Human history is a history of re-creation, and at the same time a history of restoration; that is, it is the process of recovering the original ideal world, which was lost due to the human fall. Accordingly, a series of laws, different from the laws of creation, are also at work in history. These are the laws of restoration. These laws include
(1) the law of indemnity,
(2) the law of separation,
(3) the law of the restoration of the number four,
(4) the law of conditioning providence,
(5) the law of the false preceding the true,
(6) the law of the horizontal reappearance of the vertical, and
(7) the law of synchronous providence.
1. Law of Indemnity
The human fall refers to the fact that human beings lost their original position and state. Restoration is the process of regaining that lost position and state. Yet, in order to regain that original position and state, certain conditions have to be established. The conditions for this purpose are called “conditions of indemnity.” The conditions of indemnity that human beings have to establish are, first, the “foundation of faith” and, second, the “foundation of substance.” Establishing the foundation of faith means that the people must meet a leader (central figure) chosen by God and offer some object for the condition, centering on that leader, during a specified numerological period of indemnity. Establishing the foundation of substance means that the people obediently follow that leader chosen by God.
When we examine history, however, we see that people in sinful societies very seldom obeyed the leaders appointed by God; instead, most of the time they persecuted them. Accordingly, the paths of righteous people, sages, and saints continually turned into courses of hardship. Yet, God regarded the hardships undergone by those righteous leaders as sacrificial indemnity conditions, and gradually restored the people of the sinful world back to His side by subjugating them. In other words, with the hardships of righteous leaders as a condition, God could guide the sinful people to repent. This is the law of indemnity. A representative example is Jesus’ crucifixion. Through Jesus’ crucifixion, many people in the sinful world have awakened to their sinfulness and repented.
Up to the present time, Communists and other dictators have persecuted and killed numerous religious people, righteous people, and good people. Taking the suffering of those people as a condition, however, God finally made the dictatorial regimes surrender, and liberated their people. Therefore, from the viewpoint of the law of indemnity the fall of the Communist regimes, as well as other dictatorial regimes, was inevitable.
2. Law of Separation
Since the Creator is the one and only God, the originally created man and woman were supposed to always relate only to Him. Due to the sinful action of the fall, however, Adam came to be related also to Satan. As a result, Adam came to stand in a midway position where he had to relate both to God and Satan. For that reason, when God tried to relate to Adam, the condition existed for Satan to relate to Adam as well. In such an unprincipled situation God was unable to conduct any kind of providence through Adam. Accordingly, God gave Adam two sons, and placed one of them in the position towards which only God could relate, and the other in a position towards which only Satan could relate. The one separated to God’s side was Abel, the younger brother, and the one separated to Satan’s side was Cain, the elder brother. 5
God intended to restore both Cain and Abel to His side by having Cain obey Abel. The fall occurred when the human being (Adam), who was to deal only with God, was subjugated by Satan’s temptation. In the principle, in order to achieve restoration through indemnity, Cain, who was on Satan’s side, was required to obey Abel, who was on God’s side. Thus, when Cain and Abel made offerings, God wanted Cain to make his offering not to Him directly, but rather through Abel. Instead, however, Cain resented Abel to the point of murdering him. Consequently, human history started as a sinful history. 6 However, there still existed the foundation of heart with which Abel, who had been positioned on God’s side, remained loyal to the end. So, with that foundation as a condition, God was able, throughout history, to separate people from the Satanic world over to God’s side. 7
By first establishing an individual on the side of goodness, God gradually expanded the sphere of the good side by next establishing a family on the good side, then a tribe, a people, a nation, and finally a world on the good side. Yet Satan, who was working in opposition to God’s providence, has preceded God’s work by starting with an individual on the side of evil, and expanding the sphere of evil by establishing a family, a tribe, a people, a nation, and a world on the evil side. By so doing, Satan has continually obstructed God’s providence.
Usually, the people on the good side (such as saints and sages) tried to convey God’s Word to the people on the evil side. The evil side, however, refused to accept that Word and instead persecuted and attacked the good people of God. Thus, struggles were carried out as the good side responded to those attacks. Therefore, throughout history, struggles on different levels have taken place: between an individual on the good side and an individual on the evil side, between families, tribes peoples, nations, and finally, between the world on the good side and the world on the evil side. These struggles have been continuing until today. Thus, history became a history of struggle between good and evil. In the process of restoration history, however, the good side and the evil side are not good and evil in an absolute sense. The side relatively closer to God’s providence was separated to the good side, and the side relatively farther from God’s providence was separated to the evil side.
