Book 1, Chapter 4, Section 2
The God of Re-Creation

1 Due to the Fall, God lost everything that He had created in six days, from the first to the sixth day. Because of human beings, He lost everything. To restore this, God has led providential history for six thousand years. Now this history is moving on to the seventh millennium. Christianity speaks of a kingdom that will last a thousand years, but that thousand years could be understood as one day. The thousand-year kingdom actually refers to the realm of resurrection on the world level. (20-330, 1968.07.14)

God’s course in the providential history of restoration

2 You have to build a foundation in your daily life that connects your life in this world to your eternal life. Otherwise that connection will not be made. Adam and Eve should have fulfilled the full potential for their lives on a universal level, but they fell, and God has been toiling for six thousand years to restore this. That is why the history of the providence of restoration is called the history of God’s toil. (2-010, 1957.01.06)

3 If human beings had reached perfection centered on God, their joy would have been God’s joy and their glory would have been God’s glory. But because they were unable to attain that state, instead of featuring joy and glory as God had hoped, they ended up living in sorrow. Having sinned, they fell far from the garden of the ideal. Ever since then, God has endeavored to restore fallen human beings. This has been the history of the providence of restoration. (3-103, 1957.10.06)

4 To this day, no one knew that human history was the history of the providence of restoration. Explaining the course of history by the concept of restoration is the Unification Church’s great contribution to the study of history. God is the root of history; thus He took responsibility for it, led it and developed it. Along the way there were numerous individuals, families, tribes, peoples and nations who were responsible for the mission of restoration, and whose efforts made it possible for history to advance step by step. (22-181, 1969.02.02)

5 Looking at things from God’s viewpoint, from the beginning of history to the present time God has not yet seen the day of total victory, the day when He could celebrate. Instead, God has been toiling for thousands of years to achieve His ideal of creation, from the day Adam and Eve fell, through the history of the providence of restoration. Still He has not yet reached the stage at which He can claim victory and glory. We have not yet reached that stage; we are still on the way. What God ultimately desires is true victory, when the truth has absolute authority and exercises its power. This power is not to be exercised only once, but should operate continuously throughout history—past, present and future. On the basis of God’s victory, the truth should pervade everything. Nevertheless, God has not yet welcomed such a day. At certain points in the course of the providence of restoration, God attained a partial victory, only to have the next stage in the historical process end in failure. (58-129, 1972.05.22)

6 The history of the providence of restoration since Adam and Eve has been carried out through vertical relationships. People need to pray, “God! God! Please help us reach the standard of perfection.” They have to climb up through the positions of servant of servants, servant, adopted child, direct child and parent. They have to go back to the Old Testament Age before Jacob and become as servants of servants. Then they must climb up through the positions to become adopted children, and to become direct children. Only in this way can they finally meet the True Parents, the Messiah who with his bride stands in the position of the Parents of humankind. In this way the era when human beings were servants of servants, the era when they were servants, and the eras when they became adopted children, direct children and parents, can all be liberated. (65-192, 1972.11.19)

7 We are the people who must recover the kingdom of heaven, the garden of victory that people throughout history have been seeking with hope and faith. To do so, we ourselves must become individuals that God can be happy with and form families that God can be happy with. However, in order to form such families, we must restore ourselves as true brothers and sisters, true couples, and true parents. It is to restore all of these that God has been conducting His providence in history. The Old Testament Age was the age that symbolized hope, and the New Testament Age was the age that symbolized faith. But in the future, the age that symbolizes love will come. We call it the Completed Testament Age. This destiny is now unfolding, from the heavenly world to the earthly world. (5-111, 1959.01.04)

