Fallen Nature

Korean: 타락성본성 (Tarakseong Bonseong)
Hanja: 墮落性本性
Also known as: The Four Fallen Natures; Inherited Fallen Nature; Characteristics of the Fallen Nature
Primary source: Exposition of the Divine Principle, Chapter 2: The Human Fall, Section 4

What is Fallen Nature?

Fallen nature (타락성본성, Tarakseong Bonseong) is the term used in Unification theology to describe the four fundamental distortions of human character that were transmitted to all of humanity through the Fall of the first human ancestors, Adam and Eve.

These are not sins in the sense of individual acts of disobedience — they are structural deformations of the human personality that operate before any specific action, shaping the direction of desire, the pattern of relationships, and the orientation of the will. Every human being, without exception, is born carrying these four distorted tendencies in their spiritual and psychological makeup, as an inherited consequence of the Fall.

The four fallen natures are not externally imposed — they entered human nature at the root level through the corruption of the lineage. Because the Fall was a lineage event (the introduction of Satan's bloodline into the human family), its consequences are transmitted through birth, not through imitation or social conditioning alone. This is why they are called bonseong (본성, 本性) — “root nature” or “original nature” — the baseline dispositions with which every fallen person enters the world.

The four fallen natures are not simply bad habits. They are structural deformations of the heart — the distorted pattern through which fallen humanity relates to God, to other people, and to the created world. Removing them requires not merely better behaviour but a transformation of the root.

— Exposition of the Divine Principle, Sun Myung Moon

Section I — Etymology and Terminological Analysis

The term is built from three elements. 타락 (tarak, 墮落) means “fall” or “descent from a proper position”—a term used in Korean for both physical falling and moral/spiritual degeneration. 성 (seong, 性) denotes “nature,” “character,” or “disposition” — the intrinsic qualities of a being. 본성 (bonseong, 本性) adds the character 본 (本, root/original), indicating that these are root-level, not surface-level, characteristics.

The full compound thus means: the root-nature-as-constituted-by-the-fall — the set of dispositional tendencies that define fallen humanity's natural orientation from the inside out, as distinguished from the individual sins or specific moral failures that arise from those tendencies.

In the Exposition of the Divine Principle, the four fallen natures are derived directly from the analysis of how the Fall occurred: each of the four natures corresponds to a specific failure in the relationship between Lucifer, Eve, and Adam during the process of the Fall, and each is the opposite of the corresponding aspect of the original, God-intended nature (changjo bonseong, 창조본성, original created nature).

Section II — The Four Fallen Natures in the Exposition of the Divine Principle

The Divine Principle identifies the four fallen natures as follows, deriving each from the dynamics of the Fall itself:

1. Failing to Take God's Standpoint (離神的行動 — Isinjeokin Haengdong)

The first and foundational fallen nature is the failure to view people and situations from God's perspective — to act from one's own limited, self-centered standpoint rather than from the standpoint of God and of the whole.

This nature derives directly from Lucifer's first failure: he did not view Adam and Eve from God's standpoint as the beloved children whom God most valued. Instead, he viewed them from his own standpoint — as rivals who would displace him in God's love. Had Lucifer maintained God's perspective, he would have rejoiced at Adam's and Eve's growth and would have served them as the archangel was created to do.

The reversal of this fallen nature is the first requirement in the course of restoration: to learn to see every person and every situation from God's point of view — with God's love, God's grief, and God's providential purpose as the interpretive framework. In the Unification movement, this is expressed as the discipline of simseongsaenghwal (심성생활): cultivating the inner life of attendance to God, so that God's perspective gradually becomes one's own.

2. Leaving One's Proper Position (離位的行動 — Iwijeokin Haengdong)

The second fallen nature is the tendency to leave one's proper position in the relational order — to reach above one's station, to step outside the boundary of one's God-given role, to claim authority that does not properly belong to oneself.

