Cheon Seong Gyeong – Sun Myung Moon

Book One - True God
Chapter Four - True Father's Insights on God
Section 4. The Reason God Cannot Punish Satan

4.1. The reasons for Satan's accusations

There is theological dispute over whether Satan existed from the very outset. If he has, it is a big problem. If Satan had always existed, craftily defying and hindering God's providence of restoration for six thousand years, who would be able to subjugate and eliminate him? That is the issue. (54-56, 1972.3.11)

Where did Satan come from? Some say that Satan has existed from the outset. If he were an original existence who opposed the all-knowing and almighty God and caused our original ancestors to fall, then we could not expect complete salvation as long as Satan existed. This would be dualism, and people would conclude that a world with two opposing purposes would continue forever. (53-259, 1972.3.6)

The original will for the ideal world of creation was never fulfilled due to the Fall. However, since God has absolute authority, even though the whole world might change, He can never change. Even though the devil took Adam, Eve and all creation away from God, the Absolute Being must subjugate Satan, who was originally an archangel, naturally rather than by force. Although God exists, it is as if He does not. He has to re-establish His absolute authority. God cannot strike first. The good God cannot strike the evil Satan. (210-340, 1990.12.27)

Why is the all-knowing and almighty God unable to wipe out Satan at one stroke? If He did so, that act would end up extinguishing Adam, Eve and the creation and destroying the ideal sphere of love as well. That is why He is prevented from doing so. The absolute Lord has the responsibility to absolutely fulfill what He said He would do. Despite Satan's capriciousness, attacks and tenacious persecution, the Lord God has endured throughout history in order to recover His established principles. Nobody has known of this God. (208-256, 1990.11.20)

Why has the all-knowing, all-powerful and absolute God been letting Satan infringe upon human beings? Why did He let people be sacrificed, crushed under Satan's foot? Why was He so unable to exercise His power that people could not recognize His existence? This is a serious question. The answer is that God has had no nation, no people, no tribe and no family that He could govern. Furthermore, there has been no individual whose qualification He could officially recognize. If such an individual, family, tribe, people and sovereign nation are established, He will be able to govern the evil nations, peoples, tribes, families and individuals at once. Only this way will lead to goodness, and only then will God have His authority. (56-247, 1972.5.18)

Can you conquer Satan? Wasn't even God, the King of wisdom, immobilized due to Satan's accusation? It is the same for the president of a nation, when the citizens stage a demonstration because of something he did. Can he cut off their heads? Under certain conditions, even the all-knowing and almighty God cannot make a move. Even a government minister would be fired within a day were he found to be at fault. Hence, you must protect yourselves against conditions for accusation. How you develop that protection is an extremely challenging problem in your life of faith. This is a life and death matter. (76-58, 1975.1.26)

The human race was connected to Satan's life and lineage centered on his love. This is the problem. God cannot intervene or be present under these circumstances. Why has the all-knowing and almighty God seemed so incompetent throughout history? When Satan became the enemy, what did he take away? Satan deprived God of His love. Satan trampled on God's love, life and lineage. We should always be aware of this fact. (206-236, 1990.10.14)

Satan was originally an archangel. He declares to God, "Even though I became Satan due to the Fall, You should solve the problems according to the principles You set up because You are the omniscient, almighty and absolute God. Although I violated the law and became Satan, You, the all-knowing, almighty and absolute Being must work according to the laws You have laid down. Isn't that true?" (39-88, 1971.1.10)

I am going to explain why we cannot proceed on our way without loving our enemy. It is very important for you to know this truth, although it is not written in the Divine Principle book. Although the archangel fell and accuses God, God must still observe the principles that He established, because He is God. God is the Absolute Being. Therefore, although the archangel had fallen, God is compelled to rule over His creation according to the principles and rules He laid down. God is always obliged to relate with the archangel in the same way, both before and after the Fall. That is why Satan says to God, "You are supposed to love me until the perfection period and beyond." (52-87, 1971.12.22)

Adam was supposed to have the three archangels under his command and they were to obey and love him absolutely. As long as the heavenly law and principle that demand absolute obedience and submission remain, Satan cannot do as he pleases with that principle and law, even though he does not absolutely obey and submit to God. Satan himself knows that eventually he has to follow the same principle. God can remove him if he goes against the principle and law. It is like the president exercising his authority through the constitution. If it is not in the constitution, the president cannot do as he wishes. (172-66, 1988.1.7)

The founder of the Unification Church is a serious man. I have always dealt seriously with issues such as God's existence and why the all-knowing and almighty God did not eliminate Satan at once. If you read the book of Job, you may ask how God can be so powerless. I had to understand all this. How serious I was to do so! I have placed myself on the gallows and struggled for these truths at the risk of my life. We have to retrieve our original life. (187-122, 1989.2.5)

