The Unification Movement Today in Light of the Parallels of History

Journal of Unification Studies Vol. 20, 2019 - Pages 133-162

If you carefully examine the progress of human history, you will undoubtedly discover God’s resolve and the fingerprints He left as He tirelessly worked behind the scenes.[1]

Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, True Mother, is gathering multitudes around the world for the settlement of God’s kingdom on earth. Through Exposition of Divine Principle’s account of the parallels of history, I will interpret this in the framework of God’s providence.[2]

First, I will explain why Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, whom Unificationists identify as God’s Only Begotten Daughter, is in the context of providential history, “the Mother of three ages,” by interpreting the words of True Father, Rev. Sun Myung Moon:

Throughout history the Eves of three ages sacrificed the Adams from those ages. But at this time Mother set the conditions to qualify as the Mother of three ages.[3]

I will argue from the parallels for the proposition that True Mother overcame the resentment of the three ages and completed the three ages and thereby became the Mother of three ages.

Next, I will discuss the position of the True Parents’ movement overall in light of its parallels with the inauguration of new ages in the past. This will allow us to interpret the rebellion of three of her sons by means of the same parallels. I will interpret the two splinter groups that the sons are leading, namely the Global Peace Foundation[4] and Sanctuary Church,[5] and draw out recommendations for the Family Federation[6] in relation to them. I will argue that this present-day dissent and rebellion, while a sad affair, is neither a significant disruption nor an imputation of failure on the part of True Parents or their family.

I know there is more to say about all of this, including by this author; I offer this interpretation as a useful framework. This is an exploration of subject matter that is deep, complex, and essential to True Parents teachings. I do not consider it the last word on the subject by any means. I will be more than happy if it serves to shed light on a path toward a broader discussion, through which God can illuminate us all.

True Mother Resolved God’s of Three Ages

The “three ages” and the “Eves of three ages”

In the Exposition of Divine Principle presentation of the parallels of history, the “three ages” refer to the biblical history from Adam to Abraham (“pre-Old Testament Age”), Abraham to Jesus (“Old Testament Age”) and Jesus to the Lord of the Second Advent (“New Testament Age”). Exposition also mentions a fourth age, the Completed Testament Age, and this age comprised much of True Parents’ ministry career. True Father’s reference to “three ages” in speeches and sermons often meant the Old Testament, New Testament and Completed Testament Ages. True Parents also proclaimed a fifth age, the Cheon Il Guk Age, which refers to the present era. I present a chart (below) to help the reader navigate these five ages in relation to the points I am making in this paper.

True Father stated, “The Eves of three ages sacrificed the Adams from those ages.” I agree with Hee Hun Standard’s interpretation[7] of this: first, that in the Fall Eve sacrificed Adam’s potential to become a true son of God; second, that Israel, the “bride nation” (Eve), sacrificed the second Adam, Jesus; and third, that Christianity, the bride religion (Eve), rejected the third Adam, Sun Myung Moon.[8]

The meaning of “han”

Unification theology regards the Korean term, “han,” as a significant theological category. I will explain it using the parent-child relationship, but it applies to any similar relationship. I would define it as the heartfelt grief, even agony, of a loving parent whose child, due to selfishness that results from their sin and immaturity, is hurting him or herself. The parent suffers of course because the child is not loving the parent as is due, but that is nothing compared to the parent’s agony over the child’s own suffering, which the child is inflicting on him or herself through his or her immature selfish actions.

The parent, knowing what joy the child is meant to experience through mature, selfless behavior, is suffering far more than is the child, who is experiencing temporary joy by their selfish actions and is ignorant of the divine joy of the true parent-child relationship. The loving parent is immeasurably pained to see their beloved child hurting themselves, with the parent being unable to intervene, by dint of Principle that it is the child’s responsibility to grow authentically. This is the pain of love, beginning with Heavenly Parent’s han over the suffering of His-Her children under the dominion of the selfish love that is rooted Adam and Eve’s Fall with the archangel, who became Satan.

True Father discovered God’s han, His pain, and its root cause, and fully took it on himself. “What course did Father have to travel to find Chapter Two, the secret of the Fall? When Father felt the heart of God at the time of the Fall, he traveled to God. Feeling that pain and agony; Father formed a subject-object relationship with the pain.”[9]

Tragically, even human beings striving to become mature through religious faith cannot resolve God’s han because “religions lack the power to guide modern people out of the dark valley of death into the full radiance of life.” Our physical desires “tend to pursue evil rather than good… however hard they may try, people cannot cut themselves off from the reality of this world or annihilate the desire for physical pleasures… This world and its desires tenaciously grab hold of religious people, driving them into the depth of agony.”[10]

The following is my interpretation of the han characteristic of the three ages, and their relationship with True Mother. God is the one ultimate bearer of han. There are instances of han being resolved by the creation itself. This results from the created being, in a state of innocence, taking human sin upon itself, that is, taking responsibility for human sin. This is the offering of the sacrificial lamb. Human beings can take the same position willingly by offering their lives with the heart to comfort God. These actions resolve Heavenly Parent’s han to some extent, and evoke God’s gratitude and sympathetic love for creation and His-Her children. God comes to that person and comforts that person in their suffering, Hence their suffering turns into the deepest joy.

It is not as if Heavenly Parent is withholding His-Her love, waiting for someone to earn it by their offering. Heavenly Parent is waiting in anguish, desperate for His-Her children to make the smallest of conditions that will liberate Him-Her to pour out oceans of divine love. Humankind is responsible to liberate God. This requires that we develop our capacity to give and receive true love. We do so by fulfilling our portion of responsibility, which begins with our separating from and subjugating Satan, and this is the significance of the offering.

I will argue for the proposition that True Mother, by virtue of her absolute faith in, absolute love for, and absolute obedience to True Father, resolved God’s han of the three ages, completed the three ages, and thereby became the “Mother of three ages.”

Pre-Old Testament Age and Old Testament Age: The offering of the lamb

[11]

True Mother is the embodiment of the Tabernacle and Temple, the house of the Heavenly Father on earth, where the high priest, representing the people, offers the sacrificial lamb to God.[12] The han of the Pre-Old Testament Age and Old Testament Age is resolved by the sacrificial lamb. Because this high priest is himself sinful, the lamb takes into itself the peoples’ sin. The high priest represents God conditionally; in substance he is one of the people whose sin is laid upon the lamb. The high priest is not the true bridegroom. If there were a true Bridegroom and Bride, the lamb, representing the bride nation, would not have to be sacrificed. Hence the lamb comforts God as an innocent sacrifice.

In the Pre-Old Testament Age, Isaac was the archetypal lamb who comforted God's heart through his absolute faith, love and obedience to his father. Thus, he became Abraham’s “only begotten son… of whom it was said, ‘In Isaac your seed shall be called…’”[13] Through absolute faith, the offering was fulfilled.

