The laws of creation and the laws of restoration, which have been discussed above, have all been at work in history, but the most important laws are the law of give and receive, the law of repulsion, the law of indemnity, and the law of separation. Among these, the law of give and receive becomes the “law of development” in historical change, while the other three together become the “law of turning.” (The law of turning is also called the “law of the struggle between good and evil.”)
It has already been explained that history has been developing through give and receive action; that is, developments in the political, economic, cultural, and all other fields take place through harmonious give and receive action between various pairs of subject and object, such as spirit and matter, people and the environment (society and nature), government and people, organization and organization, individual and individual, people and machinery, and so on.
Development refers to growth, progress, improvement, and appearance of a new quality―all of which are irreversible types of forward motion. These phenomena appear when correlative elements of subject and object engage in give and receive action centering on a common purpose. On the other hand, struggle occurs between subject and subject, the two subjects having different purposes and different interests. When a struggle takes place, development or progress will be either suspended or reversed. Accordingly, any development or progress appearing in history took place, without exception, through give and receive action.
Subject and subject oppose and struggle with each other according to the law of repulsion. In human history repulsion between one subject and another refers to the conflict between one leader and another. One example is the struggle between the leaders of the bourgeoisie and the royalist aristocrats under Louis XVI, namely, the struggle between new leaders and old leaders at the time of the French Revolution. The two parties were separated according to the law of separation, with one party on the relatively good side (the position that was relatively closer to God’s providence) and the other party on the relatively evil side (the position that obstructed God’s providence). The subjects formed good and evil camps, respectively, by attracting people, who were in the object position to their respective sides (separating the people into two parts), and fought each other. The question of which leader is good and which is evil is a matter to be decided on the basis of the extent to which a leader is in accordance with God’s providence. In many cases, however, the leaders in an existing society carried out tyrannical rule, leaning toward self-centered desire, and so God would often establish new leaders on the good side and would promote His providence through them.
In the struggle between good and evil, if the good side wins, history turns toward a better direction. Subsequently, when history reaches yet another new stage, another leader, who is even better, appears. Then, the old leader comes to stand in a relatively evil position, and a new struggle between good and evil starts. Again, if the good side wins, history turns once more to an even better direction. Finally, through this process, history reaches the stage of perfect goodness, that is, the stage of the ideal of creation. Only then will the struggle between good and evil come to an end. Thus, struggle does not actually bring about development; rather, it effects changes in the direction of history.
In a struggle between a good subject and an evil subject, if the evil side happened to be stronger, God would attempt to bring the evil side to surrender by using the law of indemnity. To explain further, God would guide the leaders on the good side to walk the path of suffering under persecution by the evil side. With that as a condition, He would work to have the leader on the evil side submit in surrender. In case the leader on the evil side would not surrender, He would influence the people on the evil side to isolate their leader. That way, the leaders on the evil side could not but surrender in the end. That is the working of the law of the struggle between good and evil. Accordingly, this law may also be called the “law of taking back by being struck,” or the “tactic of taking back by being struck.” It has been by virtue of this law of indemnity that religions have been propagated throughout the world until the present time, even through persecution.
In the ongoing struggle between good and evil, when the good side does not fully accomplish its responsibility and the evil side wins a victory, then naturally history does not turn to a better direction but is, instead, prolonged in its existing direction, remaining as it is. After a specified length of time, God again raises a good leader and works to win victory over the evil side. This is the way God has been guiding history, from behind the scenes, toward a better direction. Therefore, human history has not been the history of class struggle, but rather the history of the struggle between good and evil.
In this way, history has developed through the give and receive action between subject and object, and has changed its direction through the struggle between good and evil. In other words, history has undergone changes in direction through the repetition of the process of development and turning. The process of historical changes can be illustrated in fig. 8.1.
Fig. 8.1. Changes in Historical Direction though Give and Receive Action and the Struggle of Good and Evil
From what has been said above, we can understand that history has undergone changes in two respects, namely, in the direction of development (progress), and in the direction of restoration (turning). Development here refers to the development of science, economy, culture, etc.; restoration refers to the recovery of the lost ideal world originally intended―the world of love and peace. The reason these two directions have existed in history is that human history is the history of re-creation and at the same time the history of restoration. The future world will be a world of highly developed science, and at the same time a highly ethical society. A scientific civilization will be attained through development, while an ethical society will be attained through restoration.
Restoration is achieved through the struggle between good and evil, but this does not necessarily refer to military conflict involving armed forces. If the evil side obediently surrenders to the good side, then it is possible for peaceful social change to be accomplished. In fact, the final struggle for putting an end to the struggle between good and evil, namely, the struggle through which the Messiah completely subjugates Satan, will be carried out peacefully, even if it is called a “struggle.” That is, the Messiah will subjugate Satan peacefully by means of true love. In this way, history has been changing, following the two directions of development and restoration. Development will continue forever, whereas restoration will come to an end when the original ideal world is finally restored, after which the ideal world of peace and true love will continue forever.