Category: Divine Principle

Religion and Economy are Integrated with our Life in Society through Politics

View my latest video at the VisionRoot channel: Can You Trust the CDC and the World Health Organization on Covid-19? Evidence from the DTP Vaccine and H1N1 “pandemic” : https://youtu.be/1np0IMw97fk.

Genesis 45

12 All of you, including my brother Benjamin, can tell by what I have said that I really am Joseph. 13 Tell my father about my great power here in Egypt and about everything you have seen. Hurry and bring him here.

Psalm 78

God made a path in the sea
    and piled up the water
    as he led them across.
14 He guided them during the day
    with a cloud,
    and each night he led them
    with a flaming fire.
15 God made water flow
from rocks
he split open
    in the desert,
    and his people drank freely,
    as though from a lake.
16 He made streams gush out
    like rivers from rocks.

Exposition of the Divine Principle
3 Color Edition-The Red part

7.2 THE PROGRESS OF HISTORY IN THE AGE OF THE PROLONGATION OF THE PROVIDENCE OF RESTORATION

7.2.1 THE PROVIDENCE OF RESTORATION AND THE HISTORY OF THE WEST

The original providential role of the Roman Empire, which had unified the ancient world around the Mediterranean Sea, was to lay the foundation for Christ’s kingdom on earth. Had the Jewish people believed in Jesus as the Messiah and united with him, the Roman Empire would have been won over by Jesus during his lifetime. Jesus would have been honored throughout the empire as the King of Kings. He would have established a worldwide dominion with Jerusalem as its capital. However, because the Jewish people disbelieved, Judea was destroyed and the Roman Empire was fated to decline. After a century of barbarian invasions, the Western Roman Empire came to an end in 476 A.D. In this manner, the center of God’s providence of restoration shifted from Judea, the land of God’s bitter grief, to Western Europe, formerly the territory of the Western Roman Empire now occupied by the Germanic tribes. Accordingly, the spiritual providence of restoration based on Christianity has been conducted primarily in Western Europe. Only in Western Europe has the history of this era progressed strictly according to the pattern set by the providence of restoration.

7.2.2 THE MUTUAL RELATIONS BETWEEN RELIGIOUS HISTORY, ECONOMIC HISTORY AND POLITICAL HISTORY

Although religion and economy, like religion and science, seem to develop at variance with each other, they are related in the life of society. Thus, there has been some mutual influence between the history of Christianity and economic history. Religion and economy are integrated with our life in society through politics.

7.2.3 CLAN SOCIETY

With the crucifixion of Jesus, the Jewish nation had fallen to Satan’s side and God could not continue with His providence of restoration in that society under such circumstances. Consequently, God broke up that society, calling devout believers out of it to establish a Christian clan society.

Despite severe persecution, Christian clan society gradually prospered in the Roman Empire around the Mediterranean Sea and developed into a Christian tribal society. Battered by the mass migrations of peoples which began in the latter half of the fourth century, the Western Roman Empire fell by 476 A.D. Christian society expanded greatly as Christianity was brought to the Germanic peoples who migrated into this territory.

7.2.4 FEUDALISTIC SOCIETY

 With the progress of history, clan society developed into feudalistic society. A feudalistic society was born in Europe when, around the fall of the Roman Empire, imperial authority waned and the empire sank into chaos.

Out of the ashes of the Western Roman Empire, God raised a feudalistic society among the newly-Christianized Germanic peoples whom He had chosen to lead the providence. By strengthening small units under godly sovereignty in the spheres of religious, political and economic life, God laid the groundwork to establish a godly kingdom.

