Holy Matrimonial Blessing of the Parents of Heaven and Earth to Open the Gate to Cheon-Il-Guk

The Opening of the Gate to the Cheon-Il-Guk through the Holy Marriage Blessing Ceremony of the Parents of Heaven and Earth

and

The Providential Background

of the

Coronation of the King of the Blessed Families

for the

Peace and Unity of the Heavenly Parent and the Parents of Heaven and Earth

Table of Contents

Preface

The Original Ideal Lost Due to the Fall

God’s Ideal of Creation

The Providence of Salvation and the Appearance of True Parents

The Gate to Salvation: The Holy Marriage Blessing of the True Parents

Changes in the Spirit World after the Holy Marriage Blessing

6. The Resolution of the Representatives of the Five Great Religions and Breaking Down the Walls in the Spirit World

Who is Reverend Sun Myung Moon?

Preparations for the Holy Marriage Blessing Ceremony of the Parents of Heaven and Earth and the Coronation of the King of the Blessed Families for Cosmic Peace and the Unity of Heaven

Conclusion

This booklet was written by Dr. Chang Shik Yang, Continental Director, North America, under the direction of our True Parents.

Preface

On their birthday, February 6, 2003, the Reverend and Mrs. Sun Myung Moon, the True Parents of humankind, will celebrate the “Holy Marriage Blessing Ceremony of the Heavenly Parent and the Parents of Heaven and Earth” and the “Coronation of the King of the Blessed Families” at the Training Center of Heaven and Earth at Cheong Pyeong, South Korea.

The True Parents’ holy matrimony held in 1960 was a turning point of human history. Over the next 40 years, in Blessings varying from a few dozen to hundreds of millions of couples, families from 180 nations of the world, notably Korea, Japan and America, participated in holy marriage Blessings. Their motto was, “The Realization of the Kingdom of Heaven through Ideal Families.” On this day, all these Blessed couples will be blessed once again, all at the same time.

The Reverend Sun Myung Moon came as the True Parent of humankind with a mission to save nations and the world through the Blessing of marriage. Logically, he should have been blessed originally on a cosmic foundation. However, this did not happen due to misunderstanding and opposition from the key religious bodies that had been prepared for him. Instead, he was blessed on a conditional worldwide foundation. He had to create this foundation himself through laying indemnity conditions, even overcoming situations that left him close to death.

In this, the third year since proclaiming the Cosmic Nation of Peace and Unity (Cheon Il Guk) and embarking upon the building of the original land of Eden, the curtain has finally fallen on the 6,000-year history for the providence of salvation. Last year we held the Burning Ceremony for Cosmic Peace, Unity and Liberation. In that ceremony all the wrongdoings of Blessed families, whether big or small, committed knowingly or unknowingly, were consumed by fire and cleansed. On that foundation, the age of cosmic peace, unity and equalization could open, giving birth to a new era of oneness between God and humankind.

The foundations for the church-level Blessing on the formation stage and the national level Blessing on the growth stage were laid according to the progress of the providence of restoration, as explained above. Now the world-level Blessing on the completion stage is being held. Its significance is that of the holy marriage Blessing that was to be held in the original Garden of Eden. It is also the global realization of the “marriage supper of the lamb” that Jesus wished to see when he came to earth 2,000 years ago.

The resolution that was proclaimed on December 25, 2001 by the founders of the five major religions in the spirit world opened the age of unity between the spirit world and physical world. On the foundation of that cosmic-level victory, the True Parents will celebrate this coming event as the True Parents of Heaven and Earth. Further, they will be crowned as the King of the Unification Blessed families in physical world and in spirit world, after which they will convey the Cheon Il Guk Blessing to all Blessed couples worldwide.

In the original ideal world of creation, the cosmos, Chunjoo in Korean, is in the subject position. On the other hand, heaven and earth, Chunji in Korean, refers to the planet earth, which is in the object position. Therefore, the term, Heavenly Parent (Chunjoo Pumonim) refers to the Creator, Jehovah God, and the term Parents of Heaven and Earth (Chunji Pumonim) refers to the original, unfallen Adam and Eve who achieved perfection. Through the upcoming holy marriage Blessing, the Reverend and Mrs. Moon, True Parents of Heaven and Earth, who reached the ideal of oneness with the Heavenly Parent, will connect the actual lineage of God to the earth.

Thus, all humankind is called to participate in this providential event. It is a cosmic event, which the heads of all nations ought to attend as guests to congratulate all the participants. Accordingly, the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace has invited political leaders from 120 nations, including current and former heads of state, to attend as Ambassadors for Peace. America is sending representatives from each religious body. Together with leaders from the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification from Korea, Japan and America, they are attending in the position of high priests. Further, representatives from each clan in Korea, providentially the central nation of the world, are attending the event as guests.