This nature derives from Lucifer's departure from the archangel's position. Lucifer was created as a servant of God and an assistant to Adam and Eve; his position was not one of receiving direct love from God as a child but of reflecting and transmitting God's love as a messenger. When he departed from this position and reached for the kind of love that belonged to God's children, he left the orbit of the Principle.

In fallen humanity, this nature manifests as the perpetual tendency to overreach — to claim more authority than one has been given, to refuse the limitations of one's role, to grasp at positions belonging to others. In the context of providential history, every central figure who failed to remain in his God-designated position — who acted as if he were at a higher stage than he had actually reached — repeated this foundational fallen nature. In personal life, it appears as the refusal to submit to proper authority, the impatience that skips the process of growth, and the arrogance that mistakes self-will for God's will.

3. Reversing Dominion (轉倒主管 — Jeondo Jugwan)

The third fallen nature is the reversal of the proper order of dominion — the tendency of those who should be following to lead, and those who should be leading to be led by the wrong influences.

This nature derives from the reversal that occurred during the Fall: Eve, who should have been guided by Adam toward God's love, came instead to be guided by Lucifer, who was in the position of a servant to Adam. The one in the object position (the archangel) came to dominate the one in the subject position (Eve, then Adam). The created order was inverted at its most fundamental relational level.

In fallen humanity, this nature expresses itself in the chronic reversal of the proper hierarchy of values: the body dominating the mind, material concerns overriding spiritual ones, self-interest overruling conscience, the desires of the moment overriding the long-term purposes of love. The most visible manifestation is the conflict between mind and body that every fallen person experiences — the fact that one knows what is right but finds oneself acting against one's own better judgment. This conflict is the signature of the third fallen nature operating within the individual person.

The four fallen natures are rooted in the Fall, which began when the archangel, who was in the position of servant, came to exercise dominion over Adam and Eve, who were in the position of God's children. This reversal of dominion is the origin of all the disorder in human relationships.

— Exposition of the Divine Principle, Sun Myung Moon

4. Multiplying Evil (惡의 蕃殖 — Agui Beonshik)

The fourth fallen nature is the tendency to propagate and transmit the effects of the fallen nature to others — to draw others into one's own fallen condition rather than lifting them toward God.

This nature derives from Eve's action after her fall with Lucifer: rather than returning immediately to God and confessing what had happened, she turned to Adam and transmitted the fallen condition to him. Had Eve separated from Lucifer immediately, repented, and sought God's forgiveness, the physical fall might have been prevented. Instead, she propagated the fallen relationship to Adam, multiplying the range of the Fall.

In fallen humanity, this nature expresses itself as the universal tendency to draw others into patterns of sin, dysfunction, and separation from God. It is not merely that fallen people sin — it is that they spread their fallen patterns through relationships, families, cultures, and institutions.

The transmission of the fallen lineage through birth, the socialization of children into fallen patterns of relating, the spread of cultures of self-centeredness, promiscuity, and abuse — all are expressions of the fourth fallen nature operating at different scales.

Section III — The Relationship between the Four Fallen Natures and Original Sin

The four fallen natures are closely related to, but distinct from, Original Sin (wonjoe, 원죄) in Unification theology. Original Sin refers specifically to the illicit love relationship that established Satan's lineage in humanity — the root event from which all subsequent spiritual death and fallen condition descend. The four fallen natures are the psychological and dispositional consequences of that root event: the specific ways in which the human personality was deformed by inhabiting a lineage rooted in the wrong kind of love.

The relationship can be stated precisely: Original Sin is the cause; the four fallen natures are the structural effects of that cause operating at the level of character and disposition. A person might have Original Sin removed through the Blessing — the sacramental act through which the lineage is restored — and yet still carry the dispositional tendencies of the four fallen natures, which must be overcome through the ongoing work of spiritual growth, indemnity, and the daily practice of living for others.

