The Second World War

Chapter Preparation Period for the Second Advent of the Messiah

3. The Second World War

(See the Intro and World War I)

(1) Providential Outline Concerning World War II

As we have already noticed in history after the Medieval Age, the fundamental spirit of democracy is to realize the purpose of the Abel-type view of life. Therefore democracy is necessarily in pursuit of the world under the ideal of creation, following the natural tendency of the two characteristics, internal and external, of the original nature of man. Naturally, the Second World War was the war in which democracy established the foundation of victory in the growth stage by conquering totalitarianism, which blocked the way of the original nature of man.

(2) What is Totalitarianism?

When the economic panic overwhelmed the whole world in the 1930's, nations such as Germany, Japan, and Italy who, under circumstances of isolation, found it difficult to overcome such an adversity, tried to find in totalitarianism a way to break through their difficulty.

What is totalitarianism? Totalitarianism is a political ideology which denies the dignity of man's individuality and the freedom of speech, publication, meeting and association, together with the basic human rights regarding the state and the parliamentary system--which are the bases of the democratic political ideology of the modern nations--and it insists that any individual or group should exist for the benefit and development of the whole nation or state. Therefore, freedom under this system may be defined not as a right for any individual to claim and enjoy, but as a duty or sacrifice one should pay for the whole.

The guiding principle of totalitarianism does not put any authority on the majority but on one man, the ruler. The will of the ruler, then, becomes the ideology of the whole nation or state. To draw some examples of such totalitarian political systems, there have been those of Mussolini in Italy, Hitler in Germany, and the dictatorial government of the militarists of Japan.

(3) Nations on the Heavenly Side and Those on the Satanic Side During World War II

World War II was a war between the nations on the heavenly side--U.S.A., England, France--in alliance with one another under democracy, and the nations on the Satanic side--Germany, Japan, Italy--in alliance with one another under totalitarianism. Why, then, were the former on the Heavenly side and the latter on the satanic side?

The former were on the Heavenly side because they had democracy as their fundamental ideology, which had been built as the political ideology of the final stage of the providence of restoration, centering on the Abel-type view of life. The latter were on the Satanic side because they were the anti-democratic totalitarian nations whose political ideology was centered on the Cain-type view of life. Again, the former were the nations in support of Christianity, while the latter were those standing in an anti-Christian position, thus naturally separating themselves into the Heavenly side and the satanic side.

Let us now further clarify the details. Germany, which was the center of the Axis Powers of that time, deprived the people of their fundamental freedom, and her control of ideologies asserted its influence even in the religious field. That is, Hitler imposed the strict primitive Germanic religious ideology by concluding a pact with the Pope of Rome, thus founding a national religion, and then tried to control all Protestantism under the supervision of bishops throughout the country. Therefore, the Catholics as well as the Protestants were strongly opposed to Hitler. Furthermore, Hitler massacred six million Jews.

Japanese militarists during the world war forced every Korean church to install a Kamidana (household altar) of Japanese Shintoism, and they compelled the Christians to worship at Japanese shrines. Whoever was against this was imprisoned or killed. They especially massacred Korean Christians who had immigrated into Manchuria to escape the bondage of Japan and to find freedom. Thus, the policy of annihilating Korean Christianity, which they enforced even into the latter part of the great war, was most atrocious. Italy also became an Axis power by conspiring with Germany, who was on the Satanic side. Mussolini purposely set up Catholicism as the national religion in order to unify the ideology of his people, thus proceeding to go against God's providence of restoration. Upon such a ground we may describe Germany, Japan, and Italy of that day as the nations on the Satanic side.

(4) The Reason the Heavenly Side and the Satanic Side Confronted, with Three Great Powers on Each Side

The Second World War broke out in order to set up, worldwide, the condition of indemnity of the growth level to restore God's three great blessings, left unfulfilled, centering on Jesus. Originally, it was due to the fall of the three beings, Adam, Eve and the archangel, that God's three great blessings were not fulfilled. Therefore, in restoring the three great blessings, there had to be the participation of three beings in order to restore the three blessings through indemnity.

So God fulfilled the spiritual providence of salvation by combining the three beings--Jesus who came as the second Adam, the Holy Spirit who came as the deity of Eve (cf. Part I, Ch. 7, Sec. IV, 1--214), and the archangel--thus spiritually restoring His three great blessings. Accordingly, the Second World War, which was to set up, worldwide, the condition of indemnity on the growth level to restore the three blessings centered on Jesus, also had to set up the condition to restore the three blessings through indemnity with the nations on the Heavenly side symbolizing Adam, Eve and the archangel winning victory over the nations of the Satanic side, which had a similar pattern. Therefore, Satan, who knew this, mustered beforehand the nations in the patterns of Adam, Eve and the archangel of the Satanic side, ahead of this providence, and had them attack the nations of such patterns on the Heavenly side.

Incidentally, the United States, as a man-type nation, symbolized Adam of the Heavenly side, while England, as a woman-type nation, symbolized Eve on the Heavenly side, and France, as an intermediate type of nation, symbolized the archangel of the Heavenly side. On the other hand, Germany, as a man-type nation, symbolized Adam of the Satanic side, while Japan, as a woman-type nation, symbolized Eve of the Satanic side, and Italy, as an intermediate type of nation, symbolized the archangel of the Satanic side. Before this, the United States, England, France, and Germany, Austria, Turkey in World War I were also nations either on the Heavenly side or on the Satanic side, as the symbolic patterns on the formation level, composed in groups of similar types.

