First of all, I began this inquiry into the Unificationist theory of the Fall of Man in order to get a clearer understanding of the Fall so that I could effect restoration with laser precision. What does that mean? It simply means that I wanted to discover the essence of the Fall so that I could focus on that essence and resolve the fundamental problem. For example, if sin is really removed by someone drinking "Holy Wine" then logically all we have to do is spike the local water supply and all people in that drinking area will have their sin removed. This is a comical example (thought some people do practice such a thing), but you can see what I mean. I will clarify further, later in this essay. In any case, knowing that we are on earth for a very short period of time, I wanted to do my utmost to advance restoration as I understood it. For this reason I sought to focus on what I felt were the essential aspects of the Unificationist world-view. Hence I focused on the accomplishment of the "3 Blessings", the overall purpose of creation and especially the theory of the Fall of man. These are the essential aspects of the Unificationist world-view. It is this world-view that directly guides the thoughts, beliefs, attitudes and actions of most Unification Church (UC) members.

As in many world-views, there is a description of the purpose of life, the cause of problems and the method for solving problems and reaching the ideal state of existence. For example, Karl Marx posited that the purpose of life was to achieve the communist state. This was a harmonious society where each person received whatever they needed according to their wants and desires. Such a life would be possible due to the super economic abundance achieved by collective labor. In Marx’s world-view, the reason why man had not achieved this ideal state was because of the existence of private property. Private property was the cause of all evil and the source of human suffering. The concept of private property alienated man from himself making him "fallen" man (to borrow a UC expression). The capitalist appropriated (took) the product of the labor of his workers and kept it for himself. In so doing he alienated his workers from the product of their work. It was Marx’s view of man that for man to be truly man he had to express and enjoy the product of his labor. However when the economic system of production allowed some men to take the product of the labor of other men, then such men lost their "species-essence" or lost the quality of being "true men". Marx also went on the theorize that all the institutions of society (religion, government, education and the media) were all directed at maintaining this unnatural, fallen state of affairs. To make a long story short, Marx viewed the cause of problems as the existence of private property. Naturally, based on that view, Marx believed that if private property were abolished and that the tools of economic production were owned and controlled by the public, then man would regain his true nature and be able to produce the ideal communal society which was Marx’s concept of the purpose of existence. Marx had a very fascinating theory. However in practice, we see that the theory did not produce the effects that it predicted. In science when a theory does not accurately predict and explain the phenomena it claims to explain, then that theory is either abandoned or modified in order to fit more closely to reality.

I mentioned all of this as a background for what I am about to discuss here. I majored in philosophy and feel myself uniquely in a position to examine beliefs from an ideological point of view, that is, I am trained to answer such questions as: "does a theory make sense?", "Does the theory accurately predict phenomena?", "Is the theory adequately supported by the facts?" I am also a potential law student and the life of a law student is intimately concerned with such issues on a day to day basis. So you can see my predisposition to engage in such an endeavor. (Translation: You can see why I like to think about such things.)

What we believe has a direct bearing on how we view the world around us. As such, our beliefs have a direct bearing on our attitudes, feelings, how we act and consequently the results we produce or do not produce in the physical world. Hence this was my first reason for investigating these topics, that is to gain a clearer understanding of reality so that I could fulfill my responsibility and produce good results.

My second reason for pursuing clearer knowledge about the theory of the Fall was due to my experience. I, along with a number of other UC members, felt in our hearts that something was not quite right with our UC experience. We knew the words of the Principle inspired us, but at the same time many aspects of our experience left us wondering if there really was a thing called "true love". Because I was not satisfied with what I saw as the practices of many UC members, I decided to investigate the belief system that was the source of such behavior. I wanted to understand what were the ideological elements that were producing such undesirable attitudes and behavior.

My third reason for investigating the UC theory of the Fall, was because I was not satisfied with who I was becoming as a person. Initially, I felt there were benefits to my association with the UC. I felt it the fulfillment of my life as a Christian. I felt UC members to be on a higher plane than Christianity since the UC world-view was so much more comprehensive and compelling. Yet over time I saw myself becoming more church-centered, elitist, racist and fanatical. I did not see a clear purpose to the UC anymore. It seemed as though we were only seeking recognition and worship from people. I did not see or feel true love in practice and the UC seemed to become as self-centered, church-centered and fundametalistic as any other Christian denomination. I became somewhat confused by the apparent contradictions between belief and practice. It is somewhat like how we criticized Christianity by saying….

