Overview of the Principles of Restoration part 2

People were talking about the Second World War, right? Well, we are talking about the Holocaust, of course. That's right, yes. And I said I'd talk about that when we came to talking about fasting. How you don't necessarily need to fast, well, it depends. I mean, fasting, yes, in order to restore the proper relationship between our mind and body, you may need to fast for a certain period of time to have dominion over your physical body. Fasting has value in that aspect. But also, in order to receive some blessing from God, you have to show that you're qualified to receive it; otherwise, Satan will accuse and say that's not fair, and Satan will test you. So, if you want to receive an answer from God and you really want to get it, then you may need to set up a prayer condition or you may fast. This is a way of making a condition of indemnity. In other words, you're doing something to make this foundation of faith so that God is able to reveal something to you or receive some kind of blessing. That's why Moses fasted for 40 days, and all sorts of things happened. So that's a basic principle. One fasts or makes a prayer condition to set up a foundation of faith, and through that, you separate from Satan. This means it becomes a condition where God is able to give you some blessing equivalent to what the condition is. Fasting, in that sense, also makes your body object to your mind, which makes you spiritually a bit more open and sensitive. That has a utilitarian aspect as well to it, but focusing more on higher desires, it's about achieving mind-body unity. Your body then becomes the object to your mind, and the mind is the subject. Of course, if you do this, then immediately you set up some kind of condition, and you face all kinds of tests. Well, I'll just carry on what I'm talking about. All this comes up a bit later on, actually.

Anyhow, think particularly about these three points: equal, less, and greater amounts of indemnity. You get this sort of greater amount of indemnity, so Satan invades in that sense and tries to destroy something. When Abraham made that small mistake, in order to get back to the beginning point where they could be living in the land of Canaan, they had to go through a huge period where Satan could tempt them and try to destroy them. They had to maintain their faith for that period of time. You can say a similar thing about the Jewish people, in a sense, who have been out of their land for 2,000 years. During that time, Satan tried to destroy them, tried to make them all convert and become Christians, where they would have had a much easier life. But they maintained their faith and identity, and after 2,000 years, they went back. Well, because they would be losing their identity as a chosen people, that is a matter of opinion which I don't want to go into at this particular juncture. Okay, so I'll call indemnity then. To establish a foundation for the Messiah, we have to think about what the conditions of indemnity are that we need to make to reverse the course of the fall and thus restore ourselves to a position where we can receive the Messiah and be saved. There are two aspects: what are the conditions that humanity has to make so that it's possible for God to send the Messiah, but also what conditions do I need to make as an individual to be able to receive the Messiah into my own life and to be born again, to have my own lineage changed? There are two things here. Indemnity then is restoration. We have to think about what needs to be restored. The principles of restoration are based on the principles of creation. The principle of creation was that Adam and Eve needed to have faith. What was faith? Anybody remember what we said faith was? Understanding, sorry, understanding faith-based. What is faith based on? Understanding, yes, it's partly based on understanding. Should we base understanding? It was based initially on obedience, no, trust. That's part of it. There we are. Faith is a confident belief or trust in the truth or trustworthiness of a person or concept. It's based upon reason and experience. We believe in the truth that we believe something is true because of reason. If you're doing geometry, you know what the basic axioms are, and from that, you can deduce that the size of this angle is that. Yes, it's truth based upon belief, based upon reason. But also, trust is another aspect of it. You trust somebody because you know they are trustworthy. You know them, and you know they're reliable, and you know you can trust them. So faith then is based upon reason and experience. It's nothing to do with superstition. Faith has got nothing whatsoever to do with believing things that are hard to believe. It's got nothing to do with believing things that are impossible or illogical. It's got nothing whatsoever to do with superstition. So when people talk to you about having blind faith, that's not having faith at all; that's just being blind.

