Why is the second coming needed?

In the Unification understanding, the Second Coming completes spiritual salvation through restoration of embodied life, marriage, lineage, and society. Human rejection left Jesus' earthly mission unfinished. Christ returns to establish God's family ideal and overcome division, while believers cooperate through faith, responsible love, reconciliation, and service.

The Second Coming is needed to complete the restoration of humanity and establish God's original purpose of creation on earth. Jesus' first coming opened the way to spiritual salvation through his sacrificial death and resurrection, but the full restoration of human beings, families, and the world remained unfinished. While most Christian traditions regard the cross as the complete accomplishment of redemption, this view leaves unanswered why sin and suffering continue to dominate the world. The Principle explains that Christ therefore returns not to repeat his sacrifice, but to bring salvation to completion in both spiritual and physical life.

The Biblical Foundation: Promises of Return and Unfinished Work

Jesus himself promised his return. He told his disciples, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:1–3).

At his ascension, the angels declared, “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). Paul likewise expressed the early church's expectation: “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).

These promises establish the expectation of Christ's return, but the question remains: what must his return accomplish?

Acts speaks of a restoration still to come: “Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:21). Jesus also taught his disciples to pray, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).

The scope of this prayer is greater than the salvation of individual souls after death. It points toward a world in which God's will becomes the actual standard of human life. Yet nearly two thousand years after Jesus' earthly ministry, sin, war, exploitation, and suffering continue. As Paul wrote, “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now” (Romans 8:22).

The Second Coming answers that unfinished expectation. The Last Days signify fundamentally a transition from a world governed by sin and selfishness to one centered on God—not simply the destruction of the physical earth.

God's Original Purpose: Mature Persons, True Families, and a Restored World

The necessity of the Second Coming begins with the purpose for which God created human beings. Salvation is not merely rescue from punishment; it is restoration to the life God originally intended.

God blessed the first human beings with these words: “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28). These blessings describe three connected dimensions of human fulfillment: maturity of character, a family centered on God's love, and responsible care for creation.

To become fruitful means to become a person whose mind and body work together in goodness. To multiply means that mature men and women form faithful marriages and raise children within God's love. Dominion over creation means caring for the world responsibly rather than exploiting it selfishly.

Adam and Eve were therefore intended to become True Parents: a father and mother united with God who would establish a family and lineage uncorrupted by original sin. Their family would have been the beginning of an expanding human community living as one family under God. The love learned between spouses, between parents and children, and among siblings would become the foundation of peaceful social relationships.

The Fall frustrated that purpose. Consequently, restoration must reach beyond the inner life of isolated believers. It must restore persons, marriages, families, society, and humanity's relationship with creation. A salvation that leaves these dimensions permanently under the power of sin would not fully restore God's original ideal.

Why Salvation Must Be Both Spiritual and Physical

Human beings have both a physical body and a spiritual body. Our physical life enables us to act, form relationships, marry, bear children, and exercise responsibility in the world. Our spiritual life concerns our enduring identity and our capacity to receive God's love and grow in truth and goodness. These dimensions belong together: what we do bodily shapes our spiritual character, and our spiritual commitments guide our bodily actions.

Humanity's separation from God occurred both spiritually and physically. Human love and allegiance were turned away from God, and that disorder was embodied in the relationship through which the human family multiplied. The consequences were therefore not limited to mistaken ideas or inward alienation; they entered the continuing life of families and generations.

For this reason, complete salvation must also be two-fold. Spiritual salvation restores our relationship with God, while physical salvation restores embodied life, including love, marriage, parenthood, and lineage. Here, physical salvation does not simply mean better health or freedom from bodily hardship. It means liberation of earthly human life from the inherited dominion of sin.

This explains why Christ's mission cannot be completed solely by bringing believers into spiritual communion with God while leaving the origin and transmission of fallen life unchanged. The root as well as the effects of the Fall must be overcome.

