Foundation for the Messiah

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Foundation for the Messiah is one of the most important concepts in the Divine Principle, the teaching of the Unification Church.

The Divine Principle explains that in order for fallen people to receive the Messiah and be cleansed of original sin they need to establish a foundation for the Messiah. The course of laying the foundation for the Messiah needs to follow the course which Adam's family should have taken at the beginning of human history.

The foundation for the Messiah consists of two parts. The foundation of faith restores a person, called a central figure, to the position of perfected Adam through making an offering over a set time period. The foundation of substance makes a condition to remove fallen nature by restoring the proper relationship between two central figures, originally Cain and Abel. [1]

The foundation for the Messiah can be established on different levels. The Divine Principle teaches that the conflict between democracy and communism was a part of the foundation of substance on a world level, with democracy being in the position of Abel and communism in the position of Cain.[2]

Rev. Ken Sudo, one of the church's most respected teachers of Divine Principle, said about the foundation for the Messiah on the individual level:

In your insides, we must establish a foundation for the Messiah, in our own insides. This is your portion of responsibility. Otherwise, the Messiah will be here on earth, the Messiah of mankind, but he won't be the Messiah for you. He'll just be a great man. "Oh, he is great." That's all. Just like Hitler. The German people must have felt this way -"He's great; he's powerful." No difference, no big difference. There is no preparation for the Messiah. This is the problem. [3]