This section on God as the Creator includes classic accounts of the creation of the universe and the creation of human beings. Some describe creation as beginning with a word; others from a desire within the Absolute Being.
In some texts, the Creator forms the universe out of nothing (ex nihilo), in others the world originated as an emanation from the Absolute, a portion of which emerged out of the void to take on the attributes of form and matter.
Several texts describe the root of creation in the appearance of Mind, which then molds physical matter into its abode; others mention the motive of Love, which sought to divide Being from Non-Being in order to manifest itself. (For more texts on creation by the interaction of two poles which emerged from the One, see Chapter 2: Duality.)
Finally, scriptures from Hinduism and Taoism describe creation in terms of divine self-emptying and sacrifice. These creation stories are not mere explanations of how things came to be in the far remote past.
They are to instruct us on the workings of God who even today governs this world by the same creative principle that He used in the beginning. As the biblical scholar Rudolph Bultmann said, “The real purpose of the creation story is to inculcate what God is doing all the time.”
This in turn informs us about who we are. Father Moon, for his part, emphasizes the effort and love God invested in the creative process. If we are God’s children, then just as God invested effort and sincerity in creating, we too should invest 100 percent of our effort in order to realize fully our potential as creative beings.
As creation proceeds from mind to matter, so too our life can accord with the cosmic order when it is centered on the mind. As God was motivated to create out of love, searching for a counterpart in the world of being with whom to rejoice, so we should strive to become God’s beloved, able to please His heart.
1. In the Beginning
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.
And God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.
And God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” And God made the firmament and separated the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.
And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. And God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, upon the earth.” And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.
And God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the firmament of the heavens.” So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds, cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and the cattle according to their kinds, and everything that creeps upon the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed which is upon the face of all earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all his work which he had done in creation. Genesis 1.1-2.3
God it is who created the heavens and the earth,
and that which is between them, in six days.
Then he mounted the throne.
You have not, besides Him, a protecting friend or mediator.
Will you not then remember?
He directs the ordinance from heaven to the earth;
then it ascends to Him in a Day,
whose measure is a thousand years of your reckoning.
Such is the Knower of the invisible and the visible, the Mighty,
the Merciful, who made all things good which He created.
Qur’an 32.4-7
Tao gave them birth;
The power of Tao reared them,
Shaped them according to their kinds,
Perfected them, giving to each its strength.
Therefore, of the ten thousand things, there is not one that does not worship Tao and do homage to its power.
Yet no mandate ever went forth that accorded to
Tao the right to be worshipped, nor to its power the right to receive homage.
It was always and of itself so.31
Tao Te Ching 51 (Taoism)
As the web issues out of the spider
And is withdrawn, as plants sprout from the earth,
As hair grows from the body, even so,
The sages say, this universe springs from
The deathless Self, the source of life.
The deathless Self meditated upon
Himself and projected the universe
As evolutionary energy.
From this energy developed life, mind,
The elements, and the world of karma,
Which is enchained by cause and effect.
The deathless Self sees all, knows all.
From him Springs Brahma, who embodies the process
Of evolution into name and form
By which the One appears to be many.
Mundaka Upanishad 1.1.7-9 (Hinduism)
The Holy One went about creating worlds and
destroying them until He created heaven and earth,
of which He said, “These please Me.”32
Genesis Rabbah 9.2 (Judaism)
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
Christians today believe that the omnipotent God created by speaking words, saying “Let there be…” and the creation appeared as if it were a magic show. On the contrary, God totally invested His entire self into the work of creation.
He invested, expressing His total love. Don’t we give our utmost sincerity and invest our flesh and blood for sake of the people we love?
Likewise, in creating human beings, God invested His entire Being in us; we are the bone of His bones, the flesh of His flesh and the ideal of His ideals. Therefore, God can relate with us as His beloved object partners and His hope.
(78:111-12, May 6, 1975)
When God created heaven and earth, after each day of creation, “God saw that it was good.” This means He felt joy. What is the experience of joy? It is the feeling of satisfaction we have when we accomplish a certain purpose. Because the created universe embodies God’s purposeful conscious- ness, God rejoiced at its creation. (9:169, May 8, 1960)
Every result begins from a motive or cause. Every existence begins from a motive and unfolds through a process before it materializes as a result. This is the case with all natural phenomena. Human beings did not make it so; rather, this is a basic principle and heavenly law, God’s law. For this reason, there is no such thing as the evolution of new species by random mutation.
All things exist in order. The world was created by design, in which every existence, as an object-partner of God, arose through a principled process out of that motive [in the mind of God]. Consider successful people: could they succeed without a firm determination in their minds?
Starting with a motive and plan in their mind, they prepare the ground and steadfastly push forward to reach their objective. Since this is necessary for an individual to succeed, would it not also be necessary for God, the Creator of this great universe, to attain His objectives? It is the same principle.
