III. The Purpose Of The Creation
A. God's Purpose for Creating
Each being has its own purpose of existence. If a created thing loses its purpose for existing, it should be discarded. If the purpose for existing is so vital, then what is man's purpose of existence?
The purpose for existing is not determined by the created being itself; its true purpose is determined by its creator. Therefore, we must know God's Purpose for the Creation in order to understand the true purpose for man and the cosmos. Why did God, who is almighty and absolute, begin to create?
The most essential aspect of God is Heart. Heart is the impulse to love an object and is the fountain and motivator of love. It is the nature of Heart to seek an object to love. This is, God, whose essence is Heart feels joy when he can love an object that he created. If there is no object, God cannot satisfy his impulse to express care and love, which springs limitlessly from within himself. God made the Creation to be the object which he could love.
We can see in Genesis 1 that whenever God added to his Creation, he said that it was good to behold. God wanted his creations to be objects of goodness and happiness to him. The reason he wanted the Creation to be the object of his Heart is so that he could love it and receive the satisfaction and joy of loving.
B. How Is Joy Produced?
Let us think about how we feel joy. Joy is not created by an individual alone, but only through our having an object which reflects our own natures. Joy is felt through the stimulation a subject feels when its own nature is reflected in an object, whether the object is visible or invisible. For example, a painter feels joy both when he has a stimulating vision or idea as his object and when his vision or idea stands before him as a substantial painting. Joy comes about as a result of the stimulation felt from the object's reflecting the painter's Sung Sang and Hyung Sang.
When an idea itself is the object, the stimulation derived from it is not substantial; therefore, the joy derived from it cannot be substantial either. For instance, though an artist may feel joy from an inspiration or idea that he has, that joy is not as full or complete as the joy that he feels when the finished work which embodies his inspiration stands before him. We receive the strongest stimulation from relationships with concrete or substantial objects. Consequently we feel the greatest joy from objects which are substantial. This attribute in man comes from God. Thus, we can understand that God feels joy when he feels his Original Sung Sang and Original Hyung Sang reflected by his creation.
C. Man--The Object of Heart for God's Joy The Three Blessings
The Creation is made in the image of God's Original Sung Sang and Original Hyung Sang. Man is a substantial object in the image of God, whereas all the other things of the Creation are substantial objects that are symbols of God. Therefore, man is the object (responsive being) that is closest to God's Heart.
God gave a commandment to the first human ancestors, Adam and Eve, saying, "'...of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die'" (Gen 2:17). This shows that God directly conveyed his Will and Heart of love to man. There is no reason that God would convey his Heart to man if God had created man incapable of feeling God's Heart. So we can understand that man was created as the object who is able to understand and respond to God's Will and Heart and thus is the being closest to God's Heart. Thus man was created as the object that would directly receive God's Heart and bring him joy. Man is created as God's child.
As was already explained, the Four Position Foundation is the basic foundation through which God can operate. When man completes the Four Position Foundation by fulfilling the Three Blessings, centered on God's ideal of love, he becomes the object of Heart which returns perfect joy to God. Then God's purpose for man is fulfilled. Genesis 1:28 summarizes the purpose for God's creation of man in what are called the Three Blessings.
1. The First Blessing
God's First Blessing is man's ability to perfect his character. By performing proper Give and Take Action between his mind and body and uniting them centered on God, a person forms the Four Position Foundation on the individual level and becomes the temple of God (1 Cor 3:16). When such perfected individuals become completely one with God in Heart (Jn 14:20), they come to have God's character and constantly have God at the center of their thoughts and actions.
When a person achieves God's First Blessing, he will naturally share God's feelings as his own. Thus, it would be absolutely impossible for such a person to commit a crime, for by doing so he would feel the same grief that he would cause God. Rather, such a person would only want to be a perfect object to God. When a person accomplishes individual perfection, he becomes the complete object of God's Heart and satisfies God's impulse to love. In other words, if man had fulfilled the First Blessing, he would have become the object of Heart which God desires to love. Then he would have been the fruit of God's vertical love.
