The eternal word, truth, or divine wisdom pre-existed the creation of the universe.
The Word is all-pervasive; it guided the creation of the universe and continues to function in the principles of nature.
It operates through physical, moral, and spiritual laws. For some, the truth is to be grasped by reason. For others, its essence is the Word, which is manifested completely only in Christ, the perfect man.
The Word gives the universe its purpose. This touches the mystery of why God created the universe. As the Absolute Being, omnipotent and omnipresent, what did God gain by creating something apart from Him? The texts in the last group suggest that the primary theme was love.
Love, which arises only in relationship, is imprinted in the cosmos by the pervasive duality of plus and minus, male and female. God, too, to experience the joy of love, would create objects apart from Himself with which to have a relationship. Here lies the purpose of creation, the root Idea in the mind of God that lies behind the blueprint of creation.
1. In the Beginning Was the Word
He has created the heavens and the earth with truth. Qur’an 16.3
When Heaven creates a thing, it gives each thing a principle of truth. Chu Hsi (Confucianism)
The sun and the moon are made punctual, the stars and the trees adore, and the sky He hath uplifted; and He hath set the measure. Qur’an 55.5-7
The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens; by his knowledge the deeps broke forth, and the clouds drop down the dew. Proverbs 3.19-20
By Truth is the earth sustained, and by the sun are the heavens;
By Order the gods stand and Soma is set in the sky. Rig Veda 10.85.1 (Hinduism)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.1 He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1.1-5
This, in the beginning, was the only Lord of the universe. His Word was with Him. This Word was His second. He contemplated. He said, “I will deliver this Word so that she will produce and bring into being all this world.” Tandya Maha Brahmana 20.14.2 (Hinduism)
He [Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Colossians 1.15-17
The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old.
Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth…
When he marked out the foundations of the earth, then
I was beside him, like a little child; I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always; rejoicing in his inhabited world, and delighting in the sons of men. Proverbs 8.22-31
In human practice, when a mortal king builds a palace, he builds it not with his own skill but with the skill of an architect. The architect moreover, does not build it out of his head, but employs plans and diagrams to know how to arrange the chambers and the doors. Thus God consulted the Torah and created the world. Genesis Rabbah 1.1 (Judaism)
The Tao has its reality and its signs, but is without action or form. You can hand it down but you cannot receive it; you can get it but you cannot see it. It is its own source, its own root. Before heaven and earth existed, it was there, firm from ancient times.
It gave spirituality to the spirits and to God; it gave birth to heaven and to earth. It exists beyond the highest point, and yet you cannot call it lofty; it exists beneath the limit of the six directions, and yet you cannot call it deep. It was born before heaven and earth, and yet you cannot say it has been there for long; it is earlier than the earliest time, and yet you cannot call it old. Chuang Tzu 6 (Taoism)
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
With what was the world created? In the beginning, there was God’s Will. There was God’s idea. Along with it, there was God’s plan. God’s original Will was to create humans and the human world according to His plan. Therefore, human beings… no matter how fallen, should stand within the Will and plan of God. (76:92, February 1, 1975)
Even the most advanced science cannot attain or surpass what God has made. The immense universe operates in an orderly way according to its laws. Since God created and governs the immense universe, whose comprehension is beyond the reach of human thought and science, we conclude that God is the absolute Scientist. (127:10, May 1, 1983)
Even the greatest scientist or scholar in the world today possesses only minuscule knowledge. The deeper you go, the more you will find principled actions based on eternal laws. Considering this, we see that these laws could not have come about by chance. In every case, they uphold a certain content of the origin.
Their direction is aligned with, and never contradictory to, the whole purpose of the universe. This lawful universe is infinitely vast, and at the same time, so subtle. Hence, no one can deny that God, who created this universe, is the King of wisdom and the King of knowledge. (127:11, May 1, 1983)
Before God created the heavens and the earth and human beings, there was a time when He functioned centering on Himself. Because we humans resemble God, we also have times when we think only about ourselves.
