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The Words of True Parents from 1972
True Parents and Ourselves
Rev. Sun Myung Moon
May 7, 1972
Tokyo, Japan
From God's original ideal of creation, our ancestors, Adam and Eve, were supposed to inherit the blood lineage of goodness through their unity with God, and hand it down to all generations. However, we have learned from the Principle that an unexpected result came about due to, the fall of man. We now belong to the satanic world and are completely separated from the lineage of God.
We were supposed to be born from parents of goodness but instead our first parents were parents of evil. We have therefore established a family, clan, society, nation and world centered upon evil. This has to be restored and indemnified. God cannot restore everything at once; restoration has to be dealt with in stages. Since evil multiplied through history stage by stage, it has to be dealt with in stages in the process of restoring it.
Going through the age of servant, the age of adopted son, the age of true son and the age of the True Parents, God's providence has been to indemnify each stage from the evil side to the side of God or goodness. God has founded numerous religions, springing from the many different racial and cultural backgrounds of mankind, and has been working through these religions with the goal of restoring the ideal world.
As an analogy of God's work to create the ideal world, we can look at the way rivers flow. From the mountains to the valleys, streams and brooks flow in many different directions. Some flow from the west to the east and others from the north to the south. However, they all eventually join into a main river. In the same way, God has established many different and various types of religions which have remained separate from one another before joining in the main current of religion, God has been working behind the history of mankind, inspiring the creation of many religions with many different directions. So too the cultures of the world, with religions at their center, have been developing gradually to support the goal of one main religion.
A great amount of indemnity-based on the indemnity course of Adam's family, as described in the Principle is required to develop this through the ages.
Cain has always been opposed to someone who is close to God. He is the person who struck down Abel. It has always been Abel's position to be closer to God. The fruits of that relationship have been in existence since the fall and have affected mankind throughout history. Even your own life is part of that legacy. If you examine your daily life, there are times when you are Abel-like and times when You are Cain-like. Between morning and evening of any given day, or even within one hour, the dynamics of the Cain-Abel relationship are working. All directions--back and front, right and left, up and down--have something to do with the Cain and Abel relationship.
One action is closer to God and another is in opposition to God. When you speak just one word, it could be examined as to whether or not it is from the position of Cain or the position of Abel. You can examine yourself and the words you speak according to this standard. If you are speaking today in a better way than yesterday, then you are standing today, as Abel in relationship to yesterday, If you are speaking worse today than yesterday, then today you are standing in the position of Cain. In this kind of situation, God has been trying to guide people to be more Abel-like and to come closer to Him.
At the same time, Satan has been trying to pull people away from God. When we grow closer to God, we come closer to the Abel position and we find ourselves feeling happy. But when we become drawn in Cain's direction by the satanic domain, we feel sadness. Because of this dynamic of the Cain and Abel relationship there has been a constant fluctuation of joy and sadness since the beginning of human history.
Without knowing this point, happiness or sadness in our daily lives is simply a matter of whether we gain or lose some benefit. But ultimately happiness and sadness are determined by the Cain and Abel dynamic. When you move forward towards the position of goodness, you move one step closer to God. But if you retreat from God, sadness comes into your heart according to the degree of distance you retreat from God.
Individual salvation
Salvation begins from the individual. One person is the beginning point of the family and families create the society; societies create the nation and nations create the whole world. All those different levels arc interconnected. A society is made up of many individuals; the world consists of many nations. In order to liberate humanity from Satan, we have to begin by liberating one person, one individual.
The liberation of the family, the nation and the world has to begin with the liberation of individuals. God has been trying to do this through religion. The purpose of religion is to bring us closer to God and guide us in the direction of God's providence. Then, what is the final purpose of God's providence? People generally think that religion has the purpose of contributing to the welfare of the whole world or the benefit of all people of the world. However, religions tend to think only of their own situation and see everything within the context of their own particular faith. But from God's point of view, even the mission of making the whole world better is the secondary purpose of religion. What is its primary purpose? It is to create the True Parents on the earth. Without True Parents no salvation is possible. Those who are born of fallen parents have to be restored completely through rebirth by the True Parents. Thus the most serious issue for God is how to bring the True Parents of goodness to the earth.
