The Divine Principle 5: General Introduction - The new truth is to shed a new light

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Text from Divine Principle, General Introduction, fifth set of paragraphs:

"Religion came into existence as the means to accomplish the purpose of goodness in following the way of God according to the intention of the original mind. The need for different kinds of understanding compelled the appearance of various religions. Scriptures of different religions varied according to the mission of the religion, the people who received it, and the age in which it came. Scripture can be likened to a lamp which illuminates the truth. Its mission is to shed the light of truth. When a brighter light appears, the mission of the old one fades. Today's religions have failed to lead the present generation out of the dark valley of death into the radiance of life, so there must now come a new truth that can shed a new light.

Many passages in the Bible say that new words of truth will be given to mankind in the "Last Days". What will be the mission of the new truth? Its mission will be to present the internal truth that religion has pursued and the external truth searched for by science under one unified theme. It should also seek to overcome both the internal and external ignorance of man and offer him internal and external knowledge. It must eliminate the contradiction within man, who is receptive to good and evil, by helping fallen man resist the way of evil and attain the purpose of goodness. For fallen man, knowledge is the light of life and holds the power of revival; ignorance is the shadow of death and the cause of ruin. No feeling or emotion can be derived from ignorance, no act of will can arise from ignorance. Thus, when knowledge, emotion and will do not function properly in man, life is no longer worth living.

If man is created to be unable to live apart from God, how miserable life must be when he is ignorant of God. Yet, can man know God clearly, even though he may diligently consult the Bible? Furthermore, how can man ever know God's heart? The new truth should enable us to know God as a reality. It should also be able to reveal His heart and feeling of joy at the time of creation, and His broken heart and feeling of grief as He struggles to save fallen man who rebels against Him."

The above quotes from the Divine Principle book of Sun Myung Moon explain that there must come a new truth that will shed a new light on the fading truth of scriptures of religions of the past. This new truth will overcome the external ignorance of science and the internal ignorance of religion by presenting new knowledge under a unified theme. This truth should also enable us to know God as a reality and reveal God's heart of joy over the creation and His heart of suffering over the situation of fallen man.

Throughout history, God has worked to install the missions of religious central figures. God raised those central figures of faith in all cultures in order that they would find truth to pass this on to the people around them. As history progressed, more and more truth was revealed. But often that shining light of truth was later again covered with shadows of dogmas and theology and external interpretations that have blocked our ways to know the depth of the original truth revealed.

Always again God is able to give new truth when certain people prepared by God who fulfilled their mission as given by God were open to receive such truth. This is an ongoing process. Thinking from God's viewpoint, it is logical that God will always again attempt to tell us the truth, and God will choose people to receive and pass on that truth.

Such truth is always coming upon a foundation of understanding in a certain tradition of culture or religion. The truth always has the purpose to liberate us from ignorance and illusions that have crept into the traditions in which we are living. For example, Jesus spoke to clarify to the people of his time about wrong concepts that had come into the Jewish religion. In our time it is logical that truth must come to clear up all that has been wrongly understood in Christian theology and in other religions of the past millennia.

This is an ongoing process and as time passes by, always new truth must come and will come to enlighten us and to lead us on more advanced paths of perfection in God's love.

The truth is not absolute when this truth is seen as words that are written down on paper. The truth is absolute insofar it always leads us on a way to more deeply understand God's heart, to perfect our individuality and to build a more ideal society. This process has never stopped and it will never stop.

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The Divine Principle 4: General Introduction - Causes of failures of religion

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The rainbow set as a symbol of the Covenant with Noah after the Great Flood

Text from Divine Principle, General Introduction, fourth set of paragraphs:

"The relationship between the essential world and the phenomenal world is similar to that between mind and body. It is the relationship between cause and result, internal and external, subjective and objective. Since man can attain perfect personality only when his mind and body become harmonized in perfect oneness, the ideal world can be realized only when the two worlds--one of essence, the other of phenomena--have been joined in perfect unity.

As it is with the relationship between mind and body, so there can also be no phenomenal world apart from the essential world and no essential world apart from the phenomenal world. Neither can there be a spiritual world apart from a physical world, nor spiritual happiness apart from true physical happiness. Religion has until now de-emphasized the value of everyday reality; it has denied the value of physical happiness in order to stress the attainment of spiritual joy. However strenuously man may try, he cannot cut himself off from reality, nor can he annihilate the desire for physical happiness that follows him always like a shadow.

