Salvation and the Blessing

Let us start with the understanding that each individual is indeed the product of history, a concept containing a great amount of common sense. In this perspective I would define history, in particular human history, as the totality or the substantial flow and convergence of human actions coupled with all internal realities that were enacted within the realm of time and space; the what, where, who, and why of all human life from the level of the individual to that of the world, from the beginning of human life to our current age. The “American Heritage Dictionary” defines history as “A narrative of events; a story; chronicle: A chronological record of events, as of the life or development of a people, country, or institution.” (P. 625). Surely we can easily understand that each individual, what each of us calls our “I”, exists as a result of the lives and actions of our parents, grandparents and ancestors. We can also understand that those trail of events that have occurred within the nation of our birth, further played out within the larger community of nations, impacted and continues to impact our lives in such arenas as the opportunities or lacks thereof available to each of us or the social and material environments that may or may not be available. However, the greatness of the Divine Principle is perhaps best encapsulated in the understanding that each individual at his or her core is actually the product of the history of the providence of restoration. Such an understanding provides an underlying spiritual skeletal root, structure and meaning to what could easily and on the surface be perceived as random chains of events. Such an understanding is grounded upon the acknowledgement that in the early days of humanity’s existence a series of events occurred that have come to be called the fall from grace or the original sin. Divine Principle clearly elucidates that this fall was none other than an illicit sexual union between the first woman (Eve) and the Archangel known as Lucifer and then a premature sexual relationship between this first woman (Eve) and the first man (Adam). (Divine Principle, 58 – 61) Further, this original sin occurred sometime in the midst of Adam and Eve’s growth period, in their adolescence after going through puberty. The Principle revelation explains that the point of their fall was approximately at the top of the Growth Stage. The result of these most foul deeds was that the linear progression of the human race was initiated based on events not intended or hoped for by our Creator and that further carried the footprint of those first evil actions because all subsequent human players were imbued with a pseudo human nature grounded in those actions called the fallen nature, in addition to their original, God-given human nature. The result of such a cocktail of evil was that human activity continues to sink further and further to continually new lows of debasement and corruption as time and history progressed. It is also important to grasp the fact that the fall set a spiritual barrier or ceiling on humanity’s spiritual growth that could not be penetrated, effectively halting and limiting the forward momentum of humanity’s advancement towards the achievement of perfection or the realization of the First Blessing, to be spiritually fruitful or mature. This is the meaning of the following passage in Genesis 3: 24:

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

He drove out the man; and at the east of the Garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

The providence of restoration enters into this sorry state of affairs due to the absolute love and will of God to save humanity from their own evil doings and to finally achieve the fulfillment of His/Her plan and promise at humanity’s creation. Seen from this perspective, each one of us is indeed not just the product of our immediate ancestors’ actions in relationship to their environment and culture as well as our own forward momentum of activity but, in an overarching perspective, the product of the drama that has gone on from the point in history just after the fall. This history encompasses Satan’s efforts to continue the status quo and to further the continuation/expansion of evil and God’s efforts to restore humanity, minus any traces of evil, the fall and fallen nature, to a Godly state whereby they continually do good and fulfill their and God’s original Purpose of Creation.

Then what is the substance and content of these past efforts that are to be comprehended during “my” lifetime in the battlefield? One dynamic that should be grasped in order to more clearly dissect this historical restoration process is the concept of indemnity, indemnity conditions and thereby restoration through indemnity. Indemnity is simply explained in The American Heritage Dictionary as “Compensation for damage, loss, or hurt incurred; indemnification as that action or effort that must be done or paid because of past mistakes or injury.” In other words, it is not enough for a doer of evil to just stop doing evil; they also need to make amends for past mistakes as well as proactively be a doer of goodness to truly clean up their act. In the process of committing the original sin, Adam and Eve acquired a fallen nature and a basis upon which Satan could continually connect to or lay a claim on them and their descendants. This is because the fallen nature was passed on linearly, or their descendants inherited the responsibility and blame for Adam and Eve’s sin, which ends up being all humanity. Since God is the original creator of Adam and Eve, he still maintained(s) a basis to connect or lay claim on them. In other words, since Satan was responsible for initiating the current human family he can lay claim to all those descendants, but so can God, as the original creator of humankind. It is on the basis of the subsequent actions or conditions of Adam and Eve and their descendants that God or Satan exercise their claim and right of influence. In fact, the restoration history reflects mankind’s constant relationship jockeying between God and Satan centered upon these indemnity conditions – with painstaking progress based on good conditions or actions being constantly attacked and undermined

Let me now summarize and then do a more in-depth investigation of the Restoration course of fallen humanity as illuminated by the Divine Principle in order to arrive at a crystal clear understanding of the actual process and content of humanity’s longed for Salvation, entailing the correct ordering and fixing of our dysfunctional existence. Our investigation first takes us to an in-depth look at the salvation formula, which uses all of the components of Indemnity including indemnity conditions and a reversal of the course of the fall carried out by descendant of the fallen Adam and Eve. This course is modeled upon the course which the first Adam and Eve were supposed to have walked in order to successfully fulfill God’s Purpose of Creation in their lives as well as encompassing the details and reality of the fall of our first ancestors. We need to

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

detail the ideal or model course since the fall represents the divergence of Adam and Eve from the model course. We also need to clearly understand the process and content of the fall because the undoing of that abomination will actually entail a reversing or correcting of its contents/process.

That original course required Adam and Eve to accomplish a vertical tradition of faithfulness and connection to God, especially His word to not eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve should have kept this filial and faithful walk during their growing period in the indirect dominion, prior to their reaching spiritual maturity and a full and fulfilling relationship with God. Adam and Eve’s course should have culminated in their becoming one with God whereby they would have become perfected, living and substantial incarnations of God’s word, having fulfilled the ideal of the word or logos of God through a life grounded in the three Blessings. One result of their attaining of this status would have seen their exercising lordship over creation, dominating and taking godly stewardship over the angelic and natural world. To recap, the fall prematurely cut short this course approximately at the time of Adam and Eve’s adolescence (again: top of the growth state which can be loosely correlated through the symbolic understanding of numerology where Adam and Eve symbolically fulfilled two thirds of the number 21, or age 14 – see Divine Principle, pages 296-297 [though it might have been literal since it’s hard to compare current patterns of maturity with what was possible back in the day], by the archangel Lucifer first dominating Eve who expanded this unprincipled dominion to Adam.

Let’s recap Section I from the principle of Restoration Through Indemnity:

Section 1 The Principle of Restoration through Indemnity 1.1 Restoration through Indemnity 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

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

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 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

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

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

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 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 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.

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

1.2 The Foundation for the Messiah

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 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 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.

1.2.1 The Foundation of Faith

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.

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

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 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

1.2.2 The Foundation of Substance

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.

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

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 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

From the Providence to Lay the Foundation for Restoration

1.2 The Foundation of Substance

Had Cain fulfilled the indemnity condition to remove the fallen nature, God would have gladly accepted his sacrifice. The foundation of substance would then have been laid in Adam’s family. How should Cain have made the indemnity condition to remove the fallen nature? The first human ancestors fell by succumbing to the Archangel, from whom they inherited the fallen nature. To remove the fallen nature, a person must make an indemnity condition in accordance with the Principle of Restoration through Indemnity, by taking a course which reverses the process through which human beings initially acquired the fallen nature.

The Archangel fell because he did not love Adam; rather, he envied Adam, who was receiving more love from God than he. This was the cause of the first primary characteristic of the fallen nature: failing to take God’s standpoint. To remove this characteristic of the fallen nature, Cain, who stood in the Archangel’s position, should have taken God’s standpoint by loving Abel, who stood in Adam’s position.

The Archangel fell because he did not respect Adam as God’s mediator and did not receive God’s love through him; rather, he attempted to seize Adam’s position. This was the cause of the second primary characteristic of the fallen nature: leaving one’s proper position. To remove this characteristic of the fallen nature, Cain, who stood in the Archangel’s position, should have received God’s love through Abel, who stood in Adam’s position, respecting him as God’s mediator. In this way, Cain should have maintained his proper position.

The Archangel fell when he claimed dominion over Eve and Adam, who were his rightful lords. This was the cause of the third primary characteristic of the fallen nature: reversing dominion. To remove this characteristic of the fallen nature, Cain, who stood in the Archangel’s position, should have obediently submitted to Abel, who stood in Adam’s position. By accepting Abel’s dominion, Cain should have rectified the order of dominion.

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

God told Adam not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam should have conveyed this Will to Eve, who in turn should have conveyed it to the Archangel, thus multiplying goodness. Instead, the Archangel conveyed to Eve his evil will that it was permissible to eat of the fruit. Eve in turn conveyed this evil will to Adam and led him to fall. This was the cause of the fourth primary characteristic of the fallen nature: multiplying evil. To remove this characteristic of the fallen nature, Cain, who stood in the Archangel’s position, should have been receptive to the intentions of Abel, who stood closer to God, and learned God’s Will from him. Thus, Cain should have made a foundation to multiply goodness.

There are many instances in human life which correspond to the situation of Cain and Abel. When we look within ourselves, we find that our innermost mind delights in the law of God.[14] It is in the position of Abel, while our body, which serves the law of sin,[15] is in the position of Cain. We can become good only if our body obediently follows our mind, which directs us toward goodness. All too often, however, our body rebels against the mind’s directions, repeating by analogy Cain’s murder of Abel. This is how evil grows within us. For this reason, the religious way of life requires that we make our body submit to the commands of our higher mind, just as Cain should have submitted to Abel and followed him. We can also see this in the practice of making offerings. Since we fell to the position of being “deceitful above all things,”[16] the things of creation stand in the position of Abel. Hence, through offering them we can go before God. To give another example, the universal tendency to seek out good leaders and righteous friends stems from our innermost desire to come before God through an Abel figure who is closer to God. By uniting with him, we can come closer to God ourselves. The Christian faith teaches us to be meek and humble. By this way of life, we may meet our Abel figure and thus secure the way to go before God. In relationships at every level of society, from those between individuals to those at the level of families, communities, societies, nations and the world, we find that one party is in the role of Abel and the other is in the role of Cain. In order to restore society at each level to the state originally envisioned by God, those in the Cain position should respect and obey those in the Abel position. Jesus came to this world as the Abel figure to whom all of humanity should have submitted and followed. For this reason, he said, “no one comes to the Father, but by me.”[17] If Cain had yielded to Abel and thus fulfilled the indemnity condition to remove the fallen nature in Adam’s family, they would have established the foundation of substance. Together with the foundation of faith already laid, Adam’s family would have established the foundation for the Messiah. The Messiah would then have come to them and restored the original four position foundation. Instead, Cain killed Abel. In murdering Abel, Cain repeated the sin of the Archangel. That is, he re-enacted the very process which had given rise to the primary characteristics of the fallen nature. Adam’s family thus failed to lay the foundation

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

of substance. Consequently, God’s providence of restoration through Adam’s family could not be fulfilled.

The formula embodied in the Foundation of Faith requires a progressive, though symbolic, advancement by a central figure representing Adam, to fulfill a task representing the regaining of God’s word – represented through the offering an object for the condition-through a certain period of time, parallel with the lost stages of growth in the indirect dominion. The Foundation of Substance entails a reversal of the actions by which the fallen nature was acquired by Adam (and eventually Eve) and focuses on undoing improper and problematic relationships. Those actions are; failure to take God’s standpoint, especially the archangel’s inability to support Adam as God’s mediator; leaving one’s proper position, an action again initiated by the archangel; reversal of dominion, whereby the archangel incorrectly dominated Eve and then Adam; and finally multiplying evil, or the expansion of the archangel and Eve’s misuse of love to Adam. (Divine Principle, 193). The reversal of this process requires that someone in the archangel or Cain position not repeat the above process when relating with an Adam figure. The result of these two foundations is a condition by which the descendants of the fallen Adam and Eve reap the benefit of being able to symbolically reverse the process of the fall and to thereby stand at the top of the growth stage once again.

This course to establish a Foundation for the Messiah is, in fact, the underlying, skeletal pattern and formula that defines the providence of restoration walked by such key providential figures as Cain and Abel, Noah’s family, Abraham’s family and Moses and all other saints and prophets.

Parallel and complimentary to the course of restoration walked by fallen humanity through chosen representatives is the path of the Messiah. Though our understanding of this course is somewhat perfunctory, nonetheless we now understand that the Messiah’s course is a substantial one whereby He comes precisely when key central figures from within fallen humanity have completed the providential course and that this amazing trek is very much entrenched in history rather than being superficial or peripheral to it. In order to accomplish that task, we also understand that the Messiah must be born as a man, within the corporal sphere; in fact that He comes as a new Adam as introduced in I Cor 15:45 “Thus it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being’; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit”.

This understanding is also conveyed in the Divine Principle in the Chapter on Christology and also in a speech given in 1996 by Rev. Moon:

Had Adam as a man realized the ideal of creation and become the tree of life, and had Eve as a woman realized the ideal of creation and fulfilled the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would have stood together as the True Parents of humankind. They would have fulfilled God’s three great blessings and established the kingdom of God on earth. Instead, because they fell, this world became an earthly hell. Therefore, to give rebirth to fallen people, Jesus came as the second Adam, the True Father of humankind, with the mission symbolized by the tree of life…Originally, God’s purpose for creating Adam and Eve was to form a trinity by raising them to be the True Parents of humankind

10 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

united in harmonious oneness as husband and wife centered on God in a four position foundation…Christ must return in the flesh and find his Bride. They will form on the earth a perfect trinity with God and become True Parents both spiritually and physically. They will give fallen people rebirth both spiritually, removing their original sin and enabling them to build trinities on earth with God as the center. (Divine Principle, Pp 171-172)

The Lord of the Second Advent comes in the position of the perfected Adam, the position which can restore the 6,000-year old satanic world. He comes and establishes the True Parents. This means he will restore the satanic father and mother figures back to life…. (True God’s Day Midnight Address, Reverend Sun Myung Moon, January 1, 1996, World Mission Center)

Why then, would the advent of the Messiah need to occur as an actual, substantial event? The Divine Principle offers a number of explanations that are rooted in two aspects of the Principle of Creation. The first aspect stems from God’s original Purpose of Creation, the mandate for Adam and Eve to be fruitful (individual perfection), multiply (describing the establishment of the social realm of human life, beginning with the family and progressing to the nation and world, or the earthly Kingdom of God/Heaven) and to take dominion (stewardship and lordship of creation). The second aspect is that spiritual growth, achievement and life is grounded on the foundation of the physical body and must take place in the corporal world for it to then/also exist in the spirit of a person and the spiritual world. This is the meaning of Jesus’ words found in Matthew 16:19: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Through understanding these two basic principles we can understand why the Messiah has to be a substantial person born and living upon the earth. In plain talk, the supreme mission of the Messiah is to finally establish the world of the Three Blessings, the ultimate Purpose and Will of God for humanity that should have been established by and through the first Adam and Eve. It must be done in the corporal world and within a corporal lifetime. Over the long course of history, the Will of God to have His/Her purpose accomplished has not wavered. The core mission of the Messiah, therefore, (both the first and second advent) is to finally accomplish the world of the Three Blessings, on the earth, through the use of the physical body, as a good and pure Adam and Eve – the Kingdom of God on the earth! In addition the mission of this Messiah Couple is to save fallen humanity from sin, specifically the original sin. In one sense we can wonder that God would be willing to contend with this corrupted human race at all, why not just leave us to our own devices and just invest in the expansion of goodness from the good Adam and Eve. But that thinking doesn’t take into account the parental heart of God, that He/She cannot be happy until all humanity has returned to Their bosom. Such a parental heart is well expressed in the Gospel of Matthew, 18:13-14 in the parable of the lost sheep: “And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.” And so God also intertwined a way by which salvation and cleansing of sin could be extended to fallen humanity by the Messiah concurrent with the Messiah’s task to build the Kingdom of God. One more bit of insight regarding the Messiah and why, initially, the First Messiah or Jesus, was a man. This is because, following the pattern of restoration of the fall, the last party to succumb was Adam, who was of course male. So, in reversal of that course of the fall, the Messiah comes in reversal of that process and thus is a

11 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

male to restored Adam. However, the male Messiah is then responsible to restore a woman representing Eve who becomes His Bride. The last point in this process of restoration of the fall is Lucifer (who actually began the evil process), represented by the lineage emanating from the fallen Adam and Eve, who are symbolically (not literally) the descendants of the archangel, since Lucifer or satan initiated the lineage of humankind. This is another reason why it is the responsibility of the True Parents to bring salvation to all of fallen humankind.

