Introduction to The History Of Restoration
The thousands of years of human history are a ghastly record of human imperfection and suffering, involving the lives of billions of people. For many who question God, it is this sad history and the profound problems of the world today that make belief so difficult. How can one believe in a good God if the world He made is so full of suffering and misery?
The answer lies in the nature of God's relationship with human beings. The principles that govern that relationship were made by God to bring joy to both Creator and creation. A central element of those principles is that humans exercise their free will responsibly, in accordance with God's will. When people are disobedient to God they violate God's principles and create chaos and suffering. Thus humanity's obedience or disobedience to God shapes human life and history.
History and the world present many baffling realities that beg explanation. Why, for example, has the history of evil been drawn out for so long? What has been accomplished for God in all the thousands of years of human existence, and what has yet to be accomplished? What roles did the various religious figures of the past play in God's plan to restore human beings to the original purity? How can evil be finally eliminated? If these and related questions cannot be answered conclusively by believers, their faith in God will not be well-grounded or convincing to others.
For modern individuals to be powerful and focused in their lives of faith they need to comprehend God's thinking and activities in the world today. These can be understood clearly only in the context of His thinking and activities in history. It is not enough to have a general belief based on abstract faith. After all, many crimes have been committed and many wars fought by people professing faith in God and believing Him to be on their side, even though other believers, and even fellow-religionists, have been the victims of those crimes and the enemies in those wars.
God does not have a contradictory purpose; His unitary nature prevents Him from working against Himself. It is only the inadequacy of human understanding of God that produces disagreement, confusion and conflict among believers.
The situation in the world today was produced by a historical battle between forces of good and evil. God and Satan cannot coexist harmoniously because their purposes are opposite. Therefore, the struggle between good and evil will continue until the true love of God prevails. How can believers contribute to God's victory? How can they know what God wants of them? To be close to God, to serve God in the most meaningful way, believers need to know where the battle's front line is and what God most wants them to do to help in the work of restoration. These things can only be known through an understanding of the historical processes that produced the situation in the world today.
The following chapters explain the principles that govern the process of restoration and explain the high points of the history of restoration, centered on the lives of central figures chosen by God to play pivotal roles in that history. This outline of providential history provides a framework for understanding the role played by major religions in God's overall restoration scheme and how the process of restoration affects today's world.
Because of the vastness and complexity of human history, this account is necessarily extremely limited, focusing only on some of the most important people and events in the long process of restoration. The history of restoration, discussed in scriptures, is the central history of humankind. Other, secular histories are of secondary importance. Since all humankind is to be restored, every people, race and nation has its own restoration history, usually centered around the rise of a religion.
In making its emphasis the principles of restoration and their application in history, this text does not set out to reconcile itself with existing scriptural accounts of God's providence through exegesis. That is the purpose of other explanations of the Principle. Rather, it presents an account of God's work with His children in history that reveals His principles operating in human affairs. Thus readers will recognize many familiar figures and events from scripture in the following pages but find the contextual perspective offered here to be new. If there appear to be conflicts between traditional scriptural accounts, or interpretations of such accounts, and this one, the reader will be able to judge these contents on the merits of the overall integrity of the Principle.
9. The Principles Of Restoration
Due to the fall, God's intimate relationship with the children of His love was lost. As the Heavenly Father of humankind, He has had to deal with sinful men and women rather than innocent and pure beings capable of understanding His heart and will. Although the parental love of God would always seek to embrace His children, there was no one with whom God could share His deep feelings of love and no one who could carry out His will for the creation of an ideal world. God's is the most lonely situation, like that of a parent whose children have been kidnapped and killed by a jealous and rebellious servant.
Since God's will is eternal and unchanging, His original purpose for creating humankind was not changed by the fall of Adam and Eve. However, it became extremely difficult for fallen men and women to fulfill that purpose. They had lost the internal qualities needed to be children of God and lords over creation. As a result, their life became very arduous, both spiritually and physically. Separated from God, people have not understood how to live a virtuous life and maintain themselves physically. In their spiritual ignorance, they have developed adversarial rather than harmonious relationships with their fellow humans and with nature. In the original world, natural human impulses were pure and guided people to God. In the fallen world ' natural impulses are, more often than not, governed by fallen nature and, if obeyed, lead people to disaster.
As a parent of infinite heart, God would never allow His beloved children, however serious their mistakes, to be cast into hell forever. On the contrary, each and every one has to be restored to his or her original nature and purpose. God restores fallen humanity using the same principles of creation by which He originally made humankind. Applied to the circumstances of fallen humans, the principles of creation become the principles of restoration. This chapter explains how these principles operate in human lives and in history, both on earth and in the spirit world.
The Goal of Restoration History
The fundamental problem of fallen human beings is that they lack true parents to connect them to God and raise them with true love to fulfill their original purpose. Without true parents, inevitably they are dominated by Satan through the sinful lineage inherited from the first human ancestors. Thus the key to restoring fallen humans is establishing true parents in place of the false parents, Adam and Eve. Once true parents exist, a pure new lineage, transmitting true love and free from Satan's dominion, can develop as a model for the rest of the world and the point of entry for a complete return to God.
Because only true parents can create a world of God's dominion and end Satan's control of humankind, the history of restoration centers on restoring first one man, a second Adam, and then one woman, a second Eve. The true family they establish is the foundation for restoring clans, tribes, nations and, ultimately, the whole world. Thus history is not just a random sequence of events; it is a purposeful movement of humankind towards a goal: the restoration of fallen humanity, beginning with true parents.
Change of Lineage
Once the position of true parents is established and a new, purified lineage begun, the purification of all fallen humanity can begin. Ultimately, the restoration of fallen men and women is achieved through their change of lineage from Adam and Eve's fallen line to the sinless line of true parents. The most internal purpose of restoration history is, then, the change of fallen lineage, under Satan's dominion, to true lineage, under God's dominion. Although the scope of this text does not permit a complete explanation of the purification of lineage in preparation for the messiah and his bride, nor does it explain the process of engrafting by which fallen men and women are 'reborn' into the lineage of true parents, readers should know that the core objective of the restoration process, the salvation of fallen humanity, is the change of lineage.
The Principles of Restoration
To understand the process of restoration, one must understand the principles that govern it.
God is a God of principle, of law. He Himself exists according to divine principles, and He created according to these principles. God works to restore fallen humanity using the same perfect principles. History seen from God's point of view is the history of restoration governed by the principles of restoration. How do the principles of restoration work?
As explained in Part I, the principles of creation are the basis for the realization of an ideal world, centered on God. Adam, Eve and the Servant all acted in violation of these principles, creating a world of distorted love and unprincipled relationships. The most basic law of restoration is that the results of the fall can be eliminated only through humans reversing the feelings, attitudes and behavior that led to the fall. Since the fundamental error of Adam and Eve was their failure to have faith in and obey the word of God, surrendering to His enemy instead, the key to restoring their failure lies in living a life of faith in obedience to God and winning the voluntary surrender of enemies through love.
Because human beings are endowed with a portion of responsibility, restoration through receiving God's forgiveness is conditional on fulfillment of human responsibility. In other words, men and women have to make their own effort to change themselves in order for God to accept them fully. As a God of true love, the only desire of His heart is to be united with His children. Yet God cannot share His most intimate love with fallen beings. Thus, to be restored, fallen people must first repent of their sinfulness and then demonstrate their sincere desire to return to God by making efforts to obey God's word and fulfill their true purpose. This reverses the pattern of disobedience established by Adam and Eve. The conditions of faithfulness and obedience established through these acts of surrender are called indemnity conditions. Thus, the essence of the principles of restoration can be summarized as follows: God restores fallen human beings only after they fulfill indemnity conditions.
The suffering of humanity, and in particular the suffering of individuals, groups and nations chosen by God to pioneer restoration, has all been related to payment of indemnity for the liberation of humankind from the dominion of Satan. There are three kinds of indemnity conditions:
1. Conditions of equal value:
Each person is responsible for any wrong he or she does to others. Wrongs must be indemnified by conditions of equal value, offered either to the victims or others in similar situations. In other words, the original state is restored by paying indemnity equal in value to the loss or damage sustained. For example, if a man steals a car from another, he should either return the car or provide the wronged party with a car of the same value. (Since the wrong done to God cannot be equaled by human conditions, God never asks humans for a condition of equal value as the price for restoration.)
2. Conditions of greater value:
When a person fails to establish a condition, he has to restore not only that condition but also the failure as well. Thus the new condition has to be of greater value than the original condition. For example, when Abraham made a mistake in a sacrifice of animals he was called upon by God to offer his son as a sacrifice. The accumulation of unfulfilled conditions over time has made the restoration process tremendously complicated. People chosen to play key roles in the providence of restoration have to establish indemnity conditions not only for their own restoration but also for the restoration of their ancestors, families, tribes, nations and even the whole of humankind, depending on their mission. Prophets and saints sent to liberate fallen humanity from the dominion of Satan have to establish indemnity conditions on behalf of the people they want to help. The man and woman chosen to be true parents in place of Adam and Eve have to pay indemnity for all humanity. If indemnity is not paid on earth, it has to be paid in the spirit world, where the lack of a body makes payment of indemnity a great deal more difficult.
3. Conditions of lesser value:
Human beings cannot pay back the full value of what they lost in the fall and in subsequent generations of fallen existence. However, they must make conditional offerings of less value to demonstrate the sincerity of their desire to return to God. Given in a true spirit of faith, these offerings are accepted by God as conditions for forgiving the human debt of sin. In the restoration process, conditions of lesser value are offered by followers who benefit from the indemnity offered for them by their central figures, who represent God. For example, Christians who follow Jesus can receive the benefits of his sacrifice through participating in the eucharist. The followers of a prophet inherit his foundation of indemnity by demonstrating faith in him and living according to his instructions. Following in his footsteps is less difficult than pioneering the path. Ultimately, the universal conditions laid by the first couple to establish the position of true parents provide a foundation for all people who have faith in them to become true parents themselves, even though the conditions they have to fulfill are less demanding than those established by the first true parents. The principle of establishing conditions of lesser value to enable restoration is the basis of hope for fallen humans, who can never pay the full cost of restoration.
The Foundation for True Parents
The establishing of indemnity conditions is not an arbitrary process. Indemnity has to be paid with a clear purpose and according to an exact formula. There are two main objectives, the historical and the personal. The historical objective is to set up a foundation for the coming of true parents. The personal objective is to set up an individual foundation to receive true parents and be spiritually 'grafted' to their lineage.
There are two stages in laying a foundation for true parents. The first, called the foundation of faith, is to re-establish that which Adam and Eve lost first: their faith in the word of God (the commandment not to eat the fruit). The second condition, the foundation of substance, is to remove the result of Adam and Eve's disobedience: the corruption of their original, sinless nature into sinful fallen nature.
The Foundation of Faith
The first step fallen men and women must take on the road back to God is to demonstrate faith in the word of God. Faith is demonstrated by making an offering to God, sacrificing what one treasures for the sake of God. This reverses the mistake of Adam and Eve who demonstrated a lack of faith by choosing self-gratification over obedience to God. Prayer, meditation, study of God's word, fasting and tithing are examples of such conditional offerings which indemnify Adam and Eve's disobedience and contribute to making a foundation of faith.
Since Adam and Eve brought destruction upon humankind by pursuing their own desires against the will of God, restoration of fallen nature ultimately requires the complete submission of human desires to the will of God. Such submission requires faith. While this total surrender to God is the final stage of offering, the process begins with individuals offering their possessions and then, eventually, themselves. All self-sacrifice entails a degree of suffering, and therefore all men and women of God have had to go a way of suffering in order to attain spiritual maturity.
It is not enough merely to express an attitude of obedience to God's word. Because Adam's faith and obedience were to be upheld throughout the entire course of his growth to maturity, to re-establish the faith he lost requires a commitment of faith for a meaningful period of time. Because the central objective of restoration is fulfilling the three blessings, based on completion of the four position foundation through three stages of growth, the time periods required for the creation of a foundation of faith typically relate to the providential numbers 4, 12, 21 and 40.
Because of the importance of these numbers in the separation of humans from Satan and making a foundation of faith, they appear frequently in sacred history. For example, in the Bible and Koran the numbers 4, 12, 21 and 40 are common: Noah's faith was vindicated through enduring 40 days of rain that led to 40 days of flooding; Jacob endured 21 years of exile during which he suffered under his uncle Laban in Haran before returning to Canaan as a victor in faith; three times in his life Moses was called upon by God to demonstrate faith for 40-year periods (in Egypt, Midian and Sinai) and he had to build faith among the Israelites with 12 tribal leaders; Jesus fasted 40 days and ministered to his 12 disciples for 40 days after his resurrection; Mohammed began his public mission at age 40 and completed a victorious 21-year course before his death.
The Foundation of Substance
A person who demonstrates his desire to return to God by successfully establishing a foundation of faith is then able to take a substantial step of purification by laying a foundation of substance. The original, pure human nature was corrupted through the influence of Satan, who, though a Servant, sought the position that belonged to Adam and drew Eve into an unprincipled love relationship. Under the dominion of Satan, Adam and Eve inherited his unprincipled attitudes: self-centeredness, disobedience, resentment, arrogance and unrighteous lust for power, all derived from denying God's viewpoint. Instead of transmitting true love, life and lineage from God to their descendants, Adam and Eve became transmitters and multipliers of Satan's fallen love, life and lineage.
This means that all humanity, although endowed by God with an original nature that is free from sin, has inherited the nature of Satan. This fallen nature, with its tendency to evil, is at war with the original nature, which seeks only God and goodness. Within every fallen man and woman there is an original nature thirsting for liberation from Satan and oneness with God.
Adam lost his position through indulging in false love. The way to win back his position, is through the practice of true love. An Adam figure must give God's love to a Servant figure so that the Servant can be won over to God's viewpoint and from his own volition accept Adam as his subject. This is the essence of Biblical and Koranic injunctions to love your enemy and repay evil with good, so as to turn an enemy into a friend. It is the person on God's side (Adam) who must take the initiative to embrace the Servant's side in the establishment of a foundation of substance.
When an Adam figure gives true love to a Servant figure, his own original nature gains ascendancy over his fallen nature, which would have him act in a selfish, satanic manner. Likewise, when the Servant accepts the love of Adam and becomes obedient to Adam, his original nature as a beloved and obedient servant of God gains ascendancy over his fallen nature as a rebellious and domineering servant. Thus the purification of fallen humans, in which the good original nature becomes subject over the evil fallen nature, is accomplished through the restoration of good and proper relationships between Adam and the Servant. This restoration process applies to all fallen humanity. All people are put in positions that offer the opportunity to restore the fallen nature they inherited by restoring Adam-Servant type relationships.
The foundation for true parents is laid by fallen humans through a process which enables them to achieve substantial purification of their fallen nature by laying foundations of faith and substance. Only a purified person can understand God's will and the dispensation for true parents, and therefore only a person who has been purified in this manner can be expected to unite with God's providence rather than oppose it.
True Human Love Is Last to be Restored
The first thing to be lost, a true love relationship between man and woman, is the last thing to be restored. Complete purification of human love is the ultimate goal of history. True love exists where there is purity; and purification, or restoration, of fallen nature begins in the realm of the results of the fall, not the cause. Thus the path to restore the love between Adam and Eve begins with the restoration of the Servant-Adam relationship. The history of restoration reflects this. Providential figures were sent by God to establish foundations for true parents, who would bring true love. As foundations for true parents were established in successive providential eras, the standard of man-woman love was raised. Thus in the era prior to God's first revelation of truth in the Ten Commandments, which included a prohibition against adultery, there was no established law for man-woman relations. When Jesus came on an even greater foundation than Moses, he said that to lust itself was an act of adultery. This high moral standard is to prepare fallen men and women to receive and then emulate the true love of true parents. Celibacy in Christianity (and other faiths) is a particular condition of purification for this purpose.
Once pure conjugal love is restored, a new lineage can be founded and the complete restoration of fallen humanity accomplished. All men and women can regain true love, life and lineage through their relationship with true parents. The establishment of this pure lineage of true love will mark the successful achievement of the goal of restoration, because through this lineage the dominion of Satan over humankind can finally be broken and a new history of goodness begin.
The Role of Religion
The purpose of religion is to inspire and guide fallen people to establish foundations of faith and substance for true parents and to become true parents themselves. Religious activity is not an end in itself, but only a means of purifying people. By demonstrating faith in God and then restoring relationships with others, an individual creates the conditions necessary for restoration. The completion of this process, and therefore the ultimate objective of religion, is the creation of purified lineage, free from satanic influences. Once the necessary conditions have been laid, true parents can come and fulfill this purpose, opening the way for all other people to be engrafted to their restored lineage.
The fact that humanity remains in a fallen state, despite the great efforts made through the ages by countless prophets, sages and saints, proves that this restoration process has not been successfully completed. Religion has not yet accomplished its mission. Only when people do fulfill their responsibilities in obedience to God, as taught by religion, will the conditions for restoration be completed.
Religious history is the central, causal historical process because it has to do with God's uppermost concern for humanity: the restoration of Adam and Eve. Those individuals and groups that God chooses to lead the restoration providence are given primary responsibility to obey His laws and fulfill their missions. If they succeed, they are blessed as God's chosen ones, and through them others can be blessed as well. If they fail, however, they cause a delay in the providence for which they bear particular responsibility. All other historical developments, however important they may seem on the surface, are secondary to the history of restoration and should be examined in that context.
Resurrection
Through the fall, human beings lost their intimate relationship with God. To be separated from God, the source of all love and life, is to die spiritually. Thus, in a spiritual sense, the Servant killed Adam and Eve when he invaded their love relationship.
Restoration of fallen human beings can be understood as resurrection of their dead spirits. Biblical and Koranic scriptures about resurrection are sometimes misunderstood to be referring to a physical phenomenon, but, according to the principle of creation, when a person dies the body has finished its purpose and disintegrates while the spirit continues to exist forever in the spirit world. It is fallen spirits and not dead bodies that need resurrection. After all, would taking on a new body bring an individual closer to God?
The Four Principles of Resurrection
The process of resurrection is accomplished according to the principles of restoration. In particular, there are four laws governing the process of resurrection. These are called the four principles of resurrection.
First, resurrection takes place through God's word, the truth. God created with His word and gave His word, the commandment, to Adam and Eve to guide them to completion. God has continued to give His word to fallen humans, to guide them back to their original purpose. Revelations of God's truth are the basis for religion. By obeying God's instructions, the fallen human spirit is separated from Satan and grows towards oneness with God in a step-by-step process of learning God's truth and applying what has been learned.
Second, resurrection takes place in three stages, formation, growth and completion. Through the fall, Adam and Eve descended spiritually from the top of the growth stage to a realm below even the formation stage. Thus the providence of restoration aims at raising fallen humans from below the formation stage to the top of the completion stage, the direct dominion of God.
Third, because the human spirit needs vitality elements from the body in order to grow, resurrection takes place on the foundation of the physical body. This is true for people on earth and for the discarnate spirits of those who have died physically. Discarnate spirits tend to seek relations with people still on earth because they can grow spiritually through serving those who are doing good deeds for God and humanity.
The men and women called by God to accomplish important providential missions inevitably attract the support of good spirits who want to benefit by contributing to the providence as directly as possible. Good spirits can be very helpful in facilitating the missions of God's chosen people, but people on earth, with spirit and body united, must remain in the subject position over spirits since restoration takes place on earth.
Fourth, resurrection takes place according to the benefits of the age. Only after a certain spiritual level has been opened up by a central figure of God can anyone else enter that level. Thus the great figures of restoration history, such as Confucius, Buddha, Moses, Jesus and Mohammed, pioneered new realms of resurrection for their followers to inherit.
In the history of restoration, each successful foundation laid on earth has opened up a new level of resurrection. The result on earth has been the development of enlightened cultures and civilizations, and in the spirit world of ever higher realms of being. The newly opened levels of resurrection are accessible to anyone who unites with the faith and deeds of the pioneers of those levels. The final stage of resurrection, the complete union of humans with God, will be accomplished by the true parents and then, through them, will become available to all other people. Complete resurrection is the destiny of all humankind, since God's will for His creation can be fulfilled by no other means.
Returning Resurrection Versus Reincarnation
Since immature spirit persons need to serve other people on earth until the spirits have reached full maturity of love, there is an active but invisible involvement of spirit men and women in the lives of people on earth. This is particularly the case at times of providential significance, when God, through a central figure, opens up a new level of resurrection. The central figure and his faithful followers on earth are the first to achieve the new realm, but spirits who assist them can also share in their resurrection. The return of spirits to earth to participate in the resurrection process is called returning resurrection. When it occurs, there are sometimes spiritual phenomena associated with it, such as people seeing visions, hearing voices or experiencing miraculous events in their lives.
However, the phenomena associated with returning resurrection are mistaken by some to be produced by spirits of immature people in the spirit world entering newborn bodies to fulfill their earthly responsibilities. This theory of reincarnation holds that the karma of individuals can only be paid off through this type of return to the physical world. But this is erroneous. In fact, if, for example, a Christian leader were to experience the presence and assistance of the apostle Paul, it would mean that Paul was working with that leader for the sake of God's providence and for his own resurrection, and not that he had a new life on earth in the body of that leader. Each person is born with a spirit of his or her own, and any successful attempt by a discarnate spirit to enter the body of a new human being can only lead to spiritual possession.
Spiritual Influences in Human Life
The need of spirits to descend to earth to participate in resurrection also produces a wide range of spiritual phenomena that are not in themselves directly relevant to resurrection. Many types of mental illness are the result of spiritual interference in the lives of people who lack strong mind-body unity. Failure to put words into action makes a base for foreign spirits to interfere in a person's life, seeking to influence his or her thoughts and actions. A person may be troubled by a possessive relative or friend who has entered the spiritual world already, or by other spirits who simply want to use that person for their own purposes. Only low spirits who do not understand their true purpose would seek to interfere negatively in the life of someone on earth. All cases of spirit possession (known to psychologists as multiple personality problems) and obsession are examples of this type of destructive interference. The cure for mental diseases lies ultimately in the full restoration of mind-body unity centered on God's will and complete resurrection of fallen spirits.
Fallen nature attracts low spirits. Conversely, spiritual maturity attracts high spirits. Low spirits try to dominate people on earth, exacerbating the effects of their fallen nature, whereas high spirits serve those on earth, reinforcing the power for goodness of mature persons. Thus the direction and value of someone's life determines the type of spirits that will associate with him or her.
If a low spirit opposes a good person on earth, that person will experience difficulty in doing God's will. However, through persevering in goodness, the individual will grow and the spirit itself will be educated. Thus men and women who maintain spiritual maturity and live according to God's principles benefit all those spirits with whom they have relationships: high spirits grow by cooperating with them and low spirits are educated by their principled steadfastness and can grow by applying what they learn.
Conclusion
Restoration is accomplished when men and women take responsibility for their lives and willingly offer themselves to God. Through this offering of self, they are able to make a foundation of faith and a foundation of substance, and, as purified human beings, be prepared to receive true parents. The main goal of restoration history has been the creation of a foundation for true parents. Only once true parents come can Satan's dominion of evil be ended and the world of God's original ideal realized.
When individuals establish indemnity conditions for restoration, their fallen spirits can be resurrected by God from the death of alienation from God into a life of oneness with God. Thus the history of restoration has also been a history of resurrection. The progress humankind makes in this history is determined by the level of human effort. Without people making a total commitment to a life of faith, the restoration/resurrection process cannot advance. To counter the lack of faith in fallen humanity, God has sent many messengers and prophets with the mission to elevate the foundation of truth, to bring enlightenment and to encourage renewed efforts in the preparation for true parents.
The principles of restoration explained in this chapter can best be understood in their historical application. They are not just a set of abstract theories but are rather the very means by which fallen humanity is purified of sin and by which providential history moves forward. The explanation of history that is contained in the following chapters shows how these principles have operated in the lives of providential individuals, families, tribes and nations. As a first step, this account returns to the archetypal family of Adam and Eve, which is discussed in the next chapter.
10. Adam's Family
The principles of restoration operate in all human affairs, affecting every life. Consequently, they have been the inner dynamic of human history, shaping the destiny of individuals, families, tribes and nations. The theory of their operation was explained in the previous chapter. The practice will now be examined.
The fall of Adam and Eve severely damaged their characters and set them on a path of suffering and misery. As their loving parent, God must have anguished over their plight, even though they were responsible for it. No time could be lost, the work of restoring Adam and Eve had to be started at once. Thus Adam's family is not only where the fall took place but also where the providence of restoration was begun. The operation of the principles of restoration can be seen in the developments that took place in Adam's family after the fall.
Adam Divided: Cain and Abel
After falling, Adam and Eve lost their capacity to respond directly to God because they were torn between the good impulses of their original natures, inclining them to God, and the bad impulses of their fallen natures, inclining them to Satan. Being in the mid-way position between God and Satan, with no one to guide them on the path back to God, they were unable to separate themselves from the domination of Satan to begin the process of restoration.
That is why God began the restoration process in the second generation of Adam and Eve's family. They had three providential sons: Cain, Abel and Seth, born in that order. The two oldest were chosen to make conditions for restoration. The basis for this choice was as follows. Fallen Adam's nature was divided into two parts: his original nature as Adam the obedient son of God, and his sinful nature (acquired from the servant) as Adam the disobedient servant of God. In effect, the two parts of Adam's divided nature were represented separately by his two oldest sons, Cain and Abel.
The eldest son was originally the natural heir to inherit God's true life, love and lineage from his parents. Because of the fall and Satan's usurpation of God's position in Adam's family, however, Cain became the child who naturally inherited the satanic life, love and lineage of his parents. Because Adam and Eve submitted to the Servant, Satan could make a claim on Cain as the first fruit of Adam and Eve's fallen union. This meant Satan's influence was more powerful over Cain than over Abel, making it difficult for Cain to respond to God and easier for God to work with Abel.