Sorry, I used that term without even using the word. People use the term time and again to engender a certain degree of agreement from the group towards a particular idea. Yes, so what is my faith? This is what I believe. Why do I believe it? Based upon reason and experience. That's why I believe in God, based upon reason and experience. My faith isn't believing in something which is impossible to believe. It's not believing something which cannot be proved; it's just believing something I know is true because of reason and experience. It's all quite simple, really. This is the biblical tradition, the biblical understanding of faith. Then, of course, you have the sort of non-biblical understanding of faith, which is blind. But before faith, faith doesn't come right away. There's a certain amount of experience that comes, and sometimes that experience is quite often, in fact, based on obedience to God's call or God's commandments. Of course, obviously, obedience is not the best basis. The question is, why do people obey God's command? Well, they may have received some kind of indications previously that have prepared them. It's not something you complete right, but in that sense, they're following their vocation of God's calling because they trust God. It's not that they're obeying somebody who they think is evil. No, they're believing somebody or something that they believe is good and is worthy of their trust. In that sense, faith is based upon trust. When God asks them to do something, they may not understand why or all the reasons, but the faith itself is based upon experience and, before that, often based upon reason.

So the faith itself is based upon reason and experience. Yes, Jude, doesn't the word to obey or obedience mean to listen and understand? Yes, right, trust. Yes, to understand, right? Yes, sounds like you've been reading something I wrote. Yes, because the word obedience comes from the Latin 'obeda', which means to listen. The biblical understanding of obedience is to listen, and then you listen, understand, and then act out of your understanding. Reason and rationality are very important to the biblical faith. A biblical understanding of faith and also a biblical understanding of obedience is that you should listen and, based upon your understanding, act. Conscience then is two words: 'con', which means with, and 'sence', which is where you get the word science, knowledge. So when you're following your conscience, you're acting with knowledge, in other words, based upon truth. Yes, and then, of course, that's when you're being obedient. You're listening to God's word, you're understanding it, and that forms your conscience. Then you're acting out of conscience based on your knowledge, which is based on truth and experience. Yes, based upon truth. That's why it's very important to study the scriptures, study the Bible, so that one's mind and one's conscience are formed by the word of God. But there is some scope for blind faith. For example, somebody has many past experiences of following God or a leader or their parents, and it's always worked out well. Then, when the God or the leader tells them something new, as you said, they might not understand it at all, but in that one instance, it could be called blind faith. I don't think that is blind faith; it's acting based upon trust. So it's not blind. Well, I mean, they don't know exactly why they're doing it. Yes, well, that's what I'm saying. So faith is based upon reason and experience. When you try to, but I don't call that blind faith. I call that faith based upon reason and experience. It's a perfectly rational thing to do. You can't have it both ways because if you're using faith to mean what you say, this is a traditional understanding of such a thing, yes, as blind faith, absolutely. Yes, and blind faith is like telling people who have that kind of faith that it's not real faith. It's not real faith; it's not based on trust, knowledge, understanding, or experience. Yep, and that's why people often get into a real mess. There are some religions, some cults, where people end up doing some really peculiar things, like killing themselves or setting up gas chambers, all out of blind faith. Basically, blind faith is irrational. If I experience something, I expect it to be rational. But when I think of blind faith, I think of the people who think there's a spaceship up there and they go and commit suicide to join these people who are flying around the spaceship. That's what I call blind faith; it's not based upon reason or experience; it's just stupid. It's just believing in somebody just because they say it's true because they say it. But when atheists criticise Christians, their faith, they call what they're doing blind faith. They're looking at just that one instance and ignoring all the experiences in the past. They don't know what, anyway, they don't know. Yes, they don't know.