Up to this point I have spent a lot of ink on the role/position of fallen humanity in the Providence of Restoration to be rid of or erase the presence of evil and corruption within all life experiences of humankind, especially with the position of “I” in that process and also briefly examined the course of the Messiah. We, however, need to recognize that the ultimate purpose of both courses is none other than for fallen humanity to meet and interact with the Messiah. There are, in fact, two providential courses required for complete restoration whose finally convergence marks the opportunity for restoration to make a quantum leap forward. So, it is in the blending of these two historical movements that the fulfillment of the providence of restoration takes place. There is the course of the Messiah to appear and bring salvation to humanity and there is the historical restoration course of humanity, which culminates in their meeting the Messiah and receiving His salvation. There is the course which fallen humanity, including all past saints, prophets and significant providential figures such as Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses walked to prepare a foundation and reception for the Messiah and there is also the course of the Messiah who acts upon that foundation, which includes a providence to absorb and complete the missions of past prophets and saints, especially those who modeled the course of the coming Messiah (see Part II, Chapter 2, Moses and Jesus in the Providence of Restoration, pages 225 -267).

When Jesus said, ‘the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever he does, that the Son does likewise, ‘ he meant that God had revealed the model course through Moses and that he was following in Moses’ footsteps. Let us examine the providence of restoration centered on Jesus, drawing relevant comparison s between the three national courses to restore Canaan under Moses’ leadership, and the three worldwide courses to restore Canaan under Jesus’ leadership.”(Divine Principle, page 267)

The fulfillment of God’s Providence occurs when the culmination of fallen humanities efforts meet with God’s salvation providence, which is spearheaded through His chosen Messiah Couple. Now, though these are two distinct courses entailing two distinct arenas of responsibility, in fact since the Messiah absolutely represents God’s Heart/Love and Wisdom/Truth, we can understand that at Their coming, the Messiah Couple will reveal and encompass a comprehensive understanding of fallen humanity’s historical and imminent course through the new truth brought in order to support and empower those walking that course of restoration. In plain words, They will tell us how we got to the point of meeting Them, what we should do to make the most of that meeting and what we must be doing going forward from that most significant encounter.

Salvation and the First Advent

12 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

Let’s look at the a bit more in depth into the course of the First Advent – Jesus, particularly connected to the providence of salvation that He was committed to bring. I will address the topic of the Blessing and the Mission of Jesus by utilizing the Divine Principle’s teaching about Jesus’ Mission, the process of rebirth and the Trinity, a perspective presented in Chapter 4 (The Messiah: His Advent and the Purpose of His Second Coming) and Chapter 7 (Christology).

Ultimately, the Divine Principle teaches that the purpose of Jesus’ coming can be summed up in the word, “True Parents” based on its understanding of Jesus’ primary mission and how that mission was to be accomplished. That mission was to bring complete salvation to all humanity and based on that accomplishment, to establish God’s Kingdom upon the earth during His lifetime. This overview of the Purpose of His Advent is initially stated in the Introduction to Chapter 4, page 111 and supported by key passages from the Bible:

The Messiah comes to fulfill the purpose of God’s work of salvation. Human beings need salvation because of the Fall. Hence, before we can clarify the meaning of salvation, we must first understand the matter of the Fall. Furthermore, since the Fall implies the failure to accomplish God’s purpose of creation, before we can clarify the significance of the Fall, we must first understand the purpose of creation. God’s purpose of creation was to be fulfilled with the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. However, due to the human Fall, we have built hell on earth in place of God’s Kingdom. Since the Fall, God has been repeatedly working His providence to restore the Kingdom. Being the history of the providence of restoration, human history’s primary goal is to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

The focus upon Kingdom building and Kingdom living was absolutely dominant in the early ministry of Jesus. This Kingdom building and Kingdom living ministry was the underlying theme/message woven repeatedly throughout Jesus’ words, guidance, parables, teachings and deeds in those initial days of his public life. First came the shocking, urgent and electrifying proclamation by John the Baptist (Matthew 3:1-2), “In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Then Jesus public ministry began where He widely taught the gospel of the kingdom (Matthew 4:17 & 23): “From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand…And he went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every infirmity among the people.” We need to underscore the fact that the ultimate purpose of Jesus coming was to qualify humanity to become citizens of a substantial Kingdom of Heaven and further, to build/establish that Kingdom. In that light, Jesus ministry to save humanity from sin must be clearly understood as a prerequisite priority or step needed for humanity and Jesus to accomplish that ultimate goal.

So, how was Jesus planning to save humanity from sin?

Salvation and the Cross [This section on the Cross can be included or omitted at the discretion of the instructor]

13 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

I think it would be quite valuable to examine this question by also looking at the whole issue of blood atonement. Essentially, the theory of Blood Atonement for sin argues that God cannot accept or “brook” sin and thus requires that the offending sin be cleansed. One method or way for that to be accomplished clearly specified in Scripture and supported by history and tradition was through the offering of sacrifices. The sacrifice required for the cleansing of sin involved the killing of animals (must be healthy and without physical deformities) or the offering of plants or grains – essential from the realm of creation. The Blood Atonement theory is founded on the assertion that God absolutely requires and has a plan for the final and complete cleansing of sin that is so rampant throughout humanity. Further it adamantly states that this complete and final cleansing of sin will only be accomplished through the method of offering sacrifices, but not just an ordinary sacrifice. Such an enormous and difficult task as the complete dissolution of sin can only be accomplished by an extraordinary and ultimate sacrifice. It further posits that such an ultimate sacrifice can only be accomplished by the ultimate being in the creation, the Christ and only Son of God. Since the Messiah also stands in the position of the High Priest, he is uniquely qualified to make such a pivotal sacrifice. According to this theory, Jesus death on the cross was that required sacrifice and thus through his death, and then resurrection, the full and complete redemption and cleansing of sin was finally accomplished. Such a theory holds that Jesus death was required and predestined as the only way for the problem of sin to be eliminated.

A Biblical verse in support of Blood Atonement can be found in Romans 6: 10 - 11 – “The death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Also 2 Corinthians 5: 14 – 21: “For the love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once regarded Christ from a human point of view, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”

An argument against such a theory that could be effectively used against a liberal Christian open to Biblical Criticism and an academic approach would be as follows:

There is no precedent in the Jewish Tradition and theology linking the tradition of animal or plant sacrifices to the Mission of the Messiah. Instead, Blood Atonement was a theory that was developed after the life and death of Jesus by some early Christians, and then utilized and widely propagated by St. Paul. In both cases, these early Christians and St. Paul were finding it difficult to convince the Jews that this crucified criminal Jesus was their long awaited messiah. It should be clearly emphasized that this theory was developed due to this first century resistance and disbelief in the Messiah-ship of Jesus. The Jewish leadership and people existing at the time of the first century of the Christian Movement did not believe that Jesus was their long awaited Messiah and this belief continued to be the majority view of those in the Jewish faith going forward in time until modern days. The fate of Jesus, death at the hands of the Romans due to

14 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

his causing civil unrest (having been turned over to the Romans by the Jewish Leadership for the preaching of supposed blasphemy and his “supposedly false” claims to be the Messiah), might have actually seemed to be justified to the general populace at Jesus time. In retrospect, Jesus’ Messiah-ship could easily be viewed as one of many such False Saviors that occurred in Jewish history and his death, being a typical fate of such men, would convey no particular remorse or monumental blame to the Jewish people. In fact, the punishment of death was “in theory” applied to many infractions against the law and society in the history of Judaism, particularly during Jesus time. The events surrounding the life and death of Jesus were the antithesis of the widespread expectations held by Jews for their Messiah In his utilization of the theory, Paul hearkened to the tradition of animal blood offerings, made to cleanse the person making the offering from their sins, and then applied these Biblical references and traditions to the death of Jesus on the Cross. He did this to try to give a Biblical context and justification and explanation for Jesus’ course. However, the spirit, history and meaning of the Biblical tradition and ritual of offering sacrifices actually precludes it every being applied in such a manner. No respectable Jewish scholar or teacher would ever think of applying these traditions to the course of the Messiah. Animal and Plant sacrifices were to be offered in the place of or representing a sinning human, so that the human could be cleansed. To equate and compare a human Messiah with an animal or a plant is ridiculous, demeaning and is quite a stretch. It should be pointed out that Paul never knew Jesus in the flesh and thus was not really grounded in His words, guidance or view related to the cross or His mission.

The above argument, however, will not work for 90% of the Bible based, Christian world because of the mentality that “If it’s in the Bible it is the Word of God and the Truth” – ie: this theory of St. Paul is absolutely in the Bible and now has the status of being Cannon. Such a perspective precludes any rebuttal based on logic. Interpretations & theories that are constructed and then supported with Scriptural references can only be countered by illuminating the flaws in the theory’s underlying logic and then further providing strong Scriptural support as part of the rebuttal. Fortunately, there are a number of Scripture based arguments that can be made against the Blood Atonement theory. The first can be found in the tradition of the Prophets. Books like Samuel and Hosea show us that God does not hold the ritual of offering sacrifices in as high a regard as such things as right action, mercy or obedience. In other words, God does not rule out the possibility that His Will can be accomplished without reverting to the offering of sacrifices. These passages clearly show that in history, while the offering of sacrifices was a viable method to deal with sin, it was not the solution preferred by God. Such an argument leaves open the possibility that God and Jesus would have been able to resolve the problem of sin if the Jews had been able to obey, accept and believe in Jesus. Following are a number of Scriptural references in support of this argument:

I Samuel, Chapter 15: 22-23: “And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.” Hose, Chapter 6: 6:

15 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

“For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God, rather than burnt offerings.” Psalms 51: 15-17: “O Lord, open thou my lips and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. For thou has no delight in sacrifice; were I to give a burnt offering, thou wouldst not be pleased, the sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise”. Proverbs 21:2-3: “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart. To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.”

There are also Biblical references that support the understanding that Jesus did not have to die to deal with the problem of sin. One of the most powerful ones can be found in the Book of Mark, Chapter 2:1-10 which clearly shows that Jesus had the authority and power to forgive sins while he was still alive, which we understands ultimately alludes to the Blessing:

And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room for them, not even about the door; and he was preaching the word to them. And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and when they had made an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘My son, your sins are forgiven.’ Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, ‘Why does this man speak thus? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, ‘Why do you question thus in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Yours sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your pallet and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins’ – he said to the paralytic-‘I say to you, rise, take up your pallet and go home’ and he rose, and immediately took up the pallet and went out before them all; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, ‘We never saw anything like this!’

In addition to the above Biblical based arguments, we can also refer to the words of Jesus on the cross when he asked God to forgive those who were putting him to death (found in Luke 23:34: “And Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do’”. Surely this poignant plea by Jesus shows that anyone contributing to His death needed God’s forgiveness. Such a statement undermines the portion of the Blood Atonement theory that asserts Jesus death was predestined and the only avenue for God to deal with humanity’s sinful state.

Alternative theories to the Blood Atonement theory do exist. One possible theory, called the ransom theory (though there are problems with this theory as well and the DP uses a modified version of this theory), explains that God ransomed all of his children (the Jews simply represented all of humankind because God always begins in providence with a symbolic few) from the dominion of Satan through Jesus death. This theory posits that Satan demanded the death due to humanity’s sinning (especially the sin of rejecting the Messiah); a death Satan had the right to demand. To avert the destruction of humanity, God allowed Satan to take dominion

16 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

of and kill Jesus. Thus the words of Jesus on the cross, as recorded in Matthew 27: 46: “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, Lama sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’” By offering His only True Son to Satan, God gave humanity another chance for life, salvation and faith. This, of course, worked because God knew something that Satan didn’t, that Satan couldn’t keep his dominion over Jesus since hate cannot dominate true sacrificial love – thus the resurrection. This theory is more palatable as it focuses on the exchange of a sinless human for sinful humans (rather than comparing the sinless human’s sacrifice to the practice of the sacrifice of animals). There is some reference to the above theory in the Divine Principle in Part II, Chapter 2, section 3.3.1, page 279:

God had personally been guiding His beloved chosen people until the time Jesus appeared as the Messiah. Yet from the moment they turned against His only begotten Son, God tearfully had to turn His back and allow Satan to lay claim to them. Nonetheless, God’s purpose in sending the Messiah was to save the Jewish people and all humanity. God was determined to save humankind, even though it meant delivering Jesus into the hands of Satan. Satan, on the other hand, was fixed on killing one man, Jesus Christ, even though he might have to hand back all of humanity, including the Jewish people, to God. Satan knew that the primary goal of God’s four-thousand-year providence of restoration was to send the Messiah. He thought that by killing the Messiah he could destroy the entire providence of god. In the end, God handed over Jesus to Satan as the condition of indemnity to save all humankind, including the Jewish people who had turned against Jesus and fallen into Satan’s realm. Satan exercised his maximum power to crucify Jesus, thereby attaining the goal he had sought throughout the four-thousand- year course of history. On the other hand, by delivering Jesus to Satan, God set up as compensation the condition to save sinful humanity. How did God achieve this? Because Satan had already exercised his maximum power in killing Jesus, according to the principle of restoration through indemnity, God was entitled to exercise His maximum power. While Satan uses his power to kill, God uses His power to bring the dead to life. As compensation for Satan’s exercise of his maximum power in killing Jesus, God exercised His maximum power and resurrected Jesus. God thus opened the way for all humanity to be engrafted with the resurrected Jesus, and thereby receive salvation and rebirth.