8 The ideal world of creation was to be built based on the one Will, but due to the Fall it was not fulfilled. Nevertheless, God has absolute authority. Even though the entire external world may change, God will never change. Even though He lost Adam and Eve and all things to the devil, Satan, since God is still God, the Absolute Being, He must bring Satan, who was originally an archangel, to voluntarily surrender. He has to establish His authority as the absolute God, but in a natural way that does not insist upon His authority. God is good. Therefore, He cannot strike the evil Satan first. In the realm of God, who is good and whose essence is love, there can be no cause or motive for striking first. God must live even for that enemy. God invests and invests Himself for all created things and lives for their sake. This is the dignity and absolute authority of God. Hence, even though the devil came into existence and no matter how much he opposes God, he can never cause God to compromise His dignity and authority. Since God continues living for others even in that position, His providence of salvation inevitably has taken thousands of years. Yet through this course He is bringing the devil ever closer to natural submission. (210-340, 1990.12.27)

9 Human history is the struggle between good and evil. God originally intended to govern true parents, true children, true families, true nations, a true world and a true universe according to the ideal of true love. However, Satan has been governing false parents, false children, false families, false nations, a false world and a false universe through false love. To restore this, human history has entailed repeated struggles between good and evil. That is to say, from individuals up to the global level, Satan has mimicked God’s way of developing history through the Principle, imitating the principled world before the true one could emerge. He seized the initiative, with the pretense that his was the true world, and tried to destroy the world of the Principle. Hence, struggles between good and evil were inevitable. In leading the providence of re-creation, God takes an altruistic stance. He acts for the sake of others again and again and follows the strategy of being struck first and then taking back what is His. On the other hand, Satan takes a self-centered stance and strikes first; but later he must pay compensation for the damage. God’s strategy is to be struck first and later to claim damages; Satan always strikes first but comes to ruin later. In this way, the good side advances by being struck first, receiving persecution and making sacrifices, while Satan’s side does the opposite. (204-140, 1990.07.06)

The meaning of the Old Testament Age, New Testament Age and Completed Testament Age

10 When we look at the overall course of restoration in history, we see that God leads the providence through the three stages of formation, growth and completion. The course of the providence advances from the Old Testament Age, the era of servants, to the New Testament Age, the era of adopted children, to the Completed Testament Age, the era of true children, and finally to the era of true parents. (15-049, 1965.02.07)

11 Human history can be categorized into three ages: the Old Testament Age, the New Testament Age and the Completed Testament Age. The Old Testament Age was the age when children were redeemed by sacrificial offerings. It was a time to make preparations for the coming of God’s Son. In the New Testament Age, Jesus became the offering. Based on this, we received the Parents. During that time, God made preparations for the coming of the bride and bridegroom, so that we could receive the Parents at the time of the Second Coming. The reason why I, bearing the name True Parent, have suffered for forty years as the central person of the Completed Testament Age is to welcome God on earth and achieve oneness between God and human beings. (227-094, 1992.02.10)

12 How is it that God has continued in bitter sorrow through the six thousand years of history? He had to lead human beings, who were positioned between God and Satan, to make certain conditions. These conditions are the mountains of offering sacrifices. Looking back at the six thousand years of providential history, in the Old Testament Age God led human beings to climb the mountain of offering by sacrificing the things of creation; and in the New Testament Age they climbed the mountain through the offering of Jesus Christ, who gave his actual body. What, then, are you to offer as a sacrifice in the Completed Testament Age? You faithful believers have to climb the mountain by offering yourselves as sacrifices. Thus it is that providential history has advanced overall based on the offering of sacrifices. In the Old Testament Age people climbed the mountain by offering the things of creation. In the New Testament Age, the offering of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, surmounted the mountain of sacrifice. Now, in the Completed Testament Age, you, representing the bridegroom and the bride, have to climb over the mountain of sacrifice by offering yourselves. You will not see the world of true peace, freedom and the ideal until you have climbed over the mountain of sacrifice. (2-111, 1957.03.10)

13 In the Old Testament Age, the things of creation were sacrificed as offerings to God; in the New Testament Age the offering was made by the sacrifice of His Son; and in the Completed Testament Age it is the Parents who sacrifice themselves. God’s purpose in having human beings sacrifice material things and in denying their right of ownership was to restore them as His sons and daughters. His purpose in sacrificing His Son, Jesus, was to recover the Parents, and the purpose of the Parents carrying the cross is to attend God. Therefore the Old Testament Age is the age of righteousness by works, the New Testament Age is the age of righteousness by faith, and the Completed Testament Age is the age of righteousness by attendance. (232-320, 1992.07.10)

