
The Holy Wedding
The Marriage Supper of the Lamb prophesied in Chapter 19 of the Book of Revelation was realized through the Holy Wedding of the True Parents. This was the fulfillment of the Book of Revelation, whereby Adam and Eve, whose fall from grace is recorded in the Book of Genesis, were recovered.
The Messiah is the Returning Lord whom God sent to earth in the Last Days of human history as the Third Adam, along with the spouse God had found for him, who is the Third Eve and the embodiment of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Wedding of True Parents was the ceremony in which God blessed them as true husband and wife and as the true ancestors of humankind. Because human beings were born wrongfully, they need to be reborn; for this, they need True Parents.
Based on the Holy Wedding of the True Parents, restoration through indemnity could proceed beyond the top of the growth stage in the growing period the level at which Adam and Eve fell and became the false parents going beyond the point at which Jesus faced the disbelief of the chosen people of Israel and was made to shoulder the cross.
1. The first human ancestors were to start as good parents, but instead they started as evil parents.
Hence, all human beings were born from the lineage of evil parents. The first human beings were supposed to directly receive God's complete love as if it were meant for them alone. Having been born as
God's son and daughter, it is to remain so and live in God's bosom as His blood relations, born of His direct lineage. But this did not happen. This is why humankind must return to its original state.
For this, we need the Marriage Supper of the Lamb at which we welcome the Bridegroom and the Bride.
This means that the Lord who is to return must come to earth as the Bridegroom. He must find the Bride and is her onto the standard of Jesus, the standard that Christianity upholds.
Christianity is a religion that firmly pursues its purpose based on the standards of Jesus. This is why the democratic world is advancing because of Christian values. The democratic world is advancing in this way to, receive the True Parents.
Religion to this day has been toiling to establish the one true Son. This means that God has been endeavoring to find the one true Son. (041-028, 1971/02/12)
2. The reason the Bible is the greatest among the scriptures of the many religions is that it introduces God as the Father, the Parent of humankind. This is the foundation of the Christian faith. Next, it refers to Jesus as God's only-begotten Son. The phrase “God's only-begotten Son” means that Jesus is the first person who could receive the fullness of God's love.
Another point is that the Bible introduces the concept of the Bride. Jesus, God's only-begotten Son, came as the Bridegroom. Hence, he needs his Bride. Since there is the Bridegroom, there also must be the Bride. The Bridegroom and Bride are a man and a woman. On the day of their wedding banquet, God can finally appear holding the flag of love. God hoped to see such a banquet in the Garden of Eden. This hope was shattered; hence, in the Last Days, this wedding banquet must be held on earth. (135-125, 1985/10/04)
3. Jesus said, “I am the Son of God,” “God is my Father,” and “I am the only-begotten Son.” The only-begotten Son is the Prince of Heaven who can receive God's first love. Among God's sons, he is the only one who can receive God's first love and receive it in its fullness. Next, there must be the only-begotten Daughter. The Bridegroom is the only-begotten Son; the Bride is the only-begotten Daughter.
They must wed; this is the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. This means that when the Lord comes, he will have his wedding banquet and then raise a family. This is what God has desired ever since the creation of Adam and Eve. God's hope is for the only-begotten Son and the only-begotten Daughter to build a God-centered family, a family in which He can manifest His love in a real way. (160-272, 1969/05/17)
4. The Bible states that in the Last Days, the Messiah will come and conduct the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, at which time a man and woman join together as husband and wife forging a bond of God's lineage. Once they emerge as the True Parents of humankind, Satan cannot continue to exist.
These two people, a man and a woman who are bonded to God's lineage, are the embodiments of God the Father and the Mother, and God's original internal character and original external form.
The True Parents of humankind are motivated by God's love and move by the power of God's life. When they join together in complete union, God's love, for him, and lineage will be coursing through them. Each becomes the owner of the other with their positions constantly changing: the man in the position of the woman and the woman in the position of the man. At that point, the seeds of life, namely, their descendants, will be connected to God.
