Home Church | Daily Inspiration

Jacob Did Not Give Up

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2034

If you ask what kind of church Home Churches should be in the future, the answer would be that your Home Churches should become tribal churches. Our goal is not the Home Church, but is to develop toward the tribal church. If you combine the tribal churches, then all the Kim and Park tribes will naturally form a race. If the Kims, Parks, and Moons all make a good foundation to restore the tribe, it will naturally develop into a nation. That will happen. From the church of a tribe to a church of one people, to a national church, to a global church, to a universal church: this is how things are connected. (141-221, 1986.2.22

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1257

If Adam and Eve had not fallen and become mature, they would have achieved perfection not just on the individual but the universal level. Moreover, an original family centered on the love of God would have been initiated. If a clan, tribe, a people, nation and world had stemmed from this family, the world would have become a great community of one extended family attending God.

Jacob

3. Jacob Wrestles with an Angel

And Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and Jacob’s thigh was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” And he said to him, “What is your name?” “Jacob.” “Your name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Tell me, I pray, your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.” The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his thigh.
Genesis 32.24-31

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

When the angel appeared, Jacob knew he was a messenger from God. He asked the angel, “Do you come to hinder me or to bless me?” The angel answered, “I have come to bless you.” Jacob then asked, “If you came to bless me, then why don’t you simply give me the blessing?” The angel answered, “I cannot give it to you freely, because your portion of responsibility still remains.”
In other words, the angel would not bless Jacob unless he fought with desperate effort. When the angel presented that condition, Jacob wrestled with determination, “Alright, it is fine with me. Even if you break my arm I will not let you defeat me. Even if you strike me with a sword or cut my head off, I will not let go of you.” How long do you think Jacob wrestled? It was all through the night.
Both God and Satan were watching that scene. Jacob was desperate, knowing that this was the final showdown. Hence, even when the angel struck him in his hip and his thigh, he did not release the angel from his grasp. He thought, “If I die, I die. Even if we both die, I will not let go of you.” It was nerve-wracking for God to watch Jacob in that battle. Since the angel was fighting on behalf of Satan, God did not want Jacob to give up, but He could not say anything to Jacob. Imagine how anxious God must have been to watch each moment ticking during the battle between the two?
Jacob did not give up even to the last moment. He would not let go of the angel no matter how desperately the angel tried to shake him off. At that point, God publicly acknowledged Jacob’s victory, and the angel, as Satan’s representative, had to acknowledge it as well. Hence, he blessed Jacob with the name “Israel.” At that moment, all the hosts of heaven shouted for joy. They deeply exhaled, now that anxiety over the outcome was relieved.
Jacob’s love for God, that enabled him to hold onto God’s neck, shedding tears for Him for twenty years, far surpassed God’s relationship with Adam and Eve before the Fall. Therefore, he could receive the name “Israel.” (20:229-30, June 9, 1968)

If Jacob had not been so well trained in Haran under the servitude of Laban, he would not have been able to defeat the angel at the ford of Jabbok. Jacob knew that those 21 years of bitter struggle were all for this moment. He knew that what happened this night would determine victory or defeat. That is what enabled him to persevere until the end and win. The strength cultivated during his 21-year course also enabled him to subjugate Esau. Then, he could be reunited with his parents. (67:126, May 27, 1973)

The Human Fall occurred when an angel, Lucifer, subjugated human beings; therefore, in restoration humans must subjugate an angel. For this reason God sent the angel and let him attack Jacob. Once Jacob defeated the angel, it would open the door to defeating Esau, the substantial being of the archangel who was under the control of the spiritual Satan…
What was the meaning of Jacob’s victory over the angel? It was a spiritual victory over the entire angelic world. From that time on Jacob was assisted not only by God but also by the angelic world wherever he went. Most importantly, Satan could no longer spiritually control Esau, so when Esau confronted Jacob the next day, he was bound to submit to his younger brother. (92:285, April 18, 1977)

Why did the angel strike the hollow of Jacob’s thigh? The human fall was caused by the misuse of the lower parts; therefore, the blow to the sinful part of the body was an act of restitution by the principle of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” Once that restitution was complete, the angel was free to bless Jacob. (55:113, April 1, 1972)

Until You Have Finished Your Home Church Work, You Have No Way to Complain

Happy True God’s Day!

Today we offer excerpts from Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s address on True God’s Day, 1982, which was celebrated on January 1, 1982 (True God’s Day is now celebrated on the Heavenly Calendar, which is based on the Lunar Calendar).

