Godism on Conflict and Strength
This was written a few years ago as a response to a young community member’s question about Godism’s position on war.
Although this is stated clearly and directly in Godism’s source texts, it may not be widely known. So the main sources will be quoted here, with minimal commentary, since they’re self-explanatory.
For those who’ve attended the rare extended workshops, or who’ve read the Principle carefully, these passages won’t be new. But for those who’ve not been to extended workshops or who’ve not read the entire Principle, the passages might be challenging and require prayer and reflection.
I think that was what many First Gen had to do, back when we were in our 20s and the world situation made us long for peace, or even mobilized us to advocate for it.
Just FYI, the term Godism is being used here as referring to the thought of Abonim, as recorded in The Eight Great Textbooks and Unification Thought. Although Abonim specifically called Unification Thought “Godism” (see The Holy Books on Unification Thought), his overall thought is nevertheless expressed throughout his speeches and sermons.
There are four sources quoted here:
1. the Exposition of the DP textbook (https://dplife.info/chapter-5-the-period-of-preparation)
2. the Outline of the Principle, Level 4 study guide (https://store.familyfed.org/collections/books/products/outline-of-the-principle-level-4-color)
3. the Bible (so many online; here’s just one: https://biblehub.com/)
4. New Essentials of Unification Thought (https://store.familyfed.org/products/new-essentials-of-unification-thought)
Here then are the details from these four sources:
1. From the Exposition of the Divine Principle
Preparation 4.3.5 (pp. 374-375) The Providential Causes Behind the Second World War
First, the war broke out to fulfill the worldwide indemnity condition at the growth stage to restore God’s three great blessings.
…The second providential cause behind the war was to have the people on God’s side overcome Jesus’ second temptation on the world level.
…The third providential cause behind the war was to lay the growth stage foundation for the restoration of God’s sovereignty.
COMMENT: As evident in these three causes (see Exposition of the DP, p. 374 or 4.3.5 The Providential Causes Behind The Second World War), there is no mention of genocide in the 1940s as indemnity for rejecting Jesus. His words of warning (Luke 23:28) to the mothers of Israel were that they need not weep for him, but for themselves and their children. That warning came true just 70 years later, when Jerusalem was razed to the ground by the Romans and caused the Diaspora.
Preparation 4.4 (p. 376) Is the Third WW inevitable?
…At the consummation of human history, Satan’s side and God’s side will strive until they each attain sovereignty over a world. This is why the democratic world and the communist world stand confronting each other. Consequently, it became inevitable that there be world wars, first to divide and then to unify these two worlds.
The First and Second World Wars had the providential purpose of dividing the globe into the communist world and the democratic world. Afterward, yet another war must take place to bring about their unification. This conflict is the Third World War. It is inevitable that the Third World War take place; however, there are two possible ways it may be fought.
One way to bring Satan’s side to surrender is through armed conflict. However, at the conclusion of the conflict, there should come an ideal world in which all humanity is to rejoice together. This can never be built merely by defeating enemies in battle. Afterward, they must be brought to submission internally, that everyone may be reconciled and rejoice sincerely from the bottom of their hearts. To accomplish this, there must come a perfect ideology which can satisfy the desires of the original nature of all people.
The other way this war may be fought is as a wholly internal, ideological conflict, without the outbreak of armed hostilities, to bring Satan’s world to submission and unification in a short time. People are rational beings. Therefore, a perfect, unified world can be established only when people submit to one another and participate in unification through a profound reawakening.
By which of these two ways will the Third World War actually be fought? It depends upon success or failure in carrying out the human portion of responsibility.
COMMENT: The use of force as well as its limitation is understood.
2. From the Outline of the Principle, Level 4 textbook:
Preparation for the Second Coming, IV D. The Third World War:
Seen from God's dispensation, the Third World War will inevitably take place. However, there are two ways for that war to be fought.
First, the satanic world could be subjugated by a wholly internal fight through ideology. God does not desire judgment or destruction (Ezek 33:14-16), but salvation. Thus he desires to induce Satan to submit ideologically, and with the least amount of external sacrifice. If this fails, the satanic side will inevitably attack the heavenly side. The heavenly side must then defeat the satanic side by force. The manner in which the Third World War takes place depends on how these two worlds, which bear the responsibility of the Last Days, carry out their tasks.
Whatever the manner in which the war is fought, there must be a fundamental ideology by which mankind can be led to the ideal world. This is so, because even if the submission of the satanic world is gained through an external fight with weapons, the ideal world can only be realized through an ideology of a higher dimension, one which all people can follow freely and with joy.