View slides 92 to 103 below for an illustrated presentation of the above content:

2007p2-CHAPT-4-Parallels-betw-the-Two-Ages_revised-4-28-2014

Even Amidst the Vortex of Good and Evil, Reject Evil and Promote Goodness

Cheong Seong Gyeong 1990

To achieve His will, God does not
choose and use something twice. If
America were removed, however, the
cultural spheres of the Unification
Church and Christianity, and the Uni-
fication Church and Judaism would
be separated. That is why I reluctant-
ly chose America. The reason I have
to go and fight in America is because I
chose America, and in order to make
up for America’s failure, I brought along
Japan, the Eve nation. Adam’s sin that
was sown bore fruit in the world. This
must all be ruthlessly cast away. Origi-
nally there was God, Adam and Eve, and
the three archangels. Considering this,
Korea is the Adam nation, and Japan the
Eve nation. That is why we have cross-
cultural “exchange” marriages. Adam
and Eve married on their own. As a con-
sequence, the world of death was creat-
ed. However, the second generation of
the Korean people and Japanese people
must come into a cross-cultural mar-
riage. Let the government oppose us if it
wishes. (197-269, 1990.1.19)

Richard: Thank you Rev. Moon for choosing America again, and for your victorious work for the establishment of God’s Kingdom on earth.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1189

As God carried out the dispensa-
tion for restoration, His grief lay in the
fact that the firstborn son was on Satan’s
side. That is why human history is dis-
eased. What kind of disease does it suf-
fer from? It has a love related disease. The
first son was born after humankind went
astray due to the disease of love. If we are
not aware of this fact, we won’t reach the
time when we are able to ascend to the
individual position where we can again
achieve harmony, even if we spend bil-
lions of years in search of the principled
standard. (136-126, 1985.12.22)

Richard: Right now, most everyone is concerned about the Covid-19 virus. Yet, all humankind has a much more fundamental disease. The first human ancestors, Adam and Eve fell, introducing this disease and passing it on from generation to generation. Yet, most are not even aware of this mortifying situation. See here: https://inspiration.visionroot.org/2020/01/31/no-one-has-known-the-root-of-sin/
and here: https://inspiration.visionroot.org/2020/02/01/there-is-no-freedom-without-responsibility/
for the Divine Principle study on the Fall of Man.

Exposition of the Divine Principle
3 Color Edition-The Red part

THE PROVIDENCE OF RESTORATION AND THE PROGRESS OF HISTORY

 The Kingdom of Heaven on earth is a society whose structure is formed in the image of a perfect person. Likewise, fallen society may be regarded as formed in the likeness of a fallen person. We can better understand the history of societies built by sinful humanity by examining the inner life of a fallen person. Since human society is composed of individuals who are constantly at war within themselves, interactions among them cannot help but be full of discord and conflict. Human history has consisted of people’s conflict-ridden social relationships constantly changing with the course of time. Hence, it has necessarily unfolded in strife and warfare.

Progress in history originates with individuals who, even amidst the vortex of good and evil, make determined efforts to reject evil and promote goodness. Therefore, the world toward which history is progressing is the Kingdom of Heaven, where the goal of goodness will be realized.

Meanwhile, on the basis of his relationship of blood ties with the first human beings, Satan has worked through fallen people to realize, in advance of God, a perverted form of the ideal society which God intends to realize. As a result, in human history we witness the rise of unprincipled societies which are built upon twisted versions of the Principle. At the end of human history, before God can restore the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, Satan will have built an unprincipled world in a distorted image of the Kingdom: this is none other than the communist world.

7.1 THE PROGRESS OF HISTORY IN THE AGE OF THE PROVIDENCE OF RESTORATION

 Some historians have held that the first society built by fallen people was a primitive collective society. Due to the activity of the original mind calling people to respond to God’s providence of restoration, divisions between relative good and evil surely arose in primitive societies under satanic sovereignty.

God called Abraham out of the sinful world to be the standard-bearer of goodness and blessed him with descendants who would uphold the Will of God. God raised up Abraham’s descendants into the first Israelite clan society. They entered Egypt as a clan society, but by the time they left Egypt for Canaan, they had grown into a tribal society. Israelite society in the period of the judges was a feudalistic society.