In Section I, Chapter 4 of the Divine Principle makes it very clear that since Jesus’ followers, the Jewish religious leaders and people, the Roman leaders who actually put Jesus to death and ultimately all humanity did not fulfill their portion of responsibility, Jesus became vulnerable to the attack of Satan. Thus it was the failure of humanity’s portion of responsibility that was directly responsible for Jesus’ death on the Cross. This is important to emphasize, important because it clarifies God’s reason for sending Jesus to his death. He did not do so because it was the only method of dealing with sin, but in order to bring about the fulfillment of His Will through the spiritual salvation that would be available to humanity through the Resurrected Christ and the Holy Spirit. This meant that the complete physical and spiritual salvation of humanity would be prolonged until the time of the Second Coming. Jesus’ death on the cross did advance God’s providence of restoration but it was not God’s primary/initial plan for Jesus’ Ministry and did not finalize God’s Providence of salvation. The following quote from Chapter 4, section 1.5, pp 120-121:

17 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

To send the Messiah is God’s portion of responsibility. However, belief in the Messiah is the human portion of responsibility. The Jewish people could either believe in the Messiah as God wished or not believe in him in opposition to His desire. To cope with the contingency of human responsibility, God gave two kinds of prophecies concerning the accomplishment of His Will through Jesus. One kind foretold that Jesus would die due to the disbelief of the people. Another kind foretold that the people would believe in and honor Jesus as the Messiah and help him to accomplish God’s Will in glory… .

So, let’s ask that question again – how was Jesus planning to save humanity from sin and even more, build the Kingdom of God.

Salvation and Rebirth

Jesus’ Kingdom building mission was a progressive providence that could only advance to the Kingdom building stage if Satan could be made to relinquish his dominion and ownership of humanity. Clearly, sinful humanity could not be allowed to enter into God’s Kingdom – sin has no place is such a realm. The method by which this providence to separate humanity from Satan, thereby allowing a saved individual to enter into God’s Kingdom, was to be accomplished through a process call “Rebirth” in Biblical terminology and the Blessing in Unificationist’ terminology. The importance of this step was clearly revealed by Jesus during His ministry. In actuality, Christian Salvation is accomplished through the opportunity for rebirth that was made available to humanity after Jesus resurrection, beginning at the time of the Pentecost and continuing until this day. The providence of the cross actually gave humanity a second chance to receive rebirth – the first chance being during Jesus years of public ministry prior to his death on the Cross. Christians have become fixated on the cross as the required providence to save humanity from sin, but have largely overlooked the actual method by which this was to be accomplished - rebirth. This rebirth providence, required of all individuals before they could enter into the Kingdom (indicative of their being in a sinless state) Jesus so urgently heralded, was revealed by Jesus to a Pharisees whose name was Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, as recorded in the Book of John, chapter 3: 1-12:

Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him’. Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Nicodemus said to him, ‘how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born anew. The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither is goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’ Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can this be?’ Jesus answered him ‘Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand this? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen; but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

18 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

I want to mention here in case there is any confusion as to whether Jesus was referring to Baptism in his mention of rebirth through water and the spirit, the short answer is no – he was referring to cleansing of the body and the spirit. It seems important to point out that this guidance given by Jesus occurs prior to his death and resurrection, which is what the sacrament of Baptism symbolizes and represents in the Christian tradition. In referring to water in John, Jesus is speaking about a time-honored practice within the Jewish tradition where immersion in flowing water was a practice mandated to purify uncleanliness. Connected to this, John the Baptist’s ministry would have been understood as one of purifying people to prepare them for the coming of the Messiah. The use of water to purify as a Biblical practice is quite old and had its roots in Leviticus chapters 13-15, where cleansing by water and time was the prescription for being cleansed from impurity. So, in Jesus’s words to Nicodemus, Jesus was telling him that rebirth was the way for a man to be purified in spirit and body so that he/she could be able to see the Kingdom.

Perhaps you can grasp the centrality of rebirth for salvation through the Divine Principle’s teaching about this incredible and monumental into this process and the sacrament. This insight stems from the Divine Principle’s revelation that the process of salvation is integrally connected to the persons of Adam and Eve. The Divine Principle explains that God’s initial plan for His creation required that these two individuals, His first and true son and daughter, if tempted, avoid the Fall, reach perfection and become the originators, prototype, standard and model for all subsequent humanity who would be Born through them, the True Parents of humanity. When Adam and Eve did not fulfill this plan of God, he did not discard it, but put into play the Providence of Restoration to reclaim the position of Adam and Eve or that of the True Parents of Humanity. At its core, the persons of the reclaimed Adam and Eve are synonymous with the persons and mission of the Messiah. This is the root and reason for the Bible’s identification of Jesus as a second Adam, found in I Corinthians 15: 21-23: “For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ, the first fruits, then at his coming, those who belong to Christ.” This is also the essential reason, in answer to topic of this question, why the purpose of Jesus’ coming is summed up in the word, “True Parents”. We can suppose that the offspring who are to be born from the new and fully perfected Adam and Eve or True Parents of Humanity, and the subsequent generations from this lineage, would be born “correctly” or in accordance with God’s initial Plan for His Creation, and having nothing to do with sin. But how is God to save the issue from the first and fallen Adam and Eve? The Bible is clear that humanity needs to be engrafted onto the True Adam, and Jesus introduced the understanding of being born again. We can extrapolate from this that salvation is not just a vague process by which the Messiah lovingly and willfully forgives humanity of their sins or that by taking those sins upon Himself, one who was sinless and thus undeserving of that burden, He magically cancelled out the debt. Not at all! We do affirm that just as one cannot be cleansed by taking a bath in muddy water, only a person who has no sin can cleanse humanity of sin, but to describe the process in the imagery of the birth process is revolutionary. In fact, there is an equal connection between salvation, engrafting and rebirth: salvation=engrafting=rebirth. This insight clarifies that salvation involves a process likened to being born, but the question then becomes why? The answer lies in the revelation that being a sinner is not just about behavior or activity but, at its root, our state of sinfulness exists because we owe our life and birth to that first fallen action and thus belong to the realm that

19 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

developed as a result of it. Humanity was incorrectly initiated because of a mistake (remember, the children of Adam and Eve were not born in the Garden of Eden but after Adam and Eve had fallen and been expelled). So the cure for this illness must involve humanity being born from an Adam and Eve who avoided the trap of Satan and acted according to God’s original plan. Such a solution to this fallen state attacks sin at its root cause by effecting a transition and transformational process away from that evil, ill-conceived root. What a stroke of genius and incredible strategy, a prescription/cure targeting the nature of the illness! Humanity needs to be born again to correctly and entirely circumvent the realm and history of the fall. At the very center of this re-birth or right-birth process is the position of the alternative and new life and birth givers, the good and True Parents. This is also why humanity must be born again through the New Adam and Eve, the True Parents who will give “birth” to a new humanity destined to dwell in God’s realm or Kingdom. To repeat, it is only by this process and sacrament that all humanity can be distanced from the reality and realm of sin, especially the original sin, which can only be restored by those responsible for that sin, Adam and Eve, and stand as new beings. Was this salvation/re-birth process and sacrament accomplished by Jesus? The Divine Principle clearly states that the complete rebirth process needed to be accomplished by the new Adam and Eve within the corporeal world as a way of binding it in the incorporeal world. Based on these criteria, the fact that Jesus never established the position of the second Eve through His marriage tells us that He did not establish the substantial position of True Parents, and therefore that He was not able to fulfill this crucial mission during his lifetime on the earth. The Divine Principle does explain that there is a sacrament of rebirth open to Christians, one that is gained through their connection to the Resurrected Jesus in partnership with the Holy Spirit. This sacrament is called spiritual rebirth or spiritual salvation. The Divine Principle, however, clarifies that the need to establish a substantial rebirth sacrament as well as to finally establish a True Birth Process is one of the crucial reasons why the mission of the Messiah must be repeated and completed – why the Messiah must come again. So, not only can the purpose of Jesus’ coming be summed up in the words True Parents thus becoming True Parents is crucial for the Second Advent to accomplish God’s Will and purpose. At the Second Advent entails establishing the Position of True Parents, establishing the True Birth Process centered on the True Couple and also to engrafting fallen humanity onto that couple, thus letting them be born again or stand as one of the True Parents issue and thereby saving them from the pseudo lineage initiated by Satan and the realm of sin (remember the Restoration Course is one of Reversal so the Fall began with the Archangel, then passed to Eve, and to Adam – thus the reverse course is from Adam, to Eve, who as a couple will restore the Archangel). As the Divine Principle explains that This dynamic process is described in the Chapter on Christology (Chapter 7), Section 4.1, pages 169-170 and also in Chapter 2 (Moses and Jesus) of Part II, section 3.3.1.3, page 180:

Had Adam and Eve realized the ideal of creation and become the True Parents of humanity, they would have borne good children without original sin and formed the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. However, Adam and Eve fell and became evil parents, multiplying evil children who created this hell on earth.

Hence, as Jesus told Nicodemus, fallen people cannot see the Kingdom of God unless they are first born anew-as children without original sin. We cannot be born without parents. Who, then, are the good parents through whom we can be born again, cleansed of original sin and able to

20 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

enter the Kingdom of God? Parents who have original sin cannot give birth to good children who do not have original sin. Certainly, it is impossible to find sinless parents among fallen humankind. These parents must descend from Heaven. Jesus was the Parent who came from Heaven. He came as the True Father in order to give rebirth to fallen people, transforming them into good children, thoroughly cleansed of original sin and fit to build the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Thus, it is written in the Bible, “By his great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (I Peter 1:3). Jesus came as the True Father who Adam had failed to become. For this reason, the Bible speaks of him as “the last Adam: and the “Everlasting Father.(I Cor. 15:45; Isa. 9:6). However, a father alone cannot give birth to children. There must be a True Mother, as well as a True Father, for fallen children to be reborn as good children.”

Upon Jesus’ crucifixion, his eleven remaining disciples were demoralized and scattered. After his resurrection, however, Jesus gathered them in one place and commenced a new phase of the providence: the restoration of spiritual Canaan. The disciples chose Matthias to replace Judas Iscariot and fill the vacancy among the twelve. By believing in Jesus and following him at the cost of their lives, they laid the spiritual foundation of substance and the spiritual foundation for the Messiah. Upon this foundation, Jesus ascended from the position of the spiritual mission-bearer for John the Baptist to the position of the spiritual Messiah and sent the Holy Spirit. Thereupon, Jesus and the Holy Spirit became the spiritual True Parents and began the work of giving rebirth. Ever since the descent of the Holy Spirit at the Pentecost, the resurrected Jesus as the spiritual True Father and the Holy Spirit as the spiritual True Mother have worked in oneness to grant spiritual rebirth by spiritually engrafting believers with them. This is the work of spiritual salvation, which established a realm of resurrection inviolable by Satan. Even though we may by faith unite with Jesus in spirit, our bodies are still liable to Satan’s attack, as was the case with Jesus himself. In other words, our physical salvation still remains unaccomplished. Still, if we believe in the resurrected Jesus, he will guide us to enter spiritually his realm of resurrection, which is invulnerable to satanic invasion. There we are released from the conditions which allow Satan to accuse us, and we are spiritually saved.

Also, from True Parents speech, “The True Owners in Establishing the Kingdom of Peace and Unity in Heaven and on Earth II– October 14, 2006:

When we come to think of it, the purpose for Jesus’ coming to earth did not lie elsewhere. It was to restore the fall. If Jesus, who came as the second Adam, had not lost his life on the cross, he would have restored the original lineage of God, unrelated to the Fall, and would have reversed the failure of the first Adam, established the true family as the Savior of humankind, and founded on earth the original human homeland. This would have been the kingdom of the world embodying the ideal of peace, the kingdom of heaven on earth. However, the disciples, the Jewish leaders and the leaders of the nation of Israel all failed to

21 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

recognize the Christ, and their disbelief caused Jesus’ life to come to an end in such a wretched and tragic way.

Let’s recap: this providence of salvation/rebirth/blessing is the very central point where the most crucial intersection of the Messiah’s course and fallen humanity’s course occurs. It is on the basis and grounding of the Foundation for the Messiah, the culminating result of fallen humanity’s restoration course that the Messiah’s course and humanity’s course converge. It is also at that time that the transformational transition for humanity from a sinful history and lineage to a sin-free future and lineage unfolds and emerges. This interaction frames a true collaboration between fallen humanity and the Messiah in the providential way. So the following sentence is quite true From the “Exposition of the Divine Principle”, P)art II, Introduction to Restoration, Section 3, The History of the Providence of Restoration and I, page 187

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.

In other words, both positions are necessary to realize the accomplishment of purpose of providential history or the cooperation of God’s champion and fallen humanity. From this perspective it is clear that the Messiah comes to save humanity and the purpose of the history of restoration is for humanity to receive that salvation through the Messiah.

To sum up this section as well as lead us into the next I would like to quote from Introduction to Restoration from Part II of the “Exposition of the Divine Principle:

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. 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 Parents. 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 [my emphasis].

Arriving at the top of the growth stage and receiving the Blessing “in form” or symbolically is one thing, however substantiating such a spiritual level is quite another. Thus, in the following section I will be examining the actual course and growth to maturity that Blessed couples need to go.

22 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

Let me focus for a minute on the meaning of the separation from original sin and the realization of the change of blood lineage. Through the Blessing sacrament, the separation from original sin should also lead to the change of blood lineage, realized through external actions encompassed in the Blessing ceremonies, and internally, through a transformation of heart and loyalty. The external aspect, which is enacted as part of the Blessing ceremonies, is accomplished through of the 5 steps of the Blessing sacrament (Holy Wine ceremony, Benediction ceremony, chastening ceremony, 40-day separation, and the 3-day ceremony) which were specifically designated to indemnify the Fall and the fallen lineage emanating from the mistakes of Adam, Eve, and the Archangel. While carrying out of the 5 steps of this holy sacrament, the couples should also internally be changing the focus and loyalty of their hearts to the source of the new true lineage, the new Adam and Eve, who will have been recognized as their True Parents. These True Parents stand as the source of a new and true lineage, one which has nothing to do with the false lineage that was initiated by the fallen Adam and Eve, due to their being under the control of Lucifer who became satan. Accomplishing this internal transformation of heart and loyalty needs to be matured by the Blessed Central Family throughout their lives and should be inherited by their children. When these children establish their own Blessed Central Family, it is important that their couple and succeeding Blessed Central Families continue the tradition of heart, love, and loyalty to the True Parents, furthering the expansion of the True Lineage.

The Course and Providence after the Blessing Ceremonies – The Process of Re-Growing- Up, including mitigating factors

I would posit that the words “in form” is very significant in terms of our understanding of the meaning of the following sentence - “we do this in order to restore ourselves in form to the spiritual level which Adam and Eve had reached before the Fall”. “In Form” is appropriate because in this case, that spiritual level accomplished is on an external or symbolic level, with the accompanying internal standard typically not necessarily in sync. I would also posit that the words “and thereby be fully restored” in the sentence “we are to receive the Messiah and be reborn, and thereby be fully restored to the original state of human beings before the Fall” is referring to gaining the substance counterpart to the “In Form” restoration of having no connection to Satan or sin which Adam and Eve had at the top of the growth stage prior to falling. I would also posit that this is not describing an immediate accomplishment.

