, united through Give and Take Action form unity with God, who is the ultimate subject and basis of the universe, this Give and Take Action with God gives birth to a totally new being, which becomes a new object to God. This process of creation or process of perfection is called Origin-Division-Union Action. Through this process of origin-division-union, centering around God, the origin, a divided subject and object pair (projected from God) enter into the ideal Give and Take Action with God. God the origin, the subject and object and the new being formed by their union all together form an unchanging foundation called the Four Position Foundation. The Four Position Foundation is the basic foundation upon which God can operate and becomes the most basic foundation where God's purpose of creation is perfected.
The Purpose of Creation
God is an eternal and unchanging being. Therefore His will and ideal must also be eternal, unchanging and unique. Before His undertaking the task of creation, there was within God His ideal, and in order to realize it, He created man and the universe. Then, what is God's ideal of creation?
Whenever God made a new species of creation, He said that it was good to behold (Gen. 1:4-31). Because perfect happiness is felt when our own personality is reflected through an object, God created man and the universe as His objects.
Especially since man was created as God's direct objects of happiness, He gave man dominion over all things (Gen. 1:28). In Gen. 2:17 God commanded to the first human ancestors, Adam and Eve, ". . of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die." In this commandment God expressed His will and heart of love for man. Therefore, we can see that man is created as an object of love to respond the most directly to God's will and heart. Since the Four Position Foundation is the base upon which God can operate, when man has achieved these four positions centering around God's ideal of love, we become an object of God's perfect happiness, thus realizing God's purpose of creation.
God's purpose of creation of man is well summarized in Gen. 1:28: "And God blessed them and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion'. . . " First man should attain perfection and unity in heart with God, becoming a man who thinks and acts constantly centering around God, and the fruit of God's vertical love and His object of perfect happiness. This is the state of individual perfection.
Secondly, after both Adam and Eve attained perfection, they were to become eternal husband and wife, forming a heavenly family, thus perfecting the horizontal love of God. God gave them the ability to bear children so that they could experience with their own children the vertical love that God has for us. If Adam and Eve had perfected the purpose of God's creation and formed the first family, bearing children of goodness, they would have become a true father and true mother centering around God, the eternal true parents and ancestors of mankind.
Therefore, the basic unit of heaven is the true family where the Four Position Foundation is established and God's love, both vertical and horizontal, can dwell and be freely expressed. Upon that foundation of such a true first family, centering around God, His will is to realize a true society, true nation and true world. If Adam and Eve had established such a family and world on earth, this world would literally have been the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Man is made of spirit and body; thus, after deeply experiencing such love while on earth, and returning all the glory to God, he would then go to the Kingdom of Heaven in the spiritual world upon finishing his bodily life on earth. This is God's original plan of creation.
The Fall of Man
In the world where the purpose of creation is realized, there is no Satan, no sin, no hell. In the ideal of God's creation only heaven was to exist. But instead, because of sin, man has lost his original value and become like trash, creating hell as his trashcan.
The Root of Sin
Then, what is the origin of sin and what is the true identity of Satan? Christians have only vaguely understood, from the Bible, that the first human ancestors had eaten the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and that this was the root of sin. However, is the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil a literal tree, or, as in many other instances in the Bible, is it simply a metaphor or symbol?
Divine Principle clearly shows that it is a symbol. Why would a God of love leave such an alluring fruit near his children that could cause their fall? (Gen. 3:6) As Jesus said in Matt. 15:11, nothing edible can cause a man to fall. It is highly unlikely that God would test man so mercilessly by a means that could cause his death merely to see whether or not he would obey Him. The fruit must symbolize something so extraordinarily stimulating and so ardently desired that even fear of death, of which God warned, could not deter Adam and Eve from eating.
Before we can really determine what the fruit of good and evil was, we must examine the tree that produced it, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. In order to do that, we must first grasp the true meaning of the Tree of Life, which stood next to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
In both Prov. 13:12 and Rev. 22:14, the hope of the Israelites of the Old Testament and of Christians from Jesus' day to the present has been to become a Tree of Life. Since the ultimate hope of fallen man is the Tree of Life, we can conclude that the hope of Adam and Eve before their fall was also the Tree of Life. We find in Gen. 3:24, that Adam, after committing sin, could not reach the Tree of Life. The Tree of Life has remained the hope of fallen man.