Further, Cain, as the first-born, represented the fruit of the first love relationship of Eve, with the Servant, while Abel represented her second love relationship, with Adam. From God's point of view, her second relationship was relatively better than her first because in the first Eve submitted to the Servant's domination even though the Servant could never fulfill the role of a spouse, which belonged exclusively to Adam. In the second relationship, her motivation included the desire to return to God through union with Adam, who was to be her husband. It was a premature relationship rather than an intrinsically unprincipled one. Thus, because Cain was the oldest son and represented the more unprincipled of Eve's fallen relationships, he represented the Servant and Abel represented the original Adam.
With this externalizing of the divided nature of Adam, God set up the circumstances for Cain and Abel to make conditions to restore the Adam and Servant relationship and through that process to purify themselves. Both sons inherited fallen nature from their parents, but by loving each other as true brothers their original natures would prevail against the inclination of their sinful natures. If, on the other hand, they allowed themselves to be dominated by their fallen natures, Cain, as the Servant, would seek to control a submissive Abel, and the mistakes of the fall would be repeated.
The Foundation of Faith
The responsibility of Cain and Abel was to establish indemnity conditions to restore the mistakes of their parents as a foundation for true parents to come. The first step in making this foundation for true parents was to establish faith, to lay a foundation of faith. Cain and Abel were called upon by God to offer as sacrifices their best produce and livestock, respectively. Cain's sacrifice was rejected by God, whereas Abel's was accepted. God's acceptance of Abel's sacrifice signaled Abel's success in laying a foundation of faith (i.e. he had responded faithfully) and confirmed him as the representative of unfallen Adam in the second generation of the first family.
The Foundation of Substance
When Cain's sacrifice was rejected he felt intense jealousy towards his successful brother. Cain resented the fact that Abel, the younger brother, had been favored by God. Cain's position was similar to that of the Servant who was created before Adam and Eve and had witnessed God's love for them grow to surpass His love for the Servant. Cain's desire to monopolize God's love and to dominate Abel was similar to the Servant's desire when he sought to dominate Adam and Eve.
To restore the mistakes of the Servant, Cain would have had to reverse the four aspects of fallen nature he had inherited from the Servant:
(1) failing to take God's viewpoint (he should have accepted Abel as God's representative);
(2) standing out of his given position (he should have accepted Abel's more intimate relationship with God);
(3) reversing dominion (he should have submitted to Abel's guidance in making his own sacrifice); and
(4) multiplying evil (he should have put a stop to the influence of evil in his family by refusing to repeat the sins of his parents and the Servant).
However, like the Servant, Cain could not contain his unprincipled jealousy which boiled over into a fit of rage against his brother, whom he attacked and killed. In murdering Abel, Cain repeated the errors of the Servant, who spiritually murdered Adam and Eve. Cain succumbed to the influence of his sinful nature instead of gaining dominion over it, and thus repeated the fall instead of reversing it. Cain should have acceded to the divine decision and accepted the choice of Abel as God's representative. If Cain had humbled himself to Abel, he would have received God's love and blessings through Abel.
Thus although Abel was successful in laying a foundation of faith, the possibility of establishing a foundation of substance through cooperation between Cain and Abel was lost when Cain killed Abel. The reversal of the fall and purification of the fallen nature could have been accomplished only if Cain, in the position of the Servant, had been willing to unite with Abel, in the position of Adam. Abel was also responsible in this. He should have loved his elder brother and assuaged his jealousy, serving him with all sincerity and guiding him to make an acceptable offering. Victory in the foundation of substance would have been shared by both brothers. The murder of Abel meant that the opportunity to lay a foundation for true parents in Adam's family was lost once and for all.
Cain's action represented Satan's will. But Satan cannot pervert or destroy God's creation beyond a certain limit because God is the sole creator of all beings and He has the ultimate dominion over creation. By the principles of creation, God will not let Satan claim more than any one creation can take from another. Therefore, Satan can never destroy the God-given original nature of another being and cannot ultimately succeed in his effort to destroy God's original plan for an ideal world.
Nevertheless, because Cain had submitted to Satan and Abel had been killed, God had to choose an alternative to Cain and Abel to begin restoration. Seth, the third son of Adam and Eve, was chosen by God as the man to keep alive the promise of restoration. He became the ancestor of the lineage out of which God selected a family to replace Adam's in the dispensation of restoration.
Lessons from Adam's Family
When Cain killed Abel, the fall of Adam's family was irrevocably sealed, plunging the first human ancestors deep into misery. Out of Adam's lineage came all the adulterers, murderers and criminals who have turned God's world into hell. The problems of Adam's family are the core problems of the world today and have been the fundamental reason for human misery throughout history. Thus the process of the fall in Adam's family, including the transmission of fallen nature from parents to children, contains many lessons of providential importance.
First:
The fallen nature was extremely deep-seated in Adam and Eve. Their fall from knowing God was so total that they created a family environment completely devoid of true love. This became all too clear when Cain killed Abel. It is only in the most depraved families that a son could kill his brother.
Second:
The fallen nature is passed from one generation to the next. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God and established a relationship of false, ungodly love, their unprincipled behavior was inevitably inherited by their offspring, even though their children were endowed with an original mind. The selfish love of Adam and Eve became the norm for their whole family and its lineage. There was no one to educate the children about God and how they could fulfill their responsibilities to Him once the Servant had abandoned his position as teacher of truth to Adam's family and their parents had submitted to Satan rather than God. They had only the fallen model of their parents as a standard for their own lives. This problem became the problem of all humankind. Generation after generation has grown up without knowing God's will and God's ideal for life.
Third:
Men and women should be brothers and sisters to each other before they are blessed in marriage. After reaching full maturity as brother and sister, Adam and Eve would have qualified to receive the marriage blessing. But the fall degraded their brother/sister love. Their self-centered and impure sibling love was inherited by Cain and Abel, whose relationship was so unloving as to result in fratricide. Cain and Abel represent fallen humanity. All human beings are divided into positions of relative good and evil vis-a-vis other people, and have to establish loving relations with others as children of a common parent, God.
Fourth:
Both Cain and Abel have a responsibility to fulfill in restoring the relationship between Adam and the Servant to the original order. Cain has to make an effort to unite with Abel, and Abel has to show true love to Cain so that he can willingly surrender to God's representative. Only when both Cain and Abel make a sincere effort towards true reconciliation can purification of fallen nature take place in both of them.
Fifth:
God loves both Cain and Abel, and both of them must be restored. Establishing a foundation of faith and substance is the way for both to be restored and embraced by God. Hence, Abel cannot be restored and go to heaven without Cain. Only through establishing a foundation of substance can purification take place in fallen people, and every foundation of substance requires at least two people, representing Cain and Abel. When Cain and Abel establish a relationship of love by overcoming fallen tendencies, both of them are purified. Thus, however devout Abel is, however many conditions he establishes for a foundation of faith, he cannot be transformed without extending himself to love Cain. Thus a life of personal devotion to God is never sufficient in itself. For restoration, there must always also be complementary acts of service to others. The positions of Cain and Abel are not fixed as they only serve to facilitate restoration. All people are Cain and Abel at different times, depending on the circumstances.
Sixth:
Resolution of the Cain-Abel relationship, and then the Adam-Eve relationship, is the key to world peace. Conflicts between individuals, families, tribes, nations and blocs of nations are all manifestations of the conflicts within Adam's family. The path of restoration for all conflicts begins with the reconciliation of Cain and Abel, centered on God's will. Thus the process of establishing a foundation of substance, in which Abel shows true love to Cain and Cain willingly surrenders to the love of Abel, is the model course for peace-making between all enemies. Once a foundation of substance is completed, a foundation for true parents exists and the Adam-Eve relationship can be restored. Once true man-woman love is established, a new lineage is created and individuals, families, tribes, nations and the world can be restored, creating a world free of Cain-Abel conflicts altogether. In this way a world of true peace will be realized.
Seventh:
The path for Cain to return to God is through Abel. The only way the servant can win the heart of his master is by helping the master fulfill his purpose, especially raising up a worthy heir. The secret of the servant's glory is in serving the son. Cain represents the Servant, Abel the son, Adam. Abel qualifies for the son's position by demonstrating faith in God and being obedient to His laws, and by willingly sacrificing himself for others. Fallen men and women need to find Abel figures to assist and thereby attract to themselves the love and gratitude of God. The ultimate Abel in the fallen world is restored Adam, the true father who, with the true mother, establishes a true family. Thus fallen people can complete their return to God only through sinless true parents. God gives His blessing to Cain through Abel because in restoration He works primarily through the relatively purer side. Because Cain represents the fruit of Adam and Eve's disobedient behavior, if God were to bless Cain directly, it would be as if he blessed the fall, giving fallen relations eternal value. God blesses Abel as a representative of good, and, when Cain unites with Abel, blesses Cain through Abel.
Eighth:
Since Adam's family is the archetypal fallen family, wherever there is evil in the world it reflects an aspect of the fallen natures of Adam's family. Therefore, one can see in all human temptations a resemblance to the temptations experienced by Adam, Eve and the Servant. All the struggles people face in pursuing a good life are struggles to remove the fallen tendencies inherited from the first ancestors. By knowing what happened in Adam's family, repetition of the mistakes that led it into hell can be avoided. Every fallen man is tempted, as the Servant and Adam were, to leave his position in order to engage in illicit love; and every fallen woman is tempted, as Eve was, to leave her position in order to engage in illicit love. To understand the origin of temptation and sin is to gain the weapon with which one can overcome temptation.
Ninth:
Satan's greatest strength lies in his invisibility. It is hard for sensible, earth-bound men and women to believe that Satan is real. No doubt Cain was such a sensible person, and did not recognize Satan in his own anger against Abel. Fallen human nature makes a base for invisible Satan to work, inciting resentment and hatred, lust, anger and violence. Satan has a hold on fallen humanity through the fallen lineage of Adam's family. Only by understanding the presence of this base inside themselves can fallen individuals act to counter the influence of Satan in their lives.
Tenth:
Since God's will for humanity is absolute, there is always an alternative way forward when a particular individual or group fails its restoration mission. Thus when Cain killed Abel, God chose the third son, Seth, to carry on His providence of restoration. God must prevail in the end.
Conclusion
The alienation of Adam's family from God was completed when Cain killed Abel. The murder of Abel repeated the fatal mistakes of the Servant, reinforcing fallen nature instead of reversing it. As a result, Cain and Abel could not lay a foundation of substance and the providence of restoration was postponed.
The more people understand the mistakes made in Adam's family the more they can recognize the root causes of evil in the world. The sins of the first human ancestors are repeated again and again in the fallen world, with individuals, families, communities and nations acting out the unprincipled patterns of behavior they have inherited from the first family. Only by knowing the root cause of evil can people work effectively to eliminate it from their lives.
The pattern of inheriting fallen nature was established in Adam's family when Cain and Abel were born with the behavioral characteristics of their parents and consequently repeated their parents' mistakes. Purification of Adam and Eve's lineage was not achieved by their children, but their descendants paid indemnity so that God could choose a new family to represent Him on earth. That family was Noah's. It came from the lineage of Seth and it had to restore the failures of two generations of Adam's family. The providential story of Noah's family is the subject of the next chapter.
11. Noah's Family
The fall of Adam's family set humanity on a long, dark course of indemnity before God was able to choose a family out of the lineage of Seth to restore Adam's. That family was Noah's. Its mission was to indemnify the mistakes made in Adam's family and lay a foundation for true parents, who would begin a new lineage of sinless men and women. According to scriptures, the time period between the two families was 1600 years, spanning the course of ten providential generations. By "ten" scriptures signify the return of humanity from its fallen state to full unity with God, after passing through nine stages of growth.
The Foundation of Faith
God worked through these generations to raise up a man of good character and humility. According to scriptures, Noah was called by God to make an offering as a condition to establish a foundation of faith. He was instructed to build an ark, a large, three decked boat, and to load it with representatives of the creation in preparation for a massive flood. The ark was a symbol representing the whole cosmos, with Noah's family in the position of humankind. By separating Noah's family and the ark from the fallen world, God could begin the restoration providence again, with a pure family and a representation of nature: all the elements needed for fulfillment of the three blessings.
Noah had great faith in the word of God and invested himself completely in building the ark, even though the people of his time, including his own family, found it ludicrous to build a huge boat on a mountain when there was no evidence of a flood to come. It took Noah a very long time to complete the project, but in persevering he succeeded in building the ark and established a foundation of faith.
Then, according to scriptures, God inundated the land with a forty-day flood, allowing only Noah's family and the animals he brought on board the ark to be saved from destruction. The flood physically separated Noah's family from the fallen world, giving Noah a chance to set up the conditions for true parents to come to a purified world. Thus God chose Noah's family to establish a new, purified lineage.
Because the number forty represented the four position foundation being restored through ten generations, Noah's family persevering through the flood indemnified the 1600 years and ten generations from Adam to Noah. Furthermore, the forty-day flood set a pattern of indemnification through forty-based time periods. As this discussion of providential history will show, these time periods appear frequently in the annals of restoration.
The Foundation of Substance
Noah's family had eight core members, after the pattern of Adam's. Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, representing Cain, Abel and Seth respectively; Noah's wife represented Eve and his three sons' wives represented the wives of Adam's three sons. The first generation of Noah's family had to restore the first generation of Adam's, and the second generation of Noah's family the second generation of Adam's. Noah was chosen by God to lay a foundation of faith to restore Adam's lost faith and renew the faith of Abel, but his sons had to make a foundation of substance to restore the failure of Cain and Abel. By Shem and Ham restoring the relationship between Cain and Abel they would make a condition to restore the relationship between the Servant and Adam.
Ham, as the second son, was naturally in the Abel position because, as in Adam's family, Satan had a stronger claim on the first son. Nevertheless, Ham had to make a condition to inherit the foundation of faith from his father so that he could be confirmed in the Abel position. Unless he was united in heart with his father's realm of faith, indemnifying the transmission of fallen nature from parents to children in Adam's family, Ham could not qualify as Abel.
However, when his faith in Noah's devotion to God was tested by an apparent moral lapse on the part of his father, Ham proved wanting. He was embarrassed by the sight of his father lying unclothed in his tent. Ham got his brothers to cover their father. On waking from his sleep, Noah was angry with Ham. Noah knew that by covering him Ham was being critical and that this criticism came from a lack of faith in him, even though he had demonstrated remarkable faith in building the ark at a time when everyone was ridiculing him. In essence, Ham's shame at the sight of his father's naked body showed that he was still under the influence of the fall. Shame in the naked human body was introduced by Adam and Eve when they covered their sexual parts after misusing them in the fall. Ham showed that he was not free of that fallen influence and therefore not qualified to inherit the foundation of faith from his father. Furthermore, even though Noah's faithfulness had saved Ham's life, Ham was not persuaded of his father's godliness. Instead, in a shameful display of arrogant self-righteousness, he urged his brothers to condemn the very person whose faith had saved them.
Because Ham failed to inherit Noah's foundation of faith, he could not take the Abel position in relation to his elder brother, Shem. This meant they could not even begin to create a foundation of substance. Thus the foundation in Noah's family was lost, and Adam's family remained unrestored. This meant the providence of restoration had to be prolonged so that indemnity could be paid for the failure of Noah's family as well as the mistakes of Adam's family.
According to the pattern of Adam's family, Satan wanted to claim dominion over Noah's sons through Shem, the first-born. However, when Ham acted against the will of God and his father he took Satan's side and caused Noah's family foundation to be lost. According to the principles of creation and restoration, Satan cannot claim everything from God's side. Therefore he could not dominate both Shem and Ham. Because of Ham's failure, Shem was never put in the Cain position, and out of the lineage of Shem God chose a new family to lay a foundation to restore Adam's family. That was the family of Abraham.
Lessons from Noah's Family
The story of Noah's family contains several important lessons, especially related to the importance of trusting and supporting Abel figures in the restoration.
First:
Because God's restoration providence is often difficult to understand, providential leaders should be supported as the people chosen to represent God's point of view. Sometimes the words or actions of religious leaders are incomprehensible to others because their positions of special responsibility before God give them perspectives that are more vertical, or God-oriented, than the common view. This means that people have to learn to trust that God is working through such leaders, even though they may not understand how. God's providence of restoration is always based on central figures. Once a person has qualified as a central figure, the providence can succeed through the harmonious cooperation between that central person and those he or she is to lead. If the central figure cannot succeed, there is no way for the others to succeed either. Ham should have supported Noah as the central figure of his family until Ham himself was qualified to inherit the foundation of faith from his father and establish a foundation of substance with Shem. By disuniting with Noah, Ham destroyed the providence for his family. Although his father had conditionally restored Adam's faith by building the ark, Ham had no foundation of faith himself because he had not supported his father in the construction of the ark. It was natural of Ham's fallen nature to suspect the faith of Noah, but if Ham had looked at his father from a God-centered perspective he would have recognized him as a great man of faith.
Second:
Because of their positions, central figures are often endowed with insights into God's providence which are essential for the success of missions. Central figures are the people God is most likely to communicate with to get messages to fallen humans. Thus Noah received instructions from God (to build the ark) that others in his society, including his own family, considered patently foolish. They should have trusted that Noah's closeness to God made it possible for him to have a particularly profound understanding of God's will. A central figure's potential for greater insight has to be trusted by others.
Third:
Since every fallen man and woman has a Cain-like nature inherited from the fall, everyone must find an Abel figure to guide him or her to God's providence and a virtuous life. No person can restore his or her own fallen nature without the help of a central figure. Ham had to recognize Noah as his Abel figure in order to inherit Noah's foundation of faith. Without that inheritance, Ham was not qualified as Abel in the second generation of Noah's family. Because fallen nature entered human beings through unprincipled relationships between irresponsible individuals, the only way to remove it is through principled relationships between responsible people. The central figure represents the position of Adam before the fall, that is a principled and responsible Adam. This is true even though within the fallen world Abel, as a fallen person, is only relatively closer to God than Cain.
Fourth:
Following an Abel figure is training to follow the absolute Abel, true parents. Their explanation of God and standard of life is bound to be much higher than normal levels and therefore incomprehensible to many. Only by following them in the faith and knowledge that they are indeed the true representatives of a responsible and principled life, in the position of Adam and Eve before the fall, can one inherit their understanding and their restored standard of love, life and lineage. Ham's inability to follow Noah disqualified him. Without training in a life of obedience to a central person, fallen people will not be able to follow true parents.
Fifth:
When providential figures are unable to fulfill the missions given them, a prolongation of the providence of restoration always results. If Cain and Abel had succeeded in laying a foundation for true parents, the providence for restoration would have immediately progressed to the next stage and the third generation of Adam's family could have seen the appearance of true parents.
They would have set up a sinless lineage and ended the world of evil and suffering before it had had a chance to develop. As it was, because Satan claimed Adam's family, the providence was prolonged for many centuries before God could raise up another family in its place. All the suffering and all the sins committed during those centuries had to be indemnified. With every passing moment the restoration providence becomes more complicated and difficult.
Conclusion
The failure to establish a foundation for true parents in Adam's family resulted in centuries of human suffering before conditions were set for Noah to be chosen to restore Adam. However, despite Noah's great faith in building the ark, his own family foundation was lost through the faithlessness of Ham. Thus Noah's family lost its chance to be the starting point of a new, restored history.
Ham's mistake resulted in another prolongation of the providence of restoration, after which God chose Abraham to restore the families of Adam and Noah. The providential generations of Abraham's family are the subject of the next chapter.
12. Abraham's Family
According to scriptures, 400 years and ten generations passed after Noah before sufficient conditions had been laid for God to choose a family to restore the mistakes made in the families of Adam and Noah. The central person God chose was Abraham, and Abraham's family was given the task of laying foundations of faith and substance. Several generations of Abraham's family contributed to making successful foundations for true parents and launching a new dispensation of restoration, which eventually grew from the individual to the global level.
Because of this success, Abraham was a prophet of special importance. His family became the starting point of the lineage chosen to receive true parents. He and his descendants made conditions and received revelations from God which gave birth to the three great monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
However, even though Abraham was such a great providential figure, not all went well in his family. Because it is human nature to err in the fallen world, several mistakes were made which caused delays and complications in the history of restoration. Some of the problems sowed seeds of discord that multiplied into tribal, global and national rivalries and conflicts, seriously damaging God's providence. This chapter will explain the successes and failures of Abraham's family and how these affected the providence.
Preparation for Abraham's Mission
In the history of restoration, anyone chosen to be a central figure in the providence of God must first qualify for the mission by separating from the fallen world. This purification process confirms central figures in their missions and readies them to participate in God's work. Only after central figures make conditions to purify themselves and devote their lives to God will God use them in the providence.
Although Abraham came from a blessed lineage, his own father worshiped idols and created a home environment dominated by Satan. Abraham had to separate himself from this fallen environment before he could begin his mission for God. In Noah's providential course, the chosen family was separated from the sinful world by the flood; in Abraham's case he was called by God to leave his home and travel to a land that would be shown to him as the place where he should settle and lay the foundation for true parents.
Abraham obeyed God. He rejected the idolatry of his father and left his homeland with his wife Sarah and nephew Lot. With the help of God, Abraham's family traveled safely to its destination in Canaan, overcoming all obstacles along the way. In a final attack from Satan, Egypt's pharaoh tried to seduce Sarah in a repetition of the Servant's seduction of Eve, but he was warned of the consequences and, out of fear, allowed Abraham's family to leave in safety. Having successfully separated his family from the internal fallen world of his home and the external fallen world of Egypt, Abraham was ready to make conditions to establish a foundation of faith.
The Foundation of Faith
God called on Abraham to make a sacrifice. Making this offering would lay a foundation of faith. Abraham was to take a heifer, ram, she goat, pigeon and turtle dove, cut them in half and offer them to God. Abraham cut the larger animals in half, but not the birds. Scriptures relate that birds of prey descended upon the offering. The minor error of not cutting the birds provided an opportunity for Satan, represented by the birds of prey, to invade the offering, with two consequences. First, Abraham was called upon to make a condition of greater indemnity by offering his son, and, second, he was told his descendants would have to undergo a 400-year period of slavery to indemnify the error.
By not cutting the birds in half, Abraham failed to make the necessary condition of purifying the sacrifice before it was offered to God. In the same way that Adam had to be divided into Cain and Abel, God instructed Abraham to divide the sacrifice, symbolically separating Cain from Abel in the offering, draining out the fallen blood and separating the fallen elements from the good.
The birds, male and female, represented man and woman in the formation stage of restoration; the ram and she goat represented man and woman in the growth stage and the heifer represented the unified being of man and woman in the completion stage. In making the offering, Abraham was setting up a condition for the restoration of humankind through the three stages. When the birds were not cut, Satan was able to invade the foundational formation stage of the sacrifice, thereby claiming the whole offering.
Abraham was determined to restore this mistake, and, despite the unspeakable difficulty, he prepared to sacrifice his son, as God had asked him. Before doing so, he once more had to pass through a process of separation from Satan, restoring the conditions which were annulled through the failed sacrifice. His family was again subjected to a trial similar to that which it had experienced in Egypt, but this time it was King Abimelech of Gerar who tried to seduce Sarah. As with the pharaoh, the king was warned by God that he would be punished if he kept her, and in fear he returned Sarah to Abraham who then left Abimelech's kingdom safely. Abraham's family had once more separated itself from Satan in preparation to lay a foundation of faith.
Abraham Offers His Son
God instructed Abraham to sacrifice his son. (According to the Bible he prepared to sacrifice his second son, Isaac, who was the only child of Sarah. The Koran does not specify which son it was but Islamic tradition generally holds that it was his first son, Ishmael, born of his servant Hagar. According to the pattern of restoration demonstrated by the Principle, it is always the second son who, as Abel, has to offer himself to restore Adam's faith.) Father and son traveled for three days to reach the mountaintop location appointed for the sacrifice. Abraham prepared an altar of firewood on which to offer his son. He was just about to pierce the body of the boy when an angel intervened to stop him, telling him that his faith was sufficient.
Abraham's great faith in being willing to offer his own child as a sacrifice to God restored his family as the central family for God's providence. Most important, his son accepted what his father was doing, believing that it was the will of God. It is hard to imagine how the youth could be so obedient as to cooperate with his father in his own death. By showing this incredible faith, a condition was made to restore Ham's loss of faith in his father Noah and to establish a foundation of faith in Abraham's family.
On the strength of this victory, Isaac, as the second son in Abel's position, was fully united with his father's heart of faith and was able to take the place of his father in fulfilling the foundation of faith. He assisted in offering a sheep as a sacrifice. Thus, on the strength of two successful foundations of faith, made by Abel and Noah, and the great faith of Abraham in offering his son, Isaac inherited his father's position as the central figure to restore Adam's faith. This made him, like Noah and Abraham before him, a father of faith.
The Foundation of Substance
According to the principles of creation, human beings are the central figures of creation and all other beings are created to be objects to them. Therefore, the Servant, although created before Adam, was to be obedient to Adam and receive God's blessings through Adam. In the fall, the Servant took unrighteous dominion over Adam through Eve. Because of this reversal of positions in the creation, God would not give His blessings to Adam or the Servant. To bless them when they were violating the principles of creation would have been to accept an unprincipled relationship as principled, giving it eternal value.
According to the principles of restoration, the relationship between Adam and the Servant has to be restored to the proper order by a representative of the Servant willingly submitting to a representative of Adam. After the pattern of restoration established in Adam's family, the older son is chosen to represent the Servant and the second son to represent Adam. Once the relationship between Adam and the Servant is righted by the older son (Cain) submitting to the love of the younger son (Abel), a foundation of substance is achieved and both sons can receive the blessings of God.
If Abraham had completed the foundation of faith himself, then his two sons, Ishmael and Isaac, would have been responsible to restore the Cain-Abel relationship and lay a foundation of substance. If successful, both sons would have received the blessings of God. Because of the mistake in Abraham's first offering, Isaac inherited the position of father of faith from Abraham, and his two sons, Esau and Jacob, inherited the positions of Ishmael and Isaac (Cain and Abel).
