Divine Principle - 4)The Parallels between the Two Ages in the Providence 3

[대태양/김현수]

Section 3. The Period of the United Kingdom and the Period of the Christian Empire

When the period of the judges came to a close and the First Israel entered the period of the united kingdom, the functions of the judge were apportioned to the offices of prophet, priest and king. The prophets received instructions directly from God, the priests kept charge over the Tabernacle and later the Temple, and the king governed the nation. Each carried on their distinct missions in guiding Israel to accomplish the goal of the providence of restoration. The purpose of the period of the Christian empire was to restore the period of the united kingdom through parallel indemnity conditions. Thus, when the period of regional church leadership came to a close, the missions of these leaders were apportioned to the offices of monastic leaders corresponding to the prophets, the pope corresponding to the high priest, and the emperor, who ruled the people. They were responsible to guide the Second Israel to accomplish the goal of the providence of restoration.

In the previous period, the Christian Church had been divided into the five patriarchates of Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople and Rome, with Rome dominant in the West. The pope, as the Roman patriarch was called, supervised all the bishops and abbots in Western Europe.

In the period of the united kingdom, the kings established the kingdom of Israel around the Temple, thereby manifesting the ideal of Moses’ Tabernacle which was first conceived at the time of the Exodus. This was the image course for building the Kingdom of Heaven ruled by Jesus, which he would one day come to establish as the King of Kings (Isa. 9:6). Likewise, in the period of the Christian empire, Charlemagne’s empire realized the ideal of the Christian state as set down in The City of God by St. Augustine – who lived when the Christians had just been liberated from the oppression of the Roman Empire, a time parallel to that of Moses. Once again, this was the image course for building the Kingdom of God, which Christ, as the King of Kings, will one day return to establish.

 Accordingly, in this period, the emperor and the pope were to realize the ideal Christian state by uniting wholeheartedly to follow the Will of God. The spiritual kingdom ruled by the pope, which had been founded upon the spiritual foundation for the Messiah, and the temporal kingdom ruled by the emperor should have united based on Christ’s teachings. Had they done so, religion, politics and economy would have harmonized, and the foundation for the Second Advent of Christ would have been established at that time.

In the period of the united kingdom of Israel, the king was the central figure for restoring the foundation of faith. He was responsible to carry out the Word of God, which was given through the prophets. Before the king was anointed, the prophet and the high priest were to represent and teach the Word of God, and thus they stood in the position of Abel. Their mission, as required by the providence of restoration, was to restore the physical world from the position of the archangel, representing the spirit world. However, after they laid the foundation upon which the king could stand, and anointed and blessed him as the king, they were to take the role of Cain before him. The king was to rule his kingdom according to the guidance of the prophets, and the prophets were to obey the king as his subjects and counselors.

About eight hundred years after Abraham’s descendants entered Egypt, by God’s command the prophet Samuel anointed Saul as the first king of Israel (I Sam. 8:19-22; 10:1-24). King Saul stood upon the foundation of the four hundred years under the judges. Had he completed the forty years of his reign in accordance with God’s desires, he would have stood in the position of having restored through indemnity the four hundred years of slavery in Egypt and Moses’ forty years in the Pharaoh’s palace. Thereupon, King Saul would have fulfilled the dispensation of forty for the separation of Satan and laid the foundation of faith. If, upon this foundation, King Saul had built and exalted the Temple, the image of the Messiah, he would have then stood in the position Moses should have occupied had he not failed in the first national course to restore Canaan, but had built the Temple in Canaan and glorified it. If the Israelites had then stood upon this foundation of faith and faithfully followed King Saul as he honored the Temple, they would have laid the foundation of substance. The foundation for the Messiah would have been established at that time.

However, because King Saul disobeyed the commands of God given through the prophet Samuel (I Sam. 15:1-23), he was in no position to build the Temple. 

Upon his failure, King Saul found himself in the same position as Moses after he had failed in the first national course to restore Canaan. As was the case with Moses, the providence of restoration through King Saul was extended. Forty years of King David’s reign and forty years of King Solomon’s reign would pass before the foundation of faith was laid and the Temple built. Furthermore, as we discussed earlier, King Saul was also in the position of Abraham. In the same manner that the Will entrusted to Abraham was finally brought to pass through Isaac and Jacob, God’s Will to build the Temple through King Saul had to be continued through the reign of King David and was finally realized during the reign of King Solomon. Nevertheless, King Solomon left the position of Abel for the substantial offering when he fell into lust with his many foreign wives, who turned him away from God (I Kings 11:3-7). Hence, there was no way for Israel to establish the foundation of substance. The foundation for the Messiah, which should have been laid in the period of the united kingdom, was not realized.

In the period of the Christian empire, all the conditions pertaining to the united kingdom had to be restored through parallel conditions of indemnity. Once again, the central figure to restore the foundation of faith was the emperor. He was responsible to actualize the Christian ideals set forth by the leading monastics and the pope. The pope, for his part, stood in a position comparable to the high priest of Israel, who received God’s commands through the prophets. He was responsible to lay the spiritual foundation upon which the emperor could realize the ideal Christian state. After crowning and blessing the emperor, the pope was to obey him as one of his subjects in temporal matters. The emperor, in turn, was to lift up and further the spiritual work of the papacy in his realm. Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne and blessed him as the first emperor of Christendom in 800 A.D.

Charlemagne stood upon the foundation of the four-hundred-year period of regional church leadership, which restored through indemnity, in the form of substantial parallels, the four-hundred-year period of the judges. Therefore, like King Saul, he stood upon the foundation of a dispensation of forty for the separation of Satan. By faithfully living according to the teachings of Jesus in his work to realize the Christian ideal of the state, he was to establish the foundation of faith.

Indeed, when Charlemagne was crowned emperor, he achieved this foundation. Had the Second Israel absolutely believed in and followed Charlemagne, the foundation of substance would have been laid, and thereby the foundation for the Messiah would have been established. In other words, the spiritual kingdom led by the pope and the earthly kingdom led by the emperor were to fully unite upon the existing spiritual foundation for the Messiah. Christ would then have returned upon this solid ground and built his Kingdom. However, the emperors did not remain obedient to God’s Will and left the position of Abel for the substantial offering. Neither the foundation of substance nor the foundation for the Second Advent of the Messiah was established.