On the foundation of the realm of the First Israel, established in the Old Testament Age, the realm of the Second Israel, established in the New Testament Age, and the realm of the Third Israel, established in the Completed Testament Age, through this ceremony we are entering the realm of the Fourth Israel in which God can freely work and act. In other words, we are entering a transitional point of history, when the world of peace and freedom can be realized both in the spirit world and physical world. On the occasion of such an historic event, and based on this overall understanding of God’s providence of salvation, I would like to expound the principled significance and the providential background of “The Opening of the Gate to the Cheon-Il-Guk through the Holy Marriage Blessing Ceremony of the Parents of Heaven and Earth” and “The Coronation of the King of the Blessed Families for the Peace and Unity of the Heavenly Parent and the Parents of Heaven and Earth.”

1. The Original Ideal Lost Due to the Human Fall

As the world entered the new millennium, humankind aspired for world peace with infinite hope and vision for the future. In the face of these hopes, however, the world is still plagued with struggles, conflicts and even potential wars. Humanity’s social existence is also full of gloom, corruption and confusion. The youth, humanity’s hope for the future, face serious problems of moral decadence, drug use, free sex, etc., and these cannot be stemmed by external means. Humankind’s condition is like that of a patient whose illness is so profound and complex that no physician knows where to begin.

Today’s fallen world is indeed critically ill. In order to find a cure we must first discover the fundamental cause of the disease. We find it in the fall of the first human ancestors, who disobeyed God’s will and left Him. As a result of the fall, the individual was fractured into conflicting mind and body. This division within the individual then expanded to the family, tribe, people, nation and the world. Depending upon human endeavors it may be possible to resolve conflict among nations, but the ceaseless struggle between the individual’s mind and body cannot be resolved finally without understanding this fundamental cause.

God’s purpose of creation was for Adam and Eve, through obedience to God’s commandment, to perfect themselves as true individuals, become true spouses to each other and give birth to sinless children. Thus they were to establish a family with the structure of a Four-Position Foundation. However, the first human ancestors did not follow the commandment. They fell while they were still in an imperfect stage, in the growing period. Consequently they were expelled from the Garden of Eden. On their own, tainted with the original sin, they established a false family, false tribe, false people, false nation and the false world. Ultimately they created an earthly hell that has nothing to do with God. It is only natural that those who lived in hell on earth will end up going to hell in spirit world. That is why Jesus called Satan “the ruler of this world.” (John. 12:31) That is, ever since the fall of the first human ancestors, Satan has been governing the earth and spirit world in the place of God; he has been exercising full authority as the “ruler of this world.”

The first conjugal union of the human ancestors was also to have been the consummation of God’s love. It naturally should have been a joyful occasion where God, Adam and Eve and all creatures would be immersed in joy, happiness and ecstasy. Further, it should have been a happy ceremony through which God’s true love, true life and true lineage would be settled on earth through His children.

However, after the fall, Adam and Eve covered their lower parts and hid themselves in the trees, trembling with fear and anxiety, because they had engaged in an immoral relationship. This violation of heavenly law was the origin of false love, false life and false lineage.

Veiled in symbols and parables, the actual nature of the original sin that resulted from the fall has never been understood. Yet it did not happen simply by eating a material fruit called “the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” as literally depicted in the Bible. The fall took place when Adam and Eve were in the growth period, an immature stage. First the archangel Lucifer, symbolized in the Bible by a serpent, tempted Eve and they fell. This was the spiritual fall. Then Eve tempted Adam and they fell; this was the physical fall. We see that the fall referred to in the Bible was in fact their involvement in illicit relationships.

Again, Adam and Eve were growing to perfection, mandated to observe the commandment, “do not eat” and value it as life itself. As stated in Genesis 2:17, “of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” However, the only power that is greater than the power of God’s commandment is the power of love, whether principled or unprincipled. Through love, three beings—Adam, Eve and Lucifer—committed the fall. After the fall, the archangel Lucifer became Satan. (Isaiah 14:12; Jude 6-7) revealed that Satan is the father of fallen human beings, saying: “You are of your father the Devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires.” (John. 8:44) Therefore, human beings, the descendants of Adam and Eve, are fallen from birth and pass on the original sin from generation to generation. The fall is the origin of the human condition of conflict between the mind and body. Due to the fall, the disorder of love prevails in human society, causing people to live their entire lives in violation of the hope of their original mind.