What must Adam have hoped while he was in the process of growing to perfection? He hoped to reach perfection or manhood. Had Adam attained the Tree of Life by becoming a perfect man and realizing the ideal of creation, all his descendants also could have attained the Tree of Life and thus they could have realized the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, or the Garden of Eden. But Adam fell and God placed the cherubim and flaming sword at the entrance of the Garden to block the way to the Tree of Life (Gen. 3:24). Accordingly, the purpose of creation remained unfulfilled and Adam became a false Tree of Life (fallen man) whose descendants were also false trees of life. Consequently, there must appear on earth a true Tree of Life to which all mankind can be grafted and be brought back to the Garden of Eden, or the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. For this reason, Jesus was symbolized as the Tree of Life in Proverbs in the Old Testament (Prov. 12:12) and the Lord of the Second Advent was similarly depicted in the Book of Revelation in the New Testament (Rev. 22:14). Thus, the goal of salvation is to restore the Tree of Life lost in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 2:9) to the Tree of Life mentioned in the Book of Revelation (Rev. 22:14).
God created Adam, and He also created Eve as Adam's spouse. Thus, when we find in the Garden of Eden a tree symbolizing manhood, mustn't there be another tree symbolizing womanhood? The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, which was described as standing with the Tree of Life, is this very tree. So, it is reasonable to conclude that this tree was the symbol of Eve. This can be more clearly seen by examining the meaning of the symbol of the serpent.
In Rev. 12:9, Satan is depicted as the ancient serpent. That serpent, who was thrown down from heaven, was originally created as a good being headed toward perfection. That being could converse with man, it was a spiritual being that knew the will of God, and was capable of deceiving man. And even after that being fell, becoming Satan, he still had the capability of dominating man's mind and body in every way.
Then what being could have done these things? There is no other being that could do these things except an angel. (Then some angel must have sinned against God and fallen to become the evil Satan.) II Peter 2:4 says, "For God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of nether gloom to be kept until the judgment." (Also see Isa. 14:12).
Then what was the angel's sin? Jude 1:6-7 says, "And the angels that did not keep their own position but left their proper dwelling have been kept by him in eternal chains in the nether gloom until the judgment of the great day; just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise acted immorally and indulged in unnatural lust, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire." So from this we can see clearly that the sin of the angel was unprincipled or illicit love.
Then what was the sin of the human ancestors? In Gen. 3:7 we read that after the fall, the first human ancestors, who sinned together with the serpent, became ashamed of their nakedness and covered the lower parts of their body. As it is human nature to hide what is wrong with oneself, could it not be that man also fell because of an immoral act?
In Job 31:33 it is written: "I have concealed by transgressions like Adam, by hiding my iniquity in my bosom." This indicates that Adam committed sin with the lower parts of his body. In the Garden of Eden, what act could man have performed at the risk of his life, but the act of improper love?
Adam and Eve were growing in the relationship of brother and sister and after reaching perfection, were to be blessed in marriage to form the first perfect family, fulfilling God's purpose of creation. But Jesus said in John 8:44, "You are of your father the devil," indicating that all the fallen men of history belong to Satan. In other words, the first human ancestors, having had an illicit relationship with the angel, came to have Satan as their father and father of their descendants: a false father.
Thus, Adam and Eve, forsaking their true father, became one with a false father. Rom. 8:23 says, ". . we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons." John the Baptist called fallen men sons of Satan (Matt. 3:7) and even Jesus said, you serpents, you brood of vipers" (Matt. 23:32).
In conclusion, since the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil symbolized Eve, the fruit of good and evil was the symbol of Eve's love. The fact that Eve ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil means that she had an illicit love relationship with Satan, and the fact that Eve gave Adam the same fruit implies that she seduced Adam to fall in the same way.
Consequently, the origin of human sin is not that the first human ancestors ate a literal fruit, but that they had an illicit love relationship. This established a fallen blood lineage through which the original sin is passed on from generation to generation.
Throughout history, all of the major religions have called adultery one of the greatest sins. Also we can see why the Israelites had to be circumcised as a condition (of redemption) to become God's elect. We may be able to eradicate other sins through social or economic improvements, but even as these are made and living conditions continue to improve, man's inclination towards immorality and degradation has also increased. And no one has been able to prevent this.
