What is the preparation period for the Second Advent?

The preparation period is understood as the roughly 400 years from the Reformation in 1517 to the First World War era. Religious reform, vernacular Bibles, personal faith, democracy, and global communication prepared humanity to receive the Messiah. Like expectant parents, God prepared an environment; individuals remain responsible for discerning and responding.

The preparation period for the Second Advent is the 400-year period from the Protestant Reformation in 1517 to the era of the First World War, which was the concluding stage of the 2,000 years of Christian history. Its purpose was to prepare both the spiritual readiness and the outward conditions necessary for humanity to receive the returning Messiah. Just as parents lovingly prepare a home before their child's birth, God prepared the world with anticipation for the Messiah's arrival. This preparation calls believers beyond passive waiting into the responsibility of recognizing God's work and participating in it.

The Biblical Foundation

The Bible describes signs preceding the Second Coming as a time of upheaval, testing, and worldwide proclamation. Jesus declared: “And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows” (Matthew 24:6–8).

These words distinguish the troubles attending a historical transition from its ultimate fulfillment. Upheaval is not itself the goal of God's providence. Its purpose is the transition from a world dominated by evil toward a world in which God's love and righteousness can govern human life. While suffering is a necessary part of the course to separate from evil, God’s heart is one of sorrow over humanity’s pain.

Jesus also connected the consummation of history with the worldwide proclamation of the Gospel: “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come” (Matthew 24:14). Preparation therefore involves more than the passage of years. Humanity must have the opportunity to hear God's message and respond to it.

At the same time, Jesus warned against presuming to know the exact moment: “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only” (Matthew 24:36). Yet, Scripture also affirms that God makes His purpose known: “Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7). Together, these passages encourage humility and attentiveness rather than either indifference or overconfidence.

The appropriate response is watchfulness: “Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is” (Mark 13:33). It also requires perseverance: “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (Matthew 24:13).

The Purpose and Scope of the Preparation

It is important to distinguish the 2,000-year Christian course from its final 400-year preparation period. The broader course parallels the 2,000 years from Abraham to Jesus. The final four centuries, beginning with the Reformation in 1517, are the specific preparation period for the Second Advent.

This history culminated with the First World War, and the years from 1917–1930 were the time God had prepared for the Messiah's advent. The culmination of preparation does not mean that all subsequent work of restoration has already been accomplished.

The purpose of preparation can be understood through the example of expectant parents. Before a baby arrives, parents arrange a place to live, gather what the child will need, and prepare their own hearts to receive a new member of the family. Their preparations express love and anticipation, not simply practical necessity. Similarly, God worked through history to prepare an environment in which the Messiah could be received, protected, heard, and followed.

This preparation has an inward and an outward dimension. The inward foundation concerns faith, conscience, spiritual discernment, and a willingness to respond to God. The outward foundation concerns political freedom, cultural exchange, scientific development, and the practical means by which a message can reach the world. Neither alone is sufficient: an outwardly connected world may lack spiritual receptivity, while sincere faith may remain restricted by persecution, isolation, or rigid institutions.

The Four Hundred Years Since the Reformation

The modern preparation parallels the preparation for Jesus' first coming. An inward foundation of faith developed within Judaism, while an outward cultural and political environment developed through the Greek and Roman worlds. In a corresponding way, modern history prepared religious and worldly conditions together.

Martin Luther's challenge in 1517 began a decisive break with the claim that Christian life must remain subject to an absolute religious authority centered on the Pope. The Reformation weakened papal control over substantial parts of Europe and opened the way for independent Protestant churches and, eventually, freer forms of Christian association.

This was not an immediate establishment of universal religious liberty. Nevertheless, the long-term significance was profound: the Christian world could no longer be organized everywhere under a single ecclesiastical authority. Space gradually widened for individuals and communities to examine doctrine, form congregations, and practice faith outside papal jurisdiction.

The translation and circulation of the Bible in common languages, including German and English, deepened that change. When Scripture was available principally through languages unfamiliar to ordinary worshippers, their access depended heavily on clergy and institutional explanation. Vernacular translations, together with expanding printing and literacy, enabled increasing numbers of people to read, hear, study, and reflect on Scripture for themselves.