In reality, the desire for physical happiness persistently takes hold of men of religion, leading them into the depths of agony. Such a contradiction exists even in the lives of spiritual leaders. Many spiritual leaders, torn by such contradictions, have met a sad end. Herein is a principal cause for the weakness and inactivity of today's religions; the weakness lies in the contradiction which has not yet been overcome.

Another factor has fated religion to decline. Modern men, whose intelligence has developed to the utmost degree, demand scientific proof for all things. However, religious doctrine, which remains unchanged, does not interpret things scientifically. That is to say, man's interpretation of internal truth (religion) and his interpretation of external truth (science) do not agree.

The ultimate purpose of religion can be fulfilled only by first believing in and then by practicing the truth. But true belief cannot come about today without knowledge and understanding. We study the Bible to confirm our belief by knowing the truth. Jesus' performance of miracles and his revelation of signs were to let the people know that he was the Messiah and enable them to believe in him. Knowledge comes from cognition, and man today cannot cognize anything which lacks logic and scientific proof. To understand something, there must first be cognition. Thus, internal truth also requires logical proof. Religion has been moving through the long course of history toward an age in which it must be explained scientifically.

Religion and science began with the missions of dispelling, respectively, the two aspects of human ignorance. In their courses, these two areas of thought and exploration came into apparently uncompromising conflict with each other. In order for man to attain the good purpose of the original mind's desire, there must come a time when there is a new expression of truth, enabling mankind to bring these two matters together under one unified theme. These two matters are religion, which has been coming closer to science, and science, which has been approaching religion.

It may be displeasing to religious believers, especially to Christians, to learn that a new expression of truth must appear. They believe that the Bible, which they now have, is perfect and absolute in itself. Truth, of course, is unique, eternal, unchangeable, and absolute. The Bible, however, is not the truth itself, but a textbook teaching the truth. Naturally, the quality of teaching and the method and extent of giving the truth must vary according to each age, for the truth is given to people of different ages, who are at different spiritual and intellectual levels. Therefore, we must not regard the textbook as absolute in every detail (cf. Part I, Ch. 3, Sec. V--129)."

Although the religions of the past have done many good things for the people of the world, they have not been able to build an ideal world as purposed by God. There are to be mentioned several reasons for this.

The Divine Principle book of Sun Myung Moon lists two main causes for the failure of religion. First there is the inability of religion to unite the internal and external world, the world of essence and that of phenomenons, the spiritual world and the physical world. A second and related cause mentioned is that there hasn't been a logical proof for religious doctrine, and religion could not explain or always unite with the findings of science. To overcome these problems, a new truth must come to solve these problems, according to the Divine Principle of Sun Myung Moon.

Here i wish to focus on what is the essence of faith. All religions that are centered on God the Creator expect that their believers have faith in God. It is through faith in God the Creator that we can advance in our spiritual development. Also the Divine Principle book is stating this, see later chapters.

Of course there are also religions that do not recognize God the Creator, or who place God the Creator along in a line of other revered deities. Religions that recognize God as the Creator do however expect each believer to have faith in God in a personal relationship.

There are many examples of central figures of faith who lived in the past in a time that science was not yet developed as much as in the present time. These religious individuals stand today as models for us to follow. For example in the Judeo-Christian realm there are such men as Noah, Abraham, Jacob, David, Elijah, Jesus, Francis of Assisi. All these central figures of faith, all being men of stature on different levels in their own frame of time, have taught us the meaning of faith.

What is faith? Can faith be acquired by understanding and knowledge first of all? Faith always comes from having a personal relationship to God. Noah built the ark because he obeyed God's will. Noah did not know that it was going to rain for a long time. It were not knowledge and understanding that formed his faith. In fact, from the viewpoint of knowledge, many people around him who based their judgment on what were reasonable from a human point of view, did persecute Noah. All people who received a central mission in God's world have gone through similar persecution from people who could not understand with their logical mind.

Although true scientific findings will always be in accordance with true religious principles (which are not the same as religious dogmas) we never come to a close relationship with God through our understanding firstly. A person of faith reaches heights of spirituality through his faith in God, that is faith in doing God's will as revealed to him or her personally. From doing God's will, from having faith, understanding can be built up about the phenomenal world in accordance with scientific discoveries.

Such kind of faith is based on God's love for that person and on that person's love for God. A person of faith wants to do God's will out of love, not because he or she understands or can logically deduct that this somehow will work out the best.

Always in our lives of faith we are placed again and again in situations in which we cannot see our future, we cannot reason it ahead of time, we just feel compelled to do what we know God wants us to do. It is only later, after having done God's will, that we understand that God's will was really the best for us, and was in accordance with external developments which occured.