As the Last Days draw near and Satan continues to thwart God's original plan for man, we must know this is a result of the fall of the first human ancestors, a direct result of their relating to Satan and making him our false father, disobeying God's commandment and heavenly law. Their descendants are not of God, but of sin, and have created this sinful world of conflict.
Even though God created the world and the universe, He has never been able to dominate the world as its Master. Instead, Satan became the false master of the world (John 12:31, II Cor. 4:4) and has ruled the world.
According to the principle of creation of man, God was to accomplish the purpose of creation through love. Therefore, love is the source of human life and happiness. And because man betrayed this heavenly law through the misuse of love, itself, Satan is making mankind suffer through his false love and illicit domination. Satan is the one responsible for smashing all the ideals of the human family,
The Meaning of Salvation
Then, has God given up His ideal of creation which has never been realized? The Bible gives a clear answer. In Isa. 46:11 God says, "I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it." God will surely accomplish His goal. The God of love could not leave fallen mankind in such circumstances. Instead, God has been working for man's restoration.
What is restoration? In one word, it is re-creation. To save a sick man is to restore him to health. To save a drowning man is to rescue him and restore him to the state he was in before drowning. Therefore, God's restoration of man means for Him to restore fallen mankind in this sinful world to the original world God had intended in the very beginning.
God's goal of restoration is to realize the ideal individual which He originally planned, and through him realize the original family, and based on that family, the original society, nation and world.
For this goal of salvation, God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, as savior to this world. Therefore, the Messiah must stand before God as the origin of the ideal individual and thus be able to establish the ideal family, the goal of God's creation and the object of His love. The Messiah would then realize the ideal nation and world to bring about the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
What is the substantial description of heaven and hell? Is man predestined? How does God predestine a person?
When are the Last Days, and will the disasters and catastrophes predicted in the Bible actually occur to destroy the earth?
Will the resurrection of the dead literally take place?
When and how will the Lord come again?
Divine Principle clearly answers all of these questions about man and the universe. Later lecture tapes will include full discussions of these and other questions.
We will now turn to the question of God and human history. Can we see God working in the events of history? What are the principles that govern human history? Why did Jesus, who came as the Messiah, say he would come again?
God's Work in the Providence of Restoration
We have previously stated that God, as a being of dual characteristics, created man and all things in the relationship of subject and object, and they are to respond to each other in Give and Take Action, establishing a harmonious union, fulfilling the purpose of goodness.
In addition, we have also shown that man betrayed God and made Satan the false master, thus initiating this sinful world. To save mankind and such a world, God began His providence of restoration in order to restore man and the world to its original sinless state.
Now, let us look at the way God has been working for the purpose of restoration throughout human history.
Does human history consist solely of the roles individual men have played? It is man's experience that he can hardly shape the course of his own life or personal history, much less human history. Therefore, who did what, when and how does not truly tell the whole story behind human history. From God's point of view, man's history is the entire record of His dispensation to save this world. In short, history is the history of restoration, revealing everything God has tried to do to reach this objective.
Because the purpose of God's restoration providence is to restore men and the world to the point where they have fulfilled the purpose of creation, man's history can be defined as the history of God's dispensation to restore the purpose of creation.
The Struggle between Good and Evil
Throughout this fallen world which Satan rules as its false master, God's efforts to divide good from evil have continued, and as a result, most of human history is composed of the struggles between good and evil. Fallen man united with Satan with his mind and commits sin through his body, yet man also has his original mind created by God still within him, and it always remains directed toward God. Man is caught in the midway position. On one hand, the evil sovereignty of Satan is trying desperately to hold on to man, while on the other hand, the good sovereignty of God is striving to win man to His side. Thus, there is always a continuing battle to win man over to one side or the other. This is the true picture of human history: good and evil are in conflict in this world.
After man's fall, Cain's murder of his brother, Abel, was the first conflict among brothers in human history, and from then on the pattern of conflict persisted throughout history, irrespective of East or West. Although the scope of the struggle varied from that among individuals, families and societies, to nations and groups of nations, ultimately these conflicts have all been between good and evil, God's side and Satan's side, as the chief protagonists behind the scenes of history.
The Condition to Enable Historical Development
Then, what is the real driving force of history? When we say history stems from the dispensation of God, does history advance solely by the plan and working of God? If the goal of history is to fulfill the purpose of creation, do the conflicts between good and evil automatically progress toward realizing the purpose of creation? If this is so, how can we explain the many injustices and tragedies in history, such as the prevalence of evil or the sacrifice of people on the side of goodness?
