The “Cheon Il Guk Era.”
Rev. Moon saw God’s providence the last decade of his life as opening into a new era, which he called the “Cheon Il Guk Era.” He considered it the time to begin instituting God’s original ideal, and to transition from the labors of restoration to a future where the focus is to build God’s kingdom. The arrival of the Cheon Il Guk Era gave cause for the numerous theological and liturgical innovations that began before Rev. Moon’s passing and continued under Mrs. Moon.
Cheon Il Guk is an abbreviation for Cheonju Tongil Pyeonghwa Guk, The Nation of Peace and Unity of Heaven and Earth; in Christian terms it is the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. While Unification theology considers the Old Testament Age, the New Testament Age, and the Completed Testament Age (1992-2001) to be periods in the providence of restoration, the Cheon Il Guk Era that began in 2001 is the time to begin setting up the structure of God’s Kingdom.
Michael Mickler, who calls Rev. Moon “an irrepressible liturgical innovator,” enumerated the theological and liturgical innovations that he began at the start of the Cheon Il Guk Era: a new “heavenly calendar” in 2010, Memorial Festivals of Ascension and Unity begun in 2010, setting up the “Eight Textbooks” in 2012, publication of his autobiography in 2009, and more. From this perspective, Mrs. Moon’s innovations simply continue the path of development that her husband began previously, and they are appropriate for this new time.
The Cheon Il Guk Era was inaugurated on January 13, 2001 with the Enthronement Ceremony of God’s Kingship; this came on the heels of Lucifer’s surrender on March 21, 1999. The theological concept is that once Lucifer, the angel who at the Fall had usurped God’s throne, returned to his original position of a servant, God would recover His throne and begin ruling over heaven and earth.
After the Enthronement Ceremony, Rev. and Mrs. Moon launched a 12-year course to complete preparations for Cheon Il Guk, which was slated to begin on Foundation Day, January 13, 2013 by the lunar calendar. Events proceeded at dizzying speed. On April 27, 2002 they officiated at a Marriage Blessing of 144,000 Christian leaders, representing the 144,000 prophesied in Rev. 14:2 who would attend Christ at his Second Coming. On July 4, 2002 came publication of the “Cloud of Witnesses,” messages from the spirit world by 120 biblical figures and Christian saints testifying to Rev. Moon as the Messiah; these were followed by similar testimonies by ascended Buddhists, Confucians, Muslims, American presidents, and Communist leaders.
What was proclaimed in heaven had to be proclaimed on earth; this began with “The Enthronement of the Cosmic True Parent and the True Parents of Heaven and Earth as the King and Queen of the Blessed Families in Peace and Unity” on February 6, 2003, attended by numerous dignitaries and thousands of Unificationists. Then came ceremonies to crown them king of kings. These began with a ceremony in Jerusalem on December 22, 2003 to crown Jesus the king of Israel—the position he would have attained had the Jewish people of his time received him. Next, in 2004 at government buildings in Washington, D.C. and Seoul, Korea, sitting congressmen crowned True Parents as the earthly representatives of God’s kingship.
These coronations led up to the Entrance Ceremony for the Cheon Jeong Gung Palace on June 6, 2005, where Rev. and Mrs. Moon, wearing crowns and carrying a royal scepter, declared the basic laws of the Cheon Il Guk nation and presided over the establishment of the national flag, flower, anthem, and other accoutrements of state. As Solomon’s Temple signified the permanence of the Davidic kingdom in Israel, this palace high on a mountain overlooking Cheong Pyeong Lake signified the establishment of Cheon Il Guk on solid ground.
All seemed to be going according to plan until Rev. Moon’s health declined and he passed on September 3, 2012. Yet Mrs. Moon pressed on undeterred, and led the celebration of Foundation Day as scheduled on February 22, 2013. Most members chalked this up to her credit and recognized her sincere devotion to God’s providence.