For one thing, from the onset of the process to the end stage of one being cleansed from all aspects of sin, in most cases, involves a very long time. This is because, though the Messiah Couple can cut the root of sin or the original sin through the rebirth ceremony known as The Blessing, they are not responsible to clean up the remaining Collective, Hereditary and Personal Sins. The responsibility for those sins lies squarely in the hands of those who committed them. This is not to deny that tremendous merit of the age is imparted through the restoration course pioneered both by the Messiah Couple and all victorious Central Blessed Families. These victories, however, can be likened to the creation of a supportive environment and providing spiritual momentum for spiritual cleansing and growth. The fact remains, however, that such an environment does not take the place of or negate an individual’s responsibility to act correctly/wisely within such a “cleansed” spiritual environment. It is not, however, until the last

23 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

remnant of the fall, evil or sin is eradicated in an individual that he or she can then be free to grow in the way God intended Adam and Eve to grow and to fulfill their purpose of creation.

Since the First Generation Blessing = Removal of Original Sin, a state that is then passed onto each succeeding generation that keeps the required standard of purity by also receiving the Blessing and not repeating the fall, then a Blessed individual’s life and their Blessed Marriage hold the potential for real progressive advancement and dramatic realization of “God’s work to restore human beings to our original, un-fallen state so that we may fulfill the purpose of creation”(from Introduction to Restoration, page 176). I would even declare that the absolute purpose of the Blessing in this time of restoration is to create marriages that will focus on the business of accomplishing and completing the Process of Restoration, fulfilling the 3 Blessings and accomplishing the Kingdom of God. Perhaps it will be clearer to say that Blessing holds out the possibility of effective, un-tethered and complete Restoration and Advancement towards becoming the Ideal Couple and Family. In other words, your efforts and investment in the growth and perfection of your relationship, your love, your couple and family absolutely matter and can be effective. Of course, as in any endeavor involving human responsibility and effort, a couple’s/family’s effectiveness in relationship to this goal will be determined by that couple’s/family’s investment of heart, effort and wisdom. Please understand that you will reap what you sow and also consider the agony present in the heart of God. Then welcome and work with gusto, unflagging energy and zeal towards accomplishing the Will of the Father. The amazing thing is that the fruit of such effort can be very great and can result in absolute progress towards the accomplished of that goal and the hope of Heaven.

Also, in addition to taking responsibility for and dealing with sin within and without, Blessed Central Families are also responsible for fulfilling all three Blessings, the purpose of creation, and the building of God’s Kingdom. Core to that is the need for each individual who receives the Blessing to grow through the all of the stage of the growing period and achieve perfection – a process I would describe to an individual and now family re-growing up. I would posit that this process should more accurately be described as a spectrum, timeline and process where re-born individuals move on the way towards perfection while also cleaning up the remnants of sin in their lives and lineages. Thus, the predominant experience of those individuals who pass through the process and ceremony of rebirth or are Blessed on that foundation is that of restoration in the midst of a process of the fulfillment of the ideal. Consider the following quote from Part II of the Divine Principle, Section 1.2.2:

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 unchartered path to the summit of the growing period, and thus finally become perfect incarnations.

I would also posit that it is also only gradually and probably after a long period of time that will be carried out through succeeding generations issuing from the first reborn individuals in a lineage and by extension of restoration process and ideal realization, that the greater society will become cleansed and separated from any remnant or influence of sin and evil. The process I am describing is a gradual movement of humanity towards the state where finally each child that is

24 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

born will simply need to grow through the 3 stages of growth and the Indirect Dominion and finally accomplish the 3 Blessings or God’s Purpose of Creation. It is not that I am implying that this original course is easy. Not at all! I might liken it to the task of climbing Mt. Everest – a daunting one indeed. I would like to explain, though, that accomplishing the Purpose of Creation coupled with having to deal with the remnants of sin, fallen nature and evil is just so much more difficult – perhaps similar to an individual attempting to climb Mt. Everest while carrying a 500 lb. gorilla who doesn’t really want to accompany he or she but is somehow stuck to them and in addition, this creature is constantly beating upon this individual and the gorilla must absolutely be shed before the summit can ever be reached! Why is it that the Divine Principle does not got into more detail regarding the course following rebirth? I believe that this is due to the fact that the Divine Principle’s purpose is to bring humanity into the full recognition of and then faith in the Messiah Couple – Our True Parents. The course after that point of faith is to be explained and understood through the guidance of the True Parents. Certainly this course cannot be gleaned from the course Jesus walked since he could not bring about both physical & spiritual salvation. In reality, the providence and understanding the 2nd Coming brings and unfolds leads us to a whole new world and course, one that, heretofore, has not been trod and really, one that can’t be easily fathomed by individuals in a fallen world apart from their guidance.

In this section, I would like to address some of the aspects, characteristics, challenges, and realities that could be encountered by Blessed Central Families, post Blessing ceremonies. These include the fact that there will be an “out of order-ness” in Blessed Couples since, due to God’s Grace, entering into the realm of the Second Blessing is granted prior to individuals having fulfilled the First Blessing. Then there is the reality that, though the Blessing occurs when individuals have symbolically reached the top of the growth stage spiritually, in fact their substantial level of spiritual, emotional, and relational maturity may be quite different (usually lower) than that level. In addition, there is the reality that couples will be entrenched in a life characterized by extreme efforts being made to fulfill the 3 stages of growth at the same time that they are fighting against sin and working on the process of eliminating of sin. Because of these factors, there is bound to be trouble within the man and within the woman and also, trouble between the couple. This trouble will take many forms. It can be reflective of past conflict and difficulties between similar couples that weren’t overcome, it can be the inability of men and women to get beyond their individual perspective (self-first-ness) to honor and understand their spouse. This goes way beyond the inherent difficulty of any individual to comprehend the nature of the opposite gender – a dynamic that I believe will remain long after sin is conquered. It may also encompass past ethnic, racial, or cultural problems and conflicts that may have occurred in the lineages of a couple and which will have to be dealt with and restored. Other types of difficulty might be due to the presence of gross immaturity and addictions within either of the spouses. In international Blessings, difficulties may emerge due to the great cultural divide and differences between each of the spouses’ families of origin. It can also be influenced by any conflicts or wars that occurred between the spouses’ nations of origin. There is the potential for tensions due to Blessed Central Families being immersed in social and spiritual environment that are not supportive of ethics, morality, or values centered on God and the Ideal of Creation. Then there is the influence of the Spirit World since Blessed Central Families typically becomes the focus of extensive and concentrated spiritual attention, both good and bad. This would include attention from ancestors who need to be liberated and restored and also evil spirit world that

25 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

would like to destroy God’s work, especially the work to eliminate the presence of evil in this world. From this perspective, a Blessed Marriage is apt to contain even more trouble than a non- blessed marriage. Now, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that all marriages will have problems, Blessed or not for the reasons I will outline shortly, life in a Blessed Marriage can sometimes be intense, somewhat like living in a pressure cooker, a life of concentrated trouble with the participants under great spiritual pressure. You can probably think of more challenges than I have highlighted in this paragraph and feel free to brainstorm a bit. I’m addressing these issues at this point in the presentation so that candidates for the Blessing can enter into that sacrament with realistic expectations. I don’t bring up the challenges that are part and parcel with the Blessing to depress you but to just provide a fuller picture of all the dimensions and reality connected to this sacrament. In the following sections I would like to go into some of the above challenges with more depth.

Out of Order-ness

One key reason that trouble will exist within our Blessings is the fact that our Blessings take place prior to each of us accomplishing our 1st Blessing and so, actually, our Blessings are out of the Order originally prescribed by the Principle. Let me share one section of Linna Rapkins’ “The First Blessings” that can be found in the Unification News, January 2000, describing the blessing of the first 3 couples:

He talked about many things, but after a while he started talking about perfection. “If you give up everything you own and work as hard as you can and get hardly any sleep and are absolutely determined, you MIGHT become perfect in about 70 years,” he said. “Furthermore, that could only happen if you had been a good person all your life and if your ancestors were good people, as well.”…Father continued, “And you know by now that becoming perfect yourself is the first blessing, and getting married is the second blessing. If you are married before you are perfected as an individual, your marriage will have many problems. Ahl-ah-yo? (Do you understand?)…But, we have a problem here,” said Father. “If we wait until you are fully perfected, no one will ever get married while on earth, at least not until you’re too old to have children. Yet Heavenly Father cannot be happy until he has blessed families all around him.” This appeared to be an impossible situation. You have to be perfect to be married, but God can’t be happy if you aren’t blessed in marriage. Father’s eves focused on one person and then another as he looked around the room to see if they understood. “So,” he continued, “Heavenly Father wants a few of you to be blessed now.

Now, think about this for a moment. Why would this “out of orderness” cause trouble in a Blessing? Just a note – this “out of orderness” is not a curse, but a sign of Heaven’s Grace. But it does set the stage for possible stress and difficulties within the Blessing. I am reminded that the individuals in such a marriage can easily be handicapped by their lack of maturity and certain key and essential spiritual, emotional and mental tools and abilities. For example, they might lack the full connection to the Love of God that is needed for any individual to truly be able to love and cherish the other. They may also lack the ability to see all situations from God’s point of view and thus to be less able to discern and to correctly assess any given situation. They

26 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

might lack wisdom and compassion and instead may be quite judgmental due to their pea-sized spiritual heart. They could lack the emotional stability, mental sharpness, self-control and skill/practice/expertise needed to be able to fulfill their portion of responsibility all the time. Surely the lack of key abilities would be detrimental to the development of true success and joy in any relationship and especially in that most central relationship called marriage. And yet, most of us come into our blessings with a very small bank account of individual merit and maturity that we can draw upon. Is it a wonder that such dysfunctional people end up creating dysfunctional marriages? So, my advice is for any candidate of the Blessing is that they to make tremendous effort prior to the Matching and Blessing to intensely work on and seriously attend to developing their spiritual lives as much as possible so they can shorten the gap between substantial individual perfection/maturity and their current spiritual reality/maturity. Of course, such an investment should not stop after Blessing, but rather each member of the couple should keep up this momentum. This is what “re-growing-up” is all about, and such efforts should help lessen, mitigate, and enable better coping and resolving skills that couples can draw upon when/if they are faced with and have to deal with the difficulties and challenges that are sure to emerge and occur in any Blessing. The more functional members of a Blessed Central Family is, the greater possibility for that couple to become a victorious family, invest well in God’s providence, and make a powerful contribution to the building of God’s Kingdom.

Uneven Growing through the Three Stages of Growth

As the Divine Principle explains, the Blessing that gives Rebirth takes place at the top of the growth stage. In a sense, the Blessing allows us passage into a realm that Dr. Lee (from the book True Family Values - co-written by Pak and Wilson) refers to as the Principled Realm. This would be opposed to the realm that the newly blessed couple has just left called the Unprincipled Realm. The use of those two terms underscores the point that the Unprincipled Realm occurred based on human behavior that was never planned for in God’s original Purpose of Creation – or outside the original plan of God as expressed through the Divine Principle. A Blessed Couples entry into the Principled Realm can be liken to their giving up their citizenship in the Unprincipled Realm because they have be cleansed of the original based that initiated and tied them to that Realm. However, even though they may enter that new realm at the top of the growth stage symbolically, they may in fact be at a lower level of spiritual maturity. That would mean that, couples, or those individuals who comprise that couple, transitioning into that Principled Realm could be at either the form, growth or completion stages of spiritual growth. Then, of course, each child born into this realm needs to grow through the 3 stages of growth in their lives.

It’s easier in a couple if both partners are on equal footing in their growth to perfection, but that is probably an exception rather than the norm. In any case, no matter the level or stage of spiritual maturity achieved by both partners in the couple, each one of us is mandated to achieve the level of perfection by going through the three stages of growth.

And then there’s Restoration

27 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

Then what is the quintessential uniqueness of a Blessed Marriage? From one perspective, the essence of a Blessed Marriage is that it comes on the foundation of the dissolution and elimination of the original sin. The importance of this cannot be undervalued or underestimated. Perhaps it is helpful to understand this great gift from the perspective of the removal of sin. Since the original sin was the initial point through which sin was introduced into humanity’s existence and sin is “a violation of heavenly law which is committed when a person forms a common base with Satan, thus setting a condition for give and take action with him” (from Chapter 2, section 4.5, page 72) then it would follow that all sin must be eliminated in order for any person to completely move away from the realm of the fall. As stated before, the only sin that cannot be eliminated by the efforts of humanity, no matter how extreme, is the original sin. Only the ones who committed the original sin can eliminate it. This means that only a returning Adam and Eve or the Messiah Couple can remove the original sin. So no matter how much progress a non- blessed individual may make to remove personal, hereditary and collective sin, they are prevented from completing the process; they are tethered to the realm of the fall, until their base of original sin is removed. That being the case, then the likelihood of repeating personal sin in the person’s life and lineage is very high.

The Good News of the Blessing and Strategies for dealing with and overcoming the problems of out-of-order-ness, uneven growth pace, and Restoration:

Now, I would be remiss if I just focused on the challenges that can and will be present in Blessed marriages. I need to stress that the problems of out-of-order-ness, uneven growth pace, and restoration will be present in all marriages, Blessed or not. Rather, let me stress that there is great benefit to be found through the Blessing that should not we underestimate. You have a great reason to be optimistic about the Blessing and to expect that your family can be truly successful.

First, your entrance into the Blessing is not done on the foundation of just an emotional connection or attraction to your partner which can be quite unstable, changeable, fleeting, and fluid, but rather you are grounding and founding your relationship and future centered on the eternal and loving God and our True Parents. This is a rock-solid foundation and if you hang onto God and True Parents during any storm, you will find a safe harbor and a deep-rooted reason to make it through and conquer every challenge. Also, you can be assured that God has truly authorized your relationship and family because it is Blessed by the True Parents who have been given the authority by God to establish families that will last for eternity.

Second, you must realize that true love is something that only survives and grows in an environment of commitment, character, and responsibility. True love must be nurtured and grown and is not something you fall into, but rather grow towards and cultivate. Here’s a great quote: “You have to make a daily choice to love, to listen with compassion and understanding, otherwise love will fly out the window. Marriage demands maturity. . .”(Stuart, Ivy May. 2016. ebook location 4278). Since the Blessing results in the removal of the original sin, then as part of a Blessed Couple you and your partner have a true possibility of developing the maturity you need to establish a successful marriage, it you work at it!

28 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

Third, couples entering into the holy relationship of a Blessed marriage already have a great tool kit available to them to help them conquer all challenges because they share and are united with common values, purposes, and visions, which are centered on God and True Parents. Additionally, through the wisdom of the Divine Principle, we can finally understand the source and reason for all relationship and marriage problems and through applying the Divine Principles in our lives, we can develop winning strategies to deal with all problems. Those strategies include cultivating our 5% responsibility to fulfill our First Blessing as well as helping others to fulfill theirs, being determined to live a life of restoration through indemnity and doing the right thing, to live for the sake of others, turn away for selfishness, and embody the ideal of true love, being able to make a holy commitment before God and True Parents to eternally invest in and perfect your couple and family. When we as couples apply the great insight that can be gleaned from the Divine Principle with the Grace of the Blessing and the removal of original sin, we are poised to make great strides forward towards establishing ideal families and since the family is the base of the Kingdom of Heaven, eventually establishing the world of peace and love that which is the hope of all humankind.