In the beginning, God gave the first human ancestors a commandment which they were to observe until their perfection. The purpose of creation was to be accomplished not simply by the plan and workings of God, but by man fulfilling his comparatively small portion of responsibility, obeying God's commandment. In order to fulfill the purpose of creation, man's effort is as absolutely essential as God's.
But man may or may not fulfill his responsibility toward God. When men do accomplish their responsibility, God's plan comes to be concretely reflected in history and restoration progresses. But when men fail to fulfill their responsible part, God's plan for that time is frustrated, and Satan's will comes to be reflected in history instead. Thus, man can accomplish or fail his responsibility. The reason human history appears as nothing but a constant reenactment of sinful history with the prospect of an ideal world seemingly so distant is not because God is impotent or not absolute, but because so few men accomplished their portion of responsibility to fulfill God's providence.
God is absolute, eternal and omnipotent; therefore, His purpose of creation or restoration is also absolute. God's will of restoration is surely to be accomplished as is said in Isa. 46:11. Therefore, though one man fails to fulfill his responsibility, God, after a period of time, restores the same foundation and conditions as before, and chooses another man to carry out the same mission. This is precisely the reason why we see very similar incidents and events appearing over the long history of God's dispensation, even over periods of two to four thousand years. We call this reappearance of similar events or periods providential time-identity.
In God's providence, He must first restore a true man to accomplish His purpose of creation and through him restore a family, society, nation and world of His ideal creation. God sends the Messiah to the world as a model of a true man. Therefore the Messiah is indeed the most valuable fruit of the providential history. As a result, God cannot just send the Messiah to the world without any preparation. This is because, due to the fall of man, mankind has been serving a false master, and if the Messiah were sent without a prepared environment, the sinful world would surely try to eliminate him. God first chooses a few individuals from the evil ones who can honor and obey Him, and through these people, He creates families and nations separated from Satan's side so that they can serve as a foundation of faith upon which the Messiah can arrive.
God chose the families of Abraham and Jacob and raised up the tribe of Israel to prepare this people as a landing site for the Messiah. God likewise worked with Christianity for the last two thousand years to prepare for the Second Coming of Christ. Consequently, the history of the Israelites before the coming of Jesus and the history of the Christians after Jesus compromise the mainstream of human history.
Central History and Auxiliary History
God's will is to restore all the people of the world. But first, God works a model dispensation through this central flow of history while conducting the histories of other nations in supporting roles, later grafting them to the central history to include them in the overall salvation.
From the providential viewpoint, the history of religions also occupies the central part of God's dispensation, because they are to educate man's mind and spirit towards accomplishing the goals of the restoration of mankind. Other fields, such as politics, economics, science and culture are meant to improve man's living environment, and thus their histories can be considered auxiliary ones.
With history viewed in this way, we can begin to understand the meaning and significance of the events of the history of the Jewish people as told in the Old Testament. It is not merely a history of a tribe and nation, but it is the central history through which God operated His providence of salvation.
The history of the Jewish people centering around Judaism together with the history of Western civilization centering around Christianity is the clearest manifestation of God's dispensation, and, astonishingly, we can derive a consistent formula which is applicable to all histories. With this formula, it becomes possible to forecast future historical courses. With this new perspective of restoration history, let's look at history more closely.
The Providence of Restoration Centering on Adam's Family
Because Adam himself failed, it would stand to reason that he be the one to make an offering before God. But instead, God had the next generation make the offering. Why was this so? God's dividing Adam into Cain and Abel, who made the offerings, was His first restoration effort to separate good and evil.
After Satan occupied the principled world which God had created, Satan began to bring about the non-principled world against God's will. Therefore, God separated Cain from Abel in order to work His providence. Cain, as the first-born son, was to represent Satan's side, and Abel, the second-born, was to represent God's side. Each was now in the position to deal with only one master. In Gen. 4:7, God said to Cain, "Why are you angry and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is couching at the door; it's desire is for you but you must master it." This shows that Cain was placed in a position to deal with Satan. When the Israelites fled out of Egypt, God smote not only all the first-born of the Egyptians but also of their cattle (Ex. 12:29). Also, God loved the second son Jacob and hated the first son Esau while they were still in their mother's womb (Gen. 25:23). And in the case of Jacob's blessing of his grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh, he blessed them by crossing his hands to lay the right hand on the head of Ephraim, the second son (Gen. 48:14). These are all examples of how God placed every second-born child in the favored position.