When Jacob left his home being threatened by his brother Esau, Jacob could not know what his future would be. It was his faith in God while working for his uncle Laban for a few decades that taught him that it was good to obey God's will. He could not know this in advance as he did not know how God was going to work with him. He could not foresee that God would make him the ancestor of a people of Israel whom God would make into a tribe and a nation as the center of God's Providence.

The main problem therefore that has befallen on religions of the past is that many of its central figures have not lived a true life of faith, but instead lived acoording to dead dogmas. This problem cannot be solved entirely by the uniting of religion and science. It is my conviction that when people really are doing God's will, God will reveal truth to them that is in accordance with true scientific findings. The unity of good religion and good science will come about as a logical result from the lives of people living in faith in the only God the Creator.

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The Divine Principle 3: General Introduction - Christianity unable to overcome its internal division and immorality, and communism

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Icon depicting the First Council of Nicaea

Text from Divine Principle, General Introduction, third set of paragraphs:

"Let us study the history of Christianity. For nearly 2,000 years Christianity grew, professed the salvation of mankind, and established worldwide dominion. But what has become of the Christian spirit which cast forth such a brilliant light of life that, even in the days of persecution under the Roman Empire, Romans were brought to their knees before the crucified Jesus? Medieval feudal society buried this Christianity alive. Yet, even in its grave, the torch of Christian religious reformation still shone out against the engulfing darkness of that age. It could not, however, turn back the tide of those dark days.

When ecclesiastic love expired, when the surging desire for material wealth swept the society of Europe and countless millions of starving masses shouted bitterly in the industrial slums, the promise of salvation came not from heaven but from earth. Its name was communism. Christianity, though it professed God's love, had turned out to be in reality a dead body of clergy trailing empty slogans. It was then only natural that a banner of revolt would be raised against a seemingly merciless God. Christian society became the hotbed of materialism. Absorbing fertilizer from this soil, communism, the foremost materialist ideology, has grown rapidly and unchecked.

Christianity lost its capacity to surpass the practice of communism and has not been able to present a truth which overcomes communist theory. Christians watch communism grow within their own midst, expanding its dominion over the world. Although they teach and believe that all men are descendants of the same parents, many Christians do not like to sit with brothers and sisters of different skin color. This is a representative example of today's Christianity, which is deprived of the life force needed to practice the word of Christ.

There may come a day when such social tragedies will end, but there is one social vice which is beyond the control of many men and women today. That is adultery. Christian doctrine holds this sin to be the greatest of all sins. What a tragedy that today's Christian society cannot halt this degradation, into which so many people today are rushing blindly.

What these realities mean to us is that Christianity today is in a state of confusion. Split by the chaotic tide of the present generation, it is unable to do anything for the lives of the people who have been drawn into today's whirlpool of immorality. Is Christianity unable to achieve God's promise of salvation for the present era of mankind? Why have men of religion thus far been unable to fulfill their missions even though they have struggled desperately and devotedly in pursuit of internal truth?"

From the earliest beginning until today many Christians have thought Jesus to be God Himself. Some argue that this was already believed in certain ways by John, Paul and early Christian writers like Polycarp of Smyrna and Irenaeus. See for example the arguments as shown in this article.

At the first Council of Nicaea in what today is Turkey in 325 AD, which is believed to be the first Ecumenical Council, one of the topics which the gathered Christian bishops had to agree upon was a question of Christology. Here the notion was rejected brought forward by the priest Arius of Alexandria. The Arians believed that God the Father and Jesus the Son were different and that the Son, though he may be the most perfect of creations, was only a creation of God the Father.

The First Council of Nicaea (Wikipedia):

"The Council declared that the Father and the Son are of the same substance and are co-eternal, basing the declaration in the claim that this was a formulation of traditional Christian belief handed down from the Apostles. This belief was expressed in the Nicene Creed."

However there is other evidence that the first apostles and many early Christian writers did not believe Jesus to be God. For example, Mark did not believe Jesus to have unlimited knowledge like God has. According to Mark 13:32 (KJV), Jesus said:

“But of that day and that hour no man knows, no, not the angels who are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.”

The same article also quotes the Church Father Tertullian (ca. 160 - ca. 220 AD) as believing that God, the Father, was superior to Jesus:

“... the Son differs from the Father ... it is not by division that He is different, but by distinction; because the Father is not the same as the Son, since they differ one from the other in the mode of their being. For the Father is the entire substance, but the Son is a derivation and portion of the whole, as He Himself acknowledges: ‘My Father is greater than I.’ In the Psalm {Psalm 7:5} His inferiority is described as being ‘a little lower than the angels.’ Thus the Father is distinct from the Son, being greater than the Son, inasmuch as He who begets is one, and He who is begotten is another; He, too, who sends is one, and He who is sent is another; and He, again, who makes is one, and He through whom the thing is made is another.”

