【The Way Of Unification】 - 5. God's Providential History Of Salvation

[대태양/김현수]

5. God's Providential History Of Salvation Through Religion

1) God's Providential History of Salvation through Religion

What is the will of God? It is to perfect Adam through the process of re-creation history. Upon the victorious foundation of perfected Adam, Eve could be perfected.. Upon the foundation of perfected Eve, the children and the family could be perfected. In order to set up a foundation for the children to be perfected, a substantial circle must be set up representing the clan and the nation. This is the essence of the providence for salvation. It is essential for the completion of the providence for salvation.

Since human history began, many saints and sages have come and gone. Their work, in a nutshell, was to establish and develop religions. In history, many religions have appeared, and some have continued until today. Religion has evolved through several stages: the religion of the servant, the religion of the adopted son, the religion of the son, and the religion of the parents.

Human culture has developed in four directions; east, south, north and west. Likewise, many religions have appeared in different regions, suited to their own environments, in the roles of the religion of the servant, the religion of the adopted son and the religion of the son. Of course, even the religion of the servant contains providential rituals and teachings about the son and the parents.

The path of these many religions is the path to complete God's ideal of creation. The religion of the servant established that path. The religion of the adopted son continued on the same path on the foundation of the religion of the servant. The position of the adopted son substituted for the position of the son, who experiences God's heart, God's environment and God's will. The adopted son receives the parents' inheritance if there is no son.

After the religion of the adopted son came the religion of the son. What happened when the religion of the son appeared? This religion teaches us clearly who our parents are. It not only tells us who our parents are, but also establishes one unified realm of heart.

In the age of the servant and the age of the adopted son, God could not establish the standard of heart of the son. But when the son finally appeared, he became the central object in relation to the Parent, the subject. It was a historical moment when God, the Parent, had His first son and was able to love him. In this moment, for the first time since the creation, God saw His cherished hope fulfilled.

This consummation of the providential history of restoration shows us that Christianity, which inherited Jewish tradition and went through the mainstream historical course, is the central religion of all religions.

In Christian history, the Old Testament age was the era of the servant. Entering the New Testament age, the era of the adopted son opened. To inherit the position of the son we need the ideology of the Messiah. The Messiah is the son who can receive God's love. That's why Jesus Christ is the only son of God. "Only son" means the only one before God. It means he is the first son centering on God's love. Centered on Christianity and its providential background, God was able to guide history to the present age and build up the democratic world which has dominated 20th century civilization.

Now human history has come to the end. Here, at the consummation of human history, we talk about the Last Days. What does this mean? After the completion of the Messianic son's mission, in order to connect with the Parents' mission, Jesus is in the position of the bridegroom and all human beings are in the position of the bride. Together the bridegroom and his bride bring in the religion of the Parents. Therefore the Last Days are the time when the children's era comes to an end and we move on to the parents' era.

What is the hope of children? It is to look upon the parents they have never seen, to find the parents who have been lost, to meet the parents they have never known. It is to receive love from their parents. The Last Days are not a time of fire and destruction as today's Christians believe. The Last Days are the time when the children's hope is fulfilled and the parents appear and, centered on God's love, build God's family, society, nation and world. The people will be educated by the parents and reunited with God's love, and the sovereignty of evil will be transformed into the sovereignty of good. This time of transformation is the Last Days. To carry out this role and mission a new religion has been born, raised up and gradually developed.

What is the Unification Church? The Unification Church speaks of True Parents and True Children. Many religions have appeared and disappeared. Their teachings are all one-sided. But the Unification Church proclaims the religion of the parents. That is the difference. Here the parents we speak of are not just the parents of others. Centering on God, they are the parents who stand in the position of ancestors by inheriting the fundamental parental tradition. They are not the parents of one generation in today's society. They are the parents who bring rebirth to sinful human beings, engraft them to themselves to give them the title of true children, and take care of them, until every human being has been saved. This is the position of the parents we speak of in the Unification Church.