Based on this principle, God placed Cain and Abel in their respective positions to make their offerings. God could accept Abel's offering (Gen. 4:4) because he was in a position representing God and made the offering acceptably (Heb. 11:4). Thus, God received Abel but rejected Cain. However, it certainly was not God's permanent will to accept Abel but reject Cain. Cain had to set up a condition of indemnity in order to separate from evil and move towards the side of goodness.
Then what was this condition of indemnity? Because Cain had the fallen nature, he could not be the object of God, who is the subject of goodness. He had to establish some condition to remove this evilness within him so that he could become a person to whom God could respond.
Since the first human ancestors fell due to the archangel, inheriting and passing on his fallen nature, the only acceptable condition was to reverse this process. The archangel, who separated himself from God, must love Adam from the same position as God, and through obeying and humbling himself before Adam, go through him as a mediator to come back to God, thus coming to perfection; but he failed to do that. (Therefore the condition of indemnity to remove the fallen nature must be established in the reverse order of the fall.) After their offerings, Cain was in the position of the archangel and Abel in that of Adam; therefore, Cain was to love Abel and through him come closer to God by continuing to obey and humble himself before Abel to establish the condition of indemnity. However, in actuality, Cain killed Abel and repeated the process of the fall of the archangel. This act was not simply the crime of an elder brother murdering his younger brother, but it meant that the satanic side had struck God's side, frustrating God's effort to separate good from evil in Adam's family, and losing the side of goodness.
What Cain failed to achieve was the necessary basic condition of indemnity for any individual separated from God to come nearer to God; thus, that condition remained to be fulfilled. Observing this principle within ourselves, our mind, which directs us toward goodness (Rom. 7:22) is in the position of Abel, while our body, tending to serve the law of sin (Rom. 7:25), is in the position of Cain. Consequently, only when our body obeys and is subjugated by our mind will our individual body be made pure (sinless). However, in reality, because of the dominance of our fallen nature, our body always rebels against the command of our mind, repeating the same actions as when Cain killed Abel. Therefore, we continue to do evil.
Since all fallen men stand in the position of Cain, by humbling themselves, and by serving, obeying and loving the Messiah as Abel, men can attain salvation.
Man had become deceitful above all things (Jer. 17:9), so in order to come to God, God made man go through the created things, which are now in Abel's position. God carried out His entire providence by having man make offerings according to this principle.
The Providence of Restoration Centering on Jacob's Family
The Bible tells us that God's work of separating good from evil continued through the age of Abraham and Isaac, coming to a significant conclusion at the time of Jacob. Among so many prosperous men after the time of Adam, why did God raise up a specially chosen family, later to form a nation? God's activities with Jacob's family, from external appearance according to Scripture, raise many questions. Why did the twins Esau and Jacob fight even while in their mother's womb? (Gen. 25:22-23). Why was Jacob born with one hand grasping Esau's ankles? (Gen. 25:26). Why did Jacob take the birthright from his brother? (Gen. 25:3234). Why did Jacob cleverly deceive his blind father to gain his blessing? (Gen. 27:18-19). And why did God so love and protect Jacob throughout his life?
From the providential viewpoint, Jacob and Esau were the repeated pattern of separating Abel and Cain and therefore they represented the sides of good and evil, respectively. Jacob, through his 21-year experience of drudgery in Haran, prepared himself so that ultimately his elder brother Esau was able to receive him with love and humility. Outwardly this seems merely the case of an elder brother being able to love his younger brother, but from the providential viewpoint, the deeper meaning is that for the first time in human history the satanic side was subjugated by the heavenly side. Thus God blessed Jacob, giving him the name "Israel," and gave His blessing to the three generations of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as their God. We can see, then, that God first locates a victorious individual and a victorious family that have fulfilled the condition of indemnity, and centering around them, raises a chosen people. Thus, the fact that the Israelites became God's chosen people is due to Jacob's individual victory in subjugating the satanic side.
Jacob's course set the pattern for the subjugation of Satan and this pattern was to be followed by Moses and all other prophets -And because a nation must also follow this pattern, the history of the Israelite nation shows the model course which a nation must go through in the national level providence; for this reason, the history of the Israelites until the coming of Jesus is the central focus of the providential history.