The providential purpose of the feudalistic society of early Israel was to lay a foundation for the establishment of a monarchic society with greater territory and more powerful sovereignty. The monarchic society amalgamated the smaller units of political and economic sovereignty secured by the earlier feudalistic society into a single territory with a large population, a strong economy and a well-defended sovereignty. This was done with the establishment of the united kingdom of Israel founded by King Saul. Jesus was to come as the King of Kings. God built the monarchic society in Israel to prepare a strong enough foundation for him to come as the Messiah and rule as King of Kings.

After the fall of Judah, God kept the throne of Israel vacant and put the Jewish people under the control of successive gentile empires for most of the period leading up to the coming of the Messiah. Most notably, God placed them in the Hellenistic cultural sphere, which laid the ideological framework for democracy. God fashioned Israel’s society in the form of democracy in order that when the Messiah came, he could be hailed as their king by the will of the people, who should have welcomed him wholeheartedly. However, the Jewish public did not so elevate Jesus. Without public support, he was crucified. Consequently, at the consummation of the providence which had begun two thousand years earlier with the calling of Abraham and his descendants out of the sinful world, its purpose was attained only spiritually.

View slides 72 to 91 below for an illustrated presentation of the above content:

2007p2-CHAPT-4-Parallels-betw-the-Two-Ages_revised-4-28-2014

God Has Been Creating the Religious, Political and Economic Environment Conducive to the Work of Christ at His Second Coming

Hebrews 11

35 Some women received their loved ones back from death. Many of these people were tortured, but they refused to be released. They were sure that they would get a better reward when the dead are raised to life. 36 Others were made fun of and beaten with whips, and some were chained in jail. 37 Still others were stoned to death or sawed in two or killed with swords. Some had nothing but sheep skins or goat skins to wear. They were poor, mistreated, and tortured. 38 The world did not deserve these good people, who had to wander in deserts and on mountains and had to live in caves and holes in the ground.

39 All of them pleased God because of their faith! But still they died without being given what had been promised. 40 This was because God had something better in store for us. And he did not want them to reach the goal of their faith without us.

Richard: With the teachings you are studying, we can fulfill “something better in store for us”.

Jeremiah 22

24 King Jehoiachin, son of Jehoiakim, even if you were the ring I wear as the sign of my royal power, I would still pull you from my finger. 25 I would hand you over to the enemy you fear, to King Nebuchadnezzar and his army, who want to kill you. 26 You and your mother were born in Judah, but I will throw both of you into a foreign country, where you will die, 27 longing to return home.

Exposition of the Divine Principle
3 Color Edition-The Red part

THE PERIOD OF ISRAEL’S EXILE AND RETURN AND THE PERIOD OF THE PAPAL EXILE AND RETURN

 By falling into faithlessness without repentance, the people of Israel failed to realize the ideal of God’s nation founded upon the Temple. God had the people suffer hardships as exiles in Babylon. This was similar to when God had the Israelites suffer as slaves in Egypt.  The emperors and popes became corrupt and did not repent. The popes did not lay the spiritual foundation upon which the emperors could stand as the central figures for the foundation of substance. Therefore, the foundation for the Second Advent of Christ was not established. To begin a new dispensation to restore this foundation, God allowed the popes to be taken into exile and suffer captivity. In the earlier parallel period, nearly seventy years elapsed from the time King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took into captivity King Jehoiachin and his royal family, as well as prophets including Daniel and Ezekiel, priests, officials, craftsmen and many other Israelites, until the fall of Babylon and their liberation by the royal decree of King Cyrus.14 It then took another 140 years for the exiles to return to their homeland in three waves, until they fully reformed themselves as a nation united around the Will of God as proclaimed in the messianic prophecies of Malachi. Henceforth, they began to prepare for the coming of the Messiah.

