Unification Thought |
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By Dr. Sang Hun Lee |
Chapter V - Theory of History (Part 1)
Human history is the history of re-creation and restoration. We may say that most historians in the past have not been successful in grasping the essence of history even though they have come close to it. In this chapter the basic standpoints and the principles of the Unification view of history are briefly explained.
Section A - The View of History by the Unification Principle
How should we grasp the meaning of history? First, let us think about the significance, character and direction of history.
(i) The History of Sin
As to the origin of history, the Unification Principle holds a clear viewpoint. We think that because of the fall of man a sinful history began. This is the basic premise and starting point of our historical philosophy. No problem can be solved until the basic question about man's sin is answered.
In history, there have been many statesmen and people who were called righteous men, sages or saints, men who tried to make people as happy and free as possible. But without clarifying the essence of sin, why sin has spread, or, in short, without a systematic solution to various social problems through the clarification and ascertainment of the origin and content of sin, there can never be a fundamental settlement to history. This is the viewpoint of the Unification Principle concerning history.
(ii) The History of Re-creation and Restoration
Viewed from another standpoint, the human fall means that God's creation is not yet completed. If so, we may say that God has to re-create fallen men and accomplish the original purpose of creation. Accordingly, human history is also the history of re-creation. If, throughout human history, men have to come back to their original positions, the history of re-creation may, in other words, be called the history of restoration.
Thus the Unification Principle regards human history to be the history of sin, the history of re-creation and the history of restoration. This is the basic way of thinking contained in the Unification Principle concerning history.
Section B - The Character of History According to the Unification Principle
1. Re-Creation By The Logos
"In the beginning was the Word (Logos)." John 1: 1) After man fell, since God's word (Logos) was lost, people fell into ignorance. Accordingly, the re-creation of man must be started by recovering the lost Word.
Then what was the process of the re-creation of the Word? The prophets, sages, and the Messiah were providential people who were entrusted with God's Word so that the Providence of re-creation was realized through them.
Although, viewed from the standpoint of the Unification Principle, the value of the prophets, sages, the Messiah and other righteous men in the development of history is very great, most historians are apt to ignore the raison detre of these people. But we greatly appreciate these men, because they are the very men who have re-created history.
2. The Goal And Direction Of History
As mentioned above, we regard human history as the history of re-creation. Re-creation being a kind of creation, it must have a goal like any other creation, and where there is a goal, there is naturally a direction. Accordingly, we think that human history has always been marching toward a certain goal. This continues today.
The view that the goal and direction of history are fixed from the beginning may be a kind of determinism. But this determinism is a little different from that of Hegel or Marx. When history is viewed from the standpoint of determinism, there are two aspects: the goal or direction toward which history is marching and the process through which history is marching. The Unification Principle adopts determinism in reference to the goal or direction of history but thinks that the process of history is not always predetermined. In other words, we adopt the view of indeterminism in that we say the course toward the final goal of history depends upon the will of man, and setbacks take place along the way. It seems that many people are concerned about and discuss this problem, so let us further examine the determinism and indeterminism of history.
(i) Hegel's View of History
Hegel (1770-1831) held the following view of history. The substance of history is "Spirit" or "Reason" and the goal of history is the realization of freedom. In other words, the goal of history is that the spirit of freedom manifest itself through the subjective spirit in the spirit of the nation or the times, thus being elevated more and more. Therefore, in Hegel's theory, world history may be called the process in which the spirit (Absolute Spirit) seeks for self-cognition. According to Hegel, the spirit is shown especially in the history of the nation.
Then, what is an individual's role in this history? How can the individual concern himself in this process in which the Absolute Spirit realizes itself? Hegel says that the individual takes part in the direction of reason through his interest, passion and absorption. When he is absorbed in something, he becomes endowed with a spirit higher than himself. That is to say, he becomes one with the spirit of the nation or of the times; his actions and the manifestation of his character take part in the development of history. In the meantime, irrational men, having no relation with the spirit of the times, are weeded out through war and strife. Hegel calls this the "Trick of Reason" (List der Vernunft).
Though Hegel does not deny the role of the individual in history, he emphasizes the Absolute Spirit which is the master of history and regards the individual as a mere tool for the realization of the goal of history. Moreover, he thinks that not only the direction of the spirit, but also the process is fixed beforehand. This process is the dialectical logic of thesis-antithesis-synthesis. In this sense, we may say that Hegel's historical philosophy is deterministic.
(ii) Marx's View of History
Marx (1818-1883) held a view of history very similar to that of Hegel; he merely adapted Hegel's dialectic view of history to materialism.
According to Marx, the development of history is caused by the contradiction between the productive forces and the production relations of society.
