World History Repeats For Restoration Part III

Why in the world do wars repeat themselves?  Why do we continuously as humans trudge down the path of our ancestor's.  On the Individual, family political, societal and world level, events over centuries play out such as an old videotape that is passed down generation from generation.

How is humanity going to stop this train on its continuous path of destruction?

We discussed in other articles how humankind chose a different path from the beginning than God's path.  We are not living in the the ideal world of God which is the ideal of world peace. 

Even though God created human beings, we received our fallen nature or characteristics from God's enemy fallen Lucifer.  Satan knew that God's Will for man was for us to have a world of peace, so Satan created a world similar to God's ideal world.  As a result, human history formed a world that is not principled and mimics God's ideal world based on false unity.

We see from this that in the providential course of restoration, false ideals present themselves in the form of truth before the Messiah returns. The Bible verses prophesying the appearance of the false Christ before the coming of the true one can be elucidated only by such a principle.


Satan Copies God's Ideal World

Why do societies such as communism seem to bring about unity among the people, albeit forced?

Before God restores the Kingdom of heaven on earth, there will be a pseudo form of the ideal world, centering on Satan; this is the world of communism.  To communist, Stalin, Lenin and Hitler were their saviour and lord, their fuhrer.  This is satan's ideal world.

The society first formed by fallen men was a primitive society. This was a society in which men fulfilled each other's needs, centering on Satan not God. If there were no struggles and divisions of good and evil in such a society of Satan, it would continue forever, and God's providence of restoration would never be realized.

Every fallen man has two minds in conflict; the evil mind and their original mind.  This conflict within the mind appeared in men's actions, and would create conflicts between individuals. Therefore, the primitive collective society could not maintain peace.

Moreover, as the collective developed into a society where people differed in financial interests, then this struggle grew to a greater scale.  The original mind in each man pushed them toward God's providence of restoration, thus division and struggle developed from the early days of primitive society centering on Satan.  In other words, the division and wars came about due to the internal struggle between the evil mind and the original mind.

The primitive society grew into the clan society, and the clan society grew into feudal society.  Feudal society finally expanded its territory and sovereignty to form a monarchic society. This is because God intended to call good individuals out of the sinful world and establish a clan society of goodness centering on them.  Next, forming a good feudal society which would finally become the kingdom of goodness with its territory and sovereignty of goodness able to receive the Messiah.

Satan, knowing this in advance, copied God's ideal world.

God called Abraham out of such a sinful world to be the center of goodness. By having him multiply offspring with the capacity of serving God's will, He established the Israelite clan society. Later, the descendants of Abraham went into Egypt and developed there from a clan to a tribe. After their return to Canaan, they formed a period of judges, and the society centering on the Judges was the Israelite feudal society.

Why then do we call it a feudal society?

The primary characteristics of a feudal society are,

1.  The political system has a relationship of master/servant with the servant obeying the master.
2.  Its economic system of self-supply within the territory of the blockade.  The period of Judges was such a society where each Israelite tribe was allocated Canaan land.  These tribes centered on the Judge who was a feudal lord. Feudal society people were to obey the ideology and leadership of the feudal lord with absolute submission. 

Accordingly, as long as their lord stood in God's will, the people naturally stood on the side of God. In addition, being in such a relationship, they could live in circumstances in which they suffered no Satanic invasion.

Consequently, the significance of the clan society's having developed into feudal society was to prevent Satanic invasion by taking Satan's possession back to the heavenly side and forming greater territory belonging to divine sovereignty.

Satan knew this was God's plan to bring World Peace, so he formed a Satanic feudal society in advance.

God intended to establish the Israelite monarchic society under this providence, so Satan attempted to prevent God's providence by forming a monarchic society, centering on himself - outside of God's realm.

Therefore, we see that before the period of the United Kingdom, the kingdom of Egypt erected its first dynasty on the side of Satan more than twenty centuries before Christ; this kingdom lasted for 30 dynasties. The ancient kingdom of Babylon had already unified the whole of Mesopotamia at the time of King Hammurabi in the 18th century B. C.; and the kingdom of the Hittites became the greatest power in the East centering on Syria in the 14th century B.C.

