the Spirit Watch
Unification Theology And The Cross of Christ
PART
2:
by Bryce Pettit, Centers For Apologetic Research
The
Principle of Creation
The
UC employs a standard theological motif for interpreting the Bible, namely,
Creation-Fall-Restoration. Added to
this are emphases on spiritism as a guiding motif for hermeneutics and an
extreme dispensationalism. Like
many before him, Rev. Moon claims
to have discovered a heretofore unknown "secret key" to unlocking the
mysteries of the Bible and revealing its "true" message.
Divine Principle (hereafter, "DP") states it this way.
With
the fullness of time, God has sent His messenger to resolve the fundamental
questions of life and the universe. His
name is Sun Myung Moon. For many
decades, he wandered in a vast spiritual world in search of the ultimate truth.
On this path, he endured suffering unimagined by anyone in human history. God alone will remember it.
Knowing that no one can find the ultimate truth to save mankind without
going through the bitterest of trials, he fought alone against myriads of
Satanic forces, both in the physical and spiritual worlds, and finally triumphed
over them all. In this way he came
in contact with many saints in Paradise and with Jesus, and thus brought into
light all the heavenly secrets through his communion with God (13).
Unification
theology is primarily an explanation of this ultimate truth.
Heart
(Shimjung, in Korean) is the essence of God's personality-the essence of his
Sung Sang [internal character]. Heart
is the most vital part of his nature, such that all other attributes in him are
what they are and do what they do solely because of this attribute.
Heart is the impulse to love and to be united in love with the object of
its love. For this reason, Heart is
said to be the source of love, and at the same time is the chief motive behind
love (14).
Evangelical
theology would consider this understanding in light of John 17:24, where Jesus
says he existed in a relationship of love to the Father "before the
creation of the world." The Johannine emphasis on the love of God and
Jesus' own statement that believers would be known as his disciples because of
love (Jn. 13:34-35) provides hope that a common ground exists between us for
meaningful dialogue (15)
A
further explanation of Heart demonstrates that we have issues of disagreement
still to be worked through on this point.
This
nature of Heart is God's motive for making the Creation.
That is, God, whose essence is Heart, feels joy when he can love an
object that he created. If there is no object, God cannot satisfy his impulse to
express care and love, which springs limitlessly from within himself.
God made the Creation to be the object which he could love (16).
The
result of such an interaction of God with mankind is to bring joy to each other.
On earth this would be accomplished by Adam and Eve establishing what is
called the Four Position Foundation. In
this idea a husband and wife lives in a loving relationship with God and produce
children. God, the parents, and the
child make up a Four Position Foundation. This
ideal for family life would be multiplied throughout the earth, fulfilling God's
The
way the Four Position Foundation would be accomplished is through the Three
Blessings. These are to be fruitful
(mature), multiply and fill the earth (marriage and family), and have dominion
over the earth and rule it (a kind of cosmic lordship).
This would bring the Kingdom of Heaven on
In
evangelical theology, the Triune God is self-sufficient from all eternity, the
three Persons of the Godhead existing in love and sharing the same glory (Ex.
3:14; Jn. 17:5, 24). Rev.
Moon approached the Bible with an eye to discovering what he believed
would be God's point of view when Scripture was written, leading him to the
notion that God is not receiving joy and is in need of comforting because of the
Fall. UC theologian Jonathan Wells
explains it this way,
Now,
by Rev. Moon's own account and the
account of the early Church members, the way that Rev.
Moon derived the Divine Principle from the Bible was not by mixing
together various elements. At an
early age he began "crying." In fact, the early Church is known as the
"crying Church," because even after it got started the Church services
were just drenched in tears. Rev.
Moon and the members cried not just out of repentance, but out of concern
for mankind. And not even just
that, but out of a concern for God. So
the hermeneutical approach that Rev. Moon
used was to read the Bible in order to learn how to comfort God.
There
is a close affinity between our two theologies on the point of the Fall as a
tragic event unwanted by God and disastrous to the human family - unlike the
view of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), which teaches
that the Fall was both necessary and good because this event allows us the
opportunity to earn a promotion to godhood.
Evangelicals believe God did in fact create the human race for love and
fellowship, but we strongly disagree with any notion that makes creation on
these terms necessary to the nature of God.
Creation is an expression of God's love, but not a reflection of any need
to fulfill the desire to love this already existed among the Persons of the
Triune Godhead.
The
Fall
In
Unification theology. something tragic happened before Adam and Eve could grow
to maturity, be married by God and establish heavenly families throughout the
world based on the Four Position Foundation.
A
When
God created Adam and Eve, Lucifer (who became Satan) believed God's love for
them somehow diminished the love he was receiving, so in jealousy he tried to
"tempt Eve to submit to him, in order that he might enjoy the same position
in human society that he did in the angelic world" (19). When Eve submitted
to his advances they committed fornication by means of their spirit bodies in
the spirit world. This caused a
spiritual fall to come to the human race. Adam
could have restored Eve, but she was in fear once she realized her sin and she
physically seduced Adam in an attempt to rid herself of this fear.