Where did the belief come from that Jesus were God? Jesus was born as a Jew and in that religion, nobody thought that a human being could be God.

According to this article 'The Origins of Christianity and the Bible' by Andrew D. Benson:

"Diaspora Jews referred to God as "the Father." Those Jews believed God is one person. They believed only the Father is God. Had Paul preached Jesus is God, he would have been forbidden from preaching in Diaspora synagogues. “… he {Paul} began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, ‘He is the Son of God.’ … But Saul {Paul} kept increasing in strength and confounding the Jews who lived at Damascus by proving that this Jesus is the Christ.” (Acts 9:20, 22 NASB) Paul proved that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, not God. The terms “Son of God,” “Messiah” and “Christ” were synonymous terms, which were commonly used in Israel in those days. The Jews used the terms “Son of God” and “Christ” to refer to their awaited Messiah, whom they expected to be a mere man."

The belief that a man like Jesus could be or would have to be God came from pagan origins. Nations surrounding the old Israel like Babylonia, Egypt, Greece and the Roman Empire all were known for their many deities. Often historical figures in these cultures who were seen as having had extraordinary or sacred lives on earth, later were worshiped as deities.

To worship a human being as a god means to deny that the Creator is the only God. It puts saints and idolgods in the place of the Creator or in-between man and the Creator. Thus the direct relationship with God that was still normal for Old-Testament central figures like Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David and many prophets has become an unreachable ideal for many Christians.

Here lies the real cause of the inability of Christian religion to make victory over materialist ideologies such as that of the Roman Empire and later communism. Without having a direct relationship to God we cannot understand the essence of life to be an eternal spiritual existence and we are vulnerable to be deceived by evil spirits and to overvalue the meaning of the physical existence.

Communists have advanced their causes above those of Christianity by accusing them to have immoral and adulterous societies and to be unjustly dividing material wealth. It is only possible to overcome such accusations when religious people are really finding back to an original and individual direct relationship to God the Creator. Only our deep love for and direct relationship with God can give us the strength to overcome the temptations of free sex, external power and material wealth.

Sources quoted in this article

• http://www.cogwriter.com/jesusgod.htm - Jesus is God, But Was Made Man (by COGwriter)

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Council_of_Nicaea - The First Council of Nicaea (Wikipedia)

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arius - Arius (Wikipedia)

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicene_Creed - The Nicene Creed (Wikipedia)

• http://www.prudentialpublishing.info/ - The Origins of Christianity and the Bible (by Andrew D. Benson)

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The Divine Principle 2: General introduction - External and internal ignorance

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Text from Divine Principle, General Introduction, second set of paragraphs:

To the grief of mankind, the ultimate solution to the problem of good and evil has not yet been reached. Regarding the doctrines of theism and atheism, if one of the two should be judged good, the other must be evil. Yet we have not reached a theory of an absolute nature concerning the problem of good and evil. Moreover, men and women remain entirely ignorant of the answers to many fundamental questions, such as: What is the original mind, the source of good desire? What was the origin of the wicked mind, which caused evil desire? What was the fundamental cause of the fall which permitted man to embody such a contradiction? Before being able to lead a good life by following the good desire of the original mind and repelling evil desire, it is necessary to overcome ignorance and be able to distinguish between good and evil.

Seen from the viewpoint of knowledge, the human fall signifies man's descent into the darkness of ignorance. Since man consists of two aspects, internal and external, or spiritual and physical, there are also two aspects of knowledge, internal and external, and two aspects of ignorance, internal and external.

Internal ignorance, in the religious sense, means spiritual ignorance; that is, ignorance of the answers to such questions as: What is man's origin? What is the purpose of his life? Do God and the next world exist? What are good and evil?

External ignorance is ignorance of physical reality; that is, ignorance concerning the natural world, which includes the human body; also, ignorance of such questions as: What is the basis of the material world? According to which natural laws do all physical phenomena occur?

From the earliest dawn of history to the present, men have constantly and earnestly searched for the truth with which to overcome this ignorance and restore the light of knowledge. Man has struggled to discover internal truth through the way of religion. Science has been the path taken toward the discovery of external truth.

