The providence of restoration refers to God's work to restore human beings to our original, unfallen state so that we may fulfill the purpose of creation. As discussed in Part I, human beings fell from the top of the growth stage and have been held under Satan's dominion ever since.1(cf. Creation 5.2.1; Fall 4.1) To restore human beings, God works to cut off Satan's influence. Yet, as was explained in Christology, we must have the original sin removed before we can sever Satan's bonds and be restored to the state before the Fall. This is possible only when we are born anew through the Messiah, the True Parent. To explain further: we first need to go through a course to separate Satan from ourselves. We do this in order to restore ourselves in form to the spiritual level which Adam and Eve had reached before the Fall - the top of the growth stage. On this foundation, we are to receive the Messiah and be reborn, and thereby be fully restored to the original state of human beings before the Fall. Finally, by following the Messiah, we should continue our growth to maturity where we can fulfill the purpose of creation.
Since the providence of restoration is God's work of re-creation, which has as its goal the fulfillment of the purpose of creation, God works this providence in accordance with His Principle. In the course of the providence of restoration, this principle is called the Principle of Restoration. Let us study how the providence of restoration is to be accomplished.
Before discussing the Principle of Restoration through Indemnity, we must first understand in what position, due to the Fall, human beings came to stand in relation to both God and Satan. If the first human ancestors had not fallen but had reached perfection and become one in heart with God, then they would have lived relating only with God. However, due to their Fall, they joined in a kinship of blood with Satan, which compelled them to deal with him as well. Immediately after the Fall, when Adam and Eve had the original sin but had not yet committed any subsequent good or evil deeds, they found themselves in the midway position - a position between God and Satan where they were relating with both. As a consequence, all their descendants are also in the midway position. Take, for example, a person in the fallen world who does not believe in Jesus but leads a conscientious life. As long as he leads a virtuous life, Satan cannot drag him into hell; yet God cannot bring him to Paradise either as long as he does not believe in Jesus. He remains in the midway position. His spirit ends up abiding in an intermediate region of the spirit world which is neither Paradise nor hell.
How does God separate Satan from fallen people who stand in the midway position? Satan relates with them on the basis of his connection with them through lineage. Therefore, until people make a condition through which God can claim them as His own, there is no way God can restore them to the heavenly side. On the other hand, Satan acknowledges that God is the Creator of human beings. Unless Satan finds some condition through which he can attack a fallen person, he also cannot arbitrarily claim him for his side. Therefore, a fallen person will go to God's side if he makes good conditions and to Satan's side if he makes evil conditions.
For example, when Adam's family was in the midway position, God instructed the children, Cain and Abel, to offer sacrifices that they might come into a position where God could work His providence through them. Yet because Cain killed Abel, the condition was made which allowed Satan to claim them instead. God sent Jesus to fallen people that they might stand on God's side through the condition of believing in him. Unfortunately, when he came, many rejected him and remained on Satan's side. This is the reason Jesus is both the Savior and the Lord of judgment.
What, then, is the meaning of restoration through indemnity? When someone has lost his original position or state, he must make some condition to be restored to it. The making of such conditions of restitution is called indemnity. For example, to recover lost reputation, position or health, one must make the necessary effort or pay the due price. Suppose two people who once loved each other come to be on bad terms; they must make some condition of reconciliation before the love they previously enjoyed can be revived. In like manner, it is necessary for human beings who have fallen from God's grace into corruption to fulfill some condition before they can be restored to their true standing. We call this process of restoring the original position and state through making conditions restoration through indemnity, and we call the condition made a condition of indemnity. God's work to restore people to their true, unfallen state by having them fulfill indemnity conditions is called the providence of restoration through indemnity.
How does a condition of indemnity compare with the value of what was lost? We can answer by listing the following three types of indemnity conditions.
The first is to fulfill a condition of equal indemnity. In this case, restoration is achieved by making a condition of indemnity at a price equal to the value of what was lost when one departed from the original position or state. Acts of restitution or compensation are indemnity conditions of this type. The verse "life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth,"2(Exod. 21:23-24)CEV|KJ|NI refers to this type of indemnity condition.
The second is to make a condition of lesser indemnity. In this case, restoration is achieved by making a condition of indemnity at a price less than the value of what was lost. For instance, when someone owes a huge debt, if the creditor displays good will in forgiving a portion of the debt, then the debtor can pay back less than the total amount and still satisfy the entire debt. The outstanding example of this is redemption through the cross. Merely by fulfilling a small indemnity condition of faith in Jesus, we receive the much greater grace of salvation, which entitles us to participate with Jesus in the same resurrection. By making the indemnity condition of baptism by water, we can be spiritually born anew through Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, by taking a piece of bread and a cup of wine at the sacrament of Holy Communion, we receive the precious grace of partaking in Jesus' body and blood. All these are examples of conditions of lesser indemnity.