This is the ideal of creation. But due to the Fall, this ideal was shattered. To recover the lost ideal of creation, True Parents need to recover all that was lost. In doing so, True Parents represent all creation, represent humankind, and represent our Heavenly Parent. This is the essence of the providence of salvation. (325-131, 2000/06/30)
5. The Bible states that at the coming of the Lord, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb will take place.r to have this wedding banquet, Jesus needs his Bride. That Bride is Eve who was with Adam before the Fall. Jesus is the Second Adam, and the Lord at the Second Advent is the Third Adam. The Third Adam needs to come as Adam before the Fall and find Eve before the Fall. And then he must hold the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. By their marriage, the two of them will become the True Parents of humankind.
Adam and Eve should have become the good parents of humankind, but they fell and became the evil parents of humankind. Tree us to be restored, we need to meet the good parents whom Adam and Eve would have become had they not fallen.
Humankind needs good parents. The purpose of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb is for the good parents to ascend to their throne. (036-264, 1970/12/06)
6. The original human beings were not supposed to fall. They were supposed to receive God's blessing at the right time, and within the right environment, to become the true ancestors of humankind. But they failed to do so; instead, they became the fallen ancestors. Thus, the good ancestor, free from the Fall, should appear in front of all humankind. He is the one who can become the True Father to all in the spiritual world and the physical world. Christianity calls this person the Lord at the Second Advent.
The Marriage Supper of the Lamb is the banquet to which the returning Jesus comes as the True Father to bring forth a woman as the True Mother. This is the core truth of Christianity. The center of Christianity is Jesus, and the center of Jesus is love. The center of the Bible is also love. The center of love is the Bride and Bridegroom, and the center of the Bride and Bridegroom is the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
The paramount significance of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb is that the Returning Lord and his Bride receive the Marriage Blessing at the time of God's choosing and in the right environment, whereby they become the true ancestors of humankind who can inherit heaven and earth. (009-254, 1960/06/05)
7. God has been searching for the people who can represent Adam and Eve whom God had lost. The Bible calls Jesus the Second Adam. It calls Adam the Tree of Earth of life. Thus, Jesus is the one who came in place of the tree of life that had been lost.
However, he could not complete his original mission because he was unable to welcome the day of his wedding when both God and the Son could rejoice. That is why he left Earth with the promise that he would return.
The day will arrive when God and Jesus rejoice together. The day will come when they can openly express their heart filled with 6,000 years of bitter pain and sorrow. The day will come when the coming Lord can establish the bond of lineage linking God to His sons and daughters.
Suppose that when Jesus came to earth as God's only-begotten Son, he had not died on the cross. Since he was God's only-begotten Son, God surely would have sent His only-begotten Daughter to him. God has searched for 2,000 years to find the Bride. Jesus emerged as the true Son, but there is no mention of the true Daughter anywhere in the Bible. That is why God's Will was not realized.
The purpose of the 2,000-year history of Christianity has therefore been to find God's Daughter. The Holy Spirit came, but it represents this daughter of God only in spirit. God's bitter sorrow over this matter will be dissolved on the day that the Marriage Supper of the Lamb takes place. (007-303, 1959/10/11)
8. Religion up to now has been seeking one ideal man and the one ideal woman. Through religion, God has been searching for the one man and the one woman to whom He could say, “You are my total love.” The Bridegroom and the Bride in Christianity refer to God's Will to seek throughout the world for the only-begotten Son and the only-begotten Daughter who can receive God's love in its fullness.
When He finds that perfected man and perfected woman, God brings them together and holds a wedding banquet; from that to realizes a new world can unfold. That is why on his return the Lord must find the Bride and hold the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. (041-027, 1971/02/12)
9. If the first human beings had not fallen, they would have borne sons and daughters without original sin and established a family that could directly enter the kingdom of heaven in heaven. They would have stood as the True Parents.