Ishmael and Isaac
As the older son and child of a servant, Ishmael was to have restored the Cain position and received God's blessings through unity with Isaac. But after Abraham's position had been passed to Isaac, Ishmael was not able to participate with his brother in laying a foundation of substance and could not at that time realize the blessings that God granted the sons of Abraham. The fulfillment of the blessing was delayed for Ishmael. As both the Bible and Koran confirm, the history of restoration from Abraham's family initially developed in the lineage of Isaac. His son Jacob became the father of faith to twelve sons who became the twelve tribes of God's chosen people, the Children of Israel. Only many centuries later, with the advent of the prophet Mohammed, did the lineage of Ishmael come to play a central role in the providence of restoration.
Therefore, due to no fault of his own, Ishmael was excluded from participating in the immediate providence of Abraham's family. The blessing promised to Ishmael and his descendants was inevitably linked to the providence of Isaac, since God viewed Abraham's family as one lineage. Ishmael's difficult position was conducive to his feeling resentful for having to wait to receive God's blessing. The tendency to feel resentful towards Isaac and his lineage was passed from Ishmael to his descendants and has been one of the lingering providential problems needing restoration. Ishmael had twelve sons whose offspring became twelve tribes of the Arab people. It was to fulfill His promise to Ishmael and to end the historic resentment between the families of Isaac and Ishmael that God eventually sent Mohammed to the Arabs some 2500 years after Abraham's family had passed into the spirit world (see Chapter 19).
Resentment destroys human relationships because it is predicated on the desire to take what others have for oneself rather than to give of oneself to others. It is destructive both for the person who harbors it and for its target. Resentment was a major motive behind the Servant's rebellion against God and invasion of Adam and Eve's love relationship. It can be overcome only by the power of love, which confirms the original value of its object and liberates fallen humanity from resentments, enabling people to fulfill their potential. Thus the descendants of Isaac and Ishmael were to love each other in order to resolve the resentment planted in Ishmael's heart and heal the divisions in Abraham's family which grew out of the unresolved relationship between Ishmael and Isaac.
Jacob and Esau
Like their father Isaac and uncle Ishmael, Jacob and Esau were especially important figures in the history of restoration. For this reason, considerable space is devoted to them here.
Esau and Jacob were twins, with Esau the first-born. Jacob, in Abel's position, had to win Esau's willing surrender, even though Esau, representing Cain, enjoyed the privileged position of first son. As a fallen man, Esau's natural inclination was to dominate Jacob against the will of God, but in the end Jacob was able to persuade his twin brother to accept him as God's representative and together they succeeded in laying a foundation of substance.
There were several steps in achieving this victory. Jacob first won the birthright from Esau by offering a meal in exchange for it at a moment when Esau was hungry and valued food above his position in the family. Esau's attitude was like that of fallen Adam, who set personal gratification above the purpose of establishing a good lineage, whereas Jacob understood the superior value of lineage.
Forty years later, when Isaac was old and blind and on the verge of death, Jacob succeeded in winning his father's blessing in place of Esau. Rebecca, Isaac's wife, assisted him in this, thereby restoring Eve's failure to secure God's blessings for her children.
Esau was furious when he discovered that Jacob had received the blessing that was to have been his as the oldest son. His jealousy and anger towards Jacob were similar to the feelings of the Servant towards Adam and Eve when he felt he was losing the love of God. They were also similar to the jealous feelings of Cain which prompted him to murder Abel. Jacob did not want to give his elder brother an opportunity to murder him, so, again with the help of his mother, he fled to the home of his uncle Laban, in Haran.
Laban was a Servant-type figure whom Jacob had to win over with service and love. Jacob served Laban for seven years to win the hand of his daughter Rachel. But Jacob was cheated by Laban who substituted Leah for her sister Rachel on the wedding night. He worked a second seven years for Rachel, whom he married as well.
When Jacob wanted to return home, Laban would not let him take any material goods with him, even though Jacob had served Laban faithfully for fourteen years and made him rich. So Jacob worked a third seven years to win material wealth. By persevering in loving and serving Laban until he gained a victory, Jacob conditionally restored Adam's subject position over the Servant (Laban). On the foundation of this success he also won dominion over the material world, thus completing conditions to fulfill the three blessings: restoring himself, his spouse and possessions.
On the strength of this victory, Jacob returned to his homeland in Canaan. On the way back, at a ford crossing the river Jabbok, he encountered an angel, who wrestled with him. Even though the angel dislocated Jacob's thigh, Jacob persevered and eventually prevailed against the angel. Once again, Jacob had restored the proper relationship between the Servant (the angel) and Adam (himself). By not giving in to the angel, Jacob made a condition to reverse the fall. Having won the contest, he demanded the blessing of the angel, which he received, together with the new name Israel, which means "he who strives with God." From this point on, Jacob was known as Israel and his descendants as the Children of Israel.
After his victories over Laban and the angel, Jacob continued towards Canaan and prepared to meet his brother Esau, who, still angry over having lost the birthright and blessing, was preparing to attack him. Jacob understood the anger and resentment in Esau's heart and wisely offered Esau his wealth and all that was precious to him before they met. Esau, who had expected to face his brother returning as a conqueror, was surprised and moved by this generosity and love. When Jacob himself appeared, Esau forgot all his anger and the two brothers embraced in tears. Jacob had completely won the heart of his brother Esau.
The loving reunion of Jacob and Esau restored the Cain-Abel relationship. For the first time in the dispensation of restoration, a foundation of substance was successfully completed by a providential family.
The Foundation for True Parents
Abraham's was the first family chosen by God to restore Adam's family in which both a foundation of faith (by Abraham and Isaac) and a foundation of substance (by Jacob and Esau) were laid successfully. The moment when Esau and Jacob embraced in love was the most hopeful and joyful moment for God after the fall of Adam and Eve. With that great providential success, a foundation for true parents had finally been achieved and God could begin to build the providence of restoration on a substantial level, expanding His foundation among the fallen people of the world.
However, true parents themselves could not appear at that time because Abraham's error in the sacrifice of the animals and birds had first to be restored through Jacob's family and descendants. The indemnity period for this restoration was the 400 years of Israelite captivity in Egypt. Furthermore, by Abraham's time Satan had dominion over whole nations whereas God had only one family on His side. How could one family succeed against nations?
Perez and Zerah
The reconciliation between Jacob and Esau was a major victory for God. Nevertheless, it represented only a symbolic purification of blood lineage. Cain and Abel were born out of the fallen womb of Eve, therefore the substantial purification of lineage had to be accomplished in the womb, so that a new lineage might be engendered.
This is what lies behind the paradoxical story of Tamar. By understanding that Tamar, like Isaac's wife Rebecca, was in the position to restore fallen Eve, one can know why Jesus was born of her lineage, out of the tribe of Judah. She risked her life when she obeyed God's instructions and bore twins by her father-in-law Judah, who was one of Jacob's sons.
At the time of birth, the position of the twins was reversed in the womb, such that the younger son, Perez, representing Abel, was born before his brother, Zerah. The reversed order of birth was known because Zerah's hand had emerged before Perez was born, and a red thread had been tied to it before it was retracted into Tamar's womb.
The purification of Tamar's womb was the foundation for Jesus to be born sinless, the primary qualification for the messiah. Jesus was to become a true parent and establish a purified lineage in which all people could be brought to God's dominion by grafting into the lineage of the true parents.
Jacob's Lineage Is Chosen
When Jacob and Esau restored the relationship between Cain and Abel, they completed the first foundation for true parents in history. Therefore God chose the descendants of Jacob, who became the twelve tribes of Israel, as the people to establish a nation to receive the messiah. When Tamar restored the purity of Eve's womb, God chose the lineage of Judah to give birth to the messiah. Thus Abraham's family, and in particular Jacob's lineage, became the beginning point for the expansion of the restoration providence from the individual to the family, tribe and, eventually, national foundations to receive true parents. The Children of Israel became the chosen people.
Jacob's Family Foundation
Jacob's family became the center of God's providence. Jacob had twelve sons, the first ten by three women: Leah, the servant of Leah and the servant of Rachel. The two youngest, Joseph and Benjamin, were by Rachel. These twelve sons created families that became the twelve tribes of Israel, the people chosen by God to be the nation to receive the true parents.
The internal, Abel-like attitude of Jacob was inherited in particular by his second-to-last son, Joseph. The older brothers of Joseph were envious of his position as a favored son of Jacob and sought to kill him. However, they sold him into slavery in Egypt instead. There Joseph prospered and became prime minister under the pharaoh. By overcoming temptations of the fallen world of Egypt, especially the seduction of women, Joseph was confirmed as the Abel figure in the second generation of Jacob's family.
When famine struck Canaan, his homeland, his brothers came to Egypt to purchase grain. He recognized them and ' despite their terrible mistreatment of him previously, he received them with love, giving them grain and returning the money they had used to purchase it. They could not understand this generosity, but when they went on a second grain-buying mission to Egypt Joseph revealed his identity to them. The brothers wept with joy to be reunited.
Joseph used much the same wisdom in winning over his brothers as his father had employed in gaining the love of Esau. By giving his brothers gifts, he showed that he loved them even though they had done him wrong in the past. For their part, they were willing to repent and ask forgiveness for what they had done to him. By this restoration of the Cain-Abel relationship in Jacob's family, the family foundation for true parents established by Jacob was expanded to the clan level by his sons,
Lessons from Abraham's Family
First:
It is important to pay attention to detail, in addition to having a willing heart, in the completion of indemnity conditions. The need to make offerings came about because Adam and Eve did not complete their responsibilities as God's son and daughter: they failed to take God's warning seriously and, consequently, failed to carry out God's instructions diligently. Therefore, an offering has meaning only if it is completed with the right heart of responsibility and the diligent implementation of instructions. Abraham was serious about fulfilling his responsibility to God in undertaking the offering of animals and birds, but after finishing the major portion of his offering by cutting the animals in two, he somehow overlooked the much smaller task of cutting the birds. From this small mistake, the whole sacrifice was negated.
Second:
The gravity of the situation created by Abraham's omission mirrored the fundamental reality of the fall. On the face of it, one could say that the mistakes of Adam and Eve in the fall were minor when judged against the evils of the fallen world. Yet those seemingly minor mistakes were the cause of all human suffering and misery. A small mistake can have major consequences if the person making the mistake is a central figure on whom many depend. Adam and Eve were the first human ancestors and all humanity was affected by what they did. Abraham had the mission to. establish a foundation for the restoration of all humankind. His error affected everyone in his lineage and all those touched by it in the providence of restoration, which, ultimately, was the whole world. In both cases, because of the great providential importance of these central figures, the failure to complete God-given responsibilities was the cause of great difficulties for the whole of humanity. If God asks for something specific, people should assume that it is important even if they cannot understand how or why from their limited perspective.
Third:
An attitude of total humility and obedience to God is the most powerful weapon against evil. Complete humility was demonstrated by Abraham's son in accepting his father's decision to obey God by sacrificing him. His unconditional willingness to offer his life for the will of God completely defeated Satan's plan to destroy Abraham's family. There was no room for Satan in the relationship between Abraham and his son because both were committed to obey God at the cost of their lives. It would have been easier for Abraham to offer his own life than to kill his beloved child. Their powerful demonstration of faith made it possible for Abraham's family to retain the central providential position that had been put in jeopardy by the mistake made in the earlier offering.
Fourth:
The faith of Abraham and his son represents the ultimate standard of faith, a level of commitment that restores Adam's lost faith. In the fall, Adam ignored God's warning that he would die as the consequence of eating the fruit. He sought to gratify his own desire at the cost of his life. He could not see the absolute importance in something that seemed inconsequential from his narrow point of view. Restoration of Adam's wrong attitude is accomplished when someone in Adam's position sacrifices his own desires for the will of God, even at the cost of his life. It is this willingness to obey God completely, at any cost, that facilitates God's ability to give all, including life, to the one with such faith. Therefore, because Abraham's son was willing to die for God he did not have to die.
Fifth:
Abel has to win the heart of Cain through service and love. Jacob was the first Abel figure in the history of restoration to succeed in laying a foundation of substance because he made a great effort to melt the resentment and anger of Esau by giving love to him even in the most difficult circumstances. The mission of Abel is to win the willing surrender of Cain. Only love can achieve this, and service is the practice of love. Jacob's son Joseph learned well from his father and won his brothers' hearts by serving them with love even though they had acted in an evil way towards him. Both Jacob and Joseph were able to win the willing cooperation of Cain (Esau and the eleven brothers, respectively) to establish foundations of substance, moving the providence of restoration forward significantly.
Conclusion
Abraham's family was the beginning point of the expansion of God's providence of restoration. Out of Abraham's family came the peoples who were chosen by God to bear the major responsibility for the restoration providence: Jews, Christians and Muslims.
With the second generation of Jacob's family having made the clan foundation for true parents, the providence focused on expanding this foundation to a national level. After the end of the four centuries of slavery suffered by the children of Israel, Moses was sent to Egypt to liberate them and to set up a national foundation for true parents, the nation of Israel. The life of Moses and God's providence for Israel and Judaism are the subject matter of the next chapter.
13. Moses, Israel, And Judaism
When the family of Jacob first left Canaan to join Joseph in Egypt it numbered seventy. After 400 years it had grown to form a sizeable population enslaved by the Egyptians. Despite the difficulty of their circumstances, God intended to use Hebrew slaves for the building of a nation to receive true parents. That nation would be God's settlement on earth, the place where His dominion would prevail and from whence the ideal would be expanded to the rest of the world.
To accomplish this nation-building mission, the Israelites had to leave captivity and return to the land of their forefathers, Canaan. According to the principles of restoration, a national foundation has to be built on foundations laid for individual, family and tribal restoration. The Israelites needed a leader who could liberate them from captivity in Egypt and set up a family and tribal foundation for the creation of a nation under God.
Moses was the man chosen by God for this mission. He was to lead the Israelite slaves out of Egypt and into the promised land of Canaan, where they were to establish a theocratic state. Accomplishing this mission proved extremely difficult because the Israelites had grown accustomed to life in Egypt and were reluctant to sacrifice what they had for the uncertain promise of their own nation, even though their lot as slaves was miserable. Because of the faithlessness of the Israelites, Moses had to go through the work of establishing a national foundation three times. Each time Moses had to lay a foundation of faith to qualify as the Abel figure for the whole nation of Israel and then win the trust of the Israelites, who collectively stood in the position of Cain to him, to lay a foundation of substance. Each of these efforts represented a providential course of restoration, a series of events through which God worked to establish a nation to receive true parents.
Moses' First Course
Moses was the son of an Israelite family, but he was adopted by the daughter of the pharaoh and was raised as a prince in the pharaoh's palace. He was educated in the Israelite tradition by his real mother, who stayed in the palace as his wet nurse. Thus although Moses grew up in the heart of the evil world, he was secretly educated about God and told of the instructions and promises God had given his ancestors. At that time, there was no written record of revealed truth to be transmitted from generation to generation, only the oral record of God's dealings with the families of Adam, Noah and Abraham, as well as some lesser figures in the providence. Part of this oral tradition included God's all important promise to Abraham, namely that He would multiply and bless the great patriarch's descendants. The Israelites clung to the hope that God would eventually bless them as the children of Abraham.
One day, when Moses was a grown man, an argument between an Egyptian overseer and an Israelite slave broke out, putting Moses in a position to demonstrate his true loyalties. He killed the Egyptian, showing that despite his royal position he identified with the Hebrew slaves. This was a sign for the Israelites to recognize Moses as the liberator they awaited, but they failed to see their savior in Moses, who in their eyes was a prince of the palace. Moses soon fell under suspicion in the palace for having favored a slave over an Egyptian, and he was forced to leave Egypt for exile in Midian.
Through maintaining his faith in the one true God of Abraham during his years in the palace of the idolatrous pharaoh, Moses succeeded in laying a foundation of faith on the national level. However, the foundation of substance was not established because the Israelites did not recognize and accept him as their Abel figure.
Moses' Second Course
Moses spent his years of exile in Midian while keeping faith in God. He worked for the Arab Jethro, and married one of his daughters, Zipporah. God then called him to return to Egypt to liberate the Israelite slaves. After some hesitation, Moses took up the mission for the second time.
Moses went to the pharaoh's palace to demand the release of his people. The pharaoh was unwilling to let them go, so God gave Moses three signs with which to convince him, and also to show the Israelites that Moses was the leader for whom they had been waiting. When these demonstrations of God's power failed to move the pharaoh, Egypt was afflicted with ten calamities that brought great suffering to the Egyptians and eventually persuaded the pharaoh to allow the Israelites to leave.
The Egyptians depended on the services provided by the Israelite slaves, and the Israelites themselves were accustomed to life in Egypt despite its discomforts and difficulties. Because of this, it took many dramatic displays of God's power to bring about a clear separation between Egypt and the Children of Israel. From a providential point of view, the Israelites needed to realize that they had to completely separate from their old life in Egypt in preparation for creating a God-centered nation in Canaan. So long as they had longings for their past life, they could not respond fully to God's will for the future.
When the pharaoh finally permitted them to leave, they crossed into Sinai. Moses had the tremendously difficult mission of leading an unruly crowd of ex-slaves through the desert to Canaan, the land promised to them by God. They had no written laws to govern the affairs of the twelve tribes and they had no experience of self-government as an independent people. They needed a minimum set of laws and a basic structure for their society to guide them in the transition from slavery under a pagan regime to theocratic statehood.
To meet this need, God led them to Mount Sinai, where He called on Moses to lay a foundation to receive His instructions. According to scriptures, Moses fasted for forty days on Mount Sinai to establish a foundation of faith, and afterwards received the Ten Commandments on two tablets. When he returned to the people he found they had lost faith and reverted to the worship of an Egyptian idol. This prevented the formation of a foundation of substance to receive the word of God.
Because the Israelites failed to make a foundation to receive God's word, Moses smashed the two tablets in anger, destroyed the idol and instructed the Israelites to repent and return to God. He then climbed Mount Sinai again and once more made a forty day fast. Again he received the Ten Commandments on two tablets, but he had to hew them from the rock himself this time. When he once more returned to his people, he found that they had remained faithful to God, thus completing a foundation of substance to receive God's word. The foundations of faith and substance laid at Sinai by Moses and the Israelites together made a foundation for true parents to come in symbolic form, represented by the two tablets.
Ultimately, God wants to send true parents in the flesh, as the word incarnate, because only a sinless man and woman can finally defeat Satan and liberate fallen humans from sin by establishing a pure lineage. However, at the time of Sinai the foundation for true parents was not sufficient for them to come in more than a symbolic, representative manner. God gave Moses the Ten Commandments on two tablets, representing the messiah and his bride to come.
Moses was also given instructions for construction of a Tabernacle, a portable temple for use by the Israelites during the transition from their life in the old, fallen world of Egypt to their new life in Canaan. The Tabernacle was designed with an outer sanctuary, called the Holy Place, and an inner sanctuary, called the Most Holy Place. Moses was instructed to place the two tablets in a special Ark of the Covenant, which, together with the staff of Aaron, would be kept in the Most Holy Place in the Tabernacle. With its inner and outer parts, the Tabernacle was a symbol of the true man and true woman to come, with inner spirit and outer body. Once the Israelites had settled in Canaan they were to build a temple in place of the Tabernacle. By demonstrating their obedience to the Tabernacle and the Ten Commandments they would show their obedience to God. Moses himself set an example for the people by giving utmost respect to the Tabernacle and its holy contents and by obeying the Ten Commandments. By centering their lives of faith on them, the Israelites would prepare to center their lives on true parents.
From Mount Sinai the Israelites continued on their way to Canaan, traveling through the inhospitable desert. The difficulties they faced made many of them regret they had ever left the relative security of life in Egypt. For his part, Moses was faced with the daunting task of transforming a disorderly throng of ex-slaves into a well-organized and disciplined body capable of defeating Canaanite enemies and establishing a nation. But many lost sight of the vision of a promised land and fell to complaining about their situation. Without that vision to inspire them, they lost the power they needed to complete their nation-building mission.
Because of the grumbling, Moses set up a new condition to reestablish the people's faith before attempting to enter Canaan. He selected one person from each tribe to go on a forty-day spying mission in Canaan. When the twelve spies returned, however, ten of them counseled against proceeding with the plan to invade Canaan, advising instead that they all return to Egypt. But two, Joshua and Caleb, said they believed that with God's help the Israelites would be able to prevail in Canaan, despite the formidable strength of the Canaanites. This agreed with Moses' position. He understood that God wanted the people to enter Canaan by all means. Turning back would negate the value of all the efforts that had brought them that far. However, most of the Israelites united with the ten spies who advised a return to Egypt, thus rejecting the position advocated by Moses.
The Israelites had once more disunited with Moses. Consequently the foundation of substance in the second course could not be completed successfully. God told the Israelites that because of their lack of faith they would not be allowed to enter Canaan at all, but would instead have to pass through an indemnity period of forty years in the desert, after which only the new generation would be allowed to enter Canaan.
Moses' Third Course
During the Hebrews' forty years in the desert, Moses, in the Abel position, remained faithful to God, for the third time setting up a successful foundation of faith. But when, towards the end of this period, the people demanded water to drink, Moses lost his temper at their complaining and in anger struck the rock at Kadesh-Barnea two times, to produce water for them. By this time, Moses had struggled with the faithlessness of the Israelites for so long he could not contain his anger at them. But this was an error, since according to God's instructions only one strike was needed. Because of this error, Moses was told that he would not be able to enter Canaan himself, but would only be granted a chance to see it. The ire of Moses blocked God's providence because God still depended on the Israelites to set up a providential nation, and Moses, representing God, had to continue to love them and lead them for God's will to be fulfilled.
Because of his three great foundations of faith, the Israelites would indeed reach the land promised them by God, where they would set up a nation to receive true parents. Nevertheless, the error of Moses resulted in a prolongation of the providence to build a temple and receive the true parents. Instead of this taking place within Moses' course, it was postponed yet another 400 years to the time of kings, Saul, David and Solomon.
Joshua
Moses climbed to the top of Mount Nebo and looked out over the lower Jordan valley and the Dead Sea to the promised land of Canaan, knowing he would never enter the land himself. Prior to this, he had selected Joshua to stand in his place as Abel to the people and as the man responsible to complete a foundation of substance in the third course. Joshua was selected because he had been completely faithful to the Tabernacle and the law, and had been united with Moses throughout the Israelites' ordeal in the desert. To restore the lost spying condition, Joshua sent two spies into Jericho, a mission they completed successfully, opening the way for the Israelites to enter into Canaan. Thus Moses' mission to lay a national foundation for true parents was eventually completed by Joshua in the third course.
Joshua's victory opened the way for the twelve tribes of Israel to settle in Canaan and establish a nation there. Joshua campaigned hard for the realization of a unified Jewish nation in Canaan, both by carrying out military campaigns to subdue the Canaanite kings and by trying to unify the disputatious tribal chiefs of Israel. Joshua was supported by members of the second generation of Israelites, who were completely separated from their parents' life in Egypt, and united in their determination to obey God. Their faith and unity with Joshua enabled them to prevail against the more numerous and better-armed Canaanites.
Lessons from Moses' Life Course
First:
There is a need for payment of greater indemnity when a condition is unsuccessful. Because of faithlessness among the Israelites, the second attempt to set up a national foundation for true parents was more difficult than the first, and the third more difficult than the second. To show this, the Hebrew scriptures depict Moses' life as consisting of three forty-year periods. Moses' course in the pharaoh's palace was relatively easy, as was the responsibility of the Israelites, who merely had to accept Moses as their leader. In the second course, Moses went through a difficult exile in Midian to lay a second foundation of faith, and the people had to suffer through many trials and tribulations to be separated from the Egyptians and to reach Canaan. But the third course, in which Moses and the people had to survive in the desert for forty years, was by far the most difficult.
Second:
A providential leader has to take responsibility for the failures of his followers if God's dispensation is to advance in his lifetime. Representing Abel to the people, Moses had to take responsibility for their many mistakes by laying new conditions of indemnity on their behalf. For example, when they refused to accept him in Egypt, he had to suffer exile and re-establish a foundation of faith, even though the primary responsibility for the failure for the first exodus providence lay with the Hebrew slaves and not with Moses. Again, when the people lost faith during his first forty-day fast on Mount Sinai, he prayed for their forgiveness and returned to the mountain for a second forty-day fast, so that he could once more receive the Ten Commandments for the people. His whole life was devoted to saving the Israelites even though their behavior on the surface indicated that they neither wanted to be saved nor appreciated what Moses had done for them. A leader in the providence of restoration must expect to make indemnity conditions for his followers, regardless of their lack of appreciation. It is a willingness to sacrifice for others that qualifies someone as a central figure in restoration history.
Third:
Moses' life shows that if a central figure maintains his position by fulfilling the conditions called for by the providence, he can continue to be used by God even if those he is responsible for fail to fulfill their own responsibilities. Moses, as Abel, laid foundations of faith only to face faithlessness among the Israelites. Nevertheless, when one course was cut short because the Israelites would not follow him, Moses set about laying a foundation for the next course. His position and mission as Abel was not changed by the failure of Cain. Only when the faithlessness of the people led him to make a mistake did he lose the Abel position, which passed to Joshua.
Fourth:
Restoration is accomplished in three stages: symbol, image and substance. This follows the pattern of three stages of growth in creation. God first made nature, which embodies His essence symbolically, and then created human beings in His image. When humans grow to completion they become true parents, the substantial incarnation of God. In Israel, true man and woman were symbolized by the two tablets of stone inscribed with the word of God, the Ten Commandments. The two-part Tabernacle and the Temple which would replace it were images of a true person. Substantial restoration was to be accomplished by a man and woman in the flesh.
Fifth:
The course of Moses demonstrates the need for law as well as a leader. The law embodies the will of God for fallen people and keeps them on the path of restoration even when there is no leader to do so. Before and after Moses, there were many centuries during which there was no one to guide humanity through the pitfalls of the fallen world. Before Moses, there was no law to fill the leadership gap; after Moses, the laws he brought guided the Israelites on the right path. Should a leader in the providence make a mistake due to his fallen nature, the law will not be destroyed. Ultimately, the laws of God prepare humankind to receive the perfect embodiment of God and His laws, the true parents.