Looking at the world from this viewpoint, we can see that the fallen world has developed from the first fallen individuals to the family, clan, society, nation and to the world. In order for God to establish that kind of basic foundation. He has to first develop the sphere of servants or angels. Then He has to raise that level of servant up to the level of adopted son. From the adopted son realm. He has to bring it up to the level of the true son.
Even within the realm of the true son, there is the issue of Cain and Abel. Cain and Abel were born of fallen parents and they fought against each other as fallen children. In the era when the true son centered on God is restored, Cain and Abel must no longer struggle. We cannot surpass the fallen world until we establish complete unity between Cain and Abel. According to the Principle, only when we establish the foundation of substance can we go beyond the realm of the fallen world for the first time.
A person might be able to go beyond the fallen world up to the level of the formation or even the growth stage, but he cannot advance further than the growth stage unless he establishes a victorious foundation of substance. Even if he could enter the level of perfection, his lineage would not yet have been cleansed. Since the satanic blood lineage has been inherited and that lineage is not yet cleansed, we need the Messiah. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary for fallen people to establish the foundation of faith and the foundation of substance as the foundation to receive the Messiah. Only through the Messiah is one able to change his blood lineage and stand in the position of a true child of God.
Since Adam and Eve fell, there was no way for Abel and Cain to be united in a vertical way. At the same time there was no tradition for Adam and Eve to be united in a vertical way, because of their fall. Only Cain and Abel stand in the position to restore the failure of Adam and Eve. All unity was lost at the time of Adam and Eve. Those who want to become the true sons and daughters of God have to establish the vertical unity of parents and children. You cannot reach perfection in the position of adopted son.
You have to achieve the position of true son in unity with God. Every person has to move upward through all these stages to be restored. Even though you may achieve the position of children, or even if Cain and Abel achieve unity, there is no way to go all the way vertically to God if there is no foundation of restored, unfallen parents. Therefore, God has been trying throughout history to establish the True Parents. The True Parents will create for the first time the way reach God Himself and for Cain and Abel to be united. In this process of restoration, the change of blood lineage has to take place. No one can establish this kind of thing by himself.
The Blessing
The fall of man took place at the perfection level of the growth stage. In order to restore the fall, we have to go the reverse way of the fall. Adam and Eve fell through the temptation of love. As you are following the path of restoration, and as you come closer and closer to the perfection level of the growth stage, you will face the temptation of love and you will have to overcome it. The tendency to be tempted by fallen love has been inherited through generations of fallen parents. To overcome this, mankind must be connected to the love centered on God and the True Parents; otherwise we can never overcome the problem of fallen love.
Those who dwell in the realm of the fallen world who have inherited the blood lineage of the fallen parents need to welcome the True Parents in the final stage of restoration and unite with them vertically, in order to over-come the fallen world. This is the teaching of the Principle. We cannot complete this process individually. It always takes a couple a man and a woman to restore this problem of love. This explains the necessity of the Blessing. The Blessing cannot be performed as we wish; it starts centered on the True Parents, who are the core of the vertical line. As a result of the victorious condition of the unity of Cain and Abel, the True Parents can conduct this Blessing. Only through this process can we completely overcome the fallen world.
No one advances through the stages of restoration by himself. By receiving the Blessing, we go over the perfection level of the growth stage and reach the formation level of the completion stage. From then on, the blessed couple or blessed family needs a seven-year period of time to become perfectly one with God. The three stages of growth-that is, formation, growth, and completion comprise 21 years. Therefore, the blessed couple has to go through a seven-year course in the completion stage.
No one went through this stage in the past. Each one of you has to go through a seven-year period according to the standard of the Principle. Therefore, after you join the Unification Church, you have to go through a seven-year period during which you have to restore everything that was lost due to the fall, as well as inheriting the true parental heart which was lost because of the fall of the first parents. As the consequence of the fall, we lost our legacy of lordship over all created things. Moreover, the body and heart of man were stained and claimed by Satan.