The third is to make a condition of greater indemnity. When a person has failed to meet a condition of lesser indemnity, he must make another indemnity condition to return to the original state, this time at a price greater than the first. For example, because Abraham made a mistake when offering the sacrifice of a dove, ram and heifer, he had to meet a condition of greater indemnity to rectify his failure. God thus asked him to offer his only son Isaac as the sacrifice. In the days of Moses, when the Israelites failed to believe in God's promise during their forty days of spying in the land of Canaan, they had to fulfill a condition of greater indemnity by wandering in the wilderness for forty years, calculated as one year for each day of the failed spy mission.3(Num. 14:34)CEV|KJ|NI
Why is a condition of greater indemnity necessary when an indemnity condition is set up for the second time? Whenever a central figure in God's providence makes a second attempt to fulfill an indemnity condition, he must fulfill not only his own unfulfilled condition; in addition, he must make restitution for the failures of the people who came before him.
Next, let us study the method of fulfilling indemnity conditions. For anyone to be restored to the original position or state from which he fell, he must make an indemnity condition by reversing the course of his mistake. For instance, because the chosen people reviled Jesus and sent him to the cross, to be saved and restored to the original position of God's elect, the chosen people must go the opposite way: love Jesus and willingly bear the cross for his sake.4(Luke 14:27)CEV|KJ|NI This is the reason Christianity became a religion of martyrdom. Furthermore, human beings caused tremendous grief to God by violating His Will and falling. To restore this through indemnity, we must seek to regain our pure, original nature and comfort God's Heart by living in obedience to God's Will. Similarly, because the first Adam forsook God, his descendants ended up in the bosom of Satan. Accordingly, in order for Jesus, the second Adam, to take people out of the bosom of Satan and return them to God, he had to worship and honor God even after being forsaken by Him. This is the complicated reason behind God's abandonment of Jesus on the cross.5(Matt. 27:46)CEV|KJ|NI Finally, a nation's laws impose punishment on criminals for the purpose of setting the indemnity conditions necessary for maintaining order in society.
Who should make indemnity conditions? Earlier, we learned that human beings should have become perfect by fulfilling their responsibility; they then would have had the authority to govern even the angels. Yet the first human ancestors failed in their responsibility and thereby fell to the state where they were dominated by Satan. To escape from Satan's domination and be restored to the state where we rule over him, we ourselves must fulfill the necessary indemnity conditions as our portion of responsibility.
The Messiah comes as the True Parent of humanity because only he can remove the original sin by giving rebirth to humanity, born of fallen parents.6(cf. Christology 4.1.1)For fallen people to be restored to their original state, we must receive the Messiah. Before we can receive the Messiah, however, we must first establish the foundation for the Messiah.
What indemnity conditions are required for establishing the foundation for the Messiah? To answer this question, we must first understand how Adam was to have realized the purpose of creation and how he failed to do it, because the condition of indemnity is made by reversing the course of the deviation from the original path.
For Adam to realize the purpose of creation, he was supposed to fulfill two conditions. First, Adam should have established the foundation of faith. The person to lay this foundation was Adam himself. The condition to establish this foundation was to keep strictly to God's commandment not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In fulfilling this condition, Adam would have passed through a set growing period, which was the time allotted for him to fulfill his portion of responsibility. This period represents some numbers of providential significance. Hence, the growing period may be thought of as a period to fulfill certain numbers.
The second condition which Adam was supposed to fulfill in order to realize the purpose of creation was to establish the foundation of substance. After Adam established an unshakable foundation of faith, he was then to become one with God, thereby establishing the foundation of substance. This means he would have become the perfect incarnation of the Word7(John 1:14)CEV|KJ|NI with perfect character, fulfilling God's first blessing. In this way, had he not fallen, Adam would have completed the purpose of creation. For a fallen person to establish the foundation for the Messiah, he must pass through a similar course: establishing first the foundation of faith and then the foundation of substance.
Because Adam disobeyed the Word of God and fell, he could not establish the foundation of faith. Hence, he could neither become the perfect incarnation of the Word nor complete the purpose of creation. To restore the basis upon which they can complete the purpose of creation, fallen people must first restore through indemnity the foundation of faith which the first human ancestors failed to establish. There are three aspects to the indemnity condition required for restoring the foundation of faith.
