THE LAST DAYS

Excerpts from the book: UNIFICATIONISTS: WHAT THEY BELIEVE

>> Recommended readings: WHEN WILL CHRIST COME AGAIN?

Concerning “eschatology,” or the doctrine of the Last Days, many Christians believe literally what is written in the Bible:

"Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?" (2 Peter 3:12)

"Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken …" (Matthew 24:29)

"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)

Sounds very chaotic, doesn’t it? It will be a total destruction. A big question is whether these events will take place literally or whether the verses are symbolic, as are many parts of the Bible.

Here are some literal interpretations of conventional Christian doctrines about the Last Days:

1.         The Last Days is the end of the world.
2.         Heaven and earth will be destroyed, and a new heaven and new earth will be created.
3.         Heaven and earth will be judged by fire.
4.         The dead will rise from their tombs.
5.         People on earth will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.
6.         The sun will darken, the moon will not give light, and the stars will fall from heaven.

The Divine Principle (the teachings of the Unification Church) says that the six above interpretations are not literal but symbolic. Here are the Divine Principle’s interpretations:

1.         The Last Days is the end of the world.

It was written that God determined to destroy the earth in Noah's time:

"The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth." (Genesis 6:11-13)

From this verse, we can say that Noah's time was the Last Days, yet the earth was not destroyed.

God created the earth to last forever: "And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established for ever" (Psalm 78:69). The earth is the object partner of God. God, the subject partner, is eternal; likewise, earth should also be eternal. An Almighty God would never be pleased with having created a world so fragile that it could possibly perish.

The goal of salvation is the restoration of what was lost in the Garden of Eden. If the world is going to end literally, then everything will perish and every human being would die and God’s desire on earth will not be realized. As God said in Isaiah 46:11, “I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.” Ecclesiastes 1:4 tells us that God will never abandon His purpose: “One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.” God’s desire is to build the Kingdom of Heaven on this earth, not somewhere else or on some other planet. The world that we are living in is the place where Adam and Eve lived, where God meant to establish His eternal kingdom. When our bodies return to ashes, our spirit enters God’s kingdom in the spiritual realm.

2.         Heaven and earth will be destroyed, and a new heaven and new earth will be created.

Earth will not be destroyed, but evil sovereignties will end, and a new sovereignty will reign. What, then, is the meaning of the prophecies of the earth's destruction in the Last Days? For instance:

"Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." (2 Peter 3:12-13)

"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea." (Revelation 21:1)

The Divine Principle explains that to destroy a nation is to overthrow its sovereignty. To erect a new nation is to establish a new sovereignty. Therefore, the prophecies that heaven and earth will be destroyed mean that the tyranny of Satan will be overthrown. The emergence of a new heaven and new earth signifies the establishment of the kingdom of  heaven in the spirit world and on earth under God's sovereignty founded on Christ.

3.         Heaven and earth will be judged by fire.

 Jesus came into the world to cast judgment, for he said, "For judgment I am come into this world” (John 9:39). “I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?" (Luke 12:49). "Fire" here represents the means of the judgment for which Jesus came into the world. However, there is no record in the Bible that in his time Jesus judged the world with literal fire. Therefore, the verses referring to fire must be symbolic.

Judgment by fire represents judgment by the Word of God. Jesus said, "Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?" (Jeremiah 23:29). This earth will not be burned or dissolved literally but will be judged by the truth.

4.         The dead will rise from their tombs.

It is written in the Bible that in the Last Days the dead will rise from their graves:

"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first." (1 Thessalonians 4:16)

This verse is symbolic. Those dead bodies had long been decomposed, and it is impossible for them to rise literally with their own flesh from their graves. Our physical bodies are meant to return to dust in this physical world when we die, while our spirit is meant to live eternally in the spirit world. The Bible says, “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12:7).

There was a similar event when the dead rose from their tombs at the time of Jesus' death:

"And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many." (Matthew 27:52-53)

These verses are also symbolic. If the saints really had risen from their tombs in the flesh, then surely their deeds would have been recorded in the Bible. However, we find no such records. If the physical bodies of the saints of the Old Testament Age had actually risen from their tombs and appeared before many people in Jerusalem, they would certainly have testified to the people about Jesus as the Messiah. After hearing such testimony, Jesus’ followers would have been accepted without persecution. We know that Jesus’ twelve disciples were scattered and persecuted after Jesus’ crucifixion.

What does the Bible mean when it says that the bodies of the saints rose from their tombs? The people who witnessed the incidents of the saints rising from their tombs were people of high spirits who could perceive the spirits of the past saints being resurrected spiritually and appearing in Jerusalem. What does "the tomb" symbolize? It symbolized the region of the spirit world where the spirits of the Old Testament saints were abiding. The realm of the spirit world appears to be a dark place. Hence, it is referred to as a tomb, but after Jesus’ victory on the cross, this spiritual realm was opened where the high spirits rose up.