Thus in the Satanic world, according to the original mind of man relating to God's providence, a kingdom higher in standard of goodness fought evil kingdoms constantly, resulting in the separation of good and evil.

Therefore, if King Solomon had at that time served God's will to the end, he could have unified all the Eastern countries by showing his excellent political abilities, after having absorbed the three great civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Crete (Minoan). Furthermore, he could have formed a worldwide territory enabling the Messianic ideal to be realized.  This means the Messiah could return on this foundation earlier than our time. 

However, due to the fall of King Solomon, God had to work His providence of tearing down this monarchic society and find another central figure.

Thus, the kings of the period of the United Kingdom failed to provide the foundation of faith on which to restore God's sovereignty. Therefore, God finally divided the kingdom into those of North and South. God let the Northern kingdom be destroyed by the Gentile nation of Assyria.

The Southern kingdom of Judah served God's will.  Then they began to rebel against God and left no way to work for God's providence of restoring the world, God allowed this kingdom to fall into the hands of the New Babylon.


Democratic Society Repeats History

When you see history repeat itself where powerful territories fail to follow God's mission, then you know that America itself, even though it is prosperous, once it leaves the ideal of God's realm, it also leaves his protection. This means that it is possible that America, if it does not fulfill God's will as a Christian nation, may be left open to mountainous terrorist attacks worse than 9/11 - this is called World War III.

God provided a society of a democratic type (around his elect) so that later, if the Jewish people should receive the Messiah upon his coming, he might become their king, according to the will of the people. However, since the will of the Jewish people was to crucify Jesus instead of enthroning him, the purpose of God's 2,000-year providence of restoration, which He intended to realize centering on Abraham's lineal descendants, was fulfilled only spiritually.  Also, this is why the Jewish people and their land for 1, 000 of years were left open for attack.


The Providence of Restoration and European History

The Roman Empire, which had persecuted Christianity, finally surrendered before the crucified Jesus at the end of the 4th century and decreed Christianity as its national religion.

However, if in the beginning the Jewish people had become one in faith and service to Jesus as the Messiah, the ancient united world on the Mediterranean Sea, centering on the Roman Empire, would have been moved and inspired by Jesus in his lifetime.  This would answer why it was prophesied that Jesus would be king - it was meant to be substantial not in spirit only.  Then they would have erected a kingdom centering on Jerusalem, exalting Jesus as their king.

However, due to the Israelites not believing in Jesus as the Messiah, the Jewish nation was destroyed, and the Roman Empire, which was to be the foundation for the kingdom of the Messiah, began to decline until in 476 Western Rome was destroyed by Odoacer. Thus, God's providence of restoration was shifted from Judea, to West Europe, which was the territory of Western Rome.

Christianity restored the providence on a spiritual level after Jesus was crucified giving only spiritual salvation.  This was accomplished with Western Europe as the basis. 

Therefore, the providence of restoring the world of this age developed only in Western Europe. Then, Christian history centering on Western Europe became the central source of the providential age.


Religion and Science Should Unite

Religion and science naturally have not harmonized.  God first created man's external physical body and then his internal spirit, therefore as God restores the providence, he must go from the external to the internal.  Science pursues the benefit of the physical world and explain its attributes.  So, it is only evident that religion and science would struggle with one another.

Also, the religion and the economy cannot develop freely without forming the same unity.  These two have divided missions to restore the internal and external lives of fallen men.

Like the relationship that should form with religion and science, religion and economy have conflicted each other in some aspects, they have formed respective histories of Christianity and economy by relationships with our social life.

This is especially evident in Western Europe, which was strongly Christianized. Politics in Western Europe should have harmonized through social life, the economic development following the radical development of science and the movement of Christianity, which had not yet been able to take any clear direction in the providence of restoration.

Therefore, the political history of Western Europe headed for a new direction. Consequently, in order to grasp accurately the historical development for the providence of restoration, we must study separately the political history also. As an example, let us study the course of development of the history of Western Europe toward the end of the 17th century.