14 In order to attend God, the things of creation were sacrificed in the Old Testament Age, the Son was sacrificed in the New Testament Age, and the Parents were sacrificed in the Completed Testament Age. Then, what needs to be done from now on? You must stand in the position representing the Parents, Mother and Father. All the things of creation represent the Old Testament Age, and God’s sons and daughters represent the New Testament Age, and the Parents represent the Completed Testament Age. (208-345, 1990.11.21)

15 On the path of restoration, we should go up from the era of servant of servants through the era of servants and the era of adopted children to the era of direct children. But how can we complete the course from the era of servant of servants to the era of servants to the era of adopted children, and be connected to the era of the direct lineage? Connecting to the era of the direct lineage cannot be done just like that. Following the Principle, we are required to go through the foundation of faith and the foundation of substance, which are necessary for the foundation to receive the Messiah. That is, we need to welcome the Messiah. The Messiah is the true Son of God, but the lineage of a true son is different from that of an adopted child. This is why we need the change of lineage. (55-192, 1972.05.09)

16 What is the fundamental issue as we go the path of restoration through indemnity? We have to fulfill the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Completed Testament. Fulfilling the Completed Testament means the whole world will come under God’s sovereignty. This is what is required to fulfill the Completed Testament Age. The Old Testament Age was the era for restoring all things of creation, the New Testament Age was the era for restoring the people of God’s kingdom, and the Completed Testament Age is the era for restoring God’s sovereignty. This means we have to restore God’s sovereignty over the world. Jesus’ mission was to restore the people of the world. In other words, the mission of Christianity is to restore all the people of the world as one people, and the mission of the Lord of the Second Advent is to restore the world to the sovereignty of the One. (55-247, 1972.05.09)

The providence of restoration in the Old Testament Age

17 The Old Testament Age was the age of the servant. It was the era when people in the position of servant of servants were restored to the position of servant. Even Abraham was God’s servant, not His son. God established the way of loyalty by setting up servants of servants and then servants. This was the way God advanced His providence in history, a providence that will ultimately bring together all the people in the world and bring the world stage, hitherto under the dominion of evil, to God’s side. Even Jacob triumphed as God’s servant rather than as God’s son. God has been working this way, restoring people from the position of a servant of servants to that of a servant, and from the position of a servant to that of an adopted son. (15-325, 1965.12.07)

18 In the Old Testament Age, the providence of salvation for all humanity was to bring them to the position of God’s servants. Yet restoring them to the position of servant required that the central figures of that age attain victory from the beginning to the end. That is why God had to make incredible sacrifices through four thousand years of history just to set up central figures such as Noah and Abraham. (15-050, 1965.02.07)

19 Human history began with religion, and throughout history religion has flowed together with humanity. It exists to show us the way of hope. From the day of the Fall, God took responsibility for having created human beings. He has been toiling throughout the course of history in order to save fallen people. As a result of the Fall, Satan took dominion over human beings and drove them into unimaginable situations. Yet because they were not supposed to love centered on Satan, God had to push people to positions so low that even Satan would lose his grip on them. That is why God began the providence of salvation for human beings by taking them to the position of servant of servants. This is the reason God conducted His providence through the religions that teach the way of a servant of servants. They teach that we must serve for the sake of humanity. As long as we are in the position of a servant of servants, we are not qualified to have anyone serve us. Therefore, we have no other way but to surrender and obey unconditionally. In the position of a servant of servants, your master is another servant, not a rightful master. (42-281, 1971.03.27)