In the book of Job, God gave Satan all he asked for. Why? God cannot respond to Satan with the same behavior as the devil because God is the essence of love for others. So God is the essence of truth. (144-161, 1986.4.12)

God does not subjugate Satan with His mysterious creative power. He makes Satan yield voluntarily. (207-349, 1990.11.11)

The devil has brought ruin to this world in order to prevent the world from returning to God. All this free sex and so on... How many people in America engage in incest? A father with three daughters sleeps with all of his daughters. There have been a number of such cases. With free sex, the father's brother sleeps with the mother or a son sleeps with his mother. They are like animals. Thus, Satan laughs at God saying, "God, do You think You can establish Your ideal of creation and ideal of love under these circumstances?" (222-230, 1991.11.3)

4.2. God abides by the law

What kind of being is God? God is like the mind of the universe; the universe is like His body. However, the devil has infiltrated this body. Satan has usurped the powers of the heavens and thus controls the universe.

What should God do to digest this problem? God cannot strike Satan with force. The essential quality in the creation of the universe was love; the historical tradition of this universe was carried on through love. Thus, God must maintain that principle, even if there are violators. Therefore, for the sake of restoring the fallen universe, God had to unceasingly maintain the original standard that He had installed for creating based on the essence of love and fulfilling the ideal of true love. Without doing so, He cannot regain His authority as the Absolute Being.

This has been so frustrating for Him. (210-229, 1990.12.23)

The Fall meant establishing a bond of love centered on Satan in the position of a parent. There is nothing to be said about the fruit of good and evil. It cannot be denied. Thus, the descendants by blood who have carried on Satan's love, Satan's life and Satan's lineage have remained to this day. Satan is the enemy of love. He fractured the dream God had of His ideal for creation. The servant forcibly took away the nobleman's daughter and violated her. Thus, she lost the qualification to be the lord's daughter. She had to be driven away. This wrongful act of love was a derailment from the track of the great principle of heaven and earth. This fact cannot be denied. (218-230, 1991.8.19)

God cannot achieve His original ideal for creation unless He loves the children of evil much more than His own beloved children. The devil asserts to God, "I have fallen and I am the way I am. My lineage revolts against You. Yet, don't You, God, have to go on upholding the way of the heavenly law?" God is caught right here. (208-291, 1990.11.20)

Satan accuses God and grips Him firmly in his teeth, saying, "You are the eternal and immortal Subject Being. I know that You are the great supervisor of heaven and earth. Since You are the substance of truth, love and principles, You, like Your laws and principle, cannot change. For this reason, although I am fallen, don't You have to practice the principles You established? Therefore, as a being of principle, You cannot bring Your sons and daughters to the original world without loving the fallen angel. Your plans for the archangels before the Fall do not allow Your children to enter the heavenly kingdom unless Your son and daughter, and even You Yourself, love me. Thus, though I fell, You must follow that principle. Therefore, You should love me. You cannot be the true God and Your son and daughter cannot be true children without loving me." (129- 215, 1983.11.5)

The devil says to God, "God! I am the chief devil that changes. I am the ancestor who is changeable. But aren't You the great supervisor of heaven and earth, the substance of truth, the unchanging Lord? Are You not the Being of love that embodies the principles of unchangeableness in life? I fell and became a rogue. But You are responsible to uphold the original ideal standard that You set up. I can freely pass in and out of the doors of the ideal world where Your will is fulfilled. I can freely come in and out, but since I cannot live there I must come out." That is Satan's assertion. Then God answers, "You are right." (191-244, 1989.6.25)

If we commit even one sin, Satan, the devil, will immediately accuse us before God and say, "Because of his sin, this guy must go to hell." Though Satan, who accuses human beings for their sin, has surely committed sins himself, no one has ever come forward to accuse Satan in front of God for his sin.