Had Adam and Eve established a relationship of true love centered on God, as originally intended, God could have dwelt in Adam and loved Eve. Adam’s body would have been God’s temple. Further, Adam and Eve would have been the origin of true love, true life and true lineage. Yet due to the fall, they instead became the temples of Satan, as an evil couple, evil parents and evil ancestors. Their union became the root of evil love, evil life and evil lineage. Since all human beings are rooted in them, we are the descendants of Satan, inheriting the evil lineage of the evil parent. From birth we have been the enemies of God.

Let’s look at the purpose and ideal of love. Animals and plants engage in sexual relationships only for the purpose of multiplication. Human beings are the exception, in that they can freely enjoy love in their conjugal relationship. This is their privilege that they can experience as the masters of all things. God blessed human beings, as His children, with true love to enjoy unlimitedly. However, this true God-given freedom requires responsibility. If each individual were to insist on his or her freedom without taking responsibility, the world would be thrown into chaos. Thus, the perfection of human beings is possible only when they fulfill the ideal of supreme love, taking responsibility for their love.

The responsibilities of love are threefold: First, human beings are to have dominion over themselves. Based on their ability to exercise self-control, they can become the subject partners of freedom and give thanks to God who blessed them with the freedom of true love. They are responsible for their love not out of fear of the law or because someone’s eyes are watching over them. Rather, their responsibility is based on their ability to exercise dominion over themselves and their committed vertical relationship with God, the original source of true love.

The second responsibility of love is towards the other party. Human beings as husband and wife do not by nature want their love to be scattered. Love in a marriage relationship is destroyed if it is shared with other partners. This is uniquely the quality of conjugal love, unlike love between parents and children, for example. It is so because according to the Principle of Creation, oneness can come only through absolute love between husband and wife. Humans are to love only their own spouse.

The basis of children’s love and happiness is their parents’ love for them. Children would want to be born of parents who are united are harmonious in true love, and they want to be raised in such love. The most important responsibility of parents for their children lies not in providing them merely with external things, but in giving them the spiritual nourishment of true love. This is the very reason why the family is precious. Other than in a family, there is no place where one can experience a child’s heart, sibling’s heart, conjugal heart and parental heart.

How heartbroken God must have been when His ideal was shattered due to the fall of Adam and Eve! Humans were to become His children. Yet without recognizing their own Parent, God, they instead came to attend Satan as their parent. God’s ideal of creation is absolute. He has to pursue it, no matter how painful. That is why God has been leading the providence of salvation for humankind. Thus, God’s providence of salvation is the providence for the restoration of true love. Also, it is the providence of re-creation.

When viewed from this perspective, the fundamental quest of God’s providence of restoration has been to find the original procreative seed of true love, life and lineage to complete the ideal of creation. False life and false lineage originated from the false love of Satan. God detests it more than anything! That false lineage must be eradicated!

Among love, life and lineage, which is most important? During his Fifty State Speaking Tour in America from February 25 through April 17, 2001, Reverend Moon posed this particular question to the clergy who attended his speech. Most of them answered, “love,” followed by “life.” No one answered that it was lineage. Indeed, life comes from love, and lineage is linked to life. In that sense, love can be thought of as the origin of life and lineage. However, no matter how great one’s love and life may be, they cannot go beyond one generation. On the other hand, lineage that bears fruit through conjugal love can continue for eternity. When viewed from this perspective, lineage is the most precious of the three. The fall in the Garden of Eden affected the blood lineage relationship. That is why it could continue down the countless generations of the human race.

What part of the body in a man and a woman is the connecting point of lineage? It is the sexual organ. The sexual organ is the tool or instrument through which a couple practicing true love instills life and propagates it. Accordingly, it is the most important part of our body as the original palace of true love, the original palace of true life, and the original palace of true lineage. It is the exceedingly sacred part of the body, its holy of holies.

Who is the owner of my sexual organ? Although it is a part of my body, it is not my own, but belongs to my spouse. In other words, the owner with the key to a husband’s sexual organ is his wife. Since it does not belong to him, he has no right to share it with anyone else. Likewise, the owner with the key to a wife’s sexual organ is her husband. Neither has the right to give away a “spare-key.” As the attributes of God are absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal, the sexual organ through which we can consummate our love must be guarded absolutely. In this way, the Reverend Moon has been teaching that the greatest virtue to be observed is absolute love. That is, prior to marriage we should keep purity, and after marriage we should be faithful to our spouse. The purity of blood lineage divides true love and false love, life and death, and the Kingdom of Heaven and hell.