20 Before the Old Testament Age, people were in the position of servant of servants. After the Old Testament Age began, they could reach the position of servant, and hence they could relate with the Lord. People in the position of servant of servants cannot, on their own, pioneer the way to become a servant, so God pioneered the way for them. God had to educate people who were far more evil than servants of servants. But since people cannot see the invisible God even if He stands right in front of them, He chose prophets to educate them. God chose prophets to represent Him on earth, and the people had to obey them in order to follow God’s orders. (42-282, 1971.03.27)

21 What did the prophets have to teach the people? They had to teach the people that in order to follow God’s desired providence they had to go against the stream of fallen history and establish the way of obedience to Him. God needed them to be more loyal to Him than they were to Satan. In short, God, through the prophets, had to teach them their duty as servants. After they completed that duty, they had to set up a system to form individuals, families, tribes and a people who would prepare the environment in relation to the providential Will. But they were unable to set up this environment while in the position of servants. God therefore led the providence by presenting them with the messianic ideal and promising that He would send them the Savior someday. This was the providence that centered on the Israelites. (42-282, 1971.03.27)

22 In the Old Testament Age, God found those whom He could use as His servants by having them make sacrificial offerings. Such was Old Testament history. Human beings had fallen to a position lower than the things of creation. Since the things of creation were closer to God than the people were, God worked through the things of creation. He ordered the Israelites to cut them in half, and separate what belonged to Him from what belonged to Satan. Why did God tell them to divide and sacrifice these things? It was not because of God or Satan; it was because of human beings, who were unable to fulfill their responsibility. The inheritance of Satan’s lineage was the point at which they failed to fulfill their responsibility. (136-229, 1985.12.29)

23 Although human beings fell, they could not entirely leave God. In striving to come back to Him, they had to start from the position of servant of servants. What does “servant of servants’ ' mean? It means that they do not have their originally intended master. Thus fallen people have to be loyal to God and serve Him from the position of servant of servants. Satan was an archangel, God’s servant. Human beings were pressed into the service of this servant. Therefore, in order to return to God they had to demonstrate their loyalty to God from the position of a servant of servants. (17-073, 1966.11.12)

24 The Old Testament states that God called Noah and Abraham to serve as His messengers and deliver His word to the people. The people of the world had fallen into darkness. In order to lift them up to a position where the Heavenly Father could relate with them as His children, He called Abraham and established the people known as the Israelites. Through this people, God pioneered the way for humankind to gradually return to Him. God toiled during that era of four thousand years, utilizing the angels to help achieve the standard in His work. That standard was the preparation for the coming of Jesus, who would establish the victorious foundation upon which the people of Israel could relate directly to the Father. It was also the foundation for Jesus to fulfill God’s Will for Adam and Eve. (1-283, 1956.12.16)

The providence of restoration in the New Testament Age

25 Jesus Christ came to the earth to fulfill God’s covenant with the Israelites, by having them uphold God’s Will. He came to fulfill God’s covenant with the people who at an earlier point in history had been in the position of servants, and restore them to the position of adopted children and then true children. One who has faithfully fulfilled his or her duty as a loyal servant can then stand in the position of adopted child. That is why in the providential history of restoration God tried to lead the Israelites to fulfill the duty of loyal servants, and upon that foundation He wanted to relate to them as His adopted children. (42-283, 1971.03.27)

26 How can one become an adopted child? Until the Son of God came to this earth, it was not possible. After the Son of God came to the earth, those who listened to the Son’s commands and obeyed them could finally become adopted children. This is how God worked to connect the Old Testament Age to the New Testament Age. Believers in the Old Testament Age were servants who wished to receive the inheritance, which is a benefit of becoming adopted children. That is why they waited for the coming of the Messiah. In other words, their desire was to surmount the sorrowful circumstances of a servant and advance, through the Messiah, to the position of adopted children. In the absence of a son or daughter of direct lineage, an adopted child is entitled to receive the inheritance from his or her parents. God, in directing the servant-level Old Testament Age, therefore guided the people so that they would maintain their desire to transcend the servant’s position and thus benefit from attending His Will. God desired them to do so. This is why the Israelites continued to long for the privilege of leaving behind the position of servant and receiving God’s inheritance, and why they maintained the concept of being the chosen people. (42-283, 1971.03.27)