A final point about this term, Cheon Il Guk. Rev. Moon explains it as a world-nation based on the concept of two becoming one: man and woman, spirit world and physical world, religion and politics. Cheon Il Guk, a nation where two people become one! With two people joined together as one, religion and politics will become one as well. When these two become one, Cheon Il Guk will be fully realized.
This point is more apparent when viewed in Chinese characters, 天一國. The first character means “heaven,” but it can be dissected into “two” 二 plus “person” ㅅ, and the second character is 一, “one.” Its meaning is “two people become one,” referring to the unity of husband and wife. Thus, the unity of Rev. Moon and Mrs. Moon as True Parents is the basis for the heavenly nation.
(Extract from Journal of Unification Studies, Vol. 19, 2018 - Pages 1 - 22, Theological Developments in the FFWPU since the Death of Rev. Moon, written by Andrew Wilson)
The “eight textbooks”
In the decade leading up to Foundation Day, Rev. Moon stated that he was leaving behind “eight textbooks” as his legacy. Among them was Cheon Seong Gyeong (2006), an anthology drawn from some 500 volumes of his speeches delivered over a 48-year period from 1956-2003 and organized by theme.
Exposition of the Divine Principle is still the core instructional text of the Unification Movement, and Rev. Moon included it in his list of eight textbooks. Its systematic nature makes it well suited for the FFWPU’s educational programs, and it is still in wide use. Yet it is not one of the three Cheon Il Guk Scriptures, and I anticipate that over time it will become theologically subordinate to them.
The reason is that its focus is the Second Coming of Christ, as evident in the concluding chapter, which details the time, manner and place of his coming. It does not directly testify to True Parents; it mentions the term “True Parents” barely a dozen times, mainly in the Christology chapter.[13] True Parents is inclusive of True Mother, while the Second Coming of Christ is not. This makes it less than ideally suited for the Unification movement during this period when True Mother is leading it.
That Exposition is incomplete was well known in the church. As an evangelical work aimed at outreach to Christians, its teachings are necessarily introductory. They mainly focus on the Christian expectation of the Second Coming of Christ. Rev. Moon said,
There are so many things that I need to make public, but I have decided to do so only at the right time. Exposition of the Divine Principle is not all I have to say… [it] does not speak of me. What Exposition of the Divine Principle explains is only things up until Jesus. It focuses on Jesus. And yet you think that the only thing you need to place importance on is Exposition of the Divine Principle.[14]
My own research bears this out, as I have been working for the past decade to understand Wolli Wonbon, Rev. Moon’s handwritten manuscript of the Principle from 1951. The focus of Wolli Wonbon is not the Lord of the Second Advent but True Parents—the original human ancestors that Adam and Eve were supposed to become had they not fallen. They are the goal of God’s providence, whom Jesus could not restore due to his untimely death and whom the Lord of the Second Advent comes to restore. From the perspective of Wolli Wonbon this is the most essential point of the Principle. It is also the viewpoint of Mrs. Moon’s Cheon Il Guk Scriptures. Yet, that teaching is hard to find in Exposition of the Divine Principle.
To overcome this limitation, the church regularly held 21-day and 40-day workshops for instruction in advanced topics beyond Exposition. Unfortunately, after the mid-90s these workshops became infrequent, which created the hazard that members would fall back on Exposition as their primary source of knowledge of Rev. Moon’s teachings, even though it is incomplete.
At one time members had the expectation that before he died Rev. Moon would write a “gold book” that would replace the existing “black book.” Apparently, the Cheon Il Guk Era was the appropriate time for this to happen, but instead of writing a new version of Divine Principle himself, Rev. Moon authorized a disciple to develop and present the “Original Substance of the Divine Principle” (OSDP) at workshops in 2011-2012.[15]
(Extract from Journal of Unification Studies, Vol. 19, 2018 - Pages 1 - 22, Theological Developments in the FFWPU since the Death of Rev. Moon, written by Andrew Wilson)