This period of approximately 210 years ran from 1309, with the papacy’s seventy years of exile in Avignon, through the Great Schism, the conciliar movement and the restoration of papal authority in the Roman church, to the eve of the Protestant Reformation spearheaded by Martin Luther in 1517. Its purpose was to restore through indemnity, in the form of substantial parallels, the 210-year period of Israel’s exile and return—from Israel’s seventy years of exile in Babylon through the stages of the returning to Israel and the rebuilding of the Temple, until the reform of politics and religion under the leadership of Ezra, Nehemiah and the prophet Malachi.

THE PERIOD OF PREPARATION FOR THE ADVENT OF THE MESSIAH AND THE PERIOD OF PREPARATION FOR THE SECOND ADVENT OF THE MESSIAH

 Following the period of Israel’s exile and return, another four hundred years elapsed before Jesus came. This was the period of preparation for the advent of the Messiah. Likewise, Christianity is to meet Christ at his Second Advent only after passing through four hundred years of the period of preparation for the Second Advent of the Messiah, which has followed the period of papal exile and return. It should restore through indemnity in the form of substantial parallels the period of preparation for the advent of the Messiah.

Upon returning from the Babylonian exile, the Israelites established the foundation of faith by repenting of their past sin of idolatry, rebuilding the Temple15 which had been destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar, and reforming their faith based on the Mosaic Law under the guidance of Ezra the scribe.16 They then began to prepare for the coming of the Messiah according to the word of the prophet Malachi. Likewise, after the papacy’s return to Rome, medieval Christians established the foundation of faith by seeking to reform the Roman church; these efforts culminated in the Protestant Reformation led by Martin Luther. This movement pierced the gloom of medieval Europe with the light of the Gospel and pioneered new paths of faith.

Meanwhile, among the world’s peoples, God founded religions suited to their regions and cultures by which they could make the necessary internal preparations to receive the Messiah. In India, God established Buddhism through Gautama Buddha (565-485 B.C.) as a new development out of Hinduism. In Greece, God inspired Socrates (470-399 B.C.) and opened the brilliant age of classical Greek civilization. In the Far East, God raised up Confucius (552-479 B.C.), whose teachings of Confucianism established the standard of human ethics. Jesus was to come upon this worldwide foundation of preparation, and through his teachings he was to bring together Judaism, Hellenism, Buddhism and Confucianism. He was to unify all religions and civilizations into one worldwide civilization founded upon the Christian Gospel.

 Since the Renaissance, God has been creating the religious, political and economic environment conducive to the work of Christ at his Second Coming.  Beginning with the Renaissance, progress in virtually every field of human endeavor, including politics, economy, culture and science, has increased at a rapid rate. Today, these fields have reached their zenith and have created a global environment conducive to the work of Christ at his Second Coming. In Jesus’ day, the Roman Empire ruled the vast domains around the Mediterranean Sea, integrated by an advanced and extensive transportation system reaching out in all directions. This was the center of a vast Hellenistic civilization founded on the Greek language. Thus, all the necessary preparations had been made for a swift transmission of the teachings of the Messiah from Israel, where Jesus lived, to Rome and the world. Similarly, in the present era of the Second Advent, the influence of the Western powers has expanded the democratic political sphere throughout the world. The rapid progress of transportation and communication has greatly bridged the gap between East and West, and the extensive contact among languages and cultures has brought the world much closer together. These developments characterize an environment in which the teachings of the returning Christ can freely and swiftly be conveyed to the hearts of all humankind.

View slides 52 to 71 below for an illustrated presentation of the above content:

2007p2-CHAPT-4-Parallels-betw-the-Two-Ages_revised-4-28-2014

Since the Papacy and the Church Did Not Repent, God Chastised Them

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2165

Do you people want to make a dif-
ference individually? Do you want to
influence things as a family? Nationally?
Globally? How do you want to make a
difference? You would like to make a dif-
ference globally, wouldn’t you? Howev-
er, if you want to rise to the global stage,
you will not be able to do that on your
own. You will need a nation. I am asking
you if you have your nation.