Although it does not seem to have any personal consequence to us today, the Bible greatly emphasizes the details of the history of the Israelites for the reason just mentioned. God sent so many prophets to the Israelite nation and protected it with much love because it was the fruit of the many years of God's providence, and thus He built the foundation for subjugating Satan on the national level. Moreover, it is the very foundation upon which the Messiah, the Abel of all Abels, must come. The tradition of Israel was founded by Jacob, in the position of Abel (on God's side) by his subjugating Esau who was in Cain's position (on Satan's side). This tradition was meant to be the exemplary course for the chosen people of Israel, who, in the position of Cain, were to trust, obey and love Jesus, the Abel for all mankind, in order to realize the Kingdom of Heaven.
God and Israel
God truly loved the chosen people. He prophesied many times of the coming of the Messiah and warned the people to expect his coming. God also prepared the great John the Baptist, who was to testify to the Messiah for the people of Israel. Thus, the nation of Israel had been truly waiting for the Messiah. However, tragically, the much-prepared chosen people failed to recognize the Messiah when he came. The Son of God was left with no other choice but to persuade the people himself that he was the Son of God, yet he was not understood, branded as blasphemous, and ultimately crucified. Even Pilate, a pagan ruler, knew of Jesus' innocence, yet ironically the people who condemned Jesus were the chosen people and prepared Jewish leaders themselves. How could this have happened?
The Cross
Christians have traditionally believed that Jesus' death on the cross was the original plan of God. No! This is absolutely false. It was the Israelite's ignorance of God's will that led to the crucifixion of Jesus. God's will was clearly to lead the chosen people to believe in and accept the Messiah and be saved (John 6:29). The Jewish people did not know who Jesus of Nazareth was, for they even jeered that they would believe in him as savior only if he would come down from the cross, even as he hung dying. John 1: 11 says, "He came to his own home, and his own people received him not." Paul also testified that "none of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had they would not have crucified the Lord of glory" (I Cor. 2:8).
Christians everywhere today do not know what actually occurred at the time of Jesus. If it was God's will solely to crucify his Son, why did He prepare a chosen people for so long? Wasn't it expressly to protect His Son from a disbelieving world?
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed, "My soul is very sorrowful, even to death ... My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me" (Matt. 26:36-38). Jesus uttered this prayer, not once, but three times. Many Christians today believe that although his mission was to die on the cross, Jesus, out of human weakness, uttered this timid prayer. But, could Jesus Christ, the savior of mankind, utter any prayer out of weakness?
Neither the first Christian martyr, Stephen, nor any of the many martyrs who followed ever prayed from such weakness. Did they ever ask, "Let this cup pass from me" as they were dying? What makes present-day Christians believe that Jesus was weaker than these martyrs? Especially because his sole purpose of coming to this world was to save mankind, why did Jesus pray this way?
Jesus' prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane was not a self-centered or timid prayer, uttered out of fear of dying. Rather, if there were any way-any way at all-that Jesus could have saved mankind, he would have gladly died hundreds of times over. He had been working all his life to accomplish his messianic mission and to realize God's purpose of creation here on earth.
Jesus' heart was so grieved that God's will would have to wait for thousands of years if he died without succeeding in his mission. He also foresaw that his disciples and all of his followers to come-the Christians-would have to go through the same agonizing way of shedding blood as he did on the cross. He also anguished over the troubled future that would befall the people of Israel who had rejected him. Therefore, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus, as a last desperate prayer to God, was really saying: "Even in these desperate circumstances, let me remain on earth so that I can continue my mission, no matter what the price. Show me any way I can do this."
If dying on the cross was predestined by God, why did Jesus say to Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him, "Woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born" (Matt. 26:24).
Moreover, how can we explain Jesus' cry on the cross, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matt. 27:46). If the crucifixion was the only way God prepared for Jesus, why didn't he feel resounding joy upon successfully completing his mission?
The crucifixion was not God's original will for Jesus, the Son of God; rather, it became God's painful alternative caused by the distrust of the people of Israel. What would have happened if all the people of Israel believed in Jesus and welcomed and loved him? Most certainly, salvation would have been realized? The purpose of creation would have been accomplished and thereby the Kingdom of Heaven on earth established. The people of Israel would have become the honored central nation of that ideal world and division would never have arisen between Judaism and Christianity nor would either of them have had to undergo the tribulations they have endured. Furthermore, because the will of God would have been done on earth, the Second Coming of Christ would have been totally unnecessary.