Throughout history, God and Satan have been struggling fiercely over the blood linage of human beings. God created human beings, but because Satan is related to humankind through blood lineage, he has a claim or ownership that he will not easily surrender. Through the multiplication of this false lineage, Satan has expanded evil from the Garden of Eden to the worldwide level. In these last days, Satan has turned the world into Sodom and Gomorrah through the corruption of love into free sex, homosexuality and so forth.

The Reverend Moon understands the identity and strategy of Satan well. Therefore, together with his lifelong marriage Blessing ministry, he has also promoted a movement for pure love among youth, not only in Korea and Japan but also in America. There the work is most active in the public schools of Washington, DC, Chicago and Miami.. Further, millions of middle and high school students in China and Russia are reciting the “Pure Love Pledge,” in which they commit to sexual purity. Reverend Moon’s thought and teachings are being published and used as textbooks in morality and ethics.

The human ancestors came under Satan’s control through an illicit blood relationship as a result of their own failure to fulfill their responsibility. Therefore, God alone cannot bring them back to their original state. Someone must appear, reveal the identity of Satan and teach the truth that can eradicate the root of evil without relying solely upon God’s omnipotence. That person is the Messiah. That is why the Bible calls Jesus, who came as the Messiah, “the Second Adam.” (1 Cor 15:45)

Jesus had to restore the original position of Adam, uprooting the original sin that originated in Adam. Israel, the chosen nation of Abraham’s descendants, and Judaism were to serve as the external and internal foundations for Jesus’ ministry. Had the chief priests and scribes, together with John the Baptist, attended Jesus and become his 12 disciples and 70 apostles, he would not have been crucified.

Jesus’ first mission was to reveal God’s will, disclose Satan’s identity and motivation, and discover the process of the fall. Without understanding the origin of evil, we cannot establish God’s will on earth. Although Jesus knew Satan’s identity and the original sin, he could not reveal the truth because the people were not ready to accept it. He was accused of blasphemy even for calling God his Father and testifying that he and His Father were one. (John 10:25-39) Without a receptive foundation, he could not reveal an innovative teaching on the level of a new revelation. That is why Jesus said: “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.” And he continued: “But when the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.” (John 16:12-13) Faced with the faithlessness of the Israelites, Jesus lamented: “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” (Mt 8:20) Eventually Jesus was harassed and driven into a corner. He had to die on a cross in order to open the way for our salvation in spirit. Salvation for both spirit and flesh, however, remained to be accomplished.

Human history is the providence of salvation. It is the providence to restore the ideal of creation. Just as the destination of the Old Testament was to receive Jesus who came as the Messiah, the vision of the New Testament was to receive the Second Coming of the Lord. At the Second Coming, the Lord returns as the third Adam, on the foundation of the second Adam, to bring complete restitution of the original sin committed by the first Adam.

2. God’s Ideal of Creation

Then in the restored ideal of creation, what is the relationship between God and human beings? God, the origin and the subject of true love, true life and true lineage, created human beings as His substantial object partners. Human beings are the substantial manifestation of His dual characteristics, internal character and external form. Therefore, the first man, Adam, represented God’s masculinity, and the first woman, Eve, His femininity. As such, human beings are the sole created embodiments, temples and substantiations of God. That is, the invisible God created only us as His visible body. Our relationship with God is that of child and parent, centered on true love. Only through us as His children can God’s ideal of love be fulfilled. God’s purpose of creation is realized in a world where God and us become one in the absolute and true love. God’s Will is to fulfill this ideal, which is the purpose of creation.

A man or woman of perfected individuality, with mind and body united as subject and object partners, is God’s temple. (1 Cor 3:16) God can dwell in peace within such a person. Jesus said, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9) Such a person is always one with God in heart, which means that he or she can immediately empathize with God’s joy and sorrow. Such a person cannot commit a sin. He or she has reached a state of perfection as Heavenly Father is perfect (Mt 5:48) and has become a perfected individual who can manifest God’s ideal of creation fully. This is called the completion of the First Blessing. (Gen 1:28)

God created Adam first, as His body from the dust of the earth. (Gen 2:7) Adam was God’s son, but at the same time was God’s actual form. He was to fulfill the ideal of God’s absolute love through the vertical relationship of parent and child. Completing the ideal of creation, he would have had no original sin and no need prayer or repentance. Neither would he need a Savior or Messiah to redeem him. He would have lived in the presence of God, attending Him in daily life. In his horizontal relationships with others, with God as a common Parent, he would relate as to brothers and sisters, living for their sake with true love.