Their family would have been one with God. Their sons and daughters would have been the offspring of God's family. However, the first family in Genesis did not fulfill the Will to establish that family; that is why, in the Book of Revelation, St. John raised the issue of establishing the Bride and the Bridegroom.
The Bridegroom is the one who comes as the perfected True Father, and the Bride is the one who appears as the True Mother, the beloved of God. If Adam and Eve had not fallen, they would have married centered on God, but due to the Fall, they married centered on Satan. True Parents must reclaim Adam and Eve on behalf of God, and then conduct the Holy Wedding centered on God. This is the Marriage Supper of the Lamb that is spoken of in the Book of Revelation. (053-037, 1972/02/06)
10. On the day when two human beings, a filial son of God and a filial daughter of God, can stand before God as the Bridegroom and Bride for the first time since the creation of heaven and earth, God will say to them, “You have worked so hard to come here seeking heaven's heart and the heart of the Heavenly Parent, even amid all the adversity on earth!” He then will give His blessing to this couple and install them as the True Parents who represent the incorporeal God in physical form. Such is the cosmic banquet, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
The Marriage Supper of the Lamb is offered based on the Bridegroom and Bride having become a true filial son and daughter, with the true Bride having pledged herself to the Will and having understood the Will. From the day they receive the Blessing, they become the True Parents of humankind who represent the incorporeal God in substantial form.
If the first human beings had not fallen, they would have grown up in a good world and received the Blessing in the love of God. Adam and Eve would have become children who could intimately know God's heart. In their loving union, they would have made a bond of heart with God that would have enabled God to say to them, “You are My filial son and daughter, and you can represent My heart.”
The new Adam and Eve cannot become God's filial son and daughter unless they feel connected to Him in heart. Thus, they need to understand God's inner heart and the course through which He suffered. By doing so, they can meet the conditions required of Adam and Eve to their realized ideal of creation. The Marriage Supper of the Lamb is precisely the event through which those conditions are met. (009-107, 1960/04/24)
11. The day of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb is the day when we celebrate the wedding banquet of the True Parents, who finally were found after being lost for 6,000 years. Originally, it would have been impossible for unfallen human beings in the position of children to watch their parents, the True Parents, having their wedding banquet.
However, since the True Parents arrived after the fact, the order was reversed. Originally, Adam and Eve would have celebrated their wedding banquet while attending God the True Parent, and then they would have given birth to true children and built an ideal world.
However, due to the Fall, fallen human beings multiplied first before the emergence of the True Parents. Therefore, your desire should be to meet the True Parents. You need to recover that which went in the wrong direction; this is restoration through indemnity. Hence, those fallen human beings who were born earlier than their True Parents must go in the opposite direction. You must go in the direction opposite to what the secular world wants. (019-203, 1968/01/07)
12. For Jesus to fulfill his purpose in his lifetime, he needed to find his Bride. But he was unable to do so. That is why he left the concept “I am the Bridegroom, and you are the Bride” as his last testament. The resurrected Jesus looked for the Bride throughout the world.
He searched for the best candidate among the most faithful believers within the realm of the Second Israel, regardless of nationality. For the past 2,000 years, he made continual efforts to search for her. When he finds the Bride, the true human ancestors can emerge; when the true human ancestors emerge, the True Parents can emerge.
Originally, in the Garden of Eden, Adam, and Eve should have become the true human ancestors and should have been installed as the True Parents. However, due to the Human Fall, it is only now in the era of the Second Coming, after 6,000 years have passed, that God could find the true ancestors of humankind. Finally, a man emerged who prevailed over Satan's world and received the Holy Wedding from God. Now he has re-created Eve.
