What is the role of earthly people in helping spirits in the spirit world?

Earthly people play a crucial role in the resurrection and restoration of spirits in the spirit world. Spirits who have not reached full maturity can return to Earth and cooperate with living individuals, receiving help through their faith, prayers, and good deeds. This interdependent process, rooted in God's universal desire for salvation, allows spirits to ascend to higher spiritual realms, transforming suffering into a path for growth and ultimately contributing to the establishment of the Heavenly Kingdom.

Traditional theology often presents hell as a place of eternal divine punishment, creating a difficult paradox. On one hand, Jesus spoke of a place of judgment for the unrighteous, stating, "If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell" (Matthew 5:29). He described it as "outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 22:13) and referred to "the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matthew 25:41). The book of Revelation also speaks of the "lake of fire," called "the second death" (Revelation 20:14). Apostle Paul warned that those who "do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus" will be "punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might" (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9). This highlights the core suffering in hell as separation from God. On the other hand, Scripture reveals God's profound desire for universal salvation: "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9). This seeming contradiction between a loving God who desires all to be saved and an eternal hell from which there is no escape is resolved by the Divine Principle.

Divine Principle's Clarification of Hell

The Divine Principle clarifies that "hell" is not an arbitrary divine punishment, but a natural consequence of the spiritual laws governing the cosmos and the principle of give and take action. It explains that the spirit world comprises various realms, each corresponding to the spiritual maturity and internal state of the spirits residing there. What traditional theology calls "hell" corresponds to these lower realms, where spirits whose lives were characterized by selfishness, ignorance of truth, and actions contrary to God's love naturally gravitate. Crucially, God did not create hell. It emerges as a consequence of the human fall and the subsequent corruption of human nature.

During their earthly lives, individuals cultivate their spirit body through their thoughts, emotions, and actions. The growth of the spirit is only possible through living a good life on Earth, requiring the give and receive action of life elements from God and vitality elements from the physical body. Those who lead lives centered on ego, causing harm to others, or actively rejecting universal divine principles, develop a spirit body that is deeply stained and resonates with lower, darker frequencies. Upon physical death, these spirits cannot endure the intense light and love of higher spiritual realms. They are drawn by spiritual affinity to realms matching their internal condition, unable to perceive or receive God's love due to their impaired spiritual senses. This is the essence of their suffering: a self-imposed separation from God's presence, not an active casting out by a vengeful Deity. The Divine Principle emphasizes that spirits in these lower realms are not beyond hope, highlighting the concept of returning resurrection.

Understanding the Deeper Meaning: Restoration and Cooperation

The Divine Principle explains the profound reality that the condition of spirits in the lower realms is not static or terminal. There is a path toward restoration and ascent, largely through cooperation with people on Earth. The growth of the spirit requires life on Earth, but for those who passed away without reaching completion, they must return to Earth and receive help from living people to fulfill their portion of responsibility and attain resurrection (Hebrews 9:27). This resurrection is like the Second Coming for every spirit person. For example, Old Testament saints who lived by the Law returned after Jesus' coming to attain the life spirit stage with the help of believers, fulfilling the biblical passage of saints rising from tombs (Matthew 27:52-53). Likewise, spirits from Paradise will return to believers at the Second Coming of the Messiah to assist them in attaining Divine Love and becoming Divine Spirits themselves. When these believers enter the Kingdom of Heaven, the spirits who assisted them will join them.

This dynamic illustrates the principle of co-creation and the interconnectedness between the physical and spiritual worlds. Earthly people, through their free will and actions, play a vital role in the redemption of spirits. Whatever we bind or loose on Earth impacts the spirit world, as Matthew 18:18 states, "Whatever you bind here on Earth, you shall bind in Heaven, and whatever you loose on Earth will be loosed in Heaven." Even the spirits of non-believers or those who lived conscientiously can return to cooperate with living people of good conscience to fulfill God's providence. This understanding transforms the concept of hell from a punitive dead-end into a challenging, yet ultimately temporary, spiritual state from which spirits can eventually progress. God's ultimate desire remains the restoration of all humanity to His original ideal, and this process involves both His grace and the cooperative effort of humanity, both living and in the spirit world, particularly through the Messiah and the establishment of a Heavenly Kingdom on Earth.

The Condition of Those Who Need Help

The need for help is easier to understand when the situation of those spirits is described plainly. The dim regions of that world are dark because there is little love, and love is that world's light. Their inhabitants are hemmed into the narrow space their own hearts made: they see food and company but cannot partake, they remain hungry and isolated, and since the inside of a person is visible there, everything they concealed on earth lies open. They go on doing what they did in life — envying, taking, deceiving, pursuing revenge for injuries carried over from earth — with the difference that nothing can now be won and nothing settled, so the same quarrels continue for ages. Those who ruled by force and destroyed multitudes are described as being in the deepest of those layers, still surrounded by what they set in motion. Even in the bright regions, those at lower levels can see the greater light above them and long to grow toward it.

Why the Help Must Come Through People on Earth

None of them can change that condition alone, and this is the heart of the matter. Character is formed only where there is resistance and cost, and that requires a physical body: only on earth can love be given to someone who does not return it, and only here does forgiveness cost something. In the spirit world thought becomes action immediately, so nothing pushes back and nothing new is formed. Spirits therefore work with people rather than instead of them, drawing near to those whose hearts resemble their own and cooperating with their prayers, service, and repentance so that a condition is laid on earth which they can share. This is why Scripture speaks of ministering spirits sent forth for those who shall be heirs of salvation (Hebrews 1:14), of a great cloud of witnesses surrounding the runner (Hebrews 12:1), and of a perfection that those before us could not reach without those who came after (Hebrews 11:40). It is also why what is bound and loosed on earth is bound and loosed in heaven (Matthew 18:18).

What That Help Looks Like in Practice

Concretely, help flows through the ordinary acts of a faithful life. When a descendant forgives an enemy their ancestor could not forgive, the resentment binding that ancestor loosens. When a family line that lived selfishly produces someone who lives for others, the whole line is lifted with them, and the spirits attached to that line find their surroundings brighten as the condition is fulfilled. Prayer for the dead, honouring ancestors, settling old debts of money and of heart, and raising children in the love of God all supply something those in the spirit world cannot supply for themselves. This is a serious responsibility rather than a comfort: the people who most need us are counting on lives lived here, and they can neither hurry us nor do it for us.

Living the Principle

1. Cultivate a heart of love and live by divine principles, knowing our choices impact our spiritual destiny and the spirit world. 2. Offer sincere prayers and good deeds, understanding they can empower returning spirits to advance in the spirit world. 3. Strive for a life of repentance and growth, which positively resonates through our spiritual lineage and creates conditions for spirits to grow. 4. Engage in activities that promote the unity of all religions and the realization of God's providence on Earth, as spirits cooperate with such efforts.

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

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