All of these things have to be restored through indemnity. Consequently, centered upon these points-gaining dominion over all things, becoming the substantial body of the truth, and restoring our hearts-we have to go through the period of the completion stage and restore them to God. This is our Principle. The time period of seven years needed to reach the standard of perfection is equivalent to the whole human history of 7,000 biblical years.
The 7,000 years are calculated as the 6,000 biblical years of human history plus the 1,000 years of the millennium of the Lord's reign, as described in the Bible. Within this time period of seven years, we have to substantially accomplish the victorious standard by restoring those things we lost. Then we receive the Blessing and after the Blessing, the true standard of the family is begun. We have to restore all things, we have to restore the substantial self back to its natural, law-abiding state, and we have to restore our hearts. From the horizontal point of view, all material things represent the formation stage, the substantial self represents the growth stage, and the heart represents the stage of perfection or completion. All of the vertical providence must also be fulfilled on the horizontal level.
Furthermore, the level of material things corresponds to the Old Testament era; the level of the substantial self corresponds to the New Testament era; and the level of the heart corresponds to the completed Testament era. Therefore it is natural that we in the Completed Testament era are speaking about the world of God's heart. All these three have to be united in perfect harmony. During the era of the Old Testament, indemnity was paid through the things of creation. In the New Testament era, indemnity was paid through Jesus, the substantial Son of God. Now the standard of Heart has to be established in the Completed Testament age, based upon the indemnity victoriously paid in the former ages. The true standard of the family can be established for the first time on the earth after all these things are restored. That is the level we are expected to have reached at the time of the Blessing.
The blessed families are to have their own physical children, but before that they are supposed to have their children of faith, their spiritual children. Spiritual children represent the embodiment of Jesus in the spiritual world. Your physical children represent the position of Jesus when he was alive and expecting to establish a victorious foundation on the earth. Thus, they also represent Christ of the Second Coming.
At this time, the Christian realm of the spirit world called Paradise. is not united with Christianity on the earth. This situation is almost like Jesus being split into two. We are in the position to bring unity between these two disharmonious realms. We can set up the condition to bring about their unity through the unity between our own physical and spiritual children. Our spiritual children stand in the position of Cain, or the archangel; Abel, in the position of Adam, symbolizes the realm of the physical world, and is represented by our physical children.
Unity between our spiritual children and physical children means unity between the spiritual world and the physical world. If your own spiritual children and physical children are not harmoniously united, the realms of the spiritual world and the physical world, particularly the two realms of Christianity, will not be united. Basically, the split between the spiritual world and the physical world came about as a result of the division within the original family. Therefore it has to be restored on the earth, by the unity of the spiritual and the physical children of the blessed families.
Position of parents
It is only when Cain and Abel are united that the ideal parents can appear. This condition of indemnity can be fulfilled when the children of faith. both the spiritual children and the physical ones become united in perfect harmony. By this condition, we can restore the unity lost between Adam and the archangel before the fall. If such a restoration can be accomplished, God can continually shower His love from is position as parent. If your spiritual children and your physical children are united into perfect oneness on the horizontal plane, you can be restored to the position of true parents, which is the position of the ideal love of God, for the first time.
It has been the path of the Unification Church to successfully indemnify horizontally the vertical historical path. In order to restore a result or consequence, you have to find out the cause that brought about the result and reverse the process. We absolutely need spiritual children. Adam and Eve had three archangels, who were supposed to attend them as their servants all of their lives. Adam and Eve could not become the perfected son and daughter of God without them. Thus, they are required in the restoration through indemnity. From this viewpoint, for men and women alike, three spiritual children are needed, representing three archangels. Those three archangels have to unite with you perfectly. God first created the angels and archangels and then He created Adam and Eve with the help of the unity of the angels. We have to restore that standard ourselves. Before having physical children, spiritual children have to be born.
Physical children are to be born only on the foundation of spiritual children, just as God created the angels first and then created Adam and Eve second, That is the Principle. At the time of Jesus, the nation of Israel and the religion of Judaism were standing in the position of archangels and were supposed to have united with him. If that had been accomplished, all God's desires would have been realized. The Unification Church finds itself in a situation similar to that of the time of Jesus. When Jesus was killed, everything on the physical plane was lost, and Christianity was born inheriting only the position of the spiritual archangel, not the physical archangel.
