The taste of love is similar to that of the schizandra berry. The schizandra berry has a sour and bitter taste, but is really a blend of five tastes. I do not know much else about the schizandra berry, but I know its unique taste. It tastes strange at first, but after you swallow it you want to eat more. (173-87, 1988.2.7
The perfection of self involves perfecting the absolute true love, absolute true life, absolute true lineage, and absolute true conscience. After achieving this, one can then go on to restore the family lost through the Fall and settle down. Since True Parents have settled down, you also need to follow in their footsteps by becoming tribal messiahs, connecting together 160 couples, and taking possession of 160 nations. By doing so, you will be able to travel freely to and fro between the Kingdom of God in heaven and on earth. This is something you need to inherit at any cost, and so it is unavoidable. Only by accomplishing this task can you be registered, and only after being registered can you possess the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and in spirit world. Only after being registered can you claim it to be your nation and your kingdom. (268-88, 1995.3.5)
Richard: The basic means of establishing the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, also known as Cheon Il Guk, is Home Church, a providential ministry set up by True Father Moon in the late 1970’s. Each person (Tribal Messiah), which is a couple Blessed in marriage by Rev. and Mrs. Moon, is responsible for an area of at least 360 contiguous homes. That area becomes their Kingdom of Heaven, where they are to serve the families and people there, working toward fulfilling God’s ideal of creation and HIs Will.
The biblical account of Cain and Abel reveals the beginnings of human conflict right in Adam’s family. It provides the archetype for humankind’s unending history of struggle, war and conflict. We are conflicted on many levels, beginning with the war between the body and mind within each individual and extending to wars between nations and even to the global conflict between materialism and theism. (September 12, 2005)
Originally, God alone was to govern human beings. God was to be our only Lord. Nevertheless, Satan became our lord through his immoral relationship with the first ancestors.
The Principle teaches that love carries governing, sovereign power. That is why Satan has a right to claim ownership over human beings even though his love is immoral. However, God is the original owner through the Principle of Creation. Thus, God and Satan could both claim ownership over human beings. Yet it is physically impossible to divide Adam into two—one piece for God and the other for Satan. Therefore, God had to set up a certain rule to divide a human being. God set up the rule for separation in terms of the polarities of internal and external and subject and object, with God in the position of the internal being and the creation the external being.
By this principle, God divided fallen Adam and Eve into two through their two children. Cain represented Satan, and Abel represented sinless Adam. Hence God placed Abel, the second son, in the internal position. Abel represented the second love between Adam and Eve, which contained fewer evil elements, while Cain was the fruit of the first love. God took Abel because Adam and Eve’s relationship was more principled than the first relationship between Eve and the archangel.
The original order of love was to flow from God to Adam and then to the archangel. Hence the positions in restoration must also be ordered: first God, then Abel and last Cain. By restoring these positions, relationships, to the original order, God intends to restore the lost principle…
God led the providence to restore the birthright of the elder son through these two brothers. Cain must go down to Abel’s position, and Abel must go up to Cain’s position—the first son’s position.
However, Cain killed Abel. His action was a repetition of Adam and Eve’s fall. It repeated the condition by which Satan came to control Adam. It was the opposite of restoration. (55:109-10, April 1, 1972)
The Bible attests to the discrimination between first- and second-born sons. For example… it is written that God loved the second son Jacob and hated the first son Esau even while they were still inside their mother’s womb. (Rom. 9.11-13) They were placed in the positions of Cain or Abel based solely upon the distinction of who was to be the firstborn son. When Jacob was blessing his two grandchildren, Ephraim and Manasseh, he crossed his hands and laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, the second son in the position of Abel, to give him the first and greater blessing. (Gen. 48.14) According to this principle, God placed Cain and Abel in a position where each could deal with only one master, and had them offer sacrifices.
When Cain and Abel offered their sacrifices, “The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard.” (Gen. 4.4) Why did God accept Abel’s offering but reject Cain’s? God received Abel’s sacrifice because he stood in a proper relationship with God. Also, he made the offering in an acceptable manner—through faith (Heb. 11.4) and in line with God’s Will. In this way, Abel successfully laid the foundation of faith in Adam’s family. He serves as an example that any fallen person can make an offering acceptable to God provided he satisfies the necessary conditions.
God did not reject Cain’s sacrifice because He hated him. Rather, because Cain stood in a position to relate with Satan, which gave Satan rights over the sacrifice, God could not accept Cain’s sacrifice unless he first made some condition justifying its acceptance.
(Exposition of the Divine Principle, Foundation 1)
When Cain found out that God accepted only Abel’s offering, he struck and killed Abel out of hatred. You have to understand, however, that already while they were preparing their offerings, Cain nursed feelings of resentment against Abel. Cain did not strike Abel in a sudden flash of anger over God accepting only Abel’s offering. Rather, even before that incident, Cain hated Abel and wanted to kill him. (3:205, November 1, 1957)
It seems that God was discriminating between Cain and Abel, but that was not the case. If Cain had even the slightest desire to go through Abel, who represented Heaven’s position, then God would have accepted Cain’s offering. Although his acceptance would have come later, God desired to relate to them in fairness.
You must not repeat the mistake of Abel, who prolonged the providence of God by not being able to cope with the mission Heaven gave to him. (3:205, November 1, 1957)
Cain should have appealed to Abel, asking him to show him the way to approach God that his offering might also be accepted. He should have kept a mind of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience to God; then he would have totally united with his brother. Only then could he have entered the realm of God. (378:206-07, May 12, 2002)
God placed Abel in the position to save Cain. God expected that Abel would love Cain, and share with him all the love that he received from God, as well as his own love. (18:277, June 12, 1967)
When God accepted only Abel’s offering, Abel became arrogant. Through that condition, Satan could make accusation against him. Satan influenced Cain to lose his temper and his reason, driving him to kill his own brother. (374:12-13, April 4, 2002)
All the conflicts and wars that the world has witnessed since the beginning of history have been, in essence, battles between the Cain side, which is relatively evil, and the Abel side, which is more on the side of goodness. (299:105, February 6, 1999)
Yet Cain and Abel must never be divided. They are like the right hand and the left hand. Everyone should live with the attitude, “My God is also your God”; “The God who loves me also loves you.” (3:207, November 1, 1957)
Think about the moment when Cain killed Abel. The pain of it seared God’s heart, and His tears continue to this day. God intended that the elder son love his younger brother, but instead he murdered him. That one murder broke God’s heart. Yet look at the world today: every day tens of thousands of people are being killed or dying of starvation. Do you think God’s heart is at peace? (March 2, 2003)