At a certain stage of their development, the material productive forces of society come into conflict with the existing relations of production, or-what is but a legal expression for the same thing-with the property relations within which they have been at work hitherto. From forms of development of the productive forces, these relations turn into their fetters. Then begins an epoch of social revolution. (Marx, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Selected Works, p. 182)
That is to say, the contradiction between the productive forces and production relations necessarily brings about class struggle. The struggle develops into revolution, and after the revolution, the communistic society will take over without fail. Thus, like Hegel, Marx thinks that each individual is a mere tool for the development of history and that both the goal and process of history are fixed by the logic of the dialectic. In this sense, Marx's view of history is also deterministic.
(iii) Spengler's View of History
Spengler (1880-1936) denied the historical view of progress asserted by Hegel and Marx, and advocated a cyclical view of history. However, his way of thinking is also deterministic.
According to Spengler, the various civilizations in the world rise and come to an end, like living beings which have a cycle of four rhythms, namely birth, development, maturity and decline. Western civilization is no exception; he asserts that this civilization has entered the period of decline or downfall. (Der Unterdang der Aberlandes, The Decline of the West)
(iv) Toynbee's View of History
Stimulated by the pioneering achievements of Spengler, Toynbee (1889- ) doubted Spengler's historical determinism and tried to grasp the meaning of world history as a whole from the viewpoint of civilizations.
He regards the history of civilizations as a process of challenge and response. Placed in a difficult situation, man tries to respond to and overcome the challenge without yielding to it. Thus a civilization begins to grow and develop. If man fails in his response, decline and dissolution take place.
A group of people called creative individuals or the creative minority play decisive roles in the history of civilizations. These people shoulder responsibilities, try to solve all the problems of their age, and educate other men to enable them to also respond to the difficulties. By doing so, they overcome the challenge.
Therefore, growth or decline does not come necessarily; both depend upon the appearance of creative individuals or minorities who hold a "self-deciding ability" even under difficult conditions. The fate of world history depends on whether these people perform their responsibilities or not. Thus, Toynbee's view of history is indeterministic.
But, according to the Unification Principle, the aim and direction of history are already determined absolutely due to reasons that will be stated in detail in the next section. The processes through which the goal of history is realized are varied however, and are not determined beforehand. In other words, the process of history depends upon the fulfillment of responsibility by a providential person. Such a view of history is called the "Theory of Responsibility" ("Responsibilitism").
3. The Laws Of History
If human history is the history of re-creation by God as stated already, there should be laws of history as well as a goal and direction.
We look at the history of mankind from a Christian viewpoint. In the past, Christianity successfully took a wide view of history by declaring that human history is the history of the Providence of God. This Providence began by the fall of our ancestors and comes to an end by the appearance of the Messiah. However, this theory has not yet defined the objective laws that are at work in every nook and cranny of history. As a result, communism has held a certain superiority over Christianity by attacking the latter's weak points.
The Driving Power of Historical Development
Communists regard the development of history to be the same as the development of nature and treat the two in the same way. Thus, the history of mankind is developed by natural forces alone, namely by the contradiction between the productive forces and the production relations. There is no room in Communist theory for the working of supernatural powers such as God or any spiritual power. So long as history is grasped merely as a social science, unscientific concepts whose existence can not be clearly ascertained, such as the Providence, should all be neglected. This is what communists asserted, and they widely attacked Christianity with science as their shield.
They attacked so violently that Christianity could not resist. However, we want to counterattack and overcome the philosophy and historical view held by Marxists by presenting the rules of God's re-creation and Providence more scientifically than they propound their historical philosophy. Then, what are the laws of re-creation? We are going to explain them briefly.
Section C - The Laws of Re-Creation in History
1. The Laws Of Creation
Since the re-creation of history is naturally a process of creation, it must be carried out following the principles of God's creation. If so, what are the principles of God's creation on which the movements of history should be based? We have already studied these in detail in the chapter on ontology; however, let us explain the principles which have an especially close relationship with historical laws, referring to their connections with actual developments in history.
(1) The Law of Relativity
One of the most important laws of creation is that of relativity. This law concerns the fact that all things in the cosmos are created in relativity. That is, nothing can exist by itself; all things are created so that they can exist only by forming some relationships with others. Examples of this are man and woman; male and female animals; the stamen and pistil of plants; the positive and negative ions of molecules; the proton (nucleus) and electron of atoms; the spirit man and physical man or mind and body of individuals; the land and sea, mountains and plains, sky and ground, and sun and earth of the natural world; the governor and the governed; the society and the family; city and village of a country; the parents and children; husband and wife, and there are countless other examples.
