God and the meaning of history discussed as part of preparations for new version of the teachings
By Rev. Jack Corley
A lecture given by Rev. Jack Corley, head of the East European sub-region of the Family Federation, at an international prayer meeting by Zoom on 3rd April 2024. The lecture is based on a presentation originally by Dr. Hyeon-seob Do, the president of Sunhak UP Graduate University given at seminars in South Korea as a preparation for publishing a new version of the teachings of the Family Federation.
I was thinking about how to make history interesting. For some people, history is boring, but actually I would say that now we really understand the true meaning of history.
For most people, it’s just a series of events and people, names and dates, mostly of wars, but they don’t see the underlying direction of history. We actually have the greatest blessing that, through Father and Mother Moon and through the Unification Principles, we understand how history began, we understand the root of conflict, and we understand the direction of history.
And so we can be optimistic, even though the world sometimes looks very difficult. We can actually be optimistic about the future, because we know precisely the time in which we live. It’s like the 30,000-foot view of history. […]
The text was actually presented originally by Professor Hyeon-seob Do, the president of Sunhak UP Graduate University.
One of the expressions I’ve often heard in our movement is the “anguish of God”. Therefore, when you listen to this history, I want you to consider that behind all events, back and forth – and many times failures, disappointments and betrayals – there has been a loving Parent anguishing over His children’s situation.
The greatest pain for parents is the suffering of their children. So a parent can only be happy when his or her children are happy.
It’s the same for whomever you love – your wife, your husband, children, relatives, close friends. You can only be really happy when they are also happy.
And so, I want you to keep this in mind as I look through what otherwise could be a rather dry explanation of history.
I am actually using the transcript from the original lecture, which I have edited down because of time. I believe I could have done a better job. So my apologies if it’s not as good as it should be.
I’ll read [from a provisional translation from Korean]:
“Heavenly Parent has a dream: to give birth to [from the Korean verb 낳다 (nahda) – may also be translated as ‘bring forth’, ‘become the Parent of’, ‘bear’ ] human beings as the children who can monopolize [from the Korean verb 독차지하다 (tokchaji hada) – may also be translated as ‘possess exclusively’, ‘engross’] Heavenly Parent’s love and create an eternal world where they experience joy and happiness while giving and receiving infinite love.”
We are so used to living in a world of conflict and evil that it’s hard to believe the purpose of life actually is joy – joy for God and joy for us.
We often hear that Heavenly Parent created humankind or made human beings. Mother Moon says,
“Heavenly Parent gave birth to us [became our Parent, brought us forth].”
I’ll read some more [from a provisional translation from Korean]:
“When we say Heavenly Parent ‘gave birth to’ [became the Parent of, brought forth] human beings, Heavenly Parent’s parental nature is revealed more clearly.
I think that the expression that best reveals the attributes of Heavenly Parent, who has fatherly and motherly attributes, is the phrase ‘God gave birth to us [became our Parent, brought us forth].’
Looking at it that way, we realize that the relationship between Heavenly Parent and us is more intimate and more profound.”
This painting in the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam”, misses one really very important part: That is Eve. And so, the concept, of course, is that Eve was like an afterthought in the creation story in the Bible.
But actually, God was at His most creative when he created Eve. She was the ultimate and final creation of God, after everything else, including Adam.
I’ll read some more [from a provisional translation from Korean]:
“Heavenly Parent’s dream could not be fulfilled due to the fall of our first ancestors. To fulfill this dream, Heavenly Parent, whose beginning and end are the same, chose the people of Israel from among fallen humankind.
The chosen people of Israel were to attend and follow Heavenly Parent and fulfill their mission as the central nation to restore the lineage in order to bring about the birth of the Only Begotten Son [독생자 (toksaengja – may also be translated as ‘Firstborn Son’ or ‘First Son’)] and Daughter [독생녀 (toksaengnyeo – may also be translated as ‘Firstborn Daughter’ or ‘First Daughter’)] who will inherit God’s lineage and become the True Parents of humankind.
Just as Heavenly Parent gave birth to [became the Parent of, brought forth] one man and one woman in the beginning, in order for humankind to return to Heavenly Parent, an Only Begotten Son and Only Begotten Daughter who inherit the lineage of Heavenly Parent must be born.”
I’ll continue to read [from a provisional translation from Korean of presentation by Dr. Hyeon-seob Do, the president of Sunhak UP Graduate University, Asan, South Korea]:
“For this to happen, there must be the providence to inherit Heavenly Parent’s lineage, and God chose Israel as the central nation and people.
For the providence to restore the lineage, Heavenly Parent has carried out the providence to give birth to the Only Begotten Son and Daughter [독생녀 (toksaengnyeo – may also be translated as ‘Firstborn Daughter’ or ‘First Daughter’)] who inherited Heavenly Parent’s lineage.
In particular, among the Jewish people – beginning with Abraham, who followed Heavenly Parent with absolute faith and received God‘s blessing as the root of good fortune, continuing with Isaac, and then moving on to Jacob’s generation – important providential events created the foundation for the restoration of lineage.
[…] Abraham, who had the honorable name of ‘the Father’ [Abram] based on Heavenly Parent’s blessing, from then on was known as ‘Abraham’, the father of all peoples, and became the origin and foundation of the chosen people of Israel.”
