Rearing Monarchs #23:

Thoughts on the Human Fall
Unification Thoughts, April 2023

Welcome back
If you’re somewhere that has four seasons, then Happy Spring :) And if you’re joining us for the first time, it’d be helpful for you to take a look at the purpose and focus of this Rearing Monarchs series.¹ Otherwise, let’s get right into it.

Where we left off and where we’re going

Starting with this entry, we’ll begin a different set of articles: they’re not on Unification Thought directly, but rather on how it illuminates our understanding of the Principle. Indeed, that is the very first reason (of six) that Dr. Sang Hun Lee gave for Unification Thought.² So in this article, I’d like to share about Unification Thought’s influence on our understanding of the Human Fall. It’s a well-worn topic for every generation in our Community, but with education’s systemic thrust to drive children away from their parents and towards sexuality, it becomes even more critical. And for grandparents who can sometimes be the merciful buffer between children and their parents who are having difficulty communicating, it’s worth going over.

We’ll touch quickly on this first part—what should have been and what actually happened. And then we’ll get into the practical application that’s relevant to us now.

So let’s start with what the ideal situation should have been: The three parties—Eve, Adam and Lucifer—should have related with care and honesty, all the time in close communication with Heavenly Parent. Through one another, they’d have been able to grow beautifully and experience the true love of Heaven.

But things went off the rails

We know well what happened next. But this time, I’d like to reference Dr. Lee’s account of the Fall, entitled Lucifer and the Events He Precipitated.³ That’s a long piece, so I’ll be quoting only small excerpts here.

Dr. Lee begins by explaining how Lucifer became resentful and turned against Heavenly Parent:

At first, Lucifer was extremely happy. …As time went on, though, Lucifer saw that Adam and Eve were growing up just fine with less and less need of his help. Gradually, Lucifer began to turn against God’s love. …eventually Lucifer came to the point in his heart where he no longer stood in the position that he needed to maintain. …and he began to have lustful feelings toward Eve. Gradually, Lucifer began to avoid being seen by God.

• Dr. Sang Hun Lee, Lucifer and the Events He Precipitated

One more thing: As such things happen, I was led to one more narrative which I found intriguing.⁴

Dr. Lee then addresses Eve’s situation. In short, Eve didn’t talk to her Heavenly Parent when attraction grew. Instead, she increased her give-and-take with Lucifer in secret and so it grew unchecked. They both left their position as objects of God’s heart and stopped talking to Heavenly Parent. Instead, they communicated exclusively and intensely with each other. And Eve was innocent, inexperienced and quite young. Father Moon explained:

The fall began with a woman. How old was she? Sixteen. She was underage.

• The Ideal Spouse, SMM 69.02.04

As we all know, she realized her mistake and she sought to return to Adam. But that didn’t happen suddenly. I found this bit of new information shocking:

How many days did this go on? How many years did it continue? …Lucifer and Eve avoided (God) and accelerated their relationship as though they were crazy. …As Eve grew into maturity, she began to realize that her relationship with Lucifer was wrong. She then began to plant in Adam the same insecurity and fear that she had received from Lucifer.

• Dr. Sang Hun Lee, Lucifer and the Events He Precipitated

So this relationship may not have been a one-nighter, but something more extended. If she finally succumbed at 16, the seduction would have started earlier. And if it took a while for the turmoil to subside and for her to come to her senses, full realization would have come still later. All together, that’s a good chunk of time to get into deep and even crippling trouble. There’s more, but you can find that through the previously indicated endnote (#3).

Finally, Dr. Lee discusses Adam. In his innocence and inexperience, Adam didn’t talk to his Heavenly Parent as the situation developed around him.

Adam wasn’t aware of what was happening, so he would go wherever he wanted to go in the Garden. Even as he grew older, he never understood the relationship that was developing between Lucifer and Eve. …Adam became accustomed to being by himself as he grew older.

• Dr. Sang Hun Lee, Lucifer and the Events He Precipitated

Why this matters now

In Principled terms, the Four-Position Foundation with Heavenly Parent weakened until it broke completely and the Human Fall came to pass. But it didn’t end there. Father Moon explains:

The Fall in the Garden of Eden is the origin of free sex. What was sown there is bearing fruit today throughout the world. Young men and women fall in the very same way as they did in the garden. …In order to get physical satisfaction, people act like animals.