"Christianity, though it professed God’s love, had turned out to be in reality a dead body of clergy trailing empty slogans." (Divine Principle, p. 6)

Had we too become the same? I think a significant portion of the membership has felt that we have.

Finally, the recent events such as the divorce of Nan Sook and Hyo Jin, Nan Sook’s subsequent book, "In the Shadow of the Moons", and the mysterious death of Young Jin has caused many of us to question, if not re-examine our faith to see if it is really as sound as we thought it was. Such realities ocurring in Rev. Moon’s family cannot be ignored.

For all of these reasons, I began to re-examine my beliefs. What did I believe? Why did I believe it? Did I have good reasons for holding these beliefs? What experiences were now calling these beliefs into question?

I am a man who seeks truth. I can not operate on falsehood. Falsehood brings pain to my mind, since I am accustomed to thinking logically. I need to know clearly. I need accurate and reliable knowledge.

Hence I will begin with the theory of the Fall of Man. I begin here because this theory seeks to explain why human beings act in undesirable ways. Likewise the theory advocates a method for solving this problem. If the Unification Church has successfully located the root of sin, then why are these problems still occurring in the movement and in Rev. Moon’s family? Hasn’t sin been clearly identified and removed? If so, why still the problems?

It is my assertion that the true root of sin has yet to be clearly elucidated.

Just as Karl Marx’s in error concerning his theory of human alienation lead to unfruitful practices so too, the theory of the Fall of man seems also to be in error and has lead to unfruitful practices. It is up to you to judge for yourself whether what I am about to say is true, for ultimately we are each responsible for what we believe.

I intend to demonstrate that what we commonly believed about the Fall of man is inaccurate at best and very dangerous at worst. The theory is inconsistent with the Divine Principle text as a whole and inconsistent with the facts of reality. I will offer a counter theory, which I find to make more sense and believe to be more accurate.

Let us begin. 

The entire Unificationist world-view is based on ideas from the Divine Principle. Central to the Unificationist world-view is the concept of the Fall of man and the origin of evil (or in other words, the explanation of how the archangel gained wrongful dominion over human beings and transferred his attitude and character into the minds of human beings, such that we would come to be known as "children of Satan" or "fallen man".)

Every Unificationist "knows" that the fall was about "illicit" sex. That illicit sexual desire and illicit sexual activity are the root of evil. We say that there was a spiritual sexual relationship between the angel and Eve (the spiritual fall) and a physical sexual relationship between Eve and Adam (the physical fall). During such genital copulation, special "elements" were transmitted. These elements are known as "original sin" elements. The Divine Principle text states…

"Additionally, they [Adam and Eve] developed a base of evil within themselves by receiving evil elements from the archangel. The evil element received from the fallen archangel is Original Sin." (Outline of the Principle, Level 4, p. 102)

This original sin element is supposedly responsible for the subsequent attitude, character and behavior change in human beings. It is the "hook" or "string" which Satan uses to indirectly control and influence human beings. It is the reason why our thinking and character resemble the angel and not God’s, for as the Divine Principle states:

"…fallen people are unconsciously driven to commit evil acts, contrary to the desires of their original mind. In Christianity, the one who controls this evil force is known as Satan." (Outline, p. 39)

Original sin element then is cited as the basis of our relationship with Satan. It is what must be removed from human beings in order for us to manifest our true, original nature. The DP textbook states:

"All sins originate with Original Sin, which is the root of all sins. Thus, man can not be finally cleansed of any sin without first being cleansed of Original Sin." (Outline, p. 51)

A number of questions then arise. For example, what exactly is the original sin element? Where did it come from? How did human beings get it? Where in the human body does it reside? How does it "make" us do the will of Satan? What is Satan’s will? How can Original Sin elements be removed? These are questions essential to the discussion of the Unificationist view of the Fall. These questions must be answered!