It’s quite amazing that within our region of Europe and the Middle East we have the father of three major providential faiths: the Jewish people, the Islamic people, and the Christian people. In that sense, we have a common ancestor, a common root, a spiritual root.
But as you know, Abraham, in the process of coming into that position, did not succeed in achieving what God actually wanted.
It was the mistake of cutting the birds, as you know from the Unification Principles. It may not seem significant, but ultimately it proved to be a fatal mistake and, as we know, caused 400 years of suffering for his descendants.
However, the process was completed through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the lineage finally was fulfilled.
I’ll continue reading:
“The victorious foundation on the national level must be created so that the Only Begotten Son and Daughter [독생녀 (toksaengnyeo – may also be translated as ‘Firstborn Daughter’ or ‘First Daughter’)], who inherit the lineage of Heavenly Parent, can be born without Satan’s accusation through the bloodline of the chosen people of Israel who have a victorious foundation in the restoration of the lineage.”
Yes, this was a critical issue here.
I’ll read some more:
“Finally, after 4,000 years of the Providence of Restoration through Indemnity, Heavenly Parent brought Jesus, the Only Begotten Son, who was the first to inherit Heavenly Parent’s lineage since the fall of our first ancestors, to be born to Mary among the chosen people of Israel.
The Annunciation, the moment when the archangel Gabriel announced to the Virgin Mary that she would be the mother of the Messiah. Author: Lorenzo de Avila (1473-1570). Photo: Wikimedia Commons. Public domain image
Mary, who was betrothed to Joseph, received Heaven’s revelation that the Only Begotten Son would be born through her, and she decided to accept the Will of Heavenly Parent in absolute faith.
Heavenly Parent first brought Mary, Zechariah, and Elizabeth to know about the birth of Jesus. They were central figures who had the important mission of upholding Heavenly Parent’s Will to fully attend and follow Jesus, the Only Begotten Son.”
And we’ll look into how that transpired. I’ll continue:
“For Jesus, the Only Begotten Son, to fulfill his purpose by safely completing his period of maturation (growth), meeting God’s Only Begotten Daughter [독생녀 (toksaengnyeo – may also be translated as ‘Firstborn Daughter’ or ‘First Daughter’)], and their becoming the True Parents together, the central figures I just mentioned had to fulfill their mission properly.”
In other words, Joseph and Zechariah, and of course Mary had to fulfill their mission according to God‘s expectation. And also John the Baptist became a key figure in supporting this. In other words, he had to protect Jesus, in a way.
We continue:
“Yet although Zechariah and John the Baptist testified to Jesus before he began his public life, they did not follow him afterward.
The highly respected high priest Zechariah remained a bystander. And John the Baptist, a respected ascetic, remained at a distance from Jesus. They were therefore unable to open the way for unity between the people of Israel and Jesus.”
I think all of you are familiar with the story of the baptism of Jesus by John, when a dove appeared and announced directly to John the Baptist who the person in front of him was. And you can understand John’s struggle later. After an initial enthusiasm about that, he began to evaluate who Jesus was, from a more humanistic perspective.
Of course, looking at him, he saw his poor, younger, less educated cousin. It would not be so easy for us to believe that our own poor, younger, less educated cousin could be the Messiah. And so John unfortunately was unable to fulfill his mission and, in fact, ended up in prison for a rather silly reason involving himself and Herod.
I’ll continue reading:
“Mary had the responsibility, while attending Jesus as the Only Begotten Son, to ensure that Jesus met the Only Begotten Daughter [독생녀 (toksaengnyeo – may also be translated as ‘Firstborn Daughter’ or ‘First Daughter’)] so that they could become the True Parents. But while she fulfilled her responsibility up to the point of bringing Jesus into the world, it became very difficult after that.
By becoming estranged from Zechariah’s family, maintaining her conjugal relationship with Joseph, and distancing herself from God’s revelation, Mary failed to fulfill her responsibility to protect Jesus.”
So again, you can understand that many things influenced her way of thinking. Maybe not the least was the fact that Joseph, her originally intended husband, had difficulty actually understanding the conception of Jesus, as you can well imagine. And there are some examples by which we see why people had difficulty understanding Jesus. I’ll read some more:
“Joseph, moreover, did not fully understand Heavenly Parent’s Will, but looked at and related with Jesus and Mary humanistically. He thus failed to fulfill his mission to attend and follow Jesus.”
As you know, there was a story in the Bible about Jesus being missing for three days. Now, if they really believed that this child was the destined Messiah, how could they possibly lose sight of him? And especially for three days?
And of course, there’s the story in which he was in the temple talking to the priests and amazing them with his knowledge, even though he was just a twelve-year-old boy who had little education.
There’s another incident, in which Mary was insisting on Jesus providing wine, turning water into wine for guests at a marriage. Father and Mother Moon have explained that Jesus rebuked his mother because she should have been more concerned about his marriage and preparing for that, rather than asking him to do a miracle at somebody else’s marriage.
Father Moon has also said that several times Jesus requested of his mother to find his bride, but she was unable to do so. This is a great tragedy.
To Be Continued …