Sixth:
Moses' course shows the importance of setting up a righteous tradition. Because the Israelite slaves in Egypt departed from the traditions of Abraham's family, they had difficulty following Moses. Throughout Moses' course, he struggled to implant a lasting, God-centered tradition. For example, the Hebrews were instructed to erect a Tabernacle so that they could be trained in a life of faith centered on one central figure. The tradition of loyalty to the Tabernacle, and later to the Temple which replaced it, was to train the Israelites to receive true parents who would one day come as the living embodiments of these objects of faith. A good tradition provides reliable guidance for fallen people, keeping them on the path towards fulfillment of the three blessings.
Seventh:
Followers need to trust in their Abel's greater understanding of God's invisible providence. Moses showed a faith in God's dispensation that was not shared by most of the other Israelites. He believed that all would work out to their benefit, as promised by God, even though at times their situation was desperate. Regardless of the setbacks and difficulties they faced, Moses persevered in his mission, convinced that the Israelites were participating in God's providence. It is easy for someone in the fallen world to lose faith in God's dispensation for restoration, because fallen humanity is surrounded by an environment dominated by evil, not good. This reality has caused great difficulties for the central figures sent by God. Usually they are rejected by the very people they seek to help. Thus Moses was repeatedly rejected by the Israelites even though he demonstrated the power of God working with him; Jesus was also rejected by his own people, even though his life was a model of devotion to God; and Mohammed was rejected by the people of Mecca until his successes in Medina showed that God was working with him. The central figure of any providence is given greater insight into God's plans because God has chosen to work through that person for the benefit of the whole. Followers have to trust their leaders' greater understanding of God's dispensation and demonstrate faith accordingly.
Eighth:
Providential leaders must develop parental hearts if they are to express God's love to followers and avoid making mistakes. A central figure should only express anger at evil itself and not at the people God wants to save from evil. The heart of a true parent may be angry at an evil act of a child but will always maintain love for that child and work for his or her salvation. The course of Moses reveals that uncontrolled anger was his one real shortcoming. His anger at Kadesh was directed at the people themselves and not just the specific lack of faith they displayed. This unparental rage had destructive consequences for Moses and the Israelites.
Israel
Moses led the Israelites out of captivity in Egypt to build a God-centered nation in Canaan, a nation prepared to receive true parents and lead the world back to God. This chosen nation was called Israel. The history of Israel is the history of a struggle to establish a settlement for God's people in the midst of the fallen world. The mission was especially difficult because no pattern existed for a God-centered nation and the institutions necessary for its development. The problems faced in nation-building resulted in several further delays in God's providence, delays which occurred when mistakes were committed by central figures and their followers in Israel. God made painstaking efforts to guide and educate the people of Israel, never abandoning them despite their many failures. Eventually, after sixteen centuries, a foundation was finally set up for true parents, and Jesus was sent as the long-awaited savior, or messiah.
The Era of Judges
Despite his best efforts, Joshua was unable to unify Israel. Tribes tended to pursue their own interests rather than contribute to building a unified nation. Furthermore, a lack of faith in God among the Israelites, and their tendency to mix socially and religiously with the pagan Canaanites, sometimes through marriage, resulted in the Israelites losing sight of their real purpose in Canaan. As a people guided by God, theirs was the Abel position relative to the Canaanites, but they became confused about their own beliefs. As Abel they were to love the Canaanites, winning them to God's side through service and education in the truth of God. However, without clear spiritual understanding and conviction they could not accomplish this.
Joshua was the first judge over the people of Israel, combining the roles of king, chief priest and prophet. He was followed by a succession of Judges, the last being Samuel. Throughout this period, the Israelites worshiped at the tabernacle, which moved from tribe to tribe. The period of Judges, reckoned as 400 years in scriptures, was marked by ongoing conflicts between the various tribes and with other peoples in the lands they sought to settle. The Israelites increasingly wanted a strong political leader to unite the tribes and establish a strong kingdom.
The United Kingdom of Israel
The last Judge, Samuel, responded to the peoples' desire and anointed Saul as the first king of a united Israel. However, because of jealousy he failed to support the new king as the national Abel. Saul was a gifted warrior and did his best to protect the nation, but his quarrels with Samuel were his undoing. Saul and Samuel failed to make the condition for a foundation of substance on the national level. Furthermore, Saul neglected the Tabernacle and was unable to build a temple to house the Ark of the Covenant, the two tablets and the staff of Aaron.
David succeeded Saul as king of Israel on the strength of his faith in God and courage in battle. He was a prophet as well as a king, and he authored many beautiful songs praising God. But David spent most of his forty-year rule securing Israel against its enemies. Because he had shed so much blood, David was not allowed by God to build a temple.
That mission was passed to David's son, Solomon, who, in the fourth year of his forty-year reign, began building a great temple. Once completed, the Temple of Solomon was a magnificent testimony to the Israelites' devotion to God. As king of Israel, Solomon was to unite the twelve tribes with the Temple and its holy contents.
But Solomon failed this all-important mission. He married 700 wives and took an additional 300 concubines, in some cases compromising his own faith and the faith of his people by allowing the erection of altars to the idols worshiped by his women. How could the Israelites be expected to unite around the one true God and the Temple if their leader himself was not setting the example? Through his loss of judgment, Solomon failed to qualify as Abel for the nation of Israel.
Externally, Israel itself was well-qualified for the mission of chosen nation at that time, achieving its highest level of development as a dominant power in the Middle East. This national-level success was given to Israel by God so that it could accomplish the pivotal task of receiving and protecting true parents and expanding their foundation to the worldwide level. But Solomon's fallen relations with women, through which the purity of the Temple was polluted, led to the destruction of God's providence centered on the United Kingdom of Israel. Solomon's error compromised Israel so that, according to the Principle, it had to be purified through division into Cain and Abel. Consequently, Israel was split into two nations.
The Divided Kingdoms of Israel and Judah
When Adam fell, he had to be 'divided' into Cain and Abel for his lineage to be purified. When Solomon failed, his kingdom was divided into the northern kingdom of Israel, with ten tribes under his rebellious servant Jeroboam, and the southern kingdom of Judah, with two tribes under his overweening son Rehoboam. With this physical division, the fallen elements within Israel were to be separated from original elements and the kingdom purified. The southern kingdom was in the Abel position and the northern kingdom in the Cain position.
Judah's mission was to win Israel back to God's way through love and education. To accomplish this, several prophets were sent to the north to teach God's truth and separate the northerners from idolatrous practices. Despite the power of God demonstrated by these prophets, however, the people of Israel did not repent and return to God. Their disobedience made a condition for evil to overtake them, and instead of being reconciled to Judah through repentance and love Israel was attacked and destroyed by the Assyrians, some 240 years after the death of Solomon. The ten tribes were scattered and to this day are called the lost tribes of Israel.
Despite all the efforts of the prophets, the people of Judah also could not be brought to genuine repentance. Many among them were hypocrites. The defilement of both Judah and Israel meant that God lacked a nation through which to establish a foundation for true parents. Thus this period, of approximately 400 years, ended in failure.
Babylonian Exile and Return
Because of its defilement, God permitted King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon to invade Judah. Jerusalem was sacked, the Temple of Solomon destroyed and the holy objects (the Ark of the Covenant, the two tablets and the staff of Aaron) were lost forever. Thus ended the Kingdom of Israel, founded by Saul, built up by David and divided on the death of Solomon. The evil of idolatry that had undermined the faith of Israel was not expunged from the midst of the Israelites in the course of the four centuries of divided kingdoms. Therefore, the leading class of what had once been Solomon's Israel, now reduced to remnants of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, were taken as prisoners to Babylon. They were kept in captivity there for seventy years.
The destruction of their kingdom and Temple and the harshness of their captivity shocked the Israelites into realizing how far they had strayed from their purpose as builders of God's chosen nation. Despite their mistakes, however, God still wanted to use them for that purpose, having given them the lineage and the truth needed for restoration. When they repented deeply for their sins and begged God to allow them to return to Jerusalem, God was moved by their purified attitude and forgave them. They were finally liberated when a Zoroastrian king, Cyrus the Great of Persia, conquered Babylon, freed them from captivity and allowed them to return to Jerusalem. The return to Israel took place in three stages over the course of more than a century.
On their return to Jerusalem, the reconstruction of the Temple was initiated and the Jews, as they were now called, under the leadership of central figures such as Nehemiah and Ezra, recommitted themselves to the founding principles of Israel: the laws revealed to Moses. Israel was re-established as a theocratic state, having been cleansed of sin through its indemnity course in exile. The whole period of Babylonian exile, return to Israel, reconstruction of Jerusalem and the Temple and restoration of the theocratic state took approximately 210 years.
Preparation Period for True Parents
Israel then embarked on a final 400-year period of preparation for the true parents. During this era the chosen people paid tremendous indemnity to qualify for the blessing of being the first nation restored. Israel was conquered in succession by the Persians, Greeks, Egyptians, Syrians and Romans, the last in 63 BC. Only during a single century of Maccabean rule did Israel enjoy any real independence from foreign control. The national tribulations of Israel heightened the longing of the Jewish people for a savior, the messiah. The prophets had told of his coming, but it was four centuries after the last great messianic prophecy, that of Malachi, before Jesus was sent to fulfill the mission of the promised messiah, the mission of true parents.
However, when Jesus of Nazareth was sent to Israel as the savior of the world, for whom all these preparations had been undertaken, he was not accepted by the Jews as the awaited messiah, and was executed by the occupying Roman army. The reasons for this tragic turn of events, and the consequences for the providence of restoration, are explained in Chapter 17.
Judaism
in the course of restoration centered on Moses, for the first time ever fallen humanity was given the word of God in the form of revealed truth. Prior to this revelation of truth, there had been no articulation of God's will and laws to guide men and women on the path of restoration. They had wandered aimlessly in the wilderness of their own ignorance for centuries, unable to find the way forward to the fulfillment of their purpose.
Beginning with the Ten Commandments, the Children of Israel were given specific instructions for their lives. Out of these the beliefs and practices of the religion of Judaism were shaped. However, modern Judaism, although rooted in Mosaic law, has been enriched by centuries of revelations, insights and scholarship. Hence, Judaism after the time of Jesus is not the same as the Judaism of the Bible, for it has developed in its own path. Christians and Muslims who want to understand Judaism cannot expect to know it only through scripture, but must encounter Judaism as a living tradition.
Judaism and Christianity have had a stormy relationship. Many Jews have suffered under Christian anti-Semitism for 2000 years, and they have often been more welcome in Muslim lands. Christians need to repent for persecuting Jews, a behavior in contradiction to the teachings of Jesus. For its part, Judaism must work to resolve its deep-seated resentment against Christianity. Such milestones as the recent establishment of diplomatic ties between Israel and the Vatican reflect encouraging trends.
Each religion offers its own special perceptions of God and provides a basis for a life of faith, giving it an eternal value that transcends time and place. Judaism, as the first truly monotheistic faith, is the elder brother of Christianity and Islam and contains the essential truths on which those two global religions are founded. Judaism, like all religions, awaits its completion through the true parents, who together fulfill the mission of the messiah.
Judaism does not exist for itself. God gave the Jews the law and scriptures as a trust to be taught to the world. Jews were the first witnesses to the one God, and Judaism has the proud tradition of giving God-centered values to humankind. Furthermore, the Jewish contribution to human civilization is enormous. Jews have been prominent in literature, art, philosophy, economics and science, in many cases leading in these fields. The quality of Jewish culture has provided the foundation for tremendous flourishing in many areas of human endeavor.
God has never abandoned His promise to the Jews, even though they rejected Jesus. How else can one explain the remarkable survival of Judaism despite centuries of adversity? The founding of the modem nation of Israel in 1948 marked a new beginning in God's providence for the Jewish people. But the State of Israel does not exist for itself. Its existence makes it possible for Jews to have the status of a nation so that they might deal with confidence in rebuilding their relationships with the more powerful brother religions, Christianity and Islam. The creation of modern Israel provides a new opportunity to restore, with surrounding Arabs, the unresolved Cain-Abel conflicts dating back to Ishmael and Isaac. Finally, and most important, the rebirth of Israel gave the Jewish people a second chance to receive true parents.
Conclusion
Through making tremendous efforts in three attempts to liberate the Hebrew slaves and establish a God-centered nation, Moses virtually dragged the people of Israel out of their fallen environment in Egypt and through the inhospitable desert of Sinai to the promised land of Canaan. At the end of his life, Moses passed the mission of establishing a nation for God to Joshua, who became the first leader of newly-founded Israel.
The history of Israel as a nation, from its founding by Joshua to the coming of Jesus, is a record of struggles to achieve national unity and purity in the face of internal dissension and external attacks. Israel, as the nation chosen to receive true parents, had to prepare for its mission by becoming a principled state, governed by God's laws. Frequently during those centuries the Children of Israel lost sight of their purpose as they sank into pettiness and squabbling. To rectify this, and keep the providence moving towards its goal, God sent many prophets and righteous leaders, and sometimes chastisements, to put the people back on the right track. Eventually, sufficient conditions were laid for God to send Jesus as the messiah with the mission to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, beginning with the people of Israel.
During the final period leading up to the coming of Jesus, Israel was not alone in preparing for true parents. The rest of the world was experiencing an unprecedented era of enlightenment, with developments in all areas of human endeavor. Since the mission of true parents is to save all humankind, every culture contains internal elements that provide a foundation for receiving them. The next chapter outlines the global preparations for the realization of God's ideal on earth, centered on Jesus.
14. Global Preparation For True Parents And The Rise Of Asian Religions
Since the mission of God's chosen family is to free all humankind from Satan's dominion, the providence preparing for its coming, although for many centuries centered in the lineage of Jacob, ultimately embraces all peoples. No one is excluded from God's restoration plan. Furthermore, restoration itself is not an exclusively spiritual phenomenon. It has to do with both mind and body entering a state of perfect harmony with God. This means that people have to achieve physical as well as spiritual well-being. Consequently, the history of restoration, while focused on uniting humanity with God, has included the development of human ability to achieve true dominion over creation. Both the internal and external advancement of humanity serve the purpose of preparing an environment in which true parents can establish an ideal world.
In the time period before Jesus came, God worked through prepared individuals and groups in several parts of the world to raise the consciousness of people everywhere to accept the messiah and his bride. This work of global preparation embraced all fields of human knowledge and activity, from the establishment and renewal of religions to the discovery of scientific principles and the invention of new technologies. These dramatic transformations shook the whole civilized world, from Greece and Rome in the west, right along the length of Asia, through Persia and the Indian subcontinent, to China in the east.
The trigger for this unprecedented global awakening was the repentance of the Israelites in Babylon (c. 600 BC), when they asked God's forgiveness for their sins and committed themselves to heed his words by returning to the true faith of Moses. Since the restoration providence was centered in the people of Israel, their purity of heart was an essential condition for God to realize His will through them. Since the Israelites were chosen for the central role of preparing for true parents, their course determined events throughout the world. Once they were firmly grounded in their commitment to prepare the way for the messiah, God could begin the preparations of other peoples in other places.
All of humanity is nothing other than the single family of God. All people are descendants of the original parents Adam and Eve, who themselves were created by God. Religion became necessary for members of this family only because its founders, the original ancestors, left God and fell into the hands of Satan. Religious history and all history moves toward the moment in which the victorious true parents reverse the actions of Adam and Eve, dissolve fallen reality, and establish an eternal lineage connected to God's original creation. It is inevitable that every human being will eventually participate in this final restoration. The immeasurable benefits of restored lineage are not meant for people of only one religion. All true religion must, by definition, have the same goal and purpose, which is to release its members from vulnerability to evil and establish them in an eternal, unbreakable relationship with God. Religions carry out this mission by preparing their followers to engraft to the family of the perfected original ancestors, where they are embraced eternally by God. The unique aspect of the Jewish religion is its development around God's efforts to establish a purified lineage. However, by no means can it be reasonably concluded that the blessings resulting therefrom are meant solely for members of that group.
In anticipation of the birth of Jesus in Israel as the true parent, God and the spiritual world initiated a worldwide program of spiritual instruction and revelation. This spiritual outpouring occurred simultaneously with the preparation period for the messiah in Judaism. The repentance of the Jews in Babylon led to religious renewal, guided by Ezra, Malachi and other prophetic figures, as well as reconstruction of the Temple and Jerusalem, under the leadership of Nehemiah and other wise governors. The new era of religious and cultural inspiration that dawned after the Babylon turning point prepared all regions of the known world for the imminent advent of true parents in Israel. This era, which gave birth to most of the world's major religions, has been termed the Axial period.
In East Asia, God raised up the philosophers Lao Tzu (604-531 BC) and later Confucius (552-479 BC) to provide a principled social order through which people could prepare for the heavenly social order centered on true parents. Confucius understood the providence of God as the Mandate of Heaven, and, living like a prophet, he urged leaders of his time to conform to ethical laws.
In the Indian subcontinent, God sent Buddha (563-483 BC) and Mahavira to purify Hinduism. These founders of Buddhism and Jainism, respectively, taught the path of self-discipline to be trod by those who wish to fulfill their true purpose by becoming pure, perfected beings. Buddha rejected the Hindu worship of idols, and by denying the material world made himself a true object of God. so that he could be enlightened by God's love and truth.
The Iranian prophet Zarathustra (c.600 BC) taught an ethical monotheism. Zoroastrianism flourished in Persia and introduced important concepts about God to the people living in the geographic area between the Israelites and the adherents of Eastern spiritual paths.
To the west and north of Israel, Greek civilization flowered. In Greece, God nurtured a civilization which developed many important concepts and principles for organizing societies, nations and the world. Greek thinkers wrestled with the cosmic questions that have challenged humanity down through the ages, and were particularly concerned with logical explanations of the phenomena of life.
Even when explained in outline, each of the world religions and philosophies that developed during this period can be seen to contain important insights about God and the creation. Even though the expression of these truths often differed from monotheistic teachings, the new concepts and beliefs served to complement the revelations given to Jesus later on.
No major new religion, except Islam, has arisen since the Axial period because the pinnacle of spiritual knowledge necessary for human beings to engraft to the true parents' family was already fully given at that time. God anticipated that the new religions and philosophies would readily unite with the Kingdom of Heaven expanding around Jesus' family. Through them people were elevated to a fully prepared state, ready to make the final step in which they would be permanently released from Satan and united forever with God. When the faithlessness of those prepared to attend Jesus led to his murder, these spheres of near perfect spiritual preparation found in the world's religions were left unfulfilled. The mechanism for taking that final step, however, was thwarted with the abrupt and tragic abortion of Jesus' mission.
This phenomenal period of preparation for the messiah occurred throughout the civilized world with remarkable coincidence. No adequate explanation has ever been offered for this global phenomenon. In the context of the Principle, however, this period of religious awakening is clearly explained. It is simply God prepating the world for the birth of the true parents and the subsequent expansion of the original ideal. God provided visions of truth and love to Lao Tzu, Confucius, sages in the Vedic tradition, Mahavira, Lord Buddha and Zarathustra, who established lasting religious traditions, and God inspired philosophers, scientists and artists who pioneered new vistas of human knowledge and creativity.
Taoism
Despite debate about the origins of Taoism, most scholars affirm the historical existence of its founder, Lao Tzu (604-531 BC), who probably wrote the seminal text of Taoism, the Tao Te Ching (translated either as The Way and its Power, or The Way and its Virtue).
Taoism is the religion of "human at-homeness in the universe." Its metaphysics acknowledge the oneness of the ultimate principle which is limitless and beyond rational analysis. Tao is "the Mystery of Mysteries. "
The ideal human response to this ultimate is expressed in the elusive concept of wu wei. Successfully applying wu wei allows one's inner radiance to shine forth. It is "doing without doing, acting without acting." When one is still, quiet, passive and receptive the Tao itself will act through that person. Wu wei:
Can make the small great and the few many Requites injuries with good deeds Deals with the hard while it is still easy With the great while it is still small Therefore the Sage knows too How to make the easy difficult, and by doing so Avoid all difficulties (Tao Te Ching 63)
Here is a religion of humility, self-surrender for the human being and harmony with the natural world. It is a way that seeks to enter into the mysterious oneness of the absolute principle. At least one additional element that is readily identifiable as preparation for true parents is the strong influence of yang-yin, the ancient Chinese philosophic al principle at the base of all Chinese religion. Yang and yin describe complementary polarities characteristic not only of male and female interaction but also the harmonization of heaven and earth.
Confucianism
Kung Fu Tzu (Confucius) was born 553 BC (d. 479 BC) in Shantung Province, China. Although nine books constitute the primary corpus of Confucianism, it is commonly acknowledged that the Analects is a faithful rendering of what Confucius said to his disciples, and basic to understanding his life and thought.
The starting point of Confucius' thought revolves around hsiao, or filial piety, obedience to elders. This core principle underlies the entire development of a system with values that Confucius rightly believed would result in a good society, a good government and a good life for families and individuals. Grounded in hsiao, each person, family or leader of large political units should seek to embody five special characteristics. These are: first, chung tzu, the qualities of a superior individual, one who is "broad-minded, not small-minded, conciliatory but not flattering, dignified but not arrogant... has a kind expression, respectful manner, and is sincere in what one says"; second, jen, true virtue, benevolence, good will, "human-heartedness"; third, li, good manners, propriety and respect at all times (one should approach all things in life with the same reverence, awe and humility with which one performs ritual and offering); fourth, te, heavenly power that comes from harmony; and fifth, wen, the arts of peace.
The training ground for the acquisition of these virtues is the constellation of relationships which revolve around hsiao. The cornerstone of goodness, hsiao is given naturally. Because humanity owes its existence to parents, respect for them grows naturally. When people love their parents and serve them gratefully, their moral sense is born. Following this is the relationship of husband and wife, elder and younger sibling, elder and younger friend, ruler and subject.
Education through these relationships creates the ideal character for both leaders and the population at large. Confucius was most concerned about leadership and proper governing. Once, when asked by a powerful ruler for wisdom and advice about how he could better rule the subjects of his province, Confucius quietly replied that the emperor should first learn to rule himself. In The Great Learning, Confucian political philosophy is expounded in terms of three principles and eight general rules. The principles are: to manifest illustrious virtue; to show love for people; and to rest in the highest good. The rules are: to investigate many things; to extend knowledge; to be guided by sincere thoughts; to "rectify" your heart; to cultivate personality; to regulate your own family; to govern your state well; and to bring peace to the world.
Confucius understood himself to be an instrument of divine providence. Heaven, in Confucianism, is the transcendent and benevolent power that brings peace and justice to the world through conferring its mandate upon men. The Mandate of Heaven comes to righteous kings who bring prosperity to their subjects. When a dynasty becomes corrupt and oppresses its people, heaven's mandate departs. Heaven hears the cry of the oppressed, taught Confucius, in words similar to those of the Hebrew prophets.
Confucius saw himself as a teacher of kings and princes, who was to educate them in good government, that they might do the will of heaven. Yet his advice was rarely heeded. Only a few people recognized his greatness during his lifetime, among them a certain gatekeeper, who said of the master:
The kingdom has long been without the principles of truth and right; Heaven is going to use your master as a bell with its wooden tongue. (Analects 3.24)
Confucius came to the end of his life with virtually no external trappings of greatness. Lao Tzu's external legacy was even less. The latter never even attempted to create a following, and is said to have reluctantly written the Tao, Te Ching in a day or two at the request of another gatekeeper at a westerly mountain pass. Astonishingly, the influence of these two teachers, themselves like yang and yin, brought the China of their day, and in centuries to come, out of the horror, brutality and inhumanity of the plummeting Chou dynasty, an age of war without chivalry and unthinkable social disintegration. By the time of Jesus, China was enjoying, under the Han dynasty, a flowering of Confucian culture.
Hinduism
Hinduism, the religion of the Vedic Aryans in India, underwent a transformation remarkably similar to the Persians at virtually the same time. Both Aryan settlements derived from the same period of migration, and both had developed similar religious and cultural aspects in their community by the time of this age of preparation.
Pre-Upanishadic Hinduism was rooted in the polytheism and ritualism of the Vedas, the most sacred Hindu scriptures. Vedic religion was primarily a household religion revolving around Agni, the god of fire. Agni was experienced both in the hearth-fire of each home -- the fire that cooked their food and warmed their homes, and the mighty Sun (Savitir), the fire that dispelled the darkness of night. Agni was worshiped as a source of fertility in human beings, animals and land. The other god to whom a large number of hymns of the Rig Veda are addressed is Indra, the warrior god who led the Aryans to victory and settlement in northern India. Besides Agni and Indra, the Vedic Aryans honored and worshiped a number of other major gods and many minor ones.
These gods could make human beings happy if they themselves were made happy. The primary way to achieve this was through the performance of ritual. In the late Vedic period, the time of the Atharva Veda, these rituals came to include charms against disease and danger, and magical formulas for cursing personal enemies. Thus the use of magic, though proscribed in the early books of the Rig Veda, came to be sanctioned.
In the midst of this corrupted Vedic religion a major reformation took place, emerging just at the period upon which this chapter focuses. From c. 700 BC philosophical speculation began to be collected and preserved, some in the form of dialogues between famous sages of the time and their questioners. These collections were called the Upanishads. There was one question above all with which the early Upanishads were preoccupied: Is there one single eternal reality that is the source and essence of the multiform variety of the experienced world? If there is such an ultimate reality, what is it and how might it be known?
These metaphysical explorations led the sages to identify the ancient idea of the all-pervasive, holy power Brahman as the answer. Brahman was thought to exist independently of the universe, as its source and essence. Of course, the strong element of immanence, derived from the linked concept of Atman (individual soul), established an enduring interface with a monist cosmology. Nevertheless, it is startling to find in this period of global revelation that the great Vedic sages Yajnavalkya and Uddalaka Aruni, for the first time in ages of Vedic history established a foundation of either monotheism or monism relating to the concept of "one ultimate reality that is the source of existence and value for the whole world."
In addition, this is also the very time in which the doctrine of karma is developed. Essentially, the doctrine of karma teaches that suffering and happiness are determined directly by one's own actions. Here, in short, are the necessary foundation and metaphysical moorings of personal responsibility. It must be acknowledged that these doctrines, such as karma, did not appear in popular Hinduism until later in the Laws of Manu, but the changes were already taking place earlier in the Upanishads.
