What is the Holy Marriage Blessing?
The Holy Marriage Blessing is God’s method to restore humanity to its original pure lineage, undoing the Fall that corrupted human love and family. It signifies a spiritual and physical rebirth, allowing couples to be engrafted into God's true family and establish households centered on divine love. This process enables the raising of children in a pure lineage, moving towards God's ideal world.
The Holy Marriage Blessing is the ceremony at the heart of God's providence for humanity's restoration. It speaks to a fundamental principle of creation and how God seeks to bring His children back to their original state of purity and union with Him. To understand its significance, we must first look to God's original plan for humanity and how that plan was tragically derailed.
The Biblical Foundation
From the beginning, God's purpose for Adam and Eve was for them to become the True Parents of humankind, establishing a perfect family centered on God. Scripture records the blessing entrusted to them at the dawn of creation: "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it" (Genesis 1:28). They were meant to grow and mature, fulfilling the purpose of creation by forming a Four Position Foundation where God, Adam, Eve, and their children would live in perfect reciprocal relationship, united in love. In this ideal state, Adam and Eve, united with God, would have formed a spiritual Trinity. However, they fell from this path through disobedience and a misguided love relationship, leading to the spiritual and physical corruption of humankind. This Fall did not merely affect individuals; it infected the very foundation of the family, distorting love and severing humanity's direct connection to God.
Due to this Fall, all humanity inherited an original sin, as the Apostle Paul testified: "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Romans 5:12). Every person born of fallen parents therefore entered life in a state separated from God, under Satan's influence. God, in His boundless love and desire to restore His children, began a long providence to undo the effects of the Fall. This providence has unfolded throughout history, guiding central figures and culminating in the coming of Jesus Christ. Jesus, as the spiritual True Parent, brought spiritual salvation, making it possible for individuals to receive forgiveness and begin the journey back to God. However, the Fall occurred both spiritually and physically, through a corrupted couple. Therefore, the restoration must also be both spiritual and physical, accomplished by a perfect couple. This understanding sets the stage for the necessity of the Holy Marriage Blessing.
The Principle's Clarification
The Holy Marriage Blessing is the means by which humanity can be reborn both spiritually and physically, thus being fully restored to God's original lineage. Just as the Fall happened through a corrupted husband and wife, Adam and Eve, the restoration must occur through a perfected couple—the True Parents—who can stand in God's stead. This restoration is not merely individual but familial and communal, affecting the very root of human relationship and lineage.
The blessing signifies a new beginning, a spiritual and physical engrafting into the true lineage of God, away from the fallen lineage. Paul described this very work when he wrote that a wild olive branch may be "graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree" (Romans 11:17). It is the core of God's plan to bring humanity back to the state of having completed the purpose of creation, free from original sin. Through this blessing, couples can receive God's true love and establish families centered on Him, becoming foundational units of God's Kingdom on Earth. It empowers them to raise children in a pure lineage, thereby extending God's true family.
Preparing for the Blessing
Receiving the Holy Marriage Blessing is not a passive event but requires active preparation. Humanity, having lost faith and true love through the Fall, must now embark on a path of restoration. This path involves establishing conditions of indemnity, which are specific actions or efforts we make to reverse the course of the Fall and separate from Satan's dominion. These conditions aim to restore the Foundation of Faith and the Foundation of Substance that Adam and Eve failed to establish.
The Foundation of Faith involves standing in the position of God's central figure, having a conditional object (like God's Word, offerings, or sacraments throughout history) as a focus of faith, and enduring a period of time representing the lost growth period. The Foundation of Substance, on the other hand, is about restoring true love and overcoming selfishness, demonstrating sacrificial love for others. As we fulfill these conditions, we gradually cleanse ourselves, returning to a state where we can receive the Messiah and the True Parents. The Holy Marriage Blessing then becomes the culmination of this preparatory process, allowing individuals and couples to formally embark on the path of becoming part of God's true family.
The Purpose of Rebirth
The ultimate purpose of the Holy Marriage Blessing is to facilitate rebirth, both spiritual and physical. Spiritual rebirth allows us to cleanse our hearts and minds, receiving forgiveness for sin and aligning our spirit with God's will. However, because the Fall also deeply affected our physical bodies and lineage, physical rebirth is also necessary. This means being engrafted into God's true lineage through a perfected couple, receiving the Holy Marriage Blessing, and establishing a family founded on God's true love.
Scripture pictures this consummation as a wedding: "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready" (Revelation 19:7). This process is akin to tending to a tree. Just as a physical body needs proper nutrition and care to grow healthy, our spirit also requires life elements and vitality elements to mature. These spiritual nutrients come from God's divine love and word, prayer, faith, and living a life of good deeds and altruistic love. Our physical actions and words contribute to the health of our spirit body, as the physical body serves as the tree upon which the fruit of our spirit body grows. The life we live on Earth is critical for our eternal life in the spirit world, and the Holy Marriage Blessing provides the essential foundation for this holistic growth and rebirth.
Living the Principle
To live out the principle of the Holy Marriage Blessing means actively engaging in a life of faith, love, and service, continually striving to align our hearts and actions with God's original ideal. It involves dedicating oneself to purifying one's own character, cultivating true love within one's family, and contributing to the well-being of society. For those who receive it, the blessing signifies a commitment to creating a family centered on God, raising children in a pure lineage, and becoming examples of God's true love in the world. It is a path of continuous growth, repentance, and self-sacrifice, aiming to realize God's dream of a world filled with true families, united in peace and harmony under His loving guidance.
These answers explain the Bible in the light of the Divine Principle, the teachings of Reverend Sun Myung Moon. Read about the author, Sun Myung Moon.
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Sources and further reading
- The Holy Bible, King James Version — Scripture quoted and referenced throughout the answers.
- The Divine Principle (full text) — The complete text of the Divine Principle, the teaching of Reverend Sun Myung Moon that these answers explain.
- Unification texts library (tparents.org) — Large online library of Unification texts, sermons and collected speeches, including the Cheon Seong Gyeong.
- Short video lectures in English — Playlist of short English video lectures presenting these same principles.