One mission of the Lord of the Second Advent is to establish the unity of spirit and body. He has to establish the conditions of indemnity to unite these two spheres. At the time of Jesus, the position of spiritual archangel was filled by Judaism, while the physical archangel was the nation of Israel. If the archangels had united with Abel, who was Jesus, it would have been a completely different situation. But because Jesus was killed, the spirit world and physical world could not be fully united, Jesus, and all Christians, have been seeking the redemption of both spirit and body. Therefore, they must be connected with the realm of the flesh again.
By going the path of indemnity, we have to restore what has been lost on the earth and unite both the physical and spiritual worlds into one. Only through this process can the realm of Cain, symbolized by the two archangels, be born. At this time, when the Lord comes to the earth and establishes the individual foundation of victory on the earth, a victorious family foundation will be formed. The sphere of victory is not limited to one family, but that family represents world Christianity. If the clans of the Second Coming of Christ are restored, those clans will become clans on the worldwide level. Thus, when the Lord of the Second Advent comes to the earth, if Christianity does not persecute him, it would not be difficult to unite both realms and develop God's providence.
Time of victory
This is a different age from the time of Jesus. Because of the lack of unity between spirit and body, the purpose of the Second Coming of Christ is to fulfill the course of indemnity to restore that disunity. The Second Coming of Christ has to achieve the victory in spirit world and then the victory can be gained on the earth. When he comes to the earth, he has to bring his victory from the spirit world to be fulfilled on the earth. This is the same situation as when Jacob wrestled with the angel. He first had to gain the victory over the angel in order to win the victory over Esau, who finally surrendered to Jacob. Jesus subjugated the archangel in order to restore through indemnity the fact that Adam was improperly subjugated by the archangel. Jacob's subjugation of Esau was the restoration of Abel being subjugated by Cain. And Jesus' subjugation over the archangel was done on the earth again to reestablish the condition of Jacob's having subjugated Esau. We have to gain the victory in both the spiritual and physical realms.
If the people of Israel had united with Jesus, they could have inherited both the spiritual and physical foundations of victory. But because of the rejection and death of Jesus Christ, the spiritual realm and physical realm were split. Now the returning Christ, like Jacob, has to win victory in both realms. Established Christianity has opposed the returning Christ. The struggle between the Unification Church and traditional Christianity occurs parallel to the historical course of the spiritual development of Christianity.
That same struggle has been the history of the Unification Church. Christianity was born due to Jesus' spiritual victory over Satan while on the earth, and Christianity was superior to any other religion, because of that spiritual victory over Satan. We have gained the spiritual victory in this new era. Although established Christianity may oppose us, they will soon be in the position of Esau, who finally welcomed Jacob. We are living in a different time from that of Jesus. The providence was centered on the nation during the time of Jesus, but now it is centered on the world. The Lord of the Second Advent comes on the worldwide level and that is a larger level than the level of Jesus' era. Therefore, unless the world goes against him as one united body, he will easily establish the foundation for the nation.
Jesus sought to achieve the perfection of the individual and the perfection of the family, both spiritually and physically. Next he sought the victory of the clan and nation, both spiritually and physically. After he gained that victory on the national level, he was to start the substantial realm of victory through which Rome would surrender to him. Jesus' purpose was not only to restore the individual and family but also to unite the nation of Israel with the religion of Judaism. On that foundation, he was to overcome the Roman Empire.
He came to earth with that purpose. However, Judaism and the nation of Israel did not unite with him and he had to go the way of the cross; complete restoration could occur only at a later time. We ourselves have to restore the standard that was not achieved by the people at the time of Jesus. Although we may be able to gain victory spiritually on the worldwide level, the earthly foundation that Jesus did not establish must be realized by us; otherwise we cannot indemnify what Jesus did not do in the past. Jesus came in the position of parent and he came to stand on earth as the victorious parent of the world. Since he did not complete that role, this must be indemnified at the time of the Second Advent and the victory must be gained. Otherwise we won't be able to go beyond the victory of Jesus. That is what the Unification Church has been trying to do.