Until recently, the world has been separated into two large blocs, namely, the bloc on the side of good and the bloc on the side of evil. These were the free world and the Communist world, respectively. More precisely, they were the group of countries that recognized religion (especially Christianity) and the group of countries that denied religion. The purpose for which God separated the world into a good side and an evil side was to restore both sides by having the good side subjugate the evil side. In the end, due to God’s providence, the good side will win in the struggle between the two blocks. This is exactly what we see happening in the world today. The unification of the free world and the Communist world will be accomplished, ultimately, when the Messiah is received. Since the separation between Cain and Abel came into being because of the faithlessness of Adam, unification between Cain and Abel will be accomplished through the Messiah, who comes as the third Adam.
3. Law of the Restoration of the Number Four
God’s purpose of creation was to realize His love through the family four position foundation. That is to say, if Adam and Eve had grown according to God’s Word and had perfected themselves, they would have become husband and wife centering on God, and would have given birth to good children. Then, the family four position foundation, consisting of God, Adam (husband), Eve (wife), and their children, would have been formed, and a family filled with God’s love would have been realized. Due to the fall of Adam and Eve, however, such a family four position foundation centered on God could not be formed; instead, a family four position foundation centered on Satan was formed, and the entire created world was put under the dominion of Satan. From that point on, it became the central purpose of history to restore the family four position foundation centered on God’s vertical love.
In order to restore the four position foundation, God first conducted symbolic, conditional providences, the goal of which was to establish a period of time with a duration symbolizing the number four. This is called the law of the restoration of the number four. The restoration of the number four was a condition of indemnity to restore the family four position foundation numerologically. The period of the number four is realized through periods of forty days, forty years, four hundred years, and so on, during which time confusion is brought about by Satan, and the people on God’s side usually undergo hardships.
Examples include Noah’s forty-day flood, Moses’ forty years in the wilderness, four hundred years of persecution of the Christians under the Roman Empire, and so on. When such periods of indemnity were over, the confusion was brought under control in the sense that the four position foundation was restored conditionally, and God’s providence was able to proceed to a new stage. The law of the restoration of the number four applied not only to the history of the Israelites, but also to the history of other peoples and countries as well.
Arnold Toynbee noted that there were many cases in history where unification was accomplished after a period of four centuries of confusion (period of turmoil). We can cite some examples: the four centuries in the Hellenic World from the Peloponnesian War to the unification by the Roman Empire (431-31 BC); about four centuries from the period of “the Contending States” to the unification by the Ch’in and Han Empires in Chinese history (634-221 BC); and about four centuries of feudal anarchy from the Kamakura-Ashikaga period to the unification of all of Japan by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate in Japanese history (1185-1597). Toynbee could not clarify, however, the reason why such periods of four centuries appeared in history. 8 A similar case is the forty-year rule by the Japanese over Korea, starting with the Eul-sa Treaty of Protection in 1905 and ending with the liberation of Korea in 1945.
4. Law of Conditioning Providence
The law of conditioning providence refers to the fact that, if a central person fulfills, or fails to fulfill his or her human portion of responsibility in accordance with God’s will in a providential event, that will condition a specific providential event of a later period. This means that a providential event not only has an important significance in and of itself, at that time, but also becomes a condition that will determine the characteristics of providential events that will follow later in history.
For example, we know of the case in which Moses struck the rock twice in the wilderness (Deut. 20). Moses’ action had, in itself, an actual necessity due to the particular circumstances of that time, namely, to enable the thirsty Israelites in the wilderness to have water to drink. At the same time, however, it also had the significance of symbolizing, and conditioning, God’s providence at Jesus’ coming, at a later date. About this matter, the content of the Divine Principle may be paraphrased as follows: 9
The rock symbolized Adam. Specifically, the waterless rock, before being struck by Moses, symbolized the first (fallen) Adam; in contrast, the rock bringing forth water, after being struck once by Moses, symbolized Jesus, the second Adam. Since water symbolizes life, the first Adam, who was in the state of spiritual death due to the fall, could be symbolized as a rock that does not bring forth water; and Jesus, the second Adam, who would come in order to give life to spiritually dead people, could be symbolized as the water-giving rock. Yet, Moses struck the rock twice in anger at the faithlessness of the Israelites; and in so doing, he struck the rock bringing forth water, which symbolized Jesus. Through that act, the condition was established whereby, if later, when Jesus came, the Israelites were to turn faithless, Satan would have the condition to be able to strike Jesus, the fulfillment of the rock. Jesus was, in fact, crucified due to the faithlessness of the Israelites. This was in part because the double striking of the rock by Moses conditioned the providence at the time of the coming of the Messiah.
This is one example from history as recorded in the Old Testament. The law of conditioning providence was at work not only in this incident, but also in other historical events that were significant in God’s providence. This means that providential events did not simply happen in their time, for no particular reason, but rather they were conditioned, to a certain degree, by various factors which preceded them. How a particular event in a certain age developed, in turn, has influenced later historical events. This is what the law of conditioning providence tells us.
