Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: Episode 257
Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: A Selection of True Parents’ Speeches
Book 6: The Role of Women in Creating the Ideal World
Speech 8: God, Women and World Peace, pg 933-938
Self-centered love and the breakdown of the family
Ladies and gentlemen, if a family is not centered on God’s ideal of love, there will be conflict among the members of that family. Without God’s love as an absolute center, the family will ultimately break down. Moreover, a nation of such families will also decline.
Because illicit, self-centered love invaded the family of our first ancestors, selfishness and greed have continued to dominate human history from the individual to the family, society, nation and world. For this reason, God’s work of restoration begins at the individual level. Since Satan knows this, he also focuses his efforts on the individual level.
It is not by chance that selfish individualism has become the dominant way of life in these Last Days. People feel increasingly alienated from those around them and bear little sense of responsibility for the well-being of their country, community, or even their own family.
Rising divorce statistics indicate that husbands and wives feel little responsibility toward their marriage; parents do not take proper responsibility for their children; and individuals, devoid of any sense of human dignity, reject accountability for their own lives.
The United States and many other countries of the world have seen such phenomena, beginning with the youth movement of the 1960s. Idealistic youth rejected the materialism around them in order to seek love and peace, although in the process they also abandoned morality and responsibility. Unable to attain the true love they sought, many disillusioned young people resorted to drug use and free sex, leading to self-destruction, including suicide.
Of all these, what pains God most is free sex. A world of free sex is absolutely contrary to the Will of God and the ideal of the family. Love comes from the stimulation of unblemished emotion, however free sex is totally devoid of purity or true emotion.
How many of us have been touched by the cruelty of infidelity and divorce? Where is God in all the one-night stands? What about the nightmare of children who are sexually abused by a parent? Is free sex worth the price of a broken child?
Indeed, in the domains of homosexuality, free sex, drugs and alcoholism, the world of true love is far away. It is a world in which Satan openly tells people, “Drink! Take drugs! Have sex!” Those who do God’s Will, on the other hand, live a lifestyle that is 180 degrees different from this. Throughout history, those who chose to walk a spiritual path of self-sacrifice have been bitterly opposed and persecuted by the rest of the world.
For example, it is only God’s love and blessing that have allowed the Unification Church to prosper, despite worldwide opposition. The fact that our church has risen from obscurity in war-torn Korea to become a world-level religious movement in only thirty-eight years testifies to God’s continued guidance and support.
There are those who continue to oppose the Unification Church, whispering rumors to prevent our teachings from being heard. Again, Satan’s way is always to attack that which is most precious to God. Yet those who go against the Will of God can never prosper. The principle holds true that those on God’s side who can endure unjust persecution will win the right to take back the blessing. God’s strategy is always to be struck first and then take back what is rightfully His.
Restoring true love
Ladies and gentlemen, the Bible teaches that Eve was the first to disobey God and enter into a relationship with Satan. Due to the Fall, Eve and Adam and also their sons Cain and Abel inherited Satan’s lineage, based upon selfishness and false love. As the descendants of the first couple, which was compromised by Satan, we have all inherited Satan’s lineage. For this reason, Jesus said in John 8:44, “You are from your father, the devil ”
The Old Testament describes a process of restitution according to the formula “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” (Ex. 21:24) In the Divine Principle we refer to making restitution for a wrong as “paying indemnity.” To make restitution for her wrong actions, fallen Eve needed to take on the entire responsibility. She needed to have reversed the actions of the Fall and made spiritual and physical restitution for each step of the Fall.
It was God’s Will that Eve assist her younger son, Abel, to unite with the Will of God. We know from Genesis that God accepted Abel’s offering. However, this was not all that was expected of Abel. Abel’s love was supposed to bring Cain to recognize Abel as God’s chosen person and unite with him, and Eve was supposed to help them achieve that unity.
If Cain and Abel had united, the second problem of the Fall would have been solved. The unity between Cain and Abel, centering on Eve, would have been the foundation to restore the whole of Adam’s family. Throughout providential history, we see God calling special women to play this exact role, to help unite the positions of Cain and Abel as restitution for fallen Eve’s role.