There is a unique dimension and strategy for restoration that must be applied due to the “out of order-ness” referred to above. This is that within a Blessed Central Family, each member must continually strive to reach perfection – Fulfill the 1st Blessing – in the midst of life: Just as Adam and Eve were to have made heroic efforts to avoid the fall in the midst of the growth years while they were working on growing their spiritual lives, so we, who are to pioneer the way of life of a true son and daughter of God, must also make continual progress towards fulfilling the 1st Blessing in the midst of our lives. There are so many benefits to this tact, not the least being that the closer to perfection we get; the easier it would have been for us to see with God’s eyes and heart or for our hearts and minds to resonate with God. To apply this scenario in our lives, we need to learn and apply/practice the Principle, especially principles of spiritual growth, on a daily basis. This would probably be a good time to introduce the idea that God can and does work through representatives on the earth. We need to hearken to God’s chosen champions and their words of insight and goodness. Our True Parents have the unique anointing to be the source of humanity’s salvation into a Godly Lineage and also the models of lives lived based on a heaven’s traditions; the example we should study and emulate in the building of true families, societies, nations and world imbued with a Godly Culture. We should also be vigilant to watch for the presence of God words and heart revealed through those representing a vertical/ parental position or simply an Abel-like attitude or heart (look for the internal Abel) – though we always need to check those words against the principle and our original minds. By our doing good works centered on God’s Word, studying God’s Words, developing a vital and vivid relationship with God through utilizing pray, by setting indemnity and living a living for the sake of other’s lifestyle we can divest ourselves of distortions in our spiritual self and gain the good vitality elements needed to hasten our advance towards perfection. By living a public lifestyle and connecting to God’s Providence, we also make conditions to separate from Satan and elevate our spirit and thus come closer to God. This is a proactive approach as opposed to a

29 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

reactive/defensive approach. This is the meaning of Chapter 4:8-10 from the Book of Philippians: Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, do; and the God of peace will be with you.

Now it doesn’t hurt to reinforce the perspective that all of our efforts to achieve and strive for perfection do not occur in a vacuum. The task of achieving perfection on the foundation of ethics, purity and fidelity constantly occurs within a pervasive environment of evil or sin, sometimes subtle and sometimes blatant. All efforts to advance and fulfill God’s purpose occur in a veritable battleground between the forces of good and the forces of evil. It is paramount that we enter into this spiritual battleground with effective weapons and armor and equip ourselves with the best strategy and tactics possible. To not do this is naïve, foolhardy, shortsighted and can end with disastrous results.

Never ever forget that at all time in your Blessed life, you must also continue to strive to help your spouse accomplish their first Blessing. For after being Blessed, you are responsible to encourage and support your spouse’s and then your children’s efforts to fulfill their first Blessing. By doing this you will ultimately be contributing to the success of your own journey to perfection. Only when the couple and family stand on the foundation of their fulfillment of the First Blessing, can the second Blessing be fully realized and developed to the extent of God’s envisioned ideal. It is for that reason that I advise each of you to stop thinking of yourself as individuals and only focusing just upon your own internal drive for perfection and self- fulfillment/accomplishment and personal desires. After Blessing, you are an eternal couple, and each partner must also think about the other’s fulfillments and accomplishments of their God- given potential. It is no longer just about me – it is about us/we and the journey to the Kingdom that we are taking together.

The Kingdom of God, both on earth and in the spirit world, is a place where love abounds and what greater starting place for the dynamic of love than a family that is bound together by true love. You will never truly be joyful and have eternal peace if you arrive at the Kingdom alone – in fact, you won’t be remotely comfortable as an eternal resident. The ultimate goal is for each family to stand before our Heavenly Parent and be in an eternal reciprocal relationship with He/She as a couple, family, tribe, nation and world. Take this to the extent that you juggle both perspectives simultaneously and continually. Do special and mundane activities together such as vacations (which should, of course, be whole family events) and also couple away times, shopping, cleaning the house, date nights, adventurous activities, attending church and other venues of community spiritual fellowship, devotional time, witnessing and outreach, etc. - work as a team and be creative in these “we” endeavors and make this balancing act between the self and the other your way of life. This paradigm/model needs to extend out from the couple and be reflected in all sorts of dynamic partnering, full of “living for the sake of other” practices and “WE thinking”, within the couple, between parents and children, and amongst siblings. The key

30 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

point is that couples and families need to become entities where “living for the sake of the other” and “WE thinking” becomes a way of life. Ultimately, this way of heart and mind should also naturally extend outside the family, becoming the basis for a moral system and governing ethic, that of living for the sake of the family, tribe, society, people, nation, cosmos, and God – truly making the family a school of love!

It is important to understand that love is a verb as well as a feeling, a dynamic which is actualized through the practice of living for the sake of the other. Since most of the subsequent results of the fall, including the fallen nature, stemmed from the root of selfishness or self- firstness within a relationship and because the course of restoration is a course of the reversal of mistakes or wrong action, it makes total sense that the course of restoration of the fall and, in actuality, all sinful behavior and motivations, must involve acting in opposition to selfishness and self-centered benefit and replacing those behaviors and motivations with true love and service of and for the other substantiated. Now, I must clarify that I am certainly not saying that you should ignore your responsibility to yourself and your efforts to achieve perfection but those relationships that are only utilized to further one partner’s desires over the other will be in serious trouble and can never fulfill their full potential. Consider that if each partner in a relationship is dedicated to serving and enabling the other, as well as fulfilling their own portion of responsibility, then both partners will ultimately experience mutual prosperity through their interdependence. The wonderment of a relationship/partnership that is built on this modality is that each partner will find it easier to accomplish their own portion of responsibility because they are enabled and supported by their partner. Thus, the most fulfilling relationships are those where love and support characterize a dynamic, other concerning interaction as well as a personal commitment to individual excellence and accomplishment.

Add to this mix, the idea that relationships usually contain partners who complement each other’s strengths as well as embodying areas of weakness. Dealing with an inequality of strengths as well as weakness and immaturities in oneself and the other can be daunting and debilitating to a relationship or can result in both partners becoming better through the relationship. In such relationships, heartfelt qualities such as compassion, generousness, charity and forgiveness rather than caustic criticism, judgment and accusation can be healing salve to the soul and can enable purpose driven progress towards balance and fullness of character in both partners. It is important to pay serious attention to the idea that both parties in every relationship such as Cain/Abel, friends, siblings, spouses and parents and children on the individual level and between groups, communities, races, religions, societies, cultures and nations on a micro, meso and macro level, need to be guided by this prescription of love and service to the other as part of the process to undo tangled messes of historical divisions, harm and atrocities as well as to avoid introducing problematic behavior and additional sinfulness going forward. This becomes more telling if we recall that the Archangel Lucifer turned into Satan because he acted on and substantiated his resentment, egoistic and self-benefitting impulses. This prescription clarifies why religions entreat their devotees to be humble and why Jesus taught that we should love our neighbor and even our enemies.

Let me share from Davelin Popov, of the “Family Virtues Guide” and “A Pace of Grace”

31 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

Spiritual companioning requires the awareness that we cannot keep each other happy but we can keep each other company. We can only walk beside one another in the journey of life. We cannot control one another nor do the spiritual work of the other in our relationship. The purpose of spiritual companioning is to help one another empty our cups and get to the heart of the matter. We do this by asking cup-emptying questions starting with “What”, “when” , and “how” – never “why”, which puts each other on the defensive.

And also from Mehri Sefidvash, Coral and Pearls, page 26-27:

Respect means wanting the other person to grow and develop into what he is and can be. Respect automatically excludes exploitation and selfish expectations. To have respect for a person we love means having the desire that he should grow and develop according to his own wishes and his own capabilities, and not just because this is useful for us.

And also from Linda Kavelin Popov, The Family Virtues Guide, p.3:

Virtue is sometimes associated with perfectionism. When it comes to human beings, to be perfect does not mean to be flawless. It means to be whole and complete. Part of the completeness of being spiritually alive and aware is to accept our flaws, our mistakes and our failings as teachable opportunities which can bring us new learning. It is in working with the virtues which we have over- or underdeveloped that we find the energy for new growth. Live is not about being perfect. It is about perfecting or cultivating our virtues. Perfection is the process of bringing our gifts to fruition.

So, constantly keep up the pressure and commitment to spiritual growth and perfection for yourself, your spouse and your children until each have accomplished that ultimate goal of reaching oneness and union with God.

Now, when I say True Love, I am again reminding the reader that in human relationships, love must be grounded in ethical and moral behavior. As mentioned earlier, in a marriage, for example, it means that each partner must be sexually, emotionally and heartistically exclusive, committed, and faithful to each other while living for the sake of the other, honoring and encouraging their partner’s God given purpose and value. This is an eternal commitment that each partner must make before God, True Parents, and each other. This also underscores why the morality of “the ends justifies the means” is, in fact, diametrically opposed to true human behavior. The application of ethics to morality and behavior; love and service to benefit the other; compassion, charity and a generous heart in response to weaknesses as the best protocol to encourage and support the partners efforts to challenge and finally overcome their weaknesses; gracious contribution of one partner’s strengths to complement the weakness of the other and vice versa; and each individual fulfilling their own portion of responsibility (though sometimes this is an eventuality) are the real keys that will transform a struggling Blessed relationship into one which becomes a fertile ground of real restoration and process to the ideal.

32 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

A bit more on the exclusivity issue - as we study in the Divine Principle, each and every human being and further, all beings/species and elements/expressions of substance/matter in this vast creation embody two dual characteristics – internal nature/external form and the dual characteristics of masculinity/positivity and femininity/negativity. Further, these dualities are vibrantly, constantly, dynamically interacting (give and take action) due to the directive power of Universal Prime Energy and subsequently generating forces of give and take action which act as the foundation for the existence of their union and as well as resulting in multiplication. A special expression of this dynamism of dualities is found in the human social dynamic known as a marriage union, or that bond that is created between husband and wife. Father is declaring that such a union must be grounded upon the law of absolute fidelity, that the founding of a marriage must be entered into based on absolute exclusivity. In light of this revelation, the preparation for such a union needs to respect the exclusive nature of the resultant relationship and thus requires that each individual, while in the process of arriving at that sought for goal, discipline him or herself in order to achieve and then eternally maintain such an absolute standard by embodying a celibate lifestyle, shunning all premature / exploratory attempts to sample or investigate exclusive coupling. Thus, a casual dating lifestyle, especially one of a promiscuous nature, is definitely out.

The phenomenal characteristic of this exclusive union is that, in fact, it is the very doorway by which couples can attain a phenomenological, cosmological experience of the multiplicity and variety of all the dualities of this creation/cosmos and further experience a sympathetic, empathetic vibratory sense of oneness with the vastness of this creation/cosmos on the deepest and most profound level. It is through the ONE that we, in fact, experience and embody the many and perhaps more importantly, this same dynamic doesn’t work in the converse direction, or you cannot achieve that one perfect union by experiencing as many unions as possible – such a profound and overwhelming experience will elude you if you attempt to follow such a convoluted track. Let’s review the following quote (Moon, pg 30, Divine Principle) in light of this revolutionary statement:

Let us discuss from another viewpoint how human beings are the center of the cosmos, which is composed of both the spirit world and the physical world. Every human being embodies all the elements in the cosmos. Yet, as we discussed earlier, everything in the cosmos can be divided broadly into subject partners and object partners. Had Adam, the first human ancestor, reached perfection, he would have embodied all the subject elements in the things of creation. Had Eve attained perfection, she would have embodied all the object elements in the things of creation. God created Adam and Eve to have dominion over the natural world. Growing toward perfection, Adam was to become the king of all the subject elements in the creation and Eve was to become the queen of all the object elements. If they had then become on as husband and wife, they would have become the center that could rule the entire universe consisting of subject partners and object partners.

33 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

Human beings are created to be the center of harmony of the whole cosmos. If Adam and Eve had attained perfection and united as husband and wife, it would have meant the joining into oneness of the two centers of the dual characteristics of all beings. Had Adam and Eve moved together in harmony and attained oneness, the whole cosmos with its dual characteristics would have danced in harmony. The place where Adam and Eve become perfectly one in heart and body as husband and wife is also the place where God, the subject partner giving love, and human beings, the object partner returning beauty, become united. This is the center of goodness where the purpose of creation is fulfilled…

It is my personal opinion that the cosmic design of multiplicity being embodied within an exclusive union has its root in the nature of God, that the creation personifies this reality in either image or symbol form. God is One, and yet that oneness is the source of all the latent, potential and actualized manifestation of every characteristics and dynamics that were ever or will ever be manifested in the totality of creation/cosmos/universe - without end, – radically awesome!

The Principles of Spiritual Growth (Review)

It might help to remind ourselves of the original the principles by which a spirit self grows and consequently is re-born and re-grows up. My purpose in bringing this up is to underscore that the process of restoration has a substantial component or that it is just not a “mental or intellectual” process. Furthermore, being reminded of this process should underscore that the healing process is just that, a process in time. It is a substantial process that involves literally changing the spiritual cells and substance of your spiritual body. It is the design of this creation by God, that He created 2 dimensions of the cosmos, one incorporeal and one corporeal. Both of these dimensions are substantial but each is designed to fulfill a different function and purpose. Just as there are 2 substantial dimensions created by God, so humanity is created with 2 vessels that relate and interact with these dimensions. These 2 vessels are called the Physical Self and the Spirit Self. The Physical Self consists of a physical body (made up of the substance and elements of the corporeal dimension, such as a slow, dense dimension of energy, matter, DNA, genetics and various systems and processes) and a physical mind – a internal directing consciousness concerned with maintaining the functions of the physical body. The Spirit Self consists of a spiritual body (made up of the elements and substance of the incorporeal world, a less dense dimension of energy not so limited by time and space as is the corporal world and that looks similar in shape and form to the physical body) and a spiritual mind (which can be likened to the mind, heart and soul of a human being).

Let us also examine the fundamental relationship between the concept of growth and God’s purpose in creating the two realms of corporeal and incorporeal. In simplest terms, the corporal world is humanity’s growing place while the incorporeal domain is humanity’s eternal dwelling place or where we are meant to live forever. For this to be accomplished, God set into place the following principle – that the Spirit Self can only grow on the foundation and through the interaction with the Physical Self and while dwelling in the corporeal world. Essentially, when a child is born, he/she come into this world with a young, immature, undeveloped physical body/physical mind and a young, immature, undeveloped spirit body/spirit mind which initially

34 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

comes from God and at birth is bonded to the physical body/physical mind which acts like a landing pad or base for the spirit self. After birth, the process of growth begins and is accomplished through the interaction or give and take between the Physical Self (and by extension the corporal world) and the Spirit Self (and by extension the incorporeal world). It is quite crucial to emphasize that the Spirit Self can only grow while it is connected to a Physical Self that resides in the corporal world. From Section 6.3.2, from pages 48 – 49 the following section underscores this crucial principle.