In these examples the former are subjects and the latter objects. Such relationships are not confined to created things alone. Relativity is also seen in the position and status of individuals, e.g. upper and lower, front and behind, left and right, high and low, strong and weak, long and short, large and small, wide and narrow, etc. Thus created things and the created world are all relative. That is, all things can exist only by connecting the relative positions of subject and object with each other. This law of creation is called the "Law of Relativity." This is because the creation is one of similarity. That is to say, all things have been created in polarity (Sung Sang and Hyung Sang, positivity and negativity). These are God's relative attributes, and thus all things have similar relationships with each other.
(2) The Law of Give-and-Take
If an individual forms a correlative standard with another individual by the Universal Prime Force, through this base made by the subject and object, a phenomenon of giving and receiving occurs. This phenomenon is called the give-and-take action and by this action, the subject and object become inseparable and united. This relation or condition is called the correlative base and only when there is a correlative base can these individuals maintain their existence. Accordingly, the correlative base is the existence base for each individual. If the subject and object form the correlative base by a harmonious G-T action, they become similar to God as a harmonized body of polarity. When there is an ideal union, all the various phenomena of life, multiplication (growth, development, etc.) and the various operations (movement, change, etc.) occur. All phenomena such as growth, movement, development, change and extinction happen in the natural world as a result of the G-T action between numberless individuals. [Note: All things come from the ultimate source which is common to them all, so that all things are involved in the process in which subject and object combine with each other or carry out multiplication by the give-and-take action, namely, the Four Position Base (origin, subject, object, and multiplied body), and the three stages [cause (origin) - subject and object (division)-multiplied body (union)]. If the progress of time is especially taken into consideration, the G-T action may be called the action of Chung-Boon-Hap (origin-division-union).]
Now let us look at some examples of the G-T action. By the G-T action between the sun and the earth, the phenomena of the rotation and the revolution of the earth occur, and by G-T action, the multiplication of creatures on the earth is carried out. By the G-T action between husband and wife, their home is maintained and they produce offspring. In the human body, the physiological functions are maintained by the G-T actions between the arteries and veins and the sympathetic nervous system and parasympathetic nervous system. The functions of plants are maintained by the G-T action between the xylem and phloem. In the case of molecules, the necessary chemical reactions occur by the G-T action between positive ions and negative Ions. In atoms, movement occurs through the G-T action between the proton (nucleus) and the electron.
By a smooth give-and-take action between the government and people, industry is developed and the country prospers. In school too, ideal education is achieved and the school will develop by good G-T action between the teachers and pupils. In the case of business companies, they will become prosperous, bringing about common welfare, if the G-T action is carried out smoothly between the employers and employees. Moreover, animals and plants maintain their lives by receiving and exchanging carbon dioxide and oxygen. Flowers and bees co-exist and propagate by their mutual G-T action. Such examples of G-T action are countless.
When this law works in the development of history, relationships between leading persons and the social, material conditions are formed in one age or society (nation, state). At the same time, history develops by social G-T action. In the formation of the action, the will (desire) of the leading person is the subject factor while the public, representing the social and material conditions, is the object factor. By the G-T action or its opposite operation (opposition and strife caused by different interests) between these two factors, progress or retrogression have been repeated, thus forming history.
What we must also explain here is that not only the above-mentioned mutually harmonious G-T action, but also the phenomenon of mutual repulsion appears in the natural world. For instance, positive electricity and positive electricity (or negative electricity and negative electricity) repel each other; also water and fire repel each other. At first sight, such a mutually repulsive phenomenon appears to oppose G-T action. Actually, however, it is an additional phenomenon which strengthens the G-T action between the subject and object. In other words, by the mutual repulsion between positive electricity and positive electricity (subject and subject), the G-T action between positive electricity and negative electricity (subject and object) is further strengthened.
Fire and water have their respective purposes, but they are the same in the fact that they are indispensable to man and other things. However, if they are present in excessive quantities, they will cause damage to man and other things. This damage done by fire or water can be prevented or at least minimized by utilizing their mutually repulsive natures. That is, if there is too much water, we dry it up with fire (heat); or if a fire is burning things up, we pour water on the fire to extinguish it. By doing this, the G-T actions between all things can be correctly maintained. The repulsion phenomenon does not violate the law of the give-and-take action; instead, it is an additional and accessory phenomenon for supporting or completing G-T action.
Furthermore, it goes without saying that man, who is the ruler of all things, can better his living environment by utilizing these mutually repelling phenomena. Thus in the natural world there are mutually responsive G-T actions, and to help these actions there are mutually repelling phenomena too. This accompaniment of the mutually responding phenomena with repelling phenomena is called the "Law of Response and Repulsion" or concisely the "Law of Response."