Two thousand years later, the people of Israel, beginning with Jesus’ family, did not inherit Isaac’s absolute faith in relation to Jesus. They looked at him through human eyes. By his self-offering on the cross, crying out to God, “not my will, but Your will be done,” “why have You forsaken me?” and “into Thy hands I commit my spirit,” Jesus culminated the Old Testament Age but opened the New Testament Age through a gate of grief.

Rejected of men, True Father opened the Completed Testament Age also through a gate of grief. He began his mission in prison and spent his life comforting God from a position of sacrificial love for the family, tribe, people, nation, world and cosmos.

Jesus and True Father sacrificed themselves to an invisible God. True Mother sacrificed herself to the substantial God, her husband, True Father, who stood in the position of her Father, Son and Bridegroom.[14] Eve was God’s only-begotten Daughter who sacrificed Adam. Hence, True Mother is declaring that she is God’s only-begotten Daughter who sacrificed herself with and for Adam. She is the embodiment of the lamb, Isaac, who offered his body to his substantial father, Abraham. As she said,

When Isaac went up on the mountain with Abraham to make an offering to God, he asked his father where the offering was. Abraham simply replied that God had prepared it. Yet although Isaac was only a young boy, he had already figured out his situation. Likewise, from my childhood I intuitively sensed that I must fulfill something important in the future. I would say that unconsciously I understood that I was being prepared to become the bride of the Lord of the Second Advent.

My path was already decided, and I was born with the destiny to walk it. Another woman could not bear the weight of my position, but I could because of all that I had faced previously and overcome.[15]

True Father, in the position of the true Abraham, offered the blood of the lamb, Hak Ja Han, the blood of breaking the virginal womb. On the altar with absolute faith, love and obedience, filled with gratitude, True Mother’s offering was a co-creative commitment to True Father as the true Bridegroom, the true Adam, the man who could declare, “before Abraham was, I am.” Thereby, True Mother as the sacrificial offering resolved God’s han of the Pre-Old Testament Age and Old Testament Age.[16]

New Testament Age: The offering of the Bride

God’s han in the New Testament Age results from the human failure to merit physical salvation. It is Heavenly Parent’s han for the men who cling to righteousness but cannot achieve it, cannot experience the promise of salvation fulfilled, cannot remove the messenger of Satan, the thorn in the flesh.[17] It is Heavenly Parent's han for the nuns who never married, the women who never met a true man.[18] True Mother was grateful to live as a nun and then was grateful to meet the true man and complete him as a true man.

The Christian church represents the Bride nation, “the Jerusalem above [who] is our mother.”[19] In it, all women are the chosen brides. By loving and representing all women in exalting the Savior of all humankind, True Mother dissolved Heavenly Parent's han for the New Testament Age, God's han for the bride, on behalf of all women. By sacrificing her life, enduring lonely isolation and trials, meeting extreme expectations while in a position of experiencing a lack of love even from her husband with gratitude to God and joy for all to see, Hak Ja Han resolved God’s han as the Bride.

Therefore, True Father called True Mother the representative woman and called all women to unite with her. By doing so, all women can end God’s han with and through the Bride. Through her, all women can comfort God as true brides.

Completed Testament Age: The offering of the True Mother and True Queen

God’s han of the Completed Testament Age is for the holy bride whose holy husband, the returning Jesus, did not arrive on the clouds amidst universal acclamation. Christianity was the city and nation prepared to receive True Parents that did not receive him. The kings of this world continued to “commit fornication” with the evil bride, “Babylon the great,” and the merchants continued to gain wealth through “the abundance of her luxuries.”[20]

The han of the Completed Testament Age is Heavenly Parent’s han over the only begotten Daughter for whom there was no city or nation to receive True Parents. True Mother resolved this when she took responsibility to stand with her husband as the True Parent and True King and with him build that city and nation.

True Mother embodied the Holy Spirit. She stood as the apotheosis of Christianity,[21] the bride religion that had failed to attend the returning Lord. True Mother declared herself the completion of Christianity, the New Jerusalem come down from Heaven. By this, True Mother resolved God’s han of the Completed Testament Age, the han over the world-level Bride who rejected her husband. She took upon herself the responsibility of 2,000 years of Christianity and declared that Sun Myung Moon is the Lord.

In the position of the True Parent and True Queen, True Mother represented the true Christianity, and stood as the city of God.[22] From age 17, True Mother stood as John the Baptist,[23] the embodiment of the church. She voiced no resentment toward the failed Christianity, nor toward the Unificationists who failed to live up to Heaven’s expectations. She understands our suffering. She absorbs it with God and continues on the path of True Parents.

True Mother Is Completing the Three Ages

The Old Testament Age

Divine Principle teaches that True Father inherited from Jesus as Joshua inherited from Moses. After liberating the substantial Bride nation (Israel), Moses led it through the wilderness course, and established the Law, the heavenly traditions and priesthood, centering on the Tabernacle. Because of the failure of the chosen people, Moses died on Mt. Nebo, as a sacrificial offering for the nation. Joshua inherited his foundation.

Because of the followers’ failures, Jesus died on the cross, as a sacrificial offering for the world. True Father inherited his foundation.

Because of our failures, Heung Jin Nim, then Hyo Jin Nim, and finally True Father died as sacrificial offerings for heaven and earth. True Mother inherited their foundation.

And so now True Mother is in the position of Joshua, and her message is “be strong and of good courage—what are you afraid of?” She calls us to be Caleb, completely united with her. True Mother is mobilizing the nation, bringing us out of the wilderness to break down the walls of Jericho and subjugate the Canaanite kings by the grace of the Holy Marriage Blessing and Pure Love Pledge. Those who pull back are like the ten spies who separated from Joshua and Caleb for fear of the power of the fallen world.

That is completing the Old Testament Age.

The New Testament Age

Paul wrote to all Jesus-followers, “I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.”[24] Hak Ja Han is the chaste virgin who represented all Christianity and received the one husband. Uniting with her, all women become True Father’s chaste brides through the holy wine ceremony, and from that position rebirth their husbands as a newborn Adam (son), a substantial Jesus (bridegroom), and lord (husband). That is completing the New Testament Age internally.

Externally, True Parents together completed the New Testament Age, building the national foundation in Korea and world foundation in and through America. Through the wilderness course they built a unified multi-national movement, with landmarks such as the Washington Monument campaign, the Danbury persecution triggering Christian support, the Minority Alliance International, the victory of CAUSA in the fight against communism, the success of the International Religious Foundation building inter-religious unity, the founding of The Washington Times and more. Upon the declaration of the elder son’s victory in Pal Jung Shik (August 31, 1989), True Father called True Mother to undertake speaking tours and proclaim True Parents’ messianic position and message worldwide.

On the basis of her success, with Father listening to as many speeches as possible through the telephone, True Parents established the Women's Federation for World Peace, which gave birth to the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.

Through these events and others, the New Testament Age closed and the Completed Testament Age opened.