Salvation Realized?
To put it clearly, Jesus' crucifixion was only a secondary course of salvation, and provided only spiritual salvation. Because Jesus was neither trusted nor received by the Israelites, God had to pay the price for the sinful distrust of all mankind by giving His only Son to Satan as a ransom. Therefore, Satan could claim Jesus' body. This is why Jesus' precious blood on the cross became the price for the redemption of all mankind.
The Limit of Salvation through Redemption by the Cross
From that point, God could resurrect Jesus and open up a way of spiritual salvation not invaded by Satan. Thus God's only victory was not that of the crucifixion but that of Jesus' resurrection. As a result, the physical bodies of mankind, which were meant to belong to Jesus through acceptance and love, became subject to Satan's invasion. The only way left open was the way towards spiritual salvation, which could be won by believing in and loving Jesus spiritually and being resurrected spiritually as he was.
Even after Jesus' appearance on earth, the world continues to be ruled by Satan, and sin mercilessly persists in the bodies of men. The Apostle Paul lamented, "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? ... 1, of myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin" (Rom. 7:24-25). As a saint, Paul was so devout and full in his love of the Lord, but his flesh continued to be oppressed by sin. Since this is true for all mankind, we are taught to "pray constantly" (Thess. 5:17) to protect us from satanic invasion. Also, we read in I John 1:10, "If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar," which tells us that mankind is still under the bondage of sin.
Therefore, the Lord must come again to completely liquidate the sins that remain and to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, the purpose of God's creation.
When the people of Israel did not accomplish their mission as the central nation of the dispensation, unable to achieve unity with the Son of God, God began to form the Second Israel: the multiracial Christianity. Therefore Christianity is what God set up worldwide to replace the nation of Israel and, of course, to be the prepared foundation for the Messiah to come. Thus God's central providence shifted from the Israelites and Judaism to Christianity.
For 400 years the early Christians in Rome paid the price through persecution and martyrdom to establish Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire and to build a strong foundation. Later, nations such as England and America were established by God as central nations to form the Second Israel of Christianity, which is to be responsible to bring the whole world into unity around God and is the foundation of God's blessing prepared for the Lord of the Second Advent.
The Second Advent
In What Manner Will Christ Come Again?
Then, how will the Second Coming of the Lord take place? In considering this, first, let us look at the second coming of Elijah. In fact, the second coming of Elijah is the clearest example that God has revealed to us of how Christ will come again.
God had promised through the prophet Malachi to send Elijah again before He sent Christ to earth (Mal. 4:5). However, the Jewish people believed that the same Elijah who had ascended to heaven in a chariot of fire 900 years before, would now come down from heaven. But in reality, Elijah's second coming was realized through a man born on the earth, John the Baptist, quite contrary to their expectations (Matt. 11:14, Matt. 17:13).
Two kinds of prophecies are to be found in the Old Testament concerning the Messiah. For example, the prophet Daniel predicted the Lord will come to earth from heaven on a cloud (Dan. 7:13), whereas the prophet Micah prophesied that he would be born on earth (Micah 5:2). Which of these two contradictory prophecies did the Jewish people believe? Among these two prophets, Daniel was the more popular and also the trend of Jewish thought was towards the Lord descending directly from heaven. Therefore even after Jesus, the Son of God, ascended into heaven after the crucifixion, there were those who insisted that Jesus, who was born on earth in the flesh, could not have been the Messiah (11 John 1:7-8).
Then why did God give this contrary prophecy of coming on the clouds in addition to the one that he would come in the flesh? Jesus indicated that, "No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man" (John 3:13), pointing out that he came from heaven. As we well know, Jesus was born on earth from his mother Mary; but why, then, did he say he came from heaven?
The word "heaven" is frequently used in the Bible. It is consistently used as a metaphor to evoke a sense of great sacredness, goodness and value. Thus, we can interpret what Jesus said to mean: "I was born like all of you, but I am very different in the motive and origin of my birth; I am born of God."