(3) The Law of Dominion of the Center
All things have centers. For instance, the center of an atom is the proton (nucleus); the center of a cell, the nucleus; the center of the solar system, the sun; and the center of the cosmos, man. The center is also the subject. That is, the proton which is the center of an atom is the subject of the electron; the nucleus which is the center of a cell is the subject of the protoplasm which in turn is the object; parents, who are the center of a home, are the subjects of the children who are the objects; the sun is the subject of the earth and other planets. Moreover, man, who is the center of the created world, is the subject over the created things which are the objects.
Thus the center is the subject and is created to control the object. In other words, the object, which belongs to the center, is controlled by the center. In some cases, the object revolves around the subject. In this case also the object is controlled by the subject. This is the "Law of Dominion of the Center."
If man, who was the center of the cosmos, had not fallen he would have had dominion over the whole cosmos. However, he has fallen and can not take dominion. Accordingly, the Providence of Restoration is to make man regain his right over all things which he lost by his fall. Therefore, if the ideal world of creation is recovered by the Providence of Restoration, man will be able to execute complete dominion over all things.
Marx says that if the communist society comes, man will become the ruler of nature for the first time and control and remodel it at last. But he does not clarify why man can become the ruler of nature. While his materialistic view of history underestimates the roles of special persons, the Unification view of history emphasizes their roles because among them there are many leading providential persons set up by the law of dominion of the center. Society has developed by the G-T action with these persons as the subject and the public as the object. Nevertheless Marx did not ignore the roles of such unique persons in the development of society. He admitted that the direction of historical events depended on the guiding ability of the leaders of that time. But he denied the decisive roles of these persons, saying that the basic direction of historical development is determined not by the individual's ability but by class movement (class struggle) and that the specified persons only play their roles as leaders or representatives of one social class. Needless to say, we can not agree with his view.
In the creation, God created things first and man last. Similarly, in the Providence of Restoration, which is recreation, God first formed the social environment at a certain stage of historical development, and then He established a center of control, the subject, who could take control over the circumstances. By the law of relativity of the subject and object, there can be no environment without a central person nor a central person without an environment in which he acts. The leading person is not a by-product of social conditions but a providential person who was set up by the desire of the people and by the Providence. When there are suitable social and material conditions at a certain stage of historical development, God sets up a central person to arrange the circumstances according to the law of the dominion of. the center. Moreover, only people who have specific qualifications or competence can become such leading persons.
(4) The Law of Shared Responsibility
The growth and development of all things is carried out by the autonomy and self-control of the Principle itself. In the case of the growth of man, however, his spontaneous, creative effort or share of responsibility is demanded besides the autonomy. That is, man becomes completed only when both God and man share their respective responsibilities. This is the "Law of Shared Responsibility."
Needless to say, man's sharing of responsibility is demanded in not only his growth, but also in the Providence of Restoration. In other words, the Providence of Restoration is accomplished by the combination of both God's and man's share of responsibility. Accordingly, in case man does not carry out his own responsibility, the restoration will necessarily be delayed. It is for this reason that the history of sin has been prolonged until today. Carrying out his responsibility, God supplies the providential time and place and then a providential central person of that time appears as the subject to deal with the circumstantial conditions. Historically speaking, however, many central persons standing on the side of good (Abel) were not able to correctly fulfill their responsibilities.
(5) The Law of Completion (Development) Through Three Stages
Nothing is created perfect from the start, but everything reaches completion only through a gradual growth process which is carried out through three stages. This is the "Law of Completion Through Three Stages." This law, of course, also applies to the providential restoration of re-creation. As recorded in Divine Principle, or in the Bible, which is the record of the Providence up to the days of Jesus Christ, there are many examples of the providence of the number three, such as the three sons in Adam's and Noah's families, three kinds of offerings of Abraham, Jacob's three periods of toil, Moses' three courses of 40 years, the three temptations of Christ and his three disciples, etc. After Christ too, the number three providence has continued. The representative examples are the Renaissance movement and the movement of the religious Reformation.