So we eat, we sleep for the sake of
that nation, day and night for the cause
of the nation. Do you understand that
you have to live your life pledging before
heaven and earth that this is the reason
you were born? When you are sleeping,
you have got to imagine that you have
gathered together all the beds of mil-
lions of people around the world and
that you are sleeping there positioned on
the top. Even when you look at a dinner
table, you have got to have that kind of
thought. Wherever you go, you have got
to think that you are not sitting alone,
but that all the difference races of the
world are gathered together, piled up
together, and that you have climbed to
the top and are sitting on your seat there.
The sons of heaven have to do things like
that.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1518

The love of a mother and father can
be said to be the flower that represents
all men and women of the world, at the
same time giving out fragrance and
standing in the position of their fruit.
They are the representatives. The moth-
er and father represent the women and
men of the world. Then who do their
sons and daughters represent? They rep-
resent future generations of descendants
who will become the billions of people
that make up humankind. Therefore,
the mother, father and child need to
unite through God’s love, and exercise a
love where those above live for the sake
of those below them, and vice versa. It
does not mean living for oneself. From
the perspective of the original nature of
God’s creation, it is living for the sake of
others. (214-270, 1991.2.3)

Exposition of the Divine Principle
3 Color Edition-The Red part

THE PERIOD OF THE UNITED KINGDOM AND THE PERIOD OF THE CHRISTIAN EMPIRE

When the period of the judges came to a close and the First Israel entered the period of the united kingdom, the functions of the judge were apportioned to the offices of prophet, priest and king. The prophets received instructions directly from God, the priests kept charge over the Tabernacle and later the Temple, and the king governed the nation. Each carried on their distinct missions in guiding Israel to accomplish the goal of the providence of restoration. The purpose of the period of the Christian empire was to restore the period of the united kingdom through parallel indemnity conditions. Thus, when the period of regional church leadership came to a close, the missions of these leaders were apportioned to the offices of monastic leaders corresponding to the prophets, the pope corresponding to the high priest, and the emperor, who ruled the people. They were responsible to guide the Second Israel to accomplish the goal of the providence of restoration.

About eight hundred years after Abraham’s descendants entered Egypt, by God’s command the prophet Samuel anointed Saul as the first king of Israel. King Saul stood upon the foundation of the four hundred years under the judges. Had he completed the forty years of his reign in accordance with God’s desires, he would have stood in the position of having restored through indemnity the four hundred years of slavery in Egypt and Moses’ forty years in the Pharaoh’s palace. Thereupon, King Saul would have fulfilled the dispensation of forty for the separation of Satan and laid the foundation of faith.

However, because King Saul disobeyed the commands of God given through the prophet Samuel, he was in no position to build the Temple.  As was the case with Moses, the providence of restoration through King Saul was extended. Forty years of King David’s reign and forty years of King Solomon’s reign would pass before the foundation of faith was laid and the Temple built.  Nevertheless, King Solomon left the position of Abel for the substantial offering when he fell into lust with his many foreign wives, who turned him away from God. Hence, there was no way for Israel to establish the foundation of substance. The foundation for the Messiah, which should have been laid in the period of the united kingdom, was not realized.

Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne and blessed him as the first emperor of Christendom in 800 A.D. Charlemagne stood upon the foundation of the four-hundred-year period of regional church leadership, which restored through indemnity, in the form of substantial parallels, the four-hundred-year period of the judges. Therefore, like King Saul, he stood upon the foundation of a dispensation of forty for the separation of Satan. By faithfully living according to the teachings of Jesus in his work to realize the Christian ideal of the state, he was to establish the foundation of faith. Indeed, when Charlemagne was crowned emperor, he achieved this foundation. However, the emperor did not remain obedient to God’s Will and left the position of Abel for the substantial offering. Neither the foundation of substance nor the foundation for the Second Advent of the Messiah was established.