(9:227, May 29, 1960)
The natural world contains such a wide diversity of creatures. What was the process by which each was created? They were created through the Creator’s heart of dedication and sincerity.
Even the microscopic organisms were created through God’s heart of love and His cherished desire to exhibit His own splendor. (20:248, July 7, 1968)
God carried out His work of creation with the utmost sincerity, dedication and investment. He established the standard of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience, and then invested absolutely. All created beings are God’s beloved object partners, whom He created by investing with utmost sincerity. (400:81, December 27, 2002)
Each of you wishes for your partner of love to be better than you in every way. By the same token, God is looking to create something and someone greater than Himself. Do you suppose God would expend only 90 percent of His energy in creating the universe, or would He give His full 100 percent?
How about 100 percent a thousand times over? Indeed, He would invest and forget what He gave, and give again and again a thousand times over. Know that this is how our universe was created: God invested 100 percent of His energy, giving and forgetting what He gave, and repeating the process tens of thousands of times. (254:266, February 15, 1994)
2. The Creation of Human Beings
Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. Genesis 2.7
We created man of an extraction of clay, then We set him,
a drop, in a receptacle secure,
then We created of the drop a clot
then We created of the clot a tissue
then We created of the tissue bones
then We garmented the bones in flesh;
Thereafter We produced him as another creature.
So blessed be God, the fairest of creators!
Qur’an 23.14
Creating the universe himself, He has remained unattached.
The compassionate Lord too has made the holy center [the human being]. Combining air, water, and fire, He created the citadel of the body.
The Creator fashioned the Nine Abodes [of sensation];
In the Tenth is lodged the Lord, unknowable, limitless.
The illimitable Lord in His unattributed state of void assumed might;
He, the infinite One, remaining detached: Displaying His power,
He himself from the void created inanimate things.
From the unattributed void were created air and water.
Raising creation, He dwells as monarch in the citadel of the body.
Lord! In the fire and water [of the body] exists Thy light;
In Thy state of void was lodged the power of creation.
Adi Granth, Maru Sohale, M.1, p. 1037 (Sikhism)
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
God first made the soil and then used it to create human beings. God created the universe by this principle, forming the internal on the basis of the external. From existing beings, God seeks to create greater beings.
Creation is thus a process from things of lesser value to things of greater value. Likewise, in the creation of humans, God created first the body and then the spirit. (152:319-20, August 18, 1963)
Investing all His heart and mind, God formed the human body out of dust as the dwelling-place of the eternal spirit, where it is to live and grow. No work of art, however beautiful, can compare with the human body.
God did not create it thoughtlessly, saying, “Hey, get up!” Rather, God invested all of His heart and mind into forming it. Then He completed the human being by breathing a living spirit into it. (8:80, November 8, 1959)
God’s purpose in creating human beings was to rejoice with them… However, they cannot become the object partners who inspire God with joy unless they understand His Will and make effort to live accordingly.
Hence, human beings are endowed with emotional sensitivity to the heart of God, intuition and reason to comprehend His Will, and the requisite abilities to practice it. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Eschatology 1.1)
What if God had placed our eyes on our feet, or our mouth on the back of the head? God gave much thought to the human body’s design. The mouth is where it is on the face so the two eyes can watch what we put into it and the hands can best function to feed it.
Suppose your eyes were in the back of your head; your mouth might bite your finger and they wouldn’t see it happening, and you would lose a finger! You have to admit that God is truly the master scientist!
Everyone has little valleys on either side of their mouths, so that when they perspire the sweat doesn’t run into their mouths. If the mouth were set deeper into the face then you would constantly have to blow away your sweat, but you don’t have to because God prepared better contours for your face. What a mess it would be on a rainy day if your nose were set upside down!
Think about it: everything about you is well made, from the hair inside your nose to your teeth. Everything has its role in the order of the body… Is God’s thinking random or confused? No, the universe follows His order and logic.
(104:207-08, May 6, 1979)
3. The Work of Creation Required Love and Sacrifice
The spirit of the valley never dies.
It is called the subtle and profound female.
The gate of the subtle and profound female
Is the root of heaven and earth.
It is continuous, and seems to be always existing.
Use it and you will never wear it out.
Tao Te Ching 6 (Taoism)
At first was neither Being nor Nonbeing.
There was not air nor yet sky beyond.
What was its wrapping? Where? In whose protection?
Was Water there, unfathomable and deep?
There was no death then, nor yet deathlessness;
of night or day there was not any sign.
The One breathed without breath, by its own impulse.
Other than that was nothing else at all.
Darkness was there, all wrapped around by darkness, and all was
Water indiscriminate.
Then that which was hidden by the void,
that One, emerging, stirring, through the power of ardor (tapas),
came to be. In the beginning
Love arose, which was the primal germ cell of the mind.
The Seers, searching in their hearts with wisdom,
discovered the connection of Being in Nonbeing.