Anyway, I said, you know, this definition of faith is just a traditional biblical understanding, C.S. Lewis and people like this. Anyway, so Adam then should have had faith in God's commandment. I said before, the commandment itself is not based upon obedience; it's based upon understanding. God said to Adam and Eve, 'Don't eat the fruit because if you do, you're going to die.' Not just 'Don't eat the fruit because I say so,' but 'Don't eat the fruit because if you do, you're going to die.' So God was educating them, yes, and he expected them to act out of understanding, not out of obedience. Then they needed to establish a foundation of substance, which we looked at before, to become the incarnation of the word of God, to grow up and become mature. If they had done this, then they would have fulfilled the purpose of creation, the first blessing, and they would have been blessed by God in marriage, and then God would have dwelt in the family. But for this to come about required divine grace and human will working together for God's will to be accomplished. We looked at that before and said divine grace is about 95%, and what we have to do is our little 5%, which sometimes feels overwhelming because it requires 100% of our effort. So those are the principles of creation. The principles of restoration then are the same. You have to restore the foundation of faith. Again, you have a central person, an offering, which I'll explain, a period of time, and the foundational substance is to overcome the sinful or fallen nature. On this basis, it becomes a foundation to receive the Messiah. The word becomes flesh, and again, this requires a combination of both divine grace and human will in order for God's will to be done. You can see here that's why the foundation of faith and foundation of substance in restoration is restoring the foundation of faith and the foundation of substance. Adam and Eve didn't make a foundation of faith or a foundation of substance. They aren't principles of restoration; they're principles of creation. That's why the indemnity condition is the same because it's restoring what was lost at the fall. Now, people often just think it's restoration, but it's creation. Okay, so then, in order for salvation to come, that becomes the basis, the foundation for the Messiah. We need the Messiah because we need the Messiah to separate from Satan and to become one with God. That's why Jesus said, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but by me.' So through attending the Messiah, we come to resemble the Messiah. Do you think it's easy to attend the Messiah? No. If you spend a day with Father, after a day, you're completely wiped out. But he just does this all the time. Through doing that, you get this sense of inertia. Do I really want to do that? If you can unite with and follow the Messiah, you feel like you're overcoming all this stuff, this inertia which is holding you back and preventing you from doing it. You become more and more like the Messiah. That make sense? Yes, Jude, do you think one of the problems that second generation don't have as much opportunity to attend? Yeah, yes, that is an issue. I mean, certainly, for those of us who are lucky enough, I mean, I didn't spend very much time with True Parents, just occasionally from time to time I had that opportunity. But I just remember the odd day I did spend with him; I was completely, you know, you get this feeling of, 'Father wants to do this,' and you say, 'Oh, do I really want to do that?' You have to overcome that. Yes, so continually having to overcome your fallen nature, and you feel yourself going like this. But anyway, we can have these opportunities. Through fundraising, you do the same sort of thing. Suddenly you're in this situation: do I really want to go out and fundraise? No. Okay, so what am I going to do?

You feel yourself separating from Satan because of your relationship with God through prayer. You can form this relationship with True Parents spiritually. By following your conscience, you can actually do that. There is a very useful elucidation of the model course that True Father and True Parents have walked, produced by RM, which is interesting. This is one substantial way that you can attend your parents. For example, Father set up the idea of Home Church, where through this practice, you can inherit everything he has accomplished yourself. Father's pattern allows us to become tribal Messiahs, but that's another topic for another day.

Regarding restoration, Adam and Eve are said to have fallen at the top of the growth stage. However, they could have fallen at any point before reaching perfection. Some argue they could have fallen anywhere between the growth stage and the completion stage. Yet, I believe they could not have fallen at the formation stage because they were too young. Traditionally, we say the fall occurred at the top of the growth stage, but it occurred to me recently that they could have fallen at any time during the completion stage as well, before entering the direct dominion of God.

In this context, the top of the stage represents a combination of vulnerability and less wisdom. During this stage, you can think of them as students who have more contact with their teacher than with their parents. Their trust is in the teacher, and once they graduate, their relationship with their parents begins to develop further. Therefore, during the completion stage, they would have come into a deeper relationship with God, making them less susceptible to temptation. Their capacity to understand would have increased, leading to a more profound relationship with God, which would have made it less likely for them to fall.

