Reverend Moon's prescription for peace is nothing less than the restoration of God's ideal of creation. The Bible relates that God's ideal for humankind began with one man and one woman. If they had reached maturity then they would have been the visible manifestation of God and the beginning of a God-centered family, nation and world. Since God's ideal is unchanging, then the key to world peace must be to restore the family that was lost in the fall of the first human ancestors.

From Blessing and Ideal Family, New York, NY: HSA Publications, 1993.

When the Bible says that God sought to create human beings in "His own image," this means that the invisible God wanted to manifest Himself into a visible form. In other words, men and women would have become the personifications of God.

If the first man and woman had realized the ideal of God, they would have become the first visible form of God and created the first family.

Then God-centered children and grandchildren would have formed an ideal society, nation and world. In this case the invisible God would become the vertical True Parents of mankind centering upon true love, and the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, would have become the horizontal True Parents of mankind centering upon that same true love.

Centered upon these True Parents of mankind, humanity would have become one family eternally fulfilling true brotherhood.

Reverend Moon equates God's ideal with world peace, and since the union of men and women of mature love is central to God's ideal, then it is also central to a world of peace.

Most people want for themselves and their children a good and lasting marriage, because marriage plays an important role in their quest for meaning, happiness and fulfillment.

Marriage also has social, economic and biological functions, with accompanying duties and responsibilities. Marriage is the most basic and universal social institution, charged with the central responsibility for raising children and caring for family members.

Marriage often marks the rite of passage from adolescence into adulthood. In traditional cultures marriage is not an individual matter, because it merges two family lineages. Through marriage, people acquire obligations to a community and network of relatives.

Marriage marks a person's vertical and horizontal position in the social fabric. The important role of marriage in a healthy society has therefore received widespread acknowledgement.

From The Path to World Peace in View of God's Will, New York, NY, October 20, 2001.

Then, where is the path to ... realize peace on Earth? There is but one fundamental way, and it is simple. It is to restore the family that the first human ancestors lost; that is, the ideal family of God. That is the family with God at its center, the family that has achieved perfection in true love both vertically and horizontally.

God exists as the Original Being of true love and the invisible True Parent of humankind. However, love cannot exist alone. It exists in relationships and it can bear fruit only through relationships.

That is why we were created as God's children, through whom He sought to realize His true love.

Reverend Moon also promotes marriage as the key element in realizing the fullness of life and thus experiencing happiness, health and longevity. In this, he is endorsed by scholarly opinion. There is significant evidence that healthy, lasting marriages bring many benefits to husband, wife and children. Studies have indicated that married people tend to live longer, have fewer illnesses and recover more quickly than people without a supportive life partner.

Moreover, married people experience greater psychological health; they have lower rates of severe depression and report higher levels of personal happiness than the general population. Married couples are more secure financially than single people, are better able to handle the ups and downs of life, and are more productive in the workplace. Furthermore, children of married parents stand a better chance of becoming happy, successful adults with stable marriages of their own.

As noted in volume two entitled "The Ideal Family as the School of Love and the Foundation of the Ideal Society," Reverend Moon describes the relationships in the family as a sphere with three different axes, and marriage is the vital axis in that sphere.

The vertical axis represents the sequence of generations: grandparents, parents, children and grandchildren. These are vertical relationships. There are two horizontal axes, one representing relationships among elder and younger siblings, and the other representing the relationship between husband and wife. Marriage is a unique and exclusive relationship, not meant to be shared with anyone else. Relationships on the husband/ wife axis are complementary and equal.

Reverend Moon emphasizes that the husband/wife axis is the only proper context for sexual love. When introduced into other relationships, sex releases destructive forces.

Sexual relations are reserved exclusively for the horizontal axis of two equal counterparts of the opposite sex who are totally committed to one another. Furthermore, their responsibilities are not merely horizontal but extend vertically toward the previous and future generations.

From Blessing and Ideal Family, New York, NY: HSA Publications, 1993.

For what reason do we marry? It is in order to fulfill the ideal of creation, that is, to realize the purpose of creation. Then, whose purpose is this purpose of creation? Before it is the purpose of Adam, it is the purpose of God. Therefore, before Adam feels happy, God has to feel happy.

It has to be like this. Then, in this respect, for whom do we get married? It is for God, and for God's will, which is the purpose of creation.

God's will is to fulfill the ideal of creation.

The ideal of creation cannot be realized centering on oneself. All my heart should unite with God who is the subject; when God moves, I should move, and when God is still, I should be still, too.

We should become united internally and externally, centering on a heartistic point of unity. Therefore, unless we set up a base to harmonize with God, we are not able to realize the purpose of creation.

The reason I am getting married is not only for myself but is also for my spouse. What does it mean to get married for the sake of your spouse more than yourself? As everything in the universe is formed according to the principle of subject and object, for man and woman to get married is also a rule in the universe.