Jesus' First Coming: Spiritual Victory and the Unfinished Earthly Mission

Jesus came as the second Adam to accomplish what the first Adam had failed to accomplish. His original mission included establishing the foundation for God's family and kingdom on earth. Had he been received and supported, he could have fulfilled that mission during his earthly life.

Instead, rejection culminated in his crucifixion before the earthly family ideal and kingdom were established. This was not a moral failure on Jesus' part. He remained faithful to God and loved humanity even through suffering and death. Through the cross and resurrection, he opened the way for repentant believers to receive forgiveness, spiritual rebirth, and communion with God.

Nevertheless, that spiritual victory must be distinguished from the full restoration of earthly life. Jesus did not establish a marriage and family through which the original ideal of True Parents could take substantial form. Believers could receive spiritual salvation, yet still inherit the fallen condition through their physical birth and transmit that condition to succeeding generations.

Paul's description of inner conflict illustrates the continuing struggle with sin: “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do” (Romans 7:19). He also describes believers as awaiting further fulfillment: “And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:23).

These passages reveal the reality of the Christian condition: a conflict between the spiritually reborn self and the flesh, which still carries the fallen nature. Paul's groaning for the 'redemption of our body' points directly to the need for a physical salvation that the cross alone did not provide. This distinction between the spiritual salvation already received and complete restoration still awaited is central to understanding why Christ must return.

The Second Coming is therefore necessary to complete, rather than diminish or discard, the saving work of Jesus. The returning Christ must address the root of sin and establish the conditions for restored life both spiritually and physically.

Why Two Comings Were Not the Original Ideal

The Old Testament contains prophecies of the Messiah that seem contradictory—some foretelling suffering and others a glorious reign. This has long been a point of confusion. The Principle clarifies that these passages reflect two possible outcomes, both dependent on the human response to the Messiah. The glorious fulfillment could have been realized through faith and cooperation; the path of suffering became necessary through rejection. The two comings were therefore not an unavoidable division of the Messiah's mission from the beginning.

Jesus' lament over Jerusalem expresses the distinction between his desire to gather people and their refusal: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” (Matthew 23:37).

Accordingly, the need for a second coming arose because disbelief and crucifixion prevented the complete earthly realization of the first coming's purpose. Had Jesus been received and his full mission accomplished, a return to complete that unfinished mission would not have been needed.

The relevant principle is the seriousness of human responsibility: God's purpose calls for a faithful response, showing that human cooperation is not irrelevant to the fulfillment of God's will.

Marriage, Celibacy, and the Restoration of Lineage

Spiritually reborn Christians still remain connected in the flesh to fallen ancestry, described as Satan's lineage. This expression concerns an inherited spiritual condition; it does not mean that Christians, or any human group, are inherently evil or possess lesser human worth.

If spiritual rebirth does not by itself remove original sin from the line of physical descent, then ordinary marriage and childbirth cannot by themselves establish the completely restored lineage envisioned in God's original purpose. Therefore, while Christianity offered spiritual rebirth, it could not establish the completed institution of restored marriage through True Parents.

Christianity certainly has profound teachings on marriage and family life. Jesus affirmed marriage, and Paul gave extensive instructions concerning marriage, spouses, and children. Jesus said, “Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Matthew 19:6).

What was lacking was not family ethics but the completed means of restoring marriage and lineage at their root.

This distinction also shapes the explanation of celibacy. Jesus acknowledged those who “have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake,” adding, “He that is able to receive it, let him receive it” (Matthew 19:12). Paul wrote, “I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I” (1 Corinthians 7:8).

These sayings fit an interim stage in which spiritual devotion took priority while the original family ideal awaited restoration. Celibacy could express undivided commitment to God without implying that marriage was contrary to God's original purpose. However, neither Jesus nor Paul imposed universal celibacy. Paul explicitly permitted marriage and connected his advice with circumstances and concerns about divided attention (1 Corinthians 7:9, 26, 32–35).