5. Law of the False Preceding the True
This is a law under which the false appears before the true. Satan dominated the world, which had been created by God, by inducing the first human ancestors to fall away from God. Therefore, Satan created an unprincipled world of a pseudo-principle type, in advance of, and imitating God’s providence. God could not but allow it because Adam had fallen without fulfilling his portion of responsibility. So, God has had to carry forward His providence, following the footsteps of Satan, to restore the unprincipled world built by Satan back to the principled world. The unprincipled world created by Satan is false; thus, even though it may prosper, its prosperity is only temporary. As God’s providence progresses, Satan’s unprincipled world can not but eventually collapse.
The ultimate goal of the providence of restoration is to actualize, on earth, a world in which the ideal of creation centered on God is realized, that is, one world in which all humanity is united. That is the kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, where all people attend God, or the True Parents of humankind as God’s representatives, as the supreme sovereign. That world can be realized only through the coming of the Messiah. Satan, however, knowing God’s plan, stole the contents of the providence in advance, established Messianic persons on the Satanic side before the coming (and before the second coming) of the Messiah, and attempted to create ideal states on the Satanic side. That is why a false Messiah and a false unified world have appeared first.
A good example of this is the appearance of the Roman Empire prior to the coming of Jesus. Julius Caesar appeared in the Roman Empire, conquered Gaul, incorporated it into the Roman Empire, and accomplished the unification of the Roman Empire (45 BC). After he was assassinated, Augustus (Octavian) brought the civil war under control (31 BC), and unified the Mediterranean area, building what was virtually a world empire. The peaceful and prosperous period of the Roman Empire was called the Pax Romana and lasted about two centuries. Julius Caesar and Augustus were messianic figures on the Satanic side. They created a false unified world of peace and prosperity in advance of the great unified world of everlasting love, peace, and prosperity that was to have been built through the coming of the true Messiah (Jesus). As it turned out, Jesus was crucified with his mission uncompleted, and therefore the true unified world, or true ideal world, could not appear at that time.
At the time of the Second Advent as well, in accordance with this law, a false Messiah and a false unified world appeared in advance of the providence of the Second Advent. That false Messiah was Stalin, and the false unified world was the Communist world. Stalin, in fact, was revered as “the sun of humankind,” like a Messiah, and aimed to unify the world through Communism. Stalin died in 1953, and from the providential viewpoint, that was the time when the official course of the providence of the Second Advent was to start. The subsequent splintering of international Communism has been a foreshadowing of the collapse of the false unified world and the beginning of the realization of the true unified world.
6. Law of the Horizontal Reappearance of the Vertical
This law means that at the time of the consummation of the history of restoration, vertical (past) historical events reappear horizontally (in the present). “Vertical” refers to the passage of time, and “horizontal” refers to spatial expansion. In other words, the vertical refers to past history, and the horizontal refers to the present, actual world. Accordingly, the “horizontal reappearance of the vertical” means that God conducts His providence so that at the consummation of history all the past providential events and persons in history will reappear in the present in some form on the worldwide level. In this manner, God seeks to resolve, at one time, all the various problems or events that ended unresolved due to the failures of providential figures at various times in history up to this time. This is done in accord with God’s providence, and to complete the history of the providence of restoration.
For example, in the two-thousand-year period of the providence of restoration from Adam to Abraham, the vertical indemnity conditions that had been invaded by Satan were restored through indemnity by the three generations of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. However, this was only conditional. In other words, the providence of Adam’s family and the providence of Noah’s family, which had ended in failure without proper completion, were conditionally completed through the providence of Abraham’s family. At the time of Jesus, the providential events that had ended in failure due to the invasion of Satan during the four thousand years from Adam to Jesus were made to reappear horizontally so that they might be restored through indemnity at one time. Yet, due to the crucifixion of Jesus, this providence was not successful.
At the time of the providence of the Second Advent, all the events during the six-thousand-year history from Adam, which had been concluded only conditionally because of invasion by Satan, must reappear again horizontally so that they may be totally and fundamentally restored through indemnity, centering on the Second Advent of the Messiah. Thus, the providence of sinful history will be fully consummated. As long as these historical events remain unresolved, there can be no true peace on earth. Only by resolving all of these historical events fundamentally in the Last Days, can the problems of today’s actual society be resolved completely, and the world of true peace realized.
For example, the root cause of the conflicts between Israel and the Arab nations today can be understood as the reappearance of the struggles between the Israelites and their surrounding peoples in the Old Testament days. Accordingly, it is very difficult to resolve the present-day conflict between Israel and the Arabs merely by dealing with it as a political problem. In other words, without tracing the history back to its root cause and resolving it fundamentally, the conflicts between the Israelites and the Arabs will never come to a complete end.
