Q. "Does one achieve salvation through a belief in Jesus, a belief in a new messiah..."

1. The Reverend and Mrs Moon, who are called the "True Parents," have achieved the position of prelapsarian Adam and Eve and have constituted a family without the stain of the Original Sin. They are the seed of God's kingdom on earth, which is a world where all people are sinless, like Jesus. As "True Parents," they invite all people, regardless of religion or irreligion, to become a part of the kingdom by engrafting onto the sinless lineage of which they are the seed and root.

The realization of the True Parents came on the foundation of Jesus Christ, who commissioned the Rev. Moon to complete his unfinished work. Jesus works closely with the Rev. Moon. Our theology gives a deep appreciation of Jesus' suffering life and self-sacrifice. He is our elder brother, ancestor, and role model. We wish to further his work and ease his suffering (for Jesus suffers to see the world still unredeemed and immersed in sin.) Thus members of the Unification Church have a close personal relationship to Jesus, though perhaps not in the same terms as many traditional Christians do.

2. For Unificationism, BELIEF in anyone is not an adequate condition for salvation. Salvation is defined as restoration to the prelapsarian state. Restoration is to repair what has been broken due to the fall. That requires a process in three stages: faith in God and Christ, which includes learning God's Truth and living by it. That restores Adam and Eve's disobedience. A "foundation of substance" which means to reconcile with one's enemy through giving divine love. This restores Cain's murder of Abel. The making of this foundation gives religious significance to all sorts of acts, secular as well as religious, where hatred is overcome through love. the Blessing, which is a ceremony to engraft onto the pure lineage of God unstained by original sin. The Blessing is given at the "mass weddings" officiated by the Rev. and Mrs. Moon.

3. Salvation requires both God's grace and human effort. God, our Father, wants to save all His children, but we place a barrier of sin in the way. Therefore human effort is needed to "separate from Satan" in order that God's grace may be effective.

Unificationists emphasize free will and human responsibility, because that is what is too often missing in the equation. But the context for our responsibility is God's unconditional love and grace, and his Predestination for the salvation of each and every one of His children. And all people, no matter how fallen, are God's children.

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