• Chambumo Gyeong Book 4, Chp. 4, §1

So the moral of the story is that, when temptation comes, a young person should intentionally apply the Principle and fight to maintain good communication with his or her parents—he or she should *NOT* proceed “privately” in secret. This is the Principled response that’s needed to rectify the situation. Because once communication breaks down and Heavenly Parent’s standpoint is lost, the other failures soon follow: proper position is lost, dominion is reversed and evil multiplies—it’s a wicked and rapid domino effect. And yet it’s this very communication that “progressive” education intercepts.

Temptation happens

We are alerted by Rev. Yo Han Lee that temptation will come because it’s a condition of restoration. He explains this in his book Faith and Life, under the topic The Problem of Adam and Eve.⁵

…unless you have a strong vertical heart, your emotions will flow horizontally and brothers and sisters will come closer. Since this problem is necessary as an indemnity condition for spiritual growth, no one can judge it as wrong automatically. This phenomenon is inevitable in the course of restoration.

• Rev. Yo Han Lee, The Problem of Adam and Eve

This was a guaranteed occurrence for the first generation, but it’s not clear if it’s inevitable for the second generation. Still, I mention it here because the way to restore it is the same:

…You will face the time when your emotions will flow strongly in a horizontal way. You must know beforehand how to control it vertically. …When it happens, we have to grab that point where we can change the emotional, horizontal flow into the vertical flow.

• Rev. Yo Han Lee, The Problem of Adam and Eve

This is the reason that our young people should take the Principle’s account of the Fall very seriously. If young people know clearly how the Fall happened, they are in a much better position to catch it when it starts to happen in their own lives. And they will understand how to counter it earlier—and to absolutely not proceed in secret.

Modern parallels

To this I would also add that fallen angels and Eves can find pure blessed children very attractive because they’re exceptional among today’s youth. (Innocence is a rare and beautiful quality.) To bring this home to the students, I’d provide a couple of examples. Here’s a common high school situation that our young people see and know, involving a Lucifer type and an innocent Eve type:

A senior football star or popular school musician finds a sophomore girl attractive, so he creates situations to be with her. He might offer her rides in his car and when they’re alone, he’ll tell her that she’s very special and unlike anyone else he’s ever known. Her heart is captured and he persists until she falls. But he eventually tires of her and tells her to not call him anymore. Now broken, she becomes deeply depressed or completely vulnerable to the next guy who tells her he really loves her. Or as a now fallen Eve, she gets cynical, speaks and dresses accordingly and begins to tempt other boys and break their hearts. In the worst case, she may feel suicidal.

And here’s another high school example involving a fallen Eve type and an innocent Adam type:

A fallen Eve finds a pure boy very attractive, so she flirts with him and tempts him. He struggles but conceals it, doesn’t discuss it with his parents and he finally succumbs and falls. She toys with him, eventually tires of him, tells him to not call her anymore and he gets depressed. Broken, he seeks a new love, or gets self-destructive. Or he becomes cynical, speaks and dresses accordingly and pursues girls with no more regard for their hearts. Or in the worst case, he feels suicidal.

Whenever I shared these scenarios where the behaviors of Eve, Lucifer and Adam are replayed out almost exactly in today’s school settings (or in all the pop media), the young people were stunned. A few even admitted to having a little bit of experience that threw them into distressing confusion. Fortunately they could recognize that devaluing the Principle’s account of the Fall is actually an unwise and serious mistake.

Clearly, it’s important for our young people understand that the Fall isn’t something that happened once, eons ago. To drive this point further home in workshops, I’d ask the young people how many seductions they think are happening all over the world “right now” in real time, while they are listening to the lecture. And they’d realize it’s a *lot*… And they could appreciate that the Principle’s account of the Human Fall isn’t just an explanation of a one-off, prehistoric legend, but that it’s fully, completely relevant to their own lives RIGHT NOW.

Conclusion

An important take-away of all this is that a breakdown in communication can create an opening for seduction and a subsequent fall. Unfortunately it’s increasingly likely that youth are being guided in school to make decisions about sexuality without the knowledge of their parents. So parent–child communication is critical when a young person recognizes these situations starting in his or her own life. And if that’s too difficult for whatever reason, then there’s the precious buffer of grandparents, who can hopefully provide the unconditional love that the child might be unable to receive from his or her parents.

And in cases of serious communication breakdown in a family, there can be alternatives with other members of the extended family or even within the Community beyond that.⁶

Thank you for going through all this. In closing, I’d like to revisit the poem about one poignant outcome of broken communication with God; it’s here.

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