The Period of struggle among Religions and Ideologies (1648-1789)

Chapter Preparation Period for the Second Advent of the Messiah

The preparation period for the Second Advent of the Messiah is the 400-year period from the Religious Reformation of 1517 to the end of World War I in 1918. The summary of the character of this period was already discussed in the section comparing it with the preparation period for the coming of the Messiah viewed from time-identity, but a more detailed study will be made here. Seen from the viewpoint of the providence of restoration, this era is divided into three periods: the period of religious reformation, the period of struggle between religion and ideology, and the period of maturity for politics, economy, and ideology.

Section II

The Period of struggle among Religions and Ideologies (1648-1789)

This is the period of the 140 years from the success of the Protestant movement by the treaty of Westphalia in 1648 until the French Revolution in 1789. Modern men, who came to pioneer the way in pursuit of the internal and external desires of their original human nature, could not avoid the division of doctrine and the fight among philosophies that came from the freedom of religion and ideology.

As was repeatedly discussed in Part II, the providence of restoration has been woven by the works of division into the Cain-type and Abel-type from the individual level to the worldwide level during the long period of history. Consequently, at the consummation of history, this world of corruption is to be divided into the communistic world of the Cain-type and democratic world of the Abel-type. Just as the foundation of substance could only have been realized by Cain's obedience in surrender to Abel, at this time also the worldwide foundation of substance to receive the Lord of the Second Advent is to be realized only by the Cain-type world's surrender to the Abel-type world. Thus, one world will be restored. In order for the two types of world to be realized, two types of the view of life must be established; in reality, these two types of the view of life were established during this period.

1. The Cain-Type View of Life

The external pursuit of the original human nature aroused the movement of restoration of Hellenism, giving birth to humanism. The anti-medieval movement of the Renaissance, which occurred with humanism as its backing, made light of conversion to God and dedication to religion, replacing everything with nature and humanism. That is, it abandoned the medieval view of life under which the people were so obedient to God as to regard nature and the physical body of men as base and even sinful, and established the view of life exalting the value and dignity of these things. Man and nature came to be recognized through rational criticism by reason and experience, and through demonstrative analysis. This view of life has gone through the two forms of methodology of cognition and speculation. These form the two great currents of modern philosophy: "rationalism" by the deductive method and "empiricism" by the inductive method.

Rationalism, whose father was Descartes of France (1596-1650), maintained that all truths could be researched only by "reason", with which man was endowed from the moment of his birth. Rationalism broke down the historical tradition and set up the proposition of "I think, therefore, I am." by the deductive method. Deducing from this point, rationalists intended to affirm the external world. Accordingly, they tried to deny God, the world, and even themselves. On the other hand, empiricism, whose father was Francis Bacon of England (1561-1626), held that all truths could be researched only by experience. Empiricism held that the human mind, like pure white paper, should be removed from any preoccupation whatever and could only come to comprehend any new truth through experience and observation. Thus, the rationalistic ideology which valued human reason apart from God and the realistic ideology centering on man while based on experience both rejected mysticism and visions. By rationalizing and focusing only on human life, both separated man and nature from God.

In this way, the Renaissance, on the two currents flowing from humanism, gave birth to a view of life which prevented man from going the way of God in accordance with his internal trend and opened the way of the Satanic side by following the external trend alone. This was actually the Cain-type view of life. This Cain-type view of life, upon entering the 18th century, broke down history and tradition, judged every human endeavor by reason and by actualism, thoroughly repulsed that which was unreasonable and unrealistic, and denied God, emphasizing the rational reality of life. This was the thought of the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment, which bloomed in the mainstream of empiricism and rationalism, became the motivating power for the French Revolution.

Influenced by this Cain-type view of life, there occurred in England the doctrine of deism, originated by Edward Herbert (1583-1648). Compared to the theology which had developed, since Thomas Aquinas, on the basis of harmony of revelation and reason, deism intended to establish a theology simply on the basis of reason. Deists confined their view of God to the significance of His having created man and the universe, and they maintained that God's revelations and miracles were not necessary to man.

