The Head-Wing Thought

Human history is a history of re-creation, and at the same time a history of restoration, that is, the process to recover the original ideal world, which was lost due to the human fall. Accordingly, a series of laws, different from the Laws of Creation, are also at work in history. These are the Laws of Restoration. These laws include

(1) the Law of Indemnity,
(2) the Law of Separation,
(3) the Law of the Restoration of the Number Four,
(4) the Law of Conditioning Providence,
(5) the Law of the False Preceding the True,
(6) the Law of the Horizontal Reappearance of the Vertical,
(7) the Law of Synchronous Providence.

The human fall refers to the fact that human beings lost their original position and state. Restoration is the process of regaining the lost position and state. Yet, in order to regain the original position and state, certain conditions have to be established. The conditions for this purpose are called "conditions of indemnity." The conditions of indemnity that human beings establish are the foundation of faith and the foundation of substance.

To establish the foundation of faith means that the people must meet a leader (central figure) chosen by God and must fulfill a certain conditional object, centering on that leader, during a specified numerological period of indemnity for faith. Establishing the foundation of substance means that the people obediently follows the leader chosen by God.

When we examine history, however, we see that people in sinful societies very seldom obeyed the leaders chosen by God; instead, most of the time they persecuted them. Accordingly, the paths of righteous people, sages, and saints continually turned into courses of hardship. Yet, the hardships undergone by those righteous leaders became the sacrificial indemnity conditions that made the people of the sinful world be subjugated and restored to the side of God. In other words, with the hardships of righteous leaders as a condition, Cod made the people repent. This is the Law of Indemnity. The representative example is Jesus' crucifixion. Because of Jesus' crucifixion, many people in the sinful world were awakened to their sinfulness and repented.

Up to the present, dictators have persecuted and killed numerous religious people, righteous people, and good people, during the revolutions and in the power struggles after the revolution. Taking the suffering of the righteous people as a condition, however, God finally made the dictatorial regimes surrender, and liberated the people. Communist dictators, especially, have killed tens of millions of people and put numerous people in prison during Communist revolutions and in the power struggles after the revolutions. Taking the suffering of the people as a condition, God made the Communist regimes fall and liberated the people under Communist rule.

Since the Creator is the one and only God, the originally created man and woman were supposed always to be related to God only. Due to the fall, however, Adam came to be related to Satan also. For that reason, when God tried to relate to Adam, Satan was in a position to compete with God in relating to Adam as well. Therefore, God was unable to conduct any kind of providence through Adam as long as he continued in that kind of position. Accordingly, God separated Adam's children to the side to which God could relate, and to the side to which Satan could relate. The one separated to God's side was Abel, the younger brother, and the one separated to Satan's side was Cain, the elder brother. ⁷

God intended to restore both Cain and Abel to His side by having Cain obey Abel. The fall had occurred when the human being (Adam), who was on God's side, was subjugated by Satan's temptation. To achieve restoration through indemnity, God intended for Cain, who was on Satan's side, to obey Abel, who was on God's side. Thus, when Cain and Abel made offerings, God wanted Cain to make offering to God not directly, but rather through Abel. Instead, however, Cain hated Abel, and even killed Abel. Consequently, human history came to start as sinful history. ⁸ But there still existed the foundation of heart with which Abel, who had been separated to God's side, remained loyal to the end. So, with that foundation as a condition, God was able, throughout history, to separate people to God's side out from the Satanic world. ⁹

Starting with an individual on God's side (the good side), God has gradually expanded the sphere of the good side by establishing a family on the good side, then a tribe, a people, a nation, and a world on the good side. Yet, Satan, who was working in opposition to God's providence, has preceded God's side by starting with an individual on Satan's side (the evil side), and expanding the sphere of evil by establishing a family, a tribe, a people, a nation, and a world on the evil side. By so doing, Satan has been obstructing God's providence.

Usually, the good side conveyed God's Word to the evil side, but the evil side refused to accept that Word, and instead waged an attack with armed forces. Thus, struggles were carried out as the good side responded to those attacks. Therefore, struggles on different levels have taken place throughout history between an individual on the good side and an individual on the evil side, between a family on the good side and a family on the evil side, between a tribe on the good side and a tribe on the evil side, between a people on the good side and a people on the evil side, between a nation on the good side and ' a nation on the evil side, and finally, between the world on the good side and the world on the evil side. Thus, history has become a history of struggles between good and evil. In the process of the history of restoration, however, the good side and the evil side are not good and evil in the absolute sense. The side relatively closer to God's providence was separated to the good side, and the side relatively farther from God's providence was separated to the evil side.

