[112] World Scripture - The Human Fall - 2. Catastrophic Consequences

[대태양/김현수]

World Scripture Ⅱ

Part Two - Sin and Salvation
Chapter 6 - Evil, Sin and the Human Fall

1) The Human Fall

2. Catastrophic Consequences of the Human Fall

World Scripture

When Zeus was angry with mankind, he devised the worst punishment he could think of, and invented Woman. Hephaestus, the smith of the gods, was instructed to form her from the earth and make her irresistibly beautiful. Each of the gods gave her his own special gift of skill, and from this she was called Pandora, “all gifted.” When she was perfected with every gift and arrayed in all her loveliness, this treacherous treasure was taken down to earth by Hermes, the messenger god, and given to Prometheus’ foolish brother Epimetheus. Now Prometheus had warned his brother not to accept anything from Zeus, even if it looked like a gift sent in friendship; but Epimetheus as usual acted first and thought afterwards. He accepted the maiden from Hermes and led her into his house, and with her a great jar—some say a box or chest—which the gods had sent with her, telling her to keep it safely but never open.

This was too much for Pandora, who among her gifts was endowed with feminine curiosity. After restraining it for a little while, she at last gave in and lifted the lid from the jar, and from that moment began the sorrows of mankind. For each of the gods had stored in it the worst thing he was able to give, and wonderful as had been the gifts with which they endowed her, just as dreadful were the evils that rushed eagerly from the jar in a black stinking cloud like pestilent insects—sickness and suffering, hatred and jealousy and greed, and all the other cruel things that freeze the heart and bring on old age.

Pandora tried to clap the lid on the jar again, but it was too late. The happy childhood of mankind had gone forever, and with it the Golden Age when life was easy. From then on man had to wrest a hard living by his own labor from the unfriendly ground. Only one good thing came to man in the jar and remains to comfort him in his distress, and that is the spirit of Hope. Myth of Pandora’s Box (Hellenism)

In the olden days, when God still lived among men, Death did not live among men. Whenever he happened to stray onto the earth, God (Imana) would chase it away with his hunting dogs. One day during such a chase, Death was forced into a narrow space and would have been caught and destroyed. But in his straits he found a woman, and promised her that if she hid him he would spare her and her family. The woman opened her mouth and Death jumped inside. When God came to her and asked her if she had seen Death, she denied ever seeing him. But God, the All-Seeing One, knew what happened, and told the woman that since she had hidden Death, in the future Death would destroy her and all her children. From that moment death spread all over the world. Hutu tradition (African Traditional Religions)

If Adam had not sinned, he would not have begotten children from the side of the evil inclination, but he would have borne offspring from the side of the Holy Spirit. But now, since all the children of men are born from the side of the evil inclination, they have no permanence and are but short-lived, because there is in them an element of the ‘other side.’ But if Adam had not sinned and had not been driven from the Garden of Eden, he would have begotten progeny from the side of the Holy Spirit—a progeny holy as the celestial angels, who would have endured for eternity, after the supernal pattern. Since, however, he sinned and begat children outside the Garden of Eden, these did not take root. Zohar, Genesis 61a (Judaism)

After [they fell] God clothed Adam and Eve in garments soothing to the skin, as it is written, “He made them coats of skin ( עוֹר , ‘or) [Gen. 3.21]. At first they had coats of light ( אוֹר , or), which procured them the service of the highest of the high, for the celestial angels used to come to enjoy that light; so it is written, “For you made him but little lower than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honor” [Psalm 8.5]. But after their sins they had only coats of skin, good for the body but not for the soul. Zohar 1.36b (Judaism)

The deities Izanagi and Izanami descended from Heaven to the island Ono-goro and erected a heavenly pillar and a spacious palace. At this time Izanagi asked his wife Izanami, “How is your body formed?” She replied, “My body, though it be formed, has one place which is formed insufficiently.” Then Izanagi said, “My body, though it be formed, has one place which is formed to excess. Therefore, I would like to take that place in my body which is formed to excess and insert it into that place in your body which is formed insufficiently, and thus give birth to the land. How would this be?” “That will be good,” said Izanami. “Then let us, you and me, walk in a circle around this heavenly pillar and meet and have conjugal intercourse,” said Izanagi. “You walk around from the right, and I will walk around from the left and meet you.”

After having agreed to this, they circled around; then Izanami said first, “How delightful! I have met a lovely lad!” Afterwards, Izanagi said, “How delightful! I have met a lovely maiden!” After each had spoken, Izanagi said to his wife, “It was not proper that the woman should speak first.” Nevertheless, they commenced procreation and gave birth to a leech-child. They placed this child into a boat made of reeds and floated it away.