Personal access did not eliminate the value of teachers or communities. It changed the believer's relationship to them: individuals could increasingly compare religious claims with Scripture, consider their own conscience, and assume responsibility for their response to God.

In this sense, the period gave birth to a more popular, personally responsible faith—faith increasingly owned by ordinary people rather than administered only from above. Its providential consequence is central to the Second Advent. If recognizing the Messiah were left entirely to established authorities, their rejection could become a barrier for everyone under their influence. Freedom of faith allows each person to examine the Messiah's words and works personally. The same freedom also places responsibility on each individual: no one can simply delegate the decisive response to God to an institution or leader.

The Inward and Outward Currents of Modern History

Two broad currents developed during the preparation period, described symbolically as Cain-type and Abel-type tendencies. These terms describe the providential direction of the movements, not the personal character of every individual within them.

The outward, Cain-type current began with the Renaissance and its renewed interest in Greek learning, human capacities, beauty, and earthly life. It helped release the outward dimensions of human nature from restrictive medieval structures. It later contributed to the Enlightenment's emphasis on reason and autonomy. Some branches developed toward materialism, atheism, and revolutionary movements that sought human liberation while excluding God.

This sequence should not erase the diversity of those movements. Renaissance learning and Enlightenment thought also included religious thinkers and valuable advances. The theological concern is with an outward freedom that becomes detached from spiritual purpose and moral responsibility.

The inward, Abel-type current centered on the Reformation and the renewal of personal faith. Through diverse movements—including Pietism, the Baptists, the Methodists, the Quakers, and the great Awakenings—Christians emphasized conversion, conscience, holiness, spiritual experience, and the believer's direct responsibility before God. These were distinct movements rather than one simple institutional succession, but together they enlarged the sphere of personally engaged religious life.

Some believers crossed the Atlantic seeking freedom of worship. Their experience contributed to the development of an American democracy in which religious conviction and liberty played important roles. This achievement was gradual and incomplete. Nevertheless, the eventual protection of religious liberty created a significant environment in which unfamiliar religious claims could be heard without requiring permission from a single established church.

The providential objective is therefore not freedom merely for self-assertion, but freedom that permits people to seek truth and respond to God. “Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Corinthians 3:17). Such liberty requires discernment: “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21).

A Worldwide Environment for the Messiah

Scientific and economic development also prepared an outward foundation. Advances in transportation reduced geographical isolation, while printing and later communications technologies enabled ideas to move across national and cultural boundaries. East and West became increasingly connected, and people gained greater opportunities to encounter unfamiliar languages, traditions, and religious teachings.

These developments matter because the Messiah's mission concerns all humanity, not merely a single locality. A world with rapid travel, communication, and translation provides practical means for the returning Lord's message and love to spread internationally.

Political development supplied another necessary condition: a democratic sphere protecting freedom of religion. Where a state or religious institution can suppress every unfamiliar teaching, people may be prevented from hearing or considering the Messiah's message. Protection for conscience, worship, speech, and association allows the message to be presented and individuals to respond freely.

The First World War and the subsequent attempt to organize a world body of nations belong to this movement toward a worldwide setting. International organization expressed a growing recognition that peace could not be secured solely through isolated national interests. Yet neither democracy nor international institutions automatically accomplish God's purpose. They provide opportunities that still require responsible human choices.

Turmoil, World Wars, and the Transition to a New Era

The preparation and the transition surrounding the Second Advent are also a time of great confusion and conflict. Scripture speaks of “the great and the terrible day of the LORD” (Joel 2:31). The terror belongs to the struggle accompanying the passing of an old order, while the ultimate purpose is liberation from evil and the realization of lasting happiness.

The Last Days are therefore the end of evil sovereignty, not the literal annihilation of the planet. The goal is a God-centered world in which individuals, families, and humanity fulfill the purpose of creation. The old and new orders overlap: new life begins within the conditions of the old, and that overlap can produce resistance, anxiety, and conflict.

The world wars have a particular providential meaning. The struggle for restoration unfolds through three world-level conflicts, associated with worldwide conditions of indemnity and the recovery of the Three Great Blessings: mature individuals, God-centered families, and responsible dominion over creation. These conflicts are expressions of Satan's final resistance to losing his sovereignty and of the historical separation of good from evil.

