The Words The Kwak Family
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The Words The Kwak Family |
As you know, because our first ancestors fell, we lost the meaning and the hope of human responsibility. Many church members still misinterpret the word responsibility. However, we must remember that God gave a portion of responsibility only to men and women -- not to animals or to any other creation, and it is this responsibility that makes us different from them. Such responsibility is in itself the ultimate blessing, for through it we can inherit Heavenly Father's vision, His capability, and His heart. Also we inherit His creativity and dominion, and thus we can actually become the substantial representatives of God, our Parent, here on earth.
Unfortunately, Adam and Eve denied God: They denied God's word and so denied God's blessing. In other words, they lost the opportunity to fulfill their human portion of responsibility. In the process of restoration then, we must regain that opportunity -- but it will not be returned to us easily. Under Satan's dominion, personal responsibility has no real meaning. God alone gives us our responsibility, so it can be exercised only under His dominion of love, whether indirectly or directly. However, the fall completely cancelled our true value, so Satan has the power to treat us as beings lower than animals.
According to the Principle of Creation, we absolutely need to exercise our portion of responsibility through a period of growth in order to attain perfection. Yet Satan's power nullifies it. Thus, along the way of restoration, God must provide a means for us to reach the point where we can regain our portion of responsibility. For this God gives us the condition of indemnity, which means: the way to separate from Satan.
Adam and Eve, from the top of the growth stage, fell to a point even below the formation stage -- to a realm where God's Principle does not operate. God is the creator and owner of the Principle, and in order to be subject to His true dominion, all creation must remain within its boundaries. Outside of that is non-principled territory, which holds no meaning or existence in the true sense. Our ancestors fell into this territory, so from Heavenly Father's viewpoint, the life of fallen man is not real.
Since Adam and Eve fell at the top of the growth stage, Satan is now automatically able to exert indirect claim over the first two stages of growth. The third and final stage, the perfection stage, remains God's territory where the Principle still operates indirectly, and beyond that is the realm of God's direct dominion. Satan's direct dominion is below the formation stage. The formation and growth stages, while originally God's territory, are now the mixed indirect dominions of both God and Satan, due to Satan's influence and claim.
Since Adam and Eve fell straight into the realm of Satan's direct dominion, their immediate problem was to separate from Satan. Without separation there was absolutely no way they could find the right direction and approach heavenly territory. How could they accomplish this? Please understand: There is no way that they could do this completely -- only conditionally. Don't ever think that because you have set a condition of indemnity that you are completely free of Satan. If that were true, how easy restoration would be! The way of indemnity is only conditional.
Then what exactly did Adam and Eve lose at the time of the fall? First, they lost their vertical relationship with God. Second, they lost the true horizontal relationship between people, between human beings and angels, and between human beings and all the things of creation. Ever since Cain killed Abel, relationships between people have been characterized by struggle. As a result of the fall, angels came to dominate the human world. Man's relationship with the entire created world was turned upside down.
Our vertical relationship with God is the internal, sung-sang level of relationship, while our horizontal relationship with other people and creation is the external, hyung-sang level of relationship. The fall destroyed these relationships; therefore, they must be restored through the process of indemnity. We set indemnity conditions in order to lay the foundation to receive the Messiah, which includes the foundation of faith and the foundation of substance. These two foundations are conditional, although once complete, we can receive the Messiah substantially.
Recently Father emphasized the eight stages we must pass through on the way of restoration. These stages are directly related to the foundation of faith and substance. To restore our relationship with God through the foundation of faith, for example, we must be able to reclaim our position as His true sons and daughters. However, the fall completely cancelled our original position. Having fallen into non-principled territory under satanic dominion, we no longer have any relationship with God at all, but rather stand in the position of being His enemy. We cannot change from being His enemy to being His faithful children in one simple step.
From the position of enemy to God, where can we begin? The first stage is to become the servant of servants. An enemy has a purpose diametrically opposed to the master, and is in a state of challenge or conflict with him; but the servant of servants has at least come into the master's territory to work for him and share his purpose. The relationship between the master and the servant of servants, however, still remains very distant heartistically. The servant of servants may be ordered about and persecuted, but he does not receive his compensation from his master, only from another servant.
However much work or service he performs, the servant of servants can only serve the master indirectly, under the guidance of another servant. Yet the servant, at the next higher stage, can serve the master directly, and so he can become much closer to him. Still, the servant can receive nothing more from the master than his wages.
Next is the stage of adopted son or daughter. A servant can work with his master in a relationship of deep trust and loyalty, yet what distinguishes the position of the adopted child is that he has the right of inheritance, even though he does not share the parents' blood lineage. That represents an amazing advancement. However, there is a tendency in the case of the adopted child for the parents and/or the child to harbor unresolved misgivings about the other. Guidance or scolding might not be given or received with complete understanding or trust.