Rebekah as a model of restoration
In the Bible, one of these special women is Rebekah, Isaac’s wife. As the mother of Jacob and Esau, Rebekah held the same position in Isaac’s family that Eve held in Adam’s family. Unlike Eve, however, Rebekah understood God’s providence and helped her second son, Jacob, representing Abel’s position, to gain the blessing intended for the first son, Esau.
Just as Cain killed Abel, Esau wanted to kill Jacob when the blessing went to his younger brother. However with Rebekah’s help, as recorded in Genesis, these brothers eventually reconciled in a warm embrace, rather than resorting to violence.
This reconciliation was a major victory for God. is victory, nevertheless, was not complete, since the reconciliation was only a symbolic purification of the lineage. The substantial purification of the lineage had to be accomplished in the womb. This is the reason for the paradoxical story of Tamar.
By understanding that Tamar, like Rebekah, was in the position of fallen Eve, it becomes possible to understand why Jesus was born of her lineage, the tribe of Judah. I am sure that many of you have read the story about the birth of her twins. She conceived with Judah, her father-in-law, the twins Perez and Zerah. The Bible tells us that the two sons struggled even in the womb for the position of firstborn.
During Tamar’s labor, Zerah’s hand was the first to emerge and the midwife tied a red string around his wrist. Then Zerah’s hand disappeared back into the womb and Perez, the younger, was born as the elder. Thus, the positions of Cain and Abel were restored before birth took place. It was on this foundation that the nation of Israel was chosen to receive the Messiah.
In terms of conventional morality, the actions of Rebekah and Tamar are questionable at best. Why God blessed them has been a theological mystery until today. As we now see, through these women, God could reclaim His lineage from Satan so that Jesus could be born. Their lineage was the point from which the Israelite nation started expanding. The word “Israel'' means victory. Their victory was the reversal of Cain and Abel in the womb, the purification of the lineage.
Mary’s life and her dangerous course
The lineage of Judah developed for generations, expanding to the levels of the tribe, society and nation. From this lineage, Mary was born in Israel two thousand years later.
Mary had the responsibility of uniting the Cain and Abel figures on the family, clan and national levels through paying appropriate indemnity and restoring elder son-ship. Mary responded to God’s call and conceived Jesus, even though, in the eyes of others, she had betrayed her parents and Joseph, to whom she was engaged.
At that time it was customary to stone to death a woman who became pregnant out of wedlock. However, Joseph, standing in the position of Adam, courageously protected his fiancée and would not abandon her.
Because of Mary’s faith, and the victories of Rebekah and Tamar, Satan could not claim sovereignty over Jesus in Mary’s womb. Jesus was born in the position of a true Son under God’s complete, direct lineage. He is the first true Son of God, based upon the purification of the fallen lineage.
That is why Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, is the saint of all saints and the ancestor of God’s true lineage. His birth represented the conclusion of the Old Testament Age at the national level and the dawn of the New Testament Age at the worldwide level.
Mary, in the position to restore fallen Eve, had to build unity between Jesus, who was in the position of Abel, and his elder cousin, John the Baptist, who was in the position of Cain. This unity was essential if the people of Israel were to recognize Jesus as the Messiah.
John was the elder. He had a great following and was widely respected. He described his own role by saying, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, and ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.” (John 1:23) Also, Jesus explained to his disciples that the ministry of John was the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy that says, “I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.” (Mal. 4:5)
However did John fulfill his responsibility in God’s providence? The Gospel of Luke tells us that John came “with the spirit and power of Elijah.” (Luke 1:17) John, however, denied that he was Elijah and doubted the Messiahship of Jesus, even after he had received a clear revelation at the Jordan River at the time of Jesus’ baptism.
John was a well-respected religious figure, while Jesus was seen as only the illegitimate son of a poor carpenter. Without the support of John, it was unlikely the Jewish people would believe in and follow Jesus. Alone, Jesus undertook the difficult path of self-proclamation.
John the Baptist was supposed to have helped Jesus reach the religious leadership of Israel. If John had fulfilled his role, then the religion of Judaism, in the position of Abel, and the nation of Israel, in the position of Cain, could have united with Jesus.
FFWPU, USA