The Completed Testament Age

Exposition of the Divine Principle calls the Completed Testament Age, “the age of the wife.”[25] True Parents launched the Completed Testament Age through the Women’s Federation for World Peace and Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, with True Father launching speaking tours and True Mother carrying them to all corners of the world. Members throughout the world met only True Mother as the representative of True Parents.[26]

These years witnessed the development of inter-religious and international summits and expansion of the Holy Marriage Blessing, including among clergy such as Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, to the Enthronement of God, the Second Holy Wedding, the crowning of Jesus, Heung Jin Nim and True Parents, the launch of Universal Peace Federation, opening the Cheon Jeong Gung Palace, and the unified 3-generation True Family ministering the Word and Blessing to all religions and races in 180 nations. At every stage, True Father glorified his bride, True Mother.

This led to the Jubilee years (2007-08), in which True Parents declared the unification of the God of Night and God of Day and established the Abel Women’s UN (July 16, 2012), where True Father called the world’s women to follow True Mother. Within two months, True Father ascended, and in February of the next year, the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and all Humankind conducted Foundation Day in Heaven and on earth.

Age of Cheon Il Guk

From the time of True Father’s holy ascension, True Mother has led the Family Federation on earth. Her work is a providential parallel to Moses shaping Israel and to the Holy Spirit shaping Christianity. It is fair to say that Jesus led the providence while he was on earth, and that the Holy Spirit led it after his ascension. Jesus foretold this, and said that it was good that he leave so that the Holy Spirit might come, and that she would make plain the Word and lead them where he could not.[27]

Through the Holy Spirit, the Jesus-followers were transformed from a prayer group into a world religion. Only after receiving the Holy Spirit did Peter declare the gospel message in the Temple courts. Peter and John discovered that problems in the young church in Samaria arose “because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.”[28] On his part, the apostle Paul was led entirely by the Holy Spirit, having not encountered Jesus on earth. As a parallel, Unificationists followed Father in the subject partner position on earth, and after he departed, we are following Mother, whom Father declared to be the embodied Holy Spirit.[29]

True Mother’s works parallel the works of the Holy Spirit: formal development of the heavenly scripture and tradition, systematic organization of the Family Federation and entire movement, global evangelism through the marriage Blessing on the national level, and the renewal and reformation of government, economy, technology, education and culture. Just as the Holy Spirit led the church and humankind at the opening of the New Testament Age, True Mother is leading the movement into the age of Cheon Il Guk.[30]

The Present Era in the Context of the Parallels of History

The Parallels of History

Divine Principle teaches that Adam and Eve should have united with God through faith and love for specific time periods, represented by the numbers 4, 12, 21 and 40. Had they done so, they would have become husband and wife, established a God-centered family and built an ideal world.[31]

Due to the Fall, Satan claimed these numbers. In the path of restoration, God called individuals and nations representing Adam, Eve and the archangel to separate from and subjugate Satan through acts of faith and love (“substance”) that reverse the failures surrounding the Fall. Divine Principle describes the characteristics of these acts, which include passages of time representing the specific numbers that Adam and Eve were to have fulfilled.

The Principle applies this rubric to the history of Israel recorded in the Bible, to the history of Christianity, to the twentieth century and into our present day. It points out parallels between the three periods that result because when a period ends without complete success, the numbers and associated conditions must be repeated in a subsequent age.

Hence Divine Principle views history as comprising cyclical ages, from Adam and Eve to Abraham’s family, from there to Jesus, and from there to the present era, and points out significant parallels between these ages.

This article builds from the presentation of the Pre-Old Testament Age, the Old Testament Age and the New Testament Age, and extends the parallels into two additional stages, the Completed Testament Age and the Cheon Il Guk Age. This is complicated, even for those who are familiar with the Divine Principle teachings about the parallels of history, and doubly so for those who are not. I provide a chart to help elucidate the points I am making (Table 1).

Table 1: Chart of the Parallels[32]

table 1

The Era Following the Advent of the Word

The parallels of history teach us that the present era, that of completing the Completed Testament Age, is in a time identity with Adam’s family and the ensuing 400 (biblical) years of suffering until the time of Noah, Jacob’s entry into Egypt with his twelve sons and the ensuing four hundred years of slavery until the time of Moses, and the generations of Christians beginning with Jesus’ twelve apostles and seventy disciples “who suffered severe persecution in the Roman Empire over a period of four hundred years” until the time of Theodosius.[33] These were the periods that opened the pre-Old Testament Age, the Old Testament Age and the New Testament Age.

These three ages each began with a conditional victory, followed by a period in which the initial victory settled on the earth in the face of persecution, dissent and rebellion.

Opening the Pre-Old Testament Age

“Even after Cain killed Abel, God began a new chapter of His providence [the pre-Old Testament Age] by raising Seth in Abel’s place… Upon the foundation of the loyal heart which Abel demonstrated toward Heaven, God chose Seth in his place.” There began a period in which the earth was filled with violence so great that God regretted creating human beings and determined “to make an end of all flesh,” leading to His right to claim Noah and begin work with him and his family.[34]

At the conclusion of this 400-year period in the pre-Old Testament Age, God established Noah’s family, renewed the Word given to Adam and Eve, and created the environment in which Noah and his sons could reverse the failures of Adam’s family. (Gen 8:15-9:17) Noah suffered rebellion from three sons, that he could not overcome.

Opening the Old Testament Age

“In the period of slavery in Egypt [that began the Old Testament Age], the chosen people of the First Israel kept themselves pure by circumcision (Joshua 5:2-5), by making sacrifices (Ex 5:3) and, as they left Egypt, by keeping the Sabbath (Ex 16:23).” At the conclusion of this 400-year period in the Old Testament Age, God established Israel through Moses as a nation with “the Ten Commandments and God’s Word revealed in the Law, which formed the core of the Old Testament Scriptures… setting up and honoring the tablets of stone, the Ark of the Covenant and the Tabernacle.”[35] During this period, Moses suffered rebellion from Israelites who lost faith and desired to return to Egypt. He overcame these challenges and unified the nation through the Levitical priesthood and offering of sacrifices, centered on the Law and Tabernacle.

Opening the New Testament Age

“During the period of persecution in the Roman Empire, the Christians as the Second Israel lived a life of purity by performing the sacraments of baptism and holy communion, offering themselves as sacrifices, and keeping the Sabbath.”[36]

During the 400-year period that began the New Testament Age, the church suffered rebellion from groups that distorted the Jesus event, his life, teachings and the advent of the Holy Spirit. These included the Jewish Christians, Zealots and Docetists. The Divine Principle refers to the Docetists in harsh terms:

The belief that the Messiah should come supernaturally persisted after the death of Jesus, even among some heterodox Christians who believed that he had not come in a body of flesh. The apostle John condemned those believers as antichrists: “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, men who will not acknowledge the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh; such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.” —2 John 7.[37]

At the conclusion of this 400-year period in the New Testament Age, “Jesus inspired Theodosius I in 392 A.D. to establish Christianity as the state religion. Christians thus restored Canaan spiritually.” This entailed the church of Rome prevailing against rebellion on the part of separatists. In the process, “Christians gathered the writings which had been left behind by the apostles and evangelists and established the canon of the New Testament. Based on these writings, they sought to realize God’s ideals spiritually, ideals which had been enshrined in the Ten Commandments and the Tabernacle in the Old Testament Age. They built up churches and expanded their foundation to prepare for the Second Coming of Christ. After Jesus' ascension, the resurrected Jesus and the Holy Spirit guided Christians directly.”[38]

Each opening era extended into a second and then third period, at the end of which God desired to send the Messiah

The Divine Principle views that during these opening periods led into a second period and then a third. During these periods, God’s providence was for a unified Christianity centered on the Pope and then the Holy Roman (Carolingian) Empire, just as it was for a unified family centered on Noah and his wife and then Abraham and Sarah, and a unified kingdom of Israel centered on Moses and his wife, and then the kings.