After World War II, the world became separated into two large blocs, namely, the bloc on the side of good and the bloc on the side of evil. Those were the free world and the Communist world. More precisely, they were the group of countries that respected religion (especially Christianity) and the group of countries that denied religion.

The purpose for which God separated the world into the good side and the evil side was to restore both sides by having the evil side be subjugated by the good side. In the end, the entire world will be restored to God when the good side wins complete victory in the struggle between the two blocs. The unification of the free world and the Communist world will be accomplished, ultimately, when the Messiah is received. Since good and evil came into being because of the faithlessness of Adam, unification can be accomplished through the Messiah, who comes in the position of Adam.

God's purpose of creation was to realize His love through the family four-position base. That is to say, if Adam and Eve had grown according to God's Word and had perfected themselves, they would have become husband and wife centering on God, and would have given birth to children. Then, the family four-position base, consisting of God, Adam (Husband), Eve (Wife), and their children, would have been formed, and God's love would have been actualized there. Due to the fall of Adam and Eve, however, such a family four-position base centered on God could not be formed; instead, a family four-position base centered on Satan was formed, and the entire world was put under the dominion of Satan. After that, it became the central purpose of history to restore the family four-position base centered on God.

In order to restore the four-position base, God first conducted a symbolic, conditional providence, the goal of which was to establish a period with a duration signified by the number four. This is called the Law of the Restoration of the Number Four. The restoration of the number four was a condition of indemnity to restore the family four-position base numerologically. The period of the number four is realized through periods of forty days, forty years, four hundred years, and so on, during which confusion is brought about by Satan and the people on God's side undergoes hardships. Examples are Noah's forty-day flood, Moses' forty years in the wilderness, four hundred years of persecution of Christians under the Roman Empire, and so on. When such periods of indemnity were over, confusion was brought under control, in the sense that the four-position base was restored conditionally, and God's providence was able to proceed to a new stage. The Law of the Restoration of the Number Four applied not only to the history of the Israelites, but also to the history of other peoples and countries.

Arnold Toynbee noted that there were many cases in history where unification was accomplished after a period of four centuries of confusion (period of turmoil). We can cite many examples: the four centuries in the Hellenic World from the Peloponnesian War to the unification by the Roman Empire (431-31 BC); about four centuries (634-221 BC) from the period of the "Contending States" to the unification by the Ch'in and Han Empires in Chinese history; and about four centuries (1185-1597) of feudalistic anarchy from the Kamakura-Ashikaga period to the unification of all of Japan by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate in Japanese history. Toynbee did not clarify, however, the reason why such periods of four centuries appeared in history. ¹⁰ A similar case is the forty-year rule of Korea by the Japanese, starting with the Eul-sa Treaty of Protection in 1905 and ending with the liberation of Korea in 1945.

The Law of Conditioning Providence refers to the fact that, in certain cases, if a central person fulfills, or fails to fulfill, the human portion of responsibility in accordance with God's Will in one providential event, that will condition a specific providential event of a later period. This means that a providential event not only has an important significance in itself, but also may determine and condition providential events that will occur later.

For example, we know of the case in which Moses struck the rock twice in the wilderness (Deuteronomy, Ch. 20). Moses' act had, in itself, an actual necessity due to circumstances of that time, namely, to enable the thirsty Israelites in the wilderness to drink water. At the same time, however, it also had the significance of symbolizing and conditioning God's providence at Jesus' coming, at a later date.