In the beginning of the 19th century, Hegel, of Germany (1770-1831), made a comprehensive compilation of the philosophy of idealism. But Hegel's philosophy, when influenced by the atheism and materialism that emerged in France on the basis of the Enlightenment, gave rise to left-wing Hegelianism, the Left-Hegelians overturned his logic and systematized the philosophy of dialectical materialism, which motivates the communist world of today. D.F. Straus, a Left-Hegelian, wrote "The Biography of Jesus" denying the miracles in the Bible as posthumous fabrication, while Feuerbach (1804-1872), in his "Essence of Christianity" argued that social or economic conditions cause the emergence of religions. This theory became the backing for materialism. Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Friedrick Engels (1820-1895) were influenced by Straus and Feuerbach, but they were more greatly influenced by the socialistic ideology of France. By advocating dialectical materialism, they combined atheism and materialism, which had begun to bud after the Renaissance and had developed as the tidal current of the Enlightenment. Afterwards, the Cain-type view of life matured to form the communist world of today.

2. The Abel-Type View of Life

We are inclined to regard the flow of history from the medieval society to the modern one as the course of separating man or making him independent from God or religion. This is because we have seen it based on the Cain-type view of life, which occurred in accordance with the external pursuit of man's original nature by medieval men.

However, the pursuit of man's original nature by medieval men was not confined only to that which was external, but also included that which was more internal. Internal pursuit of the original nature aroused the movement to restore Hebraism, which motivated the Religious Reformation. Through this movement, philosophy and religion came to establish a vertical view of life headed for man's original nature endowed at the creation; this we call the Abel-type view of life. Consequently, this Abel-type view of life led medieval men to progress toward God at a higher level, while the Cain-type view of life led them in the direction of separation, making them independent from God or faith in Him.

Kant, of Germany (1724-1804), introduced "critical philosophy" by assimilating empiricism and rationalism, which had conflicted with each other. Through critical philosophy, he analyzed philosophically the desire of man's original nature in pursuit of both internal and external goals, thus pioneering the Abel-type view of life from a philosophical angle.

According to Kant, our various sensations occur by contact with external objects. This alone may give us the content of cognition, but cannot actualize the cognition itself. In order to actualize the cognition, there must be a certain form to unify the various contents (which are subsequent and empirical) according to one solid relationship. This form is the very subjectivity of oneself. Therefore, cognition is said to be actualized when the various sensations coming from the objects are integrated and unified by one's subjective form (inherent and transcendent), according to the spontaneous action of one's thinking power or one's spiritual awareness.

Thus, Kant overturned the existing theory of facsimile which said that subjectivity is determined by the object, establishing a new theory that subjectivity determines the object. Succeeding Kant's theory there appeared a number of philosophers such a Fichte, his first successor (1862-1814), and Hegel (1770-1831). Hegel especially pioneered a new aspect of philosophy. Their idealism formed the Abel-type view of life, in the realm of philosophy. In the religious world, the Abel-type view opposed the inclination of the time, which was influenced by the current of rationalism; there emerged a new movement which emphasized mystical experiences more than doctrines or formalities, attaching importance to religious passion and man's inner life.

To draw a representative example we can first name Pietism, which occurred centering on Philipp Spener (1635-1705) of Germany with a strong conservative trend to follow the orthodox faith, putting stress on mystical experiences. This movement of Pietism spread in England, and, inspiring the religious awareness of the people, it gave birth to Methodism, centering on the Wesley brothers. This denomination thus aroused a great revival in the religious world of England, which was in a depressed condition.

In England, there also emerged the Quakers, with the mystic George Fox (1624-1690) as founder. Fox claimed that Christ is the inner light, illuminating the souls of the believers. He also insisted that unless we experience the inner light, receive the Holy Spirit, and unite mystically with Christ, we can never know the true meaning of the Bible. This denomination spread its missionary work, suffering persecution especially on the American continent.

Next, the famous spiritually sensitive Swedish scientist, Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), disclosed many heavenly secrets, with his spiritual eyes opened. His announcement has long been ignored in the theological world; but quite recently, with the increase of man's communication with the spirit world its value is gradually being recognized.

In this manner, the Abel-type view of life has matured to form the democratic world today.