Seen from the history of religion, Christian democratic society was already formed in this period. With the collapse of the spiritual kingdom under the pope's absolute authority, which took place due to the Religious Reformation in 1517 led by Martin Luther, medieval men were liberated from the life of faith, and their subjection to the pope, and everyone could lead the life of faith freely, centering on the Bible.

However, politically, this period saw the rise of the absolute monarchic society, while seen from the aspect of the history of economy, the feudal society existed under the system of the manor. Thus the society in this period was a democratic society in the aspect of religion, a monarchic society in the aspect of politics, and a feudal society in the aspect of economy.

So in order to grasp the character of this age form the viewpoint of the providence of restoration, we must consider their courses of development separately.

Then, we must know why the historical development in the period of the providence of restoration (the Old Testament Age) had not undergone such a process.

The Israelites of the Old Testament Age, when their mode of life was the same for all, led a simple life under a social system of the master-servant relationship in which they had to obey the strict law at the command of their leader. Therefore, their religious life was, actually, their social life. Accordingly, in this period, religion, politics, and economy could not enjoy separate development.


Socialism

It is only too natural for the satanic world, which is headed toward a communistic society, to advocate socialism. This is because Satan, knowing God's process of restoring man to the heavenly side, copies God's ideal in advance by going toward the socialistic system of economy which tries to bring equalization through force.

God's ideal of creation is that each man's original value must be equal between any two individuals. Consequently, God intends to give everyone an equal environment and equal conditions of life, just as human parents would to their children. Therefore, production, distribution, and consumption must have the same organic relationship with one another as that between the stomach, heart and lungs of the human body.

 So there should not be any competition over the market because of excessive production, nor any accumulation or excessive consumption which would bring obstruction to the purpose of the life of the whole, due to unfair distribution.

There must be a necessary and sufficient amount of production, distribution in fair and proper quantities, and reasonable consumption for the general purpose, just as in the liver of the human body there should be an appropriate reserve for the smooth operation of the entire body.

Man, having been created with such an ideal, cannot help demanding such a socialistic system of life since he quite naturally searches for his original nature or original mind which is connected to God. Therefore, there will ultimately have to come a socialistic society centering on God from the Democratic state.

We can find a socialistic idea even in ancient Christian society, while the ideal of "Utopia" by Thomas More of England in the 16th Century was also socialistic ideal.  The ideology based on Owen's humanism in the period of the industrial revolution of England was also as such. 

Together with the Catholic socialism and Protestant socialism, brought about by the Christian idea of Kingsley of England, all of these must be regarded as coming from the natural expression of man's original nature, which is headed for the ideal of creation.


Foundation For the Second Coming

How, then, will these expressions be able to provide the foundation for the ideal of the Second Advent in which they unite with one another?

We have also clarified above that the development of history has been made in three divisions because religion and science, which were to overcome man's spiritual and physical ignorance, were not unified as one theme.

Accordingly, in order that history may be concluded into one focal point in which to realize one ideal, the new truth must manifest itself, which can solve the historical problems of religion and science.

The period to prepare for Jesus was 400 years from Moses time.  Likewise, the preparation for the
The preparation period for the Second Advent of the Messiah is the 400-year period from the Religious Reformation.  The 400-year period that sets the foundation for the Messiah ended during World War I in 1918. That means, this is the time period for the return of the Messiah.

Seen from the viewpoint of the providence of restoration, this era is divided into three periods: the period of religious reformation, the period of struggle between religion and ideology, and the period of maturity for politics, economy, and ideology.
 
Then there will come a political society in which all mankind, having been unified into the heart and bosom of God through the Messiah's new truth, will realize the ideal of creation on the economic foundation centering on God's ideal World of Peace.

As you see history from looking at the providential will of God, the reasons behind the rise and fall of power is for one purpose, to found a people that can receive the Messiah.  History seemingly repeats itself because when God prepares a nation and people to set a foundation for the Messiah and they fail, He allows that foundation to crumble and chooses another nation and people.

Also, we can see God's desperate attempt to bring a Jesus-like figure beginning with Cain and Abel through their respective offerings.  History repeats itself based on the responsibility of the chosen people and nation which the providential dispensation rests.  History continues and will continue in this way until the Second Coming and ushers in God's ideal world.  That time is now.