THE PERIOD OF THE DIVIDED KINGDOMS OF NORTH AND SOUTH AND THE PERIOD OF THE DIVIDED KINGDOMS OF EAST AND WEST

Because King Solomon was led by his wives and concubines to worship idols, the united kingdom of Israel was divided upon his death, having lasted only three generations.10 The kingdom of Israel in the north, which was founded by ten of the twelve tribes, was in the position of Cain, while the kingdom of Judah in the south, which was founded by the two remaining tribes, was in the position of Abel. This was how the period of the divided kingdoms of north and south began. The Christian empire also began to divide in the third generation. Charlemagne’s grandsons partitioned it into three kingdoms: the East Franks, the West Franks and Italy. The descendants of Charlemagne were in bitter and constant conflict with each other. The remnants of the Christian empire soon coalesced into two kingdoms, with Italy reverting to the rule of the East Franks. The kingdom of the East Franks came to be called the Holy Roman Empire. he Holy Roman Empire stood in the position of Abel in relation to France, as the kingdom of the West Franks came to be called.

In the period of the divided kingdoms of north and south, whenever the Israelites violated their covenant with God, straying from the ideal of the Temple, God sent many prophets—such as Elijah, Isaiah and Jeremiah—to admonish them and move them to repentance and internal reform. However, because the kings and the people did not heed the warnings of the prophets and did not repent, God chastised them externally by sending gentile nations such as Syria, Assyria and Babylon to attack them. During the parallel period of the divided kingdoms of east and west, the papacy was corrupt. God sent prominent monks such as St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Francis of Assisi to admonish the papacy and promote internal reform in the Church. Since the papacy and the Church did not repent, but sank further into corruption and immorality, God chastised them externally by letting their people fight the Muslims. This was the providential reason behind the Crusades.

The period of the divided kingdoms of north and south came to an end when gentile nations took the people of Israel and Judah into exile. They put an end to the monarchy in Israel. Likewise, at the close of the period of the divided kingdoms of east and west, the papacy had completely lost its prestige and credibility after the repeated defeats of the Crusades. Christianity thus lost its center of spiritual sovereignty. Moreover, since the lords and knights who had maintained feudal society were decimated by the Crusades, feudal society lost its political power and vigor. Since the papacy and the feudal lords had spent enormous funds to pursue these unsuccessful wars, they were left impoverished. Monarchic Christianity began to erode.

View slides 26 to 51 below for an illustrated presentation of the above content:

2007p2-CHAPT-4-Parallels-betw-the-Two-Ages_revised-4-28-2014

The People Who Became Centrally Responsible Were not the Jews but Rather the Christians

1 John 4

7 My dear friends, we must love each other. Love comes from God, and when we love each other, it shows that we have been given new life. We are now God’s children, and we know him. 8 God is love, and anyone who doesn’t love others has never known him. 9 God showed his love for us when he sent his only Son into the world to give us life. 10 Real love isn’t our love for God, but his love for us. God sent his Son to be the sacrifice by which our sins are forgiven. 11 Dear friends, since God loved us this much, we must love each other.

Judges 16

16 One day while Samson was in Gaza, he saw a prostitute and went to her house to spend the night. 2 The people who lived in Gaza found out he was there, and they decided to kill him at sunrise. So they went to the city gate and waited all night in the guardrooms on each side of the gate.[a]

3 But Samson got up in the middle of the night and went to the town gate. He pulled the gate doors and doorposts out of the wall and put them on his shoulders. Then he carried them all the way to the top of the hill that overlooks Hebron,[b] where he set the doors down, still closed and locked.

Richard: Samson had a problem with unethical sexual relationships with women, which ended up being his downfall.

Exposition of the Divine Principle
3 Color Edition-The Red part

Chapter 4

The Parallels between the Two Ages in the Providence of Restoration

Since the ultimate purpose of the providence of restoration is to lay the foundation for the Messiah, if it is prolonged, the dispensations to restore this foundation must be repeated. In the course of the providence, the repetition of dispensations to restore the foundation for the Messiah has meant, in effect, the repetition of dispensations to restore through indemnity the symbolic offering and the substantial offering.