Religion and science have been the methods of searching for the two aspects of truth, in order to overcome the two aspects of ignorance and restore the two aspects of knowledge. The day must come when religion and science advance in one united way, so that man may enjoy eternal happiness, completely liberated from ignorance and directed toward goodness, which is what the original mind desires. Then, mutual understanding will occur between the two aspects of truth, the internal and the external.

Man has been approaching a solution to the fundamental questions of life by following two different courses. The first course is to search for the solution within the material world. Those who take this route think it to be the sublime path. They yield to science, taking pride in its omnipotence, and seek material happiness. However, can man enjoy full happiness when he limits his search to external material conditions centered upon the physical body? Science may create a pleasant social environment in which man can enjoy the utmost in wealth, but is such an environment able to satisfy the spiritual desire of the inner man?

The passing joys of the man who delights in the pleasures of the flesh are nothing when compared to the happiness experienced by a devout man of God. Gautama Buddha, who left the glory of the royal palace, was not the only one who has taken the long journey of life in pursuit of the Way. His goal was man's lost home--his status before the fall, his permanent domicile--although he did not know where it was. Just as a man becomes whole and sane when his mind is in harmony with his body, so it is with joy. The joy of the body becomes whole and sane when it is in harmony with the joy of the mind.

What is the destiny of science? Until now, scientific research has not embraced the internal world of cause, but only the external world of result; not the world of essence, but only the world of phenomena. Today science is entering a higher dimension; it is no longer concerned exclusively with the external world of result and phenomena, but has begun to examine the internal world of cause and essence as well. Those who have taken the path of science are concluding that, without the truth that relates to the spiritual world of cause; that is, the internal truth, man cannot attain the ultimate purpose of science; that is, the discovery of the external truth, which pertains to the external world of result.

A sailor making a voyage on the sea of the material world under the sail of science in search of the pleasures of the flesh may reach the coast of his ideal, but he will soon find it to be nothing more than a graveyard to hold his flesh. But when the sailor who has completed his voyage in search of external truth under the sail of science comes into contact with the sea-route to internal truth, under the sail of religion, he will be able to end his voyage in the ideal world, which is the goal of the original mind's desire.

The second course of human endeavor has been directed toward solving the fundamental questions of life in the essential world of "cause". Philosophy and religion, which have gone this way, have made substantial contributions. On the other hand, both philosophy and religion have been saddled with many spiritual burdens. In their own times, philosophers and saints have pioneered the way of life, but their deeds have often resulted in placing added burdens on the people of the present era.

Consider the matter objectively. Has there ever been a philosopher who was able to end human misery? Has there ever been a saint who has clearly shown us the way of life? The principles and ideologies presented to mankind so far have given rise to skepticism; they have created many themes which need to be untangled, and numerous problems to be solved. The lights of revival with which the great religions illuminated their respective ages have faded out with the ebb of the age, leaving only dim, sputtering wicks glimmering in the falling darkness.

The truth that we all are searching, comes from God the Creator. All truth comes from God, that is internal truth as pursued in the realm of religion and external truth as sought by scientists. It is by overcoming ignorance on both the external level and internal level that we can learn to conduct our lives well.

The problem of evil, however, cannot be overcome only by learning the truth. The problem of evil is one of self-centeredness that is rooted in our heart of desires and that is also perpetuated by influences from the realms of evil spirits. Whatever truth we learn and understand, there is still the path to go of practicing God’s Will by expressing our heart of good desires through our mind and actions. When we attempt to do this, we are confronted not only with the evil desires that are rooted in our own self, we also need to overcome wrong influences from the spiritual world, as these come to us directly or through people around us.

Neither religions nor sciences of the past have managed to teach us how to build an entirely ideal world. Religions and science have followed diverse and often contradicting paths, but there are reasons for this.

On the one hand, scientists often have pursued paths of knowledge that only concerned the physical or material world. Many of them have denied the existence of God and of the spiritual world and they also often have neglected the working of the inner heart and mind. On the other hand, religions have often been restrained by the demand of their authorities to believe in certain rules and principles in a dogmatic way. Another problem in many religions is the belief in deities, competing with the only one and true God the Creator. Yet another difficulty of religions is that many of them have been more or less under the control of dark angels who posed as if ‘angels of light.’

It will therefore not be easy to bring back both religion and science under the banner of the only God the Creator. Although we can learn much that is good from science and from many religions, there also is the necessity to sort out what is not good. It is only true religion that can be united with true science.

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The Divine Principle 1: General introduction - The contradiction in man of good and evil desire

Good and evil

Text from Divine Principle, General Introduction, first set of paragraphs:

Everyone, without exception, is struggling to gain happiness. The first step in attaining this goal is to overcome present unhappiness. From small individual affairs to history-making global events, everything is an expression of human lives, which are constantly striving to become happier. How, then, can happiness be attained?