In those three ages, the first and second 400 year periods, followed by the 3 generations of a united family, kingdom and empire, God’s goal was to set the conditions to receive the True Parents, on the level of family and tribe in the pre-Old Testament Age, with Noah’s and then Abraham’s family, on the level of a nation in the Old Testament Age, with the “kings [who] established the kingdom of Israel around the Temple,” and on the level of the world in the New Testament Age, “Charlemagne’s empire [that] realized the ideal of the Christian state as set down in The City of God by St. Augustine.”[39]

Failures to Receive the Messiah at the Conclusion of Each Third Period

Here is the explanation for why the Messiah did not appear at the conclusion of the first three periods in the three ages.

The Pre-Old Testament Age

In the pre-Old Testament Age, we can say that the three generations are those of Abraham’s family. Abraham’s failure to cut the birds, as well as the failure of Sarah and Hagar, extended the providence from Abraham’s generation to the three generations of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and his offspring. The failed offering in fact brought the pre-Old Testament Age to an end: “As a result of his mistake [in the offering], the Israelites were destined to enter Egypt and suffer hardships for four hundred years.”

The mother-son cooperation of Rebekah and Jacob, and the power of Jacob to melt Esau’s heart, eventually created the foundation to send the Messiah. “Isaac and his family inherited the Will and laid the foundation of faith and foundation of substance. At last, the foundation for the Messiah was established.”

Then why did not the Messiah appear at the end of the pre-Old Testament Age? “The foundation for the Messiah also requires a social environment conducive to his coming. The foundation must make it feasible for this satanic world to be restored into God’s Kingdom ruled by the Messiah.”[40]

Had Abraham succeeded with the offering, and Sarah and Hagar united, would the Messiah have come on the foundation of that generation? The Divine Principle does not say. It makes no mention of Hagar.

The Old Testament Age

In the Old and New Testament Ages, the ends of the third period are well-defined and it is clear that the Messiah could have come at that point, had the conditions been set. In the Old Testament Age, “If the Israelites had then stood upon this foundation of faith and faithfully followed King Saul as he honored the Temple, they would have laid the foundation of substance. The foundation for the Messiah would have been established at that time.”[41]

The New Testament Age

In the New Testament Age, “Had the Second Israel absolutely believed in and followed Charlemagne, the foundation of substance would have been laid, and thereby the foundation for the Messiah would have been established. In other words, the spiritual kingdom led by the pope and the earthly kingdom led by the emperor were to fully unite upon the existing spiritual foundation for the Messiah. Christ would then have returned upon this solid ground and built his Kingdom.”[42]

The Providence in Three Ages to Rebuild the Foundation for the Messiah

As a result of the failure in each of the three ages, the human race had to rebuild the foundation to receive the Messiah. In each age, this foundation culminated in a 400-year period of “preparation to receive the Messiah.”

In the pre-Old Testament Age, it was the 40-year period in which Jacob established his family of 12 sons, leading up to their migration into Egypt.[43]

In the Old Testament Age, it was the period after the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem, the axial age birth of major religions, and the maturation of the Hellenic and Hebraic worldviews.

In the New Testament Age, it was the period of Christian reform and global expansion from the sixteenth to twentieth centuries, culminating in the first and second world wars. The Abel-side victory in World War 1 set the foundation for the birth of the Lord of the Second Advent, and its victory in World War 2 set the foundation for his ministry to begin, for “the time for building the spiritual kingdom under the leadership of the resurrected Jesus had passed, and the age for building a new heaven and new earth under the leadership of Christ at the Second Advent had begun.”[44]

The Christian foundation collapsed at the end of World War II, and True Parents rebuilt it and completed it

From this perspective, the Abel-side victory in World War II culminated the work of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, congealing the three ages as one offering. Preparation for the work of the Messiah manifested in the World Council of Churches, Marshall Plan, liberation of colonies, and ultimately the United Nations. This was to have been presented to Sun Myung Moon through the Korean churches having faith in him and exalting his couple as the True Parents. This did not happen.

Nevertheless, through the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, True Father restored that foundation to the national level, upon which he received his Bride, Hak Ja Han, in 1960. Together True Parents declared God’s Day in 1968. Subsequently they established a foundation for the unity of the world’s religions and nations by establishing the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification and Universal Peace Federation. This culminated in the ministry of the Word and Blessing by their three-generation family together with Christian clergy in a speaking tour of 180 nations in 2006, followed by the declaration of the Jubilee Years (2007-2008).

True Parents accomplished this while enduring rebellion that parallels what took place at the outsets of the pre-Old Testament, Old Testament and New Testament Ages. This includes the rebellion of evil angels against God, Ham against Noah, faithless Israelites against Moses, and splinter groups against the Christian church. True Parents overcame these rebellions and declared the substantial Cheon Il Guk on January 13, 2013 by the heavenly calendar (February 22, 2013 by the solar calendar).

True Mother is building upon the completed foundation

As of the Jubilee Years, True Parents and their three-generation family, with the clergy of all religions, completed their conditional lordship over all nations, races and religions. With that in place, True Father, the True Parent in spirit world, and True Mother, the True Parent on earth, celebrated Foundation Day to inaugurate the substantial Cheon Il Guk Era.

The providence from 2013 has paralleled Jacob’s family entering the glorious but pagan Egypt and Christianity ministering within the glorious but as yet unrepentant Hellenistic world. Just as God prevailed in those ages on the foundation of Abraham’s family and of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, today Heavenly Parent is prevailing based on the foundation of the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind. True Mother on earth in oneness with True Father in Heaven are settling the substantial Cheon Il Guk, even the restoration of nations.

On this foundation we can interpret the present-day rebellion within the True Parents’ own family. Let us begin by examining more closely the phenomenon of dissent and rebellion.

Dissent and Rebellion

Rebellion in the three ages

As has been characteristic of the world from the first family on, dissent and rebellion have occurred throughout True Parents’ course. I want to talk about what we learn from the parallels with respect to the phenomenon of internal dissent and rebellion.

In the pre-Old Testament Age this would refer to Noah’s sons judging and separating from him, and the casting out of Ishmael, separating him from Isaac. In the Old Testament Age this would refer to the murmuring and outright rebellions against God and Moses in the wilderness, and the onset of pagan practices in the period of the judges.