Victory of Home Church

There is an insect called a cicada that makes a noise during the summer. For a while, it is encased inside a certain shell and surrounded by liquid. As long as the cicada refuses to break out of this cocoon, he is simply rejecting his wonderful future of flying around from tree to tree. We are encased inside a shell of flesh here on this earth, destined for a wonderful future. Before now, 1982, we have lived with a certain fear of death. But from now on, we can be free of that fear and understand what death really is…..

When one pursues only external values in life, he tends to go away from God’s purpose; but whenever a person seeks after the internal purpose of his life, he will get closer to God. Which one would you want? The person who masters the internal way of life is capable of doing things well externally, also, since internal is subject over external. But the person who only values external things cannot ever achieve internal values. You must become a person who is welcomed by both worlds…

Would you like to become the victors of home church? Do you, then, go to your home church area to be served by the people there? Do you only go to the clean, good places where you expect people to come and bow down to you ? There is no true love in that kind of situation. When a woman does the work of a man, or a man does the work of a woman, then that person learns to do something opposite from the usual and he is free to do anything. Similarly, when you mingle with men of literature, you can learn to write good poetry, like they do. You may not be the greatest artist, sculptor, or singer; but when you sing with true love, that is the best music. The painting done with true love is the best painting….

In order to be victorious in home church, should we then seek out the beautiful places, where everything smells sweet? Should we go to disco dances for our home church work? No, you must go to the ugly, smelly places and make them beautiful and sweet smelling. You must go to the suffering people and make them feel happy-that is your home church work. If you do this kind of work, then you don’t have to make effort to elevate yourself; the people will try to push you into a beautiful, high place, even though you resist and say you want to stay in the low place….

When men and women of separated mind and body try to love each other, it is impossible. Their minds go one way and their bodies go another; that is satanic love. You can love someone else only when your mind and body are one with each other. The husband who caresses his wife should have his mind and body united; likewise, the wife should be a united person, not a person of division between mind and body. True love between husband and wife is the love of give and take between a man and woman of united mind and body. Is there anyone here who thinks he has reached that level? Knowing that you have not achieved that level yet, how can you think that you deserve the heavenly Blessing? Asking for the Blessing before you are ready is an example of a greedy mind. Those who complain, “I’m 32 years old! Why doesn’t Father bless me?” are much further away from God than those who say, “Father, I don’t deserve the Blessing yet. I want to make more effort to unite my mind and body.”…

Why should we live such a life? Because our job is to subjugate Satan, not by force, but in a way that Satan will voluntarily surrender. Who are the true saints? Not those people who are revered by the rich and comfortable people, but the ones who are revered by the miserable, suffering poor people. When such miserable people say someone is a saint, then that person is, indeed, a saint. True love can be found in the lowest places, not in the Waldorf Astoria or in the palaces of kings….

Although we have talked about many things today, we come to the one main point: home church. Why do we need home church? Because fallen parents came into being. In order to restore this position, Jesus came to the earth. He had to go through a certain process; he needed to restore the Abel family of Zechariah and the Cain family of Joseph, uniting them. Because this was left undone, we must go, in our time, to the home church mission and restore those positions. Who crucified Jesus? Fallen men, men of faithlessness. Therefore, until you have paid back that debt, you cannot be restored.

There are many steps beyond just home church. After that, there is the clan church, the tribe church, the nation church, the world church. You have to pass through all these levels. Doing home church is not easy, but doing tribe church and nation church are even more difficult. No individual is capable of doing all these levels; therefore, True Parents came to this earth to do it for everybody else, for you and all your posterity.

Do you think I have a battle between my mind and body? Yes, I have the same battles as you; the only difference is that my battles have been victorious. I knew the truth, so I persevered through my battles. On the road of dispensation, when a person loves himself or his own family and things more than he loves the dispensation and his God given mission, that dispensation will stop right there. My mission has been, in the position of Abel, to win over the position of Cain; to restore the unity on all levels. As the familyAbel, I had to win over the familyCain; and on up to all the other levels. In order to win over Cain, one cannot stay in the same place and have it happen automatically, but must go out to the world and set the right conditions. On each different level, Abel must go out and win Cain. That is why I came to the United States; I was searching for Cain on the worldwide level.