Every person feels happy when his desire is fulfilled. The word "desire" however, is apt to be misinterpreted. This is because everyone is now living in circumstances which can drive desire in the direction of evil rather than in the direction of goodness. The desire which results in unrighteousness does not come from the "original mind of man"; that is, one's inmost self which delights in the law of God. The path to happiness is reached by overcoming the desire which leads to evil and by following the desire which pursues goodness. Man's original mind knows that evil desire will lead only to unhappiness and misery. This is the reality of human life: man gropes in the shadow of death as he searches for the light of life.

Has any man, by pursuing evil desire, been able to find the happiness in which his original mind could take delight? The answer is no. Whenever man attains the object of evil desire, he feels conscience-stricken. Would parents teach their children to do evil, or a teacher instruct his students to pursue unrighteousness? Again the answer must be no. It is the nature of man's original mind to hate evil and to exalt goodness.

In the lives of religious men we can see an intense and relentless struggle to attain goodness by following the desire of the original mind only. Yet, since the beginning of time, no man has completely followed his original mind. For this reason the Bible says, "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands, no one seeks for God." (Rom. 3:10-11).

The apostle Paul, who was faced with such wretchedness of heart, said in lamentation, "For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am!" (Rom 7:22-24).

There is a great contradiction in man. Within the same individual, the power of the original mind, which desires goodness, is at violent war against the power of the wicked mind, which desires evil. All life, all matter is doomed to destruction as long as it contains such a contradiction. Every man who contains such a contradiction within himself lives on the brink of destruction.

Can it be that man was created with such a contradiction? The answer again is no. Nothing could ever have been created with such an inherent contradiction. The contradiction, therefore, must have developed in man after the creation. In Christianity, we call this development the "Fall of Man".

Due to his fall, man is always near the point of destruction. For this reason, he makes a desperate effort to remove the contradiction by following the good desire of his original mind and repelling the evil desire of his wicked mind.

There is a contradiction in man. This essentially is the contradiction between the desire to do good and the desire to be self-centered. This contradiction is plaguing every single person. The desires of our heart are torn between wanting to do good and wishing to take it easy and to pursue selfish goals.

Each person who is honestly researching the depth of his or her heart will recognize this inconsistency. There is in each individual the original mind who wants to do good, but there also is the mind that wants to do wrong.

At the deepest level this contradiction must be sought at the level of the heart of love and desires. It is in our heart where we desire to do good and where we also desire to do what is wrong. Our thoughts and feelings result from these desires.

The problem needs to be solved at the level of heart and desires, otherwise the mind and body will always again be infected and polluted by their source, which is to be sought in the motivation why we do things.

The problem of evil can only be solved when it is done at this deepest level of desires and motivation. We could say that this level can be found in the human heart. It is through our heart that we relate to God the Creator, but it is also through our heart that we may connect to evil desires.

These evil or self-centered desires do not come from the Creator. They come from sources or a source that is called 'Satan' in many religions. Satan is thought to be a spiritual being, or better said: 'Satan is a word that refers to the combined force of evil as generated by all beings living in the spiritual world who deviated from God's ways.' Although these influences from 'Satan' do originate in the spiritual realms, they also have their effects and working in the physical world.

The problem of selfish motivation can be studied in the heart, mind and body of man, and it can also be understood on a spiritual level. One main reason why it is so difficult to overcome the tendency to be selfish is that it again and again is stimulated and reinforced by evil spiritual influences.

The contradiction between good and evil in ourselves is apparent. It needs to be solved in order that we all can attain our happiness as purposed for us by God the Creator. The problem must be solved in ourselves by investigating and cleansing our heart of desires, our mind of feelings and thoughts and our body of actions. It is also necessary to solve these problems at a spiritual level by overcoming the influences that come to us from egoistic spiritual forces.

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Do you understand the spiritual fall?

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Based on the Divine Principle book that is the main teaching of the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of Worldwide Christianity (HSA-UWC, otherwise known as Unification Church), followers of Sun Myung Moon believe the fall of man to have taken place in two stages. The first stage was the spiritual fall, which was an illicit spiritual relationship between the archangel Lucifer and Eve. The second stage was the physical fall, which was a premature sexual relationship between Eve and Adam.

Here i am going to explain in more detail what the spiritual fall exactly means. Understanding of both the spiritual and the physical fall is rather limited for many followers of Moon. They tend to see the spiritual fall as a kind of unusual relationship that could hardly happen to them, and they see the physical fall mainly or even exclusively as a physical sexual relationship that could only take place between people who are not married or blessed under God.