As is widely known, the Renaissance was a humanistic movement while the religious Reformation was a theological movement. These two movements both passed through the developmental process of three stages. The first stage of the humanistic movement was the Renaissance mentioned above; the second stage, the Enlightenment; and the third stage, the communist movement, based on materialistic thought. The first stage of the theological movement was the religious Reformation started by Martin Luther and John Calvin; the second stage, the new movements of religious reformation which took place in the 17th-18th centuries. The movement of Pietism started by Spener of Germany, Methodism by the Wesley Brothers of Britain, The Quakers (Society of Friends) by George Fox, the spiritual movement of Swedenborg, the New Light School of Jonathan Edwards of the United Stages, and the idealistic philosophy of Germany at that time-these are all the second stage of the theological movement. However, the third stage has not yet developed. The movement of this stage will develop soon on a world-wide scale. This will and must happen. (The humanistic movement is the Cain-type movement or Hellenistic movement of Greek thought, while the theological movement is the Abel-type movement originating in Hebraism.) In the future, by the theological movement of the third stage, or the new religious reformation, the Cain-type thought will be absorbed into the Abel-type thought and all religions and thoughts will be completely unified.
The World Wars are also good examples of the number three providence. World wars are the wars between the powers on the side of Abel and the powers on the side of Cain; they inevitably happen in order to make the human history of sin come to an end. Here too we can see the process of three stages, that is, three world wars. Mankind has experienced the first and second world wars but the third one has not yet occurred. World war does not necessarily mean that there will be a bloody war on a world-wide scale. After all, the important thing is to make the Cain or evil powers yield to the powers on the side of Abel or good. Therefore the third world war need not be a hot war but could be a cold war or local war.
(6) The Law of the Period of the Number "Six
It took a period of the number "six" for God to create the. cosmos. That is to say, in order to create Adam, God began by establishing six periods beforehand. Therefore, in the Providence of Restoration or re-creation, God also established six periods beforehand. That is, God's Providence of Restoration entered a new stage at the start of the number six period before the advent of Christ or the Second Adam. This Providence will be completely fulfilled at the advent of the Third Adam, who comes after the establishment of another number six period. Concretely speaking, this happens as follows. Six centuries before the advent of the Second Adam (Christ) God led the Israelites into exile in Babylonia in order to give them many trials. At the same time, He developed Greek civilization to restore the environment, and made Confucianism and Buddhism appear in the East in order to form the foundation for man's restoration (foundation of conscience) on a world-wide scale. If the foundation of restoration of the environment and the foundation of the restoration of man had actually been established, mankind would have been completely saved by the advent of the Messiah. Six centuries before the Third Adam (Lord of the Second Advent) the Pope became a prisoner, thus forcing Christianity to be renewed. Meanwhile the Renaissance took place to restore the environment, and the religious Reformation also began in order to form the foundation of the restoration of man. It was about the 14th century that the movement for religious Reformation started. This is the "Law of the Period of the Number 'Six'."
Among these rules of creation, it is the law of shared responsibility that seems to be the most important in thinking about the character of history, especially in examining whether history is deterministic or indeterministic.
The progress of history depends upon the extent of the achievements of a comparatively small number of leading people who stand at the center of the Providence and who take on their share of responsibility. If they successfully perform their responsibilities just as God expects them to, history continues smoothly along the program which God has planned and it moves toward a new stage of Providence. If they are not successful in performing their duties, the duties must be taken over by the next generation and thus history is delayed.
In other words, the aim and direction of history are absolute and decided since they are fixed by God, but the concrete developmental process of history is shortened or extended depending on whether the providential people leading it perform their duties perfectly or not. The process depends on human acts. In this sense, we think that the process of history is indeterministic.
Such being the case, our view on the development of history is not fully deterministic nor completely indeterministic. That is, the goal of history is predetermined while the process of history is not. In order to emphasize that history is not based on mere determinism nor mere indeterminism, we may call this view the theory of shared responsibility, or concisely, "Theory of Responsibility." It may also be expressed as "Responsibilitism."
2. The Laws Of Restoration
The re-creation of history is indeed a kind of creation, but the process of re-creation can not be the same as that of creation since it involves the process of the restoration of fallen man.
Suppose we have overeaten and become sick. If the stomach is still functioning, the sick stomach is still governed by the general physiological laws similar to those of a healthy stomach. However, another process which can restore the damaged part to the original state must be added to the general rules and functions. Since the stomach problem was caused by an abnormal force which went beyond the normal strength (quantity) due to overeating, the normal force of the stomach alone is not enough to restore the stomach to its original, healthy state; an abnormal force (e.g. fasting or medicine) must be added to help in the restoration.
In the case of history also, since man fell by an abnormal force which went beyond the normal strength and against the normal direction, an ordinary force is not enough to accomplish the restoration; it is necessary to have a special force (power of good) beyond the common standard. This is expressed in Divine Principle by the words "Restoration by Indemnity" (Tang-gam-Bokkwi [Korean] ). Let us state the general laws concerning restoration by indemnity.