By attaining that position, he has restored the standard for inaugurating the ancestors of humankind for the first time, 6,000 years after Adam and Eve. Only after numerous fallen children had multiplied did True Parents reverse the order and come forth. (019-163, 1968/01/01)
The turning point in providential history
True Parents' Holy Wedding, held on April 11, 1960, was the historic moment when the history of restoration through indemnity climbed over the mountain of indemnity at the completion level of the growth stage. The Holy Wedding of True Parents was a global and cosmic event. True Father, who came as the perfected Adam on the foundation of the long history of the providence, laid the foundation on earth to receive True Mother, the original Eve.
True Father represents heaven, True Mother represents earth, and their union finally connected the spiritual world and the physical world, which had been divided. Finally, the standard required to break down the wall that had separated Adam and Eve from God had been met.
13. Some historians say that in the 1960s history entered a time of great transition. The perspective of the Unification Principle is that although Korea became the base for the Christian cultural sphere to receive the Messiah, the Christian cultural sphere failed when it did not accept me. Nevertheless, we can assert that once the Holy Wedding had been held in the name of God and True Parents, history finally began turning in a new direction.
In the present circumstances, history is full of changes. It appears that humankind is declining and descending into a world of death and that the world, beset by many divisions, is heading for destruction.
But at the same time, we can realize that the scope of historical events is moving beyond national and regional levels and expanding to the world.
Ever since we entered the providential era during which we had to expand our foundation horizontally based on the bond of the God-centered lineage that we have with True Parents, ideological confusion has beset the world. Traditions have been falling into chaos. Things are being shaken up.
Christianity is also being shaken up.
The Holy Wedding was held 14 years after Korea's liberation from Japan. During that time, the Christian churches in Korea were either those that were rebuilding after years underground or those that had survived because their members had followed the dictates of the Japanese and offered bows at Shinto shrines. The way began to open up by which God could lead the providence with Korea as its base and make a leap to expand to the world.
The starting point for this transition was the True Parents' Holy Wedding that took place in April 1960. After the Holy Wedding Ceremony, Parents' Day was inaugurated. That was the day when we finally could clear up humankind's history, a history imprisoned by bonds of defiled love, life, and lineage from false parents.
The original love, life, and lineage centered on God were newly planted and began to deepen their roots on earth. Although the world that had received the fallen archangel's lineage had continued up to that point, from that day in 1960, when the True Parents emerged, the lineage of the original Adam and Eve began to take root centering on God's love. (196-218, 1990/01/01)
14. The peak, or apex, of the providence of restoration occurred in 1960. At that time, I was receiving persecution from the nation and the people of Korea, from all the Christian denominations, and even from some church members. I was in a desperate, life-and-death situation. Indeed, the Unification Church was instantly of truth; its very survival was at stake. In those difficult circumstances, I nevertheless proceeded with the Holy Wedding. At that point, a new history began.
The Holy Wedding was a historic turning point. Even historians state that 1960 was a turning point. From that point on I began resolving all the problems one by one. (052-068, 1971/12/22)
15. April 11, 1960, was the day of True Parents' Holy Wedding. Externally speaking it was an ordinary day; nothing seemed out of the ordinary. However, the Holy Wedding that took place on that day made it a day as from any other in history.
Because of that day, human history is now in the hands of one person.
Currently of that one person's coming, were the circumstances prepared such that he could build a relationship with a nation and with the world?
Did the circumstances of that moment have a strong enough foundation to pass on to him its relationships with history, with the present age, and with the future? The ceremony itself may appear to have been a simple event, but once people realize that it was the core event representing the entirety of human history, people throughout history will study the significance of that one day.
(032-069, 1970/06/21)
16. Adam, the ancestor of humankind, lost the authority of dominion because, at the completion level of the growth stage, he listened to Eve and followed her desire. To restore this through indemnity, Jesus had to come to earth as a human being who, one with God's love and having a perfect character, could fulfill the purpose of creation. Then he had to find the one woman who could follow him to fulfill the Will.