The spirit can grow only while it abides in the flesh. Thus, the relationship between the physical self and the spirit self is similar to that between a tree and its fruit…It can be inferred from the above that the spirit self can attain perfection only during a person’s earthly life.

Based on the preceding paragraphs, I would now like to speak about the actual dynamics and process of interaction that must occur within the corporeal and incorporeal worlds with and between the physical self and spirit self to result in the development or growth of the spirit self towards perfection and the 3 Blessings. The process involves the Physical Self or the Spirit Self receiving elements, having give and take with those elements and absorbing of those elements. The result of that process is an actual, substantial, developmental, quantitative and qualitative change in the Physical Self and the Spirit Self or growth/change. The elements that the Physical Self receives include air, sunlight (intangible or yang types of nourishment), food and water (tangible or yin types of nourishment) and a third element, called living spirit elements that move from the Spirit Self to the Physical Self and forms the life connection between the Physical Self and the Spirit Self. The elements that the Spirit Self receives include life elements (intangible or yang types of nourishment) and vitality elements (tangible or yin types of nourishment). Life Elements are those elements that are intangibles such as thought, words, emotions, feelings and will – which we relate to with our Spirit Mind/Heart. The Physical Self produces vitality elements through its actions as directed by the Spirit Mind. These are then absorbed by the Spirit Self and end up building up the spiritual cells, tissue and actual substance of that Spirit Self. A most central and key point is that the types of elements that are absorbed determine the health and goodness of the resultant entity. So if the Physical Self absorbs unhealthy food, water, air, light, mental and spirit self-elements (such as evil, negative intentions & directions) then the resultant Physical Self will be unhealthy, evil, deformed and stunted. However, if that Physical Self absorbs wholesome and healthy food, water, air, light, mental, emotional, loving and spirit self-elements that the resultant Physical Self will be good, healthy and vibrant. Likewise, if the Spirit Self absorbs unhealthy words, thoughts, spiritual elements, evil intentions, emotions, and hate and if the Physical Self does evil actions and deeds then the resultant Spirit Self will be unhealthy, evil, stunted, crippled, deformed and ugly. However, if the Spirit Self absorbs healthful and Godly Words & Truth, Spirit and Love and if the Physical Self does good deeds and loving actions then the resultant Spirit Self will be healthy, vibrant, powerful, dynamic and beautiful. If a Spirit Self receives and absorbs wholesome and Godly elements over time, they result in an actual substantial change and development in the Spirit Self.

The Process of Growth, the Principles of Restoration and strategies related to Restoration problems:

35 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

This process I just reviewed is how an individual “accumulates” or shows the day-to-day effort and actions of their life. The fruit of their words, deeds and heartistic realities are reflected in the substance and quality of their Physical Self and Spirit Self. You literally are what you eat, drink, breath, think, do and feel. The Divine Principle describes the good developmental process of the Spirit Self in 3 Stages with the final goal being Perfection or the First Blessing. Those stages are that of a form spirit, a life spirit and a divine spirit. Section 6.3.2 , pages 49, describes this process:

It can be inferred from the above that the spirit self can attain perfection only during a person’s earthly. The spirit mind guides the spirit self as it grows in the soil of the physical self. The growth of the spirit self toward perfection progresses through the three orderly stages ordained by the Principle of Creation. A spirit in the formation stage of life is called a form spirit; in the growth stage, a life spirit; and in the completion stage a divine spirit. A spirit fully matures as a divine spirit when the person’s spirit-self and physical-self unite through perfect give and take action centered on God and form the four position foundation.

Now since the process of restoration is actually the process of re-creation the method to resolve personal sin uses the original principles of creation, especially as pertains to growth, to deal with these subsequently acquired elements of evil, fallen nature and sin. These now spiritually deformed individuals, those person and lineages that committed sins, must go a course in the midst of time (that may take quite a while) to reverse evil, they must go through the process of paying indemnity for past mistakes and replace evil with correct actions. Then they must also change their lifestyle so as to live in a positive or Godly way or continually do-good actions so as to ingest good vitality elements. In other words, the evil must be undone and replaced with right, loving, selfless and Godly substantial actions. This is a slow, tedious and substantial process. Not only that, but the fallen nature that pushed a person to commit those personal sins – the nature that can be condensed down to the simple concept of selfishness and self-firstness will try to reassert itself for a very long time. I do need to point out that, the one personal sin that cannot be restored by this approach would be the committing of illicit love or repeating the Fall – this mistake can only be restored by the Blessing of True Parents.

From the Bible, the Book of Galatians describes this dynamic very well:

Galatians 5:16-24 “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would. But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law. No the works of the flesh are plain; fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealously, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who does such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and

36 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us have no self- conceit, no provoking of one another, no envy of one another.”

Based on our understanding of the process to remove personal sin, our understanding of the resolution of hereditary sin can be built. Basically, the resolution of hereditary sin (and also collective sin where the actions of one can restore the mistakes of many) involves the same processes utilized in the resolution of personal sin - reversal, indemnity and correct action, nature and heart - but it must also utilize the principles of returning resurrection. The whole process can be likened to the elimination and the reversal of personal sin for each and every individual’s ancestor – going back to the beginning (though stopping short of Adam and Eve – that is the responsibility of the new Adam and Eve only). The unique aspect of this resolution is that it needs to be done in cooperation with descendants living in the corporal world. This is because, as explained in the section of resurrection which deals with principle of returning resurrection, all change or growth to a spirit self must be done on the foundation of the physical body in order that the spirit self can gain the required vitality elements necessary for growth and change. (“Third, according to the Principle of Creation, a person’s spirit can grow to perfection only through the physical self. Likewise, in the providence of resurrection, the resurrection of a spirit can be achieved only through earthly life.”)

The process can be compared to a parent vicariously living their life through their children. In the process of returning resurrection, restoration of an individual’s mistakes and sins done during their earthly lives must be undone and then correctly re-done vicariously through their connection to and cooperation with living descendants or human beings living in the corporal world. One way this is done is by those descendants living in the corporal world resisting and then doing correct actions in the reverse of every evil tendencies, motivations, nature, heart and actions committed by their ancestor. It is precisely because of this principle that I understand there to be a limit to returning resurrection being accomplished just by liberating ancestors. This process can certainly help, but eventually those ancestors have to change by undoing the evil and doing good vicariously (and eventually fulfilling the 3 Blessings) with the help of their descendants or earthbound humanity. Of course, somewhere in the process, they absolutely need to receive the Blessing.

I would like to refer to a quote from St. Paul from the book of I Corinthians, Chapter 7, starting with verse 8: “Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that”.

The clear message that you must face squarely is that you will have trouble in your Blessing, in fact all marriages will have trouble. There are a few key reasons why this is so. One of them is due to the existence of sin and fallen nature. I was quite impressed by True Father’s clear explanation of the essence of sin, from the following speech – “True Parents Day from the Historical Point of View” given in New York, 4/18/1977:

What kind of disease have you caught? The diagnosis is that fallen man has the disease of fallen love. It is the disease of love centered on Satan and controlled by Satan, and through it men and women have become prisoners of Satan by inheriting his lineage. All people are born as direct heirs of Satan. How did this disease of love start? The fall was

37 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

initiated when one person claimed self-centered love. That person denied the value of all other relationships in his desire to make himself the center of the Universe. He sought to bring benefit only to himself, and when his desire entered the realm of love, the disease was begun. We must find a cure for this love disease. What medicine should be prescribed? Because self-centered love brought the fall, we must find a God-centered or unselfish love in order to be cured or restored…

Is this true for those who are dwelling in the realm of sin without the benefit of the removal of original sin, those whose marriage involves the removal of Original Sin and those who are Blessed on the foundation of such couples of rebirth? The answer is yes and lies in the understanding that until all remnants of sin and fallen nature in the descendants of fallen Adam and Eve – at least personal and hereditary sin are eliminated we will not be free of its influence. That is, until collective, cultural and social expressions of sin and fallen nature on all levels and reaching to the very beginnings of humanities life on this globe, from the individual, family, tribe, society, nation, world to the cosmos are removed, the process of Restoration will not be finished nor can the Kingdom of Heaven be established. Also, just as an aside, the cleansing of sin occurs on 2 dimensions. The first is the resolving of the heartistic impact/remembrance of the sin that is held in the relationship between the sinner and those sinned against. This resolution takes place through the sacrament of forgiveness on the part of the one who was impacted by the sinner (was sinned against or whose heart and trust was betrayed). The second is in the replacing of the elements/impact/results of sin in the sinner’s spirit self, character, mind and heart. In other words, the evil elements must be replaced with the positive, good elements based on correct, good actions, emotions, willfulness and heart. Let me say this again, until all remnants of sin is ultimately, completely and irrevocably eliminated, the process of fulfilling the Purpose of Creation cannot be totally and finally accomplished. Take a minute and jot down all the elements of sin, fallen nature, wrong action, selfish and self-firstness that might possible be targets of restoration in your individual, hereditary and collective lives? Now, consider those problems within your couple - either current or yet to be. I suspect that the list, if honestly transcribed and recorded, will be quite complex and extensive.

Let me go into a little more in depth into the concept of Restoration. The first reference I found was in Chapter 2, Section 4.1, page 69:

The Kingdom of Heaven on earth is a restored world in which Satan can no longer instigate any activity. To realize this world, it is necessary for all humanity to eliminate their common base with Satan, restore their common base with God, and engage in give and take action with Him…In order to eliminate our common base with Satan and be capable of judging him, we must understand the identity and crime of Satan and accuse him before God.”…Of their own free will, human beings are to bring Satan to voluntary submission by upholding the Word of God through fulfilling their responsibility. Only in this way can we be restored to the original ideal purposed by God at the creation.

The Chapter on Resurrection, Section 1.3, page 137 states the following:

38 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

Resurrection may be defined as the process of being restored from the death caused by the Fall to life, from the realm of Satan’s dominion to the realm of God’s direct dominion, through the providence of restoration. Accordingly, whenever we repent of our sins and rise to a higher state of goodness, we are resurrected to that degree.”

That same chapter, section 2.1, page 138 explains how God carries out his work of resurrection:

First, in the history of the providence of resurrection, many of those who were entrusted with a mission exerted themselves with utmost sincerity and faith to realize the Will of Heaven. Even though they may not have fully carried out their responsibilities, based on their devotion, they broadened the foundation upon which subsequent generations can form a relationship of heart with God. We call this foundation the merit of the age in the providence of restoration. The merit of the age has increased in proportion to the foundation of heart laid by the prophets, sages and righteous people who came before us. Therefore, resurrection is carried out based on the merit of the age. Second, according to the Principle of Creation, it was God’s responsibility to create human beings and to give them His word, while it was the human portion of responsibility to reach perfection by believing in and living according to it. Similarly, in conducting the providence of resurrection, God’s responsibility is to give us His Word and guidance, and our responsibility is to believe and practice it in order to fulfill the providence. Third, according to the Principle of Creation, a person’s spirit can grow to perfection only through the physical self. Likewise, in the providence of resurrection, the resurrection of a spirit can be achieved only through earthly life. Fourth, according to the Principle of Creation, a person is meant to reach perfection through the three ordered stages of the growing period. Therefore, the providence of resurrection for fallen people is also to be completed through three ordered stages, manifested as three ages in the providence of restoration.

This is further developed in Chapter 6, (Restoration), section 1.1, on pages 176-178:

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….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….The first is to fulfill a condition of equal indemnity….The second is to make a condition of lesser indemnity….The third is to make a condition of greater indemnity…. 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….Who should make indemnity conditions?…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.

39 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

To get a fuller picture, I also found a few quotes from True Father’s speeches that speak to this issue:

From “The Complete Liquidation of the Dispensation of Restoration”, June 7th, 1992:

Then, what is the Fall of Man? The Fall of Man made the establishment of the Four Position Foundation impossible. Thus we must indemnify the Fall and completely liquidate it. We have to start all over again. We must start over again and indemnify the past mistakes. The American people and all Western people do not understand the concept of indemnity clearly. Why does God want man to suffer so much? It is not fair! We are strong people and we disagree with it. However, if the Western people refuse to live by the principle of indemnity, they will perish. We have to reverse the course of history and only through indemnity can we accomplish that. Mankind (we) cannot continue the usual way of life. The big question here is “how can I deny my false way of life? Unless I find a way to change my false way of life, I will perish. Without changing our way of life, we cannot go back to God. The only way back to God is through the zero point, we must go back to the beginning.

I also found the following quote from True Father’s speech, “Liquidation or The Completion of the Dispensation of Salvation”, June 7, 1992:

The remedy is to go backwards. If you have done something wrong, you have to correct it. If you have been using drugs, you have to stop using drugs; if you have been engaging in free sex, you have to stop such activity. Indemnity is the reverse way, and it is something which America and the Western world needs very badly. This world cannot go on the way it is going now. To discover how to deny and to negate the direction it is headed in today is a very important task for us. Otherwise, we cannot accomplish the will of God. To liberate hell, we must go the same way. To solve the individual problem of good and evil is difficult enough, but to move hell itself and liberate it is so much more difficult. It is easy to say the words, but how difficult it is to do it! . .In that kind of hopeless world, someone bigger is reining over each person. That is Satan, striding right above each person, telling him what to do, “Do this, do that. No matter how hard you try, you cannot win over me. I am stronger.” You all think about yourselves first, don’t you? That is Satan. You should think, “my way of thinking about me first is from Satan.” Then we have to ruthlessly contain ourselves, “No, no, don’t think about myself.” We have to deny ourselves, turning ourselves upside down. It is like standing on our head, with our feet in the air. Nobody is comfortable with such a drastic change. Nobody wants that, especially when they don’t understand it.

So the clear answer is that Restoration is the process of separation from the realm, influence and taint of sin, the separation and elimination of all expressions and forms of sin. This is a job that most of us are not quite done with, even after we are Blessed. There will be trouble because of the method and nature of restoration/re-creation. Trouble and difficulty is inherent in the process – in other words, this is no easy task but a cumbersome, tedious process that must take place substantially. This process is going on constantly in the lives of each individual and couple.

40 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

The Good News!

As mentioned earlier, the problems of out-of-order-ness, uneven growth pace, and restoration will be present in all marriages, Blessed or not. One value of the providence of the True Parents is that through the wisdom of the Divine Principle we can finally understand the source and reason for all relationship and marriage problems and through applying principles that can be derived from the Divine Principle, we can develop winning strategies to deal with those problems. Those strategies include cultivating our 5% responsibility to fulfill our First Blessing as well as helping others to fulfill theirs, live a life of restoration through indemnity and doing the right thing, to live for the sake of others, turn away for selfishness, and embody the ideal of true love. When we couple and apply the great insight that can be gleaned from the Divine Principle with the Grace of the Blessing and the removal of original sin, we are poised to make great strides forward towards establishing ideal families and since the family is the base of the Kingdom of Heaven, eventually establishing the world of peace and love that which is the hope of all humankind.