When I first studied the Divine Principle, I wondered why the fall happened at that particular point. My understanding was that Adam and Eve would grow to completion before becoming husband and wife, becoming true man and true woman. The first blessing is fulfilled at the top of the completion stage, and naturally, you would move on to the second blessing. I often pondered this, and I feel that the conditions for the fall were cumulative. It's a very technical discussion, but it’s something I thought about recently.

Moving on, we need to understand the process of restoration. Repentance means to change direction; it involves feeling regret for past actions and determining not to repeat those mistakes. You recognise that you have done something wrong, reject it, and separate from Satan. This involves growing to the top of the growth stage and restoring faith, love, and unity, which are the foundations of substance. Receiving the Messiah and changing lineage is another aspect of this process.

Faith, as C.S. Lewis describes, is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, despite changing moods. Imagine standing on a hill and wanting to reach another hill across a jungle. You set your compass and follow it, even when you feel lost. Faith is about persevering, trusting that the compass bearing is correct, even when you feel overwhelmed. When you come to believe in God, you know God exists because of personal experiences and rational explanations for the universe's existence. However, during difficult times, you may feel doubt, which is often not a rational conclusion but rather an emotional response.

The experience of the Israelites when they crossed the Red Sea illustrates this. They witnessed God's power and put their trust in Him based on their communal experience. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. It is based on reason and experience, knowing that the principle is true, even if the future is uncertain. The foundation of faith involves trusting in God's word, keeping His commandments, being true to oneself, and receiving God's grace.

The foundation of faith is restored by making an acceptable symbolic offering. The central figure for this is the individual, but it also involves historical figures. The object of faith should be God's word, which Adam and Eve should have trusted. Restoring the foundation of faith involves making an acceptable symbolic offering, akin to bringing a gift. A simple story illustrates this: when Moses was a shepherd, he met another shepherd who offered milk to God as a thank you for a wonderful day. Moses questioned this, but the shepherd insisted that God, being spirit, still appreciated the offering. This story highlights the importance of symbolic offerings in our relationship with God.

Moses encountered a shepherd who was feeling quite depressed. The shepherd expressed his concern, saying, "God doesn't need my milk." Moses responded by encouraging him, stating that he should be happy because he now understands more about God than he did before. However, the shepherd was troubled, wondering how he could make God happy and offer gifts to Him. Moses, feeling stumped, prayed about it, and God revealed to him that while He doesn't need milk, He appreciates the shepherd's desire to offer it. God shared that He enjoys sharing the milk with a little fox every night, illustrating that the motivation behind restoring the foundation of faith is about making offerings to God, much like giving gifts to someone you love on their birthday.

Restoring the foundation of faith involves consistently bringing God an offering or a gift. Imagine the shepherd doing this every day, even on bad days. The challenge arises when one feels discouraged, thinking, "God doesn't deserve my milk today because something bad happened." The key is to maintain a grateful heart, acknowledging that despite difficulties, one can still express gratitude and make offerings. This consistent practice of giving is what constitutes the foundation of faith; it is not about sacrifice, which I find to be a misleading term. When you give a Christmas present, it is not a sacrifice but a joyful gift. Therefore, I believe the word 'sacrifice' should be abolished in this context, as it misrepresents the joy of giving.

The symbolic offering we make serves as a foundation for restoring ourselves. When we give a gift, it represents our heart and love for the recipient. If someone receives a gift and then leaves it behind, it can feel like a rejection of not just the gift but of the giver themselves. This highlights the importance of valuing and treasuring the gifts we receive, as they represent the person who gave them. When we offer something to God, we are offering a part of ourselves. Thus, the heart with which we give is crucial, as it reflects who we are. Whether it is tithing or other forms of giving, it is important to present our offerings with care and respect.

Through the foundation of faith, we symbolically restore creation and ourselves. Fundraising, for instance, involves raising money to offer to God, which contributes to this restoration. This practice also helps define our ownership and allegiance. For example, when Abraham made his offering of animals, he was affirming his allegiance to God. Setting conditions for our offerings can lead to temptations to break them, and if we do, we risk belonging to negative influences. However, if we endure and remain faithful, we can return to God's side, just as Abraham did. Despite the hardships faced by the Israelites during their period of slavery, they maintained their faith in God, trusting that their situation would improve.