The truth is that the spiritual fall is very widespread among most people, and that the physical fall entails more than just an illegitimate sexual relationship.

What is spiritual fall?

Spiritual fall can be seen as any give and take between two spirits that is not centered on God. There are many degrees of spiritual fall. A full spiritual fall would mean a full spiritual union between two spirits not centered on God. But spiritual fall can also take place when there is not yet a full union of spirits.

Why do i speak about spirits here and what do i mean with that? Spiritual fall can take place between spirits dwelling in the spirit world. It can however also take place between a spirit dwelling in a body in the physical world and a spirit in spirit world. And it can even take place between two spirits who are both living in their bodies in the physical world.

The essence of the fall, wether spiritual or physical, always is a sharing of love that is not centered on God. You are calling that love 'false love' distinguishing it from 'true love' which is God's love.

Do you realize that if you make friendship with another person who is egoistic, you exchange love with that person? Through the exchange of false love selfish elements are transfered from one person to the other. These selfish elements don't come from God and they make trouble to your spiritual life.

There are many degrees of spiritual fall. All spiritual fall starts with what i would call 'internal fall.' In that early stage of spiritual fall, evil desires and emotions and thoughts are exchanged between two people. How must this be understood? If a person near to you is for example angry in a bad way, you could pick up his or her emotions. Such emotions, which can be of many different kinds, are brought to you in the form of energy. If you don't keep your heart and mind centered on God in such a situation, you might become influenced by these emotions. If these emotions are wrong, not centered on God, you already are engaging in the first stage of spiritual fall.

In further stages such type of fall can develop until a sort of spiritual completion of the spiritual fall.

In case that an evil spirit attacks you from the spiritual world, either by accusations or temptations, you can come under influence. This is why we always need to be aware of the spiritual atmosphere and the spiritual entities around us. You don't need to be able to see spirits or speak to them to come under the influence of emotions and love of spirits. Always when such love, desire and emotions are not centered on God, there is the danger for the beginning of a spiritual fall.

In the completion of the spiritual fall between the evil archangel and Eve, there was a full union of the spirit bodies.

The physical fall

When we understand how the spiritual fall works, we realize that each physical fall also always is a spiritual fall. When two bodies touch each other in unwanted sexual behavior, in those bodies there are spirits. There cannot be physical fall without a spiritual aspect.

This means that physical fall doesn't necessarily need to imply full sex. A beginning stage of physical fall can also already take place by holding hands, for example. I am not trying to say that holding hands has to be dangerous. But each physical contact between two people could lead to fall in case there is simultaneously taking place a spiritual fall in whatever stage.

To think that the fall always and only takes place in unwanted sex means to lose your awareness for how fall really takes place, especially in the spiritual sense.

Conclusion

The discovery of Reverend Moon about the fall being a sexually illicit relationship in two stages, spiritual and physical, is a most meaningful one. Yet when we understand what is written above, it is also clear that it is not easy to know how fall really takes place. We need to have deep understanding of the spiritual reality and of how energies of false love and desire can flow between two beings.

There is much danger in the thought that when your marriage has been accepted by God, you could not fall anymore with your spouse.For example, if your spouse has come under influence from evil spirits, you need to keep some spiritual and physical distance until the problem is solved.

Only when you have your personal relationship to God, when you are sure that God in each situation is with you and speaks to you, you can trust yourself to do what is right. You cannot just assume that because Rev. Moon has blessed you, you would be safe.

Notes about the comments nrs. 1, 2, and 3 and 7 below of Christofferwitt

I am publishing his comments for now, not because i agree with him but because i think that what he writes tells something about what has happened to the Unification Church.
There's a lot of spiritual confusion due to inability to deal with the spiritual world.
You may think that this person has nothing to do with the Unification Church, but fact is that he gets revelations about Mr. Moon, from spiritual entities who are both deceiving and confusing and who have to do with the Unification Church.
When you follow Mr. Moon, you have to deal with such a reality and find how to master it, rather than simply rejecting it as pure nonsense.

I replied to each of Christofferwitt's comments. My replies are the comments nrs. 4, 5, 6 & 8.

Demystifying the concept of indemnity

'Indemnity' is a concept widely used and, unfortunately misused by Sun Myung Moon and many of his followers. Let's have a look at how this concept is defined in the Unification Church, how it has been misused and what it originally should mean.

