The Principle of Restoration
The Principle of Restoration
- The providence of restoration refers to God’s work.
- To restore human beings to our original, unfallen state so that we may fulfill the purpose of creation.
- Human beings fell from the top of the growth stage and have been held under Satan’s dominion.
- To restore human beings, God works to cut off Satan’s influence.
- For this, we must have the original sin removed when we are born anew through the Messiah, the True Parent.
- First, we first need to go through a course to separate Satan from ourselves.
- We do this in order to restore ourselves in form to the spiritual level which Adam and Eve had reached before the Fall – the top of the growth stage.
- On this foundation, we are to receive the Messiah and be reborn, and thereby be fully restored to the original state of human beings before the Fall.
- Finally, by following the Messiah, we should continue our growth to maturity.
- Where we can fulfill the purpose of creation.
- Since the providence of restoration is God’s work of re-creation, which has as its goal the fulfillment of the purpose of creation.
- God works this providence in accordance with His Principle.
- In the course of the providence of restoration, this principle is called the Principle of Restoration.
- If the first human ancestors had not fallen but had reached perfection and become one in heart with God.
- Then they would have lived relating only with God.
- However, due to their Fall, they joined in a kinship of blood with Satan, which compelled them to deal with him as well.
- Immediately after the Fall, when Adam and Eve had the original sin but had not yet committed any subsequent good or evil deeds, they found themselves in the midway position.
- A position between God and Satan where they were relating with both.
- As a consequence, all their descendants are also in the midway position.
- How does God separate Satan from fallen people who stand in the midway position?
- A fallen person will go to God’s side if he makes good conditions.
- And to Satan’s side if he makes evil conditions.
- What, then, is the meaning of restoration through indemnity?
- When someone has lost his original position or state, he must make some condition to be restored to it.
- The making of such conditions of restitution is called indemnity.
- We call this process of restoring the original position and state through making conditions restoration through indemnity.
- And we call the condition made a condition of indemnity.
- God’s work to restore people to their true, unfallen state by having them fulfill indemnity conditions is called the providence of restoration through indemnity.
- How does a condition of indemnity compare with the value of what was lost?
- We can answer by listing the following three types of indemnity conditions.
- The first is to fulfill a condition of equal indemnity.
- In this case, restoration is achieved by making a condition of indemnity at a price equal to the value of what was lost.
- The second is to make a condition of lesser indemnity.
- In this case, restoration is achieved by making a condition of indemnity at a price less than the value of what was lost.
- The third is to make a condition of greater indemnity.
- When a person has failed to meet a condition of lesser indemnity, he must make another indemnity condition to return to the original state, this time at a price greater than the first.
- Let us study the method of fulfilling indemnity conditions.
- For anyone to be restored to the original position or state from which he fell, he must make an indemnity condition by reversing the course of his mistake.
- Who should make indemnity conditions?
- We ourselves must fulfill the necessary indemnity conditions as our portion of responsibility.
- For fallen people to be restored to their original state, we must receive the Messiah.
- Before we can receive the Messiah, however, we must first establish the foundation for the Messiah.
- For Adam to realize the purpose of creation, he was supposed to fulfill two conditions.
- First, Adam should have established the foundation of faith.
- The person to lay this foundation was Adam himself.
- The condition to establish this foundation was to keep strictly to God’s commandment not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
- In fulfilling this condition, Adam would have passed through a set growing period.
- The second condition which Adam was supposed to fulfill in order to realize the purpose of creation was to establish the foundation of substance.
- After Adam established an unshakable foundation of faith.
- He was then to become one with God, thereby establishing the foundation of substance.
- This means he would have become the perfect incarnation of the Word with perfect character.
- To restore the basis upon which they can complete the purpose of creation, fallen people must first restore through indemnity the foundation of faith which the first human ancestors failed to establish.
- On this foundation we need to establish the foundation of substance.
- And thereby foundation for the Messiah.
- Through which we can receive the Messiah, and be cleansed of the original sin.
- This is required in order for us to become perfect incarnation of the Word.
- The foundation for the Messiah is laid when we establish the foundation of substance on the basis of the foundation of faith.
- In order to restore foundation of faith, first, there must be a central figure.
- Second, an object for the condition must be offered.
- Third, a numerical period of indemnity must be completed.
- In order to lay the foundation of substance, a fallen person must make an indemnity condition, the indemnity condition to remove the fallen nature.
- As Noah, Abraham had to restore through indemnity the foundation of faith, and his sons had to restore through indemnity the foundation of substance.
- God commanded Abraham to offer a dove and a pigeon, a ram and a goat, and a heifer (Gen. 15:9). These were the objects for the condition which he offered to restore the foundation of faith.
- When Abraham offered the birds without first dividing them, it meant that he offered what had not been wrested from Satan’s possession. His mistake had the effect of acknowledging Satan’s claim of possession over them.
- Let us now present an overview of the entire course of history since the time of Adam, as reckoned in the Bible, and survey the providential ages which comprise it.
- The 2000-years period from Adam to Abraham was for the purpose of finding one father of faith who could lay the foundation to begin the providence of restoration.
- However, due to Abraham's mistake in making the symbolic offering, these 2000-years were lost to Satan.
- The period to restore those lost years through indemnity to God’s side is the 2000-years from Abraham to Jesus.
- However, the Jewish people sent Jesus to the cross.
- The period to restore those lost years through indemnity to God’s side is the 2000-years from Jesus’ time until today.
- As an individual, each one of us is a product of the history of the providence of restoration.
- Hence, I must take up the cross of history and accept responsibility to fulfill its calling.
- I must fulfill in my lifetime (horizontally), through my efforts, the indemnity conditions which have accumulated through the long course of the providence of restoration (vertically).
- Only by doing this can I stand proudly as the fruit of history, the one whom God has eagerly sought throughout His providence.
- To become such an historical victor, I must understand clearly the Heart of God when He worked with past prophets and saints, the original purpose for which God called them.
- And the details of the providential missions which He entrusted to them.
- We must understand all these things through Christ at the Second Advent, who comes to fulfill the providence of restoration.
- Moreover, when we believe in him, become one with him, and attend him in his work, we can stand in the position of having fulfilled horizontally with him the vertical indemnity conditions in the history of the providence of restoration.