The infusion of monotheism and the foundations for absolute personal responsibility was equaled in importance by the end of Indo-Aryan isolation in the region. The Vedic age came to an end with the intensive encounter with the cultures that lay to the east and south of Vedic territory, beginning about 500 BC. This significant degree of contact between Dravidian people and the Aryans, who had hitherto kept to themselves, further indicates a synchronicity with global preparations for the birth of Jesus. Through the opening of cultural exchange, religious reform and development occurring outside Indo-Aryan territory could spread throughout all ethnic areas. This condition for emerging unification in the region was a necessary element for receiving the Adamic culture without added obstacles of isolation and religious exclusivism.
Jainism
One such development outside Vedic territory was the reformation of Jainism. For eight centuries Jains lived next door to Vedic Aryans. The two communities had virtually opposing religious views, and, for all intents and purposes, no substantial contact. In the sixth century BC, there arose Mahavira, "The Great Hero," the 24th Tirthankara (completely enlightened man). There was a fundamental transformation of the status of Jainism from the time of Mahavira. Although 23 Tirthankaras preceded him (the 23rd having taught c. 900-800 BC) the record of their appearance, according to Jain teachings, occurred over the course of hundreds of thousands of years. Thus from the perspective of religious history, little of Jainism can be known or considered prior to the 23rd Tirthankara. Today's Jains are entirely oriented to the life and teachings of Mahavira.
Mahavira taught a rigorous doctrine of karma which empowered the religious call for personal self-discipline and control of physical and fleshly impulses. The second important contribution of Mahavira was his strong teaching against the caste system. Here, again, the inner impulse which generated this position (apart from the abuses of the Brahmins) was a concern and advocacy for personal responsibility. Mahavira recognized a Brahmin not by birth but by how he acted. People may be born in a higher or lower caste, but by a life of purity and love a slave girl could be as saintly as a priest.
As Jainism in this period entered into dialogue with Indo-Aryan religious thought, there developed a balance between the transcendent ultimate of the Upanishads and the human response as personal striving.
Buddhism
A contemporary of Mahavira, although a younger man, was Siddhartha Gautama, called "the Buddha," "the Enlightened One." The rise of Buddhism during the sixth century BC in India also parallels the writings of the Upanishads. The life and teachings of the Buddha are far better known than those of the sages of the Upanishads, or of the Jain Mahavira. The Buddha's biography is an exciting one which results in a simple but challenging doctrine embedded in the Four Noble Truths and the Eight-Fold Path.
The Four Noble Truths define the world view which one must have as a foundation for personal liberation. The Eight-Fold Path consists of a tightly conceived system of ethics requiring believers to bear right views, right aspiration, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration. This simple program for liberation provides a radical emphasis on human responsibility. (In fact the non-theistic foundations of Buddhism may distinguish it as the most radical of all world religions in the matter of human responsibility.) Together with the Buddha's (like Mahavira's) thorough rejection of the caste system, this made of Buddhism a powerful force for religious reform.
Buddha taught the importance of mind as the causal factor in all of life. "As one thinks, so one becomes," is an encapsulation of his thought. Buddhist discipline in right mindfulness requires first awareness and then control of every thought, desire and feeling that arises in consciousness. Buddha taught that since these can be brought to awareness, they are not identical with the self and can be expunged; that since they continually arise and decay, they are but impermanent phenomena and therefore not ultimately real. The Buddhist learns to abandon attachments to all phenomena, both of matter and mind, in the quest for what is ultimate and permanent. Thus the Buddhist quest has as its goal the unchanging beyond.
Yet Buddhism is reluctant to name this goal. Sometimes it is called nirvana, the state beyond any description. To describe it would be to create a false phenomenal image of what is beyond phenomena. Many Buddhists believe this goal to be the same reality that the Christian or Muslim describes as oneness with God. But doctrinally it is difficult for many Buddhists to affirm God in the sense God is understood by Christians and Muslims. The Buddha rejected any notion of a Creator-God, because in his world all such concepts were bound up with the Hindu gods and worship of their idols. Buddha's rejection of Hindu idolatry led some people to call him an atheist, but in fact he was rejecting worship of the creation. He viewed Indra and other Hindu gods as finite beings who, like mortals, are trapped in the material realm, ignorant of truth. Thus he sought a truer vision of the absolute God.
Buddhism recognized the Absolute to have the divine qualities of wisdom (prajna) and compassion (karuna). A person who realizes Buddhist enlightenment develops the qualities of wisdom in conduct and compassion for all living beings.
Buddha denied the efficacy of external rites and ritual sacrifices. Neither bathing in the Ganges nor inflicting self-immolation would serve to purify the believer, according to Buddha. Buddhism denounced the magic, ritualism and increasing abuses among the Brahmin caste. Buddhism clearly was part of global preparations to receive true parents.
Thus the unprecedented religious ferment on the Indian subcontinent elevated the people of the region to radical new spiritual planes. Throughout the region religious life turned away from polytheism, ritualism, magic and, at times, even dark and destructive spiritual practices. Through the influences of the sages of the Upanishads in north-central India. and Mahavira and Lord Buddha to the east and south, these areas were under intense spiritual influences in preparation for the advent of the messiah and the easterly expansion of the true parents' culture of the original ideal.
Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism, traced to what is now Iran, at one time occupied territories which included Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and, at times, Palestine and Turkey. Zoroastrian Iran was finally defeated by the expansion of Islam, but for over a thousand years Zoroastrianism was the official religion of three major world empires, making it perhaps the most powerful faith of the time. Its later settlement in India is not relevant to our present discussion.
The dates for the Iranian prophet Zarathustra, or Zoroaster, as his name comes to us through ancient Greek writers, are debated. Those around which greatest consensus occur place him in the sixth or seventh century BC, around 600 BC, within a century of the establishment of the Achaemenid dynasty. The Persian King Cyrus, who released the Israelites from captivity, was Zoroastrian.
Zarathustra was a prophet of righteousness, a teacher who in the name of ethical idealism opposed the degraded popular faith of Persia. He was a spokesman for the one God in a land where religion was dominated by a sacrificial cult to nature deities, presided over by a priestly class. At the age of 30 he had his first vision of Ahura Mazda, the supreme God, which was followed by six other visions in which six archangels successively manifested themselves.
Because Zarathustra spoke of an evil "twin spirit" of the one true God of goodness, the first crude efforts at comparative religion among Western scholars produced the notion of "Persian dualism." This has since been shown to be a misinterpretation. In the Pahlavi book, the Bundahishn, God enjoys a certain advantage over His foe from the beginning so that the ultimate victory of good is assured. Zoroastrianism, like Judaism, Christianity and Islam, is a monotheistic religion.
It is taught that human life is set in the cosmic encounter between the almighty Ahura Mazda, creator of all that is good and who alone is worthy of worship, and Angra Mainyu, the malign source of violence, evil and death. Individuals are free to choose between these two powers. The righteous will oppose evil, spread the good religion of Ahura Mazda, care for the good creation (plants, animals and fellow human beings) and worship God in purity. The eternal destiny of human beings is decided by the use they make of their free will, both at the individual judgement after death and at the universal judgement after the resurrection. The righteous go to heaven and the wicked to hell. With these beliefs, as well as the powerful record of Zarathustra's own spiritual and practical achievements and the conversion of the Iranian King Vishtaspa, the mighty kingdoms to the east of the small nation of Israel turned from violent and amoral polytheism to the exercise of personal responsibility in the effort to worship God in truth.
Greek Philosophy
The rise of classical Greek civilization in the sixth century BC is perhaps the capstone of the Axial period. The very foundations of western civilization were laid precisely during this brief worldwide awakening. Indeed, the Principle views the invisible hand of God behind this unique and unprecedented age of creativity, spanning the full range of human knowledge and activity.
The ancient Greeks contributed much to the internal understanding of human life and spirit. Socrates (470-399 BC) rejected polytheism (he was executed by the Athenians for "atheism") and taught that people should seek truth in its most transcendent meaning by investigating the moral life. His disciple Plato (427-347 BC) rejected materialism and taught the reality of a unitary transcendental sphere, the world of form, whose highest value was the Good. Aristotle (384-322 BC) wrote of the First Cause, the creator of all things. These three philosophers all strove with reason and insight to probe the mysteries of God.
As Greek philosophy developed in the centuries preceding the coming of Jesus, it pursued a strongly ethical trend. Epicureanism taught that pleasure was the goal of life, but emphasized that one should be willing to endure pain in the short term as a price for attaining greater happiness in the long term. The highest pleasure, that of the mind, was to be won through proper discipline of the body. Stoicism taught the importance of virtue and duty: man should not be changed by external circumstances but should be guided by his internal moral compass, centered on virtue.
Merely listing some of the notable figures who contributed to various fields of knowledge (and in some cases founded sciences) gives an indication of the extent to which Greek civilization played a providential role in developing human understanding (all dates are BC):
Philosophy: Thales (640-546), Anaximander, Anaximenes and Heraclitus (6th-5th Centuries), Leucippus (480-410), Socrates (470-399), Democritus (460-370), Protagoras (480-410), Georgias (485-380), Prodicus of Ceos and Hipplias of Elis (5th Century), Antisthenes (444-370), Plato (427-347), Diogenes (412-323), Aristotle (384-322), Theophrastus (372-287), Autolycus (360-300), Epicurus (342-270), Zeno (335-263);
Mathematics: Pythagoras (582-500), Hippocrates of Chios (5th Century), Aristotle (384-322), Theaetetus and Eudoxus (4th Century), Euclid (2nd-3rd Centuries);
Science/Technology: Pappus (4th Century), Archimedes (287-212), Hipparchus (2nd Century);
Medicine: Hippocrates (460-377);
Astronomy: Claudius Ptolemy (2nd Century), Aristarchus (3rd Century);
Navigation/Geography: Pytheas (4th Century), Eratosthenes (3rd Century);
Drama: Aeschylus (525-456), Sophocles (496-406), Euripides (484-406), Cratinus (484-420), Eupolis (455-410), Aristophanes (448-380);
Literature: Homer (8th Century), Sappho, Alcaeus and Tytaeus (7th Century), Aesop (6th Century), Lysias (456-380), Isocrates (436-338), Aratus (315-245), Theocritus (310-250);
History: Hellanicus (490-405), Thucydides (471-400), Herodotus (484-424), Xenophon (434-354), Polybius (200-120); Music. Pythagoras (582-500), Simonides (556-468), Pindar (518-438), Bacchylides (516-480); Sculpture: Polykleitos, Phidias and Myron (5th Century); Painting. Euphronius and Douris (5th Century); Architecture: Callicrates, Mnesicles, Ictinus and Polykleitos (5th Century), Dinocrates (4th Century), Pythius (353-334); Politics (innovative Rulers): Solon (638-558), Periander (625585), Pisistratus (554-527), Polycrates (536-522), Aristides (530-468), Pericles (495-429).
Science and Technology
The development of religions at this time was complemented by a number of significant developments in other areas, such as science and technology, politics and economics. Religion addresses the realm of spirit, but people also need to understand their bodies and the physical world, the province of science. The ideal world will be one of harmony between spirit and body, religion and science.
The Greeks played a critical role in the development of science, establishing it as a major force in human development and founding many of the branches of knowledge that have become essential parts of the scientific corpus. They explored the mathematical and philosophical principles that underpin art and science, developing the basis for the scientific method itself, which derives from Socrates' approach to knowledge through hypothesis and deduction, and Aristotle's induction, based on experimentation.
The Greek approach to knowledge was not divorced from religious belief but it relied more on observation and speculation than on faith. It focused primarily on the tangible person and the visible world known to humankind. rather than the invisible world of spirit.
The Greeks made many remarkable discoveries which have held their value to this day. Behind this outpouring of knowledge, God was working to prepare the world externally for the fulfillment of the three blessings, through which human beings will gain full dominion over themselves and nature in accordance with the will of God. Without understanding themselves and their environment human beings are incapable of achieving a world of true love.
Greece, and later Rome, which inherited and supplemented much of Greek civilization, also devised various new weapons, such as the torsion engine, the ballista (a siege engine) and the pillum (a balanced throwing spear). They developed cavalry, fast naval vessels (like the Greek bireme and the Roman galley) and armor for soldiers and horses. Iron and steel were used widely in tools as well as weapons, advancing agriculture (the sickle, scythe and the olive oil press, for example) and construction. Greece introduced iron and steel to the West, through Rome. The Romans developed an excellent network of land and sea routes enabling them to communicate throughout their vast empire. In northwest Europe, the iron plough and steerable wagon wheels were developed.
In East Asia, the Chinese made many discoveries during this period as well: piston-bellows, canals and dikes, silk scrolls and pointed brushes for writing, draw-looms for weaving, reeling machines for silk working, cable suspension bridges, mast-and-batten sails, rotary winnowing machines and seed-drill ploughs. Alchemy flourished in both Greece and China, and the Greeks produced much of the basic equipment used in science laboratories to this day: stills, furnaces, flasks and beakers. The Chinese produced works on botany and the natural sciences.
Thus the centuries leading up to the birth of Jesus witnessed an unprecedented development in elemental science and basic technologies that transformed the way people worked and communicated. By the end of this preparation period there was a significant unity of civilization in the Mediterranean basin, providing an environment for the introduction of the new culture of true parents, to be established in Israel. The Roman Empire, built on the foundations of Greek philosophy and science, provided the physical and ethical foundation that awaited the spirit of an ideal world to be ushered in by Jesus.
Conclusion
The global development of civilization during the period of final preparation for true parents was driven by religious awakening and the dramatic development of science and technology. The whole world was touched, directly or indirectly, by these developments. The spark for this explosive human advance was the repentance of the Israelites in Babylon, which enabled God to work more actively than ever before in the enlightenment of fallen humanity.
In this cursory overview of the birth of these great religious traditions and fields of knowledge, one clearly sees the opening up of heaven over most of humanity in the six centuries leading up to the coming of Jesus. Each aspect of human transformation appears, from the profoundly metaphysical and transcendent in the Upanishads, to the social reflection of the ideal of heaven in Confucius, to the insights into nature of Greece's great thinkers. God, human responsibility and social relations reflecting the ideal were taught at once. These teachings reversed the dark ages and began to create civilizations which can respond well to the enlightenment of the true parents when they seek to order life and society according to God's original ideal.
The advent of Jesus in Israel was the hinge on which all these historical developments would turn. Had Jesus been accepted by the Jews as the true parent and messiah, all the foundations could have been harvested and brought together for the realization of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. The combined wisdom of these spiritual and scientific movements, unified through the truth and love of true parents, would have fostered a world of material prosperity and spiritual attainment. Tragically, when Jesus was rejected in Israel, these preparations could not fulfill their original, providential purpose.
Over time, when no higher end made itself evident, when the constant spiritual struggle in the world's religions was not relieved by the establishment of Jesus' heavenly kingdom, it came to pass that these religions began to think of their revelations and saints as ends in themselves. When the death of Jesus ensured continued activity for Satan, God allowed these religions to strengthen themselves and become the purpose of life for the followers in the different cultural regions. In this way, God could provide at least some protection for people. In the long run, however, the strengthening of the independence rather than inter-dependence of religions increased the difficulty of achieving the eventual goal of uniting all people within a single heavenly culture of true parents.
15. Jesus And Christianity
At the culmination of six centuries of intense global preparation for true parents, Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Israel. Despite his all-important mission, his parents were poor and he started life in very humble circumstances. During his mere thirty-three years on earth, he reached some prominence as a radical religious reformer and worker of miracles but was not known well beyond a limited circle of relatives and disciples. Nevertheless, his short life shook the world. Today there are more followers of Jesus than any other religious figure in history. Clearly his life was of great importance in the providence of restoration.
To understand Jesus from the point of view of providential history, one must examine his life in the context of his identity and mission in the dispensation of restoration. Getting a clear picture of Jesus is not easy, primarily because the four Gospels that record his words and deeds are inadequate at best, with each account somewhat different from the others and all of them brief. If the recorded words of Jesus were separated from the stories of his life and placed in a book of their own, it would be a slim volume indeed. Further compounding the problem, the dearth of reliable contemporary biographical material on Jesus has clouded his image as a historical figure and resulted in the creation of many popular myths regarding who he was and what he did. These myths often present obstacles to understanding the real Jesus in his providential context.
The public mission of Jesus lasted for less than three years, at the end of which he was rejected by the very people he had come to save. Instead of welcoming him. the Jewish leaders handed him over to the Roman governor for execution. Why did this happen? How was it that the descendants of Jacob, who had been preparing for a savior for 2000 years, allowed the death of the very person they had awaited with such longing? This chapter discusses the identity and mission of Jesus, why that mission could not be completed and what the consequences of this were for the providence of restoration.
The Mission of Jesus
Ever since the fall of Adam and Eve, God's central objective in history has been the restoration of the position of first ancestors, sinless true parents who could fulfill the three blessings. Only through true parents can sinful human beings be separated from the lineage of their false parents, Adam and Eve, and be 'reborn' into the lineage of God's true love. All the efforts of God's central figures in the providence until Jesus, that is, the work of the prophets, saints and sages of the Old Testament Age as well as the founders of the great Asian religions, had been directed towards laying a foundation for true parents. Jesus came to reap the harvest of those efforts and to establish the true parents.
Jesus was sent by God to restore the position of Adam. Once victorious as a second Adam, he would choose a wife to restore Eve, and together they would become true parents. Their offspring would be true children and the starting point of a sinless lineage. All who united with the true parents and their descendants would be grafted onto that pure lineage and separated from the dominion of Satan. In this way, the Kingdom of Heaven would be established on earth.
This mission could not be accomplished unless those prepared to receive Jesus did indeed welcome and follow him. They would have to allow him to educate them in an understanding of God's dispensation for him and for them, so that they could fully understand and support him in his mission. However, Jesus was rejected by the Israelite leaders and handed over to the Romans to be crucified because they did not recognize him as the messiah. His words and deeds contradicted their expectations for the messiah, leading to doubts about his authenticity.
Having labored for 2000 years to raise the mentality, spirituality and responsibility of the people of Israel, so that they would be able to fulfill their providential role, and having often been bitterly disappointed by their faithlessness, God had good reason to be concerned about how the Israelites would respond to Jesus. For this reason, conditions were laid for the people of Jesus' time to accept him as the messiah. The pattern of these conditions resembled Moses' three courses to lay a national foundation. In the life of Jesus there were three attempts made to set up a worldwide foundation for true parents. These three providential courses centered on: first, John the Baptist; second, Jesus' public ministry; and third, the resurrected Jesus. In examining them we can understand why he was rejected by the Israelites despite the great efforts God had made to prepare them.
The Mission of John the Baptist
Jesus came to be a true parent, not to prepare the way for true parents. The man sent to complete the preparations for true parents was John the Baptist. The son of Zachariah, a chief priest of Israel, John was a man of great faith who lived an ascetic life in the desert. He preached a powerful message of repentance, and he baptized followers to purify them of sins in readiness for the coming messiah. Through living a life of rigorous discipline and obedience to the law, John succeeded in laying a foundation of faith; and by winning the devotion of followers through his preaching and baptizing, he established a foundation of substance with the Israelites. Furthermore, John the Baptist and Jesus were cousins.
John's foundation was made for the messiah and therefore had to be offered to Jesus. It was not for John to use for his own promotion in Israel. However, after testifying about Jesus, John doubted the messiahship of Jesus and held back from offering himself and his followers to Jesus. Like most Jews of his time, John must have expected the messiah to come in glory and demonstrate superhuman attributes. Such unrealistic expectations, coupled with the problem of accepting his poor cousin as the long-expected savior, caused John to doubt Jesus. If he had truly believed in Jesus, he would naturally have followed him. However, despite receiving confirmation of the messianic mission of Jesus, in particular through the miraculous public anointing of Jesus at the Jordan River by the Holy Spirit of God, John continued to question Jesus and went his own way instead of becoming a disciple of Christ.
The mission of John was particularly critical to Jesus because John fulfilled a very important prophecy of Malachi. As the last prophecy of the Jewish Bible, given 400 years before Jesus, it said Elijah would return to Israel to prepare the way for the messiah. Elijah was a prophet who had, according to the Bible, been taken to heaven in a chariot of fire at the end of his life, rather than facing normal death. Many Jews expected Malachi's prophecy to be fulfilled through a dramatic return of Elijah. Thus, if Jesus was the messiah, they wanted to know where the promised Elijah was. When Jesus was asked this question by his own disciples, he indicated that John the Baptist had come in the place of Elijah. However, when John was asked about this, he denied being Elijah.
By this denial, John put Jesus in an extremely difficult position. It was much easier for the Israelites to believe John, who came from a credible and respected religious background, than to believe Jesus, who was raised in the home of Joseph, a poor carpenter. Without the help of John, Jesus could not penetrate the leadership echelons of Israel. Instead he had to work with simple folk who accepted him at their own level of understanding but were poorly equipped to introduce him to the rest of the nation. To accomplish his mission, Jesus had to convince the Israelites of his identity and purpose. With the loss of John the Baptist as the foundation-builder for his mission in Israel and his bridge to the people, Jesus was faced with the overwhelmingly difficult task of convincing the Israelites of his messiahship by himself.
Thus, the first course to set up a foundation for Jesus to be received as a true parent ended in failure because John the Baptist did not offer his own foundation and support to Jesus.
Jesus' Public Ministry
When John the Baptist failed his mission, Jesus set out to restore John's lost foundation by laying a foundation himself. In effect, he determined to make indemnity conditions as John had done to prepare for his own messianic mission. He did this by going to the desert to fast for forty days. At the end of the fast he was tempted three times by Satan, but Jesus overcame them. This success set up a foundation of faith for the second course.
To lay a foundation of substance, Jesus had to win the people's love and obedience. Yet the Israelites did not understand him. Even his twelve closest disciples only partially grasped his mission, being simple men of faith with little education or ability in spiritual matters. People were attracted to Jesus mainly because of his healing powers and the miracles he performed, rather than the words of truth he uttered. However, the only reason he performed remarkable feats was to help them recognize him as the messiah. In the end, despite his great efforts, Jesus could not win the hearts and minds of the Israelites.
When Jesus saw that his mission to set up a foundation of substance was not succeeding, he began to tell his disciples that he would have to offer his life for the salvation of humankind, and that the mission of the messiah would have to be completed in a second coming in the future. As the end approached, he withdrew to the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem to pray for God's guidance. Even at that final, desperate moment, as soldiers approached to apprehend him, his three closest disciples slept. They simply did not realize his importance and the gravity of the situation.
What's more, when Jesus was arrested and taken for trial before the religious authorities of Israel, his disciples abandoned him altogether, leaving him to be convicted of heresy and turned over to the Romans for execution. He ended his life on the cross surrounded by enemies and deserted by his followers. Without even his disciples showing loyalty and obedience to him, Jesus was unable to lay a foundation of substance.
As a minimum condition of restoration, the three main disciples of Jesus, Peter, James and John, should have been willing to offer their lives to save Jesus. To reverse the fall, in which man and woman died spiritually because of their disobedience to God, individuals must be willing to obey God at the cost of their lives. As the spiritual children of Jesus, the second Adam, the three disciples represented Cain, Abel and Seth. By showing complete obedience to the restored Adam figure, they would have made a condition for the restoration of both generations of Adam's family, a minimum foundation of substance to enable Jesus to pursue his global mission. Instead, they slept during his hour of greatest need and scattered when he was captured by soldiers. When Peter, Jesus' most important disciple, was questioned about his relationship with the Nazarene, he denied his discipleship three times.
Jesus' crucifixion marked the end of his efforts to lay a foundation of substance in the second course. Instead of Cain uniting with Abel, leaders of Israel turned Jesus over to the Roman governor Pilate, who sent him away for execution, in place of a common thief, Barabbas. In this way, the most precious life, from God's point of view, was treated with the least respect by fallen humanity. The crucifixion of Jesus repeated Satan's destruction of Adam and Cain's murder of Abel. The second course ended in failure.
The Resurrected Jesus
Although Jesus was totally rejected by the people, he never lost faith. On the cross he forgave the people their mistake in killing him, even though he had every reason to feel resentful towards them. In his patience and faith at that moment of ultimate agony and frustration, he reversed the loss of faith and anger of Moses at Kadesh. Thus, although Satan could attack and destroy the body of Jesus, he was unable to defeat his spirit. In this way, Jesus gained a great spiritual victory over Satan, a victory that opened the way for a successful third course of restoration.
After his death on the cross, Jesus engaged in a three-day spiritual battle with Satan. Gaining the victory, he appeared on the earth in resurrected form, and immediately began to minister to his followers. He appeared to them repeatedly and encouraged them to believe in him and to carry out the mission he had given them. Jesus told his disciples that they should prepare for a second coming of the messiah. Ministering to them over a forty-day period, he built a strong foundation with his followers, after which he left their immediate presence at his ascension.
Ten days after the ascension, the Holy Spirit descended on a gathering of 120 of his followers, filling them with inspiration and confidence, and empowering them to go out and preach their belief that Jesus was the messiah. It was reported that on that first day of spiritual outpouring, some 3000 people converted to belief in Jesus. From that time on, his disciples had the strength of conviction to sacrifice themselves for Jesus, a commitment of faith they had lacked before his crucifixion.
In the third course, then, Jesus successfully laid a spiritual foundation of faith through his unwavering faith on the cross, his victory over Satan in the spirit world and the forty-day spiritual ministry to his disciples. He also succeeded in laying a spiritual foundation of substance by helping his disciples reach a level of devotion where they were willing to die for him. Thus the third course was victorious, although on a spiritual level. Instead of establishing the promised Kingdom of Heaven on earth by fulfilling the three blessings, Jesus established a spiritual realm of separation from Satan, accessible to all those who believe in him and follow his teachings and example. Thus Christians can achieve spiritual salvation through faith in God and Jesus, and rebirth through the Holy Spirit.