About this matter, Divine Principle tells us the following: The rock symbolized Adam. Specifically, the rock as not bringing forth water, prior to being struck by Moses, symbolized the first Adam; in contrast, the rock as bringing forth water, after being struck once by Moses, symbolized Jesus, the Second Adam. Since water symbolizes life, the first Adam, who was in the state of spiritual death due to the human fall, could be symbolized as a rock that does not bring forth water; and Jesus, the second Adam, who would come in order to give life to dead people, could be symbolized as a rock that brings forth water. Yet, Moses, impelled by anger at the faithlessness of the Israelites, struck the rock twice; and in so doing, lie struck the rock bringing forth water, which symbolized Jesus. Through that act, the condition was established whereby, if later, when Jesus came, the Israelites were to fall into disbelief, Satan would be able to strike Jesus, who was the reality symbolized by the rock. Thus, the double striking of the rock by Moses became, in fact, the remote cause for Jesus' crucifixion due to the disbelief of the Israelites. ¹¹

This is one example from history as recorded in the Old Testament. The Law of Conditioning Providence was at work not only in this incident, but also in other historical events that were significant in God's providence. This means that providential events did riot .just happen at that time, for no particular reason, but rather, they were conditioned, to a certain degree, by various factors prior to them, and how a particular event developed, in turn, has influenced later historical events.

This is a law under which the false appears before the true one appears. Satan dominated the world, which had been created by God, by inducing the first human ancestors to fall away from God. Therefore, when Satan tried to create a non-principled world of a pseudo-principle type, in advance of, and imitating God's providence, God could not but allow it. So, God has had to carry forward His providence to build the principled world by following the footsteps of Satan. The non-principled world created by Satan is false; thus, even though it may prosper, its prosperity is only temporary. As God's providence progresses, Satan's non-principled world cannot but eventually collapse.

The ultimate goal of the Providence of Restoration is to actualize, on earth, a world in which the ideal of creation centered on God is realized, that is, one state in which the entire world is united. That is the kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, where God is the supreme sovereign. That world was supposed to be realized only through the coming of the Messiah. Satan, however, knew God's plan, and he stole the contents of the providence in advance, established Messianic persons on the Satanic side before the coming (and before the second coming) of the Messiah, and attempted to create an ideal state on the Satanic side. That is why a false Messiah and a false unified world appeared first.

A good example of this is the appearance of the Roman Empire prior to the coming of Jesus. Julius Caesar appeared in the Roman Empire, conquered all of Gaul, incorporated it into the Roman Empire, and accomplished the unification of the Roman Empire (45 BC). After lie was assassinated, Augustus (Octavian) brought the civil war under control (31 BC), and unified the entire Mediterranean area, building what was virtually a world empire. The peaceful and happy period of the Roman Empire was called the Pax Romana and lasted for about two centuries. Julius Caesar and Augustus were messianic figures on the Satanic side. They created a false unified world of peace and happiness in advance of the great unified world of everlasting love, peace, and happiness that was to be built through the coming of the true Messiah (Jesus). As it turned out, Jesus was crucified with his mission uncompleted, and therefore the true unified world, or true ideal world, did not appear at that time.

At the time of the Second Coming as well, a false Lord of the Second Advent (a false Messiah) and a false ideal world appear in advance of the providence of the Second Coming. That false Messiah was Stalin, and the false ideal world was the Communist World. Stalin, in fact, was revered as "the sun of humankind," like a Messiah, and aimed to unify the world through Communism. Stalin died in 1953, but from a providential viewpoint, that was the time when the official course of the providence of the Second Coming was to start. The subsequent division of international Communism was a foreshadowing of the collapse of the false unified world and the start of the true unified world.

According to the Law of the Horizontal Reappearance of the Vertical, the vertical reappears as horizontal at the time of the consummation of the history of restoration. "Vertical" refers to the passage of time, and "horizontal" refers to spatial expansion.

In other words, the vertical refers to history, and the horizontal refers to the present-time world. Accordingly, the horizontal reappearance of the vertical means that God conducts His providence in a way that all the providential events and persons of history reappear symbolically, on the worldwide level, at the consummation of history. In this manner, God has sought to resolve, at one time, all the various problems (events) that ended unresolved due to failures of providential figures at various times in history up to that particular time, and to complete the history of the providence of restoration.

For example, in the two-thousand-year period of the providence of restoration from Adam to Abraham, the vertical indemnity conditions that had been invaded by Satan were restored through indemnity by the three generations of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. At the time of Jesus, the providential events that had ended in failure due to the invasion of Satan during the four thousand years from Adam to Jesus were made to reappear by God horizontally so that they might be restored through indemnity at one time. Accordingly, at the time of the providence of the Second Coming, all the events invaded by Satan in the six-thousand-year history from Adam must reappear horizontally and be restored through indemnity, centering on the Lord of the Second Coming.

