7 Day Workshop - Day 4

Good evening, nice to see you all again. Thank you very much for coming along. I had no idea so many people were going to come to this workshop. When I first arrived, it looked like there were only going to be three people, and suddenly lots of people came along, so thank you. As I said, this is the first time I've taught the seven-day workshop in this format for quite a few years. Normally, I teach much longer workshops in greater depth, mostly to second generation, so trying to make things very concise has been a bit of a challenge, to be honest. I've not messed up my edges.

So, what were the consequences of the Fall? We looked at that a little bit yesterday. We saw the traumatic effect it had upon Adam and Eve. The devastating fact that the Fall had upon them was significant. Eve was a victim of sexual abuse, which was traumatic in every way—emotionally, psychologically, spiritually. She became incredibly damaged, and Adam also became incredibly damaged. These are the consequences upon Adam and Eve, but it also affected God incredibly. God created the universe because He was looking for a being with whom He could pour out His heart and love, developing a relationship of deep love. That's why God created Adam and Eve in His image and likeness.

When Adam and Eve fell, God lost the object of His love, the very purpose for which He created the universe. For God, this was devastating. Just like when someone you love deeply dies, you feel incredible grief. The grief you feel is the measurement of the love you have. Sometimes you read about a celebrity dying, and people weep for a day or two, but then they get over it because it's not a deep personal relationship. When your husband, wife, child, or parent dies, you become incredibly grief-stricken. This was the way it was with God. The incredible love that God had for Adam and Eve meant that He felt incredible grief and suffered immensely when what happened to them occurred. Just like any parent whose child is sexually abused screams in agony, God felt betrayed.

God trusted Lucifer to take care of Adam and Eve, to educate them and raise them up, just like parents send their children to school and trust the teachers to teach them well. When a teacher abuses their position and sexually abuses a student, the parents feel incredibly upset and angry, feeling betrayed. God was screaming at what happened to His children. For parents, the most agonizing thing is seeing their children mistreated, especially when they see them running after someone who is sexually abusing them. It's unbelievably painful. When God looks at the world, He weeps because He sees His children. Every single human being is a son or daughter of God, and when God sees people being murdered, raped, robbed, and all kinds of suffering, it breaks His heart. God feels the pain of His children as His own pain, like a parent.

Another consequence was that God wanted Adam and Eve to become like Him. That's why God gave them the three blessings. Through fulfilling the three blessings, they could become like God, inherit His heart, become beings of logos, and establish the four great realms of heart. They would also inherit God's creativity and become laws of creation. Because of the Fall, people struggle to attain mind-body unity. This is why people struggle with alcoholism, laziness, lying, and breaking promises. They also struggle to achieve good relationships within the family, with neighbours, and at school, which often leads to divorce. People struggle to manage their world, their finances, and to maintain their homes. This is a reality of human life.

As a result, every single human being was affected by this. Through the relationship Lucifer had with Eve, she was deeply impacted. The first relationship Eve had was with Lucifer, and it was incredibly devastating. This affected Eve deeply and imprinted upon her. Instead of being a source of incredible joy, it became a source of incredible damage. When Eve had that relationship with Adam, it was also passed on to him. When Adam and Eve had children, this was passed on to their children. Within the Christian tradition, we talk about original sin. Another way of thinking about it is original damage. Adam and Eve were damaged, and their relationship was damaged. Even when Adam and Eve had a relationship like a married couple, it was incredibly abusive and dysfunctional. They weren't happily married because they were traumatized. This trauma was inherited by their children.

The principle states that original sin, or original damage, is transmitted and passed on through the physical body. It's not just a spiritual thing; it's not imaginary or merely mental. It damaged them because, as we looked at before, mind and body are just different aspects of the same entity. The original sin is transmitted to the physical body. Modern psychologists are beginning to understand this. There's a recent book titled 'The Body Keeps the Score: Mind, Brain, and Body in the Transformation of Trauma,' which recognizes that trauma can be passed down from generation to generation through the physical body. This is the result of modern science. It's fascinating that Divine Principle was written down sometime in the 1950s, and now modern science is confirming these basic theological insights found in the Principle.