While the first two World Wars were military conflicts, the Third World War is an ideological conflict, primarily between God-centered democracy and atheistic communism. The practical responsibility of believers is to resolve this underlying struggle through truth, sacrifice, reconciliation, and love, not through violence. People on all sides remain accountable for injustice and cruelty. The hoped-for outcome is the overcoming of evil and the expansion of conditions in which all people can live freely and peacefully.

Recognizing the Returning Messiah

Freedom of religion has a deeper purpose than allowing many institutions to coexist. It prepares people to recognize God's work even when it does not conform to their inherited expectations.

Jesus said: “But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation” (Luke 17:25). He continued: “And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man” (Luke 17:26). These passages illustrate that the Messiah's presence may initially go unrecognized amid ordinary life and entrenched assumptions.

The imagery of coming with clouds—“Behold, he cometh with clouds” (Revelation 1:7)—is symbolic of his birth on earth from a woman, a person of flesh and blood who is sanctified and chosen. It does not mean a literal descent from the sky. The precedent was set by John the Baptist, whom Jesus identified as the fulfillment of the prophecy of Elijah's return: “And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come” (Matthew 11:14). John fulfilled the role through an earthly life rather than by visibly descending in Elijah's fiery chariot.

This analogy establishes the precedent that the returning Messiah will minister in the flesh. Further, the warning against those who “confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh” (2 John 1:7) applies to the Second Advent, cautioning against those who will deny that the returning Lord comes in a physical body, just as he did at the First Advent.

The essential lesson for preparation is that sincere expectation must be joined to humility. Some people recognized and followed Jesus, while others, including influential authorities, rejected Him. Believers today should therefore neither dismiss unfamiliar claims merely because they are unfamiliar nor accept them without examination. Personal access to Scripture and freedom of conscience create the opportunity—and the responsibility—to discern.

God's purpose is not discarded when its fulfillment exceeds people's expectations. Jesus said: “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (Matthew 5:18).

A Nation Prepared to Receive Him

The providence of restoration includes the preparation of a nation to receive the Messiah, and God prepared the nation of Korea for this role. The 40 years from 1905 to 1945 were a national course of suffering and preparation, beginning with Japanese control through the protectorate and continuing through formal colonial rule from 1910 until liberation in 1945.

This course parallels Israel's 400 years of suffering in Egypt and the 400-year period of early Christian persecution. The parallel is in the providential meaning of the suffering, faith, and preparation, not in the identical details of the historical experiences.

Korea's division at the 38th parallel places it on the front line of the worldwide ideological conflict. The divided nation stands as an offering whose reconciliation has significance for the entire world.

Korea's national suffering, its people’s deep religious devotion, and its traditions anticipating a righteous ruler all contributed to creating a national capacity to respond to God's sorrow and hope. To become an object partner of God's heart means to understand divine grief through suffering and to answer it with faithfulness and love. The purpose of this preparation is responsibility and service; a nation prepared for a universal Messiah must ultimately serve the well-being of all nations.

Living the Principle

1. Take personal responsibility for faith. Read Scripture, pray, and examine religious claims thoughtfully. The freedom opened through the Reformation is the responsibility to recognize and respond to truth, not just freedom from authority.

2. Prepare your heart as well as your surroundings. As parents prepare lovingly for a child's arrival, cultivate humility, sincerity, and readiness to welcome God's work. Let filial devotion to God become practical care for the people around you.

3. Protect freedom of religion for everyone. Support conditions in which people can worship, investigate teachings, and follow conscience without coercion. A genuine foundation for the Messiah must protect the freedom of those who disagree with us as well as our own.

4. Work to reconcile opposing people and ideologies. Address conflicts—including those historically associated with democracy and communism—through truthful dialogue, justice, sacrifice, and love. Do not use providential language to excuse hatred or violence.

5. Respond to turmoil with service rather than fear. Historical upheaval does not remove human responsibility. Relieve suffering, build peaceful families and communities, and help bring good to overcome evil through concrete action.

6. Remain watchful without presuming certainty. Consider the meaning of historical preparation while remembering that a chronology does not replace spiritual discernment. Seek to recognize God's will through prayer, careful examination, and a life that bears the fruits of goodness.

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

Last reviewed:

More on Second Coming

Sources and further reading

All questions · About this site