In the New Testament Age, the church consisted of the tradition that Roman Catholicism traces back to Peter, in view of the Principle position that Constantine’s legalization and Theodosius’s elevation of Christianity to state church status was God’s will. This places the Christian bodies that splintered from Rome, including the Donatists, Arians, Manichaeans, Marcionites, Pelagians, Nestorians and Montanists, in a position of dissent and rebellion against God’s providence.[45]

The earliest separatist movements arose from the Hebraic world, the Jewish Christians (Ebionites) and Zealots,[46] and from the Hellenistic world, the Docetists and Gnostics. I will point out that these are paralleled by the activities of three of True Parents’ sons, Preston, Justin and Sean Moon.[47]

The rebellions of the three sons from the viewpoint of the Parallels

In discussing the works of these three men, I will not adopt the Cain-Abel model, such as employed with the period of divided brothers (Jacob and Esau in the pre-Old Testament Age), divided kingdom (the kingdoms of Judah and Israel in the Old Testament Age) and divided empire (the division of the East and West Franks in the New Testament Age).

The division of the brothers at those points came about due to a failure in the parental position. This did not obtain with Jacob’s family, which entered Egypt as a united clan, nor with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, which inaugurated the Christian era as a united clan of the spiritual Jesus and his disciples. Nor was it the case with True Parents, who entered Cheon Il Guk as three generations that were united at the start of the Jubilee Years of 2007-08.

Nor do I adopt the division of world views in the period of preparation for the Messiah. We are not in the era before the coming of Heaven; we are in the era after the coming of Heaven.

Instead I will interpret it as a failure of the children parallel to the failure of the sons of Noah, the children of Israel who rebelled against Moses, and the emergence of quasi-Christian groups that misunderstood and separated from Jesus in the first centuries CE.[48]

Parallels between Unificationist Splinter Groups and Early Christian Splinter Groups

Sanctuary Church, and the Jewish Christians and Zealots

Jewish Christians: Soon after Jesus’ ascension and Pentecost, the first split among Jesus’ followers took place. It was between the Jewish Christians and the larger body that was to become the global Christian church. The Jewish Christians viewed that to follow Jesus, who was a Jew, one must follow the Jewish laws. They stayed in Jerusalem and functioned, albeit without much success, as a Jewish sect.

Parallel to this, Sanctuarians are trying to fit into the corner of the Christian world that shares some aspects of their worldview, the major characteristic of which is the pro-Second Amendment movement. Consider these words from Justin (Kook Jin) Moon, in which he interprets True Father as another Jesus:

“In the end… [Father] redefined his teaching on True Parents. …he is reaffirming that God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit is one God. We went away from the [Christian] trinitarian concept and we went right back to it, if you understand the teaching of the God of Night and God of Day theology… The Holy Spirit is not a woman. This is the theological exposition that Father made before he went to the spirit world. And it is revolutionary. And it’s very significant. And it’s a clear evolution of the teaching that Father has given. And yes, in many ways you can say, it’s so different from Exposition of Divine Principle or these quotes from the [first] Cheon Seong Gyeong

Father’s revelation at the end of his life brings Christianity and the Unification Church into one. There is the eternal God of Night who came to the earth as Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ came from the God of Night. And Rev. Sun Myung Moon came from the God of Night. God is Jesus and Jesus is Sun Myung Moon. The conclusion is that Rev. Sun Myung Moon is Jesus.”[49] (emphases mine)

Moreover, the Jewish Christians opposed Paul, who said that Jesus-followers could practice the Jewish laws if they so desired, but that it was not mandatory except for the basic laws against adultery and honoring God above all, who was revealed in Jesus Christ.

I develop the parallel between Sanctuary Church and the Jewish-Christians in Table 2.[50]

Table 2: Parallels between the Sanctuary Church and Jewish Christians:

table 2

Zealots: Within the Jewish world at Jesus’ time were factions referred to as Zealots. The Zealots called for violent insurrection against Rome and their Jewish puppets. They believed the Messiah would appear as a new King David who would lead a Jewish insurrection to victory and restore the Davidic throne. They worshiped the God of force, the Lord of the sword, the heritage of the Israel that conquered the Promised Land.

Thus, the Zealots worshiped a tribal god and interpreted the world as a realm of enemies with weapons trying to kill them, against whom defense and retaliation by force was necessary and was the work of God. This argument was made by the Zealots and at least the first term, namely that Cheon Il Guk requires defense against an evil world, is made by Sanctuary Church. God willing, they will not add the second term and advocate retaliation by force.

Content taught by the Sanctuary Kingdom Academy evidences this. For example, the Sanctuary Adventure Fitness Camp:

This is a camp where young people can feel their pride in being a citizen of Cheon Il Guk through hardcore training of Peace Police and Peace Militia! Campers will undergo Brazilian Ju-Jitsu, firearms training as well as learning the anatomy of it such as dismantling and reassembling.”

For the Sanctuary Kingdom Academy, we read,

A large part of the program will be Peace Police and Peace Militia training. This training will consist of hand-to-hand combat, weapons training, bush crafting, and other activities for promoting Peace Police and Peace Militia culture.”[51]

The inclusion of weapons is so entrenched that Sanctuary sees them as holy items appropriate for inclusion in the sacrament of marriage.[52]

To the Zealots, a messianic claimant who died on a cross, or in any way did not adhere to their concept of the messiah, was not of God. Thus, the Zealots rejected the God of forgiveness and love that Jesus revealed and manifested. They rejected Jesus’ claim to be God’s only-begotten Son. Similarly, Sanctuary does not recognize Rev Moon as the only-begotten Son who victoriously proclaimed his wife to be the only-begotten Daughter. The Zealots rejected God the Father—manifested an individual man, and Sanctuary rejects God the Parent, manifested through a married couple. The Zealots rejected the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit as the Trinity and, as a by-product, the work of the Holy Spirit on earth to build the church. They rejected the church of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Sanctuary rejects the completed Trinity of Father and Mother Moon as True Parents, and the work of the Bride on earth to build Cheon Il Guk.

I develop the parallel between Sanctuary Church and the Zealots in Table 3.

Table 3: Parallels between Sanctuary Church and Zealots:

table 3

The Global Peace Foundation and Docetism-Gnosticism

Docetism and the larger Gnostic philosophy from which it sprung denied the humanity of Christ. Some viewed Jesus as having been a spirit man and denied that he came in the flesh. Others believe that Jesus was a physical man who received the Christ-spirit and did mighty works for a time, and had the Christ-spirit depart when he went to the cross, because God cannot suffer. Docetists ignore the physicality of Christ, his human nature, his suffering and finitude, indeed, his frailties.

Similarly, Global Peace Foundation appeals to the spirit of Father, focusing on his “dream” of interfaith unity through dialogue and service. This is to ignore the Father who brought salvation into physical reality through his flesh-and-blood, sacrificial true love in a course of offering, listening to old people and children through the night, giving away all the church’s money in the marketplace, commenting of a leader who had lost a lot of money and had come back with another big plan, “this boy has guts,” and granting him more money.