Here I could be beaten and then restore it. When Abel returns, he becomes the elder brother, restoring the birthright. You must restore the elder brother’s position in order to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven……

If you want to become a true person, you must do the things that you say you will do. Your words and your deeds must become one. The good teacher is one who lives his own teachings, not just speaks about them. The true saint is not one who only cares for his family, but who first cares for others, even those who care the least for him, before his own family. We can define the good God as the God who sacrifices Himself for the sake of others. I, too, have lived according to this principle. I have sacrificed my immediate family, even Mother, for the sake of the Unification Church. It is very seldom that I eat a meal with my own children; I usually eat with the church leaders from all over the world. They are the ones who are sitting right next to me and Mother, eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner, our children are not there. Sometimes when I am eating a meal with the children and some of the church leaders come in, I immediately send the children to the kitchen to finish their meal and give their seats to the church members. My children, as well, must have Cain to enter the Kingdom of Heaven; they cannot enter without Cain…..

In the United States, the government is in the Cain position, while Christianity is in the Abel position. Only through the unity of these two positions can this country be acceptable to God. Today. on the contrary, the United States government is dominating Christianity and this is the opposite of what should be happening. The communist world, which denies God, is in the position of the Cain world and the free world is in the position of the Abel world. The Unification Church is in the mother’s position, so we are supposed to embrace both sons: the Abel, democratic world and the Cain, communist world. By doing so, the world can accept the Messiah; it can welcome the universal parent.

That has not been done very successfully, so, for that reason, we have to make the foundation from the very bottom. The very bottom is home church, then progressing to tribe church, nation church, and world church. Who has to do this? The Unification Church is committed to doing this, but I have already fulfilled those levels. Each of you must pay a certain amount of indemnity by doing home church. I have come through the entire process and I have erected such a powerful foundation that those hostile to me have a frenzied desire to kill me. But in your case, you encounter no such drastic opposition. Compared to what I have faced, your persecution is very minor; in fact, doing home church is an easy job. Do people try to kill you? You are not risking your life by doing home church. However, as I work in the United States there is a constant danger to my life. No one besides me is clearly declaring a war against communism; for that reason, the communists consider me their archenemy. I push Tiger Park to squarely confront the communists through CARP. Even though Tiger Park is leading the demonstrations, the communists don’t fear him nearly as much as they fear me, since they understand that I am the ultimate source of this war against communism.

I have been doing this mission at the risk of my life, but you don’t have to risk your life in the same way. I have created a safer way for you to go. You must become a tribal messiah in your home church in order to save your own family; the tribe is the strength of the family. When your home church is protected by the tribe, nation, and all the other layers, nothing can invade your home and family. When you willingly take up the cup of persecution in your home church area, trying to win the people, no power can invade you.

The home church providence started as a major crusade in 1979. At that time, our slogan was, “Completion of the Kingdom of Heaven through Home Church.” In 1980 our slogan was, “Home Church is the Base of the Kingdom of Heaven.” In 1981 we had the slogan, “Home Church is My Kingdom of Heaven.” After those three consecutive years, we have the slogan for this year: “Victory of Home Church.”…

I am not the one who should buy myself a home in Korea. The parents’ home should be bought by the children, Cain and Abel. God’s house, too, is bought by the children; home church will become God’s dwelling place, God’s house. You cannot win the victory without committing yourself to fighting the battle. You have learned the tactics of victory: just go. The important thing is to go, be beaten, and then win. Satan’s method is always to attack first and ultimately to lose, while the method of Heaven is to be beaten first, but to obtain the victory in the end….

Home church is a far more precious gift from God than becoming heads of state or kings and queens. Once your home church people welcome you wholeheartedly, the entire spirit world will welcome you. Suppose you should drop dead in your home church area. Don’t worry, because you are not really dead; you will be resurrected into the highest place in spirit world, where everyone will glorify you. You would like to dwell in the same place in spirit world as I do, wouldn’t you? Even though I may be letting you endure suffering at this time, my ultimate plan is to take every one of you with me, arm in arm, to the Kingdom of Heaven. At that time, you will be a true victor. You can take off, nonstop, to the Kingdom of Heaven….

In the beginning of the message tonight, I said that Adam and Eve were never supposed to have a fear of death. They were supposed to be aware of spirit world and eternity; only because of the fall of man did fear of death come into being. Today, we must be the ones who liquidate the fear of death; we shall be aware of eternity and have no fear of it.

