What is God's plan of restoration, and how does He restore humanity after the Fall?

God's plan of restoration is His absolute will to reclaim humanity and creation from the Fall, guiding them back to their original ideal state of perfect love. This plan, identical to the purpose of creation, seeks to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth through individual perfection, God-centered families, and harmonious dominion. Its fulfillment is conditional on humanity's responsibility, leading to historical prolongations and parallel providential periods until the Second Coming completes both spiritual and physical salvation.

God's plan of restoration is His consistent effort to reclaim humanity and creation from the consequences of the Fall, guiding them back to their original, ideal state. It offers profound hope, revealing the purpose of human existence and the path to a harmonious world. Without understanding this plan, life’s struggles and biblical prophecies remain perplexing. The purpose of restoration is identical to the purpose of creation: to establish a family of perfect love, living with joy in heaven and on earth.

The Biblical Foundation: God's Enduring Vision

The Bible consistently portrays God's benevolent will for humanity and His persistent efforts to realize it. God's original intent for humanity is captured in the Three Great Blessings given to Adam and Eve: "And God blessed them. And God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth'" (Genesis 1:28). This outlines God's desire for humans to achieve individual perfection, establish God-centered families, and exercise harmonious dominion over creation.

The Fall (Genesis 3:1-7) introduced sin, fracturing humanity's relationship with God, each other, and nature. Immediately, God promised restoration: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel" (Genesis 3:15). This "protoevangelium" is the first hint of God's plan to overcome evil.

Throughout history, God raised central figures to lead humanity back, setting conditions to restore what was lost. Noah preserved a righteous lineage (Genesis 6:8); Abraham was called to establish a nation through which "all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (Genesis 12:3); Moses delivered the Law (Exodus 3:10). The Prophets foretold a Messiah who would fully restore God's Kingdom (Isaiah 9:6-7, Micah 5:2-4).

Jesus, the "last Adam" (1 Corinthians 15:45), offered spiritual salvation through his atonement and resurrection, establishing the spiritual Kingdom of Heaven. His prayer, "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10), powerfully expresses God’s desire for a physical manifestation of His Kingdom. The vision of a "new heaven and a new earth" where God dwells with humanity (Revelation 21:1-4) affirms this destiny of complete restoration.

Divine Principle's Clarification: Completing the Mosaic

The Divine Principle systematically clarifies God's plan, framing restoration as His providence of restoration—a systematic endeavor to reverse the consequences of the human Fall. It asserts God's intention was to realize the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, where His Three Great Blessings would be fully manifested through humans living in perfect attendance to His will. This absolute will of God is for perfect love in the family, going on forever with joy in heaven and on earth.

The Fall involved the misuse of love and illicit relationships by Adam and Eve, resulting in a fallen lineage that prevents humans from achieving individual perfection, establishing true God-centered families, and exercising true dominion over creation. This broken lineage makes self-restoration impossible without divine intervention.

God's providence unfolds through periods of history, with central figures setting conditions to restore what was lost. Their success or failure impacted history, leading to indemnity—the payment of conditions to reverse past failures and establish new starting points. God's will is absolute, but its fulfillment is conditional upon the human portion of responsibility. This means that while God's ultimate purpose is fixed, the specific path and timeline for its accomplishment can be prolonged due to human failure (Romans 8:29, 9:15-18). Such prolongations often lead to parallel providential periods, where similar historical patterns repeat as God seeks new central figures to complete the mission. For instance, the age of the Providence of Restoration (Abraham to Jesus) and the age of the Prolongation of the Providence of Restoration (Jesus to the Second Advent) exhibit remarkable structural parallels.

While Jesus brought spiritual salvation and opened the path to spiritual rebirth, he could not complete the physical aspect of God's plan because he was crucified before marrying and establishing the ideal family. Therefore, a Second Coming of the Messiah is necessary to realize physical salvation, heal the lineage of sin, establish the ideal family, and unify humankind under God's true parental love. This culminates in the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth—a world where individuals are perfected, families embody God's love, and creation lives in harmony.

How God Restores What the Fall Destroyed

Restoration follows the shape of the loss. What was lost at the Fall was not a possession but an order of relationships — a person's union with God, a marriage centred on him, a family, and through the family a people and a world. So restoration retraces exactly those levels, in that order: the individual, the family, the tribe, the nation, the world, and finally the lineage itself.

It proceeds by conditions rather than by decree. Because human responsibility was involved in the loss, human responsibility must be involved in the recovery, and this is why Scripture is full of offerings, separations, set periods and trials rather than simple pardons. Each condition reverses a specific failure: where there was doubt, faith is established; where there was resentment between brothers, love between brothers is established; where lineage was corrupted, lineage is purified.

This also explains the pace. God works through whoever will stand in the position, and when that person fails the work does not end — it is extended, and the same standard is required again of someone else later. "I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge" (Ezekiel 22:30). The whole of providential history is that search, and every act of faith, purity and sacrifice in an ordinary life is part of the answer to it.

Living the Principle

Understanding God's plan calls for active participation, embodying the Three Great Blessings. 1. Striving for Individual Perfection: Engage in continuous spiritual, intellectual, and emotional growth to develop true character, seeking God’s will daily. This fulfills our 5% portion of responsibility, which is essential for God's absolute will to be realized. 2. Building God-centered Families: Foster relationships rooted in unconditional love and respect, extending this love to communities. This contributes to establishing the ideal family foundation that God intended. 3. Exercising Harmonious Dominion: Be responsible caretakers of creation and society, making ethical choices, promoting justice, and using talents for the greater good. By living these principles, we participate in God's providence, building the Kingdom of Heaven within ourselves, our families, and the world.

These answers explain the Bible in the light of the Divine Principle, the teachings of Reverend Sun Myung Moon. .

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