Witnessing Activities
Special Lectures
| Lecture 38-1 : [Restoration] The Cause of the Great World Wars | |
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| Date created : 2015-06-03/ Views : 1387 | |
Lecture 38: The Cause of the Great World Wars viewed from the Providence of Restoration through Indemnity
Welcome back to the path to happiness, an introduction to the Unification principle. I’m your host, Dr. Tyler Hendricks.
Christians believe that the Second Advent will bring about the last days and the end of history. Whether you are Christian or not, it is plain to see that we are in a transitional period of great turmoil and confusion. It is a time in which catastrophes strike like bolts out of the blue. From the perspective of the principle, it is the time in which the final battle between good and evil is fought in order to prepare to meet the Lord of the Second Advent, resulting in good finally overcoming evil and the happiness the world has been long waiting for.
In this session, I would like to talk about the conclusion of the preparation period for the Second Advent of the Messiah. This story starts in 1914, the start of World War I.
World War I lasted until Nov. 11, 1918, and it was followed by World War II in 1939, 21 years after the end of the First World War.
When the Second World War ended, the world divided into the free world and Communist world, locked behind the Iron Curtain. The 20th century has now come to an end and we are in the 21st century.
By our historical account, the time of the Second Advent has come and is passing by.
Providential history has been moving. The Unification Church arose in Korea after the second world war, so let’s look at what was going on there. It was a time of dramatic change for Korea.
Within the 20th century, Korea endured Japanese occupation, liberation from Japan, the division of North and South Korea, the devastating Korean war, and the persistence of an iron curtain at the 38th parallel.
From God’s viewpoint, history has been a history to restore the world to the original ideal world where the 3 great blessings are fulfilled.
To do so, the history of the providence of restoration has been carried out through dividing good from evil, and so Abel type and Cain type camps have battled in this history divided between good and evil.
God seeks for the good side to bring the evil side to change of its own accord, through the sacrificial love of God’s chosen people.
The very touchy question is: which nations are on God's side and which are on Satan's side? It is decided based on the direction of God's providence of restoration.
Those who are in line with God's providence, even indirectly, are on the side of God, while those who take an opposing position are on the side of Satan. Don’t worry—we all are on Satan’s side relative to God’s perfect love. We’re just talking conditions of restoration. What’s the signal that you are on Satan’s side? You’re the one who attacks first. And you are on God’s side? You absorb the attack and keep on loving. This is the struggle of good and evil within each of us, and it appears among nations as well.
God has worked his providence through a struggle of good and evil, bringing Satan’s side to submission and expanding Heaven’s dominion, restoring the 3 Great Blessings in the 3 stages of Formation, Growth and Completion.
Wars are the result of political, economic, demographic or personal motives. However, there is always an internal providential cause.
The same goes for the great world wars.
What are the internal, providential causes of the world wars?
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First, the world wars resulted from Satan's struggle to preserve his sovereignty.
Human history under Satan's evil sovereignty will end with the Second Advent of Christ. Then it will be transformed into the realm of God's good sovereignty. At that time, Satan will put up a last-ditch fight—ultimately to kill the Lord himself.
Second, the three world wars fulfilled the worldwide indemnity conditions to restore the three great blessings.
At the consummation of human history, unprincipled worlds emerged which have realized defectively the outward form of the three blessings: an individual championing Satan's causes, multiplication of satanic children, and the conquest of the world under Satan's domination.
To fulfill the worldwide indemnity conditions to restore God's three great blessings, three world conflicts broke out by which God could prevail over these satanic imitations of heaven, through the three stages of formation, growth and completion. Atheistic, materialistic communism promised heaven on earth, but was the tool of evil to murder hundreds of millions.
Third, the three world wars have occurred so that all humanity could overcome the three temptations by which Satan tempted Jesus.
As Jesus' disciples, the Christian world has to follow the course of their Teacher and overcome the three temptations that he confronted in the wilderness as individuals, families, nations and on the world level.
