Pyeong Hwa Gyeong (049) - The True Family and I
1. Conflict originated in the first family
If we ask whether the world we live in today is good or evil, the answer would be that it is evil. Why do we judge it to be evil? It is because whether we consider world history, this nation’s history, or the history of any other country, we see unremitting conflict. Through conflict and struggle, the parties involved will not develop, but will necessarily decline. To say that the world is evil implies that its nations are evil, that its inhabitants are evil, and that we ourselves are evil. If we study ourselves we cannot deny that, within each of us, our mind and our body struggle with each other.
The origin or the cause of struggle remains a problem that must be resolved. If an individual does not possess within himself or herself a foundation for peace, then no matter how peaceful his or her family, nation or the world might be, he or she will not be happy. The individual is the true battlefield. As you know, World War I, World War II and the Cold War each came to an end. It will be possible to bring future such conflicts to an end. However, the struggle between our mind and body has existed from ancient times. It has continued throughout the course of history, it continues today, and we do not know how much longer it will continue into the future.
If we consider the existence of God, it is a major problem that God would permit the struggle between mind and body to continue throughout history, and even today. However, if we consider that it was human beings who caused the struggle, then we can understand that it is human beings who must indemnify it. God cannot take that responsibility away from us, nor can He intervene in it.
Where does the struggle between mind and body originate? We inherit life from our parents and from the parents of our parents. If we continue going back this way, we eventually arrive at the first generation, that is, the first human ancestors. The origin of our life is the love of our parents. If this struggle began before we were even born, we would have to conclude that the problem related to the circumstances in which our first parents entered into a love relationship with each other; that is, that the origin of the struggle between mind and body results from a problem in the conjugal love between Adam and Eve.
The love of Adam and Eve was not a love accompanied by true happiness. Quite to the contrary, it was conflict-ridden love. Because the roots of our life are in this love, we can conclude that this is where the conflicts plaguing the inner self of human beings originate.
The Bible teaches us that because of having sinned, Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden. Once they had been driven out of the garden, they began to multiply children. God could not follow and bless them in marriage. Thus we need to ask, under whom did they marry? We can conclude that, because of having fallen into sin, they married under the auspices of Satan. |