The returning Christ is therefore needed to fulfill the mission of True Parents, restore the foundation of marriage, and open the way for families and descendants free from original sin. That restoration requires more than participation in a ceremony: it calls for continuing faith, fidelity, moral growth, and responsible love.

From Spiritual Fellowship to a World Beyond Division

Jesus' love was universal in scope. The unfinished aspect of his mission was not an inability to love beyond race, religion, or nation. Rather, during his earthly lifetime he did not establish a worldwide social reality in which those boundaries had ceased to divide humanity.

Christianity subsequently crossed many national and cultural boundaries and inspired profound service, reconciliation, and moral transformation. Yet spiritual fellowship did not fully overcome competing national interests, religious hostility, racial antagonism, or struggles for political power.

Even societies influenced by Christianity have continued to wage wars and divide into rival camps. Political struggles between left and right are one expression of this wider problem: people and institutions repeatedly place partisan victory, ideology, or national advantage above the well-being of the whole human family.

Such divisions demonstrate the difference between proclaiming universal love and giving that love substantial reality in earthly relationships and institutions. They show that comprehensive restoration has not yet been realized.

The Second Coming is thus needed to establish a shared foundation in God's love that can transcend race, religion, nation, and political faction. The returning Christ's task is not merely to lead one side to triumph over another, but to guide humanity toward reconciliation and a common life rooted in truth, justice, and unselfish love.

The Reign of God on Earth and the Restoration of All Things

The ultimate purpose of the Second Coming is a world in which God's love is embodied in mature persons, true families, peaceful societies, and responsible care for creation. This goes beyond individual spiritual salvation to encompass the restoration of all things.

Paul describes creation's expectation in these words: “For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God” (Romans 8:19). He continues, “Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21).

The returning Christ completes the mission left unfinished on earth: restoring the foundation of True Parents, guiding human beings toward spiritual and physical maturity, blessing marriages, and establishing a lineage centered on God. From this foundation, the kingdom is to extend through families and communities into the wider world.

An illustrative parallel is Moses and Joshua. Moses led the people out of Egypt but did not lead them into the promised land; Joshua carried that course forward into an actual settlement. Similarly, the Second Coming brings an already opened path of salvation to substantial fulfillment.

Restoration does not happen apart from human responsibility. God's grace and guidance call forth human faith and action. People must learn to unite conscience and conduct, practice faithful love, repair damaged relationships, and serve beyond their own interests. The kingdom is not merely something to observe arriving; it is a life into which humanity must grow in cooperation with God.

In short, Christ returns because God's purpose is not only to forgive fallen humanity but to restore humanity completely—so that the prayer for God's will to be done on earth becomes lived reality.

Living the Principle

1. Prepare with hope and discernment. Study Jesus' promises, pray, and examine claims about their fulfillment carefully. The returning mission is fulfilled through an embodied earthly life rather than a literal descent on physical clouds. Passages such as Luke 17:25 (predicting the Son of Man's suffering and rejection) and Luke 18:8 (“when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?”) are crucial warnings that the Second Coming, like the first, will require a human response of faith and may face disbelief.

2. Unite spiritual faith with daily conduct. Receive God's love through prayer, worship, repentance, and the pursuit of truth, and express that love through truthful speech, responsible action, and service. Complete restoration concerns both inward faith and embodied life.

3. Build families that practice faithful love. Treat marriage, parenthood, and sibling relationships as responsibilities through which God's love should become tangible. Seek to grow toward the ideal of true parenthood, while remembering that the removal of original sin is accomplished through the grace of the Blessing, not by self-discipline alone.

4. Work for reconciliation beyond your own group. Resist racial prejudice, religious hostility, national selfishness, and political hatred. Seek the good of the whole human family rather than assuming that God's kingdom is identical with the victory of your own faction.

5. Participate in the restoration of the world. Relieve suffering, act justly, care for creation, and repair relationships where possible. Preparation for the Second Coming means helping make God's love visible on earth, not merely waiting for the world to change.

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

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