How then does the average Unificationist believe that these Original sin elements were transmitted to Adam and Eve? Very simply, through sexual intercourse or more specifically by the unprincipled sexual intercourse between Eve and the angel. Unificationist belief states that the angel is the origin of Original Sin and that he transmitted these elements to Eve through her spiritual vagina. This sexual intercourse allowed the Original Sin element to enter into her spiritual blood stream and eventually enter her spirit mind, where it took over her spirit mind like a virus, making her mind a slave to Satan. Somewhere along the line, this Original Sin element became a physical/genetic substance which Eve then transmitted to Adam through sexual intercourse. The element was absorbed by Adam’s penis, then entered Adam’s spiritual and physical blood stream, infecting his spirit mind and turning him also into a slave of Satan too. In this manner human beings came to resemble Satan and multiply Satan’s character, for the Original Sin element was subsequently passed on to Adam and Eve’s children by genetic means. It is the Original Sin element (transmitted by sexual intercourse) which is the cause of all problems. Hence if we could locate and remove Original Sin, we could solve the problem of Fallen man.

The passage in the divine principle text which is the source of this belief is as follows:

"According to the principle that men were created to exchange elements with the objective being with whom they have become one body through love, Eve received certain elements from Lucifer when she joined into one body with him through love….Adam, by becoming one body with Eve, inherited all the elements Eve had received from Lucifer…these elements were then transmitted to their descendants." (Divine Principle, p.79-80)

This is the core passage which illustrates the belief that Original Sin elements were passed to Eve via genital intercourse. However, please note that this passage is curiously vague. For one, there is no evidence given for the claim that people "exchange elements". It is merely a statement that we are asked to accept without evidence. Likewise the nature of the elements exchanged are not elucidated. For example, what kinds of elements were they? Physical? Spiritual? What effect did they have on Adam and Eve? How? Furthermore the phrase "one body through love" seems purposely misleading due to its ambiguity. In one sense, it could mean uniting bodies via genital intercourse OR it could mean to unite hearts and minds by means of SOCIAL "intercourse". For example, the divine Principle text states:

"If they [the people] had become one body with him [Jesus] in both spirit and body…fallen men could have been saved both spiritually and physically." (Divine Principle, p. 147)

Does this then mean that the people HAD to become one body with Jesus by means of SEXUAL intercourse???

Or how about….

"Through this love [from the messiah and his bride], new life is infused into us, and our spirits are reborn as new selves. This is spiritual rebirth. Never the less, since human beings fell both spiritually and physically, we must be cleansed of original sin by being born again both spiritually and physically." (Exposition of the Divine Principle, p. 171)

Again, does thins mean that we should unite in sexual intercourse with the messiah and his bride in order to be cleansed of Original Sin? Some of you are shaking your heads no. Some of you are not sure. So then, what exactly is meant by "become one body through love"?

To elucidate, let us look at how the Principle defines "love".

The Principle text states that:

"…the emotional force that the subject partner gives to the object partner is called love" (Exposition, p.38)

Hence we see that the Principle defines love as an emotional force, not as a sexual act.

And how about this quote:

"All things were created to receive God’s dominion through love." (Divine Principle, p. 78)

Does this then mean that all things were to receive God’s dominion through sex? The passage goes on to say….

"…Therefore, love is the source of life and the essence of happiness; love is the ideal of all creation."

Sex is the source of life and sex is the essence of happiness? Sex is the ideal of all creation? No, of course not. Hence we can see that the Principle is using two different meanings for the word "love"!!! Sometimes it refers to love as an emotional force and other times it alludes to love as sexual intercourse . The question is…which love is the love by which Adam and Eve became one with Lucifer, thus inheriting his elements? Again, you are inclined to say it was "sexual love", but is this really true? If this is really true then we are forced to believe that the only way to become one with the messiah is through sexual intercourse. Why? Because the Principle states:

"By joining them in oneness with himself [the messiah], he was to cleanse them of the original sin and restore them as children born of God’s lineage." (Exposition, p. 284)

And…

"If they had become one body with him [Jesus] in both spirit and body … fallen men could have been saved both spiritually and physically." (Divine Principle, p. 147)

Are we to believe that becoming "one body" with Jesus meant to have sexual intercourse with him? No. Of course not. The full text actually says:

"To believe in Jesus means to become *one body* with him...If they had become one body with him [Jesus] in both spirit and body by *believing* in him, fallen men could have been saved both spiritually and physically." (Divine Principle, p. 147)

So, if we are to take Divine Principle as true, we are compelled to accept that it is possible to become "one body" with someone by believing their words and accepting their will as our own. Hence it is entirely possible that Adam and Eve became one body with Lucifer, not through sex, but rather through believing his word! In fact, the Divine Principle affirms this when it states:

"Fallen man unites with Satan in his mind and [then] commits sin through his body" (Outline of the Principle, Level 4, p. 103)

Hence, Adam and Eve became one body with Lucifer through their minds, when they accepted the angel’s word as their own. This is the way that Adam and Eve inherited the Original Sin elements. It was not via sexual intercourse but rather via social intercourse. For if we can become one body with the messiah and remove Original Sin without genital contact, there is no reason to believe that Adam and Eve became one body via genital contact either. Hence it is entirely possible that the "root of sin" was a non-sexual event.