The Global Peace Foundation holds onto Father’s “aspirations” and believes they can be achieved without sacrifice and indemnity, by means of excellence in strategic planning and management. What comes to mind is Judas as the treasurer, who judged Jesus for blessing a woman’s breaking a vial of costly oil to anoint Jesus’ feet, when it could have been sold and the money given to the poor.[53] When difficulties came or hoped-for results did not manifest, it was a sign that True Father was losing God’s mandate and it was time for his appointed legate to take over, whether or not Father agreed.

Table 4: Parallels between the Global Peace Foundation and Docetism-Gnosticism:

table 4

In Hyun Jin Nim’s words:

For more than two decades, I have been championing the vision of “One Family under God” throughout the world. Initially, the primary vehicles for this were the organizations within the larger Unification Movement. Although these entities had made some progress, they had inherent legacy, institutional and operational limitations.

Thus, he disparages True Father’s leadership.

I personally witnessed the difficulty my father faced… He was often misunderstood by the wider public and sometimes exploited by his own supporters with self-serving agendas.

He also disparages the Family Federation:

I can no longer work through the FFWPU because it is not true to my father’s original mission.[54]

In contrast, in this prayer from May 25, 1969, True Father states that our ideals and aspirations can be an obstacle standing between us and God:

Our eyes tried to gaze at You, Father, centering on our own imperfect ideal. We understood with our own fallen perception, our own faculty of knowledge, and our own standard of intellect. Our mouths told our stories and made entreaties before You. We tried to pursue our own ideals before You, Father. But You cannot stand in the position of our ideals. We were ignorant of that fact and earnestly pray that You will allow us to repent.[55]

Summary

Just as the Jewish Christians, Zealots and Docetists denied the incarnation of Jesus Christ, Sanctuary Church and the Global Peace Foundation deny the incarnation of God in Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han Moon as the True Parents.

Outlook for Unificationist Splinter Groups

Outlook for Sanctuary Church

At the Council of Jerusalem, circa 50 CE, the church rejected the Jewish Christian position and agreed with Paul, making Christianity a faith that could be appropriated by all nations. If Sanctuarians come back to True Parents, they will widen the road for all Christians to do so.

In the end, the Zealots turned against each other, and this led to the destruction of their nation, their Temple and themselves by the Roman military. Sanctuary is increasing its exaltation of guns and swords. According to this parallel, Sanctuarians may fight among themselves and some may call for the use of force. But if they abjure the use of force and come back to True Parents, they will resurrect all Zealot-type spirits.

Regarding Hyun Shil Kang, whom Sanctuary Church declared is their True Mother, and who has gone to the spirit world: in his own good time, when she is ready, True Father will take care of her. She will have the opportunity to repent, restore and return for resurrection by guiding the Sanctuarians. She will return to St. Augustine. If and when he accepts her, he will educate her about another separatist group, the Donatists, and both will learn more from Father.[56]

Outlook for the Global Peace Foundation

Docetism dissolved into the pagan culture of Gnosticism, which would parallel today’s spiritually-inclined, left-leaning post-Christian culture. According to this parallel, the Global Peace Foundation followers will either return to the Family Federation, accepting that God is embodied in vessels of clay, at this time in True Mother, and that this is the entire purpose of creation, or adopt a conventional secular lifestyle within the parameters of a peace-oriented NGO. In the process they will need to rationalize their criticism of the Family Federation for being a sect, in light of their creation of their own sect, the Family Peace Association.

Fixed positions, flowing generations

On March 16, 2018, in Las Vegas, True Mother set forth the Principled view of the place of lineage in determination of seniority. She echoed True Father’s words: 

Why do we need law and order? Law and order exist to protect the right ownership of Creation; in other words, to ensure that everything remains ‘ours’ and not just a few people’s. We can classify laws; one kind exists to prevent fighting among individuals over their positions. For example, among the brothers in a family, who has the seniority? The eldest brother does, not by anyone's choice but by the order in which they were born. The one who exists first is closest in the lineage to God, who came before everyone.[57]

On that occasion, True Mother called everyone to honor the lineage of Hyo Jin Nim, whom Father recognized as the eldest son. This is a clear message to the younger sons, based upon which they can unite. The position of seniority is not a matter of choice; it is not a competition; there can be no grounds to fight over it. True Father said that this law protects the “right of ownership” and ensures that a few people do not usurp ownership.

By the same token, ownership transfers inexorably from generation to generation. At this time, True Mother is shaping movement leadership beyond the second generation. True Father too held high expectations for his immediate offspring, but nonetheless he had no intention to grant them pre-eminence, as he told them:

If the first generation fails, then there is the second generation, and if the second generation also fails, then the third generation is waiting. We should determine ourselves to complete our mission [within] our seventh generation…You second generation, I will get hold of you and put you on the test stage and will see how much you can endure.[58]

One is reminded of God’s words in the Old Testament given to all generations to come. God sees beyond the years.

Victory through true love, and the Family Federation’s task

The silver lining on the dark clouds of the Global Peace Foundation and Sanctuary Church splinter groups is that they are a foundation for the returning resurrection of Gnostics and gangsters, by virtue of the Family Federation resisting both temptations, and the followers and offspring of Sanctuary Church and the Global Peace Foundation returning to True Parents.

The tragedy also is a judgment upon the lack of HyoJeong of the general membership. Just as the failure of those prepared to receive Jesus, including the closest disciples, led to Jesus’ crucifixion, the failure of those prepared to receive True Parents, including the closest disciples, led to the True Family’s crucifixion. As True Parents departed from Korea to America, True Father said, “Now we will have to offer our sons and daughters internally when we go to America, for a course of sacrifice on the world level.”[59]

We have no choice but to keep going. Overcoming our weaknesses, we can deepen our HyoJeong and grasp the truth being manifested through True Mother. Her advancement of the globalization of the Blessing and articulation of the restoration of nations, ushering in the eternal Cheon Il Guk, is a well-thought out, systematic manifestation of Heavenly Parent’s six-thousand-year providence.

In the process, the Family Federation should respect True Parents’ family members’ right to exercise their religious viewpoints. It should draw the line at the point at which they break the law, and create a means for indemnification, even if it is necessary to take it to court. In addition, the Family Federation should explain where separatists err in terms of theology and practice, for their benefit and for the benefit of all True Parents’ followers, people of the world, and history.

Centering on True Mother, the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification is planning for long term stability and growth. It is establishing a faith-based, family-centered, merit-based constitutional system for the Heavenly Parent-centered spiritual and practical life of all peoples and nations. True Mother is setting it in place in nations across the globe, as well as in our movement.

From the beginning, the Unification movement’s mandate has been to “lead fallen people to block the ways of the evil mind and to pursue the goals of the original mind, enabling them to attain goodness.” For this, the Exposition of Divine Principle promised a new expression of truth in the form of “plain answers” and “clear explanations… in plain language that everyone can understand.”