A crosswise line cut Being from Nonbeing.
What was described above it, what below?
Bearers of seed there were and mighty forces,
thrust from below and forward move above. Rig Veda 10.129 (Hinduism)
When with the Supreme Being as the offering
the gods performed a sacrifice,
spring was the molten butter, summer
the fuel, and autumn the oblation.
On the grass they besprinkled him,
the Sacrificed Supreme Being, the first born.
With him the gods sacrificed,
and those Sadhyas and the sages.
From that sacrifice, fully offered,
was gathered mixed milk and butter.
And the birds of the air arose,
the forest animals and the domestic.
From that sacrifice, fully offered,
the Rig and the Saman Vedas were born,
the Chandas [Atharva Veda] was born of that,
and from that were born the Yajur Vedas.
From that were born horses,
and the animals with two rows of teeth;
yea, kine were born of that,
and of that were born the goat and the sheep…
From his mind was born the moon,
and from his eye the sun.
From his mouth were Indra and Agni born,
and Vayu (wind) was born from his breath.
From his navel came the mid-air,
from his head the sky was fashioned,
from his feet the earth, and from his ear the quarters.
Thus they formed the worlds.
Rig Veda 10.90.6-10, 13-14 (Hinduism)
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
God established living for the sake of others as the basic principle of creation. What does this mean? Suppose we take a volume of air where pressure is evenly distributed and create a vacuum in one place.
The more the air pressure in that area approaches a vacuum, the faster the high-pressure air will rotate around the area of low pressure. Do you understand what I mean?
When God has invested Himself over and over again in search of His objects of love, He can simply remain in His place and everything will naturally come back to Him. This is also the logical basis upon which God created all creatures in a pair system. (199:276, February 20, 1990)
Which comes first, life or love?
Love comes first. Although our planet Earth came into being from God’s life, we do not hold that life comes first; rather, we declare that love is first. Why? Although God began the creation of heaven and earth with life, the source of life and the motive for life is love.
The reason life came into being is because of love. Why did God create heaven and earth? Although He is the Absolute Being, God cannot feel joy as long as He is alone. Although He might sense it, He cannot experience its stimulation; this is why He created.
God may say, “I am the Absolute Being, the Master of love and Master of life!” yet as long as He remains solitary, He cannot feel love’s stimulation. He cannot feel the stimulation of life, the experience that all of heaven and earth are within Him. (38:152, January 3, 1971)
When God created each thing, He invested energy. Investing energy is to deplete oneself. Though God is omniscient and almighty, if He were to give out all His energy with nothing returning to Him, then God would be depleted.
If you engage in strenuous labor right after eating breakfast, you quickly become hungry and tired. Why? Investing energy is a negative for the subject partner. No one likes to suffer loss all the time.
Enjoyment comes when there is a positive return on the investment. God created all things in the heavens and the earth for enjoyment, not so that He could weep or be sorrowful. Hence, something must return to God as a positive benefit…
Then, when does God receive a positive benefit? This is the measure of perfection in created beings. A being can be said to have reached perfection at the point when God begins to receive a return on His investment. Isn’t this the case in business?
We plan to invest a certain amount, expecting that after a certain point we will begin to realize profits.
Or when we study, we think that after putting in a certain number of hours we will be adequately prepared to pass the exam. This is true with everything; it is a universal law. When we have a desire, if we work hard and challenge our limit to reach a goal, then we can cross the finish line and receive something in return.
The same is true with God. What did He expect to gain by creating human beings? In creating them He invested His energy and consumed something of Himself. God spent everything possible for our sake. Yet there is no loss; once we become perfect, there is a return.
We should understand this basic rule. If 100 units were invested but the return was valued at less than 100 units, God would not have continued His work of creation.
The return should be 110, 200, or 300 units, something valued more than the 100 units invested. Even better, the return should be unlimited. When this happens, God experiences joy even as He invests.
Considering this, we conclude that the return should be something with a higher dimension of value. What form would it take? What, when it returns, gives joy? The answer is love. (65:22-23, November 13, 1972)
If God had thought only of Himself, would He have created heaven and earth? To create means to invest energy. The cherished desire of an artist is to create a masterpiece.
To do this, the artist will invest all of his heart and soul. He will want to reach the point where he cannot do anything more. Only by thus investing himself completely can he create the perfect masterpiece. (78:111, May 6, 1975)
God created the universe first, with absolute faith. Second, He created with absolute love, cherishing each creation as His beloved object partner. Third, God created with absolute obedience, which means that He totally emptied Himself.
God gave His total investment, forgetting what He had given and repeatedly giving still more. He gave up even any concept [that something might come of what He had given].
After thus emptying Himself, God reached the zero point. Since He had invested all of His absolute faith, God reached the zero point. Since He had invested all of Himself with absolute love, in total obedience to the principle of love, God reached the zero point. (313:114-15)