When it comes to the consummation of history in the Last Days, many vertical historical events reappear, and unexpected events happen one after another, thus throwing the world into great confusion. This is because, in accordance with the law of the horizontal reappearance of the vertical, various unresolved problems from past history all reappear in the Last Days. That is why Jesus referred to a “great tribulation”: “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be” (Matt. 24:21). Such confusion and conflict will come to be fundamentally resolved only when humankind welcomes the Second Advent of the Messiah and follows his word of truth and his teaching of true love.
The reason why God causes the events of history to reappear in the Last Days, whereby they become fundamentally resolved by the Second Advent of the Messiah, is that God wishes to achieve two purposes: first, to make human beings establish the condition that they have achieved victory in the six-thousand-year history without making mistakes, thus sweeping away the memories of the numerous miserable events in history once and for all; and second, to subjugate Satan completely by eliminating all the conditions for his accusation, and to eventually save even the Archangel, eternally.
7. Law of Synchronous Providence
The law of synchronous providence refers to a law under which a certain providential event which occurred in the past is repeated in some form in a later period. Such providential periods, the two of which are in the relationship of time-identity, display similar aspects in terms of central figures, main events, numerological time periods, and so on. This is because, in case a certain providential central figure did not fulfill his or her portion of responsibility, the providential period centered on that particular person would come to an end, and after a certain period of time, another person, who is similar to the previous person, would be established to restore through indemnity the historical course of the previous period. Thus, a providential event which is similar to that of the previous period is repeated. In such cases, since conditions of indemnity are gradually compounded together with the prolongation of the providence of restoration, the previous period would not be repeated precisely as before, but rather would be repeated on a higher dimension. Consequently, history develops in a spiral.
Then, how did the law of synchronous providence work in history? In the providence of restoration centered on the family level, during the two-thousand-year period from Adam to Abraham (the Age of the Providence to Lay the Foundation for Restoration), the Messiah was unable to come due to the failure of the providence. As a result, the two-thousand-year period of the providence of restoration centered on the Israelites, from Abraham to Jesus (the Age of the Providence of Restoration), appeared as the synchronous providence. Also, since the two-thousand-year period from Abraham to Jesus, the providence of restoration centered on the Israelites, also ended in failure due to the crucifixion of Jesus, the two-thousand-year period of the providence of restoration centered on Christianity from Jesus until today (the Age of the Prolongation of the Providence of Restoration) appeared as its synchronous providence. Arranging the characteristics of synchronism of the two periods of the two thousand years from Abraham to Jesus and the two thousand years from Jesus until today, we have the diagram as seen in table. 8.1.
Table 8.1 The Providential synchronism of the Age of the Providence of Restoration and the Age of the Prolongation of the Providence of Restoration
The Age of the Providence of Restoration | The Age of the Prolongation of the Providence of Restoration |
Period of Slavery in Egypt (400 years) | Period of Persecution under the Roman Empire (400 years) |
Period of the Judges (400 years) | Period of Regional Church Leadership (400 years) |
Period of the United Kingdom (120 years) | Period of the Christian Empire (120 years) |
Period of the Divided Kingdoms of North and South (400 years) | Period of the Divided Kingdoms of East and West (400 years) |
Israel's Exile (70 years) Israel's Return (140 years) | Papal Exile (70 years) Papal Return (140 years) |
Period of Preparation for the Advent of the Messiah (400 years) Renovation of Faith | Period of Preparation for the Second Advent of the Messiah (400 years) Religious Reformation |
Synchronism in history was noticed by Oswald Spengler. He said that all cultures develop according to the same formula, and therefore, similar events appear in any two cultures of the world. He described these corresponding events as “synchronous.” 10
Arnold Toynbee noticed synchronism in history at about the same time as Spengler. While lecturing on Thucydides, Toynbee explained how he had realized that the history of ancient Greece and modern Western history are synchronous:
The year 1914 caught me at the University of Oxford, teaching the history of classical Greece. In August 1914, it flashed on my mind that the fifth-century BC historian Thucydides had had already the experience that was now overtaking me. He, like me, had been overtaken by a fratricidal great war between the states into which his world had been divided politically. Thucydides had foreseen that his generation’s great war would be epoch-making for his world, and the sequel had proved him right. I now saw that classical Greek history and modern Western history were, in terms of experience, contemporary with each other. Their courses ran parallel. They could be studied comparatively. 11 (italics added)
Toynbee dealt with ancient Greek history and modern Western history as synchronous. In the Unification View of History, ancient Greek history was the period for the preparation for the coming of the Messiah, and modern Western history is the period for the preparation for the Second Coming of the Messiah. These two periods are, indeed, synchronous, and the essential significance of their synchronism is that each is a preparation period for receiving the Messiah.