Return for tomorrow's post: Why Hell on Earth, Not Peace on Earth?

Photo courtesy of : freedigitalphotos.net

Today's message were taken from "The Divine Principle" which is based on Reverend Sun Myung Moon's teachings and research of the bible. To learn more about the teachings, please visit: www.unificaitonnews.org.

World History Repeats Itself For Restoration Part I

We see it even in history of fashion.  The clothing and music of the 50s were very popular in the 80s, the last decade revived the 70s for some reason, and it seems we are living in the 80s and 90s once again. 

When viewing the larger more historical view of world political and religious aspects, one will soon find the same similarities all throughout history.  Why do certain wars such as the one in Israel seem to repeat itself and not be resolved?

Why are we repeating wars based on conflicts that occurred between people who are no longer alive?  Why do we continue conflicts that we did not even start?


Why Does History Repeat Itself?

This question is impossible to answer in one meager article, for it takes a very in depth look back into the history of conflicts between nations.  Also, one must take a look at the beginning of conflicts and how they parallel to other time periods.  This is a very brief understanding of what is called the Providence of Restoration.  To take a more indepth look at history, would take a book, not a simply written page.

To get a more detailed understanding of history from God's view point of history it is best to obtain "The Divine Principle" book which this article is based upon.   

God had used seemingly random wars and leaders for his good, actually had a deeper meaning. 

Why does history repeat itself?  The simplest way to answer is God had a plan for that dispensation using a central figure or leader, a nation and people he had prepared for one purpose.  This purpose is to bring a foundation for the Messiah.  In other words.  Before the Messiah appeared and reappears in our time, God had an ultimate goal to bring the Messiah to a certain nation way before Jesus and prepared for him to return way before now.  So what happened?

Bluntly, many of God's chosen people and nation's central leaders messed up God's plan in exchange for their own earthly interest.  This explains why so many kings and nations rise and fall over and over again in history.  Once they fail, God surely plans to finish his Will of world peace, yet He uses a new nation, new people and new leadership.  What usually happens to the ones who failed?

Traditional Views of History

The following is an overview of only a few key points in history, and will attempt to clarify the Unification viewpoint of their historical significance centered on God's restoration process.  It would elongate the post if we place in all of history as the book Divine Principle tackles, to keep it short, we can only go through a few points here.

A. The Cyclical View of History (Fatalist View of History)

The ancient Greeks believed that just as the four seasons absolutely repeat, they believed that history followed the same natural course.  The Greeks believed that history was destined to repeat, and humans could not affect the outcome.  To them, history was just repetition of events that did not have any meaning or goal.

This viewpoint is called the fatalist view of history or "cyclical view of history".  Herodotus (484-425 BC) was called the father of history, and Thucydides wrote "history of the Peloponnesian War" (460-400 BC).  These two men both believed that history repeated itself.  They do not believe humans can affect change to the development of history and deem history as necessary.  This fatalist viewpoint does not see any goal in history and cannot offer a future image of World Peace.


B. The Providential View of History

Christianity presented a view in contrast to the Greeks view of history.  Christianity believed that history has a beginning and advances in a straight line toward a definite goal led by God's providence.  Christian history began with the human fall, and its history is a history of salvation leading to Judgment day.

Christians divides human history into six periods:

(1) from Adam to Noah's flood,
(2) from Noah to Abraham,
(3) from Abraham to David,
(4) from David to the Babylonian captivity,
(5) from the Babylonian captivity to the birth of Christ, and
(6) from the first coming to the second coming of Christ.

As stated in other articles, the purpose of the Providence of Restoration is the process to restore man.  To establish a base or foundation to receive the Messiah. As with the case with Moses and the Israelites and John the Baptist not continuously testifying Jesus was the Messiah, when God's providence is prolonged, the whole history must be repeated until the mistake is restored.  The Process of Restoration:

1. The central figure must set up the foundation of faith by offering a symbolic sacrifice accepted by God which is a condition of indemnity to remove natures produced from the fall.

and

2. The central figure must establish the foundation of substance by offering substantial or real sacrifices acceptable by God.