Then God began to create all things in heaven and on earth; this means that He spread out the universe [as the environment for human beings], His object partners. In due course, He would create His object partners. All this investment by the invisible God was to manifest as the visible God. (69:81-82, October 20, 1973)
God created human beings as the model, expanding His creations to the four directions, East, West, Sout,h and North. (173:212, February 18, 1988)
Before creating human beings, God created the natural world by expressing partial reflections of the internal nature and external form He had conceived for human beings, who were yet to be created. Hence, a human being, as the manifest image of God, contains the sum total of the essences of all things.
(Exposition of the Divine Principle, Creation 3.2)
Even before the creation, the first thing that God thought of was true parents, and the family where true parents, true couple, and true children are united as one. (339:212, December 26, 2000)
2. Truth Is Absolute
From the bosom of the sacred Word He brought forth the world. On high, below, He abides in His own laws. Atharva Veda 4.1.3 (Hinduism)
There is no changing the words of God; that is the mighty triumph. Qur’an 10.64 Righteousness and justice are the foundations of thy throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before thee. Psalm 89.14
Truth is victorious, never untruth. Truth is the way; truth is the goal of life, Reached by sages who are free from self-will. Mundaka Upanishad 3.1.6 (Hinduism)
By Divine Law are all forms manifested; Inexpressible is the Law. By Divine Law are beings created; By Law are some exalted.
By Divine Law are beings marked with nobility or ignominy; By the Law are they visited with bliss or bale.
On some by His Law falls grace;
Others by His Law are whirled around in cycles of births and deaths.
All by the Law are governed, None is exempt.
Says Nanak, Should man realize the power of the Law,
He would certainly disclaim his ego.
Japuji 2, M.1, p. 1 (Sikhism)
The Absolute truth is indestructible. Being indestructible, it is eternal. Being eternal, it is self-existent. Being self-existent, it is infinite. Being infinite, it is vast and deep. Being vast and deep, it is transcendental and intelligent. It is because it is vast and deep that it contains all existence. It is because it is transcendental and intelligent that it embraces all existence. It is because it is infinite and eternal that it perfects all existence. Doctrine of the Mean 26 (Confucianism)
What is meant by an eternally-abiding reality? The ancient road of reality has been here all the time, like gold, silver, or pearl preserved in the mine. The Dharmadhatu (Absolute Truth) abides forever, whether the Tathagata appears in the world or not.
As the Tathagata eternally abides, so does the Reason of all things. Reality forever abides, reality keeps its order, like the roads in an ancient city. For instance, a man who is walking in a forest and discovering an ancient city with its orderly streets may enter into the city, and having entered into it, he may have a rest, conduct himself like a citizen, and enjoy all the pleasures accruing therefrom.
What do you think? Did this man make the road along which he enters into the city, and the various things in the city? [No.] Just so, what has been realized by myself and the other Tathagatas is this Reality, this eternally-abiding reality, the self-regulating reality, the Suchness of things, the Realness of things, the truth itself. Lankavatara Sutra 61 (Buddhism)
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
Since God is an eternal, unchanging, and unique Being, the love, ideals, peace, and happiness that He desires must be likewise. (74:161, December 7, 1974)
God is absolute. Even after the Fall, God continues to relate to what He has made according to the laws and principles He established. (52:87, December 22, 1971)
The life of true love is living for the sake of others… [without] hopes of receiving something in return… as Jesus said, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends,” and “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
This is the very Principle of Creation, which God Himself set up. God is the almighty Creator, yet He will not destroy what He created at a whim and start over again, for to do so, he would have to negate His Principle.3 (January 27, 2004)
The components that make up the universe were not created blindly. This vast universe exists and moves by the relative relationships between subject and object partners, whose unceasing give and take following the track of the law enables the universe to continue in perpetuity.
To continue in perpetuity, we, too, must follow the track of the law. If we do not, we will not continue but will perish. For our physical life to continue, we need to eat, digest normally, and have good circulation to distribute the nutrients throughout our bodies. Thus, a being can continue only when there is smooth give and take. (182:117, October 16, 1988)
Ontology should clarify… the motivation, purpose, and laws of creation, and show that they govern the movement of all beings. The normative laws that govern human beings should be in unity with the laws of the universe—the way of Heaven.