So, how has God been working to restore the world? Because of the Fall, everything went completely wrong. God has been trying to restore things, trying to put things right. What is restoration? Often we think of restoration as if there's a piece of furniture with damage. You send it to a furniture restorer who removes the scratches and re-varnishes it, making it look new again. That's the idea of restoration—trying to make things look like new again, like they were supposed to before something went wrong. In terms of human relationships, restoration occurs when you find yourself in a similar position to Adam, Eve, the archangel Cain, or Abel. I'll mention those characters later today. You may find yourself in the same position as one of your parents or grandparents. Just like that video showed, we inherit certain patterns of thinking, trauma, good ways of thinking, and bad ways of thinking from our ancestors.

Restoration occurs when you find yourself in a similar position to one of these historical characters and face the same temptation to make the same mistake they did, continuing the pattern of fallen history. We inherit certain kinds of memories, impulsive reactions, and behaviours. Scientists have studied whether human beings are really free. They attach electrodes to different parts of a person's brain and ask questions. They discovered that even before a person answers a question, the answer appears subconsciously in a deeper part of the brain. This inherited memory then becomes conscious and influences what the person says and does. In this sense, some scientists question whether we are really free or just responding based on inherited patterns of behaviour.

When we find ourselves in certain situations, the temptation is to make the same mistakes our predecessors did. This is called learned behaviour. We learn certain ways of behaving, and it's tempting to continue this pattern of fallen history. However, restoration occurs when you choose not to repeat those mistakes. Instead of acting out of your fallen nature, you act according to your original nature and follow your conscience. This breaks the cycle of abuse and the pattern of fallen history. I explained this to someone at a workshop a few years ago. This person told me that when he was a child, his dad used to beat him when he was angry. His grandfather beat his dad, and his great-grandfather beat his grandfather. One day, when one of his sons was disobedient, he became so angry that he raised his hand to hit him. Then he suddenly realised he was about to repeat the cycle of abuse that had been passed down through generations. His conscience told him he shouldn't do that, so he pulled his hand down and didn't express his anger. That is restoration.

The function of conscience is crucial. If the function of conscience is absent, God's providence of restoration becomes impossible. Restoration only takes place to the extent that people listen to and follow their conscience. This is really important. We have to listen to and follow our conscience for restoration to occur. Is it easy to follow our conscience? Not at all. That's why it's so important to live a spiritual life. When we pray, study God's words, and read religious scriptures, this forms and strengthens our conscience. When we find ourselves in situations where we're tempted to do the wrong thing, our conscience is activated, and we hopefully have the strength to overcome that temptation and act differently, overcoming our fallen nature. Restoration takes place through something called indemnity. Indemnity is not a very useful word in English, but in German, there's a better word for it. It means to make good again. That's what it is—whatever you need to do to make something good again. Just as if you have a piece of furniture that gets scratched, you need to sand it down and re-varnish it to restore it to its original state.

When you break your leg, what do you need to do? First, you should call an ambulance to take you to the hospital, where your leg can be put in plaster. After some time, your leg will be restored to its original state. This process of restoration requires effort, such as going to the hospital, which may be painful. If you ignore the injury and do not seek treatment, you will pay the price by not being able to walk properly. Similarly, if you are sick and the doctor prescribes medicine but you refuse to take it, your condition may worsen, potentially leading to severe consequences. Indemnity, in this context, refers to the necessary actions taken to restore health or rectify a situation; otherwise, one pays the due price for neglecting these responsibilities.

Indemnity operates in various aspects of life. For instance, if you are walking down the street and someone bumps into you, you may feel hurt. If they apologise, the relationship is restored, and you can move on without any negative feelings. However, if the person does not apologise, you may feel upset and carry that resentment with you. The next time you see them, those feelings may resurface, leading to a desire for revenge. Thus, the indemnity condition here is simply the act of apologising, which can restore the relationship to its previous state. If you accidentally bump into an elderly person and their shopping falls, merely saying sorry is not enough; you must help them pick up their items and apologise sincerely. Indemnity is about taking the necessary steps to correct what went wrong and restore things to their intended state.