The first and most crucial question is over the unity of mind and body. Immersed in God’s glorious ideal of creation, one should be of one mind and body, manifesting one thought and co-creating one world of harmony. That is why the Reverend Moon has always taught, “Before having dominion over the world, first have dominion over oneself.” Before preoccupation with peace in the nation and world, we should be preoccupied with establishing inner peace between the mind and body. As we make these two one, we can stand perfectly erect before God, our axis perpendicular to the horizontal plane. We are at “high noon” with no shadow cast by our heart. We embody God, realizing His radiant divinity within ourselves.

With this ideal of perfected individuality in mind, God intended to expand love horizontally through perfect conjugal love. For this He created Eve. Eve was His daughter. While she was Adam’s partner of love (Gen 2:18, 24), Eve at the same time would become God’s bride, who could complete the eternal ideal of love horizontally. After reaching individual perfection, had Adam and Eve come into the Blessing of holy marriage under God and consummated their love, it would have been as if God had received His own bride. The place where the ideal of conjugal love bears fruit horizontally is the place where God’s absolute vertical love dwells and partakes in joy. Thus the true love of God and of man and woman originates simultaneously, at one meeting point of the vertical and horizontal expressions of love. God’s Second Blessing was for Adam and Eve to become such a true couple in His love. (Gen 1:28)

Next, Adam and Eve were to bring forth good children and become true parents with God above as the eternal Parent. This substantiated God’s desire to multiply sinless children from generation to generation forever, as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and in heaven. If that original couple had created this first four-position-foundation, theirs would have been a true family, the cornerstone of God’s nation. Expanding as a tribe, a people and a nation filling the world, this family would have brought forth the Kingdom of God on earth. There, God would be attended as the Parent of humankind. People dwelling in the earthly kingdom would transition directly into the heavenly kingdom in spirit world, guided by the heavenly hosts and angels. We see that the true family is the basic unit for the earthly kingdom. Thus, the completion of God’s purpose of creation lies in securing a God-centered true family on earth.

Reverend Moon embarked upon the worldwide Blessing movement and true family values movement with a basic principle, “the creation of world peace through ideal families.” Creating this world is our mission.

The democratic world relies on humanism, but humanistic values will not sustain ideal families. Real families substantiate godly values that emerge from absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal love. An ideal couple’s love incarnates those attributes of God and therefore builds a family whose love is absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal. God needed to create human beings and all things in order to find His object partners of true love. From the simplest to the most highly sophisticated entities, all created beings exist in subject-object partnerships. These manifest in masculinity and femininity, which energizes love relationships. The ideal of love within all creation does not differ from the love of God. God created us in order to realize His absolute love, through a husband perfecting his love for his wife and a wife perfecting her love for her husband. That is the principle of creation. For that reason, in the beginning God created one man and one woman.

God purposed human beings to observe His commandment, perfect themselves and become a true couple of oneness with His true love. Then, He purposed that they live as a happy family, giving birth to children and becoming true parents. In Adam and Eve reaching perfection through true love, God was to achieve His embodiment. Their perfecting themselves as a true couple signified the completion of God’s ideal for absolute love.

God’s Providence of Salvation and the Appearance of True Parents

As a result of the fall, God’s providence of salvation began. The providence of salvation was prolonged over and over, following a sad and toilsome path from the Old Testament Age to the New Testament Age, and from the New Testament Age to the Completed Testament Age. Due to the fall, the world fell into a state remote from the good world that God originally intended. It turned into a world of sin and evil, in which selfish love prevails. This is because Adam and Eve became false parents whose love was selfish and false, centered on Satan. They multiplied evil, established a false family and bequeathed false life and a false lineal inheritance to their posterity.

Accordingly, the only purpose of God’s providence is to find the God-centered man and woman who can restore the position of Adam and Eve, the true parents, and establish the true family through them. With that family as a starting point, God wishes to establish the true tribe and true nation that can fill a true world. In other words, God desires to create the true seed that can multiply true love, life and lineage.

The Bible states that the human fall led to the loss of Adam’s family in its totality. First, the position of ideal parents was lost. Then by Cain’s murder of his younger brother Abel, the position of ideal children was lost. These two events thwarted God’s plan to build a perfect world. Accordingly, in order to restore Adam’s family, God first had to restore the position of Cain and Abel and then the position of the true father and true mother. This had to be done by means of a reversal of the process by which the losses came about. The bringing of Cain and Abel to reconciliation and unity is the foundation to restore the parents.

This historical dynamic has governed the providence of restoration. Therefore, the history of Israel and Christianity is a series of repetitions of the division between Cain and Abel. Fallen people split between Cain’s side, representing Satan, and Abel’s side, representing God. Then, by their achieving reconciliation and oneness, God can remove the hatred created in the fall.