This distinction has important practical consequences for Blessed Families: receiving the Blessing is not the end of the spiritual life but its new beginning. The four fallen natures do not disappear at the Blessing — they remain as the terrain within which the Blessed Family must work to perfect its heart, to overcome the archangelic tendencies, and to establish the God-centered dominion of mind over body, heart over habit, and true love over self-interest.

Section IV — The Four Fallen Natures and the Original Four Natures

Each fallen nature is the exact inversion of a corresponding original created nature, which Unification Thought calls changjo bonseong (창조본성). The parallel is precise:

The original nature corresponding to the first fallen nature is attending God's standpoint — the capacity to see all things with God's love and God's perspective as the governing framework. The original human being would naturally have perceived every person and every event through the lens of divine love.

The original nature corresponding to the second is remaining in one's proper position — the capacity to inhabit one's role fully, to receive the love appropriate to one's position, and to act with authority only within the boundaries of that position. The original Adam would have been content with being God's son; the original archangel would have been content with being God's servant.

The original nature corresponding to the third is proper dominion — mind governing body, conscience governing impulse, the purposes of love governing the desires of the moment. In the unfallen human being, there would have been no conflict between mind and body because both would have been oriented toward the same center: God's love.

The original nature corresponding to the fourth is multiplying goodness — the natural tendency of someone rooted in God's lineage to draw others toward God, to elevate rather than drag down, to transmit the blessings received rather than the failures accumulated.

The goal of the spiritual life in Unification teaching is the progressive replacement of the four fallen natures with their original counterparts — not through external enforcement but through the inner transformation that comes from a life centered on true love, family, and service.

Section V — Providential Context: The Three Ages and the Fallen Natures

The four fallen natures have been addressed at successively deeper levels across the three providential ages.

In the Old Testament Age, the Mosaic Law provided external restraint on the expression of the fallen natures. The law said “thou shalt not” — it addressed the behavioral consequences of the fallen natures without transforming the natures themselves. Fallen humanity could avoid certain specific violations; the underlying dispositions remained.

In the New Testament Age, Jesus taught that the root of sin lies within the heart — that anger is already the seed of murder, that lust is already the seed of adultery (Matthew 5:21-28). This represented a profound advance in diagnosis: the fallen natures were identified as interior realities, not merely exterior behaviors. The work of the Holy Spirit was to begin the interior transformation. Yet because Jesus could not establish the restored family through the Blessing, the physical transmission of Original Sin — and with it the four fallen natures through the bloodline — continued.

In the Completed Testament Age, the Blessing Ceremony attacks the four fallen natures at their root by severing the satanic lineage and grafting the individual into God's direct lineage. The Holy Wine removes the condition of the fallen nature at the lineage level. The subsequent life of the Blessed Family — Hoon Dok Hae, daily prayer, jeongseong, living for others, service as Tribal Messiahs — is the long, practical work of replacing the four fallen natures with their original counterparts, family member by family member, generation by generation.

Section VI — Comparative Perspective

Christianity

The Christian doctrine of concupiscence — the disordered desires that remain in a person even after baptism — is the closest structural parallel to the four fallen natures in the Catholic tradition. The Council of Trent affirmed that concupiscence, while not itself sin in the full sense, is the “tinder of sin” (fomes peccati) — the remaining disposition toward evil that must be resisted throughout the Christian life. Protestant theology, following Luther and Calvin, is more emphatic: fallen humanity is radically corrupted in its will (servum arbitrium, the bondage of the will), not merely in its impulses.

Unification theology agrees with the Catholic assessment that fallen dispositions persist after the initial act of salvation but goes further in identifying their specific structure (the four natures) and their specific cure (lineage change through the Blessing, followed by the life of the Blessed Family).

Buddhism

The Buddhist analysis of human suffering traces it to three “poisons” (klesha): greed (lobha), hatred (dosa), and delusion (moha). These three root defilements drive the cycle of karma and rebirth and are deeply structural — not merely habitual behaviors but the fundamental orientation of the unawakened mind.