Indemnity is a powerful concept because it allows for the possibility of making things right. The worst situation is when indemnity is impossible, such as when a doctor tells you there is no cure for your illness. Now, let’s consider what Adam and Eve should have done to understand the process of restoration. They were meant to fulfil the purpose of creation, which involved becoming mature individuals in mind and body, centred on God. To achieve this, they needed to establish two conditions: the foundation of faith and the foundation of substance. The foundation of faith required them to trust God completely, especially when He commanded them not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. They should have believed that God had their best interests at heart, even if they did not fully understand the reasons behind His command.

The commandment not to eat the fruit symbolised the importance of maintaining sexual purity and developing a spiritual life in relationship with God. Adam and Eve were expected to live according to their conscience, which would guide them in keeping this commandment. The second condition, the foundation of substance, was to be established after they had developed an unshakeable foundation of faith. By keeping the commandment and living a life of conscience, they would have become one with God, thus embodying the word of God and fulfilling the first blessing. This meant they would have matured and perfected themselves, becoming the perfect incarnation of God's word.

However, Adam and Eve failed to keep faith in God's word. They did not follow the commandment, nor did they maintain their sexual purity. Instead, they were dominated by the archangel, leading to their corruption and the development of what we call fallen nature. Following this, Adam and Eve had two sons: Cain, the elder, and Abel, the younger. In a sense, Cain represented Lucifer, while Abel represented Adam. To restore what was lost due to the fall, Cain and Abel needed to establish their own foundation of faith and substance. This meant living a spiritual life, following their conscience, and developing a relationship with God.

The foundation of substance for Adam and Eve involved overcoming their fallen nature and becoming mature, righteous individuals. Jesus summarised this as loving God and loving your neighbour. Cain, as the older brother, developed feelings similar to those of the archangel, which we will explore further. Father Moon succinctly stated that Adam must first become one with God, establishing the foundation of faith, and then love the archangel to gain recognition and respect. Before Adam and Eve appeared, the archangel held a position of authority, but God intended for Adam and Eve to inherit that role and become the lords of creation. For this to happen, the archangel had to acknowledge that Adam and Eve were qualified for this position.

To understand the unfolding story, we must consider the concept of mind-body unity. The Divine Principle teaches that we can only become good if our body obediently follows our mind. Often, our body rebels against the mind's directives, which can lead to evil actions, much like Cain's murder of Abel. This rebellion illustrates how evil can grow within us. A religious life requires us to make our bodies submit to the commands of our higher mind. For instance, if we give in to our physical desires, such as overeating, we may become greedy and selfish, which negatively impacts our health and relationships. Similarly, if someone cannot control their sexual desires, it can lead to harmful behaviours towards others.

When we become angry, our bodies react physically, and if we cannot control that anger, we may commit acts of violence. This is how evil can manifest when we fail to control our physical desires. Therefore, a religious life is about achieving mind-body unity, where the mind governs the body, allowing our physical desires to express spiritual values. Sexual desire, for example, should be an expression of true love, not a selfish pursuit. As we examine the story of Cain and Abel, we must also address a common question regarding their siblings. The Bible mentions that Adam and Eve had a third son named Seth, but it does not specify where the daughters were or whom they married. In Jewish and Muslim traditions, it is said that Eve gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl, each time. Thus, Cain had a twin sister named Aclima, and Abel had a twin sister named Jamilia, along with other children born to Adam and Eve.

Had twin sisters. It doesn't say it in the Bible, but this is in the Quran, commentaries on the Quran, and the Talmud, which are Jewish commentaries on the Bible as well. These stories have lots of extra details that you cannot actually find in the Bible. Father Haines also added many extra details to these stories, which I'll bring up later. The next question is, who marries whom? One day, when Adam, Cain, Abel, and all the children were growing up, Adam and Eve were having a discussion with their children. Adam said to Cain, 'You know, Mum and I have been discussing who should marry whom, and we think you should marry Abel's twin sister.' Adam then said to Abel, 'You should marry Cain's twin sister.' Abel was very pleased and accepted this idea from his parents, but Cain refused, thinking he was better than Abel's sister. Instead, he wanted to marry his own sister. They argued and argued, and Cain refused to accept his parents' suggestion. Finally, Adam and Eve threw up their hands and said, 'Okay, we'll let God decide.' So Adam said to Cain, 'You and your brother Abel should offer a sacrifice. Whichever of the two of you has his sacrifice received by God will have the more right to her.']

