The Root of Sin and God’s Heart”

Lesson Objective: Understand the impact of the human Fall on our world and God’s heart throughout creation, during the Fall and after the Fall.

Divine Principle Reading:

All people have an original mind which inclines them to reject evil and pursue goodness. Yet, even without our being aware of it, we are driven by evil forces to abandon the goodness which our original mind desires and to perform evil deeds which, in our innermost heart, we do not want to do. As long as these evil forces assail us, the sinful history of humanity will continue unabated. In Christianity, the master of these evil forces is known as Satan. We have been utterly unable to liquidate the forces of Satan because we have not understood Satan’s identity or how he came to exist. To extirpate evil by its root, and thereby end sinful history and usher in an era of goodness, we must first expose the motivation and origin of Satan and recognize the destruction he has wrought in human life. This explanation of the human Fall will clarify these issues.

Activity: Creation Stories

1. Explain:
   1. Human beings struggle deeply in attaining God’s purpose for creation as a result of the human Fall.
   2. Our world suffers today because of the impact the Fall.
2. Split your youth into small groups and give them each a large piece of paper and markers.
3. Ask them to draw a line down the middle of the paper and on one side write “God’s Ideal,” and on the other side write “The Reality.”
4. Ask each group to brainstorm bullet points that go under each of these sections and how they compare to each other (encourage them to reference the content we covered in Principles of Creation).
   1. If your group is having a hard time, here are a few examples to consider. You could give them either “The Reality” or “God’s Ideal” and have the youth figure out the counter point.
      1. Human Beings one in heart with God/ Disconnected from God
      2. Healthy Marriages/ Divorce
      3. Happy Families/ Broken Families
      4. Mature Individuals waiting for Marriage/ Teen Pregnancy, Teen Relationships v. Joyful God/ Sorrowful God

1. Allow each group to briefly present their brainstorming session to the larger group (or if you have many groups have them share with another group).
2. Explain: All cultures and religions recognize that our world has somehow become corrupted by our early ancestors. Read several cultural and religious stories surrounding the root of sin from the World Scripture book, Chapter 8: Fall & Deviation, Section: The Human Fall: http://www.unification.net/ws/theme053.htm. Choose whichever stories you think will fit your group best; here are some appropriate stories:

1. Judaism and Christianity. Bible, Genesis 2.15-3.24
2. Islam. Qur’an 7.11-27
3. African Traditional Religions. Urundi tradition (Burundi)
4. Hinduism. Mahabharata 13.40.5-12
5. You may also want to include the story of Pandora’s Box which is not listed in World Scripture.

1. Explain: We, as Unificationists, follow the Genesis account of the Fall of man and True Parents’ explanation of its’ true significance.

Concluding Point: We learned about God’s original plan for creation in Principles of Creation and yet when we look at the current status of the world today we see that we are far from this ideal. The reason for this discrepancy is because we’ve not known the real meaning of the story of the human Fall which has separated us from our Heavenly Parent. 

Activity: God’s Heart at the Fall

1. Explain:
   1. The most important part of learning about the Fall is understanding God’s heart.
   2. Can you imagine what it was like for God who spent billions of years designing and preparing the universe for His beloved children? He invested His entire self repeatedly for the sake of His children. But He was happy to do it for us!
   3. When Adam and Eve hid from Him and broke away from Him His heart was in anguish. All of His hopes and dreams were destroyed.
   4. And yet, he continues to persevere and work His way back into our lives. We’re going to spend some time today connecting with that part of God’s heart.
2. Print a copy of the attached letter (“Dear Diary” which can be found under Chapter 2 Section 1) for each youth and put them in sealed envelopes addressed to the youth in your class.
3. Go outside and have the youth spread out so that they can read their letter in private.
4. Ask them to reflect in a notebook on these topics:
   1. What part of this letter stood out to you most?
   2. How does God feel when he looks at the current state of the world?
   3. What do you think motivates God to keep trying even though His heart is so broken?
5. Gather together in a circle and put your arms around each other and give a conclusion to the reflection points.
   1. It’s important to keep connected to God’s heart when we make decisions in our lives.
   2. However, our busy lives make it very difficult to stay connected with God.
   3. So we need a way to remind ourselves of God’s heart.
   4. We are going to make reminder bands to help us remember this.
6. Go inside and provide the youth with bracelet supplies such as string, hemp, beads and wire.
   1. Tell them they can create any type of band that is meaningful for them: bracelet, keychain, ring, necklace, anklet, etc.
   2. Tell them to choose a meaningful shape or word that will help them remember God’s heart and put it on the bracelet.
   3. There are a ton of ideas on websites like Pinterest for DIY bracelets you can research. You can use pliers to turn the wire into the shape of your choice such as a heart.
   4. Play peaceful music in the background while they create these bracelets to keep the mood in the right place.

Concluding Point: The most important part of the Fall is understanding God’s heart. And while it can be challenging to stay connected to God’s heart we have these reminder bands to help us make it into a habit. When we are able to see from God’s perspective we can look at the world with God’s eyes and see how desperate God is to help us find joy and fulfillment.