The foundation of faith is also a prerequisite for standing as a central person in the foundation of substance. This theological concept reflects how the world operates. To become a doctor, one must study medicine for several years, pass exams, and earn a qualification. This process qualifies them to be a central figure in their medical practice, responsible for the well-being of their patients. If someone were to practice medicine without the necessary qualifications, it would endanger lives and lead to a loss of trust. Similarly, in any profession, qualifications are essential to ensure that individuals can be relied upon to make sound decisions.

In the workplace, if someone is appointed to a position without the necessary qualifications, it can lead to a lack of respect and trust from their colleagues. People naturally test their leaders to ensure they are capable of making the right decisions, especially in times of crisis. This testing is a natural response, as individuals want to be sure that their leaders are worthy of their trust. The foundation of faith operates on similar principles; it requires individuals to demonstrate their qualifications and reliability over time. This is not merely a theological concept but a reflection of how relationships and responsibilities function in the real world.

The principles that govern our relationships with God are also applicable to our interactions in society. To achieve a position of substance, one must meet certain qualifications within a specific timeframe. It is not acceptable for someone to repeatedly fail their qualifications, as this would undermine trust in their abilities. The same applies to our relationship with God; we must strive to meet the standards set before us. The foundation of faith and the foundation of substance are interconnected, and when these principles are applied, they contribute to the establishment of a good society. Successful businesses and organisations operate on these principles, ensuring that individuals are qualified before taking on significant responsibilities.

He just talks, expressing himself, and what he says flows out of his very being because his being is the embodiment of the Word of God. What he says is an expression of who he is, which is an embodiment of the Word of God, so it becomes God's words in that sense. Anyway, that's the foundation of substance, then establishing proper order in the created world. That's why we say the foundation of substance is horizontal and the foundation of faith is vertical. So, what is the foundational substance in restoration? Foundation substance is restored by making an acceptable substantial offering, which is fulfilling the indemnity condition to remove the fallen nature. So, it's restoring the foundation. Adam and Eve would have become mature and perfect. The foundation substance in restoration is removing the fallen nature. The indemnity condition is to remove and overcome or transform the fallen nature into original nature. Fallen nature is distorted, corrupted, and misdirected original nature, so it needs to become untwisted, undistorted, and uncorrupted.

A person in Cain's position then honours a person in Abel's position and sets him above himself as an offering. So, how does that work? Supposing you are learning the violin and you have a wonderful teacher whom you love and respect, who has taught you everything. When you win a prize, what do you do? You say the only reason I could win this prize is because I had such a wonderful teacher. You don't say you won this prize because you worked really hard and studied all by yourself. You honour your Abel and set Abel in that sense above yourself as an offering. That's what good pupils do; they give credit to the teacher or their professor. Through this, they are restored as good children again, and this then is a condition for the restoration of parents.

We have these two fallen people: one we call Cain and one we call Abel. One is in the Archangel position and one is in the Adam position. What has to happen here is the foundation substance, which Adam and Eve didn't establish because they didn't become mature and have dominion over the Archangel, needs to be restored. You need somebody in the position of the Archangel and somebody in the position of Adam and Eve. The Archangel, in terms of human beings, was relatively further away from God, and Adam was relatively closer to God. In terms of Cain and Abel, Cain is relatively worse and Abel is relatively better. It's not that one is good and one is bad, or that one is perfect and one is not; it's just a relative thing. Cain and Abel is purely a relative thing: one is relatively better and one is relatively worse.

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 in the role of Cain. This has nothing to do with the Unification Church; it is just the way the world is. Between every level of society, two individuals exist where one is relatively better and one is relatively worse. Two families: one is relatively better and one is relatively worse. Two nations: one is relatively better and one is relatively worse, in all sorts of different ways, not in one particular way or another. So, who decides who is Abel? That's right, Cain decides who is Abel.

