Unification Church

====Fall of Man and view of Jesus====

Central to Unification teachings is the concept that the [[Fall of Man]] was caused by the literal [[serpent seed|mating of Eve and Satan]] in the [[Garden of Eden]], which contaminated the whole human race with sin. According to the religion, humanity can only be restored to [[God]] through a messiah who comes as a new [[Adam]]: a new head of the human race, replacing the sinful parents, and siring new children free from Satanic influence. In the Unification Church, Jesus is this messiah, just as he is a messianic figure in more mainstream Christianity;<ref name="Sontag102">{{cite book |last=Sontag |first=Frederick |url=https://archive.org/details/sunmyungmoonunif00sont/page/102/mode/2up |pages=102–105 |title=Sun Myung Moon and the Unification Church |date=1977 |publisher=Abingdon Press |others=Abingdon Press |isbn=0-687-40622-6 |location=Nashville, Tenn. |oclc=3071834}}</ref> however, since Jesus was prematurely killed before he could start a new sinless family, Moon claims he himself was called upon by God to fulfill Jesus' unresolved mission.<ref name="maass" />

In 1980, Unification theologian [[Young Oon Kim]] wrote:
{{blockquote|Unification theology teaches that Jesus came to establish the [[Kingship and kingdom of God|kingdom of Heaven on Earth]]. As [[St. Paul]] wrote, Jesus was to be the new Adam restoring the lost garden of Eden. For this purpose he chose twelve apostles, symbolizing the original twelve tribes of Israel, and sent out seventy disciples, symbolizing all the nations of the world. Like John the Baptist, Jesus proclaimed that the long-awaited kingdom of heaven was at hand (Matt. 4:17).  Jesus was appointed God's earthly representative in order to subjugate Satan, cleanse men of original sin and free them from the power of evil. Christ's mission involved liberation from sin and raising mankind to the perfection stage. His purpose was to bring about the kingdom of heaven in our world with the help of men filled with divine truth and love. Jesus' goal was to restore the garden of Eden, a place of joy and beauty in which true families of perfected parents would dwell with God in a full relationship of reciprocal love.<ref>Kim, Young Oon, 1980, [http://www.religious.org/ucbooks/UTheol/toc.htm Unification Theology], Barrytown, NY: [[Unification Theological Seminary]], {{LCCN|8052872}}</ref>}}

The Unification view of Jesus has been criticized by mainstream Christian authors and theologians. In their influential book ''[[The Kingdom of the Cults]]'' (first published in 1965), Walter Ralston Martin and Ravi K. Zacharias disagreed with the ''Divine Principle'' on the issues of the [[divinity of Christ]], the [[virgin birth of Jesus]], the Unification Church's belief that Jesus should have married and a literal [[resurrection of Jesus]] as well as a literal [[Second Coming]]. They add: "Moon makes all men equal in "divinity" to Jesus, thereby striking a blow at the uniqueness of Christ."<ref>Walter Ralston Martin, Ravi K. Zacharias, ''The Kingdom of the Cults'', Bethany House, 2003, {{ISBN|0764228218}} pp. 368–370.</ref>

The ''Divine Principle'' states on this point:
{{blockquote|There is no greater value than that of a person who has realized the ideal of creation. This is the value of Jesus, who surely attained the highest imaginable value. The conventional Christian belief in Jesus' divinity is well founded because, as a perfect human being, Jesus is totally one with God. To assert that Jesus is none other than a man who has completed the purpose of creation does not degrade the value of Jesus in the least.<ref>[http://www.unification.net/dp96/dp96-1-7.html#Chap7 Divine Principle], Chapter 7, Section 2.2</ref>}}

Unificationist theologian Young Oon Kim wrote, and some members of the Unification movement believe, that [[Zechariah (New Testament figure)|Zechariah]] was the father of Jesus, based on the work of [[Leslie Weatherhead]], an English Christian theologian in the [[Liberal Christianity|liberal Protestant]] tradition.<ref name="USArmy">{{cite book|author=United States Department of the Army|author-link=United States Department of the Army|title=Religious Requirements and Practices: A Handbook for Chaplains|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6gDQfnMUI6gC|year=2001|publisher=The Minerva Group, Inc.|isbn=978-0-89875-607-4|pages=1–42}}</ref><ref name="Sontag102" /><ref>{{cite book|author=Weatherhead, L.D.|title=The Christian Agnostic|pages=59–63|publisher=Hodder and Stoughton|location=England|year=1965|url=http://DLMcN.com/weatherhead.html|access-date=2021-02-08|archive-date=2016-04-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160406073356/http://www.dlmcn.com/weatherhead.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>''Another Gospel: Cults, Alternative Religions, and the New Age Movement'' by Ruth A. Tucker 1989 {{ISBN|0-310-25937-1}} pp. 250–251</ref>