The bitter pain of restoration and God’s 6,000-year search for His children

According to the Unification Church, what is the original sin? It is love gone wrong. Our love should have been connected to God’s love, life and lineage. Instead, it was connected to satanic love, life and lineage. Because Adam and Eve became the personifications of the devil and left behind the satanic lineage, they produced lasting regret in history. Why was the all-knowing, all-powerful God of autonomous authority, who created heaven and earth from its root, so helpless in the face of the evil being who brought human beings to the state they are in today? If you do not know, it may seem natural for you to deny the existence of God. (211-21, 1990.12.28)  

In my background there were many incidents that evoked indignation at unjust treatment. Although many were very terrible to endure, I clenched my teeth and focused on occupying Cain’s world. I had to digest the Cain world rather than merely Cain as an individual and his family. How bitter this has been! It was as if I had to melt something as frigid and huge as an iceberg. Digesting this bitterness, I have had to silently bring Satan to submission. He has been our arch enemy since time immemorial. He brought God and humankind to ruin. (163-163, 1987.5.1)  

Satan became the father of the first ancestors of fallen humankind. They received Satan’s love and life, and thus  the history of their restoration has been so difficult. Why did God, whom Christians have always understood to be almighty and all-knowing, not intervene in the Fall, rather than just standing powerless? It appeared as though He had died. God cannot liberate human beings until they themselves establish the conditions for their liberation, because it was they who committed sin. If God had been able to liberate Adam and Eve at the outset, He would not have driven them out from the Garden of Eden. If He could have done as He pleased, He would not have expelled them. But He had no recourse but to send them away. (224-46, 1991.11.21)  

We should have the true heart that God seeks. God comes to find true love. Should there not be a true son whom God has sought throughout the providence of salvation and restoration? The cascade of pure love from such a son would enable God, who had been defiled, wounded and filled with sorrow, to extend His chest in pride. Could we not imagine a situation where God would embrace that true son, forget everything, and even say that, although the Fall had occurred, He could still find no greater joy? Every man should be able to say that. (127-39, 1983.5.1)  

Satan scornfully says to God, “The lineage of love that was needed to create one true tribal domain, the ideal of an absolute realm of love centering on Your ideal of creation, was ruined and destroyed in this way. Yet do You still insist that the ideal principle of creation can be applied?” How should God respond to that? How shocked He is! How many Christians are there who clearly understand God’s grievous heart as He sees human beings, who were originally to become the children of the Lord, become the children of the enemy, trapped in an inescapable state of misery? (200-235, 1990.2.25)  

The parent of humankind came, but the people could not attend him as their parent. Could there be such a parent who came to shed blood and die for them? That parent came to host a festival of love at which he could say, “My son! My daughter! My family! My nation!” and the entire universe could reconcile. That parent who was to receive praise for that day of peace and glory should have met his lost children. Yet instead he was killed with the thrust of a blade from those children. Think about how miserable Jesus was. How grieved God was to be choked in circumstances that prevented Him from teaching ignorant human beings! (145-152, 1986.5.1)  

I have sorrow and regret from times past. But my pain and grief are nothing compared to God’s. God has not been able to fulfill His role as God. We should know that God’s bitter tears which melt the marrow of His bones, and His bloodstains that spread throughout the course of history are crying out from the ground. I have been doing this work because I know that my remaining mission is to liberate God from His anguish. (137-175, 1986.1.1)  

God is responsible for the fallen world and has been restoring it. He does not just dwell in a lofty, precious, holy, and pristine place. His wretched, bitter and brutal situation is beyond our imagination and beyond description. (21-73, 1968.10.14)  

You can be consoled by someone with more reasons to be resentful than you have, but God has no one to comfort Him because He has more grievances than anyone in the world. God is the Alpha and Omega. Thus, deep within Himself, God is working out how to resolve His ongoing bitterness. This has been God’s deep, inner anguish. Under these circumstances God has carried out the providence of restoration. (29-294, 1970.3.12)  

Have you ever cried, longing to see God? Have you ever cried until your vocal cords ruptured and fluid streamed from your eyes and nose? Have you ever felt so mistreated and sorrowful that tears come to your eyes this way? This experience is crucial for entering the world of heart. (49-291, 1971.10.17)  

How resentful, grieved, angered and saddened God became when He was separated from human beings, who should have been with Him permanently! People should have grown to maturity, building the foundation of love that cannot be exchanged for the entire universe. They should have established an axis joining all the vertical and horizontal planes in the universe together. If they had accomplished this, they would have become the standard measure of love among all existing beings and among all things of creation in heaven and on earth. Whatever is connected to that love will be able to match this standard in any circumstances. (149-240, 1986.11.23) 

Satan trampled upon four generations, from the queen to the queen’s mother and grandmother, and the queen’s daughter. These four generations lived together. Satan stripped them naked in front of the King in broad daylight, violated and killed them all. Satan even trampled on the daughter. We should know the heart of God who is unable to take vengeance on such an enemy. (200-68, 1990.2.23) 

What is it that God regrets? It is that humanity inherited a false lineage. You inherited false blood. Satan is the origin of this. He always wants to create havoc with all things of creation. You are connected to such a universe, such rights of ownership and such a lineage. The sources of all these five functions – what you see, think, smell, say, and touch – belong to the satanic side. Your ancestors are the fruits of a very evil parent. How much distress God experiences in His yearning to save them! Why could God not simply get rid of fallen Adam and Eve and create them anew? He had the power to do this, but because He originally created within an eternal relationship based on eternal true love, God could not do so. (216-36, 1991.3.3)  

You should know how miserable and bitterly painful God’s situation is. God can say, “If I had not made humanity, they would not have become the way they are. How could this happen when I was searching for love and longing for the glorious Kingdom of Heaven!” How could this happen? It was because they inherited the devil’s flesh and blood. The devil’s love was implanted, along with the roots of his life and lineage. God could not possess humanity without removing these things, but if He did remove them they would die. Therefore, God had to set up a substitute as a second creation or medium of salvation through an infusion of new blood, life, and love. God should love the enemy. He has to be patient with and love His enemy. (212-42, 1991.1.1)