First, there must be a central figure. From the time Adam failed to establish the foundation of faith, God has been looking for central figures who could restore the lost foundation of faith. God had Cain and Abel offer sacrifices for this purpose. Likewise, God called men such as Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, the kings and John the Baptist for the purpose of raising them up as central figures.
Second, an object for the condition must be offered. When Adam lost faith in God, he lost the Word of God which had been given him for the fulfillment of the condition to establish the foundation of faith. As a result, fallen people could no longer directly receive the Word of God to restore the foundation of faith. It then became necessary to offer objects for the condition as substitutes for the Word. Human beings were degraded by the Fall to a status lower than the things of creation, as it is written, "the heart is deceitful above all things." 8(Jer. 17:9)CEV|KJ|NI Hence, in the age prior to the giving of the Old Testament, people could establish the foundation of faith by offering a sacrifice or its equivalent, such as the ark, procured from the natural world. Thus, the foundation of faith also functioned as the foundation to restore all things, which had been defiled by Satan. In the Old Testament Age, either the Word as revealed in the Law of Moses or representatives of the Word - such as the Ark of the Covenant, the Temple and various central figures - served as objects for the condition, substituting for the original Word. In the New Testament Age, the Word as revealed in the Gospels and Jesus, the incarnation of the Word, were the objects for the condition. From the standpoint of human beings, these objects for the condition were offered for the purpose of establishing the foundation of faith. From God's perspective, the offering of objects for the condition would secure God's ownership of the dispensation.
Third, a numerical period of indemnity must be completed. Questions such as why the length of this indemnity period should be based on certain providential numbers and what lengths those numerical periods have, will be discussed later in detail.9(cf. Periods 2.4)
As earlier stated, for fallen people to complete the purpose of creation, we must become perfect incarnations of the Word, a state our first ancestors failed to attain. Becoming perfect incarnations requires that first we be cleansed of the original sin through the Messiah. Before we can receive the Messiah, however, we need to lay a foundation for him, which is accomplished when we establish the foundation of substance on the basis of the foundation of faith. After receiving the Messiah and being restored to the position of the first human ancestors before their Fall, a path still remains to be trod: we must become one with the Messiah centered on the Heart of God, then follow him along the uncharted path to the summit of the growing period, and thus finally become perfect incarnations.
Fallen people can establish the foundation of substance by making an indemnity condition, the indemnity condition to remove the fallen nature. When the first human ancestors fell and acquired the original sin, they could not realize their God-given original nature. Instead, they harbored the primary characteristics of the fallen nature.10(cf. Fall 4.6) By making the indemnity condition to remove this fallen nature, a fallen person can lay the foundation of substance by which he can receive the Messiah, be cleansed of the original sin, and ultimately restore his original nature. In later chapters, we will discuss how this condition may be fulfilled.11(cf. Foundation 1.2)
Let us now present an overview of the entire course of history since the time of Adam, as reckoned in the Bible, and survey the providential ages which comprise it. God's providence to have fallen people establish the foundation upon which they could receive the Messiah, and thence complete the purpose of creation, began with Adam's family. However, God's Will was frustrated when Cain murdered Abel. Ten generations later, the unfulfilled Will was passed down to Noah's family. God judged the evil world with the flood in order to set apart Noah's family and conduct the providence of restoration. God intended to complete the providence by establishing the foundation for the Messiah in Noah's family and sending the Messiah on that basis. Yet due to the fallen act of Noah's second son, Ham, the providence for Noah's family and the ark failed. As a consequence, the ten generations and the forty-day flood which God had set up to prepare for this providence were lost to Satan.
After four hundred years had passed in order to restore through indemnity what had been lost to Heaven's side, God's Will was entrusted to Abraham. If Abraham had established the foundation for the Messiah on the family level exactly as God had intended, the foundation would have expanded to the national level, and thereupon the Messiah would have come. However, because Abraham failed in the symbolic offering, God's Will was frustrated once more. Consequently, the biblical two thousand years from Adam to Abraham,12 during which God had sought a father of faith who could receive the Messiah, was claimed by Satan. Yet Abraham's situation differed from that of Noah. Although Abraham failed in the symbolic offering, the family foundation for the Messiah was eventually fulfilled through the three generations of Abraham's family: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. On that basis, God multiplied the chosen people in Egypt and expanded the foundation for the Messiah to the national level. For this reason, Abraham is called the father of faith.13(Rom. 4:11-12, 16-17)CEV|KJ|NIIf we judge the significance of the age strictly by its outcome, we can understand that the two-thousand-year period from Adam to Abraham was for the purpose of finding one father of faith who could lay the foundation to begin the providence of restoration. Thus, God's work of restoration can be said to have begun with Abraham.