5.         People on earth will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

Again, the Divine Principle says that this is symbolic. Those dead people’s bodies are already decomposed. The living being lifted up to meet the Lord in the clouds will not make any sense either. If we all were lifted up into the clouds in the flesh, where would we dwell? A Unificationist friend of mine said to me that indeed Christ had returned to earth through the “cloud,” but what he meant by cloud was the Internet.

I’m sure you’ve heard the word, “rapture.” Wikipedia defines it as “a term in Christian eschatology which refers to the ‘being caught up’ discussed in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, when the ‘dead in Christ’ and ‘we who are alive and remain’ will be ‘caught up in the clouds’ to meet ‘the Lord in the air’” (Wikipedia.com, 2 July 2014).  

If we examine this definition of rapture, it is easy to take the verses literally. The Divine Principle says that the meanings of these verses are symbolic. Here’s what the Divine Principle says:

The "air" mentioned in this verse does not refer to the sky over our heads. In the Bible, "earth" is often a symbol for the fallen world under the sway of evil sovereignty, while "Heaven" is often a symbol for the sinless world of good sovereignty. The omnipresent God certainly dwells everywhere on the earth, yet we pray, "Our Father who art in heaven." (Matthew 6:9) Even though Jesus was born on the earth, he is referred to as "he who descended from Heaven, the Son of man." (John 3:13) Meeting the Lord in the air means that the saints will receive the Lord in the world of good sovereignty when Christ comes again and restores the Kingdom of Heaven on earth by defeating the kingdom of Satan. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, 94)

I like the way The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines rapture as “an expression or manifestation of ecstasy or passion … a state or experience of being carried away by overwhelming emotion … a mystical experience in which the spirit is exalted to a knowledge of divine things” (Merriam-Webster.com. 1 July 2014). When the Lord returns, those who are abiding the will of God will be caught up with these emotions. Their spirits will be lifted up to meet Christ.

6.         The sun will be darkened, the moon will not give light, and the stars will fall from heaven.

Jesus said that in the Last Days, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken” (Matthew 24:29).

Sometimes we hear scary news about an imminent cosmic cataclysm that could occur in our solar system, and this could happen according to science. However, is it possible for stars to fall from heaven into the earth? This is impossible, given the fact that the earth is far smaller than stars. The Divine Principle says that this is also symbolic.

It is written that Joseph, the eleventh of the twelve sons of Jacob, had a dream:

"And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?" (Genesis 37:9-10)

Joseph’s dream became a reality when he became the prime minister of Egypt. His parents and brothers bowed down before him. In his dream, the sun and moon symbolized the parents, while the stars symbolized their children. The Divine Principle explains in detail that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are the True Parents who came to give spiritual rebirth to humanity. Therefore, the sun and the moon represent Jesus and the Holy Spirit, while the stars represent the faithful believers who are their children. John 1:9 talks about the true Light. The light of the words of Jesus is the sunlight. The light of the Holy Spirit, who came as the Spirit of truth, is the moonlight.

The Divine Principle explains:

       "For the sun to be darkened and the moon to lose its light means that the New Testament Word given by Jesus and the Holy Spirit will lose its luster. How can the Word as revealed in the New Testament possibly lose its light? The Old Testament Word was eclipsed when Jesus and the Holy Spirit came and gave us the New Testament Word, which fulfilled the Old Testament Word (2 Corinthians 3:7-11). Likewise, when Christ returns and gives the new truth in order to fulfill the New Testament Word and build a new heaven and new earth, the Word that he gave at his first coming will lose its light. It is said that the Word will lose its light because, with the coming of a new era, the period of the mission of the old truth will have lapsed."
       The prophecy that the stars will fall from heaven signifies that in the Last Days many faithful Christian believers will make a misstep and fall from God’s grace. At the time of Jesus, the chosen people were all yearning for the coming of the Messiah, but they met their downfall when they did not recognize Jesus as the Messiah and opposed him. Likewise, Christians who have been anxiously awaiting the return of Jesus are likely to make the same misjudgment and fall when he actually returns.
       Jesus asked, “Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8) On another occasion, he said he would declare to devout believers, “I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.” (Matthew 7:23) Jesus gave these warnings to the Christians of the Last Days because he foresaw that they would be likely to disbelieve and trespass against him at his Second Advent."  (Exposition of the Divine Principle, 95)

Recommended reading: WHEN WILL CHRIST COME AGAIN? (History Repeats Itself)