Fourth, the world wars have taken place to fulfill the worldwide indemnity condition to restore God's sovereignty.
The restoration of this world requires that it first be divided into Cain-type and Abel-type worlds, and that there be three final wars in which the heavenly, Abel-type world prevails over the satanic, Cain-type world. This is a condition to restore through worldwide indemnity Cain's murder of Abel. After that, the world of God's sovereignty can be established.
Now let us examine the First World War
World War 1 broke out in 1914 and ended on Nov. 11, 1918.
The Allied Powers stood under the banner of Christian democracy in support of religious freedom. Thus, they stood on God's side.
On the other hand, the Central Powers suppressed freedom of religion and even suppressed Christianity. Therefore, they stood on Satan's side.
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What were the providential causes behind the First World War?
The First World War took place, first, to fulfill the worldwide indemnity condition to restore God's three great blessings at the formation stage.
Second, the First World War took place in order to have people on God's side collectively overcome Jesus' first temptation on the world level.
By prevailing in his first temptation in the wilderness, Jesus recovered himself, symbolized by the rock, and laid the foundation to restore perfection of individual character.
Likewise, by prevailing in the First World War, God's side was to build God's world and lay the foundation for its new center, Christ at the Second Coming.
This victory was the basis upon which the returning Christ could be born and perfect his individual character.
Third, the First World War took place in order to lay the formation-stage foundation for the restoration of God's sovereignty.
In the First World War, God's side was responsible to be victorious and expand its political territory to bring true Christian democracy and religious freedom to the world.
By thus establishing this political and economic foundation, it would secure the formation-stage foundation for the democratic world and, at the same time, the formation-stage foundation to restore God's sovereignty.
The victory of the Allied Powers in the First World War fulfilled the formation-stage indemnity condition to restore God's first blessing worldwide.
By overcoming Satan's first temptation to Jesus, to turn stones into bread, on the worldwide level, the foundation for the birth of the returning Christ, who is destined to be the Lord of God's world was laid.
With Heaven’s victory in World War I, the League of Nations was established and the defeated nations of World War I liberated their colonies. Christian missions expanded; Christians established global interfaith outreach and strove to unite among themselves.
In the Second World War, democracy, while standing upon the formation stage victory attained in the First World War, defeated fascism and secured victory at the growth stage.
Fascism denies the fundamental values of modern democracy, including respect for the individual and our basic rights, freedom of religion, speech, the press and association, and representative government. Individuals and institutions exist only for the benefit of the state.
Hitler in Germany, Mussolini in Italy, and the leaders of Japan's militaristic government were racist dictators of the fascist type.
In the Second World War, an alliance of the democratic nations of the United States, Great Britain and France led the nations on God's side. Satan's side was the alliance of fascist nations: Germany, Japan and Italy.
World War II broke out in 1939.
The Allies, United States, Great Britain and France stood on God’s side because they supported Christianity and religious freedom.
Their political systems were democracies, the political system for the final stage in the providence of restoration founded upon the Abel-type view of life.
The Axis Powers stood on Satan's side because they persecuted Christianity, denied religious freedom and were murderously racist.
Fascism is national-socialism, which is anti-democratic and based on the Cain-type view of life.
What were the internal, providential causes behind the Second World War?
First, the war broke out to fulfill the worldwide indemnity condition at the growth stage to restore God's three great blessings.
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The second providential cause behind the war was to have the people on God's side overcome Jesus' second temptation on the world level.
In light of the meaning of Jesus' three temptations, we can recognize that God's side had to prevail in the Second World War to fulfill the indemnity condition to restore worldwide God's second blessing.
The third providential cause behind the war was to lay the growth-stage foundation for the restoration of God's sovereignty.
As Jesus laid the foundation for the restoration of children by overcoming the second temptation in the wilderness, God's side was to lay the worldwide growth-stage foundation for democracy by triumphing in the Second World War.
Finally, by laying the growth-stage foundation for the democratic world, it established the growth-stage foundation to restore God's sovereignty.
