Because Adam and Eve fell, the Principle of Creation was left unfulfilled.
Ever since the Fall, God has been working to restore man and woman to their true state.
This is called the dispensation of restoration. In this chapter, we will examine God's foundational work in the history of restoration.
Since God began His work through the chosen people of Israel, the history of the Old Testament forms the record of the dispensation of restoration from Adam to Jesus.
God's original plan for Adam and Eve involved their successfully establishing two foundations:
The Foundation of Faith and the Foundation of Substance as qualifications for God to bless them in marriage:
• By faithfully obeying God's commandment not to eat of the fruit" for a certain period during their growing period, Adam and Eve would have established an unshakable Foundation of Faith.
• By uniting their hearts and bodies with God's heart and word, Adam and Eve would have reached the Perfection Stage and substantiated themselves as mature children of God, thus qualifying themselves for His marriage blessing.
We call this process of incarnating God's heart and word the Foundation of Substance. The archangel would have willingly submitted to them as the embodiment of divine love and channel of God's favor.
• Then Adam and Eve would have qualified themselves to receive God's blessing in marriage. Because of the Fall, the Foundation of Faith and the Foundation of Substance were both lost. The restoration process involves paying restitution to reestablish these foundations.
• Adam and Eve lost faith in God's word and fell to a position lower than that of creation. (Jer. 17:9) To establish the Foundation of Faith, people representing Adam needed to make offerings and to keep faith in God's word for a certain period.
• Adam was unable to become an embodiment of divine love, and the archangel was unable to submit to him as the channel of God's favor. The archangel's motivation for the Fall is passed on to all people as fallen nature.
To establish a Foundation of Substance, the person in Adam's position must win the heart of the person in the archangel's position, and that person must make a condition to overcome fallen nature and receive God's favor through the person in Adam's position.
• Adam and Eve did not receive God's blessing in marriage. The establishment of the Foundation of Faith and Substance together constitutes the Foundation for the Messiah.
Once this was established by the Israelites, Jesus could come as the new Adam and open the way for God to bless people in marriage.
Understanding this process provides a key to unravel the mysterious way in which God has worked with mankind in the Bible and throughout history.
It also gives us a guideline that each of us can use in our own personal restoration process. Each one of us, in our way, is destined to walk the path of restoration.
Young Oon Kim