Life after the Holy Wedding begins by saying goodbye to an old friend, the angel of death.
That angel dwells in your body. Adam and Eve invited him in by misusing their sex organs, and he never left. Augustine wrote that at the moment of sexual climax, something takes possession of the man’s sex organ, and it is not God. The man loses ownership of his sex organ. The Divine Principle compares the physical body of a fallen person to “a haunt of Satan.” Paul said he could not control the evil his body did. He called it “sin living in me.”
“When it comes to sex, God gets physical.“
The Indemnity Stick Ceremony is where you, as husband and wife, take back ownership of your sex organs. In True Father’s words, we marry “to restore the position of an owner. …The owner of the wife’s sexual organ is the husband, and the owner of the husband’s is the wife.” This is new in history. How does it happen?
When it comes to sex, God gets physical. Circumcision. Castration. Wrenching Jacob’s thigh out of joint. Our Ceremony is physical: guided by a pastor or mentor blessed couple, with prayerful repentance, you each strike your spouse’s lower parts, his or her buttocks, three times, with a stick.
Why the lower parts? It’s because that’s where our first parents sinned. They covered their lower parts in shame. It’s time to come out of hiding and remove the sin and shame.
Why strike them, and why three times? Striking for God brings blessings. When Moses struck the river, it turned to blood. When he struck the rock, it brought forth the water of life. When the Israelites in Egypt struck the doorway of their house three times, the angel of death passed over.
“Your children inherit goodness and freedom.“
What does a doorway represent? Solomon called “the chamber of her that conceived me” his “mother’s house.” The doorway to your mother’s house is the sex organ. Israel striking it three times prefigures this Ceremony.
They saved their children, and so do you. You take ownership of sex. No lust, seduction, anger or guilt in your marriage. This Ceremony is your pledge never to strike each other evermore, not spiritually, not physically. You foreclose sexual abuse and spousal violence. Your children inherit goodness and freedom. Owned by God and the blessed couple, the sex organs are now the holy of holies.
(References: The City of God, p. 464-5, 473; Exposition of Divine Principle p. 137; Rom 7:20; Ex 17:1-7; 1 Cor 10:4; Ex 12:22-23, KJV; Song of Songs 3:4.)
-TH
Editors Note: Originally titled ‘Expelling the Angel of Death’ Entry was originally posted on January 16th, but revised on January 17th. Title and paragraphs have been revised to emphasize points and to clarify meaning.