Abel’s side is always struck first, making of it a sacrifice. On that foundation, Abel’s side can embrace Cain’s side and restore God’s blessings rightfully due the elder. God’s principle grants the right of compensation on the condition of being struck first and overcoming, while Satan’s impulse is to strike first. Illustrating this, defeat came upon those who struck first in the First World War, the Second World War, and even in the third world war of ideologies.

God also reclaims ownership from His enemy Satan by enduring persecution. Satan’s side persecutes religious pioneers on God’s side. Despite opposition and sacrifice, true religions have continually expanded the territory of goodness in order to save the fallen world. The Unification Church developed and progressed through the working of these principles.

God’s will is that relative good and evil factions struggle, goodness prevail, and then the relatively good party reconcile with the relatively evil party without destroying it. One example is the robbers crucified on Jesus’ right and left, one in the position of Abel and the other in the position of Cain. (Mt 27:38, Lk 23:39-40) Another is the confrontation between North Korea and South Korea, representing the right wing (free world) and the left wing (communist world) on the worldwide level. A third is the confrontation between religion and secularism. The most critical issue is how to unite these factions centered on God’s ideal, and then restore the positions of the father and the mother.

The Bible records that Eve disobeyed God’s commandment and had a relationship with the serpent Lucifer, who became Satan. As a result, Eve, Adam and the children Cain and Abel inherited Satan’s lineage of selfish and false love. Regardless of our background, we all are the descendants of these ancestors, who derailed us from the original track of God’s lineage. Therefore we were born from Satan’s lineage. Jesus’ rebuke in John 8:44, “You are of your father, the devil,” was uttered for this very reason.

The Old Testament depicts God’s providence as based on the formula, “An eye for eye; a tooth for a tooth.” (Ex 21:24) In the Unification Principle, paying a price for a wrongdoing is called making an indemnity condition. An indemnity condition is laid by reversing the mistake. Hence, Eve must restore her act of the fall by reversing it, and each step of the fall must be restored both spiritually and physically. This process requires a mother (Eve) helping her younger son (Abel) to follow God’s will.

The Providence to Restore the Elder Son through Esau and Jacob

As we can see from Genesis, God accepted Abel’s offering but rejected Cain’s. In accepting his offering, God was not catering to Abel’s desire. God’s principle required that Cain accept Abel as the one chosen by God and became one with him through love. On this basis, one of the problems caused by the fall would have been resolved and God could have focused thenceforth on Adam and Eve.

In fact, the unity of Cain and Abel should have been brought about through their mother, Eve. But she failed in this. Therefore, God had to wait for another woman to indemnify this aspect of the fall on behalf of Eve.

The Bible describes Rebekah, Isaac’s wife, as a great woman who fulfilled her responsibility in God’s providence. As the mother of two sons, she was in the position of Eve. However, unlike Eve, she understood God’s providence and helped Jacob, her younger son, receive Isaac’s blessing that was due to Esau. When Esau learned that his blessing was given to his brother, he planned to kill Jacob as Cain murdered Abel. However, with the wisdom of their mother, Rebekah, the two siblings did not shed blood, but eventually embraced. This reconciliation was a crucial victory for God. But the victory was incomplete and symbolic from the perspective of the change of lineage. Substantial victory had to be brought about in a woman’s womb.

This is the reason for the puzzling story of Tamar. By understanding it, we can comprehend why Jesus was born from the tribe of Judah with Tamar’s lineage. Like Rebecca, Tamar was in the position of Eve. Tamar had a relationship with Judah, her father-in-law, and conceived twin brothers, Perez and Zerah. (Gen 38) The Bible records that these brothers fought over the elder’s position even in the womb. One son’s hand came out first and the midwife tied a red string around his wrist. Then it went back into the womb, and the brother without the red string was born first. (Gen 38:28) The one who was to have been younger ended up the elder. Through this, the providence for the reversal of Cain and Abel occurred in the womb, prior to birth. Due to this culminating substantial condition, the Israelites became the chosen people to receive the Messiah.

From the normal ethical viewpoint, the actions of Rebecca and Tamar are questionable. Readers of the Bible and even theologians puzzle as to why God blessed such women. This puzzle is solved by the knowledge that God needed to restore His lost lineage in order to lay a foundation to send Jesus. The victories of these two women brought the change of blood lineage and the victory of Israel. Israel began to grow as a nation on the foundation of a blood lineage restored through true love.