2. The Second Blessing
God's Second Blessing is man's ability to have an ideal family. Adam and Eve were to attain individual perfection and then become husband and wife and give birth to children with natures of goodness, forming a sinless family. This God-centered family Four Position Foundation would have fulfilled God's Second Blessing.
By becoming husband and wife on the foundation of having perfected themselves through God's vertical love, Adam and Eve would have completely realized God's horizontal love. From the viewpoint of Heart, the fact that God allowed man to have children upon having fulfilled God's horizontal love is a great blessing, for by having children man can feel the vertical love that God feels toward man.
If Adam and Eve had attained perfection, formed the first family, and given birth to children with natures of goodness, they would have been the True Father and True Mother (centered on God) of all mankind--that is, they would have become the eternal True Parents and True Ancestors of all mankind, establishing the Kingdom of Heaven. The basic unit of the Kingdom of Heaven is the true family, the basic Four Position Foundation.
The true family is the basic foundation for God's vertical and horizontal love and the perfect object of God's Heart. With this true family as a base, a true society, true nation, and true world would have been realized. This is God's Will. If Adam and Eve had created such a family and world, it would have been the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
3. The Third Blessing
The Third blessing that God gave man is the right of dominion over the whole Creation. In order for God to feel joy, man, as object of His Heart, should always experience joy in his life. Therefore, God created all things to be objects for man's joy so that man could always feel joy. In other words, since all things substantially reflect man's Sung Sang and Hyung Sang, they are man's substantial objects and man can feel substantial joy through the stimulation they give.
Before creating man, God made all things in accordance with the image (or pattern) of man. Therefore, the structures, functioning, and characteristics of animals are contained within man. In addition, man has the structure and characteristics of plants and minerals. Since all things resemble man's Sung Sang and Hyung Sang, man can love all things and feel joy through the stimulation they give. Man's dominion of love over all things and his attainment of joy from them is the realization of God's Third Blessing to man.
The world where the Three Blessings are realized is the ideal world in which God and man, and man and the cosmos, are in complete harmony. Such a world is the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. As will be more fully explained later, man was created to live in the Kingdom of Heaven on earth in a life of total oneness with God, the source of life and goodness. When his physical self died after such a life on earth, his spirit self would leave his physical self and pass into the spirit world. There, he would live eternally in the Kingdom of Heaven, in the dominion of God's perfect love.
The Kingdom of Heaven resembles an individual who has attained perfection. In a human being, the mind's commands are transmitted to the whole body through the central nervous system and cause the body to act so as to maintain itself. Likewise, in the Kingdom of Heaven. God's Will is naturally conveyed to all his children through the True Parents, the True Ancestors of mankind, causing all to move and harmonize according to the Ideal of God. Just as no part of the body would ever rebel against the commands of the central nervous system. perfect man would feel no antagonism or rebellion against God's dominion of love. Such a world would have no conflict or crime.
D. The Creation is One Interconnected Body of Beings with Dual Purposes
Every existing being consists of two aspects: Sung Sang and Hyung Sang. Like wise, every being has dual purposes, the Sung Sang purpose and the Hyung Sang purpose. The Sung Sang purpose is the purpose for the whole and the Hyung Sang purpose is the individual purpose. Purpose for the whole is the purpose directed toward the preservation and development of the whole. Individual purpose is the purpose directed toward the preservation, strengthening, and development of the self. Man's individual purpose is to preserve and maintain his existence. On the other hand, he as a whole-oriented purpose of life- -to make a certain contribution to his family, society, and nation as a member of these bodies.
Not only human beings, but everything from the universe to the smallest sub-atomic particle has dual purposes. The individual purpose and the purpose for the whole are not independent, but rather are related and interdependent.
