Cheon Seong Gyeong Ⅱ - 178. The eight stages of restoration through indemnity
10 Because of His heart of love, God, rather than considering the archangel His enemy and ordering him around, has been enduring Satan since the time of Adam. Due to humankind’s ignorance of the secrets of Heaven and Satan, people have been living in confusion; but now the True Parents have come and revealed all those secrets. That is why I say that pursuing the course of restoration means finding the way, while pursuing the course of the Principle means following the way. I had to fight my way throughout the course of restoration, but you can speed along the path as though you were driving on a highway. We are entering the age when we can speed through in just a few hours what once took many decades. I have made everything clear; it is all based on this principle. (407-104, 2003.05.13)
11 How grateful are you to be going the way of restoration through indemnity, the destined way to fulfill your portion of responsibility? You should not say, “I like the words of the Principle of the Unification Church, but I don’t like restoration through indemnity!” In order to be admitted to a university and be allowed to walk through its gates, you must take an exam. That may not be something you want to do, but unless you make it through, you cannot enter the school. It is the same with us. The course you must walk in the Unification Church is not easy. (138-121, 1986.01.19)
12 The Unification Church has been walking the way of restoration through indemnity. In order to restore everything, I created the foundation that we have now. It required me to go through indescribable circumstances in my life. I endured and prevailed without being destroyed and without being caught by Satan’s hooks. I made this foundation not for my own sake but for the sake of humankind. It is not to be kept within the Unification Church. The Unification Church will disappear in the future, because everyone will belong to God’s one sovereignty. This is what all religions have hoped for. (161-086, 1987.01.02)
13 Persevering and overcoming means you must patiently endure. No one likes to patiently endure. However, we must do so, even if it requires unbelievable effort. It is difficult because human beings were not originally meant to patiently endure hardships. People have to patiently endure because of the Fall. It is because we must offer restitution. In fact, didn’t our first ancestors fall because they failed to patiently endure? So to restore this through indemnity, we have no choice but to patiently endure. That is the rule of indemnity. Satan is helpless in front of those who persevere, and in the end he will surrender to them. So be patient and endure until the very end. It is for this reason that God, our Father, has endured everything for six thousand years. We have inherited His heavenly character and His flesh and blood, so we must become like Him. Therefore our philosophy of life in this fallen world has to be one of patience and endurance. Who is this for? It is for God. The ways of filial piety and loyalty start from this. It is where the movement to liberate the nation and the world begins. That liberated world will be a place that both the good world and the bad world will welcome, and thereby hell will disappear. That is why under this principle, we must be patient and endure. (044-027, 1971.05.04)
14 The six thousand years of history unfolded from the individual level to the levels of family, tribe, people, nation and world. The Unification Church is going through eight stages to restore love, on the level of the individual, family, tribe, people, nation, world, cosmos and finally God. When we pray, we should do so focusing on these eight stages. Individual restoration takes place within the family, family restoration occurs within a tribe, a tribe’s restoration occurs within a people, a people’s restoration takes place within a nation and a nation’s restoration occurs within the world. The restoration of the world occurs within heaven and earth, and the restoration of heaven and earth is completed within the love of God. This means that everything in heaven and earth should become one, centered on God’s love. (61-075, 1972.08.27)
15 Although we may live for the sake of our families, we must also become people who live for the sake of something greater, our tribe. And although we may live for the sake of our tribe, we also must strive to live for the sake of our whole people. In this way, we need to climb up step by step. We need to continue climbing, even beyond the world. The world in which we live is the fallen world. In it there are realms of fallen individuals, fallen families, fallen tribes, fallen peoples, fallen nations, a fallen world and a fallen cosmos. We can reach God only when we have gone beyond these seven stages. How great it would be if we could leap beyond these stages all at once! That would be ideal. If Adam had gone beyond the twenty- one years of his growing period without falling, he would have gone through all these stages at once, automatically. (126-113, 1983.04.12)
16 The reason we human beings start from the position of the servant of servants is because we need to walk an internal course of separation from Satan through indemnity. Satan will not have a condition to attack if we fulfill all the vertical indemnity conditions that exist in Satan’s world. That is why I have walked the course of restoration through indemnity through all the positions, starting from servant of servants to servant, adopted child and stepchild. After that, I had to restore the son and the mother to arrive at the position of Adam. One man and one woman have to reach the highest position possible as a man and a woman; only then can they fulfill the position of the Parents. This does not just happen. They must completely fulfill the requisite internal indemnity conditions. (161-209, 1987.02.04)
17 During the course of restoration, world-level persecution and even bloody sacrifice are inevitable. To rise from the position of servant of servants to that of servant, or from the position of servant to that of adopted child, you will have to face persecution. The same principle applies through all seven stages of restoration, and if God is included it becomes eight stages. People change, but God never changes. Thus among the various religions of the world, there are religions in the position of servant of servants, servant, adopted child, stepchild, son, mother, father and true parents. Religions have remained at these different stages, even as they continued through their long histories. In the Last Days, the religion of true parents centered on the True Parents will emerge. (124-069, 1983.01.23)
18 The Unification Church explains that we return to God by going through the stages of the servant of servants, servant, adopted child, stepchild, child, mother, father and God. These eight stages constitute the vertical standard. The horizontal standard consists of the restoration of the individual, family, tribe, people, nation, world, cosmos and God. These vertical and horizontal standards must match. We must set the standard of indemnity for both. You do not know all this, but if I did not know it, there would be no way to restore this world. It would turn into a den of the devil. I am doing everything possible to survive while the devil is coming at me from all four directions. He is trying to destroy me. Satan is in the position of the father, based on lineage, and he is the chief of all the enemies who oppose God. Yet people act as servants of this Satan, without knowing where they originally came from. Now I have come and finally revealed the root of Satan. I am now leading the movement to lay bare the roots of history. (183-111, 1988.10.15)
19 We have to go through the eight- stage restoration process, even if we do not complete it. Have you ever been in the position of a servant of servants, as taught in the Unification Church? When you are a servant of servants, a servant is your master. You follow the orders not of the master, but of his servant who is above you, while longing to be in the position of a servant. Once you reach the position of servant, you have to move on to the positions of adopted child, stepchild and child of God’s direct lineage. Then you have to pass through the stage of the mother, and then the stage of the father as you are climbing up to the stage of God. Only when you reach the stage of God and unite with Him can you enter the world of love. The kingdom of heaven is the world of love. Longing for that final stage, you should overcome and go over all the preceding stages and enter the world of love. (142-167, 1986.03.09)
20 What is the Ceremony for the Settlement of the Eight Stages? It is a ceremony that marks the victorious completion of eight vertical stages—the servant of servants, servant, adopted child, stepchild, child, mother, father and God—and eight horizontal stages—the individual, family, tribe, people, nation, world, cosmos and God. The Ceremony for the Settlement of the Eight Stages signifies that I have gone through the vertical and horizontal courses of indemnity according to those eight stages, and settled, and thereby the restoration of the right of the first son is completed and the course of indemnity for all the people of the earth is resolved. That is the result I brought by conducting this ceremony. The right of the elder son is restored, and True Parents can embrace all humankind. This ceremony brings an end to the history of wars and struggles that were necessary to restore the right of the elder son in the realm of the True Parents’ love. Now the time has come when indemnity is no longer needed and we can have harmony in love. In order to achieve this, I had to hold the Ceremony for the Settlement of the Eight Stages. Through this ceremony True Parents forgave both the older and younger sons, so we can now enter the age of the realm where fallen parents are forgiven. (193-172, 1989.10.03) |