User:Steve Dufour/Indemnity (Unification Church)

Indemnity, in the context of Unification Church beliefs, is a part of the process by which human beings and the world are restored back to God's ideal. It is explained in the Divine Principle, the basic textbook of Unification Church theology based on the teachings of church founder Sun Myung Moon.

Indemnity as explained in the Divine Principle
The concept of indemnity is explained at the start of the second half of the Divine Principle, "Introduction to Restoration":
 * "What, then, is the meaning of restoration through indemnity? When someone has lost his original position or state, he must make some condition to be restored to it. The making of such conditions of restitution is called indemnity. For example, to recover lost reputation, position or health, one must make the necessary effort or pay the due price. Suppose two people who once loved each other come to be on bad terms; they must make some condition of reconciliation before the love they previously enjoyed can be revived. In like manner, it is necessary for human beings who have fallen from God's grace into corruption to fulfill some condition before they can be restored to their true standing. We call this process of restoring the original position and state through making conditions restoration through indemnity, and we call the condition made a condition of indemnity. God's work to restore people to their true, unfallen state by having them fulfill indemnity conditions is called the providence of restoration through indemnity."

The Divine Principle goes on to explain three types of indemnity conditions. Equal conditions of indemnity pay back the full value of what was lost. The biblical verse "life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth" (Exod.21:23-24) is quoted as an example of an equal indemnity condition. Lesser conditions of indemnity provide a benefit greater than the price that is paid. Faith, baptism, and holy communion are mentioned as examples of lesser indemnity conditions. Greater conditions of indemnity come about when a person fails in a lesser condition. In that case a greater price must be paid to make up for the earlier failure. Abraham's attempted sacrifice of his son Isaac (Gen. 22:1-18) and the Israelite's 40 years of wandering in the wilderness under Moses (Num.14:34) are mentioned as examples of greater indemnity conditions.

The Divine Principle then explains that an indemnity condition must reverse the course by which the mistake or loss came about. Jesus' statement that God had forsaken him (Matt.27:46) and Christianity's history of martyrdom are given as examples of this.

The Divine Principle then states that human beings, not God or the angels, are the ones responsible for making indemnity conditions.

Criticism of the Unification Church concept of indemnity
Christian theologians have criticized the concept of indemnity as being contrary to the Christian doctine of salvation by faith. Radio and television evangelist Bob Larson said, "Moon's doctrine of sinless perfection by 'indemnity', which can apply even to deceased ancestors, is a denial of the salvation by grace offering through Jesus Christ." Donald Tingle and Richard Fordyce, ministers with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) who debated two Unification Church theologians in 1977, wrote, "The zeal and enthusiasm of the Unification Church members is not so much based on love for God as it is compulsion to indemnify one's own sins."

The Unification Church has also been criticized for saying that the wars of the Twentieth Century served as indemnity conditions to prepare the world for the establishment of the Kingdom of God, and that the Holocaust was the result of indemnity for the crucifixion of Jesus.