Just as the laws by which the sun, moon, and stars were created—the way of Heaven—set up a system of vertical order, so also in the family there is a vertical order extending from grandparents to parents and children, and likewise a horizontal order formed by the siblings.
The laws of Heaven and the values or norms of [family life] correspond. With a theoretical structure consistent with the natural sciences, and with a self-evident nature acceptable to the human conscience, ontology must attest to the historical validity of the proposition, “Those who betray Heaven will perish, and those who are faithful to Heaven will live.”
Based on this ontology, we can establish absolute values in the true sense. Establishing them—absolute truth, absolute goodness, and absolute beauty—then understanding them and practicing them, we will bring about humanity’s spiritual revolution. Then the chaos in today’s world will gradually disappear.
(122:303-04, November 25, 1982)
3. The Law of Love
Love, the divine Principle, is the Father and Mother of the universe, including man. Science and Health, p. 256 (Christian Science)
Love is the great law that rules this mighty and heavenly cycle, the unique power that binds together the diverse elements of this material world, and the supreme magnetic force that directs the movements of the spheres in the celestial realms.
Love reveals with unfailing and limitless power the mysteries latent in the universe. Love is the spirit of life unto the adorned body of mankind, the establisher of true civilization in this mortal world, and the shedder of imperishable glory upon every high-aiming race and nation. ‘Abdu’l Bahá (Bahá’i Faith)
That which lets now the dark (yin), now the light (yang) appear is Tao.
As a continuer, it is good. As completer, it is the essence. The kind man discovers it and calls it benevolence (jen). The wise man discovers it and calls it wisdom.
The people use it day by day and are not aware of it, for the way of the superior man is rare. It manifests itself as benevolence but conceals its workings. It gives life to all things, without sharing the anxieties of the holy sage. Its glorious power, its great field of action, are of all things the most sublime. It possesses everything in complete abundance: this is its great field of action. It renews everything daily: this is its glorious power. I Ching, Great Treatise 1.5 (Confucianism)
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
The universe is created centering on love and the principles of love. It dances to that rhythm, not to the rhythm of the individual. (131:124, April 22, 1984)
The omniscient and omnipotent God, who does not need gold or knowledge, the God who has everything—what was it He yearned for that He would create human beings? What was the fundamental motivation for the act of creation? It was not power, it was not knowledge, and it was not wealth.
What God lacked was a foundation for love. Even God cannot bring about love by Himself. Thus, the motivation for the creation of the heavens and the earth was love. (149:149, November 21, 1986)
The creation of the universe began with love. Love preexisted the creation. If the idea of love did not exist, then there would have been no purpose to the principle of male and female. The mineral kingdom consists of positive and negative ions—like male and female. The world of insects consists of males and females. The animal world consists of male and female.
Human beings, likewise, are men and women. Before the principle of male and female, there was the idea of love, that things made male and female would become one through love. If the idea of love didn’t exist, this universe, pervaded by the duality of male and female, would not have arisen.
Which came first: male and female physical beings or the emotion and idea of love? This is the old philosophical problem of Realism vs. Idealism… We should know that the idea of love came first.
Women are not born for their own sake. Men are not born for their own sake. They both exist for the sake of love. For this reason, the chief concern of both men and women is love. (218:339-40, August 22, 1991)
The created world contains subject and object partners, and for this reason, there are men and women and male and female creatures. The subject-object relationship is found in flowers with stamen and pistil, in molecules with positive and negative ions, and atoms with protons and electrons.
Everything exists in a pair system. Nothing else but love fulfills the value and carries on the history of existing beings. Through love, men and women procreate.
Other beings—insects, plants, and minerals—also love according to their kind. Why is everything in a pair system?
Why are there always subject and object partners? The reason is love. Which came first, love or subject and object partners? Does love exist because there are women and men, or do we exist as women and men because of love? Which is it? We exist as women and men because of love. (227:268, February 14, 1992)
Without God’s investment of love, the cosmos could not have come into being. The law of the cosmos is that the subject partner lives for the sake of the object partner.
However, in the fallen world, the subject does not live for the sake of the object; instead, the subject misuses the object for his own sake. That is why the world is destined to decline. Religions must teach the heavenly principle that you are happy only when your counterpart is happy. (271:70, August 21, 1995)