In light of these plain answers and clear explanations, Exposition of the Divine Principle promised that humankind “will form one great family… Everyone will adore and serve God as their Parent.” Humankind will usher in “a new historical era” wherein people “experience God in the depths of their being” and “simply will not commit sins.”[60] This remains the Family Federation’s task.

Notes

[1] “A Providential View of the Pacific Rim Era in Light of God’s Will I,” Cheon Il Guk and Our Mission: True Mother Anthology vol. 3, p. 133.

[2] Exposition of Divine Principle, Part 2, Chapters 3 and 4.

[3] Chambumo Gyeong, 12.4.3.10, June 26, 1999: “What is the meaning of my giving Mother a plaque of recognition on June 14, 1999? Throughout history the Eves of three ages sacrificed the Adams from those ages. But at this time Mother set the conditions to qualify as the Mother of three ages. She rose to the position where she could receive Heaven’s blessing on an equal footing with Father.”

[4] The Global Peace Foundation is the main non-profit organization Hyun Jin Moon has founded. Its partner, more recently formed, is the Family Peace Association. https://www.globalpeace.org/about-us, https://family-peace.org/founders/

[5] This is the church founded by Hyung Jin Moon, officially named the World Peace and Unification Sanctuary, located in Newfoundland, PA. https://www.sanctuary-pa.org

[6] Dr. and Mrs. Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han Moon founded the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification. http://familyfedihq.org

[7] Personal communication

[8] For the sake of future study, the following words from True Father pertain to this: “At present, there is no perfected husband. There is no Lord, no owner on earth. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the woman to give birth to him. Eve was supposed to perfect Adam, but instead she made him fall. Mary was supposed to give birth to Jesus and do her duty as the mother so that he could fulfill his mission, but she failed to do so. All this must be restored. What that means is that the woman must give birth to her spouse as Adam. If he does not become the perfected Adam, he cannot consummate his marriage. Since the providence took three eras, including the era of the Second Coming, the woman has to fulfill her mission of giving birth to three people, through three generations.” (1976.10.21, First Cheon Seong Gyeong, p. 1281.)

[9] True Father, Jan 2, 1996, personal notes; cf. First Cheon Seong Gyeong, pp. 944-45.

[10] Exposition of Divine Principle, “General Introduction,” pp. 1, 6.

[11] I will not go into it here, but for the record I would state that to the Pre-Old Testament Age I would connect the resentment of God. See Exposition of Divine Principle, Part 2, Ch 1, sec 2.5.

[12] Cf. “The House of Unification for World Peace,” which True Father conceived as a feminine construct led by the wife and mother.

[13] Heb. 11:17-18.

[14] “The Messiah is given birth by God and a mother.” (Chambumo Gyeong 3.1.3.3) “Even the Returning Lord must go through a process to receive blessings. He has to receive the blessing as the world-level Abel.… a son cannot bless the Messiah. Only a mother can do so. The only ones who can give birth to the Messiah are a mother and God. The Messiah is born through a woman, and for that reason only a mother and God can bless him. Therefore, a woman who is also the wife of God must appear. She must appear and testify that she can serve him as the Messiah. However, in order for the mother to give such a testimony saying, ‘You are my beloved child,' the candidate for the Messiah must give her absolute obedience. He has to advance in such an environment. In order to receive that blessing, he must serve her in the role of a servant of servants.” (Chambumo Gyeong p. 234, 1984.07.10)

[15] True Mother, 1999.10.21, Chambumo Gyeong 2.4.2.12.

[16] True Father resolved God's han as well, but this article is explaining his words about True Mother.

[17] 2 Cor. 12:7.

[18] Cf. Luke 23:28-9: 28 “But Jesus, turning to them, said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For indeed the days are coming in which they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, wombs that never bore, and breasts which never nursed!’”

[19] Gal. 4:26.

[20] Rev. 18:1-3.

[21] “Apotheosis” means “the highest point in the development of something; culmination or climax. It is ecclesiastical Latin from the Greek apo ‘from’ and theos ‘god.’

[22] As one illustration, I point to the “Ceremony of the Turning Point of the Offering.” True Father lined up 12 Korean leaders representing the Father nation, 40 Japanese, 12 Taiwanese, 12 Filipinos and 12 Canadians representing the Mother nation, and 40 Americans representing all humankind. Father stood in God’s position and Mother stood in front of the nations and said “I am offering to you.” (May 23 or 24, 1998, Belvedere Estate, Tarrytown, NY; see Second Cheon Seong Gyeong, p. 1540.)

[23] “God’s Preparation for Our Church, and Its Early Days,” God’s Will and the World, p. 392.

[24] 2 Cor 11:2.

[25] “The Completed Testament Age following the Second Advent of Jesus is the age of the heifer, or the age of the wife.” Exposition of Divine Principle, p. 210.

[26] I realized this through my online Unification Theological Seminary students from various regions who joined in the 90s and later. They met True Mother but never met Father. The major exception to the “Father starts the tour, Mother takes it around the world” rule was the 50-State “We Will Stand” speaking tour of the United States.

[27] John 16:7, 12, 25.

[28] Acts 8:15-17.

[29] 

True Father remarked during his speech at the Abel’s Women’s UN, “With the strong determination that I will put Mother in the position of the wife of Adam who represents the Creator, I have been recreating Mother throughout my life so that I can present her in front of the whole world with such a status, even if they strongly oppose it.” (emphasis mine) July 12, 2012)

It is notable that Father said the same thing in 1959, a few months before the Holy Wedding: “If Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, had not died after coming to the earth, what would have happened? Since it is said that Jesus is the only begotten Son, God would have sent His only begotten Daughter. The 2,000-year history of God after Jesus is the history of seeking a bride. It is the history of seeking a bride. Do you deny that? Although Jesus came as a true son, since there was no true daughter, God’s Will was not fully accomplished. For this reason, the 2,000-year history is the history of finding a daughter. The fights in the Unification Church will also center on this issue.” (emphasis mine). “The Toil of God as He Tries to Raise up His Beloved Children, Oct 11, 1959.

[30] For more on this subject, see Andrew Wilson, “True Mother and the Work of the Holy Spirit” (Journal of Unification Studies, vol. 17 [2016]; https://www.journals.uts.edu/volume-xvii-2016/279-true-mother-and-the-work-of-the-holy-spirit

[31] Exposition of Divine Principle, pp. 294-9.

[32] I note that the last four stages of the pre-OTA comprised Abraham's 3-generations, the families of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and that the prolongation of the NTA into the CTA comprised True Parents’ 3-generation family, and the Cheon Il Guk era is condensed even more. The Principle calls this vertical history indemnified horizontally, see pp. 292-93. And I note that the ages blend into each other, as two days blend through the night. Note True Mother’s words on May 10, 2015: “We are living in the Completed Testament Age when we attend True Parents and live their teachings. What is happening to the Completed Testament Age? It is transforming into the age of Cheon Il Guk.” (Anthology, vol. 3, p. 344)

[33] Exposition of Divine Principle, pp. 315-6. Please refer to the chart on p. 345.