The destiny of the stepson or stepdaughter is even higher, because the child is the blood relative of one of the parents. The child can easily be close at least to his natural parent. However, invisible, emotional forces often work to keep the child distant from his stepparent, so that resentment can still come between them. If you are the child of divorced parents who remarried, you may have experienced this yourself.
The next stage is the position of true sons and daughters, our first real goal. Yet at this stage Heavenly Father's eternal ideal is still not completed; reaching the true child's position is still not enough. The position of parents -- first true mother, and then true father -- must also be restored. The original purpose of creation must be achieved through mature Adam and Eve. Subsequently we reach the stage where we have even restored God! This sounds amazing, but in truth, until man is completely restored, God's heart can never be restored. God's heart is healed through man, through those who fulfill the heartistic qualification of true parents.
These eight stages are not just words -- they are our actual path and destiny. Think carefully in detail about what these stages mean, and consider what stage you are in personally. Everybody calls on the name of God, but from which heartistic place are you now relating to Him? How far have you progressed out of Satan's dominion? The entire 6,000-year history of restoration can be understood according to this pattern, but so can our individual course. Step by step, each of us must go this way. Moreover, our progress does not follow a simple line; within this general direction there is tremendous struggle. Many kinds of dispensational events are connected with this process. Also, please consider that in all the 2,000 years of Christianity, with its hundreds of different denominations, no one except True Father has been able to delineate clearly the course of our progress back to God, centering on His heart.
God's original purpose of creation was to make harmony throughout the entire cosmos. Through the first man and woman He wanted to reach the entire cosmos, including the spirit world, with His love. God expected man to establish a harmonious relationship with Him, with others, and with all creation. Because of the fall, however, God's ideal was shattered and all these relationships broke down into conflict. Since the time of the fall, horizontal relationships in this world have always involved a struggle between Cain and Abel -- one figure who is closer to God, and another who is more distant.
The restoration of horizontal relationships between Cain and Abel also progresses through eight stages. First we must establish unity between our mind in the position of Abel and our body in the position of Cain. What follow are the family, clan, tribal, national, world, and cosmic levels of Cain and Abel, followed at last even by the level of God Himself. Thus there are not only eight stages of vertical restoration, but eight stages of horizontal restoration as well. We cannot return to God directly; we must advance level by level.
Once again I want to remind you that the restoration of all these relationships is conditional. When we evaluate our position in relationship to God, can we honestly say we have achieved the position of real sons and daughters? When did God permit you with His whole heart to be His own children? Truly, all events related to our path of restoration, including the Blessing, are conditional.
Ever since the beginning of my life of faith I have wondered, "Where is God? Why can't we see God?" I think of the situation of an unborn baby. A baby in his mother's womb might wonder, "Where is my mother?" Because the baby is within the mother, he cannot see her; nevertheless, he is directly connected to and dependent upon her every moment, receiving from her the elements that sustain his life. Similarly, all mankind is in heaven's womb. Because God's vision and territory are so vast, we cannot see Him; nevertheless, we are within and directly related to Him, constantly receiving life elements from Him.
Father has taught us that the way of our restoration is not smooth. Each successive level requires a different indemnity condition. For example, God told Abraham to leave his father's house and his hometown, and He also ordered Jacob to leave his family and flee to Haran. What was the meaning of this? For Abraham or Jacob to jump up to another stage, they had to lay an indemnity condition -- which meant facing a new and bigger challenge in a difficult environment, far away from familiar territory. These kinds of challenges are absolutely necessary for indemnity. The way of God's dispensation is to elevate vertically while at the same time expanding horizontally, so that the realm of His indirect dominion becomes bigger and bigger. Abraham was the first person to make the necessary condition to be liberated from Satan's accusation. Thus, standing in the servant of servants' position, Abraham accomplished restoration on the individual level. Jacob conditionally restored the family, and Moses the clan and tribe; they both related to God from the position of His servants. Humankind remained on that level until the advent of Jesus Christ, who brought national level restoration as God's son. This course was actually trod in history, but it is also a sign and symbol for the course of our own individual restoration. Please think deeply about this.
As we climb these ladders of sung-sang and hyung-sang restoration, what is the real, essential element we are restoring? First, absolute faith and obedience. Usually we analyze the Cain/Abel relationship through the reversal of the four fallen natures, but no matter what level of development you are on, the central requirement is always absolute faith in and obedience to your Abel figure. Whenever you reflect upon your spiritual progress, please be sure to check the degree and the purity of your faith and obedience. In restoring the vertical relationship from servant of servant to parents' position, the main element we seek to restore is true love. The absolute essence of God's relationship with us as His sons and daughters is His love -- which we broke at the time of the fall. Without true love, we cannot really restore our relationship with God. In conclusion, these two areas -- faith and obedience, and love -- are what we must consider most deeply on our path toward regaining our human responsibility.