The parallel to the fallen natures is illuminating: both traditions identify a set of root distortions that operate before specific actions, that are transmitted across generations (through lineage or through karma), and that require sustained spiritual practice — not merely moral effort — to overcome. The significant difference is that Buddhism locates the root distortions in the structure of desire and consciousness, while Unification theology locates them in a specific historical event (the Fall) that corrupted a specific relational structure (the lineage of love).

Confucianism

The Neo-Confucian tradition debated extensively whether human nature is originally good (Mencius) or originally evil (Xunzi), and how to account for the gap between the ideal of the junzi (exemplary person) and the reality of human moral failure. The Neo-Confucian synthesis (particularly Zhu Xi's school) held that human nature is originally good (xing, 性) but that it is obscured by material desires (qi, 氣) and can be recovered through self-cultivation, study, and the rectification of the mind.

Unification theology is structurally closer to Mencius's position (human nature is originally good, not originally evil) but introduces a historical explanation for why the original goodness has been obscured: the Fall was a concrete event that introduced specific distortions (the four fallen natures) into what was originally a perfectly good created nature. The solution is not merely self-cultivation but lineage restoration — addressing the root cause rather than only managing the symptoms.

Unification Thought

Unification Thought: Theory of the Original Human Nature presents the complement to the four fallen natures: the original human being was a being of Heart (shimjeong), of Logos (reason-in-law), and of Creativity. The original human nature was constituted by these three positive capacities operating in harmony, under God's love.

The four fallen natures represent the distortion of this original nature at its relational level: instead of a being that receives and transmits God's love (Heart), a being that acts within its proper position (Logos), and a being that creates and multiplies goodness (Creativity), fallen humanity is characterized by self-centered perception (first nature), positional transgression (second), reversed dominion (third), and the multiplication of evil (fourth).

The project of restoring the original human nature — which Unification Thought calls the “True Person” (cham ingan) — is identical to the project of overcoming the four fallen natures. Both describe the same transformation from opposite directions: one describes what is to be gained, the other describes what is to be overcome.

Section VII — The Four Fallen Natures in the Life of a Blessed Family

For Blessed Families, the four fallen natures serve not only as theological concepts but as a practical diagnostic framework — a map of the interior terrain that must be navigated in the daily life of marriage, parenting, and community.

The first fallen nature manifests in family life as the tendency to view one's spouse, children, or fellow members through one's own emotional lens rather than through God's heart: to see failures instead of God's beloved children, to react from pride instead of responding from love.

The second appears as the tendency to overstep one's role — the husband who dominates where he should serve, the wife who withdraws where she should engage, the parent who projects rather than guides, the leader who forgets that authority is a gift to be used for others.

The third appears most intimately as the conflict between mind and body within each person — the gap between what one believes and what one does, between the standard one holds for others and the standard one applies to oneself. The restoration of mind-body unity is one of the seven conditions of citizenship in Cheon Il Guk and is explicitly named in the Family Pledge as a foundational requirement.

The fourth appears in the tendency to transmit one's own spiritual wounds to one's children — to parent out of one's unresolved pain, to draw others into circles of gossip, judgment, or despair rather than lifting them toward God. The conscious reversal of this nature — through ancestor liberation ceremonies, through the deliberate cultivation of a family culture of love and encouragement — is one of the most important practical disciplines of the Blessed Family in the Completed Testament Age.

Key Texts

Exposition of the Divine Principle — The Human Fall — primary doctrinal source; the four fallen natures are developed in Chapter 2, Section 4

Original Sin — the root cause from which the four fallen natures derive as consequences

The Human Fall — comparative religious perspective on the Fall across traditions

Selfish Desires and Fallen Nature — Rev. Moon's direct teaching on the manifestations of fallen nature

Cheon Seong Gyeong — Rev. Moon's teachings on overcoming fallen nature through living for others