Let us now turn our attention to the concept of the "root of sin". Until now, many Unificationists have believed the root of sin to be illicit sexual desire and illicit sexual activity (adultery). We believed this because the Principle text and Rev. Moon directly say so. For example:

"…the root of human sin stems from sexual immorality….the root of sin in found in lustful desires….Even in the most outstanding people, the root of sin—illicit sexual desire--- is constantly active in their souls, sometimes without their conscious awareness" (Exposition of the Divine Principle, p 61)

"You must keep your purity and chastity. You must think of it as more valuable, more important, than your own life, The fallen act of love will kill your descendants"

"Chastity and keeping pure is the greatest thing in our group."

"The spirit of a person who engages in free sex is so distorted that it even seems non-human. That kind of spirit body is most hideous, dirty human form in the world." (Rev. Sun Myung Moon, The Way of Tradition Vol. III, p. 8, 9, 16)

All of these quotes would lead one to believe that illicit sexual intercourse is the worst thing you could do and that illicit sexual intercourse was the very cause of the Fall. But as we have already discussed, there is no reason to believe that sexual intercourse was the way for Adam and Eve to receive the original sin element from Lucifer. We have actually demonstrated to the contrary that they could very well have become one body with Lucifer simply by believing Lucifer’s words.

Besides, why do we call the sexual act (a result) the "root"? What does the word "root" actually mean? "Root" means "the most fundamental". Even in the sexual view of the fall, the sex act could not possibly be the most fundamental cause of sin. There had to be something deeper, that this, something that got the ball rolling in the first place. When we look at the principle text, it states that the fundamental cause for the fall was the angel’s feelings of jealousy towards Adam:

"The motivation of the archangel's fall lay in his jealousy of Adam." (Divine Principle, p. 90)

Note, it does not say that the fundamental motivation was lust towards Eve. It states it was jealousy towards Adam! So very clearly if anything is a "root" it would more likely be the jealousy that the angel harbored towards Adam. But we can go even deeper than this by asking why the angel had jealous feelings in the first place. This would be the true root. When we examine the principle text (and even examine reality) we find that the angel was jealous of Adam because he was feeling a lack of love. This lack of love feeling came from the fact that Adam had failed to LOVE the angel as God’s representative. For even the principle text states:

"When man perfected himself and loved the archangel as the (archangel's) lord, the [angel’s] feeling of being loved less would have disappeared." (Outline of the Principle, p.52)

We can conclude then that the true root of sin was Adam’s failure to love the angel form the position of God’s representative. Had Adam loved the angel, there would have been no jealousy on the angel’s part and hence no need to tempt Eve so as to supplement his lack of love feeling. In other words, had Adam loved the angel, there would have been no fall!!! Hence we can conclude that Adam’s failure to love the angel is the true root of sin!

But you are saying to yourself, "Hey, wait a minute…I thought that Adam and Eve fell because they did not obey the commandment ‘not to eat the fruit’ and we all know that ‘don’t eat the fruit’ means don’t have sex…so it was their failure to follow the commandment that led to their fall"!

Au Contraire.

I can understand where you are coming from. It is true that Adam and Eve failed to follow the commandment and that is why they fell. However I am sorry to report to you that "don’t eat the fruit" was not the first commandment they received and it was not even the main commandment that they were supposed to follow.