God teaches us that fallen people must constantly seek for an Abel-type person. By honouring, obeying, and following him, we can accomplish God's will even without understanding every aspect of it. This is a theology. Let's look at the real world. Supposing you want to learn to play the violin; what do you need to do? You find a violin teacher, someone who can play the violin and teach you how to do it. You listen to what your violin teacher says, put your fingers where the teacher tells you to, and then you practice. It helps if you love and respect your violin teacher. If the teacher says to put your fingers here and you find it uncomfortable, you might prefer to put them somewhere else. However, as long as you imitate your violin teacher and put in the practice, you will learn how to play the violin.

Even without understanding every aspect of it, you may not understand why you should stick your fingers here instead of there, but as long as you do it, you'll get there. That's just the way the world works. After a while, you might say, 'Oh, now I understand why he said that because of this, this, and this.' But on the way, you don't necessarily understand why. Supposing you are playing tennis and you play with someone you have never played with before; how long does it take before you know whether you can play better or worse than them? Usually, five seconds, often on the first ball. You automatically know they are better than you, which means they are Abel. Cain decides who is Abel. If you find that person is better than you at tennis, you learn from them. Do you want to play tennis with someone who is better or worse than you? Better. Why do you want to play with someone who is better than you? Because you have aspirations in life. If that person is a lot better than you, it feels like a waste of time. If they are just a bit better than you, then it stretches you and raises your game.

You improve, and you see that if you play with this person, your game can get better. You appreciate playing with someone who is better than you. At the end of the game, you may ask, 'Could you give me a bit of help with my serve?' You ask them to help you, and they explain things to you. They become like your teacher, and you respect and honour them. That's the way it's supposed to work. This is just how the world works in terms of learning anything. It is a normal, good reaction in that kind of situation. As a principle, this is a universal tendency; it has nothing to do with the Unification Church. This 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.

Do we like to have friends who are better than us or worse than us? Better. When we associate with people who are better than us, we become better ourselves. If you associate with people who are worse than you, you feel that your standard is going down. We have this natural aspiration to become better, to mix with people who are better than us, who are more intelligent than us, socially or otherwise. Through this, we can learn how to improve our own status. This works with everything. Supposing you are playing in a village orchestra and you are the lead violinist. At the end of the concert, everyone comes up to you and says thank you; you played brilliantly, and it was a wonderful concert. You feel good and happy. Then, after a few years, someone moves into the village who plays for a national orchestra. They join your village orchestra, and suddenly everyone is amazed by this person and promotes them to be the first violinist. You end up becoming the second violinist. How do you feel?

You may feel a little upset, but on the other hand, you know you can improve. Different people can react in different ways. After the concert, that person gets all the praise that you used to receive. One way to respond is to be really happy because you can feel that your orchestra is going to a higher level. You can raise your standard and become a better violinist yourself. Maybe you can enter a competition. Alternatively, you might feel jealous and upset, sulking about it. You might even consider sabotaging the new violinist. A lot of it depends on the character of the person who is now taking your place. However, one common reaction is to wonder if everyone else has any taste or why they think this person is better than you. If you cannot recognise that they are better than you, you have serious problems.

In those situations, people may not necessarily see the truth. I suggest that if someone is much better than you, you should recognise that. Instead of being happy, one can feel envious and jealous or react differently. The confusion between the absolute and real enhancement of the orchestra or the relative enhancement of your keeping the title of being the best can lead to real improvement. All these things are relative, but they are also emotional. The confusion arises because people often vocalise using this language. It is important to clarify that the terminology of Cain and Abel is not correct. You should never use that terminology. The new violinist is Abel because he is better at playing the violin, and the person who is Cain, now the second violinist, can react in two different ways: positively or negatively. It is still Cain, but he can react in a good way or a bad way. This is just a way of analysing things. You can call them Fred and John; it doesn't matter what you call them. One is relatively closer to God and one is relatively further away. Theologically, one is better at playing the violin, and one is worse. We personify them as Cain and Abel because this is worked out in the Bible. In the real world, you simply say someone is better at tennis than you. You enjoy playing with them because it improves your game, or you feel bad because they always beat you and decide not to play with them anymore. This is a mistake; positions can be confused with character. The best way to understand Cain and Abel is not to think about the Unification Church or how this language is used in the Unification Church because it is often irrelevant. The principle is a universal tendency. This is just the way the world works and how human relationships function. When you see someone who plays tennis better than you, how do you respond to that recognition? Do you want to play with them to improve and learn, or do you prefer to only play with people you can beat?