I believe that a Blessed marriage holds great hope for God and humanity and for those who go through the process, the rewards will ultimately be sweet and worth every minute of your suffering. These Blessed Marriages have the greatest potential to comfort the Heart of God and to hasten the restoration of humanity by creating great merit for the age. I would like to suggest 3 purposes for a Blessed Marriage. 1. The expansion of the true lineage. The goal is actually to cause a complete immigration from the Unprincipled Realm/lineage to the Principled Realm/lineage so that the unprincipled realm/lineage is emptied out and left to atrophy and finally disappear (actually for those realms to be purified and come under the sovereignty of God). 2. To establish the merit of the age to benefit and help all humanity more easily enter into the Principled Realm. 3. To truly accomplish God’s Purpose of Creation, becoming perfect individuals, couples and families and expanding that to both absolutely establish the Kingdom of God on the earth and in the Spirit world and to be qualified to enter into those realms.

You might be thinking, given all the problems related to establishing a marriage in the providence of Restoration, why would the possibility of establishing a God sanctioned and approved marriage be good news!? The following quote speaks to the great value and importance of marriage in God’s plan:

19. If Adam and Eve had not fallen and instead had become perfected, they would have experienced their Blessing ceremony. In other words, Adam and Eve were to have been the substantial object partners of God. With Him as the subject partner, they automatically should have become the object partners. As the object partners, they should have achieved individual perfection. This would have been the foundation upon which they could have connected their objective love to God, the subject partner of love, and fulfilled the Blessing through marriage. In the end, perfection refers to marriage, and marriage refers to the manifestation of God’s love. If marriage did not exist, love would never have begun in the human world. The owner of that love is not humanity; it is God. When that love of God appears within human beings, it becomes true love. When that heavenly true love is

41 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

realized for the first time within humanity, it becomes the pride and joy of God. That is the feeling of God’s love. (76-040, 1975.01.26) (Cheon Seong Gyeong, Book 5, Chapter 2, Section 2, #19)

So, the inability of humankind to establish marriages that God authorized would be a source of great sorrow and sadness. Therefore, the fact that the Blessing signals the time when this aspect of God Will can finally be enacted is fantastic great news, absolutely worth any kind of troubles and hardships that come with the territory!

The Blessing is a Providence to initiate the realm of the Second Blessing, at least conditionally and initially in form. This means that it represents the establishment and development of the institution of Marriage. This also means that, finally, after the long history of Restoration, God can recognize your Marriage. What a phenomenal value is contained in the Blessing! Such a statement would then imply that all marriages prior to the Blessing are not actually allowed or authorized by God. This is also a phenomenal statement. Indeed, when we look at the History of the Providence of Restoration we can see that this is the case, that the focal point of that Providence was for individuals to make the proper foundation to welcome the Messiah. It was not a providence of holy families, but rather one of holy men and women within, but often opposed to families who were working to advance the Providence of Heaven. The Bible speaks to this point. In the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 20: 27 - 36 Jesus was asked about the following situation:

There came to him some Sadducees, those who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question, saying, ‘Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the wife and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first took a wife and died without children; and the second and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. Afterward the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife. And Jesus said to them, ‘The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.

There is also the famous passage from St. Paul on the topic of marriage from the book of I Corinthians, Chapter 7, starting with verse 8:

To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is well for them to remain single as I do. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion…Now concerning the unmarried, I have no command of the Lord, but I give my opinion as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy. I think that in view of the present distress, it is well for a person to remain as he is. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek marriage. But if you marry, you do not sin, and if a girl marries she does not sin. Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that. I mean, brethren, the appointed

42 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

time has grown very short; from now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the form of this world is passing away. I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please the Lord, but the married man is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided. And the unmarried woman or girl is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit; but the married woman is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please her husband. I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord…So that he who marries his betrothed does well; and he who refrains from marriage will do better.”

I relation to this disclosure, it is clear why it is necessary to seek the Blessing of the True Parents for both those individuals seeking to be engrafted onto the true lineage that emerges from the True Parents and for those children that are born into this lineage and are thereby extensions of it. From God’s perspective, originally the only couples that were to be authorized to marry were those who emanated from the first Adam and Eve, but only after God gave Adam and Eve permission to marry. Since that first Adam and Eve fell and were never granted that permission, the lineage that was established by them was never authorized by God. That means that Adam and Eve’s marriage and every single marriage that was established by their descendants (that means all individuals who have not participated in, or been born based on, the conversion of lineage sacrament) are not eternal and therefore do not continue on into the spirit world. At the time of the advent of the second Adam, Jesus, humanity had the first opportunity to establish Godly authorized marriages but, since Jesus never married and was therefore not able to establish the True Parents and the sacrament of engrafting or rebirth through the Blessing, God’s and humanity’s hope was postponed. From the time of the Second Advent and the establishment of True Parents who are the 3rd Adam and Eve and who have established the sacrament of the Blessing and the true lineage of God, the only marriages that are permitted and recognized by God are those marriages Blessed through the authority of the True Parents. These marriages are eternal and do continue on into the spirit world.

It may be enlightening for you to consider that the early Christian church focused more on the legal implications of marriage, rather than the spiritual aspect. It wasn’t until the time of the reformation that marriages were held inside the church building (rather than at the church door or the local tavern or a home, that the early church’s involvement in marriage was minimal) and the emphasis shifted from the idea of a contract to that of a covenant. At the same time, the Protestant reformation removed the status of a sacrament from institution of marriage, though it still remains as such in the Roman Catholic tradition.

The church’s encroachment was unintentional. With the growth of legal systems out of chaos, it became increasingly necessary to have written records of weddings to prevent clandestine marriages and to provide for legitimacy of offspring and uncontested inheritances. Wealthy people (cf. Jan van Eyck’s portrait of Givoanni Arnolfini and bride) could afford painted portraits as a

43 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

record; ordinary people needed a written certificate. In most villages, the only literate person was the priest (“clergy” meant learned), and his presence became increasingly necessary at weddings simply to witness and record them legally. A nuptial mass (distinct from the wedding itself) would frequently be celebrated at the parish church after the wedding and the newly married couple blessed just before the fraction. The legal character of the wedding ceremony is its most distinctive feature. Weddings consist essentially of a public contract freely and mutually assented to before witnesses. The traditional language, “to have and to hold,” is language still used in conveyance of property. “From this day forward” dates the contract. Then follows the unconditional nature of said contract, “for better for worse.” “Till death us do part” terminates the above, and “I give thee my troth” is the pledge of faithfulness to it. All this is lawyers’ talk, not liturgists. Words almost identical to today’s vows appear in English in fourteenth-century manuscripts, long before other liturgical documents were translated into the vernacular. The center of this most joyful occasion is a legal transaction. (White, James F. “Introduction to Christian Worship, 2000 (3rd Edition), Nashville, Abingdon Press, P. 277)

I believe that the ambiguity in the stance of the early church towards marriage alluded to in these quotes stemmed from the fact that Jesus never married and therefore did not leave much in the way of tradition related to marriage. In Matthew 19:9 and Matthew 5:32 he does speak about the indissolubility of marriage and also refers to himself as the bridegroom leaving his followers and also in eschatological terms referring to the last days (Matthew 9:15, Matthew 25:1-13), but that’s about it.

In contrast to the historical lack of clarity found in the relationship of marriage within the Christian tradition, the Blessing and marriage in the Unification Tradition has been, at the outset, one of our core sacraments and pivotal traditions. This means that traditions, guidance, and insights related to the sacredness and significance of the Blessed Marriage and the way of life of a Blessed family abound in the word and theology of the True Parents. It is also absolutely clear for those who understand the providence of restoration that has been initiated by the True Parents, exemplified through the sacrament of the Blessing, that God has given the True Parents authority to move humankind’s restoration to the family level and beyond. Therefore, even with all the disadvantages that are probable to appear in newly emerging Blessed marriages, these marriages are approved by God and therefore there is hope for success. The path to accomplishing the 3 Blessings has been opened wide through the sacrament of the Blessing, unencumbered by those spiritual barriers, shackles, dysfunctional ties and even atrocities that have been heaped upon individuals, families, tribes, societies, nations, world-level and the cosmos resulting in misery and thwarting true growth as a result of the fall can be dismantled and eliminated. Those barriers which have imprisoned humanity, cursed our very existence and continually crushed our desperate efforts to fulfill our great potential as well as our deepest desires for a peaceful and good world, are now crumbling because of the marriage Blessing sacrament give through the authority of the True Parents. There is also hope for success because we have the example of True Parents who are leading the way and encouraging and instructing us on our path. In fact, every couple that receives the marriage Blessing through the authority of

44 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

the True Parents is able to participate in and contribute to the development of the providence of developing and accomplishing the second Blessing, including building and perfecting the family providence. Until the time of the True Parents and the advent of the true lineage, this was never possible!

So, this is an exciting time indeed, where each Blessed couples’ efforts will benefit their own family and also provide merit that can be reaped by all humanity throughout the coming ages. I want to re-emphasize that there is hope for each couple to get beyond the troubles currently inherent in marriages and to be able to create successful, prosperous and ideal marriages and families. I must remind you that God purposed each child to marry and establish a Blessed Central Family where our Heavenly Parents would be in their midst. Such families are to be the school where we learn to love and fully realize and fulfill the purpose of the second Blessing. It is only when dynamic, reciprocal relationships between couples that perfectly resemble the duality and unity of God and who also reflect the creative and parental heart of God in their family, and our Heavenly Parent, that a world of eternal love and joy can finally emerge. Such families become the base upon which the God hoped for realization of the extended Second Blessing – the Kingdom of God on Earth and then in the Spirit World- is realized. It is quite literally true that the Kingdom of God is built on the foundation of the ideal family, the realized four position foundation, one family at a time. I would encourage each of you to place the greater emphasis on the possibility of fulfilling this ideal of the Three Blessings. Absolutely, emphasize the positive for it is from this that you will be empowered and supported in the process.

Remember, this is a spiritual fight, as is well documented in the following passage from the Book of Ephesians, Chapter 6: 10-20. This fight cannot be won solely based on the power of the mind. It needs strong spiritual conviction and protection for defensive and offensive efforts to be effective:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the equipment of the gospel of peace; beside all these, taking the shield of faith, with which you can quench all the flaming darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that utterance may be given me in opening my moth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.

Love God and Connect

45 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

Well, let’s return to the question of how to overcome temptation, the limitations and attacks of immaturity and ill-intended circumstances and individuals and strive for perfection. What must we do to avoid the mines in the minefield or falling into the pitfalls along the path of life? How do we avoid being ensnared by the Devil and ending up in or staying in Hell? There is, of course, the option of avoiding temptation altogether by following the commandment and thus removing the dynamic of opportunity. This is a very good solution and is an approach that was utilized by God with Adam and Eve. There is, however, another solution that I believe needs to be developed and that couples very well with the need for strict guidelines. I have come to the conclusion that as well as having strict guidelines in their lives through a faithful adherence to the Word of God, all people need to establish their own strong belief in and relationship with God, a deep, abiding relationship with God. I believe that a deep connection with our Heavenly Father is the only sure root and grounding for faith in the Word and also stands as the genesis of a person’s ownership of the lifestyle and culture that should emanate from that Word. A vibrant, heartistic relationship with God should enable a person to inherit a vision and scope of understanding in sync with God and allow them to see the action of others from a Heavenly perspective. From this base, Truth will be valued and respected because our Heavenly Parent authors it. A faithful child of God who stands in a loving relationship with their Heavenly Parent would gratefully cultivate a heartistic commitment to leaning and living those lessons imparted through the Words given by his or her Heavenly Parent. In other words, such a link between the Word of God and your relationship with its author will make those words matter to you; it must be given your utmost respect, adoration and appreciation. Strict guidelines that might have at one time been seen as bothersome or meddling must instead be exalted, appreciated and followed. My point is that for good advice to be followed, it needs to be validated from within. If a person has internalized their faith and has a strong and vivid connection to God, they are more likely to seek, listen to, have absolute faith in and follow Heavenly advice and God’s Words and thereby avoid evil action. Ultimately, I believe that such a vital relationship with God can afford us much protection and empowerment along our path to perfection. So, at the top of the list of things you need to do to be able to be successful in life and in your Blessing is to develop a real, deep, loving connection to our Heavenly Father. Remember that you must earnestly ask, knock and seek for Your God and, as the result of your outreach, doors will be opened and opportunities will make themselves available to you to develop this most essential relationship

Now, there is a caveat to this effort, you have to make this relationship a consistent and constant part of your life, remembering that Adam and Eve knew God and had faith in God and they also knew the commandment and yet they committed the original sin and fell far away from His grace and acknowledgement of His very being. One thing they neglected to do during the time of the temptation was to continually check-in with God, especially when the atmosphere and environment around them was getting confused. I have found an amazing quote from a question and answer session with Our True Father that was given during his visit to the United States in 1965. This particular section is entitled “The Master Speaks on Satan, The Fall, and Evil”. In it, he does clarify that we can meet with and speak to God throughout the Indirect Dominion.

Question: Adam and Eve were told not to eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. Were they told in the same way in which our Master was told the

46 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

Divine Principle, by having an even conscience—that is, on a level- - and then establishing a vertical contact with God. If not, then how were they told? They were in the Indirect Dominion; and God did not tell them directly, did He?

Answer: The 90 degree angle was not necessary for Adam. It is only necessary for us because we are under satanic domination, so we have to have an even conscience to receive God’s thought. It did not apply to Adam. The command not to eat of the fruit was given to Adam directly. It did not violate the Indirect Dominion. The Direct Dominion of God implies the Direct Dominion of man’s love by God. Apart from this love, God could teach them directly, even in their Growth Stage. He could give the command directly, but He could not interfere or have dominion over Adam and Eve’s love directly. If Adam and Eve had asked God whether they should respond to Lucifer, then God could have told them directly. When I said that I make a condition beforehand, I mean that I always ask God if it is all right to offer my offering. Then God is responsible to answer. But Adam and Eve did not ask God. So in the indirect dominion, if you ask God, He has to tell you. But God cannot control human love. That happens only in the Direct Dominion.

This confirms to me that the ability to sense and be in touch with the Love of God develops over time and on the basis of our growth through the Principle.

It is crucial and vital that you strengthen our relationship with God at all time, but especially during times of trial and spiritual confusion. It is because man’s portion of responsibility must be exercised in the environment of freedom of will. Essentially mankind must willingly participate in the process towards and the final accomplishment of Perfection and additionally, must be able to navigate and grow without exception through the potentially difficult path towards that Perfection without fail. We may often feel alone in this journey because God, to ensure the sanctity of the Crown of Co-Creatorship, cannot interfere with human responsibility. But, as Father is pointing out, if Adam and Eve had sought out God’s counsel, he absolutely could have answered. And so, I believe, it is with us. This brings me to the second dimension of faith. That is the need for us to have faith in God and connect to God in addition to having faith in His Word. What would be the value of being connect to God (besides the fact that there is nothing so blissful and sweet in the world than to be in His presence and Love)? What immediately comes to mind is the benefit of being able to see any given situation from the most comprehensive and clear perspective – God’s Point of View. This would be the opposite from the first fallen nature of failure to see from God’s Point of View.