The United Nations was formed and the victorious nations voluntarily liberated their colonies.
Now, we talked about three world wars. How do we see the Third World War taking place?
At the consummation of human history, Satan's side and God's side will advance until they each attain sovereignty over a world.
This is why the democratic world and the communist world stand confronting each other.
Consequently, it is inevitable that there be a final struggle, first to divide and then to unite these two worlds.
The First and Second World Wars divided the globe into the communist world and the democratic world.
Afterward, yet another war must take place to bring about their harmonization—for ultimately, Hellenism and Hebraism represent the external and internal ideals for which humanity longs, and which God created.
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This struggle is the Third World War.
There are two ways it is being fought.
One way is through armed conflict. The other way is as an internal, ideological conflict, without the outbreak of armed hostilities, to bring the two world to unification.
Whether the Third World War is ended by force of arms or as an ideological conflict depends upon the responsibility of the people who are serving the providence of God.
Regardless, it is inescapable that this worldwide conflict take place.
What are the internal, providential causes behind the Third World War?
First, the war has to take place to fulfill the worldwide indemnity condition at the completion stage to restore God's three great blessings.
Second, the Third World War has to take place to have the people on God's side overcome Jesus' third temptation on the world level.
As Jesus established the foundation to restore dominion over the creation by overcoming the third temptation in the wilderness, God must prevail in the Third World War to restore human beings' dominion over the entire universe.
Third, the Third World War has to take place to lay the completion-stage foundation for the restoration of God's sovereignty.
God's side must be victorious to overturn the communist world, restore religious freedom and the natural family, and return all sovereignty to God. Then the ideal world will be established based upon the principles of heaven and earth.
In the beginning and middle phases of the Third World War, we saw the battle of arms and ideology between the Soviet Union, leader of the communist camp, and the Free World, centering on the United States. With the demise of the Soviet Union, the structure of world communism ended along with the 20th century.
However, the philosophies and values of that atheistic, materialistic worldview have not perished.
The West believed that a new world order, a world of peace, would emerge after the fall of the Soviet Union.
We believed that all problems would be solved once communist regimes were gone. Nonetheless, we now face even deeper questions concerning our existence.
What is our nature and destiny? Are we merely products of materialistic evolution?
Or, are we servants of God? Or Are we children of God? Or is human identity as male and female a transcendent reality?
Have you arrived at an answer?
An Abel type view of life will arise and answer all the questions of the Cain type view of life that have developed throughout history—atheism, racism, materialism, consumerism, the misuse of love, drug abuse, criminality, homosexualism, and so forth.
The Messiah is the one who is to bring this new expression of truth, which unites as it transcends the right and left, Abel and Cain viewpoints.
The new truth will empower us to establish an ideal world where God’s ideal of creation is fulfilled.
This world will be a worldwide family centered on God.
A world of interdependence, mutual prosperity and universally shared values founded in God.
This world is One Family under God.
A world which blossoms and bears fruit of the culture of heart.
A world that is governed not by judges and attorneys, but by God’s love and truth.
The last stage of the third world war is matter of culture and the ideas that shape it.
We must plant the view of life that every person is God’s child, and that the way of God is to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.
Why are young people today in such a crisis—with a decline of interest in marriage and family, departure from traditional faiths, increased drug use and dependency upon government and technology to solve everything?
This is because of the absence of a spiritual movement that teaches and practices the true way of life.
The older generation has to unite based on a life of true value and meaning, and show the younger generation how we live such lives.
We must become true parents, true spouses and raise our families, communities and societies to be true children and true brothers and sisters.
The battles we are facing today, around the world, are with the powers of fear, hatred and ignorance that call upon coercion, whether by statist authority or the barrel of a gun.
We must absolutely win this war of ideas and culture, by practicing the living Word of God.
The Lord of the Second Advent will show us the truth and spirit to win this war.
Therefore, we can have hope.
Thank you for listening, and I look forward to sharing our insights into the Second Advent with you.