[This is a commentary on the Quran by the earliest commentator on the Quran, and you might wonder what's going on here. This is very similar to what was going on in Adam's family. Adam and Eve, Lucifer wanted Eve for himself. God wanted Eve to marry Adam, but Lucifer wanted Eve for himself. It's a very selfish desire. As I explained yesterday, Lucifer didn't really care about Eve. If he had, he never would have done what he did; he just wanted Eve for himself. Cain, then, as I said before, is put into a similar position as the archangel, dealing with the same kind of emotions and feelings as the archangel did. In a similar situation, Adam and Eve wanted Abel to marry a cleaner, but Cain wanted a cleaner, his twin sister, for himself. It's a very selfish kind of love; he thought he was too good for Abel's twin sister. That's what's going on here. Anyway, as I said, they made offerings, and Father Haines thought very deeply about the story. Just as the Jews and Muslims commented on this story, he also commented on it and helped us to understand it more deeply. He said that from the time they made the preparations for the offerings, Cain already had hatred towards Abel. In other words, even before they made an offering, Cain already hated Abel. It was not that he momentarily felt hatred when God did not receive his offering, which we'll look at in a moment; rather, even before that took place, Cain hated Abel and wanted to beat him to death. Whoa, that's serious. Why would Cain want to beat Abel to death even before they made the offering? It's all about the woman who marries whom and the incredible jealousy and emotion that goes along with that.

Responsibility for what he had done was a significant theme in the story of Cain and Abel. Cain, when confronted by God, asked, "Am I my brother's keeper?" This indicates that he did not deny his actions but rather shifted the blame, suggesting that Abel was at fault for provoking him. In contrast, Adam and Eve outright denied their wrongdoing, with Adam claiming it was Eve's fault and Eve blaming the serpent. Cain's response reflects a denial of moral responsibility, which is a different issue altogether. God continued to speak to Cain, asking him what he had done, stating that the voice of his brother's blood was crying out from the ground. As a consequence, Cain was cursed to be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth. However, Cain expressed concern that his sin was too great to be forgiven, fearing that anyone who found him would kill him.

God reassured Cain that if anyone were to slay him, vengeance would be taken on that person sevenfold. Thus, God placed a mark on Cain to protect him, indicating that he had been forgiven. This mark served as a divine sign that no one had the right to take revenge on Cain. The extraordinary power of repentance is highlighted here; it can change one's future. The message is clear: no matter what you have done, there is nothing that God cannot forgive if you confess, acknowledge your sins, and repent. This process may not be easy, but it is possible to restore your relationship with God and receive His grace.

The story also touches on the relationship between brothers, particularly between an older brother and a younger brother. Abel, as the younger brother, was in a position similar to Adam. He should have made himself lovable, being humble, sharing, and cooperative. The natural inclination of an older brother is to love and protect his younger sibling. If the younger brother excels in certain areas, the older brother should respect and seek help from him. This ideal relationship should exist between siblings, but the fall led to a distortion of these dynamics. Cain's failure to acknowledge Abel's worth and his own shortcomings reflects the fallen nature inherited by all humanity, resulting in a corrupted original nature.

Moving on to the story of Noah and the flood, some may question the historical accuracy of these events. Archaeologists have suggested that there is evidence of a great flood, possibly around 7,000 years ago, linked to the Black Sea. The biblical account states that God saw humanity becoming thoroughly evil, with every thought being completely corrupt. This led to God's heartache, as He regretted creating human beings who treated each other violently instead of with love and compassion. God's decision to send the flood was not out of anger but rather from a place of heartbreak over the suffering and violence that had proliferated among His children.