The Crucifixion Was Not God's Will
It is clear from this explanation of Jesus' three courses that the crucifixion was not the original will of God, but rather the result of human failure to obey the will of God. Rejection by the Israelites meant that Jesus was unable to fulfill the three blessings and establish the Kingdom of God on earth. He was forced to go the way of suffering instead. While there were Old Testament prophecies anticipating a suffering course for the messiah, their purpose was to warn of the consequences of faithlessness and not to announce an eventuality. Only after the fact have Christian scholars concluded that prophecies of a suffering messiah were to be fulfilled in the first advent while prophecies of a glorious and victorious messiah would be fulfilled in the second. Old Testament scriptures never speak of the messiah coming twice.
If the crucifixion had been the will of God, one would expect to see Christians, as the sinless inheritors of Jesus' victorious mission, embodying the ideal of true men and women living in an ideal world of peace and prosperity. Yet this is not so. Christians, although benefited by their inheritance from Jesus, are still born under the influence of sin and live in a world that arguably has even more ills than did the world which existed before the advent of Jesus.
Jews point to the crucifixion of Jesus as confirmation of their conviction that he was not the messiah. According to most relevant Old Testament prophecies, the messiah was supposed to be a glorious king who would put their enemies to flight and establish the Kingdom of Heaven in Israel. There was no evidence of Jesus having accomplished this in a life that ended on the cross. However, missing in this Jewish viewpoint is recognition of the all-important role of human responsibility. God always works according to His own principles, whereby His will is realized only when human beings fulfill their own responsibility in responding to God. Thus, as for all other central figures, the messiah's mission can only be successfully completed through the willing cooperation of those chosen to receive and follow him.
Muslims believe it was not Jesus himself who was crucified but someone resembling him who was executed in his place. While the Principle confirms that the spirit of Jesus was indeed victorious and undefeated by the crucifixion, Jesus offered his own body as a condition of indemnity for the salvation of humankind. In fact, it was this offering that laid the foundation for the success of Jesus' third course, which was a spiritual victory and the basis for the worldwide Christian providence.
Christology
In Jesus the three great monotheistic religions both meet and diverge. His identity and mission are debated endlessly among believers of the three faiths because of the differences in their understanding of him. For Jews, Jesus was not the awaited messiah but one of their own who broke with tradition and founded his own religion. For Christians, he was the messiah and savior who carried out his God-given mission by dying on the cross. Some Christians believe he was God incarnate, a member of the mystical trinity of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Yet others believe he was a man with divine attributes. Muslims believe that he was a great prophet, the only one called messiah, who helped pave the way for Mohammed.
According to the Principle, Jesus was a man who manifested the true unity of humanity with God. Jesus was the embodiment of God's attributes, and Christians rightly affirm his divinity. Nevertheless, as a man who lived among men, Jesus should not be confused with God, the Creator. There is only one God, and Jesus came to restore humanity's relationship with God.
Jesus appeared on earth as a second Adam in order to restore humanity to its original divine condition, undamaged by the fall. Before the fall harmed his spiritual senses, Adam had the attributes of a true man, created in the image of God and capable of understanding and communicating with his Heavenly Father. A person who manifests God's image can have a perfect love relationship with God, like the relationship between a child and the parent it resembles. In this metaphorical sense, Adam, had he not fallen, was to become a true son of God. As discussed in Chapter 7, his descendants would have been born out of his physical lineage but internally they would have been born into the lineage of God. Because Adam fell, he was never able to manifest God's image, and neither have his descendants. Jesus, as the second Adam, was the first human being to manifest God's image truly. His sinless nature set him apart from fallen men, enabling him to live a morally perfect life in full oneness with God's heart. In this sense, Jesus was a true son of God.
But Jesus was a man. He became thirsty and hungry, tired and angry. He prayed to God for help, and he had to struggle with all the things any ordinary person must struggle with. Indeed, since his mission was to restore the mistakes of Adam, he had to be a man like Adam in every respect. Adam had been created by God without sin. In order for Jesus to be born free from sin, his parents and ancestors had made special conditions to purify the lineage out of which he was born. His purity uniquely qualified him for his messianic mission.
Trinity and Rebirth
The unity of God and the notion of Trinity have long occupied Christianity's most acute theological minds. How can the oneness of God be reconciled with His three modes of revelation: as Father, Son and Holy Spirit? The debate and criticisms over these doctrines point up the difficulty of reconciling revealed religions with the canons of reason. At the deepest level, the finite human conceptions of God's oneness and His various modes of revelation must give way to mystical insight.
According to the Principle, the diversity of the creation mirrors the diversity of God's attributes. Since God is one, the diversity within His being must be transcended by His unity. In other words, the unity of God is, in fact, the unity of His attributes. The fundamental structure of God's unity is the four position foundation, described in Chapter 2. God's four position foundation is the result of interaction among the trinity of God as origin, God as original subject attributes and God as original object attributes. The interaction of this trinity results in the creation of the fourth position: God as a union of original subject and object attributes. God's unchanging purpose, from before the creation of the universe, has been to manifest the four position foundation of His being in the world of creation as ideal families in which God can dwell. The unity of God's being is most fully embodied in a true family.
God first sought to realize the four position foundation in the family of Adam and Eve. Adam, had he grown to perfection, would have been the complete incarnation of God's masculine character, and Eve would have been the incarnation of God's feminine character. God, Adam and Eve would thus have become the first manifest trinity, the basic unit for creation of children, who fulfill the fourth position. But because Adam and Eve fell, God would not abide with them and this first trinity was never realized. God's second attempt to manifest the trinity and four position foundation on earth was through Jesus, the second Adam. Jesus completely manifested God's masculine character, but his life on earth ended before he could take a bride as a second Eve. Nevertheless, on the foundation of Jesus' unchanging faith, God could resurrect him and then establish a four position foundation through the spiritual Trinity: God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
Jesus came as a second Adam to be a true father. To fulfill this destiny he needed to find a bride who, as a true mother, could unite with him in fulfilling the three blessings. Hence, in the Bible he is referred to as a bridegroom. Since the foundation for true parents was not established for him before his crucifixion, he could not complete the restoration of Adam and Eve during his lifetime. Therefore, after his spiritual victory in the third course, the Holy Spirit, a feminine manifestation of God, joined him in the position of a spiritual Eve. The Holy Spirit functions as a mother to comfort fallen humans and move their hearts to accept Jesus. Thus the trinity within God's oneness was manifest in the Trinity of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
Since all fallen men and women are born into the lineage of fallen Adam and Eve, they must be reborn into the lineage of true parents. (There is, after all, no birth or rebirth without parents.) Jesus could not set up the true parents on earth, but through his spiritual victory he has been able to offer spiritual rebirth to Christians who follow him and the Holy Spirit. Many devout Christians testify to experiencing spiritual rebirth through Jesus and the Holy Spirit. They receive new life from their spiritual parents.
The mission of true parents is now to be accomplished substantially on earth. The failures of Adam and Eve must be restored completely and a new, God-centered lineage established on earth. From this sinless lineage the Kingdom of Heaven will grow to encompass the world.
Christianity
The crucifixion of Jesus meant that he was unable to fulfill the prophecies of establishing the Kingdom of Heaven. Instead he became the spiritual parent of Christians and the founder of a new religion. In the 2000 years since Jesus walked the earth, Satan has continued his dominion over humanity, bringing untold misery and suffering to billions. The work of restoration will be completed only when the dominion of Satan is broken for good and God can rule His children in an ideal world of true love.
Because the founder of Christianity was killed, the believers who have followed in his footsteps have had to suffer great adversity, and many have paid for their faith with their lives.
Another consequence of Jesus' untimely death and inability to establish a victorious foundation on earth is that many Christians are other-worldly in their orientation, certain that an ideal world can be realized only in spirit, and that the physical world and its evil will have to be destroyed literally in a final judgment of God. The danger inherent in this attitude is a tendency to eschew one's responsibility in the expectation that God will end evil by Himself. The Principle shows that restoration can only be accomplished through individuals fulfilling their own responsibilities.
Despite its other-worldly tendencies, however, Christianity has made indispensable contributions to the advancement of humankind, providing the basis for morality and ethics in Western society and many other parts of the world. It has introduced a new level of human spirituality to the world, producing many internal benefits for humankind, as well as enriching devotional practice, theology and philosophy. Christian idealism has inspired artists and writers, scientists and social reformers, and Christian history is rich in good works performed by men and women committed to follow the teachings of Jesus.
Lessons from Jesus' Life Course
First:
It is not easy for fallen people to recognize God's central figures, even the messiah. Jesus had unique internal qualities and an all-important mission, but to the eyes of his fellow Jews he was just another man. The messiah is not a superman, but someone who is pure and at one with God. The Israelites had been prepared by God to receive a messiah for 2000 years, but when he finally came they could not recognize him. They never imagined they might not be able to identify the messiah easily when he came, assuming that he would be clearly distinguished from all other people. Their expectations, based on scripture and prophecy, were not realistic. Even John the Baptist, who was specially sent by God to introduce Jesus to the people of Israel, was blinded by his own misconceptions about the messiah and how he would save Israel. The failure of the Jewish people to recognize Jesus as the messiah is a caution for all who want to know God's central figures for their time.
Second:
One must have a humble attitude in order to recognize a central figure of God. At the time of Jesus, the arrogant Jewish leaders were blind to his virtue and truth, whereas a few humble souls could recognize his unique goodness. These humble disciples saw in his actions the works of a true man, and in his words the fulfillment of scriptures. The same test of humility and heart will apply at the advent of true parents, when once again only those who are truly meek and objective before God will be able to recognize them. It is dangerous to be arrogant about one's own spiritual ability, and over-confident about one's interpretation of prophecy. Spiritual arrogance, like that of Israel's religious leaders, blinds a person to the invisible work of God.
Third:
Believers cannot depend solely on the viewpoint of their leaders in judging the veracity of a new providential figure. The leaders of Israel, secular and ecclesiastic, did not accept Jesus. Therefore, to follow them meant to stand in opposition to God's will. Because each person is individually responsible before God for his own ultimate destiny, it is vital to augment the truths one receives from tradition and the guidance of one's spiritual leaders with intense prayer and soul-searching. The original mind is always in harmony with God's will.
Fourth:
God does not impose His will on humankind, even through the messiah. Jesus had all the qualifications of a true parent and the complete support of God, and yet God did not force the Israelites to accept him as the messiah. Because Jesus was rejected, God's will was frustrated and God began to prepare again for the coming of true parents. Even when that takes place, the same principle of human responsibility will apply, and only if people accept and follow the new Adam and Eve will God be able to accomplish His purpose at that time. Therefore, it is not enough to wait for God to act and solve humanity's problems. Individuals must seek out God's will and from their own impassioned search find the central figure who can guide them to God.
Fifth:
Following a true person is not easy. John the Baptist and the twelve disciples were the best Jesus could find in Israel, but none of them was ready to offer his life for Jesus. The three chief disciples were not even able to remain awake when Jesus needed them the most. To follow Jesus meant to face one's own fallen nature and struggle to overcome it. A disciple cannot afford to be lazy or lax with matters of constant personal assessment.
Sixth:
If Cain fails his mission, Abel must take responsibility to complete it. When John the Baptist failed to offer his foundation to Jesus, he made it necessary for Jesus to take over his mission. Although Jesus was sent to humankind as the messiah, in practice he spent the bulk of his public mission in preparing the people to receive the messiah, a task that John was to have done for him. If Jesus had not accepted the responsibility of John, he would not have been able to lay any sort of foundation at all. In their lives of faith, men and women who seek to help God may well have to take responsibility for others who fail in their missions.
Seventh:
The fruit of conditions laid on earth can be harvested in the spiritual world. Although Jesus went to the cross a lonely and rejected figure, his unwavering faith through all his trials and tribulations on earth made a foundation for his spiritual victory over Satan. That victory gave him the power to work in the spirit world to save people through the Christian dispensation. The fruit of Jesus' faith is the community of Christian believers, numbering well over one billion people, the billions of Christians in the spirit world, and, indirectly, all other people who have been affected by the impact of Christianity on the whole world.
Eighth:
Messiahship is true parenthood. If the mission of the messiah could be accomplished by an individual working alone in perfect oneness with God, Jesus would have completed the mission by living a morally perfect life. However, history proves that the mission of the messiah could not be completed by Jesus because the Kingdom of Heaven, to be ushered in by the messiah, was not established by him. If it had been, it would exist today.
The messianic mission can be completed only by true parents who establish a sinless lineage as the beginning point of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
Conclusion
The life of Jesus provided fallen humanity a glimpse of God's ideal. More than anyone before him, Jesus as the messiah understood the heart of God and God's desperate urgency to restore His fallen children. Jesus shared this heart with others, but he was not understood and ended his life in loneliness and a tragic death. The purity of his character and the veracity of the words he spoke have been confirmed by history and the billions of people, on earth and in the spirit world, who try to follow him today. The ideal world he described and worked to establish in a hostile environment was not realized, but it was brought an important step closer by his life's endeavor and his sacrificial death.
This ideal world will be ushered in by true parents. Therefore, the providence of restoration since the time of Jesus has focused on laying foundations for them on a worldwide level. Christianity has had the central responsibility in carrying out this task, joined six centuries after Jesus by Islam. Since Jews, Christians and Muslims are part of the Abrahamic foundation for true parents, they all continue to have important roles to play in the mainstream of God's providence of restoration.
The following chapter will show how the principles of restoration produced a pattern of salvation in the two millennia of Christian history that has paralleled the providence during the 2000 years from Abraham to Jesus. This providential coincidence confirms the special role Christianity has played in the preparation of the world for the coming of true parents.
16. Parallels In History
Although Jesus was unable to complete the messiah's mission, his spiritual victory over Satan paved the way for the providence to move to a new level. Those who accepted and believed in Jesus, the Christians, inherited his victory and assumed the special mission of leading the restoration providence. Once the leaders of Israel had rejected Jesus as the messiah, the primary responsibility for laying a foundation for true parents was transferred from the physical descendants of Jacob to the spiritual lineage of Jesus.
The mission of Christianity has been to restore the 2000 years of Israel's preparation for true parents by indemnifying all the mistakes in the earlier providence. Because of Christianity's central providential role, its history is of particular importance for all humankind. Christians have had the advantage of building on the conditions laid by the Israelites as well as the spiritual foundation established by Jesus. Nevertheless, they have faced many of the same problems as those confronted by the Jews in the earlier dispensation. As this chapter will show, Christian history has followed a course remarkably similar to Israel's. However, instead of significantly shortening the time required to lay a foundation for true parents, Christianity has paralleled Israel's pattern of achieving a few spiritual victories against a background of many providential mistakes. The ultimate consequence has been a 2000-year prolongation of the providence of restoration, with the six main periods of Israel's history mirrored almost perfectly in Christian history. These repeated patterns in the restoration providence produce the parallels in history that this chapter examines in the limited context of Israel-Christian history.
A significant difference between the histories of Israel and Christianity lies in the difference between their missions: Israel's was substantial national preparation for the true parents, whereas Christianity's was global but spiritual. Furthermore, those who accepted Jesus and obeyed his words had the benefit of living lives centered on a true son of God whose depth of heart and spiritual understanding were unequalled.
Much of the history of Israel is contained in the Bible, but there is no corresponding scriptural account of the Christian era. The New Testament was written within seventy years of Jesus' death. But God has been working for the restoration of fallen humans over the past 2000 years with as much determination as He did during the 2000 years before Jesus. The signs of His providence are there to be discovered in the history of the last two millennia.
Undoubtedly, the two most important providential developments in the years since Jesus walked the earth have been the emergence of Christianity and Islam as the world's most powerful religions. Clearly the phenomenal growth of these two global belief systems is related to God's providence of salvation. This chapter examines the most significant dispensational developments in Christian history, as they parallel the history of Israel, while the following chapter discusses the role of Mohammed and Islam in God's providence.
400 Years of Hebrew Slavery and Christian Persecution
The 400 years of Hebrew slavery in Egypt were paralleled by 400 years of Christian persecution under the Roman Empire.
Because Jesus, the founder of Christianity, walked a course of suffering and persecution, culminating in his death on the cross, those who have followed in his footsteps have likewise had to go a way of suffering. Many of his early followers were martyred by secular powers, sometimes acting hand in hand with ecclesiastic authorities who persecuted the new religion. In particular, the Roman Empire, of which Israel/Palestine was a province, opposed the new faith and put many Christians to death, often in extremely cruel ways. The established religions in the Roman Empire felt threatened by the vibrant new faith and did everything possible to crush it; but the persecution did not succeed in destroying Christianity. On the contrary, it flourished. In 325 Emperor Constantine of Rome had a vision of Christ's cross and converted to Christianity. He moved his capital to Constantinople, where, by the end of that century, Christianity was made the state religion by Emperor Theodosius II.
The 400 years of Christian suffering under Rome paralleled the 400 years of slavery the Israelites underwent in Egypt, where they were under the heel of harsh secular authorities supported by a pagan priesthood. In both cases, the oppressed maintained their beliefs and traditions and, with God's help, eventually triumphed over their oppressors.
400 Years of Judges and Church Patriarchs
The 400 years during which Judges ruled Israel were paralleled by 400 years of church patriarchs ruling the Christian world.
Israel's suffering in Egypt came to an end when Moses was sent to liberate the Hebrew slaves and take them into the promised land of Canaan. Once they reached Canaan, they embarked on a 400-year period of rule by judges, beginning with Joshua and ending with Samuel. In Canaan they were no longer oppressed slaves but rulers over the land, and for the first time in their history they were able to shape their national destiny. But they made many mistakes, not only in failing to unite, but especially in their failure to set up a clear internal separation between their life of faith centered on the Mosaic law, on the one hand, and the idolatry of the Canaanites, on the other. Thus, instead of establishing a God-centered nation that could receive true parents, they mixed their religion and culture with that of the Canaanites, diminishing the purity of their faith and lineage and losing sight of their central mission.
The second 400 years of Christian history began with the newly sovereign religion positioned to mold a new civilization rising out of the ashes of the Roman Empire. Christian missionaries bravely set out to convert the tribes of Europe, laying the religious, economic and social foundations of European civilization.
At the same time, this period was characterized by deepening divisions within the church and the growing power of church patriarchs, each with his own area of ecclesiastic influence. Five patriarchal sees emerged: Jerusalem, Alexandria, Antioch, Constantinople and Rome. The patriarchs had considerable power over secular affairs as well as religious, thus enjoying a status similar to that of Israel's judges.
As the power of the patriarchs grew they tended to see each other as rivals rather than brothers in Christ. This inter-patriarchal rivalry and disunity paralleled the inter-tribal disunity in Israel that bedeviled the period of judges. The contentiousness was coupled with theological ossification as churches drew lines around their beliefs and became increasingly critical of others' theologies. In the midst of this growing competitiveness and power-seeking among the churches, the central mission of Christianity was forgotten. The real purpose of the church was to create a foundation for true parents and the Kingdom of Heaven they were to usher in. This required faith and purity, which were somehow overlooked in the rush for external values. Towards the beginning of this period Augustine articulated a vision of a kingdom under God, but the church was not sufficiently pure and focused to implement it.
120 Years of United Kingdoms
The 120 years of the United Kingdom of Israel were paralleled by 120 years of the United Christian Kingdom.
At the end of 400 years of judges, the last judge, Samuel, responded to the wishes of his people by anointing Saul the first king of Israel. Saul's mission was to unify the twelve tribes of Israel in one kingdom, centered on the Temple and the law of Moses. This United Kingdom of Israel was to prepare for true parents, who would make Israel into the cornerstone of the Kingdom of Heaven. Saul was unable to win the support of Samuel, and this quarrel between the secular and religious authorities caused his downfall. His successor, David, was a fine military leader who built a great empire, but was not allowed by God to build the Temple. David's son, Solomon, failed to unite the Israelites around the Temple, when he did build it, so that on his death Israel was divided into northern and southern kingdoms, ruled by his servant and son, respectively. According to scriptures, Saul, David and Solomon each ruled for forty years, giving the United Kingdom a life span of 120 years.
Among the leaders of the Christian church, the patriarch of Rome, or Pope, claimed a central position as the man who had inherited the mantle of Jesus' leading disciple, Peter. This position was not recognized by the other churches, leading to conflicts between the church of Rome in the West and the Eastern Orthodox churches. This schism eventually developed into a complete break between the eastern and western churches, in 1054.
The relative unity of Western Christianity, centered on the Pope (in contrast to the four largely independent sees in the East), provided an opportunity for God to set up a unified Christian nation to prepare for true parents. Therefore, the central providential course within Christianity was focused on developments in the western church.
In the year 800, Pope Leo III anointed Charlemagne as the first ruler of the United Christian Kingdom. He understood his mission was to realize Augustine's vision of a "City of God" by creating a united Christendom. Charlemagne was inspired by the ideal of Christian unity under God and proposed union with the Eastern Orthodox churches. With unusual farsightedness, he recognized the importance of good relations between Christianity and the new religion of Islam, and made overtures to its leadership in Baghdad; but the dream was not to be fulfilled. Charlemagne and Pope Leo III, a man of inferior vision, quarreled. This lack of cooperation between church and state would become a major problem in medieval Europe. Thus disunity crept into the Christian kingdom and, in the third generation of his family, just 120 years after the anointing of Charlemagne, his grandsons divided the kingdom into three domains, which eventually formed two blocs: the East Franks and West Franks. The faithlessness and disunity of the Christians prevented them from setting up a God-centered kingdom to receive true parents.
400 Years of Divided Kingdoms
The 400 years of the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah were paralleled by 400 years of division between the Eastern and Western Frankish kingdoms.
The northern kingdom of Israel did not accept the warnings of the prophets, refused to repent, and was eventually destroyed by the Assyrians. Four centuries after the division of Solomon's Israel, the kingdom of Judah in the south, which also refused to obey God and persisted in idolatry, was invaded by Babylon. Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed and the leading Israelites taken into captivity.
In the Christian providence, the division of the United Christian Kingdom into West and East Franks marked the beginning of a long period of division and decline, with only isolated mystics and monastics, such as Francis of Assisi and Dominic, setting the example of true devotion to God. These Christian saints were like the Hebrew prophets who reminded the Israelites of their true purpose and exhorted them to turn from evil ways.
However, instead of laying foundations for the Kingdom of Heaven, Christian leaders were preoccupied with ecclesiastic conflicts and dragged the church into a quagmire of disputation and disunity. The western church came to see the eastern church and the new religion of Islam as its chief enemies instead of potential allies in the battle against evil. The Popes in Rome encouraged Christians in the West to take up arms in crusades to liberate Jerusalem from the "infidel" Muslims. On the way to Jerusalem, the knights took time to attack savagely and destroy communities of Jews and to strike at the heart of Orthodoxy by capturing Constantinople and defiling Saint Sophia, the most important church in the Orthodox world. This lamentable behavior by the western church could lead only to its isolation from God and invasion by Satan. resulting in spiritual corruption and decline.
210 Years of Exile and Return
The 70 years of Jewish exile in Babylon, followed by 140 years during which the Israelites returned to Jerusalem and restored the Temple, were paralleled by 70 years of papal exile in Avignon and 140 years of disputes over papal authority.
When, after repeated warnings, Judah failed to honor God, its leading class was taken into captivity in Babylon for seventy years. During their exile, the Israelites repented for their sins in order to be forgiven and allowed to return to Jerusalem. They were chastened by this humbling experience in Babylon, and they resolved to rectify their wrongdoing. This repentant attitude made it possible for God to restore them to freedom and allow them to return to their homeland. On returning to Israel they rebuilt Jerusalem and the Temple and recommitted themselves to God. They then embarked on a final 400-year period of preparation for true parents.
In Christian history, the crusades ultimately ended in failure, after costing Europe many lives and a great deal of money. More importantly, the credibility of the papacy came into question. Christians wondered how supposedly infallible popes could have set Christendom on such a disastrous course. The authority of the papacy declined and eventually it was subjected to the indignity of exile under the aegis of French kings, who sought to use it for their own interests. In 1309, King Philip IV arranged for the election of Pope Clement V, who moved the papacy to the French city of Avignon, where for seventy years it remained a virtual hostage of the French monarchy.
The exile in Avignon marked the nadir of papal authority and prestige. The papacy fell into disrepute because of gross immorality, including the keeping of mistresses, fathering of illegitimate children and other abuses. The historian Petrarch dubbed this period the Babylonian exile of the papacy due to the decadence and profligacy of the French Court. Religious authorities who were supposed to represent Abel were completely dominated by political powers who represented Cain. In this disgraceful state, the church could not serve God. After the exile in Avignon ended, there was a further period of confusion and disunity in the papacy, with two, and sometimes three, Popes vying for universal recognition. The papacy was eventually confirmed in Rome once more, but without the church having undergone the self-purification it desperately needed.
400 Years of Final Preparation for True Parents
The 400 years of preparation for true parents that preceded the arrival of Jesus were paralleled by a second 400-year period of global preparation for true parents, initiated by renewal of the Christian church.
As in the history of Israel, revitalization of the church came from reformers who were dismayed by what they saw in their religion, including corruption of the leadership, and spoke out forcefully against it. To reform religion, they returned to its foundations. In Israel's history, reformation came through the work of Ezra and Nehemiah, who dealt with the abuses of the Temple hierarchy by turning the people back to the law of Moses. Instead of despairing over a corrupt priesthood as the channel to God, the Jews could find their way to God directly by studying the law and practicing it for themselves.
In Christian history, a growing number of lay Christians, empowered by the new culture of learning fostered by the Renaissance, became distrustful of self-serving church dogma and began to study the Bible themselves. Several prominent Christian scholars started to speak out against the Church's violations of scriptural commands and standards. In particular, they attacked its teachings on the status of the Pope and the practice of selling indulgences, neither of which could be defended scripturally. Study the scriptures, they told the people, and you will find the proper standard of faith.
Several of these critics paid with their lives for speaking out against the church. But in 1517, when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses (which included criticism of the practice of papal indulgences) to the church door in Wittenberg, he inadvertently triggered a full-scale revolt against Rome. This Protestant Reformation ended once and for all the monolithic control of Rome over western Christians. It, and subsequent reform movements within the Roman Catholic Church, resulted in a massive purification of the church and inaugurated a 400-year period of intense preparation for true parents. This will be discussed further in Chapter 19.