Humankind's history has been formed by the history of many nations.  God chooses a specific nation as the center of the providential course of restoration to establish the foundation to receive the Messiah.  This nation of chosen people leads the history of humankind.

God's chosen people were originally descendants of Abraham who established the foundation to receive the Messiah on a family level.  Therefore, Israel was the chosen nation after they fulfilled the providential age of restoration in faith.

However, after the Israelites had delivered Jesus to his crucifixion, which was not God's first ideal choice to fulfill Heaven on Earth, they lost their qualification as the chosen nation.

Here is the understanding of history from God's providence of restoration viewpoint:

1. The 400-year period from Noah to Abraham was invaded by Satan, because of Abraham's failure in the offering. Therefore, during the period of slavery in Egypt, to restore by indemnity this 400-year period,

2.  The posterity of Jacob were miserably persecuted by the Egyptians for the 400 years after he and the 70 kinsmen, centering on his 12 sons, had entered Egypt. In the period of the persecution under the Roman Empire to restore this period by indemnity,

3. The 12 apostles, the 70 disciples, and the Christians centering on Jesus, because of his crucifixion, had to undergo miserable persecution by the Roman Empire for 400 years in order to restore, by indemnity, the 400-year period of preparation for the coming of the Messiah which had been invaded by Satan.

Even though the bible is riddled with many of God's chosen people not completely fulfilling their mission, these three points explain why history up until Christianity conquered Rome had to repeat itself. 


Moses Disbelief, Israelites Follow Canaan Idols

In the period of slavery in Egypt, the First Israel, the chosen nation, separated itself from Satan, who invaded because of Abraham's failure in the offering, by circumcising (Ex. 4:25), offering sacrifices (Ex. 5:3), and keeping the Sabbath (Ex. 16:23).

History repeats itself when God preordains a chosen people and nation and they do not complete their mission, God chooses another time, nation and people through which to work his providence.

During the First Israel's slavery in Egypt, the chosen nation was able to indemnify or pay back Abraham's failure when he failed to cut the doves in half when making an offering to God.

Even though Abraham indemnify that mistake by having to offer Issac, God still could work through Abraham's family, in order to do this, they endured 400 years of slavery.

Abraham's descendants were able to indemnify through offering of circumcising, offering sacrifices and by keeping the Sabbath holy, these conditions paid back Abraham's mistake.

After the 400 year period of slavery ended, Moses was subject to Satan by the powers of the three miracles and ten calamities and headed for Canaan.  Likewise, the period of Christian persecution by the Roman Empire.  This time period had to be indemnified, in other words, this time period repeated.  Therefore Christians indemnified the past by offering of saints as living sacrifices, keeping the Sabbath and partaking in Holy Communion and Baptism.  Then after this 400-year persecution period, Jesus in spirit along with his followers, influenced Emperor Constantine and moved him to recognize Christianity publicly in year 313.  Then Theodosius I declared Christianity the national religion.

In this way, Christians came to be restored, spiritually, into Canaan, out of the Satanic world.In the Old Testament Age in which God had worked His providence through external conditions of offerings as indemnity.  According to the law, God subjugated Pharaoh by giving Moses external miracles and signs.

After the period of slavery in Egypt had ended, Moses set up the center of the Old Testament by receiving the Ten Commandments and words on Mount Sinai. By receiving the tablets of stone, the tabernacle and the ark of the covenant, the First Israel, the chosen nation, came to set up the will to receive the Messiah.

Likewise, after the period of persecution by the Roman Empire, the Second Israel, the chosen nation, decided on the New Testament by collecting the records of the apostles as the words to fulfill spiritually the Ten commandments and the ideal of the temple of the Old Testament Age.

This laid the groundwork to receive the Lord of the Second Advent by establishing churches centering on the words of the New Testament.  After the period of Jesus, he and the Holy Spirit have been leading Christians directly.  In all periods throughout the biblical history, there was always a central figure such as Noah, Abraham and Jacob.

Yet, after Jesus's coming, he did not set up any one person as the central figure of the whole providence.

In the period of the judges, after the Israelites, led by Joshua and Caleb, entered the blessed land of Canaan, they formed a new nation of God's elect, centering on the judges in the new land given to each tribe. Thus they established the foundation of the Israelite feudal society.

