Tag: Abraham's family

The Third Try Must Be Victorious

John 16

21 When a woman is about to give birth, she is in great pain. But after it is all over, she forgets the pain and is happy, because she has brought a child into the world. 22 You are now very sad. But later I will see you, and you will be so happy that no one will be able to change the way you feel. 23 When that time comes, you won’t have to ask me about anything. I tell you for certain that the Father will give you whatever you ask for in my name. 24 You have not asked for anything in this way before, but now you must ask in my name.[b] Then it will be given to you, so that you will be completely happy.

Eccliastes 5

18 What is the best thing to do in the short life that God has given us? I think we should enjoy eating, drinking, and working hard. This is what God intends for us to do. 19 Suppose you are very rich and able to enjoy everything you own. Then go ahead and enjoy working hard—this is God’s gift to you. 20 God will keep you so happy that you won’t have time to worry about each day.

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

3.1.2.2 ABRAHAM’S OFFERING OF ISAAC

 After Abraham failed in the symbolic offering, God commanded him to sacrifice his only son Isaac as a burnt offering. In this way, God began a new dispensation for the purpose of restoring through indemnity Abraham’s failure. Why, then, did God work with Abraham again when he had him offer Isaac?

 We can advance three reasons. First, the number three represents completion. God’s Principle requires that when the providence to lay the foundation for the Messiah takes place for the third time, it must be brought to completion. Therefore, God’s providence to lay the foundation for the Messiah, which began in Adam’s family as the first dispensation and continued in Noah’s family as the second dispensation, had to conclude in Abraham’s family, which was the third dispensation.

 Second, as was explained earlier, when Abraham was making his sacrifice, he was in the position of Adam. Satan had attacked both Adam and his son Cain, defiling the family over the course of two generations. Hence, according to the principle of restoration through indemnity, God could work to take back Abraham and his son Isaac over the course of two generations.

Third when Abraham was called by God, he stood on the merit of both Abel, who succeeded in the symbolic offering at the formation stage, and Noah, who succeeded in the symbolic offering at the growth stage. Upon this double foundation, Abraham was to make the symbolic offering at the completion stage. Accordingly, even though Abraham failed, God could raise him up and give him another chance to make an offering based on the accumulated merit of Abel’s and Noah’s faithful hearts.

How did Abraham offer Isaac?

When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. Then Abraham put forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here am I.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” —Gen. 22:9-12

Abraham’s faith was absolute. In obedience to God’s command, he was about to kill Isaac, his only son, intending to offer him as a burnt offering. God intervened at that moment and told Abraham not to kill the boy. Abraham’s zeal to do God’s Will and his resolute actions, carried out with absolute faith, obedience and loyalty, lifted him up to the position of already having killed Isaac. Therefore, he completely separated Satan from Isaac. Because Abraham succeeded in his offering of Isaac, the providence of restoration in Abraham’s family could be carried on by Isaac.

3.1.2.3 ISAAC’S POSITION AND HIS SYMBOLIC OFFERING IN THE SIGHT OF GOD

When God saved Isaac from death, Abraham was also resurrected to life, now loosed from all the ties with which Satan had bound him when his symbolic offering was defiled. Furthermore, Abraham and Isaac attained inseparable oneness in their fidelity to God’s Will.

 In making the offering, Isaac and Abraham underwent a process of death and resurrection. As a result, two things were accomplished. First, Abraham succeeded in the separation of Satan, who had invaded him because of his mistake in the symbolic offering. He restored through indemnity the position he had occupied before he had made the mistake and transferred his providential mission to Isaac from this restored position. Second, by faithfully obeying God’s Will, Isaac inherited the divine mission from Abraham and demonstrated the faith which qualified him to make the symbolic offering. After the divine mission had passed from Abraham to Isaac, Abraham offered the ram provided by God as the substitute for Isaac. In fact, this was the symbolic offering by which Isaac restored the foundation of faith. Isaac, having inherited Abraham’s mission, made the symbolic offering and restored through indemnity the foundation of faith.