In terms of playing the violin, one person may be better than another, but that is a different issue. I am not discussing character or theology; I am simply analysing it in the simplest terms. It is just a matter of one being better and the other worse at various things. This is what I refer to when discussing the dynamics between two people. In these positions, we have different angles to consider. For instance, you may be better at tennis, while the other person excels at golf or cooking. The dynamics of 'can' and 'able' relationships are constantly shifting.

Father's words illustrate that positions change; they are not fixed. He said that if you examine your daily life, there are times when you are able and times when you are can. This can happen even within the span of an hour. The dynamics of 'can' and 'able' relationships work in all directions—back and forth, right and left. These relationships involve who is following whom, who is your colleague, and who is your boss or employee. The point is that these relationships are always changing. For example, if you are speaking better today than yesterday, your standing today is 'able' relative to yesterday. Conversely, if you are speaking worse today, then you are 'can' in that situation.

I remember when I met Father in 1981 for the matching. There were about 450 people in a hot hall with no ventilation. Father stood on stage for hours, asking us who was able and who was Cain. We all responded that he was able and we were Cain. He then drank a glass of water and returned to ask us again. This time, he said he was Cain and we were Abel because we were suffering more than he was. He explained that to restore his position as able, he needed to speak for another three hours to sweat off the water he had just drunk. This illustrates that the positions of 'can' and 'able' are not fixed; they change based on circumstances.

There has been much misunderstanding regarding the foundation of faith. Everyone must establish their own foundation of faith. If you do not create this foundation, how can you recognise and unite with the able person? It is like being a tennis teacher; you need to put in the work to be qualified. Father once said that the kingdom of heaven is when you can regard a thousand people as able. This means you can find God in every person and learn from them. One person asked how to tell who is Abel and who is Cain, and he realised he always saw himself as Cain because he regarded everyone else as able. This perspective is crucial for understanding our relationships.

The Divine Principle stresses that sometimes, just because someone holds a position, it does not mean they are automatically able. For instance, Ham was supposed to become Abel but did not because he failed to make the foundation of faith. This is the issue when leaders are not qualified; they may hold a position but lack the necessary foundation. Take Alan Sugar, for example. He has no formal qualifications, yet he is successful because he surrounds himself with intelligent people. He does not feel threatened by those who are more capable; instead, he seeks out talent. This is what makes him a good leader.

However, there is a misunderstanding of the principle regarding leadership. Just because someone is designated as able does not mean they will fulfil that role. They must make the necessary foundation of faith. The dynamics of older and younger siblings also play a role in these relationships. Generally speaking, it is easier for a younger brother to accept advice from an older brother than vice versa, but this can change based on ability. If the younger brother excels in many areas, it can be challenging for the older brother to accept advice from him. This is a key issue in the stories of Cain and Abel and Jacob and Esau.

When we discuss ideology, it is important to clarify what we mean. In a Marxist sense, ideology is a system of ideas that exists to maintain the status quo and control people. Unfortunately, this is how some ideologies function within the Unification Church. We need to study together more to resolve the issues in our community. Only through understanding the Divine Principle can we address these misunderstandings. As we continue, I encourage everyone to think critically about these concepts and how they apply to our lives.

Sometimes, being a critic is about trying to help others carry on after a difficult moment. It's important to provide constructive feedback that encourages growth and resilience.