This constitutes the physical fall of the race.
The result of the spiritual and physical fall is explained this way:
According
to "The Principles of the Creation," God was to accomplish the purpose
of man's creation through love. Thus,
love is the source of man's joy, life, and happiness.
However, because the first ancestors disobeyed the rules of heaven, and
fell, love itself was corrupted, and Satan has dominated man and has made him
suffer (20).
Much
ink has been spilled discussing this view of the Fall as a sexual event.
It is clear that Rev. Moon
and the UC want to emphasize the sexual aspect as much as possible, even stating
that Christian doctrine has always taught that adultery is the greatest of all
sins (21). Adultery is a serious and destructive sin, both spiritually and
physically, but the Christian Church has never maintained that it is the worst
sin that one can commit. Rejecting
God (and suffering eternal death) is patently more serious than any other sin
(cf. Matt. 10:28, 16:26).
Although
the Unificationist understanding of the Fall seems strange to many hearers, the
explanation of the two aspects of the Fall are important.
L4 says,
Although
Eve and the archangel united in actual fornication by means of Eve's spirit body
and the archangel's body (a spirit body), no children can actually be born of a
relationship between a human being and an angel. Nonetheless, Eve inherited satanic "love," so when
Eve and Adam had their relationships, which could, of course, produce children,
their relationships were motivated by satanic "love," and their
children were born of that "love." Thus, all people are the
"children" of Satan (22).
Original
sin is therefore a tainted blood lineage going back to Eve's illicit sexual
liaison with Satan in the spirit world and her premature seduction of Adam.
This means that all love now experienced on earth is a result of satanic
jealousy and pride and is not based on God's Heart expressed in the purpose of
creation. No one since the Fall has
been free of original sin except Jesus Christ (23).
We
would agree that the sickness of sin is indeed in the heart, and would want to
emphasize that the heart is exceedingly deceitful, wicked, and beyond
The
nature of sin due to the Fall required a cure that human beings were unable to
provide for themselves. The
sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the cross was the necessary price to buy back the
heart of a wayward people. No one
argues that the cross was desirable, only necessary.
We weep at the idea of the precious Son of God dying in agony and shame,
but without his sacrifice we would be without a cure for the snakebite of sin
(30).
Salvation
Is Restoration
In
Eden, Adam and Eve lost the opportunity to perfect themselves, be married under
God, have sinless children, and establish the ideal family, nation, and world.
Salvation in the UC means restoring these conditions under a new Adam,
called the Messiah (31). Who is the Messiah, and what would be his purpose in
coming to earth? In Unification
theology Jesus Christ was the Messiah, and salvation (physical as well as
spiritual) was his purpose:
Thus,
the Messiah must stand before God as the origin of all ideal individuals and
must establish the ideal family, which is the family that fulfills the Purpose
of the Creation and is the place where God's love can dwell.
He must then also establish the ideal nation and world, thereby realizing
the originally intended Kingdom of Heaven on earth, fulfilling the Purpose of
the Creation. This is the purpose
for which the Messiah comes (32).
The
issue of a married Messiah is discussed by Unificationist Whitney Shiner this
way:
It
can be clearly deduced from the Bible that Jesus should have married.
Paul said that Jesus came as the second Adam, and therefore as second
Adam He should fulfill the purpose of the first Adam, and God's commandment to
the first Adam was to be fruitful, multiply, and have dominion (33).
Evangelicals
have a number of problems with this idea that the altar rather than the cross,
was God's will for the Messiah. One
thing that disturbs us is the type of biblical interpretation exemplified by the
preceding quotation. First
Corinthians 15:45 says matter-of-factly that Jesus Christ is the last Adam, not
the second Adam. Any standard Greek
lexicon will demonstrate that eschatos, "last," refers to the
last one in a line, meaning that no one, including Rev. Moon, can be a third Adam or new Messiah.
The Bible consistently presents Jesus Christ as the Creator of all
things. Because of his sinless life
and perfect sacrifice, he is presented as being superior to angels, the Old
Testament covenant, and in fact, he is said to have the supremacy over all
things (34).
But
Jesus was rejected by his people and could not bring physical and spiritual
salvation, according to Unification theology.
When did he learn of the secondary plan? Although L4 fails to point out a specific time, saying it was
when the people "came to the point of completely disbelieving Jesus and
abandoning him.," Rev. Moon
states it occurred on the Mount of Transfiguration (35). Yet the Synoptic
Gospels all say,
This
occurred six days before the events on the Mount of Transfiguration! (37)
As we intend to show, Jesus was conscious of the cross from the earliest days of
his ministry.