(1) The Law of Indemnity
The fall was when man lost his original position and state, and the restoration is the regaining of this original position and state. Since the loss of the original position and state had a certain motive (reason) and process, in the case of restoration as well, there must also be a certain reason and process. Thus to set some condition for the restoration to the original position is called indemnity (Tangam). The condition is called an "Indemnity Condition", the process through which the condition is set is named "Process of Indemnity", and the restoration of the lost original position is called "Restoration by Indemnity."
Man fell because (1) he did not keep faith in God's commandment which was an indispensable condition for him to fulfill, and (2) he yielded to the temptation of Satan. He fell both spiritually and physically. Therefore, the indemnity conditions which must be set by fallen people are (1) to form the "Foundation of Faith" spiritually by dedicating offerings (things in place of God's words), and (2) to set up the "Foundation of Substance" by obediently following the words of the prophets and saints in the daily life of the physical body. If these conditions are fulfilled, the "Foundation for the Messiah" is established.
However, ordinary people belong to the satanic society and do not listen obediently to the teachings of the leaders on the side of good (prophets, sages). Instead they usually persecute them. Therefore strife was necessary to awaken the people to what was good. Thus by the law of separation (which will be stated next) God has separated persons of good from the world of sin in order to let them confront the powers of sin (powers of Satan guiding the public to the side of evil).
Thus the way of suffering is inevitable for righteous or chosen people, and up to today many saints and righteous persons have suffered from hardship, persecution and have sacrificed themselves. This is because the way established before them is that of restoration by indemnity. This suffering becomes an offering and a condition by which the people in the satanic world can be led to the side of God. God has successively repeated this kind of providence in order to make people leave the world of sin.
Because of the unbelief of the Israelites, to our great regret, Christ was crucified. However, with this as a condition of indemnity, many people have come to believe in Christianity. The Christians under the Roman Empire were also persecuted miserably, but with this as an indemnity condition even the Roman Empire could not help yielding to Christianity. Thus, without knowledge of the law of indemnity, we can not understand history correctly.
(2) The Law of Separation
Since God is the only Creator, man should have maintained a relationship with God alone. By the fall, however, he has come into contact with Satan too; thus he has had relations with two masters. As a result, if God tries to communicate with a man, Satan also tries. But the Providence can never be realized with such human beings. God could not help but separate out men whom He could contact from those whom Satan could contact. Cain and Abel were examples of this separation. Cain was a person whom Satan could contact while Abel was a person with whom God could communicate. At the starting point of history, Cain was the representative of evil and Abel the representative of good. But Cain killed Abel and human history started as the history of sin. Therefore, in order to develop the Providence of Restoration, God could not help but separate out Abel-type persons from the world of evil, and He has carried on the Providence through these persons.
This law of Providence is called the "Law of Separation" and it was through this law that the many prophets, righteous men and sages who appeared in history were people on the Abel side. If people in the world of sin had faithfully followed the teachings of these Abel-type men, the foundations of faith and substance would have been laid; the Messiah would have come to earth, and mankind would have already returned to its original position.
Here an additional fact should be mentioned. That is, in the process of the Providence of Restoration, the powers on the Abel side have been separated out on various social levels. In the days of the Old Testament, individuals, families, tribes and nations were separated out (Noah, Abraham, Jacob's family, the twelve tribes of Israel centered on Moses, the Israeli nation before the advent of the Messiah, etc.). In the days of the New Testament, nations and a world on the Abel side .have been separated out (Christian nations in Middle Ages and today's free nations centering around Christianity). These separations have been made in order to weaken Satan's powers in the satanic world in preparation for the time of the Second Advent of the Messiah, and to widen the foundation of faith. The communist bloc and free bloc today are also in the positions of the Cain and Abel sides respectively.
All the advanced free nations were at first Christian countries (England, the United States, France, etc.). In spite of Marx's prophecy, no proletarian revolutions have occurred in these countries; instead, because they were countries established on the Abel side by the law of separation, they have become more prosperous. Today, however, we see the Providence changing from a bipolar separation to a multipolar separation. We think that this is God's way of decisively weakening the powers of evil which govern the world of sin. It may be a providential occurrence which foretells the coming of the Messiah.
(3) The Law of the Number Four Restoration
When we consider the already-mentioned G-T action from beginning to end, it is called the Chung-Boon-Hap action. Since all things have a purpose of creation, the process through which the united bodies or multiplied bodies are produced by the give-and-take action between the subject and object centering on the purpose comes to have four positions and three stages. All individuals must occupy one of these four positions in order to exist or grow. Thus the Four Position Base (Quadruple Base) is not only the base for things to be united or multiplied, but is also the base necessary for things to exist.