God created Eve from Adam; thus the re-creation of Adam and Eve must be done in the same order. Adam must be re-created first; then he must establish Eve as his Bride and start a new family to walk toward a perfect world.
The re-creation of Adam and Eve marks the end of the fallen era in history and the beginning of a new era. This is what happened in 1960. The establishment of that bond of love centering on True Parents was truly a cosmic event. (028-013, 1970/01/01)
17. God's purpose of creation and His work of re-creation can be realized now that Adam and Eve have received the Marriage Blessing at their Holy Wedding. God had worked to realize this ever since the first human ancestors fell at the completion level of the growth stage, and from the viewpoint of that course of restoration, all humankind today must climb to that level.
The formation stage of the growing period corresponds to the age of the servant; the growth stage corresponds to the age of adopted children; and the completion stage corresponds to the age of direct children. After history had passed through the Old Testament Age, the age of the servant, Jesus' gospel appeared on earth. At that point, human history entered the realm of adopted children. The human ancestors, still in the realm of adopted children, fell at the completion level of the growth stage.
Therefore, fallen human beings must connect to the external foundation of the Son and be re-created.
Then they can be elevated to the completion level of the growth stage to finally inherit the realm of direct children.
In short, since the completion level of the growth stage is the level from which the human ancestors fell, we have to reach that level to be restored. However, since the Fall took place in the process of forming their family, we cannot reach the standard that God desires unless we establish a family. That is why True Parents conducted the Holy Wedding in 1960 in the Unification Church; it was to reach that standard. (028-012, 1970/01/01)
18. I fought with the spirit world and was victorious on the individual level. To win that victory, I faced winds that threatened to sweep me away; they were harsher than the harshest winds on Earth bedridden Tens of millions of times I had to resolve to persevere against the powers of death.
Whenever I came face-to-face with the enemy, Satan, I told myself, “I cannot collapse. I cannot die. If I die, who will establish the will of heaven? No matter how much I suffer, I have to live. Even if my four limbs are amputated, and I am bedridden the rest of my life, I absolutely must not die.” With this resolve, I was able to overcome all obstacles on that incredibly difficult path.
I am the type of person who fears having my name known to the world before I establish a strong foundation. I fear becoming famous before an adequate foundation is laid. In such a case, it is a principle that Satan is bound to attack.
Therefore, as I needed to pass my 40-year milestone without dying, I looked forward to that day while silently hoping that the time would pass by quickly. I knew I had to establish the condition of the number 40 since Abraham had established the number 40 and Jesus had come at the end of 4,000 years of history.
Thus, I looked forward to passing that 40-year milestone. Hoping for many long years to reach that day, I struggled fiercely to fulfill all my responsibilities without dying so that I might stand victorious before heaven and earth. (013-039, 1963/10/16)
19. God sent Jesus after 4,000 years. He came after a long history had passed. Jesus was born after only ten months (by Korean counting) in his mother's womb, but for him to come to earth had taken 4,000 years of preparation. Because he came with such a historical foundation, Jesus was in a position to indemnify the entire history of 4,000 years. Originally, he was supposed to complete the condition to indemnify that history by the age of 40, but due to the disbelief of his people, he was unable to accomplish that.
So we had to indemnify that period of history during the seven-year course leading up to the Holy Wedding in 1960. I am sure that you all know about 40-day restoration periods. Since Jesus was unable to reach the age of 40, the course to overcome the obstacle of the number 40 remained with us. Since that indemnity course still had to be fulfilled, as the Returning Lord I had no choice but to persevere through seven years of great tribulations. The basis of this exists within the Principle of Restoration. (019-150, 1968/01/01)
20. How could I surpass the hurdle of the number 40 in 1960? How could I get past the number 40 which Principal is based on the teaching of the Principle? Jesus died at the age of 33; he was 7 years short of achieving the number 40. That is why during the remaining seven-year period I had to face great tribulations in the human world. I was confronted with the issue of how I could overcome these obstacles. To overcome them, I had to go against the flow and take the courses of restoration that Jacob passed through, and all the entangled indemnity courses of the numerous forebears in the course of providential history.
