Claim. SMM defines True Parents not as a generic spiritual title but as a precise theological role: the sinless ancestor humanity lost at the Fall and the horizontal incarnation of the vertical True Father. The Messiah, on this account, fills the True Parent role — and Christianity’s identification of Messiah with God is rejected as a category error.
Elaboration. The split between vertical and horizontal parenthood is explicit: “The role the Messiah must carry out when he comes to this earth is the role of the True Parent. Then, who is the True Parent? He is the horizontal parent with horizontal true love, who stands in place of the vertical true father. Christianity says that the Messiah is God and God is the Messiah, but this is wrong. God is the vertical true father. There is only one. You cannot see this any other way. The Messiah is the horizontal True Parent” (2.1. Sinless true ancestor and Savior of humankind, 186-40, 1989.1.24).
The historical claim is total: “God’s history of restoration can be seen as a history to establish True Parents” (ibid, 9-10, 1960.3.27); “God absolutely needs True Parents, for even the omnipotent God is unable to fulfill the providence without True Parents” (ibid, Blessed Family-454). The ancestor function is genealogical: “Who are the True Parents we know? They are the ancestors of humankind and thus you should attend True Parents just as you do your own” (ibid, 118-147, 1982.5.23).
This is the central UC distinctive: without it the system is recognizably Christian; with it, UC stands apart.
See also. true-parents, csg-true-parents-as-gods-embodied-form