27 Jesus went one step higher and introduced God’s love. In the Old Testament Age, Moses introduced only the God of authority, the God of power and the God of judgment, but he was not able to introduce the God of love. It was Jesus who introduced His love. Yet although he introduced the God of love and was himself a man of love, the people of his time did not accept him. (35-277, 1970.10.25)

28 Two thousand years ago, Jesus was sent to the earth. On the foundation of Judaism, he was to establish the realm of a world religion in his lifetime. He was to stand as the axis of a religious movement on God’s side that would assimilate Rome, even though it might face Rome’s opposition. That is, in Jesus, God sent the very Messiah that Judaism had been waiting for. Who was Jesus? He came as the Messiah of Judaism and died while pioneering the way of the Messiah of the world. Then, what happened to Judaism? Up to that time they had been attending God as the God of Judaism, but that was no longer sufficient. What did Jesus come to earth to teach? He did not come to teach about God according to the teachings of the Old Testament. He came to teach about the God of the New Testament Age. (105-214, 1979.10.26)

29 As a first step, God raised up Israel as a servant nation and raised a people who would serve. Then, when Jesus, the Son of God, came to them, had they believed in him and believed his words, then by their faith in him they would have been elevated from the position of servants to that of adopted children. Then, when Jesus had gone a step higher, his believers would have become his children. What do I mean when I talk about Jesus going a step higher? After the Fall on earth, there were no original ancestors. Therefore, if Jesus had been elevated to the ancestor’s position, the people of Israel could have gone from the position of adopted children, been engrafted into him as God’s children, and received their right of inheritance. However, this did not happen. That is why Romans Chapter 8 says, “But we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies,” and also, “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.'” This shows that they could only become adopted children. Christians today are adopted children, from a different lineage. (154-337, 1964.10.05)

30 What must you do to become adopted children? That is the question. Adopted children should be better than servants. Adopted children should be better than the servants on God’s side and better than Satan, who is the king of the evil world. Satan was originally an archangel, a servant; to be an adopted child you have to be better than a servant. This is logical from the viewpoint of the Principle. Therefore, you must have the conviction that you will conquer Satan’s world with your own hands; otherwise you cannot become adopted children. In order for God to move forward, today He needs one representative who can live for His sake more than anyone else has in history. Only when that person appears can we enter the era of adopted children. God has toiled throughout the long ages of history, through a vertical history age after age, to mobilize one people and create the realm of adopted children. We too need to emerge as adopted children in order to earn our right of inheritance from God, our Parent. (89-203, 1976.11.22)

31 If God had His own children, He would have no need to adopt children. It is because He has no children of His own that He needs adopted children. God’s purpose in adopting children is eventually to restore true children. Therefore, an adopted child should have the heart that the inheritance he or she receives from God is not really theirs to keep; it is meant for God’s direct sons and daughters. This is how adopted children should be. Adopted children should be willing to offer their lives for the sons and daughters who are to come. They should hope to see the birth of the sons and daughters of direct lineage whom God desires, although it may require sacrificing everything they have. They must always prepare such a heart to receive them. Unless they uphold this standard as adopted children, they will have no relationship with the direct children of God. (89-204, 1976.11.22)

The providence of restoration in the Completed Testament Age

32 32 What does the Completed Testament refer to? It refers to the fulfillment of God’s covenant to establish the ideal of creation. Then what does the Completed Testament Age refer to? Adam and Eve were supposed to be God’s children and complete the ideal of creation, but they were expelled from the Garden of Eden. The Completed Testament Age occurs when they return as the son and daughter on God’s side, the ones who can finally represent God’s kingship on the world level. On this foundation, we will be able to return to a world that has nothing to do with the Fall, where God will welcome individuals, families, tribes, peoples, nations and the world. (266-325, 1995.01.01)