Then, what will happen to the peripheral religions? They will not perish. When a seed sprouts, the first leaves fall as new ones appear. In the same way the early religions will pass away. The religion of the servant will disappear. The religion of the adopted son will disappear. The religion of the son will be connected with the religion of the parents, as its root, and a new unified religious world will come about. (1981.5.1)

2) The One Religion that God, Man and All Creation Hope For

Mankind has been endlessly struggling with evil forces. Throughout the course of history, people have incessantly sought to change the evil world into a good world centered on religious movements. Even though each nation has had its own unique language, culture, tradition and history, their religions have all pursued goodness and have sought to save this sinful world. The God of goodness developed the history of human cultures centered on religions which pursued goodness, and expanded them to the worldwide level.

In other words, God worked to transform this world into a world of goodness through the development of Christian culture in Europe, Muslim culture in the Middle East, Hindu culture in India, and the Far Eastern culture in Korea, China and Japan centered on Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism.

If there were a God of goodness, what would He hope? He could not endlessly work His providence centered on so many religions. In other words, God wanted to reveal one religion on the world stage. Eventually He wanted to reveal one perfect religion which could represent His true Will and bring it about. That was God's hope.

This hope of God is also the hope of humankind. Since the beginning of history people have yearned for the original, normal relationship with God and have striven to realize it. Actually, this has been both the deepest desire and the greatest task of every age, which people have desperately pursued throughout their long history. Only the one unified religious culture which represents God's true Will can save all humankind from sin.

God wanted one religion and one religious culture which could fulfill the ideal of all human beings. Only this religion and culture could unify the whole world and restore the original father-son relationship between God and man. God longed for the birth of this culture, which all people had hoped for, and all religious people had yearned for. Not only God and man yearned for this one religious culture. All the physical, created world shared the same longing.

What kind of religion should this one religion be? Its teachings should be consistent with God's hope, humankind's hope and the hope of all creation. This religion must start from the true individual who is united with God, and who holds the true religious ideal. But God seeks not only one true individual. He seeks a unified world, through the one religion which is brought by a true individual.

From one true individual and true family, God wants to build a true nation and a true world.

God cannot save the world all at once, because it is a fallen world, under Satanic sovereignty. Therefore God started a movement to expand, slowly, the one true world, beginning with one person and expanding to the world level. (1981.5.10)

3) The Ultimate Purpose of the Providence for Salvation

In human history, before the world was invaded by Satan, the nation was invaded. Before the nation, the church. Before the tribe, the family, and before the family, the individual was invaded. So God had to work the providence centered on the individual first. God was not able until now to work His providence for salvation centered on the family. God's providence centered on Christianity was the providence centered on the individual, not on the family. So Christians stress individual salvation through faith in Christ. There is no salvation for the family, tribe, nation or world.

Then how can salvation come to the family, tribe, nation, world, and even the spiritual world? It is absolutely impossible for human beings to find this way through their own ability. It is possible only through the Lord of the Second Advent.

After the fall of man, for six thousand years God laid the foundation of the providence for salvation centered on the salvation of the individual.

That was because individual salvation had to precede the salvation of the family, tribe, nation and world.

The ultimate goal of the providence of salvation goes beyond the individual; it is to liberate and save the family, tribe, nation and world. Until this is done, God Himself cannot be liberated. When God's perfect goal of the providence for salvation is attained, in other words, when even hell and all the spiritual world are liberated, on that day God will declare the perfection of the ideal, proclaiming, "My will is done! Hallelujah! March forward into My world, under the dominion of My love."

In the providential history of God, He was not able to complete even the way of individual perfection. This was made clear in the promise that the Messiah would come again. The fact that Christians have maintained their faith until today, waiting for the second advent of the Messiah, testifies to this.

The history of Christianity is the history of preparing the foundation to receive the Lord of the Second Advent. By uniting many clans, tribes and nations under one Christian culture, God laid the foundation for the coming of the Messiah.

(1981.5.17)