The Unification View of History views history from three fundamental perspectives: first, as sinful history; second, as history of recreation; and third, as history of restoration.

Sinful history was brought about by the human fall. Because of the fall, it was not possible for human history to start as principled, normal history; instead, it came to be filled with wars, pain, misery, and the like. Accordingly, finding fundamental solutions to the various problems in history is impossible without solving the problem of the human fall.

Human beings, due to the fall of the first human ancestors, fell into a state of death in the spiritual sense. The original human beings and the original world were lost while they were still incomplete. Therefore, throughout history, God carried out the dispensation of re-creating and reconstructing the world. Accordingly, history became history of re-creation. In this process, the laws (laws of creation) and the Word (Logos) through which God had created human beings and the universe were applied also to human history. God's creation was carried out through the Word. Therefore, recreation was also carried out through the Word. Re-creation does not mean creating the universe all over again. Since the fall involved only the human being, the only being that needs to be recreated is the human being, which must be re-created through the Word. This is why God made saints, righteous people, prophets, and other spiritual leaders appear throughout history to spread truth and guide people spiritually.

Due to the fall of the first human ancestors, the original human beings and the original world were lost, and non-principled (non-original) human beings came to live non-principled lives-that is, lives of pain and confusion-in this non-principled world. Thus, the original human being and the original world, which were the ideal of creation, became an ideal to be recovered.

From this standpoint, God had to restore the non-principled world and human beings back to their original states, in such a way that His creation would not end in failure. Accordingly, from the dawn of human history, God has conducted the dispensation to restore sinful people and the sinful world back to their original state. Consequently, human history became the history of the providence of restoration. Since God is the God of Principle, and the human fall resulted from human beings failure to observe certain conditions, the providence of restoration, also, was carried out according to certain laws. These laws are referred to as the "laws of restoration."

To date, there have been few religious leaders or scholars that could show, clearly, the law-governed nature of history. For example, the Christian providential view of history has not presented persuasive laws.

In modern times, Hegel explained historical development according to the dialectic (i.e., idealistic dialectic), and asserted that history is the process of actualizing freedom through reason, and that, in the end, a rational state would be reached in which freedom would be fully realized. In Prussia, however, which Hegel regarded as an ideal state, freedom remained unactualized, and history just continued on. The historical laws described by Hegel were unrelated to reality.

In the twentieth century, Arnold Toynbee established his "cultural view of history," which was a magnificent view of history and through which lie analyzed in detail the genesis, growth, breakdown, and disintegration of civilizations. Yet, Toynbee did not present the definite laws of history.

Under these circumstances, only Marx's materialist view of history remained as allegedly showing the laws of history, calling itself a scientific view of history. In contrast, the Christian providential view of history has been dismissed from the field of learning, rejected as unscientific because of its inability to specify the laws of history.

The Unification View of History presents the laws of creation and the laws of restoration as the true laws at work in history. When those true laws of history are pointed out, the falseness of the materialist view of history is also exposed, since it becomes clear that the laws advocated by the materialist view of history are, in reality, pseudo laws, that is, nothing more than dogmatic assertions. Furthermore, the Unification View of History, by establishing the laws of history from a theological basis, has revived the traditional providential view of history, which has been regarded as unscientific, and has made it possible to treat the providential view as social science.

As for the question of when and how history started, namely, the origin of history, the Unification View of History regards the creation of humankind and the human fall as the origin of history, just as does the Christian providential view of history. There is also a question concerning the origin of the human race, namely, whether the human race had a single origin (monogenism) or multiple origins (polygenism). The Unification View of History advocates monogenism and asserts that the first human ancestors were Adam and Eve. This is affirmed because there is a law based on the Principle of Creation that "creation starts from one."

Then, what is the goal of history? The Unification View of History regards the goal of history as the realization of the ideal world of creation. The direction of history is the direction toward that goal. Therefore, the origin and goal of history are determined. However, how that goal is reached is not determined. Each step in the process of history is successfully completed only when people's portion of responsibility-especially the portion of responsibility of providential central figures-is fulfilled under God's Providence. Therefore, the process that history takes -- that is, whether history proceeds in a straight line or makes a detour; whether it is shortened or prolonged depends totally oil the efforts of human beings. This means that the process of history is undetermined and is entrusted to the people's free will.

The view that the goal is determined but the process is undetermined, and that the progress of history depends on the human portion of responsibility, or free will, is referred to as the "theory of responsibility."

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