However, due to Abraham's mistake in making the symbolic offering, the two thousand years from Adam to Abraham were lost to Satan. Hence, a period had to be set up in which those lost years could be restored through indemnity to God's side; this is the significance of the two-thousand-year period from Abraham to Jesus. If Abraham had not failed in making the symbolic offering, the Messiah would have come and stood upon the national foundation for the Messiah built by Abraham's immediate descendants, and the providence of restoration would have been completed at that time. Likewise, had the Jewish people believed in and attended Jesus, they would have supported him to stand representing the nation as the living sacrifice before God. They then would have laid the national foundation for the Messiah. Jesus, standing as the Messiah on that foundation, could then have completed the providence of restoration.
However, just as Abraham failed in his symbolic offering, the Jewish people failed to make their offering on the national level when their leaders sent Jesus to the cross. Thus, a period of two thousand years - this time from Abraham to Jesus - was lost yet again to Satan. As a consequence, a parallel period had to be set up in which the earlier two-thousand-year period could be restored through indemnity to God's side. This is the significance of the two-thousand-year period from Jesus' time until today. During this age, founded upon the cross of Jesus, Christians must establish the worldwide foundation for the Messiah.
The ages in the course of the providence of restoration show the progressive development of God's providence. They may be categorized according to six criteria.
(i) During the two-thousand-year period from Adam to Abraham, people had not yet fulfilled sufficient indemnity conditions to receive God's Word directly. At most, fallen people made indemnity conditions through offering sacrifices; but in doing so, they laid the foundation for the next period when God could begin to work His providence of restoration based on the Word. Hence, this period is called the age of the providence to lay the foundation for the Word.
(ii) During the two-thousand-year period from Abraham to Jesus, humanity's spirituality and intellect developed to the formation stage based on the Word revealed in the Old Testament. Hence, this period is called the formation stage of the providence, or the Old Testament Age.
(iii) During the two-thousand-year period from Jesus until the Second Coming, humanity's spirituality and intellect developed to the growth stage based on the Word revealed in the New Testament. Hence, this period is called the growth stage of the providence, or the New Testament Age.
(iv) During the period when the providence of restoration is to be completed after the Second Coming of Christ, humanity's spirituality and intellect are to develop through the completion stage based on the Completed Testament Word, which will be given for the fulfillment of the providence of restoration. Hence, this period is called the completion stage of the providence, or the Completed Testament Age.
(i) During the two-thousand-year period from Adam to Abraham, people offered sacrifices to lay the foundation to commence the Old Testament Age, when God would begin His work of resurrection. Hence, this period is called the age of the providence to lay the foundation for resurrection.
(ii) During the two-thousand-year period from Abraham to Jesus, people could be resurrected to the form-spirit level based on the Old Testament Word and the merit of the age in the providence of restoration. Hence, this period is called the age of the providence of formation-stage resurrection.
(iii) During the two-thousand-year period from Jesus to the Second Advent, people could be resurrected to the life-spirit level based on the New Testament Word and the merit of the age in the providence of restoration. Hence, this period is called the age of the providence of growth-stage resurrection.
(iv) During the period when the providence of restoration is to be completed after the Second Coming of Christ, people are to be fully resurrected to the divine-spirit level based on the Completed Testament Word and the merit of the age in the providence of restoration. Hence, this period is called the age of the providence of completion-stage resurrection.
(i) During the two-thousand-year period from Adam to Abraham, God laid the foundation for the Old Testament Age. Although this period was lost to Satan, God, by raising up Abraham, could commence the Old Testament Age, in which He would restore this first period through indemnity. Hence, this period is called the Age of the Providence to Lay the Foundation for Restoration (through indemnity).
(ii) During the two-thousand-year period from Abraham to Jesus, God restored through indemnity the previous period of two thousand years - lost to Satan due to Abraham's mistake in the symbolic offering - by working predominantly through the people of Israel. Hence, this period is called the Age of the Providence of Restoration (through indemnity).
(iii) During the two-thousand-year period from Jesus to the Second Advent, God has been restoring through indemnity the Old Testament Age - lost to Satan due to Jesus' crucifixion - by working predominantly through Christianity. Hence, this period is called the Age of the Prolongation of the Providence of Restoration (through indemnity).
(iv) During the period when the providence of restoration is to be completed after the Second Coming of Christ, God will work to restore through indemnity the entire course of the providence of restoration, which has been lost to Satan. Hence, this period is called the Age for Completing the Providence of Restoration (through indemnity).
