Three traditions, one story
New Expressionsof Truth
Fifteen core questions of faith — answered three ways. The Jewish tradition first. Then Christianity, building on it. Then the Divine Principle, claiming the next chapter.
Why the Messiah comes
DP Part 1, Ch. 4
Judaism
The Messiah (Mashiach) is a human descendant of David yet to come. He will restore Israel, rebuild the Temple, gather the exiles, and usher in a universal age of peace and the knowledge of God.
Christianity
Jesus came to die on the cross as a substitutionary atonement for sin. The crucifixion was the central purpose of his ministry from the beginning.
Divine Principle
To establish the Kingdom of God on earth — by being recognized, marrying, and becoming the True Father of a sinless lineage. The cross was a contingency course after rejection, not the original plan.
The crucifixion
DP Part 1, Ch. 4, §1
Judaism
A martyr's death does not atone in Jewish theology. Atonement comes through repentance (teshuvah), prayer, and righteous deeds. Jesus' crucifixion has no salvific role.
Christianity
God's celebrated, foreordained means of salvation. Without the cross there is no atonement.
Divine Principle
A path Jesus accepted after Israel's leadership and his own forerunner failed him. It secured spiritual salvation. Physical salvation was deferred to the Second Coming.
The Fall
DP Part 1, Ch. 2
Judaism
Genesis 3 is read as humans gaining moral agency and responsibility — not a cosmic catastrophe. Each person is born with the yetzer hatov (good inclination) and yetzer hara (evil inclination). Choice is the human condition.
Christianity
Adam and Eve's disobedience in eating literal forbidden fruit. Original sin is inherited guilt transmitted to all descendants.
Divine Principle
A misuse of love. The "fruit" is symbolic. A spiritual fall (Eve with Lucifer) and a physical fall (Eve with Adam before maturity) transmitted Satan's lineage to all humanity.
Original sin
DP Part 1, Ch. 2, §3
Judaism
Rejected outright. "The soul that sins shall die" (Ezekiel 18:20). Every person is born morally clean and is judged on their own deeds, not on inherited guilt.
Christianity
Inherited guilt, plus a fallen nature, washed away by faith in Christ and baptism.
Divine Principle
Not guilt but lineage. Faith in Jesus restores the spirit; only the Blessing of the True Parents restores the lineage itself.
Salvation
DP Part 1, Ch. 5
Judaism
Not the central paradigm. The framework is covenant — God's relationship with Israel, lived out through Torah, repentance, and good deeds. Olam Ha-Ba ("world to come") exists in tradition but is not a personal-salvation doctrine.
Christianity
Complete in Christ. Spiritual rebirth, justification, and the promise of bodily resurrection are all secured by his finished work.
Divine Principle
Two stages. Spiritual salvation is given through Jesus. Physical salvation — restoration of the body and the lineage — comes through the True Parents at the Second Coming.
The Second Coming
DP Part 1, Ch. 6
Judaism
There is only one coming. The Messiah has not yet arrived. The framing of a "second" coming presupposes Jesus was the first — a premise Judaism does not accept.
Christianity
Jesus himself returning bodily on the clouds in glory to judge the living and the dead.
Divine Principle
A man, born of a woman in a particular nation that fits four providential criteria. Identified by the Divine Principle as Korea. The "clouds" are the sanctified people through whom and to whom he comes.
When is the end of the world?
DP Part 1, Ch. 3
Judaism
Not a doctrine of cosmic destruction. The acharit hayamim ("end of days") is a future messianic age of peace and knowledge of God, realized within history. Earth continues.
Christianity
A literal end of human history when Christ returns. Often involves cosmic destruction by fire.
Divine Principle
Not the end of the physical earth — the end of the age of evil sovereignty and the beginning of the age of God's direct sovereignty. Earth is the eternal stage of the Kingdom.
The Trinity
DP Part 1, Ch. 7
Judaism
Incompatible with strict monotheism. "Hear O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is One" (Deut 6:4). God is unitary, not three-in-one.
Christianity
One God in three co-eternal persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each fully divine, each fully God.
Divine Principle
God + a perfected man + a perfected woman, united in love as one. Adam and Eve were to be the first Trinity; the Fall prevented it. Jesus and his missing bride were to be the second; the cross prevented it. The True Parents complete it.
Who is Jesus?
DP Part 1, Ch. 7, §1
Judaism
A 1st-century Jewish teacher. Not divine, not the Messiah, not a unique mediator. The later claims of his followers are seen as a departure from Jewish tradition.
Christianity
God the Son, co-eternal and consubstantial with the Father. Fully God and fully man.
Divine Principle
The second Adam — the perfected man in whom God dwells fully. One with God in heart, love, and will, and rightly called divine. Not God himself in essence.
The Holy Spirit
DP Part 1, Ch. 7, §2
Judaism
Ruach HaKodesh — the "spirit of holiness," God's presence and inspiration, especially through prophets. Not a separate person; an aspect of God's manifestation in the world.
Christianity
The third person of the Trinity. God himself, indwelling believers.
Divine Principle
The feminine spirit of truth — the spiritual counterpart of Jesus, working as a mother-presence in the rebirth of believers (John 3:5).
Was the Messiah supposed to marry?
DP Part 1, Ch. 7
Judaism
Marriage is a mitzvah (commandment). Any human messiah would be expected to marry, father children, and live a full Jewish life — there is no celibate Messiah tradition.
Christianity
Jesus' celibacy was fitting and complete. He was not meant to marry.
Divine Principle
Yes. As the second Adam he was to fulfill Genesis 1:28 with a fully restored second Eve, becoming True Parents of a sinless lineage. The cross interrupted this.
What happens after death?
DP Part 1, Ch. 5
Judaism
Traditional views range across Sheol (the grave), Olam Ha-Ba (the world to come), and resurrection at the end of days. Modern Jewish thought varies widely. Less doctrinally fixed than Christianity.
Christianity
The soul goes to heaven or hell, awaiting the final resurrection of the body.
Divine Principle
The spirit self lives on in a spirit world organized by levels of growth in heart. No permanent hell of God's design. Growth toward perfection continues, with the cooperation of the earthly realm.
Predestination
DP Part 1, Ch. 6
Judaism
"Everything is foreseen, yet free will is given" (Pirkei Avot 3:15). Strong tradition of human responsibility. God's foreknowledge does not override human choice.
Christianity
Ranges from absolute (Calvinist) to conditional (Arminian). In all forms, God's will is decisive.
Divine Principle
Conditional. God's overall will — including the coming of the Messiah — is absolute. The success of any individual or any age, however, depends on human responsibility.
Scripture
DP Introduction
Judaism
The Tanakh (Torah, Nevi'im, Ketuvim) is sacred. The Christian "Old Testament" is the same text reorganized; the "New Testament" is not scripture in Judaism. Oral tradition — Talmud, Midrash — is equally authoritative as interpretation.
Christianity
The inspired and (in most traditions) inerrant Word of God — Old and New Testaments. The final rule of faith and practice.
Divine Principle
Inspired witness to truth, written in the language of its time. A lamp that bears light, not the light itself. The Divine Principle is offered as a clearer light by which the deeper meaning becomes visible.
Other religions
DP Introduction
Judaism
Not missionary. Non-Jews can be righteous through the seven Noahide laws and have a place in the world to come without converting. Judaism is the covenant of one specific people, not a universal religion.
Christianity
Varies — most hold that salvation is uniquely through Christ. Other religions may contain partial truth.
Divine Principle
All major religions are providential. God worked through Judaism, Christianity, Islam, the Eastern religions, in different cultures and ages. The mission of the movement is unity, not replacement.