33 What is the Completed Testament Age? The Completed Testament Age is the time when humankind advances toward God’s ideal, which is based on families on earth that center on the Parents’ love, a new world free from Satan’s accusation. The Completed Testament Age, from the point of view of the Principle, is the realm of the Parents who have completed their portion of responsibility. A covenant entails responsibility. The Fall was the failure to fulfill the human portion of responsibility. The Old Testament refers to the old covenant, the New Testament refers to the new covenant, and the Completed Testament that we are now talking about refers to the time of completing the covenant. Completing the covenant means that all the people of the world complete their portion of responsibility. Because of the prior failure to fulfill human responsibility, our responsibilities as individuals, families, tribes, peoples, nations, the world and cosmos still remain before us. What is more, Satan’s world came into existence. Since Satan came into existence because of our failure, we now need to fulfill our responsibility in order to eliminate him. (131-098, 1984.04.16)

34 Looking at God’s providence, we can see that it consists of three stages. They are the Old Testament Age, the New Testament Age and the Completed Testament Age. Christians believe that everything was finished with the Old and New Testaments, but that is not the case. They do not know that the Completed Testament Age lies in front of them. Jesus must return to complete the Will; we call this the Completed Testament. We have the Old Testament and the New Testament; those covenants should be completed, should they not? The Lord of the Second Advent comes to this earth to complete the Will. (243-100, 1993.01.03)

35 The Completed Testament Age is the age of fulfillment. We should fulfill its covenant on the levels of the individual, family, tribe, people, nation and world. All these levels should be linked, centered on God’s love, God’s life and God’s lineage. In this way, we will establish one lineage, one love and one life as the tradition. When this happens, Satan will have to leave. This is done by the work of engrafting, which will naturally remove our connection to Satan’s lineage. (226-276, 1992.02.09)

36 In the Old Testament Age, the things of creation were sacrificed to pave the way for the Son and, in the New Testament Age, the Son offered himself as a sacrifice to pave the way for the Lord of the Second Advent, the True Parents. In the Completed Testament Age, True Parents sacrifice themselves in order to bring God’s vertical love to the earth. In relation to humankind, God is the vertical Parent of true love. True Parents are the horizontal Parents, whose true love is aligned at a ninety-degree angle with the vertical Parent. On the foundation of this vertical and horizontal love, God’s love and life will be able to burst forth for the first time. With the virtuous union of husband and wife with God, new blood ties between them will expand, based on the love of True Parents. In this way, the seed of life that began in God’s love based on the standard of the original Principle will appear on earth for the first time in human history. (208-340, 1990.11.21)

37 The Old Testament Age was the age when the things of creation were sacrificed to find sons and daughters. In the New Testament Age, sons and daughters were martyred to pave the way for the coming of the Parents. When the Parents come to the earth, they will pave the way for God to come. The mission of the True Parents is to build a horizontal base for the vertical Father, encompassing all the peoples of the world. As the True Father’s horizontal realm of heart unfolds, the Heavenly Father’s vertical realm of heart will naturally unfold and settle there. When God reaches the point where He can embrace both vertical and horizontal love, for the first time He will make the transition to the age when He can go beyond the fallen- world, attain the core position, and reestablish His original, ideal authority. Then He will say, “Everything is accomplished.” (177-346, 1988.05.22)

38 We look at God as the Lord of our hope and the Lord of our faith. He is also the Lord of our love. God, the Lord of hope, faith and love, guided human history through the Old Testament Age, which represents hope, and the New Testament Age, which represents faith. Therefore, henceforth we need to go through the Completed Testament Age, which represents love. What is the one main element of the Completed Testament Age, that is, the age of the Lord of the Second Advent, which will remain unchanging forever? It is God’s love. God’s love is the central element overall; it is also the ideal element overall. For the sake of this love, people have walked their providential courses with hope and faith. Nevertheless, if you do not now walk the providential course of love, the foothold of unity on earth will crumble. God needs to set this up, centering on love. (1-090, 1956.06.06)