The true fulfillment of the Bible is being done by the Unification Church. Jesus said, “Whoever seeks to save his life shall lose it; but whoever seeks to lose his life for my sake will save it.” This is a dilemma and a contradiction, but we know that those who seek the highest positions shall be lowered, and those who seek the lowest places shall be elevated. Why should this contradictory statement be there in the Bible? People don’t realize it, but such a statement is in the Bible because of the principle of indemnity….

Starting from Dr. Durst, everybody has a home church area. Dr. Durst has been thinking that home church is good, but we need to emphasize street witnessing in order to gain new members. But if you witness to someone on the street, it has only the significance of that individual. An amazing thing is that, although we are doing the same activity, witnessing, when you do it at the home church level, it has historical and providential significance because it is connected at that point to the historical indemnity course. When you connect with one person in your home church area, that individual is representing his family, clan, nation, world and cosmos. By working with one person in home church, you connect yourself to the entire cosmos; but when you go out into the streets, you are only connecting with one individual. It is a one to one relationship that does not go beyond that level…

Until you have finished your home church work, you have no way to complain. You should not get tired. Knowing the Principle, I have no way to get discouraged or to slow down. I continue to march forward; even if I collapsed, I would fall forward, not backwards or to the side. I have always known that I must go over the hill and I cannot stop marching before I go beyond that hill; I cannot afford to die before I get there. Since no one can know when he will die, you must begin now to go beyond the hill. My 21 year course was actually completed in 16 years, 5 years earlier than scheduled. Why? Because I did not know when I would die.

You must overcome your fear of death, becoming men and women who can live without fear, dwelling within the love of God. Unless you can live this way, life is miserable. Once you are elevated into spirit world, there is no way to return to the earth. It is your good fortune to have met me and to have heard this message; but if you do not fulfill my message, it is not good. More than anything else, home church is top priority. Push aside everything else to do home church. For whom are you going this way? Not for the sake of the Unification Church and not for the sake of God or True Parents, but for the sake of yourself, your children, and your posterity. For that reason, you must go to home church and be victorious!

Read the entire speech here.

For Fallen People, Knowledge is the Light of Life Holding the Power of Revival

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Cheon Seong Gyeong 2065

Our tong ban breakthrough activities must be done centering on the family foundation. From there, centered on True Parents’ words, specifically those dealing with the declaration of True Parents, you should inspire the people to connect with our activities and move forward. This time I’ll send out all the members and have them make and show copies of the video tapes to the people. In between tapes we will have people record what they saw and thought. It will work once you try it. You must deliver deeply moving speeches to everyone, and then enroll these people in the future in the effort to unite North and South Korea. From a spiritual viewpoint, South Korea is in the position of the mind, while North Korea is like the body. The body opposes the mind. Since the body belongs to Satan’s realm, that’s why this is happening. (205-334, 1990.10.2)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 692

Dressed like this, I had to stand in front of this huge crowd of thousands of people, including everyone who was anybody in South Jeolla Province. I would much rather have found a rat hole somewhere that I could crawl into. It was all I could do to stay there in my place and endure.Being unable to fit into a particular environment is oppressive. I know the spirit world well. I know all the saints and all the founders of religions who are in any way significant. They do not want to yield to you, but you must not be shut out from that group. (212-224, 1991.1.6

Richard: Everything will be transparent and apparent in spirit world, after you die. The proper role is to know God’s Will and work to accomplish it during your earthly life. Otherwise, you will not be able to face those who have sacrificed more and worked for God’s Will who are in spirit world.

Enlightenment

1. The Light of True Knowledge

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

For fallen people, knowledge is the light of life holding the power of revival, while ignorance is the shadow of death and the cause of ruin. Ignorance cannot beget true sentiments, and in the absence of knowledge and emotion the will to act cannot arise. Without the proper functioning of emotion, intellect and will, one cannot live the life of a true human being.

If we are created in such a way that we cannot live apart from God, then surely our ignorance of God consigns us to walk miserable paths. Though we may diligently study the Bible, can we really say that we know clearly the reality of God? Can we ever grasp the heart of God?…
The heart of God: His heart of joy at the time of creation; the broken heart He felt when humankind, His children whom He could not abandon, rebelled against Him; and His heart of striving to save them throughout the long course of history. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Introduction)

Today the world is in need of a great spiritual enlightenment. Individuals, nations and the world as a whole must achieve a new understanding of the existence of God. We should have an encounter with God, through which we can restore and secure our original inseparable relationship with Him. (234:241, August 22, 1992)

The day of the Second Coming is the time when we wake up to the reality that God is our Parent, and we shed tears with Him. We open our eyes to discover that God is our True Parent, and for six thousand years He has grieved over the sorrow of humankind and wandered in search of us. God grieved for us long before we knew of our plight. When everything that has inflicted deep pain in the historical heart of God is thus revealed, I can truly call God “My Father” and He can call me “My son.” This is the day of the final awakening.