(i) During the two-thousand-year period from Adam to Abraham, God laid the family foundation for the Messiah by raising up Abraham's family on the condition of the sacrifices they offered. Hence, this period is called the age of the providence to lay the family foundation for the Messiah.
(ii) During the two-thousand-year period from Abraham to Jesus, God worked to lay the national foundation for the Messiah by raising up Israel based on the Old Testament Word. Hence, this period is called the age of the providence to lay the national foundation for the Messiah.
(iii) During the two-thousand-year period from Jesus to the Second Advent, God has been laying the worldwide foundation for the Messiah by raising up worldwide Christianity based on the New Testament Word. Hence, this period is called the age of the providence to lay the worldwide foundation for the Messiah.
(iv) During the period when the providence of restoration is to be completed after the Second Coming of Christ, God will complete the cosmic foundation for the Messiah by working throughout heaven and earth based on the Completed Testament Word. Hence, this period is called the age of the providence to complete the cosmic foundation for the Messiah.
(i) During the two-thousand-year period from Adam to Abraham, God laid the foundation upon which to conduct His providence in the subsequent Old Testament Age, a providence which was to be fulfilled by God shouldering the responsibility. Hence, this period is called the age of the providence to lay the foundation for God's responsibility.
(ii) During the two-thousand-year period from Abraham to Jesus, God took responsibility as the Creator of human beings and carried out the providence of restoration at the formation stage. God worked with the prophets and personally shouldered the first responsibility to defeat Satan. Hence, this period is called the age of the providence based on God's responsibility.
(iii) During the two-thousand-year period from Jesus to the Second Advent, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, who assumed the missions of Adam and Eve, have conducted the providence of restoration at the growth stage. Jesus and the Holy Spirit have shouldered the second responsibility to defeat Satan as they work to restore fallen people. Hence, this period is called the age of the providence based on Jesus and the Holy Spirit's responsibility.
(iv) During the period when the providence of restoration is to be completed after the Second Coming of Christ, the people of faith on earth and in heaven are to bear the third responsibility to defeat Satan, the fallen archangel, and complete the providence of restoration. They are to achieve this in accordance with the Principle of Creation, which lays out the way for human beings to gain the qualification to rule the angels. Hence, this period is called the age of the providence based on the believers' responsibility.
(i) During the two-thousand-year period from Adam to Abraham, the foundation for the Messiah was restored by fulfilling parallel indemnity conditions of a symbolic type. Hence, this period is called the age of symbolic parallels.
(ii) During the two-thousand-year period from Abraham to Jesus, the foundation for the Messiah was restored by fulfilling parallel indemnity conditions of an image type. Hence, this period is called the age of image parallels.
(iii) During the two-thousand-year period from Jesus to the Second Advent, the foundation for the Messiah has been restored by fulfilling parallel indemnity conditions of a substantial type. Hence, this period is called the age of substantial parallels.
As an individual, each one of us is a product of the history of the providence of restoration. Hence, the person who is to accomplish the purpose of history is none other than I, myself. I must take up the cross of history and accept responsibility to fulfill its calling. To this end, I must fulfill in my lifetime (horizontally), through my efforts, the indemnity conditions which have accumulated through the long course of the providence of restoration (vertically). Only by doing this can I stand proudly as the fruit of history, the one whom God has eagerly sought throughout His providence. In other words, I must restore through indemnity, during my own generation, all the unaccomplished missions of past prophets and saints who were called in their time to carry the cross of restoration. Otherwise, I cannot become the individual who completes the purpose of the providence of restoration. To become such an historical victor, I must understand clearly the Heart of God when He worked with past prophets and saints, the original purpose for which God called them, and the details of the providential missions which He entrusted to them.
Yet there is no one among fallen humanity who can become such an historical victor by his efforts alone. For this reason, we must understand all these things through Christ at the Second Advent, who comes to fulfill the providence of restoration. Moreover, when we believe in him, become one with him, and attend him in his work, we can stand in the position of having fulfilled horizontally with him the vertical indemnity conditions in the history of the providence of restoration.
The path which all past saints walked as they strove to fulfill God's providential Will is the very path we must walk again today. Beyond that, we must continue on to the end of the path, even walking trails they left untrodden. Therefore, fallen people can never find the path that leads to life without understanding the particulars of the providence of restoration. Herein lies the reason why we must study the Principle of Restoration in detail.
________________________________________
12. The traditional biblical reckoning of the date for the first human ancestors as six thousand years ago, or two thousand years before Abraham, is a symbolic chronology representing a much longer period of time, the determination of which is a matter for science. -Ed.