Jesus Was Born in God’s Complete and Direct Lineage

Thereafter, Judah’s lineage prospered from generation to generation, expanding into a tribe, society and nation. Through this lineage, 2,000 years later, Mary appeared in Israel at the center of God’s providence. Mary had to set indemnity conditions. In order to restore the elder sonship, she had to unite Cain and Abel from the family to the national level.

Mary conceived Jesus in obedience to God. From a human point of view, she actually betrayed her parents and her fiancé Joseph. She was living in culture in which out of wedlock pregnancy was a capital offense. However, Joseph, in the position of Adam, did not forsake Mary, his fiancée. He thereby protected her from death by stoning.

Because Mary stood on the victorious foundation of Rebekah and Tamar, Satan was not able to claim ownership over Jesus who was conceived in her womb. Therefore, Jesus was born one hundred percent in God’s direct lineage. Jesus is, therefore, the only begotten Son of God, born after the process of changing the fallen blood lineage into the good blood lineage was complete. For this very reason, Jesus is the saint of all saints and the ancestor of the true blood lineage.

Next, Mary, in the position of restored Eve, should have brought unity between Jesus in the position of Abel and John the Baptist in the position of Cain. Unity between these two was critical for the Israelites and Judaism to receive Jesus as the Messiah.

As Jesus stated to his disciples, the mission of John the Baptist was to fulfill the prophecy of the prophet Malachi. “The disciples asked him, ‘Why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?’ Jesus replied, ‘To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things.’” (Mt 17:10-11) In Luke as well, it is written that John the Baptist came with the “spirit and power of Elijah.” However, John the Baptist denied that he was Elijah. And although he had received a clear revelation from heaven as to who Jesus was when he baptized him at the River Jordan, he continued to doubt whether Jesus was the Messiah. (Mt 11:3)

In the eyes of his contemporaries, John the Baptist was viewed as a great religious leader worthy of respect and admiration. Jesus, on the other hand, was regarded as an illegitimate son born in a family of a poor carpenter. Clearly, it was very difficult for the Israelites of Jesus’ day to believe and follow him, unless he had the support of John the Baptist. Lacking that support, Jesus could not help but to go a thorny path. He ended up going about as a self-proclaimed Messiah in the face of John the Baptist’s disbelief.

John the Baptist should have assisted Jesus and opened a way for him to appear credible to major Israelite religious leaders of that time. Had John fulfilled this, Judaism in the position of Abel and Israel in the position of Cain could have become one centered on Jesus. In that case, the marriage supper of the lamb, for which Christians still hope, could have occurred in Jesus’ own day. Jesus would have become the True Father of humankind, and his bride the True Mother of humankind. On the foundation of God’s marriage Blessing, Jesus’ teachings would have rapidly spread all over the world, restoring even Asia and Rome within seven years, before he reached the age of forty. Jesus and his bride together would have restored the individual kingdom, the family kingdom, the tribal kingdom, the national kingdom and even the worldwide kingdom.

Without John the Baptist’s support, however, such glorious dreams were shattered. Chief priests, scribes, and Jews who believed themselves to be faithful and religious rejected Jesus’ words and eventually drove him to the cross. Faced with the disbelief of the Israelites, Jesus had to offer his life on the cross in order to open a way for the spiritual salvation for humankind. Consequently, while the human heart can approach God through Jesus, the body is still assaulted by Satan’s evil temptations. Even the apostle Paul agonized over the conflict between his bodily desires and the higher aspirations of his mind. (Rom 7:21-25) Therefore, Jesus must come again, in order to save humankind physically as well as spiritually.

Take Down the Cross!

Today, with the arrival of the True Parents on the earth, the time has come to resolve all the grievances that remain in Jesus’ heart. Two thousand years ago Jesus had to go the way of the cross due to disbelief and persecution from his own people. He employed the cross as a sacred implement upon which to sacrifice his body in order to save humankind. However, in God’s eyes, Jesus’ death on the cross was too appalling even to watch. After making 4,000 years of preparations to send the Messiah, God had sent Jesus, His only-begotten Son. Instead of being welcomed, Jesus was tried, convicted and sentenced to death. The cross was the dreadful instrument of his execution. The Bible describes three hours of darkness that suddenly fell when Jesus was crucified. God could not bear witnessing the scene of Jesus’ death and turned His face away.

As Jesus prophesied that “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down” (Mark 13:2), the Jews were scattered to wander all over the world. God had to watch in tears as awful historical consequences played out, even the massacre of six million Jews by Hitler. Today, in order for Judaism and Israel to be resurrected, they should clearly understand the tragedy of Jesus’ death.