With this understanding, it becomes unmistakably clear what the prophecy really means concerning Jesus' coming down to earth on a cloud as described in Dan. 7. The true interpretation is quite matter of fact, yet by sticking to the literal meaning, the people were wrong. Similarly, John the Baptist, who was born in the family of Zechariah, was not merely born of this earth, but had a great mission (Luke 1:15-17, Luke 1:76). Regardless of the form of his birth, God was behind it and gave him the same mission as Elijah, and he "came down" to earth representing God Himself.
From what is shown in these examples of Elijah's second coming and Jesus' coming, one cannot help but give serious thought toward the prophecies for the Second Coming of the Messiah.
In summary, the New Testament not only contains prophecies that Christ will come as a judge amidst the glory on a cloud from heaven, but it also says he will come again just as he did at Jesus' time, which is quite contrary to the first prophecy of coming on the clouds.
We read in Luke 17:24-25 that Jesus, anticipating what was going to happen at the Second Coming, said, "So will the Son of man be in his day. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation." If the Lord should come again, amidst power and glory, with the trumpet call of the archangel, who would dare deny and persecute him? Would you persecute him?
Today many faithful Christians and churches are looking up to the sky, waiting for the Lord to come on the clouds. If he does come on the clouds, there could be no reason for the Lord to be persecuted. But when he does not come on a cloud literally, and instead comes in the flesh, as in the First Coming, then he must first suffer before he will finally be recognized.
In Rev. 12:5 it says a woman gave birth to a child who will govern all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and His throne. The man who will rule the world with a rod of iron is the Lord to come. Thus it is recorded clearly that he will be born of a woman. When the Pharisees asked Jesus when the Kingdom of God was coming, he answered, "The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed" (Luke 17:20). Everyone can gaze up at heaven, but Jesus said that he will not be recognized so readily. Why?
It is because he does not come on a literal cloud. In Luke 18:8 Jesus says, "I tell you, he will vindicate them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?" Why did Jesus say this? There are many people around the world who are doing their utmost to prepare for his coming, although their faith may not be perfect. Who would fail to recognize the Lord coming on a literal cloud? Even non-believers would recognize him and come to him. Is it because someone will prevent them from doing so? Certainly not. Difficulties do not necessarily weaken a man's faith. Then would it be because he will come in exactly the same way as Jesus did the first time?
Two thousand years ago, when Jesus came, there was much faith among the people. Day and night they prayed in the temple and memorized their commandments. They tried hard to keep all the commandments and laws that God ordered them to keep. They faithfully offered their tithes and they fasted. In this sense, they had much faith in believing in God, yet they did not understand the true meaning of faith. They were being prepared to recognize the Son of God who was to be sent to them. From this viewpoint, Jesus could not find any faith on earth! Similarly, today there are millions of good Christians waiting for the arrival of the Lord of the Second Advent, but if the Lord comes in the same way as he did before, will he find the faith that will enable Christians to recognize him?
To emphasize once again, from the lessons we have previously learned from the experience of God's working in history, and judging from the scriptural passages quoted before, the Second Advent will occur as at the First Coming, by the Messiah's birth in the flesh, born of a woman. Indeed, he comes as the Son of Man.
God created Adam to be the origin of the ideal man and the ideal family on earth. But because Adam fell and began this sinful world, Jesus came to restore the original ideal world in the capacity of the Second Adam (I Cor. 15:45).
Therefore, the Lord of the Second Advent, comes to complete the overall task of restoration and purpose of creation as the Third Adam. Therefore, he must come in the flesh, and become the origin of the ideal individual and the ideal family, and realize the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, which has been God's eternal ideal.
If the Lord is to come on the earth in the flesh, then what is the meaning of the coming on the clouds?
According to Rev. 17:15, water symbolizes fallen or sinful man. Then, what does a cloud mean? Clouds are vaporized water. Regardless of how dirty water may be, when it evaporates into a cloud, it becomes purified. Likewise, clouds signify the men resurrected or reborn from fallen men, or in other words, the resurrected believers reborn from the sinful world. The metaphor that he will come on the clouds means he will come again among the saints that God has prepared.
We have just covered the main topics of the Divine Principle, which was revealed by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon. The full content of the Divine Principle requires approximately a week to cover in lectures. The condensing of such broad and profound content in proper proportion into a mere two hours is an exceedingly difficult task. Sudden conclusions and abridged explanations were unavoidable.
However additional lecture tapes of greater length and depth have been prepared to give a more comprehensive understanding of what is by far the most complete truth ever discovered and revealed to man.