Unification theology

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Unification theology (theology of the Unification Church) has as its core the Divine Principle, which was said to be discovered by or revealed to Sun Myung Moon during a period of prayer and study (1935-1944), Wolli Hesol (Explanation of the Divine Principle), published in 1957, and Wolli Kangron (Exposition of the Divine Principle), published in 1966. The single most important idea is the parental relationship between God and man.

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[edit] Comparison to traditional Christian theology

In many respects, the Unification Church's theology is similar to mainstream Christian theology, but it differs from traditional Christian teaching in the following beliefs:

  • Jesus is not God Himself, but rather a man born without sin who grew to perfection, an incarnation of divinity, an embodiment of God's nature, a state to which all people were to have grown had there never been original sin.
  • Jesus did not come to die, but to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Giving his life as a sacrifice for our sins on the cross was a secondary course made necessary by a lack of faith and support of those surrounding Jesus.

[edit] Brief overview of Unification theology

The Divine Principle says that God has a harmonized blend of masculine and feminine characteristics. God is unique, eternal, absolute and unchanging.

God's original intention - for Adam and Eve to reach perfection in their lifetimes, thus creating the Kingdom of Heaven on earth - was prevented through the Fall of Man. Since the Fall, God has worked to achieve his original intention of a perfect society. The Last Days are a time when good shall triumph over evil.

Jesus was the fulfillment of God's plan for an ideal man, someone who would grow to perfection during his lifetime and as such embody divinity,[1] just as each mature person should have done had there never been a Fall of Man or sin.

Jesus' mission was to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and in the spiritual realm (and thus in the afterlife), but due to his rejection by the people of the time, it became impossible to complete this original mission. By dying on the cross and being resurrected, Jesus accomplished an alternative mission, "spiritual salvation," allowing Christians to be born again; however, the rest of his mission remains unfulfilled.

People are resurrected through repentance and good deeds in the flesh (through bodily action). After death, a person can gain resurrection by cooperating in spirit with an earthly person (vaguely similar to the Catholic doctrine on the intercession of saints).

God's predestination is partial and relative. If a person fulfills their preordained role, God's predestination of that person's life is fulfilled. But it's up to the person to fulfill their God-given responsibility.

[edit] Principles underlying God's creation

God is viewed as the creator in Unification Theology. God has polar characteristics corresponding to (but more subtle or "internal" than) the attributes we see expressed in his creation: masculinity and femininity, internal character and external form, subject and object. God is referred to as "he" for simplicity and because "masculinity" is associated with "subject." God is omniscient and omnipotent, though bound by his own principles and the logical consequences of human freedom; in order to experience a relationship of love, he created human beings as his children and gave them freedom to love him or not as they chose.

[edit] Dual characteristics of God

The dual characteristics of God in Unification Church theology refer to God's masculinity and femininity and to God's internal character and external form.[2]

This contrasts with most traditional views of God, as expressed by Jewish, Christian and Muslim teachings, which emphasize God's masculinity.

[edit] Purpose of Creation

The Purpose of Creation as defined in Unification Theology is to bring joy to God, the Creator. The biblical verse Genesis 1:28 grants humankind Three Great Blessings:

  1. to be "fruitful"
  2. to "multiply"
  3. to take "dominion"

Christian thinkers are divided on God's motivation. While there is general agreement that the Creation was to "glorify God", there is a sharp split over whether God was lonely and desired companionship or kinship.

  • God did not create the universe because he was lonely and needed fellowship. [1]
  • "God was lonely. Without his partner He is lonely." [2]

[edit] The fall of humanity

Unificationists believe that the Fall of Man was an actual historical event (rather than an allegory) involving an original human couple, who are called Adam and Eve in the book of Genesis in the Bible. The elements in the story, however, such as the Tree of Life, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the forbidden fruit, the serpent, etc., are interpreted to be symbolic metaphors for ideal man, ideal woman, sexual love, and Satan, respectively. The essence of the fall is that Eve was seduced by an angelic being (Lucifer). Eve then seduced Adam. So love was consummated through sexual intercourse between Adam and Eve apart from the plan of God, and before Adam and Eve were spiritually mature. Unificationists believe there was a "spiritual (sexual) fall" between Eve and the angel, and a "physical (sexual) fall" between Eve and Adam. They also regard Adam and Eve's son Cain killing his brother Abel as a literal event which contributed to humankind's fallen state. Unificationists teach that since the "fall of humanity," all of human history has been a constant struggle between the forces of God and Satan to correct this original sin (cf. Augustine and lust, concupiscence). This belief contributes to their strict moral code of "absolute love" and sexual purity, and the need for "indemnity."