Noah was chosen to build an ark and start anew, as he was deemed a righteous man who walked faithfully with God. He spent 120 years constructing the ark and warning others of the impending flood, but few listened. When the flood came, only Noah, his family, and the animals he saved survived. During the flood, Noah's family was to purify themselves and separate from sinful influences, which was crucial for restoring the foundation of faith. This foundation required maintaining sexual purity, as indicated by God's instructions regarding entering the ark. The men and women were to sleep separately, and Noah instructed his family not to engage in sexual relations during this time of judgment.

After the flood, Noah and his family emerged from the ark as couples, ready to start anew. God blessed them with the same command He had given to Adam and Eve: to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth. This new beginning was meant to establish a relationship based on love and respect. However, there was also a need to restore the relationship dynamics between Noah and his sons, particularly between Ham and his father. Ham's actions, when he saw Noah naked and drunk, led to a curse on his son Canaan. This incident highlights the importance of honouring one's parents and the consequences of shame and disrespect within familial relationships. The narrative serves as a reminder of the need for love, respect, and the restoration of proper relationships in the wake of human fallibility.

What will happen if the neighbours see? Why didn't we go and cover him up? Ham and his brothers felt shame for their father, Noah. When Noah woke up, he realised what they had done and understood that Ham felt ashamed of him. Ham judged Noah, which meant he wasn't united with him in heart. He rebuked Ham and cursed his grandson. The question arises: what was so wrong with what happened? What sin did Ham commit? In the Principle, it states that sin is a condition for Satan to invade. Ham obviously did something that allowed Satan to invade his inner life and emotions, leading him to act wrongly.

If we look back at this story, we see that it is about restoring what went on in Adam's family. Before the Fall, Adam and Eve were naked and unashamed because they were innocent. After the Fall, they felt shame and covered themselves. When God asked what happened, they admitted they were naked and had covered themselves. Shame, then, is a result of the Fall; it is the attempt to hide one's sin and preserve one's reputation, even if it means telling lies. After the Flood, Noah's family should have separated from Satan, being innocent. However, Ham still felt shame, indicating a lingering connection to Satan's lineage.

When Ham saw Noah lying naked in the tent, he projected his own feelings of shame onto Noah. Ham accused Noah of his own sin. Noah hadn't done anything wrong; he had merely gotten drunk. If Ham had not done anything wrong, he would have simply seen Noah naked and that would have been fine. Instead, Ham's shame led him to judge Noah. We can imagine that during their time on the Ark, Ham and his wife, unable to sleep, met on the deck and shared a romantic moment. This led to a sexual relationship, which they did not confess to Noah and his wife the next morning, despite knowing they were supposed to maintain sexual purity during the 40 days.

Instead of confessing, Ham and his wife likely feared Noah's anger. When Noah woke up and cursed his grandson, it reinforced their fear. Ham then told his brothers about Noah's state, and instead of defending their father, they united with Ham. The older brother should have rebuked Ham for speaking disrespectfully about their father. Instead, they covered Noah up, which was a disaster. Just because Ham and his wife made a mistake did not mean it couldn't be restored. Ham should have checked himself and thought about how grateful he should be to Noah for saving their lives.

Ham should have treated his father with respect, even if he felt ashamed. The lesson here is to have compassion for our parents. Nobody has perfect parents; they make mistakes, but they generally do their best. We should forgive and love them. Similarly, parents should not lose their temper with their children. If Noah had not reacted in anger, perhaps Ham and his wife would have felt freer to confess their mistakes. If they had owned up to their actions, Ham would not have felt ashamed when he saw Noah naked in the tent, and the feelings of shame would not have led to further mistakes.

Living a spiritual life means reflecting on our actions at the end of each day. We should consider whether we need to apologise for anything we did wrong or for things we failed to do. This practice allows us to start each day with a clean slate. If we do not address our mistakes, Satan can invade something important in the future. There are many lessons to be learned from this story, and I have only touched on them briefly. Normally, I would spend a whole day exploring these themes in depth.