Centered upon the True Parents, we have gained the victory spiritually but we have been opposed by established Christianity; thus the failure has not been indemnified. Jesus went beyond Judaism and established the new teaching we call Christianity. Although it was only a spiritual victory, he started Christianity nevertheless. In the same sense, if established Christianity opposes the Unification Church, we have to recreate the foundation of Christianity, according to the new direction. Unless we do that, we won't be able to make the substantial foundation for the restoration by indemnity. That is what the worldwide Unification Church and I have been doing until now. Unless we have the foundation for the clan, the family cannot be at ease; unless the clan surrounds the family with its protection, the family cannot dwell in peace.
Realm of freedom from Satan
Only when Abel's family is within the protection of the victorious clan can it rest at peace for the first time. Satan cannot invade that family. Abel's family should not be invaded by Satan because it is in the position of the perfected Adam and Eve, Cain, who is in the position of the fallen archangel, has to establish a victorious foundation to win the victory over the satanic domain. Then the family is protected.
Satan is a fallen archangel, so he is not able to win the victory over an archangel who united with God and never fell. Thus an archangel who is on the side of God can subjugate Satan. Satan cannot invade the protection of a God-centered archangel. Thus the victorious Abel- sphere cannot be born unless the victorious archangel is born. That means that Abel's family can be protected from Satan only when restored Cain's family is born. During Jesus' life, if his family had protected him, he could have been at peace. If such protection had been given to Jesus, he wouldn't have been attacked. In the Garden of Eden, if the archangel had not fallen but had protected Adam, then Adam himself would have had no chance to fall.
If there had been a person in Cain's position who united perfectly with Jesus, then there would have been no way for Satan to attack Jesus. When we examine the situation in this light, we discover that Jesus' family did not unite with him. Mary and Joseph and his brothers and sisters, as well as his other relatives, had nothing to do with Jesus' mission. In fact, Jesus was a person who was virtually separated from his family and clan. The entire family and clan should have stood in the position to protect Jesus. If he were standing on that perfected foundation, he would never have had to go away from his own home, and there would have been no necessity for him to go through the three years of public life. If the family and clan had "united with him and helped him, he would have been able to make the foundation of bridegroom and bride on the earth, with the help of his family and relatives. If that had happened, a new blood lineage could have been established on the earth, centered on Jesus. The new ideal family who did not fall and who were united with God could have been started.
However, Jesus did not have that kind of foundation and he went to the cross. Therefore, the family who could inherit the new blood lineage was not born at that time.
Jesus was to be in the position of True Parents. If the position of True Parents was lost, that means all the descendants that were to be born from the True Parents were lost because the position of the parents was invaded.
Those who are born from fallen parents cannot go over their fallen standard. Christians, although gathering underneath the cross of Jesus Christ throughout the world, are not able to go forward and consummate God's will for the whole world.
Once individuals are united completely with the returning Lord and attend him absolutely, then they have to create a special clan centered upon the Lord. That special clan has to have a higher standard than the clan which surrounded Jesus Christ. That clan could not fulfill its mission to shield Jesus. This special clan should create a heartistic foundation and be called the new Israel. The heartistic foundation is the prerequisite for the substantial foundation of the worldwide level. Restoration through indemnity can be accomplished through that foundation. At the time of the Second Advent Christ must create the standard of the family. In order for him to create that standard, the Unification movement has to create the clan who can risk their lives to shield his family from the enemy. Without that, the Lord won't be able to start his family.
This was the significance of the Holy Wedding in 1960. The Unification Church was born as a new religious organization, and even if the secular world and established Christianity itself oppose the Unification Church, our church has created the sphere of the clan to shield the family of the returning Christ.
When the condition was made for the creation of a clan able to shield the family of the' Second coming of Christ at the risk of their lives, then the true Holy Wedding could be conducted for the first time in history. Since the true family was created, it has gradually been expanded to the sphere of clan and society. Established Christianity has been declining at the same time the Unification Church has been moving up. As a result of Judaism not uniting with Jesus, he did not establish a family, clan, society or nation centered on God. The Unification movement has to restore all of those failures and develop far beyond what happened at the time of Jesus.
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