Spiritual Messages
Everyone is struggling to attain happiness and avoid misfortune. From the commonplace affairs of individuals to the great events that shape the course of history, each is at root an expression of the human aspiration for ever greater happiness. How,
The text which you hold in your hands contains the Divine Principle, the teaching of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon. The earliest manuscript of the Divine Principle was lost in North Korea during the Korean War. Upon arriving as a
How can we know the divine nature of the invisible God? One way to fathom His deity is by observing the universe which He created. Thus, St. Paul said: Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely,
We have learned that every creation is God’s substantial object partner, formed in His likeness as a discrete projection of His dual characteristics. God exists as the incorporeal subject partner to all beings. Human beings are object partners embodied
God, the Creator of all things, is the absolute reality, eternal, self-existent and transcendent of time and space. The fundamental energy of God’s being is also eternal, self-existent and absolute. It is the origin of all energies and forces
We have learned that the four-position foundation, built upon the three-object purpose through the origin-division-union action, proceeds in spherical movement around God and becomes one with God. This is the fundamental foundation for all beings to receive God’s governance
For living things to propagate their kind they must reproduce, and this multiplication takes place through origin-division-union action which is built upon good interactions. For example, in plants, seeds develop into flowers with stamens and pistils; through pollination they produce
Through the agency of universal prime energy, the subject and object elements of every entity form a common base and enter into interaction. This interaction, in turn, generates all the forces the entity needs for existence, multiplication, and action. The
Origin-Division-Union Action The process of God’s creation begins when the dual characteristics within God form a common base through the prompting of His universal prime energy. As they engage in give and take action, they generate a force which
For any being to exist, energy is required, and energy can be produced only through give and take action. However, nothing can reciprocate without a partner. To generate the forces necessary for existence, a being must contain dual characteristics, a
It is recorded in the Bible that after God completed each day of creation, He saw that it was good (Gen. 1:4-31). This suggests that God wanted His creations to be object partners embodying goodness that He might take
How is a being’s original created value determined? The value of an entity may be determined by the relationship between its purpose of existence and the desire that a human being has for it. To be more precise, the
To understand more precisely the issues concerning God’s purpose of creation, let us first examine how joy is produced. Joy is not produced by an individual alone. Joy arises when we have an object partner in which our internal
Love and Beauty When two entities, discrete manifestations of God’s dual characteristics, form a common base and seek to unite as the third object partner to God and establish a four-position foundation, they will engage in give-and-take action. In
The universe unfolds and manifests God’s original internal nature and original external form based on mathematical principles. Hence, we can infer that one aspect of God’s nature is mathematical. God is the one absolute reality in whom the
During the growing period, all beings in the creation grow by virtue of the autonomy and governance given by God’s Principle. God, the Author of the Principle, has regard only for the fruits of their growth which are based
The human mind has three faculties: emotion, intellect and will. The human body acts in response to the commands of the mind. When the body responds to the mind’s emotion, intellect and will, its actions pursue the values of
According to the Genesis account of the creation of the universe, amidst the primordial state of chaos, void and darkness, God created light. God next separated the waters under the firmament from the waters above the firmament. He then divided
The fact that it took six days, that is, six time periods, to complete the creation of the universe implies that some period of time was also necessary to complete the creation of each of the individual entities that make
What is the realm of God’s direct dominion and what is its purpose? Human beings abide in the realm of direct dominion when, as subject partner and object partner, they unite in the love of God to form a
The universe was created after the pattern of a human being, who is in the image of God’s dual characteristics. Therefore, the structure of the universe and every entity in it resembles that of a human being, which consists
Even though the Fall resulted from human failure, God has felt responsible to save fallen humanity (cf. Eschatology 2.1). Therefore, God immediately began His providence to restore fallen people by having Adam’s family lay the foundation for the
The position of human beings in the cosmos has three aspects. First, God created human beings to be the rulers of the universe (Gen. 1:28). The universe does not of itself have internal sensibility toward God. Hence, God does
The Structure and Functions of the Physical Self The physical self consists of the dual characteristics of the physical mind (subject partner) and the physical body (object partner). The physical mind directs the physical body to maintain the functions necessary
No one has known the root of sin, which lies deep within and ceaselessly drives people toward the way of evil. On the basis of the Bible, Christians have held to a vague belief that Adam and Eve’s eating
It is clear that the serpent who tempted the human beings to fall was an angel, and that this angel became Satan when he sinned and fell. Let us now investigate what kind of sin the angel and the human
In the Bible, we read that a serpent tempted Eve to commit sin (Gen. 3:4-5). What does the serpent symbolize? Let us investigate the true identity of the serpent, based on the Genesis account. The serpent described in the
The sinful world brings humankind sorrow and causes God to grieve (Gen. 6:6). Would God abandon this world in its present misery? God intended to create a world of goodness and experience from it the utmost joy; yet due
We call the time of Christ’s Second Advent the Last Days. As it was already explained, we are living in the Last Days today (cf. Eschatology 4). We can thus understand that today is truly the time of Christ’
After Jacob entered Egypt with his twelve sons and seventy kinsmen, their descendants suffered terrible abuse at the hands of the Egyptians for four hundred years. This was for the restoration of the four-hundred-year period from Noah to Abraham – a
Upon inheriting the mission of Moses, Joshua led the Israelites into the land of Canaan. For the next four hundred years, fifteen judges governed the Israelite tribes: thirteen judges from Othniel to Samson recorded in the Book of Judges, as
When the period of the judges came to a close and the First Israel entered the period of the united kingdom, the functions of the judge were apportioned to the offices of prophet, priest and king. The prophets received instructions
When the period of the judges came to a close and the First Israel entered the period of the united kingdom, the functions of the judge were apportioned to the offices of prophet, priest and king. The prophets received instructions
Resurrection means to come back to life. To come back to life implies that we have been dead. To fathom the meaning of resurrection, we must clarify the biblical concepts of life and death. When a follower asked Jesus if
We have learned that there are two different biblical concepts of death. Which of the two refers to the death brought about by the Fall of the first human ancestors? God created human beings to grow old and return to
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was shown earlier to symbolize Eve. What does the fruit of this tree represent? It signifies the love of Eve. As a tree multiplies by its fruit, Eve should have borne
We have learned from the above elucidation of the Bible that the root of sin was not that the first human ancestors ate a fruit, but rather that they had an illicit sexual relationship with an angel (symbolized by a
The motivation of the human Fall lay within the angel, who, as we have seen, is symbolized by the serpent who tempted Eve. Therefore, before we can know the motivation and the process of the Fall, we must first learn
By falling into faithlessness without repentance, the people of Israel failed to realize the ideal of God’s nation founded upon the Temple. To make another attempt at fulfilling this Will, God had the people suffer hardships as exiles in
Following the period of Israel’s exile and return, another four hundred years elapsed before Jesus came. This was the period of preparation for the advent of the Messiah. Likewise, Christianity is to meet Christ at his Second Advent only