There will be a path to eradicate Satan if a person can come forth and say, "O Absolute God! From the viewpoint of Your power and authority, Satan has committed such-and-such unpardonable sins against humankind and against You. Please punish him." If God could not remove Satan even through this method, He would not be all-knowing or all-powerful; He would be on the side of Satan, not of humankind. (54-134, 1972.3.22)

Actually, Satan is an archangel. The archangel must go to heaven after Adam and Eve when they achieve perfection and enter heaven. It is the principle of creation that the archangel enters heaven with Adam and Eve after receiving love from God and then from them. Although Satan made a mistake on the way, if he says, "I am a servant and a traitor. Yet, You, Lord, decided the great principles of heavenly law and established Your essential traditions based on them. Upon these principles You established, there is one that lets You enter the Kingdom of Heaven only after loving the perfected Adam and the archangel. Surely You cannot abandon that principle?" God is caught. He answers, "You are right." Satan traps God saying, "Although I became what I am, You, God, surely cannot be like me." (211-177, 1990.12.30).17

Since the devil is an archangel, he says, "Weren't the children who can enter the Kingdom of Heaven originally supposed to love me? Isn't it the original principle of creation that You, God, and Adam may enter the Kingdom of Heaven only after You and Adam love me?" He further pushes God, saying, "Unless this is done, You cannot avoid my accusations. You have to establish the condition that You loved me and that Your son Adam also loved me." This problem is the context for the teaching "Love your enemy," given to religious people. (219-36, 1991.8.25)

After we come into a parent-child relationship with God, when the son wails in sorrow God the Father will also wail in sorrow. Then Satan will be frightened out of his senses and flee. He cannot remain there. (228-217, 1992.4.3)

This world cannot be brought back to the heavenly side unless a person appears who can regain the original authority and stand in a position higher than Satan, the devil. In other words, someone must appear who can drag Satan before the all-powerful and all-knowing God and charge him, saying, "God! Satan has committed such sins! Why don't You judge him?" (53-335, 1972.3.6)

So far we have been dominated and dragged around by Satan. Now we should reverse this, capture Satan, bring him before God and accuse him. Although people today know about Satan's existence, they do not know what sin he committed. Until now, nobody has accused Satan before God, saying, "O God! With Your all-knowing and almighty authority, please punish this sinful Satan." (53-88, 1972.2.10)

Then why is it that the all-knowing and all-powerful God cannot strike the fallen archangel? Why can He not get rid of him? It is because God also must love him. Although the archangel that God created fell and became the devil, God always has to maintain the principled standard of thinking of the archangel as he was before the Fall. That is why we should love the archangel. Adam and Eve are God's creation and the body of God. Therefore, not only God, but also Adam and Eve, must love Satan. (175-14.1988.4.6)

God cannot come down hard on Satan for killing millions of His beloved sons and daughters over the past six thousand years, because God is responsible for not having fully loved the archangel. For this reason, whenever someone does something wrong, Satan brings a continuous trail of accusation: "God, so and so is doing this and that." Because the Unification Church emerged, we can know these things that no one previously understood. (35-95, 1970.10.4)

If you drag Satan, the devil, in front of God and accuse him, would God say, "Hey! That is not how to do it!" or would He be pleased? No doubt God would say, "Oh my son! My only son!" and would want to bless you eternally. We can imagine how intensely God has yearned for that. God is absolute, all-knowing and all-powerful; He is the Lord of righteous judgment. Therefore, if someone comes forward charging and accusing Satan, the devil, God can judge Satan. (54-60, 1972.3.11)

Since Adam and Eve sinned, God is not free to do as He wishes. If someone's child commits murder, can you say that the mother or sibling can take responsibility for that crime? They cannot. This is the heavenly law. With whom did they sin? They sinned with Satan. Adam sinned, but God has not passed judgment on Satan or on Adam and Eve for what they did. Although He drove them away, God is still leading the providence of salvation. Thus, although God is receiving Satan's accusation, He was unable to pass judgment. When we look at these issues from a theological perspective, they present a big problem. Why cannot God deal with this? Why is the all-knowing and almighty God unable to deal with the devil? (223-304, 1991.11.17)

God has no interest in fighting because there is no concept of war or fighting in the ideal world of God's creation. If fighting occurred there, the world would fall into dualism. Fundamentally, fighting has nothing to do with the ideal world of absolute peace. Therefore, you should know that there is no concept of struggle within God's world of creation. (224-224, 1991.11.24)

How did Satan fall away? You should clearly know the answer to this. Satan has created division in large things and small things. God, however, combines small and worthless things into something large. God's way is contrary to Satan's. When we consider the Origin of the universe that seeks true love and the principles by which He created the universe, we see that Satan went against that Origin instead of obeying Him, and thus he fell away. The original nature of the all-knowing, almighty, unique and eternal God is to live one hundred percent for the sake of others. (179-52, 1988.7.3)

Throughout history, the all-knowing and almighty God wins over His enemy not by utilizing His strength and power, but by bringing him into submission through the principles of love. God's desire is to bring His enemy to voluntarily and completely submit before God and gratefully receive humanity's judgment in the position of the servant. Unless this happens, his sins cannot be indemnified. (42-279, 1971.3.27) 

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