Welcome to Discovering the Divine Principle, based on the revelation from God to the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.   In the previous session on the Second Coming, we showed that

2 the Messiah would be born on earth around the year 1917. This session will be especially important because I will be sharing with you who the Messiah is and how

3 he is saving humanity. Who is the Messiah? Is he

4 God? Is he

5 man? Is he both?

6 Jesus, the Messiah, was clearly a man, but he was different from us in his relationship with God.   The best way to understand this is to take a closer look at God’s

7 original plan of creation.   In previous sessions we learned that the ideal of God’s creation is a family rooted in God’s love.

8 The first man, Adam, and the first woman, Eve, were to have fulfilled the first blessing as the true son and daughter of God, just as Jesus was a true son of God. On that foundation they were to have been blessed in marriage. God would have been present in their love as husband and wife and He would have also have been present in their children. This would have been God’s family

9 and the children and future generations of that family would have been born in God’s love.   If this ideal had been realized by our first ancestors

10 there would have been no need for a Messiah.

11 There would have been no need for religion. Each person would have experienced the love of God and would have possessed divine value. We also learned why this ideal was not realized. We learned that the first man and woman did not connect in heart with God. Instead,

12 the fallen archangel initiated a selfish relationship of love with

13 Eve. Eve extended that selfish love to

14 Adam and the three of them created a realm far from God. Adam and Eve’s union was a corrupted seed that multiplied to become the

15 tree of humanity. We are born separated from God. In John 8:44 Jesus taught that we are born of our father

16 the devil. This is why we do not feel

17 divine value. It is why we do not experience God’s direct presence. This means that to save humanity, the Messiah needs to empower us to change our birth, to

18 move from being descendants of the fallen tree to the tree rooted in God’s love.   Jesus understood this. This is why he taught in John 3:3 that if we are not born again we will never see the Kingdom of God. Paul also understood this. In Romans 8:23 he taught that our salvation would be completed

19 through adoption. Adoption, like rebirth, is about changing parents, so that we can be in a place where God can recognize us as His children.

20 In order to create God’s family, God needs to have someone who fills the position that Adam could not. That person, the Son of God, is Jesus. Most importantly, Jesus came to restore

21 a woman in the position of Eve, God’s true daughter. The image of God is male and female. This means that Jesus is not the

22 invisible God who created the universe. Jesus is in the position of Adam, not God the Creator. Like Adam, Jesus was born without sin. Just as the first Adam had to grow to be one with God,

23 Jesus also had to grow. Hebrews 5:8 states that “he learned obedience through what he suffered.” But unlike Adam, Jesus succeeded in becoming the son in whom God was “well pleased.”

24 In John 14:11 Jesus said that he and God are one, and in that sense we can say that he is God. But we should not forget that Jesus, in John 14:20

25 taught that we are all to become one in heart with God.   Jesus himself said in Matthew 24:36 that there were things God knew that he did not know. And there is another reason the Messiah must be a man.

26 In Romans 5:19, it is written “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man’s obedience many will be made righteous.” Only a man can fix the mistake that a man committed. God did not fall. The fall did not take place in the realm of

27 God’s portion of responsibility. It took place in the human realm of responsibility. Therefore, only a man and woman can fix it. If God was responsible for the fall, He would have fixed it a long time ago.   Evil has dominated this world for such a long time because it came from man and woman, and it is

28 man and woman’s responsibility. Adam made the mistake, so another Adam needs to restore it.

29 Jesus is that person.   So how exactly does the Messiah save humanity? He does so as a

30 living Son of God, received by God’s people, and as the living Messiah, he stands as

31 the new Adam who is able to find

32 the new Eve, the woman sent to fix the mistake of the first Eve. This is why in Matthew 9:15 Jesus referred to himself as

33 the bridegroom. He came to find his bride. God’s ideal is the family, and so you need

34 a man and woman. Jesus alone could not fully reflect God’s nature. He needed a woman in order to

35 form a family. If while on earth, Jesus had been accepted as the Messiah,

36 God would have blessed

37 Jesus and his bride together in marriage, fulfilling the original purpose of creation. Together they would have

38 given birth to children born directly from God’s love. And, not only would they have given birth to their own children, but through their family they would have been able to

39 give rebirth to all humanity. In this way

40 the Kingdom of God on earth would have been restored. Sadly Jesus was not accepted. Jesus was murdered by the sinful world, and that is why he

41 could not find his bride, and could not create God’s family. Nevertheless, because of his victory on the cross, God could resurrect Jesus. It is the resurrected Jesus, working together with

42 the Holy Spirit, who gives rebirth. Jesus and the Holy Spirit are spiritual True Parents giving spiritual rebirth. Rebirth through Jesus and the Holy Spirit, although it allows us to be forgiven and to connect in heart with Jesus,

43 does not end our connection to the lineage of sin.

44 we can experience God through faith, but we are besieged by

45 evil. All denominations of the Christian faith recognize this. Children of saved parents are born in sin. They, like their parents before them, need to be reborn.   They are not freed from the lineage of

46 the first Adam and Eve, who started a false relationship of love. They have

47 Jesus who, after his crucifixion, was resurrected and together with the Holy Spirit give rebirth. They experience God through faith, but not God’s ideal in marriage, family or society.

48 Now, God has sent the Messiah as True Parents. Let’s assume that the Messiah is here, as a physical man. What should we expect to see? Like Jesus, we would expect religious leaders to persecute him and for society to attack him, as Jesus prophesied in Luke 17:25—

49 “First he must suffer many things, and be rejected by this generation.” In fact this person was imprisoned 6 times, spending nearly 3 years in a Communist concentration camp. But he did not die. Instead, he built a church.

50 You would expect him to fulfill the biblical prophecy in Revelation 19:6-7 “…the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.” Rev Moon and his bride, Hak Ja Han Moon, were blessed in marriage in 1960. They accomplished the Marriage of the Lamb.

You would expect them to reveal the true heart of God, the purpose for which He created us, the original sin, His parental sorrow, the mission and heart of Jesus, and how God has been working in history to bring salvation. 51

This is the content that we have been sharing with you from the Divine Principle, the revelation that Rev Moon received. Rev. and Mrs. Moon announced to the world that they are the True Parents. They call us to become members of God’s family. And how will we become a part of God’s family? It is actually not complicated. 52

It is through the Holy Marriage Blessing It is through the Holy Marriage Blessing. It is not only for the Messiah; it’s for all people. We return to God as couples. 53

We are designed to relate to an eternal spouse, in the realm of perfect love, and to fulfill the ideal of creation. Every man is called to stand as a true Adam and every woman is called to stand as a true Eve, and together they stand as a true couple in the Holy Marriage Blessing. 54

In this ceremony, before God and the entire world, man and wife affirm God and True Parents’ Blessing and pledge to stay together forever, to raise their children to receive the Blessing, and to convey God’s Blessing to people of all races, nations and religions. 55

56 Everyone who comes to God, no matter their past mistakes, is welcomed.

57 God knows that we will each bring with us a lot of baggage. Therefore, our spiritual community serves to build and support marriage and family life, and give birth to a new culture.  

58 Whether you are single or married, we invite you to learn more about what it means to be a member of God’s family.

59 Please get involved with others who are studying the Divine Principle in your area.   Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a family blessed by God, that is on the path, together with families from all around the world, to realize a world of peace, freedom and happiness that is rooted in the love of God?

We open that door to you. We would like to answer your questions, talk about your concerns, and help you feel part of the family. Thank you for joining us.