The purpose for the whole is also secondarily a purpose for the betterment of the individual. The individual purpose is not separate from the purpose for the whole, and the purpose for the whole cannot continue to exist without guaranteeing the individual purpose. The Creation is an organic body intertwined with dual purposes. Therefore we call it an 'interconnected body with dual purposes'.
Of all the purposes directed beyond the self, the supreme purpose for all things is to serve man's needs, in other words, to give joy to man, and the supreme purpose for man is to offer joy to God. Therefore man and all things have the purpose to serve God and give joy to him.
IV. The Growing Period For Created Beings
The order of creation for all things is recorded in Genesis 1. God's Created began with his creating light out of chaos, void and darkness, and required a period described as six "days" before culminating is the creation of man. But since 2 Peter 3:8 says that "...with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day," we can understand that these days were not actual twenty-four-hour days. What Genesis 1 does tell us is that the universe did not come into being instantaneously, but was created through six gradual periods.
A. The Growing Period for Created Beings
The fact that it took time for the entire Creation to be created implies that a growing period is necessary for each created being to mature. If time were not necessary for an individual being to reach perfection, then there is also no reason why time would be necessary in creating the universe. Let us look at some additional reasons why we can say that a growing period is necessary in order for created beings to reach maturity.
If the word "day" in chapter one of Genesis does not refer to the familiar twenty-four-hour day, then the terms "evening" and "morning" cannot be interpreted in the usual sense either. Let us consider this passage in Genesis 1: "And there was evening and there was morning, one day" (Gen 1:5). After one stage of God's creation work, lasting through evening and night, the coming of morning was regarded by God as part of the first day. Continuing in Genesis, chapter 1, God said, "And there was evening and there was morning, a second day....a third day....a fourth day....a fifth day....a sixth day."
"Morning" signifies the time period when the Ideal for the Creation was first realized. "Evening signifies the period when God finished creating. Including the morning that came after the evening and night, God counted all these as one day. God indicates the time required for his Ideal for the Creation to be realized. The period from the point where God begins creating to the point where the Ideal for the Creation is realized is a growing period for all created beings and is represented by the night, the period between evening and morning.
The Fall of man also implies that there is a growing period, for if man had been created perfect, then there would have been no possibility of his falling. If a perfect being of goodness, resembling God, were to fall, then we would have to conclude that goodness itself is imperfect and therefore question whether God is really perfect.
Prior to the Fall, man had not yet perfected himself; he was growing toward perfection and could choose either the way of life or the way of death (Gen 2:17). God's Ideal for the Creation is perfection; so he would not create man to be imperfect. Yet man fell; so he must have been imperfect. We can therefore conclude that when the Fall took place man was in an uncompleted stage, in a period in which he was growing toward perfection.
B. The Three Stages of the Growing Period
God's entire work of creation took place through three stages: evening, night, and morning. The Four Position Foundation is established through the three stages of origin, division, and union. Similarly, the growing period is comprised of three stages: formation, growth, and completion. So, all creatures attain perfection by going through the formation, growth and completion stages which constitute the growing period.
Some examples of the number 'three' which occur in the natural world are: the three kingdoms--animal, plant, and mineral; the three states of matter--solid, liquid, and gas; the three parts to most animals-- head, body, and limbs; the three parts to most plants--roots, stem, and leaves; and the three layers of the earth--crust, mantle, and core.
In falling, man failed to go through the three stages of the growing period. Since the Bible is God's Word for restoring fallen man, it includes many examples of the number 'three': the Trinity--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; the three stages of heaven; the three archangels--Lucifer, Gabriel, and Michael; the three sons of Adam-- Cain, Abel, and Seth; the three sons of Noah--Shem, Ham, and Japheth; the three decks of Noah's ark; the three kinds of sacrifices by Abraham; the three days of darkness in Egypt at the time of Moses; the three days of separation from Satan at the time of the Exodus; the three forty-year courses of the restoration of Canaan; Jesus' thirty years of private life and three years of public ministry; the three wise men and their three gifts to Jesus; the three major disciples of Jesus; the three temptations; the three prayers at Gethsemane; and Jesus' three days in the tomb.