Then the two deities consulted together, “The child which we have just borne is not good. It is best to report this before the heavenly gods.” So they ascended together and sought the will of the heavenly gods. The gods thereupon performed a grand divination, and said, “Because the woman spoke first, the child was not good. Descend once more and say it again.” Kojiki 4.1-6.1 (Shinto)

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon

How could the original sin arise from eating a literal fruit? If the first ancestor committed sin by eating a fruit, what could bequeath that sin to thousands of generations of his descendants? The generations are related through lineage. If the root of sin is planted in the lineage, the sin continues forever by the law of heredity. Only a problem of love could make this happen. Wrongful love was the cause of the Human Fall. (23:167, May 18, 1969)

Love is supposed to bring human beings to perfection. However, when something goes wrong with love, even God steps back. Then it becomes a serious problem. In this respect, we discover that something went wrong with love. Nothing else could become such a serious problem for God, for humankind and for history. The failure of love was the greatest catastrophe in the whole universe. (128:87, June 5, 1983)

Were you to truly know love, you would be well acquainted with everything. You would not only know the facts of the earth plane, but also your spiritual eyes would be open and you would understand the cosmos in all its dimensions. You would reach the level where you could experience God directly. God endowed human beings with the potential to develop their senses of love to that degree. However, Adam and Eve fell before they could reach that level. (137:129, January 1, 1986)

When Adam and Eve were in adolescence, at the age of 16, 17 or 18, their eyes were not supposed to wander about. They were supposed to look into each other’s eyes and say, “You are the one I have been looking for! It was you all along!” Gazing into each other’s eyes filled with mystery and touching each other’s noses, they would have felt a spark of electricity. Would their minds and body have been completely united at that moment? Yes they would have been.

When a man and a woman become one in the mind and the body and establish goodness in the universe, they are like flowers in full bloom. The fragrance of their love fills the entire universe, enthralling all its creatures. Every creature stretches its body and perks up its nose to smell the alluring scent. What about God? He would exclaim, “Wow! This is awesome!” Even God is captivated. He is naturally drawn to them. He gives them all His attention. He urges them on.

Up to the moment when God joined Adam and Eve, they were not prepared to experience the electricity of love. They would have felt clumsy around each other; their physical touch would have come as a shock. But once their minds and bodies would be totally united in God’s love, once the three—God, Adam and Eve—would be united as one, they would have experienced love like a flash of lightening. At that moment, they would have become the nucleus of the universe. They would have orbited about each other in love, forming the nucleus for governing all things by love. Yet Adam and Eve were derailed from this orbit…

Had Adam and Eve become the nucleus, God would have nestled them in His bosom. He would have been with them always. Even if His body tried to leave, His feet would have stayed with them. The couple would have been inseparable, ever embracing each other. Their sons and daughters would have been connected to them by cords of love, and wherever they went they would come together again… The families, tribes, peoples, nations, and world descended from them were supposed to be established from that nucleus. As descendants of a man and woman in complete oneness, they too would have embraced one another in true love as they built their own families, tribes, peoples, nations and world. What a wonderful world it would be! Everything would be marvelous. It would be the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Don’t you think so?

Am I a dreamer, or do I speak truth? My elucidation of the Human Fall as the reason for the [corruption] of love is logical and correct, based upon a proper assessment of history. Knowing it, we can resolve all human problems. Even so, it is not an easy task.

Because the nucleus of love was not established, and instead the Fall occurred, the whole world became contrary to God’s ideal, its unity shattered into pieces. Stemming from that initial disorder, all human beings became separated from one another. We cannot deny that the world today is beset by divisions. That is to say, we are all fallen. It is only appropriate to conclude that we are living in the world that resulted from the Fall.

Since people live in a condition of separation, they deny that God exists. Moreover, they deny their parents, their brothers and sisters, their husband and wives. The world is in chaos. In such a state, human beings can never achieve oneness by their own efforts. Although there are always people who seek for the ideal, they cannot possibly attain it… Meanwhile, others despair, saying that humanity is facing destruction, that there is no hope, and that utopian ideals are merely vain figments of the human imagination. (128:88, June 5, 1983)

If the first human beings did not fall, they would have received God’s vertical love, and they would have become, as it were, the bodies of God. It would be as if God were the bones, and Adam and Eve the flesh.

God would be the internal Parent in the internal position, and Adam and Eve the external parents in the external position. The internal and the external would become one through love… Without the union of vertical and horizontal love, no one can be perfected.

Our first ancestors should have become the human beings whom God intended to create according to His original Will. We should have descended from such persons. We should have been born from persons with a divine nature. Then we would possess both God’s divine nature and our parents’ human nature.

Adam and Eve could become perfect and bear perfect fruit only when connected to the love of God. Without that connection, it is not possible. The connecting point of God’s vertical love and Adam and Eve’s horizontal physical love was to be the very root of our ancestors’ lineage. All of humanity was supposed to have arisen from that beginning point.

The Fall, however, severed man’s love, woman’s love and God’s love. Because of the Fall, man’s love, woman’s love and God’s love were not connected. If there had been no Fall, man and woman would be tied together by God’s love—without doubt.

Why do a man and a woman try to become one? They do it for love. What do they want after uniting in love? They want to receive God’s blessing. That is the purpose. (184:71, November 13, 1988)