Why did the Soviet Union, which was a nation of the Satanic side, join the Heavenly side? When the medieval society of Western Europe, centering on the pope, stood in a position never to attain the purpose of the providence of restoration, God had to work His providence to realize the two worlds--of communism and of democracy--by dividing the society into the two worlds based respectively on the Cain-type view of life and the Abel-type view. Meanwhile, the Feudal society and the Monarchic society, or the Imperialistic society, blocked the way of the Heavenly side and at the same time barred the ultimate way of the Satanic side in fulfilling such a providence.

Therefore, the Heavenly side and the Satanic side united to break that society. The providence of restoration develops with the flow of the age. Accordingly, even the non-principled world, which realizes in the pseudo-form God's providence of restoration ahead of Him, has to develop towards the Satanic purpose with the flow of the age. Therefore, even in the Satanic world, there must be struggle to liquidate the old society because it is an obstacle to the progressive society.

In accordance with such an historical trend, totalitarianism during the Second World War also became an obstacle in the way of the Satanic side, as it did on the Heavenly side. Meanwhile, God has to allow, even temporarily in the providence of restoration, the Satanic side to realize the communist world. Therefore, God let the communist world rapidly bear its own fruit through the Soviet Union's breaking the totalitarian nations in cooperation with the nations on the Heavenly side. However, as soon as the Second World War was over, the two worlds of democracy and communism were divided like water and oil.

(5) The Cause of World War II Viewed from the Providence of Restoration

Seen from the providence of restoration, the first of the internal causes leading to the Second World War was to set up, worldwide, the condition of indemnity on the growth level to restore God's three great blessings. Because of Adam's fall, God, by sending Jesus, the second Adam, tried to restore the world with His three great blessings fulfilled, centering on Jesus. Nevertheless, Jesus fulfilled this only spiritually, by his crucifixion, due to the faithlessness of the Jewish people. On the other hand, Satan always realizes, beforehand, the world in a pattern similar to the world which Jesus intended to realize. Therefore, at the consummation of history, there will no doubt be realized a non-principled world in the pattern of the three great blessings fulfilled on the growth level, centering on a Jesus-type personage on the Satanic side. Consequently, God has to set up, worldwide, the condition of indemnity on the growth level for the restoration of the world in the Principle with the blessings realized, centering on God, by smiting that Satanic world. For this purpose the Second World War came about.

The Jesus-type personage on the Satanic side was Hitler. Therefore, the life of Hitler was very similar to that of Jesus in the aspects of his thinking on a worldwide scale, his single life, his miserable death, and his missing corpse, though his will was exactly opposite to Jesus'. Consequently, Hitler of Germany, who provoked the Second World War, was the Adam-type personage on the Satanic side, while he fulfilled the pattern of multiplying children by advocating Pan-Germanism and realized the pattern of dominating the whole creation by establishing the policy of world hegemony. Thus, he realized the non-principled world in the pattern of having perfected the three great blessings on the growth level to restore the world, having perfected the three great blessings by winning victory in the Second World War.

Second, World War II came in order to have the earthly men of the Heavenly side undergo and overcome, worldwide, Satan's second temptation to Jesus. Therefore, when we see this from the temptation which Jesus had undergone, the Heavenly side had to set up on the worldwide level, the condition of indemnity to restore God's second blessing to man by winning victory in the Second World War. Just as Jesus established the foundation for the restoration of the children by overcoming the second temptation in the wilderness, the world on the Heavenly side had to establish the foundation of democracy on the growth level by winning the victory in the Second World War, having men of the heavenly side thus lay the worldwide foundation for it.

Third, World War II came in order to establish the foundation on the growth level for the restoration of sovereignty. Because of the victory of the Heavenly side in the First World War, the democratic world came to enjoy its foundation on the formation level, while, following this, even the Satanic world which had been realizing the Cain-type world could subjugate "imperialism" and establish the foundation, on the formation level, for the communist world. Therefore, the Second World War, as the resultant facts revealed, had completely separated the two worlds of democracy and communism, each having laid its foundation on the growth level, the restoration of the heavenly sovereignty would come to establish its foundation on the growth level.

(6) Result of World War II Viewed from the Providence of Restoration

The victory of the Heavenly side in the Second World War enabled the establishment of the condition of indemnity on the growth level to restore, worldwide, God's three great blessings to man. Seen from the standpoint of undergoing, worldwide, Satan's temptations to Jesus, the condition of indemnity to restore God's second blessing worldwide was set up. At the same time, the foundation on the growth level for the restoration of sovereignty was established, as the democratic world could lay the basis on the growth level.

Then, seen from the principle of restoration by indemnity, the fact that Hitler (the Jesus-type personage on the Satanic side) and his country were destroyed, and the communist world centering on Stalin (the person in the pattern of the Lord of the Second Advent on the Satanic side) appeared on the worldwide basis foreshadowed that the age in which man has erected the spiritual kingdom centering on the resurrected Jesus had passed, and that the time had come to build a new heaven and a new earth (Rev. 21:1-7), centering on the Lord of the Second Advent.

Thus, after World War II, we entered the growth stage for the ministry of the Second Advent. Many people have therefore received revelations concerning Christ coming again, and spiritual works occur all over the world. At the same time, all the established religions will be secularized in increasing chaos and division, losing their religious power. This is a latter-day phenomenon occurring due to God's final providence for the unification of all the religions through a new and ultimate truth.