Know, understand and have absolute faith in the Truth:

Francis Bacon once said “Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est” or knowledge is power. Indeed, knowing the Word of God is so important. To understand that the true course of life is one of Restoration and to understand those Principles of the Restoration is such a gift. Also, having knowledge of the original cause and nature of sin can allow us to protect ourselves from repeating the horrific past mistakes of history. Having a clear understanding of the Process of the

47 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

fall and nature of sin gives us the potential to recognize patterns of behavior that must be avoided at all costs. Not only that, knowing the original cause of humanities’ sickness can allows effective cures to be gleaned and applied. Studying words that can give great insight into the foundation for and guidelines related to the Blessing are extremely pivotal, and to a lesser degree but still important, the research and study of marriage education material can be extremely helpful. Additionally, I believe the clear understanding of the Purpose of Creation as expressed through the 3 Blessing is one of the most amazing gifts given to humankind. But, even with its awesome power, knowledge of the Truth is not enough; it must be coupled with a deep and abiding faith in that Truth and the source of that Truth.

Faith is a difficult thing to define, but I believe it can be likened to a heartistic and soulful response and affinity to the Word wherein you know/trust to the depth of your being that it is true and of God and are willing to act based on that response without regard to any time limit. It becomes your number one priority, your reference point and is what drives you forward throughout your life. From the point of the awakening of faith forward, you are eternally committed to live, act and have your whole spirit and being centered on the content and reality revealed by those Words. Faith might be described as putting your spiritual muscle where your mouth is – it’s a whole spirit acknowledgement instead of just mental recognition. Certainly such a hearkening to those Words is essential and required for us to utilize those Words and is one of those qualities that must be freely given from humanity. Perhaps we can describe it as the heart filled response, recognition and hearkening to the Presence of God shining through His Revelation. The Book of Hebrews describes it in Chapter 11, verses 1-3: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not see. For by it the men of old received divine approval. By faith we understand that the world was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made out of things which do not appear.” The deepest and most abiding faith, I believe, must emanate from your original mind – as opposed to the conscience. According to section 6.3.3 of the Principle of Creation (page 50-51), the conscience is a faculty within each human beings spirit or mind that directs them towards doing what they believe to be good and right.

The conscience is that faculty of the human mind which, by virtue of its inborn nature, always directs us toward what we think is good….The original mind is that faculty of the human mind which pursues absolute goodness. It relates to the conscience as internal nature to external form. A person’s conscience directs him to pursue goodness according to the standard which he has set up in ignorance, even thought it may differ from the original standard. However, the original mind, being sensitive to the proper direction, repels this faulty standard and works to correct the conscience.

The Original Mind is, however, is the faculty of the human spirit’s mind that knows absolute goodness and pursues it. The Original Mind, as the word original implies, is that part of the Spirit Self that retains the ability to link directly with the Spirit of God and where the sense and knowledge of the original ideal of God (the Commandment, the 3 Blessings, the Logos, the Principles of God, and True Love) resides. I often envision it as the place we go to in our spirit/mind when we are checking to see if our current realities are right and good. For example, for those of us who were born into a less than perfect family, how did we know that our physical

48 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

parents were not absolutely good? On what basis or gauge did we judge or criticize them – what internal standard were we comparing them to? I would suggest that we are subconsciously comparing our life’s experience to the ideal by checking in with our Original Mind. A child doesn’t have to be told that something is lacking when they are not given enough and of the right quality love by their parents – they just know they are missing something that is their entitlement. I call that internal source of mind and heart that resides in the depth of our soul that we go to on a very subconscious and intuitive level our Original Mind. It is the place where our internal tuning fork is able to resonate on the same frequency with God. It is our original compass and guide. In one sense, it could be called our original programming. For example, when I was about age 12 or 13, I had a mystical encounter with the Living God. In that experience, from some place deep within my spirit, I experienced an explosion of joy and I was enraptured and in bliss. Further, I knew that I was created to be in a full relationship with that Being 24/7. I just knew and from that time I also knew that nothing else was more important in life that being one with my God. What part of me knew that? What part of me responded to meeting my God with such a gut level sense that this was where I was created to be and with such overwhelming happiness and joy? That place my response emanated from is what I call the Original Mind. I would suggest that the truest basis of faith occurs when our “self” checks into that realm to see if the reality we are encountering agrees with the content of our Original Mind and if so, then, and only then, commits to that reality.

This level of heart connection to God brings with it a powerful tool in spiritual growth that can be most useful in negotiating the minefield of tribulations, temptations and challenges, which is known as life in the fallen world. When disaster, spiritual war and attack, or confusion reigns around you and cannot be avoided, then you need a strategy and tactic to survive those circumstances and be victorious.

The formula for successful spiritual growth then needs these two elements of the Word and Faith in the Word and the combination of the Word and Faith in the Word is a potent one. The Principle is clear that such a combination is required to both resist evil and sin and to accomplish or fulfill the Purpose of Creation. From Chapter 2, Section 3.2, pages 66-67 we find the following guidance:

In their immature state, Adam and Eve could not be directly governed by God though love. Because the power of love is stronger than the power of the Principle, God foresaw that if they ever formed a common base with the Archangel, there was a possibility that they could succumb to the power of deviant, unprincipled love and fall. To prevent this, God gave Adam and Eve the commandment that forbade them from relating with the Archangel in this way. No matter how powerful, the unprincipled love of the Archangel might be, had Adam and Eve adhered to God’s commandment, forming a common base with God and engaging in give and take with Him and no other, the power of the Archangel’s unprincipled love would not have affected them and they would never have fallen…It was not only to prevent their fall that God gave immature human beings the commandment. God also wanted them to enjoy dominion over the natural world – including the angels-by inheriting His creative nature. In

49 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

order to inherit this creatorship, human beings should perfect themselves through their faith in the Word as their own portion of responsibility.

Perhaps a key point here is that, in our immature state and while growing through the indirect dominion, God cannot govern us through His love because our hearts are unable to grasp and respond to His Love. Instead, God guides us through the Truth and as our spiritual essence develops through following the truth we become more and more heartistically able to be governed by His love. Perhaps we can liken it to the inability of a child to truly grasp the love his or her parents feel for them – that ability to respond heart to heart develops as the child matures. The key point is that faith is required to allow the truth to be our guide. Perhaps another way to describe faith is that it is the response from humanity that allows us to connect to that purpose and plan of God and thus be empowered to fulfill our portion of responsibility. Since the core essence of God is Heart and Love, He ultimately wishes that our relationship with Him be totally rooted and governed at the level of that Heart and Love. Only through accomplishing perfection based on faithful embodiment and adherence to the Principle, the truth of God, will we be able to gain the maturity of Heart that will enable us to be governed by God’s love. You could say, for us to be able to “get it”, for the fog to lift and for us to see clearly and sharply, we have to be mature and not only that, but to have arrived there based on our fulfilling our portion of responsibility having been guided by the Truth. From the Divine Principle, Chapter 1, Section 5.2.2, page 43, the essence of the Indirect Dominion is described:

During the growing period, all beings in the creation grow by virtue of the autonomy and governance given by God’s Principle. God, the Author of the Principle, has regard only for the fruits of their growth, which are based on the Principle. In this way, He governs all things indirectly. We call this growing period the realm of God’s indirect dominion or the realm of dominion based on accomplishments through the Principle. All things reach perfection after passing through the growing period (the realm of indirect dominion) by virtue of the autonomy and governance given by God’s Principle. Human beings, however, are created in such a way that their growth requires the fulfillment of their own portion of responsibility, in addition to the guidance provided by the Principle. They must exercise this responsibility in order to pass successfully through the growing period and reach perfection.

I have found an amazing quote from a question and answer session with Our True Father that was given during his visit to the United States in 1965. This particular section is entitled “The Master Speaks on Satan, The Fall, and Evil”. If you have wondered the nature of the Commandment given by God to Adam and Eve, this passage shares some insight into the truth that Adam and Eve were supposed to have faith in (and perhaps can speak to us today).

Question: what do you mean by “control human love?”

Answer: During the time when children are growing, they do not know love. These days, children see through TV and through parents, they see the love affair before they really mature and sense by themselves. In Adam and Eve’s case, they had nothing to see.

50 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

They did not know about sexual love. As long as they didn’t know anything about it, God could not teach them. God had to wait until they matured and knew something about it before they could come under His Direct Dominion. Until that time, God could not tell them, “Don’t do this. Don’t have a sexual relationship with Lucifer”. Through natural growth and development, they would have matured and learned to know of love. They God could have blessed them in marriage. They were just to grow naturally, and when they reached the point when they came to know one another, then God wanted to bless them. It is different from the state of children today. They know things before they actually mature. So Direct Dominion means direct control of their love by His love. In all other things, God could give them a direct command, but not about love relationships. Lucifer knew about sexual love before Adam and Eve were aware of it. He was not told this directly, but knew it in his heart.”….If I told you what they were told, it would not be good. This information is not written anywhere, and if I say it now what I say will spread. Even though God told them fairly clearly, Adam and Eve did not take it seriously. God said, “Don’t respond to Lucifer’s temptation. Don’t love him.” But those things did not sound serious to them. When one is too young and is not aware of things, some commands do not make sense. You cannot tell things too early. But the angel knew.

Ethics and Morality Really Matter

On key protection that is required to keep the momentum of spiritual growth advancing is the utilization of sexual and moral purity prior to a blessed marriage and fidelity after your blessed marriage. The central position of such behavior is deeply underscored in the following quote from the 10th Peace Message given by Reverend Moon on the occasion of the 47th True Children’s Day, Nov 21, 2006:

Ladies and gentlemen, it was necessary for Adam and Eve to establish a model, peaceful, ideal family. God, the Absolute Being, created human beings as His children in order to instill in them absolute values on the basis of an absolute standard. Thus, human beings must follow the way of that absolute standard in keeping with the demands of the heavenly path. This means we must follow our destined life course in order to attend God, the Absolute Being, as our Parent. In other words, for people to perfect themselves in resemblance of God and obtain the stature of people of character who can be called sons and daughters of the Absolute Being, they must follow the path based on the absolute standard God has determined. The essence of this path is the standard of absolute sexual purity. (Moon, pg 144)

Certainly one keys reasons for this requirement lies in the need for humanity to practice for and prepare to uphold the absoluteness of conjugal love and to uphold the heavenly law of absolute fidelity.

Second is the model of absoluteness in the love of husband and wife. More precious than life itself, this is the heavenly law of absolute fidelity. Husband and

51 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

wife are eternal partners given to each other by Heaven. Through having children, they become the co-creators of true love, true life and true lineage and the origin of that which is absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal…without adhering to the principle of absolute sexual purity, the path to the perfection of one’s character and spiritual maturity is closed. Furthermore, without securing the foundation of absolute sexual morality within a true family of perfected individuals, it is impossible for God to manifest His presence in dignity as the incarnate God of character. (Moon, 2006, The Family Rooted in Absolute Sexual Ethics, pg 145-146)

Seeking your Ideal Spouse

When it is time for a person to marry, which itself should be determined on the foundation of prayerfulness and a vibrant spiritual life, he or she should approach the process with a deliberate and focused seriousness of spirit, by absolutely and prayerfully eliciting and seeking God’s help in finding the right person for their exclusive spouse since God know best the person that He has uniquely designed to be that person’s eternal mate. A good way to learn of His Will and choice is to seek that expression of His guidance and will through those who represent the vertical, parental position/standard, especially the Messiah Couple or Their anointed representatives or, as granted in this era for those born into the true lineage, faithful parents. The key thing is that you should be focused on finding the one whom God has prepared for you, therefore this process needs to be prayerful and one where you set good spiritual conditions, earnestly seeking His/Her Will. Also, as mentioned throughout this paper, you need to strive to embody the level of heart and character that you would like to be present in your spouse.

To close our session, I would like to share a Pie Chart and Model for the Blessed Family Course:

52 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

The Components needed to be incorporated within an Ideology/Social Theory/Social Thought for the Kingdom of Heaven (Macro-, Meso-, Micro-levels ), including specific details regarding their Operationalization

Infastructure: Structural Aspects Including Systems, Organizations, Sovereignty, Land, Institutions such as a Constitution, Laws, Rights, Roles, Rules, Procedures, Norms, Customs, Conventions, Precedents, Practices, Traditions, Codes

Individuals and Social Systems Including Relationships, Networks, Families, Groups, Associations, Communities, Societies, Nations

Infastructure: Immaterial Aspects Including Lifestyle, Culture, Ethics, Morality, Values, Attitudes, Beliefs, Social Assumptions

The Kingdom of Heaven and the Blessed Central Family Course

Restoration Incorporate and Advance Maintain a Healthy Contribute to Embody, at the Towards Individual and the Providence Family Level, the Family Level and Fulfill of Building and Practices, Norms, Spiritual Life. Best the Three Practices include: Maintaining Traditions, Great Prayer; HDH; the Kingdom of Culture, Blessings Participate in Public Heaven Assumptions, and Providential Customs and Activities; Respect, Conventions of the Incorporate, and Kingdom of Emulate the Heavenly Heaven. 53 | P a g e Vertical Standard

Living for the Sake of Others

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

*Insert a PowerPoint on the Blessing at this point in the presentation:

This last section is meant to touch on the issue that there is the theory of Salvation and the Blessing and then there is the real course of the Blessing and Blessed Central Family Life. Gaining insight and understanding as well as developing a strategy and practice is a providence which is indeed a full life course is crucial to helping you and the family you will help create to achieve success sooner than rather later.

I hope the preceding content can have awakened in you both a clear awareness of the true nature of the path that stretches out ahead of you but also has encouraged you to welcome with enthusiasm and hope both the challenges and joys that will fill that path. It is so worth it! We truly stand on the threshold of a new and exciting future for humanity and for each of you and your family. As my husband wisely said, it may be work to bend down to pick up a radiant, precious diamond but the fruit of that work justifies all the troubles you have to face and efforts that you may have to make! (The following list of Character Qualities is taken from the Character Qualities noted in the book “Pure Gold, Encouraging Character Qualities in Marriage” by Susanne M. Alexander, p128). Among the many character qualities that will enrich your life and your Blessing, I wish you “Acceptance, Assertiveness, Beauty, Caring, Chastity, Commitment, Compassion, Confidence, Contentment, Cooperation, Courage, Courtesy, Creativity, Detachment, Discernment, Encouragement, Enthusiasm, Equality, Excellence, Faithfulness, Flexibility, Forgiveness, Friendliness, Generosity, Gentleness, Helpfulness,

54 | P a g e

Alice Fleisher Blessing and Salvation Developed 11/2/2020, Rev. 12/31/2020, 9/3/2021

Honesty, Humility, Idealism, Integrity, Joyfulness, Justice, Kindness, Love, Loyalty, Mercy, Moderation, Patience, Peacefulness, Perseverance, Purity, Purposefulness, Respect, Responsibility, Self-Discipline, Service, Sincerity, Spirituality, Strength, Tactfulness, Thankfulness, Thoughtfulness, Trustworthiness, Truthfulness, Unity and Wisdom”. I also wish you integrity of spirit/heart, zest for life and the tasks ahead and most of all that you will quickly reach and dwell in the full love of God forever and ever. Peace, Love and Wisdom to you and your family. Amen and Aju!

55 | P a g e