The goal of human history is the establishment of God's original ideal, which is the world based on the three blessings of individual maturity, multiplication through true marital love, and creative dominion over the universe. If our era is the Last Days, therefore, we should be able to see signs that these three promises are being realized.

Let's examine our era with this idea in mind.

The first blessing involves the attainment of spiritual maturity, or "perfection". A spiritually mature person is one who enjoys fully his freedom of thought and action, who embodies and expressed God's love to others and who has a heart of love for God's creation. Such a person, of course, was Jesus. He lived the life that is lived in the Kingdom of Heaven and was the model for us all.

As we know, because of the Fall, humanity could not realize this quality of life. One day, however, we are meant to achieve it. Indeed, the period of the Last Days if the final stage in God's progressive effort to restore each person to this state.

At the present time many people are thirsting deeply for greater spiritual advancement. This inclination is evident in the recent worldwide interest in new faiths as well as in movements toward universal love, liberty, equality, and human rights and dignity.

In addition, we may point to the modern development of man's spiritual sensibilities. According to Divine Principle each person is created to become one in heart with God and to be able to communicate fully with Him. However, because of the Fall, our first ancestors and all their descendants fell into a state where they were insensitive to the presence of God. For this reason, the Heavenly Father is felt by many to be remote, if not even incommunicado.

As the Bible indicates, however, communication with God and the spirit world will be restored in the Last Days:

Recent increases in spiritual experiences and psychic phenomena worldwide reflect the phenomena mentioned in Acts. Such events as the well publicized experience of Bishop James Pike with his deceased son, the publication of such books as Dr. Raymond Moody's Life After Life, and the emerging awareness of the reality of extrasensory phenomenon suggest a coming breakthrough in communication with the spirit world.

This emerging restoration of our heart and spirit indicate that humanity is in the initial stages of restoring the first blessing.

God's second blessing to man—the blessing of multiplication- involved the ability of Adam and Eve to become godly parents and on this foundation to create an ideal family, and then a true society and world centered on that family.

In other words, this second joy is the ability to create a true family and, growing out of this, to foster the realization of one global family throughout the world.

However, as we know, Adam and Eve fell, resulting in a tragic corruption of their parental role. All of humankind inherited their distorted character, thus realizing a world under an evil sovereignty.

As a result, the process of restoration became necessary. God has had to work through religion and through different aspects of civilization to guide man toward the establishment of His original ideal—a unified global culture based on familial love.

If we take a glance at history we can see how God has struggled to realize this original goal. Historically, many different cultures have come into existence. Through time, however, as Arnold Toynbee has pointed out, higher cultures have emerged centered on rising new religions. Through a process of absorption of the varied and numerous lower cultures by the higher and more universal ones, a consolidation of cultures has taken place.

As a result, there are only four major cultures remaining: Judeo-Christian, Moslem, Far Eastern (based on Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism) and Hindu. This convergent flow of history shows the trend toward man's establishing one world culture—and that God's second blessing is being restored.

It was not without reason then that such scholars as the D'Arcy and McLuhan, as well as Toynbee himself, anticipated the present-day emergence of a universal society.

In addition to these long-term developments, short-range trends also point toward a coming world unity. Since World War II, the human community has to an unprecedented extent become aware of the need for international cooperation and world government. This awareness has given rise to the United Nations and other international commissions and organizations, all concerned with international cooperation.

Everything from food reserves to the use of ocean resources, from atomic power and ecology to trade are now matters of international concern and action. The establishment of such organizations as the International Red Cross, the World Health Organization, the International Monetary Fund and the world Bank all reflect the increasing convergence of life on planet Earth.

Also, because of the tremendous advance in transportation and communications, the world has "shrunk" to such an extent that we can travel to almost any part of the world in a few hours. Travel to other countries has increased tremendously, bringing about unprecedented intention and understanding among different peoples. We find ourselves living in a world community where the races, nationalities, customs, cultures, and products of the world intermingle and harmonize as never before.

In the view of Divine Principle, all of those hopes and trends will reach fruition when the final gifts of history arrive, the Lord of the Second Coming and the new universal ideology that he brings. It is through the new Lord that the one world lost at the beginning of history, will finally be restored.

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