Conclusion
The 2000 years of Christian history have closely paralleled Jewish history and have served to lay a foundation for the realization of God's purpose for humankind, an ideal world of true love. Based on the spiritual victory of Jesus, this foundation is itself spiritual and can be fully manifested only through the coming of true parents. The dispensation of restoration in the Christian era has been prolonged because of the many mistakes made by religious and political leaders chosen to play key roles in the providence of God. Nevertheless, many fine Christian men and women of faith have left a rich legacy of spiritual insight and inspiration.
When it came, the Protestant Reformation was a desperately needed movement of purification for Western Christianity, and it set in motion forces that have transformed the world over the past four centuries. In this period humankind has been prepared for a new Adam and Eve who will complete the work of Jesus and all the prophets and saints of the history of restoration. The final four-century period of global preparation for true parents will be explained in Chapter 19. But first, the life of the prophet Mohammed and the role of Islam in the providence will be discussed.
17. Mohammed And Islam
During the past 2000 years there have been two major providential developments: first, the birth and global expansion of Christianity, and, second, the advent of Islam and its dramatic growth into the world's second largest religion. At the end of the twentieth century, almost half the world's five billion people are either Christian or Muslim, with Islam growing faster than Christianity. There is a dispensational reason for this spectacular growth of Islam, which will be explained in this chapter.
The Roots of Islam
As discussed in Chapter 12, Ishmael, the elder of Abraham's two sons, could not receive God's blessing when Abraham's position as father of faith was passed to Isaac, the second son. Abraham had made a mistake in the sacrifice of birds and animals, but in his determination to restore that mistake he offered his son as a sacrifice. In the original dispensation, Abraham was to have laid a foundation of faith after which Ishmael and Isaac would have laid a foundation of substance. God's blessing would then have been given to Isaac and Ishmael.
Because Ishmael was not responsible for losing his providential position in Abraham's family, and the blessing that came with it, God's promise to bless him became a commitment to be fulfilled in time. Ishmael, like Jacob, became the father of twelve sons, who became the patriarchs of twelve tribes. These twelve tribes, cousins to the twelve tribes of Israel, were progenitors of the Arabs. The Ishmaelites inherited the burden of a blessing denied, which created a historical base for resentment towards the Israelites.
Since the pattern for giving blessings in the providence of restoration is for God to use Abel as His channel to uplift Cain, the primary providential objective for God has been to establish the position of Abel, so that His blessings could be given to all fallen humanity, centered on Abel.
When Jacob, as Abel, was victorious in making a foundation of substance with Esau, the whole of Isaac's family received God's blessing. God chose the descendants of Jacob to expand the foundation for true parents from the individual to national level, because through this lineage they inherited the victorious foundations made in Abraham's family.
The true parents, as universal Abel figures, are to share God's blessing with the rest of humankind, including the Ishmaelites. Thus it was the mission of Isaac's lineage to embrace the descendants of Ishmael and to include them in preparations to receive true parents. By participating in the providence in this manner, the Ishmaelites would earn God's blessings and their resentment towards the Children of Israel would dissolve. However, this cooperation did not come about and the relations between Arabs and Jews have remained problematic to this day. Only through true parents giving true love to the offspring of both sons of Abraham can the historic conflict between them be finally resolved.
Because the providence of restoration is always focused on the pivotal mission of laying a foundation for true parents, the central historical path to that objective is where God is most active with humankind. So it was after Abraham's family. Naturally, God gave special love and guidance to the chosen people because through them the whole world was to be restored. Consequently, both the Bible and the Koran focus their attention on the central figures in the lineage of Jacob (Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David, Solomon, etc.), up to and including Jesus. This is the lineage that has been discussed in previous chapters on the history of restoration.
Because of the providential importance of Ishmael, there were points along the path of Jacob's descendants where God's concern for Ishmael's lineage is clearly evident in His efforts to bring the two lines of Abraham's family together. For example, when Moses was sent into exile from Egypt, he was protected by an Arab farmer, Jethro, and married his daughter, Zipporah, making a family base for the two sides to join in a common providence. The prolongation in the providence after Moses delayed any progress in the unity between Jews and Arabs.
Throughout the era of the judges, the Abel position was not properly established in distinction from the Cain world of Canaan. When the circumstances were finally right for Israel to stand as the Abel nation, Solomon failed to unite his people with God and the law of Moses, preventing the Israelites from fulfilling Abel's mission. Specifically, Solomon and the Queen of Sheba could have been a couple that brought the two lines of Abraham's family together, but this possibility was rendered moot by the corruption of Solomon's faith.
There were no further opportunities until Jesus himself came as the true father of humankind. In his words and deeds he frequently emphasized that his mission was not just to save the Jews but to save all people. This is the mission of true parents. At his birth, three kings from Arab and Persian lands came to serve Jesus, suggesting the possibility that God was opening the way to bless the descendants of Ishmael through Jesus. However, when he was rejected by the Israelites, he was prevented from fulfilling this mission and could not transmit God's blessings to the Israelites or the Ishmaelites. However, because Jesus himself was victorious over Satan on the cross and successfully completed a spiritual foundation for true parents, Christians were put in the position to inherit responsibility for laying the foundation for the true parents - and the mission of the Israelites.
The first 400 years of the Christian era offered followers of Jesus an opportunity to indemnify the first 4000 years of the providence (Adam to Jesus in scriptural time). However, at the end of this period, the church entered a time of serious fracture, dividing into five major ecclesiastic sees as well as many smaller groups. On a foundation of unity they would have been able to expand their witness successfully throughout the world, making worldwide preparations for true parents. (This did not occur for many centuries, until, after the church had been purified through the Protestant Reformation, it sought to evangelize the entire world.)
The most important people to be embraced by Christianity in the crucial fifth and sixth centuries were the descendants of Abraham's sons, Ishmael and Isaac, because they had been chosen to lead the restoration. The shortcomings in Christianity meant that it could not work with either the Jews or the Arabs to build a foundation for true parents. Because of the problems associated with failed responsibilities in their own history with God, the Jews entered a long, dark era of suffering. Meanwhile, God sent a prophet to uplift the descendants of Ishmael, whose blessing had not been realized since God had first promised it to their ancestor Abraham.
The Mission of Mohammed
God chose to bless the Ishmaelites directly and set up a providence to complement and counterbalance Christianity by sending the prophet Mohammed to the Arabs. Historically, Islam is the only major prophetic religion to appear since Jesus gave birth to Christianity. This makes Mohammed the last of the Abrahamic prophets.
Mohammed's mission was to purify the lineage of Ishmael, to separate it from idolatry and to provide it with a clear understanding of God's truth so that it could fulfill a providential role in preparing for true parents. In this way, Mohammed would lay a foundation for true parents with Ishmael's descendants, bringing them directly into the orbit of the central providence of restoration.
Mohammed's teaching, inspired by. revelations, was a radical critique of the polytheism of his native Mecca and a validation of the Jewish and Christian prophets and scriptures. Among the basic doctrines he introduced to his people, he emphasized monotheism, God's ideal for the creation, human responsibility, the human fall, punishment for sin and an eventual end to the world of evil. He also demythologized Jesus, stressing that he was a man, not God; and he contradicted the notion that it was God's will that Jesus die on the cross.
Mohammed's teachings formed the core message for believers in Islam, which means total surrender to God. He taught that everyone who so surrendered was a Muslim, with Abraham specifically mentioned as an early Muslim. Through Islam, Mohammed brought unity to the disparate tribes of Ishmael, establishing a civilization that carried God's blessing to the Arabs and all others who adopted the Muslim faith.
Mohammed's mission and teaching were also a judgment on the vicious factionalism of Christianity in the sixth and seventh centuries, when minor differences in doctrine led to entire churches being anathematized and cast out from the Christian fold. Those Christians -- Arians, Nestorians, Monophysites, Iconoclasts - who had sincere objections to the Orthodox doctrines and practices, where not treated by the dominant church as brothers in the Christian family, but rather as enemies. Feeling no love from the church, they turned in droves to Islam, in which the critique of certain Christological and Trinitarian doctrines and the worship of icons reflected some of their views. Many of their insights were truthful, and God wanted them preserved and publicized, not quashed by an all-powerful orthodoxy.
The Mission of Islam
Since God is one and His will is one, the mission for all religions is also one. Religions vary because of the differences in the time and place of their founding, but they all exist for a common mission, to lead fallen humanity back to God. Since fallen nature can only be removed completely through true parents, all religions work to prepare humanity to receive true parents. Because of common ancestral roots, Islam, on the one hand, and Judeo-Christianity, on the other, share parallel, fraternal missions. They should cooperate like two brothers working together to prepare the way for true parents.
In any family there are differences between the children. When harmonized, this diversity is what makes a family delightful and enriching. The differences between Christianity and Islam reflect differences in their backgrounds and providential roles. They should cooperate harmoniously for the common purpose of God.
Unfortunately, though, the history of their relations has been far from harmonious. All too often they have fought each other instead of working together. For cooperative relations to prevail, there must be real mutual understanding as to what role each is playing in God's overall providence. With true understanding, differences can be seen as complementary strengths rather than unreconcilable contradictions.
Mohammed and the Koran
Mohammed was born in 570 and spent the first forty years of his life preparing for his prophetic mission. Surrounded by the idolatrous people of Mecca, in western Arabia, he sought the truth of God, which was revealed to him by the angel Gabriel. The revelations he received were presented to him as the culmination of the prophetic tradition reaching all the way back to Adam. They accepted the revelations of previous prophets and then added a body of instruction covering major theological issues and spelling out clear guidelines for a life of faith.
These revelations were given to Mohammed over a 21-year course, beginning in 610. The first twelve years he spent in Mecca under most adverse conditions because the Meccans persecuted him and his followers severely, forcing several to flee into exile in Abyssinia on two separate occasions. Several times Mohammed was driven to the brink of despair, but he never gave up his mission and eventually his real worth was recognized by tribes of nearby Yathrib. Seventy elders from Yathrib invited Mohammed to assume leadership over their town, to resolve tribal disputes and establish order among their people.
In 622 Mohammed and his followers emigrated from Mecca to Yathrib. In many respects the move was an escape from confinement, and the prophet himself had to hide in a cave for three days while angry Meccans sought him out. The liberation and emigration of the early Muslims was similar to the liberation of the Israelites from Egypt, also accomplished after three days of separation from their enemies. Because of its significance to Muslims, the Islamic lunar calendar takes 622 as its first year. For Muslims it is considered year one hijary (of the emigration).
Once in Yathrib, which was renamed Medina (The City), Mohammed set about creating a theocratic state according to the revelations he had received in Mecca and continued to receive in Medina. In addition to explaining God's will for humankind, the revelations provided detailed instructions for leading a God-centered life and the fulfillment of human obligations to God and fellow human beings. After Mohammed's death, these revelations were collected in 114 Suras, or chapters, and compiled as the Koran, which means literally the Reading (of truth).
The Koran adds to the material in biblical scriptures about many of the figures in the providence of restoration, often providing its own emphasis. It stresses throughout that there is only one God, not many, as the Meccans believed, and makes it very clear that Jesus was a man and not God. It also says that Jesus was victorious over death. It shows that each person is responsible before God for his actions, which is the basis for the law of indemnity. The rewards for living a faithful life are spelled out in appealing terms, while the terrible punishments for disobedience to God are presented in graphic detail.
Further, Islam provides a believer with a basic five-fold path for the fulfillment of his or her responsibility: confession of faith in God and Mohammed; prayer five times a day; tithing one-fortieth of one's wealth; fasting annually throughout the lunar month of Ramadan; and making the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in life. These "five pillars of Islam" have guided hundreds of millions of believers throughout the world in leading faithful lives.
The Expansion of Islam
Mohammed was not only a prophet but also a very successful leader. During his brief decade of leadership in Medina he succeeded in uniting the disputatious tribes of Arabia under the banner of Islam. This national foundation for Islam enabled the new religion to explode out of the Arabian Peninsula after his death (632), and in little more than a century it spread all the way to the borders of France in the West and China in the East. In many parts of the world, Islam succeeded in introducing monotheism where Christianity had proved unsuccessful in the same endeavor. One reason for this comparative success was Islam's singular focus on God, in contrast to the Christian emphasis on Jesus and a teaching encumbered by a number of hard-to-understand theological concepts. In addition, there were many Monophysite and Nestorian Christians who, being alienated from the trinitarian Orthodox Church, found Islam congenial to their beliefs.
The dramatic expansion of Islam, from the individual to the family, tribal, national and global levels, demonstrated a pattern of growth which is parallel in some respects to the Principle model of the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. To establish a global foundation for the kingdom, a national foundation is needed; to win the world you must first win a nation. Thus once Mohammed had united Arabia under Islam, the new religion could move to a worldwide level very rapidly. The Kingdom of Heaven, which is the dominion of true love, will begin with one family and then expand to one clan, one tribe and one nation. From that nation God's domain will expand to the whole world.
The expansion of Islam was marred by the use of force against others, including believers of other faiths. This and other impurities in the practice of the faith (such as hypocrisy) by some Muslims were carried with Islam through the waves of its growth. This caused resentment against Muslims that in some cases lingers to this day. Islam was to be disseminated through service and love and not by the force of arms. God is a God of love, not violence and warfare. His representatives must emulate Him. The Kingdom of Heaven will spread through example, teaching and service, guided by love alone. Such expansion will always respect individuals and communities for their unique character and personal beliefs.
Islam and Christianity
Both Christianity and Islam spread throughout the world, expanding outward from their origins in the Middle East. The manner in which each expanded varied from the other because of the differences between their founders' courses. Jesus' course resulted in a spiritual victory and therefore the expansion of Christianity was on a spiritual level; the victory of Mohammed was spiritual and physical and therefore the expansion of Islam took place on the spiritual and physical levels. Differences between the two in the spiritual dimension reflected the two men's different missions, Jesus having been sent as the messiah and true parent, Mohammed as a prophet to prepare for the coming of true parents.
Since Christianity and Islam had parallel missions in preparing a foundation for true parents, there should have been a cooperative relationship between them in history. However, because of resentments and misunderstanding on both sides, this was rarely the case. Nevertheless, history reveals God's efforts to get the two brother religions to work together.
When the United Christian Kingdom was established by Charlemagne (800), the United Islamic Empire was at its zenith under the Abbasids. Harun A Rashid was the Caliph in Baghdad (786-809), overseeing a brilliant flourishing of science and literature in his extensive domain. The two leaders exchanged gifts, but no substantial cooperation was initiated, although there were many good reasons for Christendom, which was dominant north and east of the Mediterranean Sea, and Dar Al Islam, concentrated to the south and east of the Mediterranean, to join hands in developing the world they knew.
However, distrust and enmity poisoned the relationship and soon the two religions were at each other's throats. The Popes in Rome launched a series of crusades against the Muslims, adding to the Christian and Muslim blood already shed during the expansion of Islam. The crusades set the two religions on a collision course that has characterized their relations ever since. Muslims say the Bible contains misrepresentations of God's word, distorted by Jews and Christians, while Christians see nothing in the Bible to anticipate the coming of Mohammed, and consequently reject Islam. Thus, continued conflict, based on mutual misunderstanding and suspicion, has soured the relations between Christianity and Islam, greatly hampering God's providence for both religions.
When the United Christian Kingdom failed to lay a foundation for true parents because of disunity, it divided into the kingdoms of the East and West Franks, beginning the 400 years of divided kingdoms. In the history of Islam, the United Islamic Empire of the Abbasids gradually began to fall apart as pieces broke away under leaders who increasingly rejected the supremacy of Baghdad and claimed parts of the Muslim territory as their own. The caliphate fell into serious decline from the mid-tenth century and was overtaken by conquering Seljuk Turks in the mid-eleventh century. The Turks, in turn, were conquered two centuries later (1258) by Hulagu's Mongols, who put an end to the Abbasid caliphate.
The caliphate had an important symbolic value in representing continuity of Muslim leadership after Mohammed's death, since the prophet left no male heirs. The first four (orthodox) caliphs to succeed Mohammed, Abu Bakr, Omar, Othman (who compiled the Koran) and Ali, could not set up a lasting and universal tradition because of contentious forces within the Islamic community. An anti-Ali faction wrested the caliphate from him by force, establishing the Umayyad caliphate in Damascus (661), only to have it taken away a century later (750) by the Abbasids, based in Baghdad. The North African Fatimids claimed the caliphate from Baghdad after they conquered Egypt (969), and eventually, in 1517, the Ottoman Turks moved the caliphate from Cairo to Constantinople when they conquered Egypt. The caliphate finally died out when the Ottoman Sultanate collapsed and the year-old Republic of Turkey renounced it in 1924.
One result of the internal divisions within Islam was the creation of two main branches, the predominant Sunnis and minority Shias. Sunnis recognize the four orthodox caliphs, whereas the Shias recognize up to an additional eight caliphs or imams (depending on the sect), out of the lineage of Ali, the fourth caliph. For the Shias, Ali holds particular importance as inheritor of Mohammed's central position in the faith and as a model Muslim.
The disunity in Christendom, leading to the decline and eventual exile of the Pope, was mirrored in the Islamic world by disunity leading to the decline and virtual demise of the caliphate. In Christian history, this decline was arrested only once a corrective movement, the Protestant Reformation, took hold after Martin Luther spearheaded efforts to reform the Roman Catholic church in 1517. In Islamic history, decline and disintegration were halted and the Muslim world was reunited under the Ottoman Empire when the Turks conquered Syria, Egypt and the holy cities of Mecca and Medina in 1517, beginning 400 years of Turkish rule. Their vast empire extended south from its center in Turkey to encompass the Arab world, west through the length of North Africa and into East and Central Europe, and east into Central Asia. The Ottoman Empire did not parallel the Protestant Reformation as a force for spiritual renewal, but it helped preserve Islam as a unified religio-political power that fostered the spread of monotheism.
By 1517, the Islamic world had reached the threshold of the final 400 years of global preparation for true parents, an era that saw a transformation of the world on all levels and presented Islam with the challenge of fulfilling its providential destiny by working side-by-side with Christianity for the preparation of the world to receive true parents. To fulfill this purpose, Muslims and Christians alike have to transcend traditional suspicions and animosities for the sake of God's will, which encompasses all humanity.
Lessons from Mohammed's Life Course
First:
God judges and supplements religions until they fulfill their purposes. If Judaism had fulfilled its mission and accepted Jesus, there would have been no need for Christianity. If Christianity had completely incorporated and applied the teachings of Jesus there would have been no need for Islam (the promise to Ishmael would have been fulfilled through the mission of the victorious messiah). God sent Mohammed as a judgment for Christians after they failed to fulfill God's will, and the revelations in the Koran were given to Mohammed to supplement those in the Bible.
Second:
Religions vary in content and emphasis depending on their missions. God used Mohammed to bring truth and a way to restoration for many millions of people all over the world, people who without Islam would lack a deep and comprehensive understanding of God and how to be reconciled to Him. Christianity is strongly focused on the messiah and how to receive salvation through him. Islam's focus is more towards the practice of religious obligations for justification before the one true God. Eastern philosophies and religions have their own emphases. The differences in focus translate into differences in culture. Since all religions are inspired by God to prepare humanity to receive true parents and fulfill the three blessings, their diversity offers fallen humans, coming from various cultural backgrounds, many paths to oneness with God. Thus the different religions have different but complementary missions to fulfill within God's global providence of restoration.
Third:
Islam established a model for expansion on the prophetic level which parallels in some respects the model of expansion of the Kingdom of Heaven. By persuading first individuals and families in Mecca, then tribes in Yathrib/Medina, and, finally, the whole nation of Arabia to accept his prophethood and leadership, Mohammed laid a successful foundation for the expansion of Islam to the worldwide level. Through this achievement, Mohammed pioneered a global providence to be perfected on the messianic level by true parents.
Fourth:
The prophetic foundation is to prepare believers for the coming of true parents. The Jews inherited the prophetic foundation of the patriarchs in Abraham's lineage up to the time of Malachi to prepare them for Jesus. Muslims inherited the Judaic foundation plus the prophetic foundations of Jesus and Mohammed to prepare them for the true parents to come.
Conclusion
Mohammed was a successful prophet and statesman who in the brief span of 21 years went from persecuted-visionary to ruler of Arabia. His success made Islam a powerful tool for the providence and the second largest religion in the world. However, Islam was blessed by God not merely to fulfill His promise to bless Ishmael, but, more importantly, as part of His overall dispensation of restoration. Therefore Islam's mission can only be completed in conjunction with God's work in other religions, especially Judaism and Christianity.
The next chapter will look closely at the 400 years after 1517 to show how these four centuries were the second period of global preparation for true parents, an era in which both Christianity and Islam became worldwide religions exerting unrivaled influence over human affairs, and how both faced challenges from science and materialism in the final stages of preparation for the establishment of God's Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
18. The Second Global Preparation For True Parents
The two previous chapters discussed how Christianity and Islam have played leading roles in the providence to prepare the world for true parents in the aftermath of Jesus' crucifixion. Expansion of these two religions was boosted by global developments of providential importance which ushered in a dramatic period of growth some five centuries ago. The great speed and intensity of these developments was brought about by an acceleration in the providence of restoration as, for the second time, the whole world was made ready to receive true parents. The preparations this time exceeded those that preceded the birth of Jesus by every measure.
There have been several powerful currents running through this period: religious, philosophical, scientific, economic and political. No field of human knowledge and endeavor is even remotely the same today as it was five centuries ago, when the modem revolution began. The ways people live, travel and communicate have changed so dramatically that today's world would be unrecognizable to the early Protestants who were just beginning to taste religious freedom or to the Ottoman Turks securing control of the Arab heartland.
In the terminology of the twentieth century, the world has become a global village in which modem communications and jet travel link all people in a single, worldwide community. The divine purpose behind shrinking physical barriers is to facilitate the unification of the world under one true God. The human race was always intended to be one family, bound together by true love and ordered according to a unified hierarchy of men and women under God and true parents.
This chapter briefly examines some of the major forces that have transformed the world over the past five centuries and how these changes relate to God's providence of restoration.
Religion
The most powerful force in human society is religion. Belief in a supreme being, or transcendent spiritual power, motivates people to build their lives according to religious principles, whereby they expect to be rewarded for doing good and punished for doing evil. In medieval Europe, the Church of Rome maintained authority over Christian knowledge. Few lay people could read or write and fewer yet knew Latin or Greek, the languages in which copies of the Bible were produced. Without printing presses, there were not many Bibles available anyway. Thus, the common folk had to believe whatever the ecclesiastic authorities told them. This made the church responsible for the communication of God's truth to believers, a trust which was frequently abused.
The Protestant Reformation was sparked by criticism of the church from a new class of enlightened laity, men and women who were sufficiently educated to study the scriptures and learn for themselves how the church had grown to abuse its authority. They were joined by disaffected clergymen, who had observed the hypocrisy and corruption of the church from inside. Their revolt against Rome started a snowball of defections from the church, forever changing the face of western Christianity. By the end of the twentieth century, there were literally dozens of major Christian denominations and thousands of smaller ones. By and large, the rejection of church authority and the proliferation of independent churches made individuals feel more responsible for their own religion. This was a healthy development, leading to inquiry into the meaning of scriptures and the responsibilities of believers.
The Reformation also produced a new Christian zeal, inspiring believers to take the message of Jesus to the four corners of the globe. Missionary movements sprang up to carry the word to nearly all nations, making Christianity a truly global religion for the first time. The Catholic Church had missionized before, but the Reformation stimulated its efforts greatly, especially through movements of the Catholic counter-Reformation. The Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, which was dedicated to spreading the Gospel throughout the world, was one of the most successful Catholic mission organizations. The missionary movement was considerably aided by the development of improved means of international transportation, by land and sea.
Unfortunately, missionary activity was all too often used by those with political and economic interests to secure colonial holdings around the world. Mixing objectives diluted the purity of the Christian outreach and generated resentment towards the Christian powers in the peoples targeted for conversion. Nevertheless, the work of missionaries made God's salvation providence centered on Jesus known to most of the world.
The geographic expansion of Christianity was matched by a growth in theological studies, and all issues were open to question and debate as never before. Numerous schools of theology sprang up, representing a wide spectrum of views. The result was that Christians realized there are many ways of interpreting scriptures, depending on one's position or perspective. Knowing this, Christians have to take personal responsibility for their beliefs. This is positive since it is only when individuals take responsibility to know and obey God that they can fulfill their God-given purpose.
Islam also spread throughout the world during this period, making major inroads in Africa and Asia. As Islam encountered diverse cultures it proved flexible in adapting to them. During this period, spiritual movements were a major source of conversion. Sufi groups, which practiced special rituals aimed at bringing members into direct contact with God and the spirit world, were particularly effective. In the period of final preparation, well-established sects, such as the Qadiriyya, Nakshabandis, Shazlis and Mevlevis, were joined by such groups as the Mahdis of Sudan, the Fulanis of Nigeria and the Sanussis of Libya.
While the Ottoman Empire did not foster a particular movement of religious renewal, it was in many respects tolerant of religious independence and free scholarship. Stimulated by the religious and scientific upheaval in the West, a number of Muslim thinkers began to re-examine their faith critically, in particular seeking to reconcile their beliefs with modern science. Among those of note were Ibn Tamiyah, Mohammed Abdu, Sayyid Amin Ali and Mohammed Iobal.
Philosophy
When the Protestant Reformation challenged Catholic orthodoxy, a tradition of religious freedom began to take root in western society. Thinkers were liberated to explore with new creativity the basic issues of life: the origin of human beings, their attributes, purpose, potential and destiny. In general, the early Greek philosophers provided the base on which modem philosophers built their systems. At one point, two important camps emerged out of philosophical debates: the idealists and the materialists. The former (such as Kant and Hegel) sought to construct logically sound theories on principles that recognized the existence of an invisible creator. The materialists (such as Feurbach and Marx) did not accept religious belief or speculation about the existence of a transcendent, invisible world in formulating their theories of humanity and the creation. They had great faith in science and its ultimate ability to answer questions about life.
