Resurrection means to rise from the dead. To explain the meaning of resurrection, the definition of death must be made clear. God said to Adam and Eve, "[F] for in the day that you eat of it you shall die." (Gen. 2:17b)
However, Adam and Eve did not die physically after they ate.
What, then, is meant by death here?
Was it the fact that our physical body becomes old, dies, and returns to dust? No.
Such death is only the natural end of physical life by the Principle of Creation. No physical body is created to live for eternity.
Humans, however, are apt to attach themselves to this physical life because we are unaware of the fact that our spirit-person lives forever in the spirit world after separation from the body.
Therefore, the separation of the spirit-person from the physical body is not death in God's sight. Death is the absence of give and take with God and originated with our separation from Him.
It is the spiritual state in which we cannot perceive God's love and thus cannot respond to it. This death is caused by the original sin and the domination of Satan. Adam and Eve, who had grown to the highest degree of the Growth Stage, violated God's command and fell far below the first degree of the Formation Stage.
Accordingly, their descendants are born there and must advance to the stages of Growth and Perfection. Resurrection begins with the process of restoring our original nature, and the goal of resurrection is the attainment of Perfection.
There was no basic change in the physical appearance of Adam and Eve after their fall. Likewise, there is no major outward change as one experiences resurrection, but there does occur a vast spiritual change which alters the character of one's life.'
Our removal from Satan's domain to God's is indeed a radical change. Once our resurrection is completed, Satan no longer has control over us.
Sun Myung Moon
Resurrection in History
Resurrection to the Formation Stage
To start the dispensation of resurrection, a foundation first had to be laid.
Toward this end, God began working in Adam's family. During the 2,000 biblical years after Adam, God continued to work through human beings to lay the foundation.
But until Abraham and his family were chosen, the foundation was not laid because those who were called for this task failed. At the time of Abraham, even God's chosen people, the Hebrews, were such a distance from God that they could approach Him only through animal sacrifices and harvest offerings.
As Abraham's descendants came closer to God, after some spiritual advancement, God gave them the Ten Commandments through Moses. Later, prophets arose who elevated the spiritual life of the Israelites by teaching additional ethical and spiritual aspects of God.
Thus, they progressed spiritually from the time of Abraham. However, the Old Testament Age remained centered upon the Mosaic Law. God justified the people of this age based on their observance of the Law.
Because of their spiritual status, God could not speak to most people directly, but sent messages through His angels. Even the loyal servants of God, the patriarchs, judges, and prophets, could achieve resurrection only as high as the top of the Formation Stage.
Accordingly, their spirits were Form-Spirits, and through their work, the Formation Stage of the spirit world was established. Here they awaited the appearance of the Messiah.
Sun Myung Moon
Resurrection to the Growth Stage
On the foundation of the Formation Stage of resurrection, the advent of Jesus was realized. His mission was to raise our spiritual status from the Formation Stage through the growth stage to the Perfection Stage itself.
The degree of intensity of our love for God determines the distance between ourselves and God. The founders of non-Christian religions taught of God as a supreme deity in a vague and abstract sense, whereas Jesus taught of God as our Father and emphasized the parental love of God's nature.
In his teachings, Jesus appealed to the Israelites with the message of the longing and brokenhearted love of the Father for His lost children.
By manifesting the broken heart of the loving Father, Jesus brought his followers closer to God and elevated them above the Old Testament teachings and all other religions. In this way, Jesus was to raise his followers from the status of servants to that of children of God, the Father, and friends of Jesus himself. (John 15:14-15)
Thus, Jesus opened the way for us to approach God through love instead of law and shortened the distance to our ultimate spiritual goal. Because of his crucifixion, however, Jesus could not complete his mission and achieved only the resurrection to the Growth Stage.
Hence, those who believed in Jesus and followed his teachings could achieve resurrection to the Growth Stage, the realm where Life-Spirits dwell, and they have remained with Jesus in paradise.
Paradise has been, until now, the highest region in the spirit world, though it is only as high as the Growth Stage. Those in paradise have been eagerly
awaiting the Second Advent.
Sun Myung Moon
Resurrection to the Perfection Stage
The Second Advent is being fulfilled upon the foundation of the Growth Stage, which has been developing for the 2,000 years of the New Testament Age.
People in the last days can be resurrected to the Perfection Stage both spiritually and physically by accepting the Lord, following his teachings, and serving him.
We attain Perfection when we rid ourselves of the original sin and enter into a full relationship of love with God. In this stage, we are to form a trinity with our marriage partner under the blessing of the Lord.
Perfection, therefore, does not mean that spiritual growth stops; on the contrary, it continues forever. As Reverend Moon explains:
If the Fall of man had not happened, our life cycle would begin with love and end with love. Your life began with the love act of your father and mother.
You were born and began to grow up through the love and guidance of both your father and mother. You go on to give birth to your children, and the process is repeated, with you in the parents' position.
Furthermore, you were conceived in love, you will end your life in love, and love continues for eternity. The family is God's school of true love.
Through the ministry of the Second Advent, mankind will be brought into the position of God's children not merely conceptually, but in reality. We will enter into a complete union with God. As it is written:
"Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them." (Rev. 21:3b)
It is the great desire of Christians to participate in the first resurrection.
"Blessed and holy is he who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and Christ, and they shall reign with him a thousand years." (Rev. 20:6)
"He who shares in the first resurrection" means whoever is among the first in history to achieve the resurrection of Perfection. Such individuals become Divine-Spirits and are free from original sin.
Since they will be sealed by the Lord of the Second Advent, Satan will have no claim or control over them. In the Completed Testament Age, people will be justified not by observing the Mosaic Law or believing in Jesus, but by following and attending the Lord of the Second Coming. Those to be sealed number 144,000.
Then I looked, and lo, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads ... and they sing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders.
No one could learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousand who had been redeemed from the earth. (Rev. 14:1-3)
Those with the names of the Lamb are the ones who have attained the complete resurrection.
The number 144,000 is symbolic and is derived from 12 times 12. It represents a limited number of people who will share in the first resurrection and form the foundation for the restoration of mankind.
They are those redeemed from humankind as the first fruits for God and the Lamb, and will be the most privileged of all people, sharing joy and glory with the Lord forever.
Sun Myung Moon