The Detour a.k.a. The Fall of Man

The previous sections roughly explained the original ideal world as seen by the movement. This section focuses on the deviation and its implications. The theories related to the fall are the basis for understanding the process of recreation as the movement sees it. This process covers the entire human history – not only the history of religions.

According to the teaching the deviation occurred due to a sexual relationship between the first woman and an angel – the archangel Lucifer. The Principle goes into much detail relating the steps of the fall to the Bible. However, the description of the Fall are not a result of Biblical analysis. In his speeches Sun Myung Moon provides considerable details that, according to his own words, are result of research in the spirit world.

The Principle also presents some general observations, independent of the Bible, like the fact that throughout human history illicit sexual relationships have been a prime cause of  downfalls of individuals and nations.

In addition, I know many members who intuitively and easily accepted the explanations as true, based on their own experiences and observations.

The Fall – Part I and II

The sexual relationship between the angel and the woman is called the ‘spiritual fall’. The woman then somehow realized that something had gone wrong. She also realized that originally the man was supposed to be her sexual partner, somehow, sometime. In an attempt to undo the spiritual fall she approached him with the desire to start a sexual relationship with him instead of the angel. The fall was completed when he responded and they fell together. This second part of the fall is also referred to as the ‘physical fall’.

These occurrences have some important implications.

First of all, they resulted in a change of ownership. As explained earlier, human beings are destined to become the owner of the cosmos, once they reach a certain level of perfection and their character resembles God’s character. Technically, the ultimate owner is God,  the creator. But according to Sun Myung Moon this is less important than the fact that God is the ultimate parent of human beings.

At the point where humans reach individual perfection they ‘inherit’ God’s ownership of the cosmos. Thus, in the original design, perfected human beings occupy the highest position in the cosmos, second only to God, who exists outside of time and space.

That helps to understand an important implication of the fall. At the moment where the first woman decided to follow the idea of the angel, starting a sexual relationship with him, she surrendered the entire cosmos to him. At the moment where humans began to follow the angel instead of God and their own internal judgment, they sold out and became servants of a servant.

The Principle here quotes numerous supporting Biblical sources, which refer to the fallen angel - now under the name ‘Satan’ - as ‘king’, ‘ruler’ or ‘father’.

According to the teaching, the purpose of history from that moment on until today has been to reverse the fall. The ultimate outcome of this process will be a world according to the original ideal, where humans are qualified to be the owner, a position which they never occupied until now.

The teaching does not allow for eternal damnation into hell. A consequent application of the principles laid out in the first chapter of the black book leads to the concept of a world, where no evil exists. Satan as a fallen angel will have disappeared, but not so Lucifer the archangel. According to the teaching Satan will cease to be evil and as Lucifer assume his original position and function.

The concept that in eternity evil does not exist has far reaching consequences. Even the most vicious criminal will in the end be forgiven and make his way towards heaven, no matter how long that may take. The fact that Sun Myung Moon has given the holy blessing of marriage to criminals and murderers like Hitler, Stalin and others along with saints like Jesus, Confucius and Buddha and others is a consequent application of this teaching.