The idealist philosophers provided support for religion, whereas the materialists supported humanistic ideologies. The most important materialist thinker was Karl Marx, not because of his brilliant philosophy, profound economic theory or perceptive understanding of history (few of his theories stand up to rigorous scientific questioning), but because his theories provided the ideological basis for the most successful materialistic movement in history: Marxism-Leninism, or Communism. With its denial of God and human spirituality, Communism set out to conquer the world for the "workers of the world."
The first Communist regime was ushered in by the 1917 Bolshevik revolution in Russia. Like a cancer, atheistic Communism spread from Russia throughout the world. By the late 1970s, almost two-thirds of the earth had come under the control of Communist rulers. Only after seventy years of cruel dictatorships and endless lies did the Communist monster finally falter and collapse in a heap of unfulfilled promises, leaving behind the corpses of tens of millions of innocent people.
The Communists promised a materialistic 'kingdom of heaven', in which each person would receive according to his need and give according to his ability. Yet Communism caused much more suffering than it ever mitigated. Despite legitimate concerns about inequities in the fallen world, Communists never understood the origin of evil and how it can be defeated. For instance, they incorrectly assumed that internal problems were caused by external circumstances and could be solved through external change. But the most serious error of Communism lay in its pathological hatred of God and religion. By denying God, Communism was no more than a tool of Satan, a system of false ideals susceptible to his manipulation. Although many sincere people were drawn by its promises and sacrificed to help in the realization of the good world it claimed it could create, they were ultimately deceived, and most became disillusioned and deeply disappointed.
Ever since Adam and Eve set up a satanic imitation of the true family, Satan has preceded God in creating false imitations of the ideal world (fallen families precede restored families, fallen systems of government, restored systems, and so on). In a sense, Satan denied his own existence in promoting materialist Communism, a strategy which gave Communism immense spiritual power. Communist expansion imitated the pattern of restoration: it began with one individual, Marx, and grew in stages. Once one nation, Russia, was claimed for the new, atheistic faith, it was able to expand rapidly to embrace many states around the world. Thus Communism created a kingdom of hell on earth, a world completely under the dominion of evil.
Any good library contains many thousands of volumes on philosophy, offering readers a full range of theories on life. Providentially, the purpose of philosophy is to provide a framework for understanding God and internal truth in the realm of human reason and logic. The plethora of theories has provided ways out of the confining straitjacket of religious dogmatism, to explore truth with complete freedom of mind. Thus philosophy has contributed to the exercise of human responsibility. In any philosophy, the most important concepts are those that enable men and women to fulfill their God-given purposes in this complex modem world. Conscientious humanists who follow philosophy are thus able to make valuable contributions to God's providence by affirming good values even though they may not believe in God.
Science and Technology
Much of the wisdom of ancient Greece, including the basics of science, was preserved, elaborated and significantly supplemented by Muslim scholars during the early centuries of the Islamic Empire. These scholars then transmitted their learning to Europe, especially through Spain and Sicily. This injection of scholarship proved to be a key element in Europe's awakening. The first major scholarly movement in Europe was the Italian Renaissance (which preceded the Protestant Reformation and helped provide critical educational tools to the reformers), followed two centuries later by the Enlightenment.
Both the Renaissance and the Reformation were important in stimulating science, which finally began its modem life. Religious authorities agreed to let scientists pursue knowledge of humankind and the universe through postulating theories and gathering empirical data to prove or disprove those theories. Before this, the church held a monopoly on knowledge, judging all ideas by the rules of Christian dogma.
Science, released from the constraints of stifling church authority and erroneous religious doctrines about humans and the universe, began to discover laws governing the physical world, leading to the creation of a growing array of technologies to assist people in performing the tasks of life. Thus, science became the leading force in transforming lifestyles in the modem era. By the end of the twentieth century, science had reached such a pre-eminent place in life that it had supplanted religion as the accepted authority on practically all matters pertaining to human existence. It seemed that science, through the development of appropriate technologies in medicine, communications, travel and the provision of human comforts, could meet all human needs. In many respects this widespread dependence on science signifies the elevation of science to the status of religion. In today's secularized, science centered world, religious beliefs that cannot meet the criteria of science are suspect. In this reversal of roles between religion and science, people who are afraid to change their materialistic belief systems adhere to scientific theories with dogmatic faith.
However, the world of modem technology, despite all its facilities and benefits, has produced unprecedented human alienation: of individuals from their families, families from their communities, and groups from their nations. The pervasive alienation of modem society has developed to such an extent that all too many people feel completely alone in the world. Ironically, this is especially the case in crowded cities where the universal preoccupation with survival tends to leave individuals feeling isolated.
God facilitated the development of science as an instrument for the fulfillment of His dispensation, but it was never intended to dominate humanity or take a subject position over religion. Science and technology bring joy to humankind when used in accordance with God's will.
Politics
The last four centuries have witnessed a dramatic change in the way power is wielded and shared. There have been countless upheavals and revolutions, many of them violent, and often intended to put an end to governmental systems that gave absolute power to rulers who abused it at the cost of those they ruled. Although there still are kingdoms, emirates and various forms of dictatorial rule on earth, the idea of democracy has become firmly established as the modem way of government, not because it is perfect but because it offers the greatest measure of freedom to individuals in an imperfect world. Democracy allows choice of religion, association and political leadership, and protects other important personal liberties. Ideally, it provides a political environment in which God can work with humans for the development of faith and the creation of a good society.
From God's viewpoint, an ideal system of government would be one in which political power expressed God's loving will, and religious and political leaders, aided by science, worked together for the benefit of all. Prior to the advent of modem democracy, however, religious institutions failed to preserve the purity they needed to give proper guidance to political leaders. For their part, though, political leaders are to be faulted for frequently acting against the advice of religion or for arrogating religious authority to themselves, damaging religion through abuse of their positions. Thus religion has been harmed by religious and political leaders ignorant of God's will.
Given this experience, democracy has been a relatively better system of government than unrighteous authoritarian rule, even in the name of "theocracy." Most important, it has protected religious freedom, under which people can worship God together in their chosen ways, study together and freely convey their beliefs to others. In this way democracy (which came to modem life through the Protestant church) has provided God with an opportunity to educate fallen humans away from primitive or erroneous beliefs and towards true understanding. This is vitally important since a major cause of human error and conflict is ignorance of God's love and truth, derived from the loss of true love through the fall. Ultimately, only through the practice of true love will the problems addressed by democracy be finally overcome. However complete a person believes his or her religion to be, from God's standpoint there is always scope for development and growth in the faith and practice of religion, a process facilitated by democracy. Not until members of the various faiths work together to restore all humankind, by creating a world of true love relationships, will religion have fulfilled its purpose.
Nevertheless, modem humanity should understand that democracy is not an end in itself. It is not the solution to all human ills. The solution lies in the elimination of evil and the creation of a world of true love, centered on God and true parents. Thus democracy is virtuous only if it is based on religious values. Once these are removed, it can be abused by evil influences, including all forms of immorality, and even succumb to totalitarianism of the right (fascism) or the left (Communism).
Economics
Side by side with political transformation, there has been a dramatic change in economies, in how goods and services are produced and exchanged. The modem network of sophisticated financial institutions, multinational corporations, individual and mult-owner companies, private and public sector industries, is extremely complex. Karl Marx, who died as recently as 1883, could not have imagined how economies would work a century after he wrote Das Kapital, which describes the evils of European capitalism and prescribes a Communist remedy.
Political freedom has been accompanied by economic freedom, with each taking turns at leading the other. As a result, at the end of the twentieth century fewer and fewer people are the economic property of others, while a significant and rising percentage enjoy a growing range of livelihood choices. This economic freedom is important in enabling individuals to make ideological choices.
The world God created was to provide Adam and Eve with an abundant life, as long as they fulfilled their role as loving lords over the creation. After they fell, they lacked the internal capacity to care for nature properly, leading to a conflict between humans and nature that has persisted to this day. Destruction of the natural environment out of ignorance and selfishness is now a problem that threatens the survival of all people.
Ideally, prosperity should not be a value in itself but rather the fruit of a good life. In the fallen world, prosperity is often created by one person at the expense of others, thus violating the purpose of the whole, which should govern all human affairs. Human greed has caused tremendous suffering in history, and continues to do so today.
Economic power and wealth should be used for the benefit of all humankind. God loves all His children and cannot bless a system that deprives some of them of a livelihood while supporting an abundant or even wasteful lifestyle for others. God is fair and just. In a world of true love, that fairness and justice, inherited by His children, will be reflected in an equitable distribution of wealth. For all individuals, the moral way is to use one's wealth for the benefit of others, centered on God's will. The person who does this will find his wealth a blessing. Used selfishly, however, wealth is a curse for its owner, since the creation itself wants to be used for God's will and the betterment of the whole.
The Twentieth Century
The second period of global preparation for true parents was launched in 1517 and has come to a climax in the twentieth century. At the beginning of the century, the First World War and the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 catapulted humanity into the most incredible era of change in history, with all the developmental trends accelerating at a dramatic pace. There is a providential basis for the rush of events in this century, since this is the time for the coming of true parents and fulfillment of the whole history of humankind. For this reason, the twentieth century has witnessed a cosmic final battle between God and Satan. The forces of evil have made a last desperate struggle to dominate the world before the mission of true parents is consummated.
The World Wars
The internal battle between good and evil has produced a century of bloody conflict of an unprecedented magnitude. In particular, the two World Wars and the many conflicts related to the rise of Communism as a world-threatening military phenomenon have pitted forces of relative good and evil against each other on a global scale. That is not to say that in each conflict there has been a clear separation of good and evil people in opposing camps, but rather that certain leaders have been used by God or Satan to accomplish particular objectives: God has chosen and supported Abel figures to complete a worldwide foundation for true parents; Satan has chosen and supported Cain figures to preserve his dominion over humankind.
In the First World War, the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey were in the Cain position. They fought to maintain and expand their hegemony over other nations. This unrighteous campaign stood in the way of God's providence to liberate nations from imperial domination, freeing them to find their own way to fulfill God's will. The Allies, in the Abel position, were led by Britain, France and America. They successfully opposed the Central Powers and opened the way for the advance of freedom and democracy throughout the world. However, they made several mistakes in victory. They themselves did not relinquish control of their colonies and they imposed such punitive burdens on the defeated alliance that seeds were sown for the outbreak of a second global conflict.
In the Second World War, the Cain-like Axis Powers, Hitler's Germany, Mussolini's Italy and Imperial Japan, took up arms in unrighteous conquest, killing tens of millions in pursuit of their self-centered ambitions. Their evil, racist ideologies, which led to the Holocaust and a host of other atrocities, were in contradiction to God's loving Heart, which embraces people of all races and religions. They were opposed by the Allies: the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union, on the Abel side. Their victory over the Axis Powers put a stop to racist ideologies and discredited them for all time. At the end of the war, the Allies planned a new international order of freedom and democracy, and established the United Nations. America, England and France offered generous terms to the defeated nations and liberated their colonies, according to the Christian ideals of forgiveness and charity. This laid the foundation for an era of unprecedented prosperity and progress. However, the Soviet Union had other intentions: to spread Communism worldwide. It used the end of the war to impose a brutal occupation on the recently liberated nations within its sphere of influence and begin a campaign of Communist expansion. The world divided once again into warring camps.
The Cold War conflict between the Cain-like Communist camp, with its ambition to rule the world in the name of atheistic ideology, and the free world, centering on the United States, can be considered the Third World War. Although the nuclear deterrent apparently prevented outright war between the two sides, the conflict between them frequently produced major wars (Korea, Vietnam, Angola, etc.) and resulted in millions of deaths. Only by the end of the 1980s, when communist regimes collapsed in disarray in one country after another, was the global Communist threat finally put to rest and the ascendancy of the Abel side unequivocally assured.
Each of these successes for Abel made a condition for the advance of God's providence in the final dispensation. The victory in the First World War set up the condition for the birth of true parents, the fulfillment of the first blessing, and the fulfillment of the three blessings in the formation stage; the victory in the Second World War set up the condition for the launch of the public mission of true parents, the fulfillment of the second blessing, and the fulfillment of the three blessings in the growth stage; and the victory in the Third World War opened the way for true parents to complete their mission: the total fulfillment of the three blessings.
Conclusion
Over the course of the past few centuries, the world has been transformed because of God's intense activity to prepare for the age of true parents. To prepare for that world, religion, philosophy, science, politics and economics have all passed through dramatic changes. While the world still suffers from human ignorance and evil, the forces of good have been quietly establishing indestructible foundations for the realization of God's will on earth. In the twentieth century, the world has experienced struggles between good and evil of apocalyptic proportions. After three great world wars, Satan's last great attempt to control the world had collapsed with the downfall of Communist regimes everywhere. Such universal conflicts portend that we live in the last days, foretold in the Bible and Koran.
The next chapter looks at the phenomena of these last days and how one can understand the dispensation for true parents in the context of recent developments and the current realities of the world.
19. The Consummation Of History
The consummation of history is of particular interest to Jews, Christians and Muslims because the Bible and Koran refer extensively to this time, variously called the last days, the judgment day, the end of the world, the day of resurrection, and so on. Most of these eschatological passages depict an end to human life as it has been, a time when God takes drastic action to deal with evil by dividing humanity into two groups: those who are accepted by God and saved from eternal damnation because of their faith and virtue, and those who are judged to be evil and condemned to pay for their sins forever. This final judgment of God is implemented through a series of cataclysmic events that culminate with the saved elevated to heaven and the damned cast into Hell. The universal desire for heaven, and fear of hell, gives the subject of the last days its power over believers. Understandably, they want to secure their eternal lives by knowing what to expect on the day of judgment.
The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the last days in the light of the principles of creation and restoration. These provide a theological and historical framework for understanding what can be expected at the end times, and what attitude people should take. Without such a framework, any interpretation of scriptures addressing this subject is bound to be highly subjective.
The Principle perspective of history holds that there is a providential purpose behind human events. All of history is aimed toward the restoration of true parents through the fulfillment of the three blessings lost by Adam and Eve at the dawn of human existence. The process of restoration follows the principles of restoration, that is, fallen humans must pay indemnity to lay foundations of faith and substance to make a foundation for true parents. Human beings will not be restored without fulfilling their responsibility through paying indemnity,
Phenomena of the Last Days
The phenomena of the last days are not exempt from the laws of restoration. By His own principles, God would not wave a magic wand to erase evil and separate the good people from the bad, because restoration is accomplished by individuals taking responsibility to obey God's words. (If a 'magic solution' were an option for God, why wouldn't He have used it a very long time ago, avoiding enormous human suffering?) Only after people fulfill their own responsibilities will they be saved, liberated from sin. The events of the last days have to be looked at in the light of this fact. When Biblical or Koranic scriptures speak about the earth being destroyed by fire; the sun and moon becoming darkened and the stars falling; believers being raised up to the sky; the damned burning in hell; and Christ appearing on a cloud, they are painting metaphorical images of the end times. These images represent internal truths about the fulfillment of the providence of restoration and should not be taken literally.
There are a number of important points to consider. The earth that God made is devoid of evil. Nature has no intrinsic fallen characteristics. Why then would God want to destroy the earth in the last days? How would doing so advance His providence of restoration?
If believers could be physically raised from the earth to the sky, why should they be? How would physical elevation change a person's relationship with God?
Why, too, would a loving God want to burn evildoers eternally in fires of Hell? Would doing so please the loving Creator and spiritual Parent of humankind? Would it fulfill His purpose in creating humanity and nature? Would it be just, considering that all people are born into a fallen world without a choice in the matter and therefore cannot be held totally responsible for their wrong-doing? Then, too, is there any sin that deserves eternal punishment?
It is not the physical earth but evil that has to be destroyed, and evil can only be eliminated by the love and truth of God, never by literal fire. The 'earth' that has to be destroyed is a symbol of the world of Satan's dominion that has to be eradicated by the fire of God's love and truth. The false love of fallen relationships has to be replaced by the true love of God-centered relationships, resurrecting the spirits of fallen men and women from the depths of spiritual death in hell to the heights of spiritual life in heaven. It is the spirits of fallen individuals that will be raised up, not their bodies. Those who have died physically exist only in the spirit world and are unable to live a physical life again, but their spirits can grow according to the principles of resurrection (discussed in Chapter 9).
There is no human sin that must be paid for with eternal damnation in Hell. If God had made human beings in such a way that they might be forever lost to their Creator, it would have been a failure by God. Religious history demonstrates God's absolute will to save every person who ever existed. If anyone is responsible for sin on earth it is Adam and Eve, since they gave Satan dominion over the first family, corrupting the very root of human lineage. Yet, from the second generation of their family, God sought to restore them. What's more, the whole thrust of history has been directed towards the restoration of Adam and Eve (their mistakes are indemnified by their descendants), as the Principle explanation of God's providence has shown. Since God has demonstrated His determination to save Adam and Eve, He must be equally determined to save everyone in their lineage, the rest of humankind, who bear less responsibility for the evil on earth.
Unification of the World's Religions
Most founders and leaders of religions are now in the spirit world, many with centuries or millennia of spiritual work behind them. Their level of understanding is generally far higher than that of most people on earth, including those who follow, or try to follow, the spiritual paths that they pioneered. These high spirits can understand God's providence well, and they work to accomplish it from the spirit world. A core aspect of this understanding is the single purpose of God, under which all humanity is to be united as one, global family. Their cooperation with one another in the spirit world for the achievement of this goal produces a unifying tendency among the religious movements they founded.
No two people hold completely identical beliefs, but when all people use their own religious beliefs to reach maturity of spirit and heart, the divisions among people will be overcome by the power of true love. Thus the goal of unifying the world's religions is not to get everyone to adopt a single belief system, but for all believers to become true men and women who can build a world of peace and love, centered on God. It is to this end that religious leaders in the spirit world are working.
The Old History and the New
The "last days" simply means the last days of Satan's dominion on earth and the beginning of God's dominion. Thus the consummation of history is the period of transition in which the old world of evil is superseded by the new world of good. History until now has been a history of the fallen world, but, beginning with the victory of true parents, it will become a history of good, as it would have been had the first humans not fallen.
There was a providence for the consummation of history at the time of Noah, when through the flood God sought to end the world of evil and start a new world of good centered on Noah's family. Ham's failure resulted in a postponement of that providence. At the time of Jesus, God once more made all the preparations for the world of evil to be ended. Jesus and his bride were to fulfill the mission of true parents and establish the Kingdom of Heaven, but the crucifixion of Jesus resulted in another postponement of the providence. History since the time of Jesus has been directed towards preparing the whole world for true parents. With the success of their mission, the scriptural prophesies will be fulfilled and the consummation of fallen history will be accomplished.
Who Are the True Parents?
The entire history of restoration has been directed towards laying a foundation for true parents, the payment of indemnity to prepare for God to send a man and woman to restore fallen Adam and Eve. Because of frequent delays in the fulfillment of these conditions, the only person God sent as a true parent after the fall was Jesus. Because of John the Baptist's failure, Jesus himself was not able to fulfill the mission, having instead to offer his own life as a condition for the future fulfillment of God's will.
When an individual chosen for a particular mission in the history of restoration is unable to complete that mission, another person is chosen in his or her place. For example, Abraham's mission was passed to Isaac and Isaac's to Jacob. Moses' mission was completed by Joshua, and the mission of building the Temple was passed from King Saul to David and then Solomon. Elijah's return to prepare the way for Jesus was to be fulfilled by John the Baptist. Jesus came to complete the mission of Adam, but when the Israelites rejected him it became necessary for another person to inherit his mission, a true man who could restore Adam and take a bride to restore Eve. Therefore, the true parents will be individuals given the mission of completing the restoration work of Jesus.
A providential person unable to complete a mission, for whatever reason, can indemnify that loss by supporting the person chosen to take his or her place. Abraham indemnified the mistake in his sacrifice of animals by offering the life of his son as a condition to keep his family in the center of God's providence. He then assisted his son in making a sacrifice, thereby participating in the victory of Isaac. Jesus gave his life for the salvation of fallen humanity, but could not see the fulfillment of this mission in his lifetime. However, his offering of faith made a condition for the advent of the true parents, who will complete his mission.
True parents are not unique figures in history because of supernatural or superhuman attributes, but because they accomplish God's will completely. They are a man and woman who have to earn the title of true parents through the payment of indemnity in perfect obedience to God. Given the strength of Satan and the extent of evil in the world, to accomplish such an awesome mission is possible only for individuals chosen specially for that purpose by God. True parents must have a remarkable standard of heart, with exceptional emotion, intellect and will, to understand God in sufficient depth to be able to carry out His mandate for restoration. They also have to understand the root of evil and the way Satan has kept dominion over fallen humanity, and they have to gain complete victory over Satan, setting up a realm free from Satanic dominion where the three blessings can be fulfilled. To accomplish such a rigorous mission, they need a very strong constitution and excellent health.
When Will the True Parents Come?
According to the principles of restoration, God can only send a central figure once a foundation of indemnity has been laid for that person. In the history of restoration, it took 2000 years from the time of Abraham for the Israelites to lay a foundation for Jesus. Within that time, there were six major providential periods associated with laying that foundation. When Jesus was crucified, the work of restoring a worldwide foundation for true parents had to indemnify the mistakes of the previous two millennia. Thus, the 2000 years after Jesus followed the pattern of the 2000-year period of preparation for him. The parallels in history, discussed in Chapter 16, indicate that the twentieth century is the time for true parents to come. More specifically, the advent of true parents should be in the period following the First World War.
The correct historical timing must coincide with circumstances suitable for the success of true parents' mission. There must be internal and external preparation of humankind for a sufficient number of enlightened people to respond wholeheartedly to God's new providence. As detailed in Chapter 19, these preparations were undertaken over the past five centuries, during which the whole world underwent a dramatic transformation.
Thus, by every providential measure, the advent of true parents should be in the period following the First World War.
The Identity of the True Parents
Whoever fulfills the mission of restoring fallen Adam and Eve, as well as the many mistakes in the history of restoration, qualifies as true parents. There are many who claim messianic missions, based on inspirations they or others receive from the spirit world. but what counts is fulfillment of the mission.
On August 24, 1992, before a large international audience of religious, political, academic and media leaders, gathered in Seoul, Korea, Sun Myung Moon announced that he and his wife, Hak Ja Han, had been chosen by God to be the true parents and had successfully accomplished their mission.
He was able to make this forthright announcement because of his accomplishments in life. He knew full well the skepticism with which his words would be received by many, but he also knew that those of good ancestral lineage, with integrity and goodness, would be able to recognize the verity of his claim. Good recognizes good, whereas those with questionable intentions are always suspicious of the intentions of others.
In this secular and scientific age, religions (and especially the new expressions of religion) are viewed with distrust. Because of this, his efforts, as well as those of the millions of people associated with his Unification Movement, have frequently been the targets of bigoted attacks. It is a sign of the goodness of the movement and its founder that they have been so reviled by the world under Satan's dominion, but also that they have consistently met these attacks with humility and love.
Born in Korea in 1920, at the age of sixteen (fifteen by western reckoning) Sun Myung Moon was commissioned by Jesus to complete his work. He spent all of his mature life in preparing for this mission and then carrying it out. After devoting nine years to discovering God's truth and finding out why the ideals of religion had not been fulfilled, he began teaching what he had learned, an outline of which has been presented in this book. Working extremely hard in the face of relentless opposition, first in Korea and Japan, and then America and the rest of the world, he has built up a network of dedicated followers who have made his vision and teaching the basis for their lives of faith and the inspiration for a wide variety of projects designed to benefit humanity and help create a just world of true love. Always cooperating with believers from other faiths, on a global level, he and his followers have launched many religious, cultural, educational, scientific and media activities aimed at creating inter-personal, inter-religious and international understanding and harmony.
Every step of the way has been wrought with difficulties and suffering. No established power, religious or secular, has fully embraced the Korean religious leader, and opposition to his teaching and activities has resulted in, six imprisonments for him. For almost three years during the Korean War, he was kept in a Communist prison camp in North Korea, after being tortured to the brink of death. He also was imprisoned in South Korea, Japan and America, in every case because of his dedication to God and passionate support for the causes in which he believes. Despite these trials and tribulations, he has never given up his mission. On the contrary, as with all true men and women of God, he has gained strength and broadened his following by overcoming all difficulties. In the process, he has established an unrivaled foundation for human salvation and the creation of world peace.
In 1960, he was united with his bride in holy matrimony, fulfilling the second blessing. Since then, the True Parents have worked together as a couple to create a true family absolutely obedient to God, and have fulfilled all the conditions necessary to restore the family, clan, tribe, nation and world. The love of their united heart is truly parental and global, embracing people of all races, nationalities and religions. On the foundation of their own blessing in 1960, they have offered the same marriage blessing to tens of thousands of couples, providing them with a foundation on which to build their own restored lineage.
The Completed Testament Age
On January 3, 1993, after all the necessary conditions had been fulfilled, Sun Myung Moon announced the beginning of the Completed Testament Age. This is the era for the realization of God's ideal on earth, centered on the foundation established by the True Parents. From this time, God's power over human affairs increases dramatically, and the demarcation between good and evil, the fallen world and the true love world, becomes ever clearer. Although not yet evident to most people, for the first time in history good is in the ascendant position and evil declining. The signs of this positive change will proliferate rapidly as the providence of God advances with unprecedented and inexorable power.
Conclusion
Behind the chaos of the twentieth century world, a spiritual revolution has quietly spread from Korea to all comers of the globe. It is not a political or military challenge to the status quo, but a transformation of hearts and minds that has affected the lives of millions, bringing changes to their families and the world. Through the victory of the True Parents, the marriage blessing is offered to couples from every race, religion and nation on earth, bringing them new meaning and a new standard of family life, and realizing a purification of lineage that offers future generations the real prospect of a completely different and good world. At the same time, these religious values for a unified world are being used to facilitate inter-religious understanding and harmony, cooperation among scientists, dialogues between political leaders, and education in values for children and responsible media. This quiet revolution marks the end of the history of Satan's dominion over humanity and the beginning of God's Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
Readers are encouraged to determine for themselves whether this is true or not. God always responds to those who seek Him, and any sincere question will receive an answer. Through study and prayer, the veracity of the Principle and the identity of the True Parents can be confirmed.