The most important of all these Four Position Bases is the family one. It is the standard of all Four Position Bases and the ideal of creation. It is the ethical system composed by the parents and their children centering on the purpose of creation of God. It is the base of life on which human morals centering on God's love are established and carried out. The love of parents, between couples, and the love of children can be realized only within this Four Position Base as the base of life. Thus the ideal home can be formed and at the same time the ideal society based on such homes, that is the heavenly kingdom, can be realized. To our great regret, however, this family Four Position Base has been stolen by Satan through the fall of man. As a result, all created things entered the sphere of Satanic dominion. Therefore, the central aim of God's Providence of Restoration is to restore this family Four Position Base.
Since God's Providence has to go through the symbolic and conditional process first (see "Law of Conditional Providence" to be stated later), God carries out the providence to restore the number four (40 or 400, etc.) which can be restored by setting up periods of time. According to the Unification view of history, the number four period is called the "Period of Separation from Satan."
Thus many number-four periods such as 40 days, 40 years and 400 years have appeared in history. On the other hand, Satan has done everything in his power not to be deprived of those number-four periods by God's side. Throughout history, God's providence to restore the number four and Satan's anti-providence to break the providence have continuously repeated. That is, when the powers on God's side restored the number four, Satan again invaded and broke it. Thus in the history of God's Providence, the numbers such as 40 and 400 appear very often. The historian Arnold Toynbee also admits the existence of such periods in the development of history, saying that surprisingly, the period of the breakdown of a culture is often 400 years. Toynbee, A. J., The World and the West) Forty years after the establishment of Russian Communism (1919), an ideological dispute took place between the Soviet Union and Communist China so that a fissure grew in the communist bloc. In 1945, forty years after Japan annexed Korea in 1905, the Korean people were liberated. These may also be examples of the number-four restoration providence.
(4) The Law of Conditional Providence
As stated already in the law of indemnity, a certain condition of indemnity must be set up for fallen man to restore his Original Nature. In other words, God does not make fallen man restore his original position immediately, but makes him set a certain symbolic condition to achieve God's will gradually. When Adam fell, God did not save him immediately, but separated Abel from Cain and, with their offerings as a condition, intended to send the Messiah. In the case of Noah, God had him make a condition by building an ark, which was the symbol of the whole cosmos. In the case of Abraham, God had him make offerings of a dove, sheep, and cow as a condition.
In the process of the Providence of Restoration there are many more examples of the conditional providence than the ones mentioned above. In carrying out the affairs of the conditional providence, some providential leaders have without fail, been set up to take charge. Had these men performed their responsibilities and fulfilled the conditional providence just as God wished them to, the Providence would have moved on to the next stage. To our great regret and sorrow, however, they did not perform their duties and fulfill all the respective affairs correctly. As a result, the Providence of Restoration has been delayed time and time again.
For instance, Moses should have struck the rock once but instead struck it twice. The realization of God's will was delayed, and Moses could not enter Canaan. The providential conditions always correspond to the respective times but there were many conditions foreshadowing the events that were to happen at the time of the advent of the Messiah. For instance, Moses struck the rock because in his actual situation he had to bring forth water, but his action also had fatal consequences on the providence at the time of the advent of Christ. That is, by striking the rock twice, a condition was made by which it was possible for Satan to strike Christ who was the second Adam. When Christ did appear, the infidelity of the Israelites and the betrayal of Judas Iscariot were thus possible and they directly brought about the sorrowful event of the crucifixion.
Marx says that human history necessarily developed from the primitive communal society, to the socialistic, communistic society passing through the stages of the slave, feudal and capitalistic societies. If Christ had not been crucified but had completed his mission as Messiah, the Roman society of that time (what Marx called the "slave society") would have directly become the earthly Kingdom of Heaven. To our great sorrow, however, Christ was killed and the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth was not realized.
Thus the conditional providence has had such a great influence on the development of history that we can not correctly understand history without knowledge of its contents.
(5) The Law of the False Preceding the True
In human history, many nations have prospered and then declined. Among them were those that for a time realized great unity and brought about peace and wonderful culture. Examples of these are the Roman Empire, the kingdom of Egypt, and the Han and Tang dynasties in China. The emperors, kings and other leaders who established these great countries were all unique and uncommon, and without their above average activities, the unification and creation of cultures would have been very difficult. What significance do these facts have? The Unification view of history sees them in relation to the "Law of the False Preceding the True." This is the rule that, in the development of history, false men appear before true men. The false men are the satanic or Cain-type people who are on the side of evil, while true men are those on the side of God, Abel or the good. The final aim of the Providence of Restoration is to realize a great and unified country in which the ideal of creation is realized. Centering on God, the whole world would be unified into one country. This is the Divine Country whose sovereign is God, the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth which can be created only by the advent of the Messiah. However, since Satan knows the providence of God well, he has tried to establish his country before the advent or re-advent of the Messiah. He set up leaders, whom we call antichrists, to have them establish unified countries. However, as such persons and countries belonged to the world of sin, they prospered for a time but then declined. The law of the false preceding the true appears very clearly just before the advent of the Messiah. An example is the Roman Empire. Around the time of the birth of the Messiah, a peaceful, prosperous and great empire was established, maintaining great territory centering on its emperors. Satan imitated the realization of a unified world full of love, peace and prosperity before the advent of the Messiah.