Indemnity as explained in Moon's Divine Principle

Here are first some quotes from the main teaching of the Unification Church, the Divine Principle (black-book edition).

"What, then, does "restoration through indemnity" mean? When anything has lost its original position or status, certain conditions must be established in order for the original position or status to be restored. The setting up of such conditions is called "indemnity". For example, in order to restore lost honor, position, or health, we must set up the necessary conditions of sincere efforts, good qualification, and sufficient medical care. Suppose there are two people who have loved each other but who are now on bad terms. In order for them to restore the original state of loving each other, they have to set up the condition of apologizing to each other.

In like manner, man, who lost the original position or status endowed at the creation, must set up certain necessary conditions in order to restore himself. This act of restoring the original position or status endowed at the creation is called "restoration through indemnity". The condition to be set up for restoration through indemnity is called the "condition of indemnity". "

And further on:

"Who must set up the condition of indemnity? As already clarified in the principle of creation, man originally was to dominate even the angels, after having perfected himself by fulfilling his own portion of responsibility. The first human ancestors failed to do so, and, in reverse manner, fell under Satan's domination. Therefore, in order for man to be restored to the position of dominating Satan from the position of being under Satan's domination, man himself must set up the due condition of indemnity by fulfilling his own portion of responsibility."

Here you find the original text.

How is the concept of indemnity being misused?

"Indemnity" is defined as the conditions that must be set up for the restoration of the original position or status of someone or something. The concept is linked to the Unification Church's understanding of how God's ideal can be restored. In order to restore God's original ideal, a course of restoration must be gone. On this road, conditions are necessary to reinstall the ideal situation.

I don't see much of a problem until here, but some darkness seems to be surrounding the sentences above:

"Suppose there are two people who have loved each other but who are now on bad terms. In order for them to restore the original state of loving each other, they have to set up the condition of apologizing to each other."

We have to ask ourselves if apologies are sufficient to restore a broken love relationship. Let me give the following example. Suppose that a boy broke a window of his neighbor. Let's say he kicked a ball through the window to show off to his friends. Would it be enough for the boy to later apologize to the neighbor? There are a number of problems here that the boy has. One problem is that he let himself be influenced by friends. Another problem is that he broke the window. And a third problem is that he broke the friendly relationship with the neighbor. A deeper problem still is that he is going to feel guilty in relationship to God.

Common sense tells us that the boy doesn't only need to apologize. For a full restoration of the situation, he needs to overcome being influenced by friends, he needs to restore the broken window, he needs to restore the good relationship to the neighbor, and, most importantly, he needs to restore his love relationship to God.

Forgiveness can come in at this point when the neighbor forgives the boy. But what good would this do to the boy if he would not also overcome his tendency to be influenced by friends? How can the boy be sure that he won't do something similar again in a new situation?

For the boy to restore trust in himself, much more is needed than just 'forgiveness.' Even if he were forgiven, he needs to come in a similar situation once again, and then not repeat the same mistake. Only after this, after being forgiven and after having proved to himself and to God that he is a different person, restoration has taken place. And of course.... also the broken window needs to be repaired!

The Divine Principle book tells us this by saying:

"Therefore, in order for man to be restored to the position of dominating Satan from the position of being under Satan's domination, man himself must set up the due condition of indemnity by fulfilling his own portion of responsibility."

This sentence can mean nothing else than that you or i need to restore our own mistakes. Forgiveness given by God or by others can help us to restore our mistakes, but doesn't extinguish the need for ourselves to go through a process of restoration.

But in the Unification Church, it is now widely stated by Moon and believed by many followers that Moon were capable of paying huge amounts of indemnity, so that people don't really need to restore themselves anymore. They just need to accept Moon's supposedly great deeds of paying indemnity for them, accept Moon as their Messiah, and all would be in good order.

That just doesn't make any sense. How could what Moon does restore your personal relationship to God? Moon is not God. How could what Moon does restore your good relationship to fellow man after you have hurt that relationship by bad deeds? All these things cannot be restored through indemnity paid by Moon.

What should indemnity originally mean?

In order to clarify all the confusion, i would propose a slightly different concept: 'restoration through correction.'

Whatever was done wrong, whatever got lost, it needs to be restored through a process of correcting all the mistakes. This needs to be done by each individual. Even if you may get help from others, through their forgiveness or help in other ways, you still need to correct your own heart, your own mind, your own body. You need to restore your own relationship to God. This can only be done by working through all the problems that you have in that relationship.

You need to restore all the problems that came in your relationship to other people. This cannot be done by you alone. It needs your effort but also the efforts of those other people, or by people replacing them but standing in a similar position.