Ideology is the driving force which will establish the ideal world of the family of man. Thus, the ideology needed must be an ideology of true love which can break down barriers between tribes and nations and solve the serious problems among races and cultures. Furthermore, this ideology must be able to give mankind hope and conviction concerning the realization of the ideal world. It must also be an ideology that can bring spiritual inspiration and a change in character and give the youth a positive viewpoint toward life. It must completely reveal the falseness of other ideologies, especially that of the Communist ideology, Marxism-Leninism, which is the culmination of all the Cain-type views of life.
If the Third World War ends in victory for the heavenly side, the indemnity condition for the restoration of God's Three Blessings will have been met. The heavenly side will have overcome, on the world- wide level, Satan's third temptation of Jesus, thus, establishing through indemnity the complete foundation for the restoration of God's sovereignty.
If this takes place, the work of Christ at the Second Coming will bring about on earth the ideal world of God's sovereignty, and man's dominion over the Creation will be completely restored. The ideal world which God had originally conceived of at the time of creation, which he has been painstakingly trying to establish on earth through the long period of history since the Fall of man, will be the result. This ideal world is the world in which man and the entire cosmos attend God and become harmonious with each other. This ideal world is called the Ideal World of Cosmic Ideology.
COMMENT: The third world war is inevitable, but there are two ways to fight it. That rests largely with the actions of the aggressor side.
3. Two notes about strength in the scriptures
a. From the Old Testament
In Psalm 144, King David thanks the Lord for his martial strength. The New King James version describes it as “A Song to the Lord Who Preserves and Prospers His People”. The lyrics are:
Blessed be the Lord my Rock,
Who trains my hands for war,
And my fingers for battle—
2 My lovingkindness and my fortress,
My high tower and my deliverer,
My shield and the One in whom I take refuge,
…
11 Rescue me and deliver me from the hand of foreigners,
Whose mouth speaks lying words,
And whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood—
12 That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth;
That our daughters may be as pillars,
Sculptured in palace style;
13 That our barns may be full,
Supplying all kinds of produce;
That our sheep may bring forth thousands
And ten thousands in our fields;
14 That our oxen may be well laden;
That there be no breaking in or going out;
That there be no outcry in our streets.
15 Happy are the people who are in such a state;
Happy are the people whose God is the Lord!
COMMENT: David thanks God for his martial might; he understands that it is purpose to protect and preserve Israel’s prosperity and peace.
b. From the New Testament
We know the teachings of Jesus about meekness and forgiveness—turning a cheek, giving a cloak, giving one’s life for friends, etc. But he also believed that there are certain instances when defensive strength is warranted. Luke 22:36 records that Jesus once told his disciples to obtain swords, since they would be traveling to areas that could be dangerous for Christians:
35 And He said to them, “When I sent you without money bag, knapsack, and sandals, did you lack anything?”
So they said, “Nothing.”
36 Then He said to them, “But now, he who has a money bag, let him take it, and likewise a knapsack; and he who has no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one. 37 For I say to you that this which is written must still be accomplished in Me: ‘And He was numbered with the transgressors.’ For the things concerning Me have an end.”
38 So they said, “Lord, look, here are two swords.”
And He said to them, “It is enough.”
COMMENT: This revealing passage shows that Jesus clearly acknowledged the practical value of strength. In it, He unambiguously recognized the deterrent role of arms, when there was a providential purpose at stake.
4. From Unification Thought
IV. Changes in History (pp. 363-366)
The laws of creation and the laws of restoration, which have been discussed above, have all been at work in history, but the most important laws are the law of give and receive, the law of repulsion, the law of indemnity, and the law of separation. Among these, the law of give and receive becomes the “law of development” in historical change, while the other three together become the “law of turning.” (The law of turning is also called the “law of the struggle between good and evil.”)
It has already been explained that history has been developing through give and receive action; that is, developments in the political, economic, cultural, and all other fields take place through harmonious give and receive action between various pairs of subject and object, such as spirit and matter, people and the environment (society and nature), government and people, organization and organization, individual and individual, people and machinery, and so on.
Development refers to growth, progress, improvement, and appearance of a new quality all of which are irreversible types of forward motion. These phenomena appear when correlative elements of subject and object engage in give and receive action centering on a common purpose. On the other hand, struggle occurs between subject and subject, the two subjects having different purposes and different interests. When a struggle takes place, development or progress will be either suspended or reversed. Accordingly, any development or progress appearing in history took place, without exception, through give and receive action.