View slides 81 to 94 below for an illustrated presentation of the above content:

2007p2-CHAPT-1-Adams-Family_revised-4-28-2014

Good and Evil Have to Be Divided

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1566

Now that the vertical and horizon-
tal eight-stage indemnity has all been
completed, the Ceremony of the Settle-
ment of the Eight Stages could be per-
formed on August 31, 1989, in Alaska,
the most northerly location in the West.
It is the northernmost place. On the first
day of September, I declared “the ideol-
ogy centered on the Heavenly Father”
at the same place. The ideology cen-
tered on the Heavenly Father is simul-
taneously the ideology of salvation by
love as well as the ideology of parental
love. This parent-centered ideology is all
about a life lived by giving love. Satan
cannot oppose anything based on love.
If he cannot oppose the path taken by
the Unification Church, we can rapidly
expand worldwide. (199-157, 1990.2.16)

Richard: There is nothing to hold us back. Will we take the batton and run the race?

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1398

I cannot even say anything to you
about this serious matter. If I told you
what I know, you would descend to the
depths of grief. I have had to reach my
present solitary position all by myself.
Who believed that we could accomplish
3.6 million couples? Kwak Chung-hwan!
He did not believe it. No one believed it.
I alone had faith that we could do it. Re-
creation takes place under the orders of
creation issued by God. Ezekiel was able
to bring to life thousands of people from
the valley of sand; from the valley of dry
bones, Ezekiel brought to life an exceed-
ingly great army. You must understand
that the Almighty God is with us. (288-161,
1997.11.27)

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

THE PROVIDENCE OF RESTORATION IN ABRAHAM’S FAMILY

Abraham had to restore through indemnity the foundation of faith, and his sons had to restore through indemnity the foundation of substance.

3.1 THE FOUNDATION OF FAITH

3.1.1 THE CENTRAL FIGURE FOR THE FOUNDATION OF FAITH

 In the providence of restoration in Abraham’s family, the central figure to restore the foundation of faith was Abraham. However, Abraham could not inherit this mission unless he first restored through indemnity all the conditions which had been given to Noah to fulfill, but which were lost to Satan due to Ham’s sin.

Abraham was to inherit the mission of Noah and thus the mission of Adam. In this capacity, he represented restored Adam. As God had blessed Adam and Noah, God also blessed Abraham:

I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves. —Gen. 12:2-3

3.1.2 THE OBJECTS FOR THE CONDITION OFFERED FOR THE FOUNDATION OF FAITH

3.1.2.1 ABRAHAM’S SYMBOLIC OFFERING

 God commanded Abraham to offer a dove and a pigeon, a ram and a goat, and a heifer.48 These were the objects for the condition which he offered to restore the foundation of faith. What was the significance of Abraham’s symbolic offering? Abraham was required to offer in an acceptable manner objects for the condition to restore all that Cain and Abel were supposed to accomplish through their sacrifices, and all that Noah’s family was trying to accomplish through the dispensation of the ark.

Abraham offered three types of objects as the condition for his symbolic offering: first, a dove and a pigeon; second, a ram and a goat; and third, a heifer. These three sacrifices symbolized the cosmos, which was completed through the three stages of the growing period. The dove represented the formation stage. The ram represented the growth stage. The heifer represented the completion stage.

 Why did Abraham place the three sacrifices—the dove and pigeon, the ram and goat, and the heifer, symbolizing the formation, growth and completion stages—on one altar? Before the Fall, Adam was responsible to grow through all three stages in his one lifetime. Similarly, Abraham, now in the position of Adam, was supposed to restore, all at once, the long providence which God had conducted through the three providential generations of Adam (formation), Noah (growth) and Abraham (completion). Now let us study how Abraham made the symbolic offering: He said to him,

“Bring me a heifer three years old, a she-goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” And he brought him all these, cut them in two, and laid each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. And when the birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away. As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram; and lo, a dread and great darkness fell upon him. Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know of a surety that your descendants will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and will be slaves there, and they will be oppressed for four hundred years.” —Gen. 15:9-13

When Abraham offered the birds without first dividing them, it meant that he offered what had not been wrested from Satan’s possession. His mistake had the effect of acknowledging Satan’s claim of possession over them. Abraham’s mistake in making the symbolic offering caused the offering to be defiled. All the conditions God intended to restore through it were lost. As a consequence, Abraham’s descendants had to suffer oppression and slavery for four hundred years in the land of Egypt.

 Abraham failed, repeating the mistakes of the past. Consequently, the providence centered on him was prolonged through the three generations of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

View slides 64 to 80 below for an illustrated presentation of the above content:

2007p2-CHAPT-1-Adams-Family_revised-4-28-2014