Until now, many Unificationists have believed that the commandment Adam and Eve were to follow was "don’t eat the fruit" which is interpreted to mean don’t have a sexual relationship until you are mature. Unificationists believe that this was the commandment because of the following passage in the divine principle text:

"The first human ancestors were to become perfect by believing in the divine Word and not eating of the fruit. However, in their disbelief, they ate of it, thus causing the fall." (Divine Principle, p. 55)

Here we are shown that Adam and Eve fell because they did not follow God’s Word. Then we are told that the "Word" was "don’t eat the fruit". Hence, for this reason, many a UC member has thought that "don’t eat the fruit" was the divine word necessary for Adam and Eve’s perfection. For this reason we embarked upon a life of celibacy, not looking or touching members of the opposite sex, promoting "pure love" campaigns, "free teens" programs and the like. It was because we thought that the Word or commandment was "don’t eat" or in other words "don’t have sex". But, could this have been the divine word, that if followed, would have led to Adam and Eve’s perfection? If "not eating the fruit" was all that was necessary for a person to reach perfection, then the Catholic pope must be perfect, along with all the monks, nuns and priests of the Catholic church as well as the Dali Lama of Tibetan Buddhism! But as we can see from the facts, simply refraining from sexual intercourse does not a perfect person make. Hence "don’t eat the fruit" could not have been the divine word that if followed would have led to Adam and Eve’s perfection.

You may now be asking yourself, "if ‘don’t eat’ was not the commandment…then what was? I did not see any other commandments that God gave to Adam and Eve, so ‘don’t eat’ must be the commandment!" Well, I can understand your confusion, you did not see any other commandments because they were hidden from your view. They were hidden because we called them "blessings"!!!

God’s commandment to Adam and Eve were to "Be fruitful", "Multiply" and "Take Dominion". If you look at the grammatical and linguistic structure of these words, you will clearly see that these are COMMANDS. An exhortation to a specific action. We did not recognize them as commands because we were always calling them "blessings". Hence we did not see them for what they really were. It was in failing to follow these commands that Adam and Eve fell. Most especially it was in failing to follow the 1st command "Be fruitful" that they fell. For had they become fruitful (perfected themselves) then they would have been able to love the angel and the rest of the creation from the position of God’s representatives. And as we had discussed earlier, had they done this, there would have been no jealousy on the part of the angel and hence no fall!

Thus the true root of sin is Adam’s failure to follow the command to "Be fruitful". As a result he failed to love the angel and this failure led to the actions of the fall.

This brings us to another important point and that is the topic of Cain and Abel.

When we thought that the root of the fall was about sex…we avoided sex. We thought that if we kept our genitals to ourselves, then we would be ok with God, we would perfect ourselves. We thought that the fall was all the angel’s fault and hence we blamed the angel. We are now forced to recognize that the fall was not the angel’s fault at all but rather ADAM’S fault! Until now, since we thought the fall was the fault of the angel, we spent much time talking about "Cain’s responsibility". How Cain should love Abel, listen to Abel and serve Abel. What bullshit. Why does the Principle text go into so much detail about what Cain is supposed to do? Restoration has nothing to do with Cain…it has everything to do with Abel! Let me illustrate. In the Principle text, Cain is representing Lucifer and Abel is representing Adam. The purpose is to recreate the scenario in the garden of Eden. To recreate the characters and the emotions of that time. The purpose is to correct the failure that occurred in the garden of Eden. As has been revealed, that failure was ADAM’S failure to love the angel. The perfect example of this principle is the story of Jacob and Esau. In this story, what responsibility did Esau have? Nothing, nada, zilch, zip! In fact he was still waiting to kill Jacob up to the very last minute. Esau was as "Cained out" as anybody could get!!! Yet we do not see him do any of the things which we were led to believe were "Cain’s" responsibility. Who is doing all the work and making all the effort? Jacob is!!!! And Jacob is seen as the first and MOST SUCCESSFUL person to resolve the scenario of the fall. We see that like Adam, Jacob was to take responsibility and love Esau who represented the angel. Hence the principle wastes our time by telling us what "Cain" is supposed to do. Cain don’t have to do shit! It’s all up to Abel. The Principle text should actually say "here is what Abel is supposed to persuade Cain to do".

We can see how the "Cain’s burden of responsibility" theory was started, refined in Japan and exploited by the Unification Church power structure as a whole. Members feared if they did not follow their "Abel" then they would go to hell. But now as we review the facts…we realize that this was all a sham and instead of us serving our central figures…our central figures should have been serving US! This I believe is the principal cause for the failure of the Home Church providence in America. We were all trained with the "Cain’s responsibility" theory. Hence we expected our tribe to bow down to us merely because we were in the "Abel position". Had we been trained properly, the Unification Church would be in a very different situation than it is in today.

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