[edit] Jesus and John the Baptist

One of the most controversial aspects of Unification theology (UT) is its teaching regarding the mission of Jesus. According to Unification theology (UT), Jesus was supposed to have received assistance from John the Baptist during his public ministry in Israel. In particular, John should have done everything in his power to persuade the Jewish people that Jesus was the Messiah. John's failure to do so was, according to the church, the chief obstacle to the fulfillment of Jesus' mission.

The view expressed in UT is controversial, in part because theologians generally say that John fulfilled his obligation to Jesus completely, merely by baptizing him at the Jordan River and declaring that Jesus was the Messiah. UT argues that John was intended to do far more than this.

John's ascetic life in the wilderness was, in the Unificationist view, a preparation period. The New Testament describes John having a significant experience when he met his younger cousin Jesus at John's baptizing spot at Bethabara near the Jordan River. John then baptized Jesus, and immediately afterward, a dove lit on Jesus as he came out of the water. "And lo a voice from heaven, saying 'This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased'."

After this event, according to UT, John the Baptist ought to have recognized Jesus as someone to follow, and should have devoted himself to becoming Jesus's chief disciple. As he was well known and highly respected at that time, he could have brought large numbers of people to believe in Jesus.

Matthew gives the entire third chapter of his gospel to this story.

[edit] Jesus's words

Towards the end of his life, Jesus' words in the Gospels about John were not necessarily pleasant--for example, "He who is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he,"or Matthew 11:12 - "And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force."

[edit] John's words: "He must increase"

Much of the controversy centers on the meaning of John's words: "He must increase, but I must decrease." Many theologians have interpreted this statement as an expression of John's humility, indicating his willingness to be brought down to a lowly position of having no followers.

The UT view on the contrary sees this verse as indicating John's arrogance and foolishness. If John had followed Jesus as a disciple, he would have easily become Jesus's chief apostle (instead of Peter). As Jesus's following "increased," John as Jesus's right-hand man would also have "increased."

[edit] The crucifixion

According to UT, it was John's disbelief in Jesus which led to the crucifixion of Jesus. UT interprets the following passage as indicating that the people should believed that Jesus was the Messiah:

Then they said to him, "What must we do to perform the works of God?"
Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom He has sent" (John 6:28,29)

It was because of John's failure to support him that Jesus had to go to the cross.

Unification Church members express consternation that many Christians impute to UT the view that Jesus failed, saying that UT clearly teaches it was rather John who failed.[citation needed]

[edit] Mission of the Messiah

The mission of the Messiah, in the view of the Unification Church, is to unite the entire world in loving harmony with God. This entails fulfillment of the Three Great Blessings (Gen. 1:28).

According to believers, the messiah comes as a human being created by God, and is not a trinitarian aspect of God. The church teaches that God created Jesus, departing from the Trinitarian doctrine that God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit are "one". In the Unification Church, they are distinct entities.

This understood, the mission of the Messiah when he "comes" (or rather is born on the earth) is:

  1. to grow to complete maturity by his own efforts and the fulfillment of his responsibility
  2. to help other people to do the same

[edit] Jesus' early death

The idea that Jesus did not come to die plays a prominent part in Unification Church scriptural interpretations and is intimately related to the church's Dual prophecies doctrine.

In contrast to the beliefs of the majority of Western Christians, the Unification Church teaches the following:

  • That Jesus was appointed by God to fulfill the "Mission of the Messiah", i.e., to unite all the people of the world as one family of heart with God as humanity's True Parent.
  • That this led to the need for Jesus to bring about spiritual salvation through the grace (or "Indemnity") of the redemption through the cross.

[edit] References

  1. ^ For a more thorough theological discussion, see Unification Christology: The Humanity and Divinity of Jesus in Unification Theology, a paper written at the Unification Theological Seminary
  2. ^ cf. Genesis 1:27

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