Witnessing Activities
Special Lectures
| Lecture 22 : [Restoration] The providence in Adam’s family | |
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| Date created : 2015-01-28/ Views : 1030 | |
Chapter 22: The providence in Adam’s family
In our last session, we learned that the foundation of faith and foundation of substance together are the foundation for God to send the Messiah, who will come as the True Parent and give us rebirth and resurrection. The Bible shows us that the history of humankind was a journey to establish the foundation for the Messiah.
Now we will look at some details of the biblical history of providential salvation, and think about how to apply them.
In Genesis, we see the story of the first family, including a tragic murder of a younger brother by his older brother. The first family planted the seed of murder. How did God feel when he was dealing with this? God created human beings with joyous hope in his heart, but He became so sad when we fell. Instead of leaving us, God, as the responsible creator, set up a path of salvation and started the providence right after the fall—but it led to a murder. What was the story behind that?
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God called Adam’s family to establish the foundation of faith and substance, the foundation for the Messiah, who could have come very soon.
First, in order to establish the foundation of faith, we need a conditional object. Adam lost this when he lost faith in the 'do not eat' commandment of God. Because the fallen Adam could not receive God's words, to offer the foundation of faith, he had to establish a reasonable object of faith to replace the words of God. The conditional object the Adam family had to replace the words of God was a material offering.
Here we must explain offerings. The families of Adam, Noah, and Abraham offered sacrifices to set the foundation of faith. The Unification Principle calls this the symbolic sacrifice. The central person to offer the foundation of faith chose specific things and offered them to God.
As we know from the principle of creation, God made all things as symbols of His substantial love. As a result of the fall, satan’s claim over fallen man put all things, for which we are responsible, under satan as well. The Bible says all things of the world are groaning in travail (Rom 8:22). But because they did not fall, they are closer to God than we are. So offering the creation to God means we are going through them to touch God. Thus, if we offer the things of creation, we establish the foundation of faith. If this symbolic sacrifice is given correctly, it means the condition for God to forgive us. This is the principle behind tithing.
Secondly, to set the foundation of faith, there has to be a central person. Adam himself was his family’s central figure, but the Bible tells us that Adam did not offer a sacrifice, and his sons, Cain and Abel did offer a sacrifice. What is the reason for this? According to the principle, we are created to relate to only one lord. But after the fall, Adam related to two lords, God and satan. Therefore God had to establish a providence to divide Adam, who now had a split personality. For this purpose God attributed to Adam's two sons the two parts of Adam’s personality. Thus, one would relate with God and the other with satan, and God would deal with their sacrifices under that consideration. We can see that God was setting up the condition for one son to mediate God’s presence to the other.
The firstborn Cain and the second born Abel were both Adam's sons, so how did God decide who would be in a position of relating to God, and who would be in a position of relating to satan? It was by their relationship with the fall of their mother, Eve. Cain, the firstborn, represented the fruit of her first love. He inherited the content of the spiritual fall between Eve and the Archangel. So he was in the position of relating to satan. Abel, the second born, represented the fruit of her second love. He inherited the content of the physical fall between Eve and Adam, which was relatively good and principled. So he was in the position of relating to God.
In the Bible, satan is attached to firstborns. That is why God had this elder-younger providence to separate satan. Genesis 25: 23 records that God hated the elder, Esau, in Rebekah’s womb and loved the younger, Jacob. We’ll talk about this later. Jacob blessed his two grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh, he crossed his arms to place his right hand on the head of the second-born, Ephraim. Two other grandsons of Jacob even exchanged places in the womb. When the Israelites left Egypt, God struck the firstborn sons of Egypt and even of their livestock. John the Baptist was Jesus’ firstborn cousin, born a few months before Jesus.
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According to this principle, God set up Abel and Cain to related with God and satan, and had them offer sacrifices. Cain offered agricultural produce, and Abel offered a lamb. God accepted Abel's sacrifice, but did not accept Cain's sacrifice. That is because Abel was in the position to which God could relate. The Bible attributes a purity of heart to Abel as well. Now, it wasn't because God hated Cain that He did not accept Cain's sacrifice, but because Cain was in a position to relate to satan, and before God could accept it, Cain had to separate from satan. And this was why God put Abel in Cain’s life.
By accepting Abel’s offering, Abel fulfilled the foundation of faith, and at the same time became the mediator, the chosen person for the foundation of substance. Now the firstborn Cain and second born Abel were responsible to make a substantial sacrifice to fulfill the foundation of substance. The substantial sacrifice was the two brothers reversing positions, with the elder going under the younger, to reach God.
As Abel succeeded in the foundation of faith, if Cain and Abel fulfilled the foundation of substance, they would have set the foundation for the Messiah. Then what should Cain and Abel have done in order to succeed in this substantial sacrifice?
In order for Cain, who was relating to satan, to go back to God, he had to establish a condition of indemnity to remove his fallen nature—his inclination to feel and behave like the archangel. That would have established a substantial change, which we call the foundation of substance.
From the last session, these archangelic feelings are 1. not seeing from God's viewpoint, 2. leaving one's position, 3. Dominating selfishly, and 4. multiplying evil. So Cain, in the position of the Archangel, should have 1. loved Abel from God's viewpoint, 2. Respected Abel as a mediator between him and God, 3. Followed the example and leadership of his little brother Abel, and 4. received God's words through Abel and shared them.
We can call this Cain loving Abel. But after Cain saw that God did not accept his own sacrifice, he grew violently angry, hit Abel with a rock and killed him. The first murder of siblings happened. The substantial condition failed. The first family had adultery and murder.
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If Cain had yielded to Abel, they would have established the foundation of substance on top of the foundation of faith. The Messiah would have come under the family foundation for the Messiah. But Cain’s murder of Abel repeated the Fall. It was like the archangel killing Adam all over again. The Fall polluted humankind’s blood, and the murder spilled humankind’s blood.
So the providence centered on Adam and Eve’s family ended in failure—other than the faith of Abel. This teaches us three lessons. The first lesson that success comes by the shared responsibility of God and us. Therefore, if we who are called do not do our part, God cannot interfere, but only deals with the results.
The second lesson is that God's intentions for particular people are contingent, but God's purpose of creation as a whole is absolute. When Cain killed Abel, God instead established the third son, Seth, and continued his absolute purpose as intended, even though there was a delay in the schedule.
The third lesson is that if we look at the relationship of Cain and Abel, we can see that the way to fulfill God’s for my life is to find an Abel-type person and work with him or her. I also have to show interest, love, and understanding for Cain-type people and win their faith and love.
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Here we can learn that crime, tragedy, war, and struggle take their root because our first ancestral family committed adultery and murder. The Bible doesn’t paint a pretty picture of our performance as God’s children. The messiah’s mission is to free humankind from these two sins—adultery and murder, and to recover the beloved community in which we all can live as one family of true Parents and children, True Husbands and Wives, and True Brothers and Sisters, with three generations united as one under God.
The next major event in God’s story is that of another family—the family of Noah. You see, in the Principle we look at the Bible from the viewpoint of marriage and family relationships. It opens up a whole new vista. Please join us for the story of Noah and the Ark.
Thanks for listening; see you next time.