It is no coincidence that recently a movement to take down the cross is spreading among the churches. It is being led by the American Clergy Leadership Conference (ACLC) and is based upon the words that the Reverend Moon spoke at the 20^th anniversary of the founding of The Washington Times. In his keynote speech, he declared that the cross that Christians revere was not God’s primary will, but rather was Jesus’ second choice necessitated by the impossible circumstances. Jesus took that path with a painful heart, in order to open at least the way to spiritual salvation for humankind. Yet when Jesus looks upon the cross, his heart is flooded with painful memories. His heartbreak and sorrow will finally be resolved only when the cross is taken down from every Christian church.

Moreover, as a result of Jesus’ crucifixion, Christianity has been plagued with struggles between right wing and left wing. It is as if Cain and Abel had to be divided once again, as they were due to the fall of Adam’s family. Also, Islam appeared and fell into conflict with Christianity. These historical struggles and divisions were ultimately caused by Jesus’ death on the cross. Thus, unification can come only at the Second Coming of the Lord.

In order to prepare the Second Coming of the Lord, God needed a worldwide condition of reconciliation between Cain and Abel. This providence unfolded through the course of the Second World War. The Allied nations England, America and France stood in Abel’s position representing the realm of Christianity. The Axis nations Germany, Japan and Italy stood in Cain’s position under the influence of nationalism. Here was the confrontation between Cain and Abel expanded to the worldwide level.

After the Allied victory, there were tremendous efforts to establish lasting world peace based upon Christian ideals. At that point England was in the position of Eve on the worldwide level, and France and America were in the positions respectively of Cain and Abel. At the same time, God was completing preparations to send the Second Advent of the Lord. When viewed from the perspective of God’s providence, immediately after World War II, America and Christianity stood on the victorious foundation of unity between Cain and Abel. Hence, the time was ripe to receive the Lord of the Second Advent.

Nevertheless, God’s providence was not fulfilled at that time. Christianity failed to receive the Messiah, and consequently the Cold War ensued, beginning with Korean War. As with World War II, the world divided into two camps, Cain and Abel. Communism rejected God, like the thief on the left side who disbelieved Jesus on the cross. It represented the Cain-type world. Democracy was established based on Christianity and belief in God. It came to represent the Abel-type world. The Lord at the Second Coming must unite these two warring camps. The center of confrontation is the Korean peninsula that is divided into South Korea and North Korea. The providential reason sixteen nations of the United Nations participated in the Korean War was to protect and unite the fatherland of humankind.

During World War II, the Christian nations of England, America and France played the central role. After that, the Unification Church led the effort to restore their failure to receive the Messiah. Japan was chosen for the position of Eve on the democratic side. America and Germany were chosen for the Abel and Cain positions, respectively. These three nations, with the support of the rest of the Free World, should complete the unification of the Korean peninsula, which is in the position of Adam on the worldwide level. Furthermore, to indemnify the fall of the human ancestors, Eve, the mother, should again give birth to two siblings, Cain and Abel.

For example, in Japan for 50 years since the war, there have been two rival North Korean organizations, Min Dahn and Jo Chong Ryun. Japan in mother’s position should bring unity between the two sibling nations America and Germany, and then unify even the Adam nation. Then, through indemnity conditions on the national level, the four nations in the positions of Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel (Korea, Japan, America and Germany) should be restored, embracing the Oriental and Occidental cultural spheres. Ultimately, the Pacific cultural sphere should arise as the cradle of world peace.

1945 marked the end of the New Testament Age. Christianity failed to receive the bridegroom within the following seven years until 1952. As a result, God’s providence was prolonged for 40 years, leading to 1992. During those forty years, the Reverend and Mrs. Moon prayed five times a day while seeking every possible way, internally and externally, to restore the lost New Testament Age on the world level by working to unite the seven providential nations: Korea, England, America, France, Japan, Germany and Italy.

In April, 1992, Mrs. Hak Ja Han Moon, with the Reverend Moon, founded the Women’s Federation for World Peace and proclaimed the arrival of the women’s era. Mrs. Moon traveled all over the world, visiting even Russia and China, as well as the seven nations mentioned above, and established WFWP chapters in scores of nations. By doing this, she brought the nations together that had been divided in Cain or Abel positions since World War II. Thus, she restored the foundation for the Bride that had been lost since the Second World War. On that victorious worldwide foundation, in July 1992, the Reverend and Mrs. Moon proclaimed that they are the True Parents of humankind. This marked the first appearance of the True Parents in human history. A goal toward which God had been leading His providence of salvation for thousands of years was achieved.