6. Law of the Period of the Number Six

According to the Bible, in the creation of the universe by God, Adam was created on the sixth day. In other words, the creation of Adam was achieved on the basis of a six-day period, as planned. That was the period of preparation for the creation of Adam. By the same token, in the history of re-creation as well, God began the preparation to receive the Messiah at the start of a period of the number six before the coming of the Messiah, the second Adam (Jesus). That period began from the sixth century BC. God had the Jewish people taken captive to Babylon so that they might repent and turn away from their faithlessness. It was their preparation to receive the Messiah who was to come six centuries later. Around the sixth century BC, Confucius (ca. 551-479 BC) appeared in China and established Confucianism. Subsequent to Confucius, during these six centuries, many philosophers appeared in China, and the golden age of Chinese thought was established. In India, Gautama Buddha (ca. 563-483 BC) appeared in the sixth century BC and established Buddhism. Around the sixth century BC as well, the ancient Indian philosophical books called the Upanishads came into being. Also, at about the same time, Zoroastrianism arose in the Middle East. In Greece, philosophy, art, and science developed greatly from the sixth century BC. All of these developments were preparations to receive the Messiah. God made preparations in this way by guiding various peoples on earth in the direction of goodness through the methods appropriate to the people in each region. Karl Jaspers, an existentialist philosopher, noticed the fact that remarkable spiritual leaders (founders of religions and philosophies) all appeared at about the same time in different regions of the world, such as China, India, Iran, Palestine, and Greece. He called it the “Axial Period.” ² What is the reason those spiritual leaders appeared in many parts of the world at about the same time, as if according to some signal or cue? Jaspers had no explanation, and he held it to be a historic mystery and an insoluble riddle. ³ This riddle can be solved for the first time, in light of the law of the period of the number six. The same thing can be said with regard to the coming of the Second Advent of the Messiah. In order to send the Second Advent of the Messiah, who is the Third Adam, God made preparations at the start of a period of the number six. Good examples are the Reformation and the Renaissance, which started around the fourteenth century and blossomed in the sixteenth century. ⁴ During this time period of the number six (i.e., six centuries), the Industrial Revolution, which took place in the late eighteenth century, and the subsequent rapid progress of science and economy occurred. These were all preparations for the coming of the Messiah. God prepared in this way in order to send the Second Advent of the Messiah in the twentieth century. The religious leaders and philosophers who appeared six centuries before the birth of Jesus were in the position of archangels, whose mission was to pave the way for the Messiah. Accordingly, the love and truth they taught were not perfect, but only partial. It is only the Messiah, the Son of God, who is capable of practicing true love, preaching the absolute truth, and, through such love and truth, solving the unresolved questions of religions and philosophies for the first time. When the time of the advent of the Messiah comes, the unresolved questions of religions and philosophies all come to the fore and the incapacity of traditional religions and philosophies to resolve them becomes clear, since traditional religions and philosophies were given by God through the angels, and their teachings of love and truth are imperfect. Then, in the Last Days, the Messiah appears and, with absolute love and truth, revives and strengthens traditional religions and philosophies, which had become incapacitated, thus realizing the unified world through the unification of all religions and philosophies. However, since Jesus died on the cross, the realization of the unified world in his time did not take place, and his mission was entrusted to Christ at the Second Advent. As a result, Confucianism, Buddhism, Oriental philosophy, Greek philosophy, and other thoughts were left to subsist until the time of the Second Advent. Therefore, the unity of religions and all thought systems will come to be accomplished, for the first time, at the time of the Second Advent. That is to say, Christ at the Second Advent will solve all the unresolved questions of traditional religions and thoughts by means of the true love and truth of God. He will unify religions and thoughts, and will finally realize the unified world. It should be noted that it was not necessary to establish totally new religions and philosophies six centuries before Christ at the Second Advent, as happened six centuries before Jesus. We need only to revive the already existing religions and philosophies. It is for that reason that such religions as Buddhism and Confucianism have survived until today. Zoroastrianism, which was a religion holding to a belief in two gods, one of light and one of darkness, was replaced by monotheistic Islam in the seventh century.