The
same objection holds for the defense offered by Unificationist Patricia Zulkosky:
Well,
I can say that Jesus spoke many, many times of being a bridegroom and we thought
that they were parables. Even
changing the water into wine, Jesus said to His mother, "O woman, what have
you to do with me? My hour has not
yet come." Some would interpret it as being, "My time hasn't come yet
for marriage-don't get me involved in these kinds of things.
" But there are many passages where He talks about the parable of
the bridegroom, or the wedding feast, that get interpreted symbolically, but
mightn't they also be interpreted literally, that Jesus did in fact come to take
a bride and was referring to the time of His own banquet.
His own wedding feast? It's
a possibility (38).
The
problem with this argument is that the first wedding parable (Matt. 22:1-4 and
Luke 14:16-24) comes after, according to Unification theology.
Jesus is told by Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration that he
will not get married and that he must take the way of the cross and only
accomplish spiritual salvation with his ministry.
A marriage motif is almost completely lacking in Jesus' early teaching
ministry, and where it does come up (Mark 2:18-22), it contains an allusion to
his death! Evangelicals do not simply "think" Matthew 22 is a
parable, but 22:1 says, "Jesus spoke to them again in parables,
saying . . . "
Similarly, the reference in John 2:4 about Jesus' proper "time" is clearly linked in John and the Synoptic Gospels with his death (39). The only Old Testament prophecy the UC ever points to for evidence of a married Messiah is Isaiah 9:6 and the reference to him as an "Everlasting Father." (40). Unification hermeneutics are simply too self-serving from an Evangelical standpoint (41). If the UC wants to have open dialogue with us, then we want to see a greater attention to the detail of Scripture than these previous arguments employ.
ENDNOTES
13)
DP, p. 16. UC theologian
Young Oon Kim once said about the doctrine of Creation,
"It should now be clear to the reader the real purpose of the coming of
Jesus, which indeed has been a mystery kept in the bosom of God until the
present time." Young Oon Kim, The Divine Principle (San Francisco: Holv Spirit Association for the
Unification of World Christianitv, 1963), 61.
As we will show later, the failure of John the Baptist emerged as the "heavenlv secret" the UC claims Rev.
Moon discovered. The
doctrine of the Purpose of Creation remains a
focal point of their theology, however.
14)
L4. 9.
15)
See ibid., 23-24.
16)
Ibid.
17)
DP, 31- 46.
18)
Bryant and Foster, Hermeneutics, 56. Rev. Moon
goes so far as to sav, "We
19)
DP, 78.
20)
L4, 63 64.
21)
DP, 7.
22)
L4, 56.
23)
DP, 12.
24)
Gen. 8:21; Ps. 36:1-4; Prov. 4:14-17, Jer. 17:9; Matt. 15:7-19;
23:25-28;
25)
Jer. 3:17; 4:14; 7:14; 9:14: 11:8; 13:10; 16:12; 18:12.
26)
Ps. 140:1-2; Prov. 6:12-14; 15:26; Is. 32:6-7; Matt. 15:19.
27)
Gen. 6:5; Prov. 6:16-19; Ezek. 8:12; Rom. 1:21.
28) Ps. 52:3; Prov - 2:12-15;
10:23; Jer. 14:10; 2 Thess. 2:11-12.
29)
Is. 59:1-15; 64:6-7: Hos. 5:4-7; Eph. 2:12-13; 4:17-19; Col.
1:21-12.
30)
Cf. Jn. 3:14-15; 12:32-33.
31)
L4, 76.
32)
Ibid., 78.
33) Quebedeaux and Sawatsky, Dialogue, 171.
34)
Col. 1:15-23; Heb.
1:1-14; 10:1-18.
35)
L4, 81. Sun Myung Moon, "The
New Future of Christianity," in The New Future Of Christianity,
trans. by Mr. Bo Hi Pak (Washington: The Unification Church International,
1974), 105. The Mount of Transfiguration
is still the most popular answer for this question, based on my experience in
Korea. It was present in the church's
36)
Matt. 16:21; cf. Mk. 8:31 and Lk. 9:22.
37)
Matt. 17: 1: Mk. 9:2: Lk. 9:28.
38)
Quebedeaux and Sawatsky, Dialogue, 132-133.
39)
Jn. 7:6, 8, 30; 8:20; 12:23; 13:1; 17:1; Matt. 16:18;
Mk. 14:35, 41; Lk. 9:51.
40)
Rev. Patrick Hickey, "The Purpose of the Messiah," a video
lecture, Unification Church ot' America (ca. 1984).
41)
For a discussion of the hermeneutics of DP, see William Lionel O'Byrne,
Jr., "A Comparative Study of the Hermeneutics of Sun Myung Moon and
Contemporary Evangelicalism as Represented by James Oliver Buswel1, Jr." (
Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 1978); Bryant and Foster, Hermeneutics, 44-78;
and Frank K. Flinn, Hermeneutics
and Horizons: The
Shape of the Future, Conference Series No. II (New York: The Rose of Sharon
Press, 1982).