On that day, our hearts are filled with tremendous hope and determination to right the wrongs of history and stand up for God’s providence. On that day, we experience joy as if God’s entire purpose were fulfilled. It is like the feeling we would have experienced had we reached perfection, never having fallen. (6:155, April 19, 1959)

Sin Cannot Be Removed Unless Someone Takes Responsibility

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Cheon Seong Gyeong 2091

When I tell you to go find your hometown, it means planting a new seed. Since you have become the seed of Adam and Eve, I am trying to put down a new root by planting new seeds through you. So when planting new seeds, you will need buckets of fertilizer. So you should go and receive insults. You should receive curses for the cause of goodness and endure much suffering. Try it for about three years. You won’t need three years; I see it being done in six months. When you were first sent out for witnessing, I sent you out to find 120 households and to build churches in towns other than your hometowns, right? And you haven’t been able to do it, have you? Then, I gave the direction to start Home Church, but you couldn’t fulfill that either, could you? This is it. (219-158, 1991.8.29

Richard: Here Rev. Moon emphasizes that Home Church is the actual way to build the Kingdom of Heaven (Cheon Il Guk).

Cheon Seong Gyeong 359

Human beauty does not just reside in the face. It can be seen and felt from all directions. Beauty is three-dimen-sional, like a ball. Whether seen from above, seen from the side, or seen from any direction, a person has his or her own perfect beauty. So you should not carelessly evaluate your wife’s face. Many beautiful women are poor, but women who have virtue or good for-tune are of a different type. We often see that even in the case of a woman with a pretty face, her face becomes strange after having just two or three children. So we can conclude that those who can maintain their beauty even after child-birth are beautiful women. (God’s Will and the World – 543)

Atonement

Sin cannot be removed unless someone takes responsibility to make expiation for the transgression. this is the concept of atonement. atonement is required because of God’s lawful nature, which requires that the object of his love be worthy to receive it. the predicament of the sinner is made worse by Satan’s accusation, which serve to remind God of sins he might rather overlook. therefore, some act of sacrifice is needed to pay the debt, clear away the sin, and remove the obstacle to full forgiveness and fellowship between God and human beings.
In Christianity, Jesus Christ offers himself on the cross as atonement for sin. this is the ultimate atonement: a sinless man dying to save sinners. and yet, Jesus’ atoning death on the cross is an example of a larger principle, as vicarious atonement can occur in many situations: a priest offers a sacrifice for sins of the worshippers, a good man pays with his life for the sins of the community, or a patriot sheds his blood on the altar of his nation. in each case, a righteous person’s sacrifice provides atonement for many.

1. The Principle of Atonement

When God desires to give healing to the world He smites one righteous man among them with disease and suffering, and through him gives healing to all… A righteous man is never afflicted save to bring healing to his generation and to make atonement for it. The ‘other side’ prefers that punishment should light upon the virtuous man rather than on any other; it would disregard the world on account of the joy it finds in having power over him.

Zohar 5.218a(Judaism)

Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering for himself, and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. Then he shall take the two goats, and set them before the lord at the door of the tent of meeting; and Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats, one lot for the lord and the other lot for Azazel. And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the lord, and offer it as a sin offering; but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the lord to make atonement over it… He shall kill the goat of the sin offering which is for the people, and bring its blood within the veil, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat and before the mercy seat; thus he shall make atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of the people of Israel… And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins; and he shall put them upon the head of the goat, and send him away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. The goat shall bear all their iniquities upon him to a solitary land… And it shall be a statute to you forever that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month… on this day shall atonement be made for you, to cleanse you; from all your sins you shall be clean before the Lord.
Leviticus 16.6-30

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that made us whole,
and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned every one to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53.4-6

All Conflicts and Wars are Battles Between the Cain Side and the Abel Side

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Cheon Seong Gyeong 323

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

Cheon Seong Gyeong

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.

Cain and Abel

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

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)