Even in the modern world there are such examples. One of them was the unified communist world centering on Stalin. Before the Second Advent of the Messiah, Satan tried to have Stalin realize his ideal world. That is to say, the false ideal world. Stalin was a false-Messiah-type person (antichrist). Thus by the appearance of this phenomena we can feel the approach of the Second Advent of the Messiah. Also the present situation in which the providence is changing from a bipolar separation to a multipolar separation gives us an especially strong impression of the approach of the Second Advent.
(6) The Law of the "Horizontal" Reappearance of the "Vertical"
This is the law which lets something "vertical" develop itself "horizontally ... .. Vertical" means the flow of time while "horizontal" means the breadth of space. In other words, "vertical" refers to the actual world. Accordingly, the "horizontal reappearance of the vertical" means the reappearance of all the providential events and persons of history in the present age, in order to realize the providence. For instance, the offering of Adam's family, the loyalty of Noah, the belief of Abraham, the 21 years hard work of Jacob, the guidance of people by Moses; all these persons and events in the providential history reappear at certain times.
Why does God do this? He is trying to finish the whole Providence of Restoration at one time at the terminal stage by simultaneously resolving all the providential events, which were not resolved at various points in history. It is certain that the history of any nation is God's providential history. It is especially the history of Israel, however, that composes the center of the Providence. "Israel" originally meant the Jewish nation but according to the Divine Providence, after the crucifixion of Jesus, it has referred to the Christians. In history, God selected many persons through many generations to develop many providential events. However, almost every time, trouble occurred and in many cases these events were not resolved. This is because human beings have not faithfully observed the rules of the Providence of Restoration (re-creation). Such being the case, God lets these historical events and persons reappear at the terminal stage, on a world-wide scale, and tries, at one time, to completely rectify all the failures of history. The method in this case is the "Law of the Horizontal Reappearance of the Vertical."
Such a providential law as this was applied in the days of -Christ, and will again be applied at the time of the Second Advent of Christ. In other words, God lets the whole past providential history reappear in the latter days and tries to complete the Providence of Restoration by simultaneously indemnifying all of it on the level of the whole. As a result, at the terminal stage of history, unexpected and complicated incidents appear one after another and make people fall into great chaos. The nearer one comes to the present days, the less Marx's prophecy concerning social development hits the mark. This is because the above-mentioned law has begun to work gradually and broadly, bringing a different effect from what Marx predicted. However, there are other reasons too.
(7) The Law of the Providence of Parallel Periods
This law means that in case the realization of God's Providence of Restoration is delayed by men neglecting their duty, a providence similar in character and type to that of the past generation is repeated in the new generation. just as the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter are repeated in the same forms every year, so, if the realization of the Providence is delayed, God's Providence is repeated in forms similar in period, persons, events and contents, to those of before. For instance, the 2000 years from Adam to Abraham, the 2000 years from Abraham to Christ, and the 2000 years from Christ to the present are similar ages from the viewpoint not only of period but also of contents of providence and similarity of persons. [Note: Among these kinds of similarity, the most important one is the period. If we compare the New Testament age with the Old Testament age, we can perceive similar parallel periods. So the providence of this similarity of periods is called "the Providence of Parallel Periods" or "the Parallel Providence."]
For example, Noah's ark, Moses' stone tablets and the Arc of the Covenant, and Augustine's "City of God" are similar to each other. The revelation of Malachi, which took place about 1600 years after Abraham, and the religious Reformation of Martin Luther, which developed about 1600 years after the Messiah, are also examples of the providence of parallel periods. Also, the Greek civilization, which began six centuries before the advent of the Messiah, and the Renaissance, which began six centuries before the second advent of the Messiah, are similar. Furthermore, the lives of the Israeli people in exile in Babylonia and the life of the Pope as a prisoner in France also show the providence of parallel periods.
Because the providence of parallel periods is at work in human history, we can foresee the contents of the parallel providence which will occur in the next stage by drawing analogies from the parallel providence of the last stage.
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