If man is on the right side, woman becomes the left side in order to form a horizontal relationship with the universe. If man is the subject, then woman becomes the object in order to form a vertical, upper and lower relationship with God. Therefore, marriage is not for the sake of just man or just woman.

We have to get married in order to follow the heavenly law. This is why man and woman have different aspects. They are born that way in order to match with the heavenly law.

Man is born to meet woman and woman is born to meet man. And man and woman together are born to combine with a higher level of love, which is God's love. Neither man nor woman can touch God's love alone.

If a man or a woman alone tried to unite with God's love, it would just be a one-sided love. Neither one would be able to combine with a three-dimensional, spherical love. Therefore, man and woman must get married in order to jump into the realm of a higher-level three-dimensional love.

In the original world, the more man and woman become united, the greater the center of the activating power becomes, forming a sphere. Therefore, the more man and woman connect horizontally, the more God, who is the maternal womb of the vertical power of love, becomes connected.

Then our mind and body become united.

With true love in the center, people in all six positions -- parents, children, elder sibling, younger sibling, husband and wife -- live for their counterparts. Equality in the family is realized as each person receives the optimal love according to his or her role in the family.

As explained in the presentation on "The Ideal Family as the School of Love and the Foundation of Ideal Society," Reverend Moon teaches that we grow through four interrelated realms of heart: the child's realm, the sibling's realm, the spouse's realm and the parent's realm.

Marriage is uniquely significant in that we can experience the intersection of all four realms of heart within the marriage relationship and complete any areas that were not developed in childhood. Sometimes the husband will show a fatherly love to his wife, while at other times he may act as a child to receive her motherly love. Like brother and sister, they may have fun together and support each other. Thus, marriage has the potential to be a psychologically healing and transforming experience.

From The Path to World Peace in View of God's Will, New York, NY, October 20, 2001.

The first human ancestors were to have grown to maturity as the children of God.

After having reached perfection, as one with God in heart, they were to have become true husband and wife. Then, they were to have become substantial true parents to their children, inheriting and passing on true love, true life and true lineage from God.

As such, God's ideal of creation was to perfect true love both vertically and horizontally, beginning in the first family of our common ancestors. Since God's love is absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal, that family also was to have become the absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal family, centered on true love.

Human beings would have become substantial embodiments of love, totally united with God in heart. They would have enjoyed perfect freedom, happiness and the realization of all ideals.

Through marriage, people establish a new extension of the continuity that encompasses ancestors and descendants. Each family is a link in the chain of human history.

Reverend Moon often asks rhetorically what families are meant to inherit from generation to generation. Wealthy families could give an inheritance of money or property to their descendants. A family proud of its knowledge or social position might be able to pass that on to their children. Yet, we can acquire money, power and knowledge by our own effort. We would not need a family to obtain those things.

The only thing that would be hard to obtain without a family is the experience of true love. Without the family experiences of loving and being loved, an individual will find it difficult to reach out to a spouse and create the experiences of trust and intimacy needed for true love.

Therefore, the most important legacy husband and wife can give to their children is the experience of true love, the tradition of husband and wife totally committed to each other and living for the sake of each other and their children. Parents give their children life, they give them their lineage, and most importantly, they give them their love.

From Original Family and Blessed Family Belvedere Estate, Tarrytown, NY, October 1, 1995.

Whilst Adam and Eve only received the love of God, Adam and Eve's children were to receive love from their parents, Adam and Eve, as well as from God. That is the way the four position foundation could be established.

The position of grandparents represents the past, the position of parents represents the present and the children's position represents the future. Therefore, the hope of each family should be that the grandparents become kings, the parents become kings, and the children become kings. These all represent the different stages of past, present and future.

This is the textbook model upon which God based the family when He first created. Where there is fighting there is destruction. Those who experience the three different stages of kingship, and live their lives in service and love, can enter into the Kingdom of God in heaven. They can become the citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Reverend Moon describes love as being expressed in living for the sake of others.

By serving, an individual wins the trust, respect and love of others and eventually, the servant becomes a ruler. In a sense, marriage is love in its royal form. One's wedding is the coronation day in the life of a human being. Through marriage, people become part of a grand and magnificent design in life. There is a mystical dimension to our impulse for building a marriage that makes us uniquely human.

Around the world, a wedding is considered a sacred event and is marked, like birth and death, with ceremony. The new couple is considered a source of blessing to those around them, and the nobility of their dress and demeanor brings happiness and pride to all who are present.

Within the family, that sense of nobility should ideally be maintained through the respect, dignity and, most of all, the unconditional love of the parents. Reverend Moon expresses that idea in his concept of the Three Great Kingships in which past, present and future rulers are represented by the grandparents, parents and children respectively.

Thus the nobility of marriage confers the highest and most precious value to family relationships. Young children look upon their mother as the most beautiful, talented and intelligent woman in the world. They think their father is the strongest, wisest and most capable man in the world. In turn, parents think their children are beautiful, good and valuable beyond measure. The nobility of the family manifests itself in the nobility of love.