Rarely in history was a providential event completely resolved before the next providence began. History passed with almost all of the providential events unresolved, having been concluded only conditionally. As long as these historical events remain unresolved, there can be no true peace on earth. The problems of today's society can be resolved completely by resolving all those historical events.

For example, there are conflicts between Israel and the Arab nations today. This is the reappearance of the struggles between the Israelites and their surrounding peoples in the Old Testament days. Accordingly, it is difficult to resolve the present-day conflict between Israel and the Arabs merely as a political problem. When it comes to the consummation of history in the last days, various unexpected events happen one after another, and the world is thrown into confusion. This is so because the various unresolved problems from past history reappear in the present period through the work of the Law of the Horizontal Reappearance of the Vertical. Such confusion and conflicts will come to be fundamentally resolved only through receiving the Lord of the Second Coming and reconciling, through God's love, people in conflicting relationships.

The reason why God causes the events of history to reappear in the Last Days, whereby they become fundamentally resolved, is that God wishes to achieve two purposes: first, to recondition the six thousand year history as though it had been developing all along without the fall, thus sweeping away the memories of the numerous miserable events in history once and for all; and second, to subjugate Satan completely by eliminating all conditions for accusation by Satan.

The Law of Synchronous Providence is a law under which a providence conducted in a certain period in the past is repeated at a later period. Such two providential periods, which are in the relationship of time-identity, display similar aspects in terms of central figures, main events, numerological time periods, etc. This is because, in case a certain providential central figure did not fulfill his or her portion of responsibility, the providential period centered on that particular person would come to an end, and after a certain period of time, another person would be established to restore through indemnity the historical course of the previous period. In such cases, since conditions of indemnity are gradually compounded together with the prolongation of the providence of restoration, the previous period would not be repeated precisely as before, but rather would be repeated on a higher dimension. Consequently, history has come to develop in a spiral.

Then, how did the Law of Synchronous Providence work in history? In the providence of restoration centered on the family level, during the two-thousand-year period from Adam to Abraham (the Providential Age for the Foundation of Restoration), the Messiah was unable to come due to the non-completion of the providence. As a result, the two-thousand-year period of the providence of restoration centered oil the Israelites from Abraham to Jesus (tile Providential Age of Restoration) appeared as the synchronous providence. Since the two-thousand-year period from Abraham to Jesus for the providence of restoration centered on the Israelites also ended in non-completion due to tile crucifixion of Jesus, the two-thousand-year period of the providence of restoration (Providential Age of the Prolongation of Restoration) centered on Christianity from Jesus until today appeared as its synchronous providence. Arranging the characteristics of synchronism of the two periods of the two thousand years from Abraham to Jesus and the two thousand years from Jesus until today, we have a diagram as in Fig. 8-1.

Fig. 8-1: The Providential Synchronism of the Period of the Providence of Restoration and the Period of Prolongation of the Providence of Restoration.

Synchronism in history was discovered by Oswald Spengler. He said that all cultures develop according to the same formula, and therefore, similar events appear in any two cultures of the world. He described these corresponding events as "synchronous.'"

Arnold Toynbee discovered synchronism in history at about the same time as Spengler. While lecturing on Thucydides, Toynbee explained how he had realized that the history of ancient Greece and modern Western history are synchronous:

The year 1914 caught me at the University of Oxford, teaching the history of classical Greece. In August 1914, it flashed in my mind that the fifth-century BC historian Thucydides had had already tile experience that was now overtaking me. He, like me, had been overtaken by a fratricidal great war between the states into which his world had been divided politically. Thucydides had foreseen that his generation's great war would be epoch making for his world, and the sequel had proved him right. I now saw that classical Greek history and modern Western history were, in terms of experience, contemporary with each other. Their courses ran parallel. They could be studied comparatively. ¹³ (italics added)

Toynbee dealt with ancient Greek history and modern Western history as synchronous. In the Unification view of history, ancient Greek history was the period of the preparation for the coming of the Messiah, and modern Western history is the period of' the preparation for the Second Coming of tile Messiah. These two periods have synchronism, and the essential significance of their synchronism is that each is a preparation period for receiving the Messiah.