The Providence of Restoration

Christian Nseka
July 26, 2011

The Fall of Man was initiated by Lucifer who was commissioned to help Adam and Eve reach oneness of heart with God -- perfection. One of the consequences of the Fall was that God lost not only His son and daughter through whom His ideal of creation was supposed to be realized, but He also lost one of His most trusted servants -- the archangel Lucifer.

The Bible indicates that God implemented His providence of restoration right after Adam and Eve fell. He gave Adam a chance to redeem himself. Adam, instead, chose to accuse God for creating Eve and placing her next to him (cf. Genesis 3:8–12). Still according to the Bible, Eve as well was given a chance to right her wrong (cf. Genesis 3:13–14). Unfortunately neither of them seized the moment. This was a cataclysmic moment that sealed the fate of humanity for it severed the relationship between God and Adam and Eve, as well as between God and Lucifer. As a result Adam, Eve, Lucifer and his host of angels, lost the right of residing in the Garden of Eden.

According to the Divine Principle, in His relationship with human beings, God can only have a direct relationship with perfect human beings. This is why Adam and Eve were entrusted to Lucifer during their residency in the Garden of Eden, which is the biblical representation of the realm of God's original love. However when they fell, Adam and Eve were no longer in the realm of God's original love. So God had to implement a new way of reaching out to them and progressively awakening their awareness towards His ideal which is supposed to be realized when they have fulfilled their responsibilities. Given that God could not directly go to the realm of sin where Adam, Eve, and Lucifer were dwelling, He used archangels and their hosts of angels as His representatives in reaching out to His lost loved ones. This is the providence of restoration, which began after the Fall to our days.

Although Lucifer used to have direct interaction with God when he was one of His representatives in the Garden of Eden, he no longer could do so after the Fall for he became a fallen archangel. However as fallen archangel, his direct relationship with Adam and Eve became even stronger than ever due to the Fall for he became their master.

Remember that there is neither sin nor evil in God. It should also be noted that although the Bible makes it sound as if Satan has been confronting and attacking God since he has taken control of Adam, Eve, and everything else, Satan cannot challenge God directly. Neither can he even approach Him.

Because of the fallen reality, it seems to us as if Satan has been accusing, confronting, attacking, and challenging God any way, any time, and as much as he has wanted to. The truth is that although Satan can accuse God, he can neither confront nor attack God directly. All the satanic challenges recorded in the Bible were actually directly presented to archangels, angels, and human beings who represented God; not directly to God Himself.

There is a protocol in the creation that God will never compromise no matter what. This means that God will never deal with sin directly. Neither will He directly deal with any created being who has been corrupted by sin -- be it a human being, an archangel, or an angel.

Although Satan cannot challenge God directly, he can however do so indirectly by challenging archangels, angels, as well as human beings regardless of whether or not they are sinful. This is because, prior to becoming Satan, Lucifer was actually one of God's archangels (cf. Revelation 12:9).

Throughout the Old Testament, God used archangels and angels who remained loyal to Him in order to fulfill His providence of restoration. It was one of these loyal archangels whose footsteps Adam and Eve heard in the Garden of Eden (cf. Genesis 3:8). It was one of these loyal archangels that Moses was dealing with and whose back and/or face he saw (cf. Exodus 33:20–23, 11). It was also one of these loyal archangels and two of his angels that Abraham welcomed near the great tree of Mamre (cf. Genesis 18).

This explains Father Moon's words when he explained that the Old Testament Era was the age of servant and the New Testament Era the age of the son (Cheon Seong Gyeong, Chapter three, pp. 115–131). As concerning God's work in the Old Testament Era, and when commenting about God's intervention and actions in the Old Testament, Father Moon said:

Could the God of love, who created the universe, have the character to feel such jealousy, exact such revenge, instill such terror, and exhibit the cruelty to exterminate the seven tribes of Canaan? This happened because the Old Testament Age was an age when angels, as mediators, served in the role of God
(Cheon Seong Gyeong, p. 121).

As explained by Father Moon in the Cheon Seong Gyeong, the providence of restoration that began with archangels as representatives of God in the Old Testament Era moved to the son representing God in the New Testament Era.

God's goal in the Old Testament Era was to help human beings remedy the mistake that led to the Fall by obeying the archangels who were still faithful to God and His ideal as if obeying God directly. Doing so contributed to the establishment of the foundation upon which human beings could once more stand in their original position as God's children.

In other words, the success of the Old Testament providence of restoration restored the relationship between God and the archangels, the archangels and human beings, and God and human beings. It established the foundation upon which God could claim His lost son and daughter. It was upon this foundation that Jesus was born as the Messiah. Unfortunately, though there was a man, Jesus, restoring the position of Adam, there was no woman restoring the position of Eve.

The success of the New Testament providence of restoration established the foundation upon which God could not only claim His lost son and daughter, but also look forward to the establishment of a God-centered lineage. It is upon this foundation that Father and Mother Moon have stood as the True Parents of humankind.

Upon close examination of the Bible, one can only conclude that the people of the Old Testament Era had less problem seeing God in the archangels He used as His representatives. However, this was not the case during the life of Jesus who also came as God's representative. The contemporaries of Jesus did not consider him to be God's representative, let alone God the Creator. Those who did only did so after his crucifixion and rise from the dead. Is it going to be the same with the True Parents of humankind?