Subject and subject oppose and struggle with each other according to the law of repulsion. In human history repulsion between one subject and another refers to the conflict between one leader and another. One example is the struggle between the leaders of the bourgeoisie and the royalist aristocrats under Louis XVI, namely, the struggle between new leaders and old leaders at the time of the French Revolution. The two parties were separated according to the law of separation, with one party on the relatively good side (the position that was relatively closer to God's providence) and the other party on the relatively evil side (the position that obstructed God's providence). The subjects formed good and evil camps, respectively, by attracting people, who were in the object position to their respective sides (separating the people into two parts), and fought each other. The question of which leader is good and which is evil is a matter to be decided on the basis of the extent to which a leader is in accordance with God's providence. In many cases, however, the leaders in an existing society carried out tyrannical rule, leaning toward self-centered desire, and so God would often establish new leaders on the good side and would promote His providence through them.
In the struggle between good and evil, if the good side wins, history turns toward a better direction. Subsequently, when history reaches yet another new stage, another leader, who is even better, appears. Then, the old leader comes to stand in a relatively evil position, and a new struggle between good and evil starts. Again, if the good side wins, history turns once more to an even better direction. Finally, through this process, history reaches the stage of perfect goodness, that is, the stage of the ideal of creation. Only then will the struggle between good and evil come to an end. Thus, struggle does not actually bring about development; rather, it effects changes in the direction of history.
In a struggle between a good subject and an evil subject, if the evil side happened to be stronger, God would attempt to bring the evil side to surrender by using the law of indemnity. To explain further, God would guide the leaders on the good side to walk the path of suffering under persecution by the evil side. With that as a condition, He would work to have the leader on the evil side submit in surrender. In case the leader on the evil side would not surrender, He would influence the people on the evil side to isolate their leader. That way, the leaders on the evil side could not but surrender in the end. That is the working of the law of the struggle between good and evil. Accordingly, this law may also be called the “law of taking back by being struck,” or the “tactic of taking back by being struck.” It has been by virtue of this law of indemnity that religions have been propagated throughout the world until the present time, even through persecution.
In the ongoing struggle between good and evil, when the good side does not fully accomplish its responsibility and the evil side wins a victory, then naturally history does not turn to a better direction but is, instead, prolonged in its existing direction, remaining as it is. After a specified length of time, God again raises a good leader and works to win victory over the evil side. This is the way God has been guiding history, from behind the scenes, toward a better direction. Therefore, human history has not been the history of class struggle, but rather the history of the struggle between good and evil.
In this way, history has developed through the give and receive action between subject and object, and has changed its direction through the struggle between good and evil. In other words, history has undergone changes in direction through the repetition of the process of development and turning. The process of historical changes can be illustrated in fig. 8.1:
From what has been said above, we can understand that history has undergone changes in two respects, namely, in the direction of development (progress), and in the direction of restoration (turning). Development here refers to the development of science, economy, culture, etc.; restoration refers to the recovery of the lost ideal world originally intended – the world of love and peace.
The reason these two directions have existed in history is that human history is the history of re-creation and at the same time the history of restoration. The future world will be a world of highly developed science, and at the same time a highly ethical society. A scientific civilization will be attained through development, while an ethical society will be attained through restoration.
Restoration is achieved through the struggle between good and evil, but this does not necessarily refer to military conflict involving armed forces. If the evil side obediently surrenders to the good side, then it is possible for peaceful social change to be accomplished. In fact, the final struggle for putting an end to the struggle between good and evil, namely, the struggle through which the Messiah completely subjugates Satan, will be carried out peacefully, even if it is called a "struggle." That is, the Messiah will subjugate Satan peacefully by means of true love. In this way, history has been changing, following the two directions of development and restoration. Development will continue forever, whereas restoration will come to an end when the original ideal world is finally restored, after which the ideal world of peace and true love will continue forever.
COMMENT: UT gives a more detailed explanation of historical events, breaking them into alternating phases of development and restoration. Again, it is clear that force is a last resort. Thus, the decades of international conferences on peace that facilitate explanation, discussion, understanding, and hopefully reconciliation. Force is clearly not optimal; it does not facilitate development and progress; but it sometimes is a necessary temporary measure to turn things and prevent heaven’s side from being extinguished.
- originally written July 2022; updated March 2025