Likewise, in the period of Christian churches under the patriarchal system of Christianity, after its liberation from the Roman Empire, which represented the Satanic world, spread the gospel to the Germanic tribes, who had moved to Western Europe because of the invasion by the Huns in the 4th century. By setting up the Germanic people as a new people of God's elect in the new land of Western Europe, they established the foundation of the Christian feudal society.

Feudal Society Failed

In Moses's time, in the course of restoration into Canaan by the people of Israel, set up the foundation of substance through the tabernacle as the symbolic being of the Messiah.

Therefore, after they entered Canaan, the Israelite nation in the period of judges should have exalted the will of the tabernacle under the leadership of the Judges.

But, by living among the seven tribes of Canaan, representative of Satan's world, without destroying them, the Israelites came to worship Canaan's idols after their evil customs, thus bringing about great chaos in their faith.

Likewise, in the period of Christian churches under the patriarchal system, the Christians should have exalted the will of the church as the image-entity of the Messiah.

Instead, there came about a great confusion in their faith due partially due to the influence of the many miscellaneous religions of the German people.

The Israelites received Jesus only after the 400-year period of preparation for the coming of the Messiah.   Therefore, in order to restore this by indemnity, Christians also can receive the Lord of the Second Advent only after the 400-year period of preparation for the Second Coming of the Messiah. This began with the Pope's return to Rome from his life of captivity in Avignon.

Let us here observe how the background and environment were formed in each of the two periods which were the preparation periods to receive the Messiah.

At the time of the first coming of the Messiah, God sent the prophet Malachi to His chosen nation 430 years in advance, having him prophesy the coming of the Messiah which would be Jesus. He reformed Judaism, preparing Israel as the chosen nation to receive Jesus.

Meanwhile, among the Gentiles, at about the same time, God had Gautama Buddha of India (565-485 B.C.) pioneer a new base for Buddhism by improving Hinduism.  Also, in Greece he had Socrates (470-399 B.C.) pioneer the period of Hellenic culture. In the Orient, He had Confucius (552-479 B.C.)  set up human ethics and morality through Confucianism, thus having them establish the culture and religion suitable for the place and people in order that they may make necessary spiritual preparation to receive the coming Messiah.

God prepared this basis, foundation around the world in order to unify all the regions of various religions and cultures into one sphere of Christian culture.  This explains why different countries around the world have similar history and religious background. God planned for the Christian culture to absorb and win over Judaism, Hellenism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and other religions from around the world.  This was God's ideal to bring World Peace in this way.


Democratic Sphere Usher in Messiah

The Renaissance period occurred in order to restore history through indemnity.  This period served as a background and environment to establish a foundation for the Second Coming of the Messiah.  In addition, the rapid progress in politics, economy, culture, science and all other aspects of human endeavor that we enjoy today all began in the Renaissance period.

The political territory in Jesus's day was formed by the rise of the Roman Empire.  The Roman had ease of communication in all directions, and the vast cultural territory formed centering on the Hellenic language.  This established the foundation to expand the ideas of the Messiah - from Israel on Jesus, to Rome centering on Israel, and then to the world centering on Rome.

Likewise, since we are living in the days of the Lord's return, the democratic sphere, which is based on freedom, is covering almost every corner of the earth.  Transportation and communication shortens the extremes between East and West.  Also, due to the free exchange of languages and cultures, the ideology for the Second Advent of the Messiah can freely and swiftly flow into the hearts of all mankind.

It is easy to see this is the best foundation to spread the truth and ideology of the Second Messiah worldwide within the shortest possible time.  In other words, the Internet, the ability to go anywhere in the world in under an hour is to prepare a way to spread the Messiah's message as he returns.

Return for tomorrow's post: World Peace Brings World Without Borders


Photos courtesy of: freedigitalphotos.net

Note:

The text above was taken directly from the Korean textbook, "The Divine Principle".  This has been rewritten in conversational form without changing the philosophical or spiritual nature of the text.  To learn more about the teachings it is based on, Reverend Sun Myung Moon, please visit, www.unificationnews.com.