I had no friends or colleagues on this path. Even those who said they would follow me ended up being burdens to me on the path that I had to take; they strewed it with thorns and created obstacles for me.
There was no one to help me. (019-111, 1967/12/31)
21. The path of my life up to age 40 waste time for me to achieve victory on the individual level before I finally could move on and create a horizontal foundation.
The purpose of that period in my life was to indemnify to establish the one Adam. Then in 1960, the time came to create the horizontal foundation on which to bring victory centering on Adam.
The victory I am referring to is the victory on the national level that Jesus was unable to reach.
Therefore, based on my having reached the age of 40, the Unification Church in the 1960s had to substantially indemnify and overcome the destiny Jesus faced when he was unable to surmount the obstacles to reaching the age of 40. That is why the Unification Church in the 1960s received enormous persecution. If I, as the representative of humankind, had not dared to Earth make a decisive oath in front of God that I would divide good from evil, the work of the providence would have been delayed. (075-010, 1975/01/01)
22. True Parents' Holy Wedding was a cosmic, momentous event, worthy of a great celebration on earth.
Thereby the True Parents, as God's embodiments, gained the world-level victory both spiritually and physically. This was the vertical indemnity condition for resolving issues on the horizontal plane on Earth To, be in the position to conduct the Holy Wedding, I had to restore Jesus' three main disciples who failed to support him. I had to indemnify the failure of Adam to properly establish a family.
Due to the Fall, Adam and Eve, the first human ancestors, were unable to form a true conjugal relationship. The Fall occurred through the act of two individuals, a man and a woman. Therefore, restoration cannot be completed by one person alone. A man cannot be restored alone, nor can a woman go to heaven alone. Nothing can be resolved without the efforts of two individuals. After restoring the positions of unfallen Adam and Eve, these two individuals are to establish the standard of the True Parents on earth. This requires the betrothal of three disciples. (022-190, 1969/02/02)
23. The goal of the providence of restoration is to restore Adam's family. Due to the failure of Adam's family, the providence moved to Noah's family. God destroyed all people on Earth through the flood judgment, except for Noah's family; then, based on that family He intended to establish a providential foundation that was beyond Satan's accusation. Then the providence moved to Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and Jesus, and now it has arrived at this era. We must indemnify all of it, and the center is Adam's family.
The position of the True Parents cannot be established without the restoration of the three children whom Adam had lost. That is why Jesus has his three disciples.
They also represented the three archangels. The three archangels were not united in obedience and attendance to Adam and Eve. As a result, the world has fallen.
That is why Jesus had to restore three disciples to stand in the position of the True Parent. Likewise, the Lord at the Second Advent also must have three spiritual children who obey him. Otherwise, he cannot stand in the position of the True Parent. This is the formula. I had to have three disciples who would follow me as filial sons, even in life-and-death situations during persecution.
In April 1960, I was able to establish these three disciples. Since the course of restoration goes in reverse, the betrothal ceremony was given first to those who stood in the children's position. Jacob's family is representative of the family realm, so the foundation for the betrothal had to be made based on the number 12.
That standard should be established based on those three disciples. (022-190, 1969/02/02)
24. After the Holy Wedding in 1960, I created holy salt. Do you know why? It was because True Parents should not use anything from the fallen world. God's Son is the Parent whom God has perfected.
Everything that is defiled in the fallen world should be burned; however, since this is not possible in practice, holy salt was created as an alternative. Sprinkling things with holy salt symbolizes cleansing the things of the fallen world. Applying holy salt cleanses Satan's world and, on that condition, heaven's side can use the things in the fallen world. Once God's nation is established, no one will be able to use the things of the world and its nations as they are, even their most valued antiques, without cleansing them. (267-119, 1995/01/03)