[34] Exposition of Divine Principle, pp. 197-8.

[35] Exposition of Divine Principle, pp. 315.

[36] Exposition of Divine Principle, pp. 316.

[37] Exposition of Divine Principle, p. 384.

[38] Exposition of Divine Principle, p. 316.

[39] Exposition of Divine Principle, pp. 319, 321.

[40] Ibid., p. 220. Two points to make. One, for God to send the Messiah, there must be, in addition to the foundations of faith and substance, a prepared social environment that makes the Messiah’s success feasible. Two, the parallels’ numerology is plastic. What transpired in three generations of Abraham’s family, for even which the Principle’s assignment of 221 years (120 + 40 + 21 + 40) is symbolic, is assigned to have taken 1,130 years in the Old and New Testament Ages. God sets up “special dispensations” to “[restore] horizontally the vertical indemnity conditions without any prolongation.” (Exposition of Divine Principle Part II, Ch. 3, Sec. 2.3, p. 292-3) This is most pertinent to True Parents’ wilderness course, in which the entire providence was indemnified in 40 years.

[41] Ibid., p. 320.

[42] Ibid., p. 321.

[43] In the parallels, 40 years can have the same significance as 400 years.

[44] Ibid., Part II, Ch. 5, Sec 4.3.6, p. 375. 

[45] I identify three characteristics of Roman Catholic religiosity that God could claim. One, that the Holy Spirit works through what we would call hyojeong centering on the clerical hierarchy, the ideal being monastic poverty, chastity and obedience, and the secular derivative, participation in the sacramental system. Two, simple theological statements of faith, piety and practice. Three, the courage to let God be God and not attempt to “f the ineffable." Yes, Christ is fully divine. Yes, Christ is fully human. Yes, the Trinity is three persons. Yes, the Trinity is one. This freed Rome from the morass of Christological and Trinitarian theological conflicts that divided the eastern churches, and allowed her to build a middle way based upon “both-and” doctrinal formulations affirming the lordship of Jesus Christ.

[46] The Zealots were not specifically Jesus-followers. I include the group because they were part of the religious-cultural milieu that God prepared to attend Jesus. Dr. Wilson reinforces my typing them with the Jewish Christians: “the Jewish Christians [also] held to apocalyptic beliefs stemming from the Jewish expectations of a political messiah who will come on the clouds with power and defeat the Romans.” 

[47] To explore the parallels between today’s splinter groups and those of the Pre-Old Testament Age and Old Testament Age would be a fruitful undertaking, but I will not pursue it here. I will focus on the parallels between today’s separatists and those of the New Testament Age, namely, Docetist-Gnostics, Zealots and Jewish Christians. Another topic of fruitful research would be that of all the groups that separated from True Parents over the decades. My hypothesis would be that these groups have characteristics similar to the Global Peace Foundation and Sanctuary Church. Since the Global Peace Foundation and Sanctuary Church are led by True Parents’ physical children, they are relatively significant, and our understanding of these has relatively great importance, and so I’m focusing on them.

[48] For an introduction to the split within the Unification movement, see Michael Mickler, “Mainstream Unificationism,” https://appliedunificationism.com/2016/08/29/mainstream-unificationism/

[49] Sept 8, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0fidea7FEU&feature=youtu.be. We note that Justin is, in an amazingly cavalier fashion, throwing overboard the absolute authority of the eight textbooks, which was Sean’s initial earth-shaking cause for separating from True Parents. He also is dismissing the claim that developing the expression of truth is wrong, by stating that True Father himself systematically, programmatically developed his teachings. Thus, Sanctuary loses any grounds to argue that evolving Unificationist teachings per se is wrong.

[50] Credit for the final point goes to Dr. Wilson.

[51] https://www.sanctuary-pa.org/education, retrieved Nov 14.

[52] The social impact of Sanctuary Church’s weapons culture is evidenced by a report from a Unification leader in Philadelphia:

“This is concerning my follow up in holding a seminar to one of the biggest recreation centers in West Philadelphia. I used to have my event right there once a month… Suddenly the Director told me that I can’t hold a project or event there. The Director of the facility he asked me to secure all the necessary documents and permits for the safety of their building and facility. I asked him, ‘Why I am required to do all those when I have held events in this facility for more than two years now?’

“He told me, ‘I am restricted for a certain reason.’ He then showed me a video of Hyung Jin Moon with his blessing event with all his congregation holding a gun during their blessing in the Poconos. He asked me, ‘I know you are a family Federation member; do you know about this?’ …He told me that because of this video, my organization, the WFWP (Women’s Federation for World Peace), a well-known sister organization of Family Federation for World peace, is now banned from any government facilities in Pennsylvania. I got so shocked when a big screen played the video of Hyung Jin Moon holding an AR-15 gun with his community. 

“‘Well, I can explain that to you,’ I said. I told the Director that I am a FFWP member but I am not involved in that group. I explained the situation that happened to our church and the division that has led to Hyung Jin separating himself and leading a schismatic group. As I relayed the story of what True Mother said about him, I told them that they are not mature enough to take a responsible leadership. I also said that without getting the blessing of their parents, he went his own and created a hysterical atmosphere in that part of Pennsylvania. So, the Director of the building give me his permission to use it again under one condition: ‘Just carry with you a police clearance and you’ll be allowed to use the Recreation Center for free.’”

[53] Matt 26:7-16, at the conclusion of which Judas went to the chief priests with his proposal to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. John 12 records the same or a similar event and states that Judas was the treasurer among the disciples (v. 6).

[54] https://family-peace.org/2017/12/family-peace-association-inaugural-ceremony-founders-address/

[55] Second Cheon Seong Gyeong p. 1511.

[56] Donatism was a movement in Augustine’s native North Africa that claimed authority to reject communion with Rome and bestow their own sacraments on the basis of their superior ethical standard—martyrdom to protect the church against state persecution. Augustine argued against them that the efficacy of the Holy Spirit’s work through the sacraments depended not upon the merit of the giver or recipient, for no one is truly righteous, but upon sincere faith and love on the part of both, proven by fidelity to the church that Christ instituted as his body on the earth. Sadly, Augustine countenanced, in the end, the state’s use of force against the Donatists, and on this he would need education from True Parents.

[57] July 11, 1982, “In Search of Our Home,” https://www.tparents.org/Moon-Talks/SunMyungMoon82/820711.htm.

[58] “Benediction and Words at the Declaration of the Realm of Cosmic Sabbath for the Parents of Heaven and Earth,” pp. 28, 34, August 9, 1997, Seoul, Korea. https://www.tparents.org/ Moon-Talks/SunMyungMoon97/SunMyungMoon-970809d.pdf.

[59] 1971.08.30 Chambumo Gyeong, p. 95.

[60] Exposition of Divine Principle, General Introduction, passim.