God’s first chosen people consisted of the descendants of Abraham,Isaac and Jacob, who had established the family foundation for the Messiah. Therefore, the nation centrally responsible for God’s providence in the Age of the Providence of Restoration was Israel. The Old Testament, which records the history of Israel, provides the source material with which to study the history of the providence in that age. Indeed, the people who became centrally responsible for the providence in the Age of the Prolongation of the Providence of Restoration were not the Jews, but rather the Christians. They assumed the mission to accomplish God’s unfulfilled providence of restoration. Accordingly, the history of Christianity provides the source material for understanding providential history in this age.

THE PERIOD OF SLAVERY IN EGYPT AND THE PERIOD OF PERSECUTION IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE

After Jacob entered Egypt with his twelve sons and seventy kinsmen,their descendants suffered terrible abuse at the hands of the Egyptians for four hundred years. This was for the restoration of the four-hundred-year period from Noah to Abraham—a period for the separation of Satan—which had been defiled due to Abraham’s mistake in his offering. The corresponding period of persecution in the Roman Empire was to restore this previous period through parallel indemnity conditions. Jesus’ twelve apostles and seventy disciples were the first of many generations of Christians who suffered severe persecution in the Roman Empire over a period of four hundred years. By enduring this suffering,they were restoring through indemnity the four-hundred-year period of preparation for the advent of the Messiah—a period for the separation of Satan—which had been defiled due to the Jewish people’s mistake in not honoring Jesus as a living sacrifice but leading him to the cross.

At the end of Israel’s slavery in Egypt, Moses brought the Pharaoh to his knees by the power of the three signs and ten plagues. He then led the Israelites out of Egypt and set out for the land of Canaan.Likewise, toward the end of the period of persecution in the Roman Empire, after Christians had drunk the cup of persecution to the fill,Jesus increased the numbers of believers by moving their hearts with his power and grace. By stirring the heart of Emperor Constantine,Jesus led him to recognize Christianity in 313 A.D. Jesus inspired Theodosius I in 392 A.D. to establish Christianity as the state religion. Christians thus restored Canaan spiritually inside the Roman Empire, the satanic world.

When the period of slavery in Egypt was over, Moses on Mt. Sinai received the Ten Commandments and God’s Word revealed in the Law,which formed the core of the Old Testament Scriptures. By setting up and honoring the tablets of stone, the Ark of the Covenant and the Tabernacle, he paved the way for the Israelites to prepare for the coming of the Messiah. Likewise, at the conclusion of the period of persecution in the Roman Empire, Christians gathered the writings which had been left behind by the apostles and evangelists and established the canon of the New Testament. Based on these writings, they sought to realize God’s ideals spiritually, ideals which had been enshrined in the Ten Commandments and the Tabernacle in the Old Testament Age.They built up churches and expanded their foundation to prepare forthe Second Coming of Christ.

THE PERIOD OF THE JUDGES AND THE PERIOD OF REGIONAL CHURCH LEADERSHIP

Upon inheriting the mission of Moses, Joshua led the Israelites into the land of Canaan. For the next four hundred years, fifteen judges governed the Israelite tribes: thirteen judges from Othniel to Samson record-ed in the Book of Judges, as well as Eli and Samuel. The judges filled the various responsibilities of prophet, priest and king, which became separate offices in the later periods. Israel in this period was a feudalistic society with no central political authority. In the New Testament Age, the period of regional church leadership was set up to restore the period of the judges through parallel indemnity conditions. In this period, regional church leaders—patriarchs, bishops and abbots—led Christian society. Like the judges of the Old Testament Age, they had duties similar to those of prophet, priest and king. As in the time of the judges, Christian society in this period was a feudalistic society under these local authorities.

View slides 1 to 25 below for an illustrated presentation of the above content:

2007p2-CHAPT-4-Parallels-betw-the-Two-Ages_revised-4-28-2014