C. God's Direct Dominion
After going through the growing period, a person reaches perfection and then dwells in the realm of God's direct dominion. Man was created to be the object of God's Heart. It is in the realm of God's direct dominion that man becomes one in Heart with God (becomes the object of God's Heart) and God rules man by love. The realm of God's direct dominion is the realm of perfection, the realm which a person reaches when he perfects himself; it is the place where man is under God's direct control.
Man enters God's direct dominion as he accomplishes the individual Four Position Foundation by realizing the union of mind and Body centered on God. It is in the realm of God's direct dominion that husband and wife establish the family Four Position Foundation centered on God. Thus, the realm of God's direct dominion is the realm where the purpose for creating man is fulfilled.
God created all things for man, to be ruled by man. A perfect person, who is centered on God, is to govern all things when they are mature. This is man's direct dominion over all things. God rules all things indirectly, through man.
D. God's Indirect Dominion
How does God rule people and all things while they are still in the growing period, in an immature state? God, a perfect being can rule only perfect objects. Therefore, people who are in an imperfect state cannot be objects to God. God can rule them only indirectly, through The Principle.3 Thus, from the viewpoint of dominion, the growing period is the realm of God's indirect dominion. God, as the source of The Principle, relates to people and things indirectly while they are still immature,4 dealing directly only with the result of growth according to The Principle, or God's indirect dominion.
All beings other than man go through the growing period under the autonomous control of The Principle. Man, however, is not perfected through the autonomous action of The Principle alone, but by also fulfilling his responsibility to observe God's commandments. In Genesis 2:17, God said, "'...of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.'" This indicates that it is up to man to not eat of the fruit and to perfect himself. Man's disobedience of God's Word and man's fall are determined entirely by man himself, not by God.
Therefore, man's perfection cannot be accomplished through God's responsibility alone, that is, through the autonomous action of The Principle (or God's control during the growing period). Man cannot think that God will take responsibility for man's perfection; man will realize his perfection only when he fulfills his own responsibility, even though that responsibility is very small when compared with God's responsibility. Man fell because he failed to obey God's commandment.
After seeing the result of man's failure to fulfill his responsibility--that is, the Fall--we may well ask why God give man a portion of responsibility. In short, it was for man to qualify as lord of the cosmos. The true right of direct dominion belongs only to the creator. Nevertheless, God wanted man, a created being, to have direct dominion over all things. In order for man to rightfully have this dominion, God had to have man, who is a created being, inherit the nature of a creator. That is, God had to have man inherit His creatorship. Man is to do this by voluntarily participating in his own creation. In short, a person is not perfect by God's Principle and power alone. Man's own responsibility is a necessary element, although it is small when compared with that of God.
God game this responsibility to man as the means for man to achieve perfection. So, God cannot interfere with man's responsibility. God let man participate in and cooperate with His work of creation because it is by man's doing so that man is to become God's heir. Thus, man's responsibility is a precious grace given to him by God. Yet, it is by failing to accomplish their responsibility that the first human ancestors fell. Therefore, man's responsibility is an absolute necessary element in the dispensation for salvation, through which God restores fallen man to his original state.
God's dispensation for salvation has been prolonged for so long because the central persons in his dispensation for Restoration have repeatedly failed to accomplish their responsibility, with which even God cannot interfere. As expressed in John 3:18, no matter how much blessing and love God may grant, salvation cannot come to those who have no faith. Matthew 7:21 says, "'Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.'" This tells us that a person's doing what his Heavenly Father desires is entirely his own responsibility. Why can't a merciful God give even to those who do not ask? Why can't God enable those who do not seek to find and those who do not knock to enter? It is because it is man's own responsibility to seek and knock, and God cannot interfere with it.
V. The Invisible Substantial World And The Visible Substantial World, Centered On Man
A. The Invisible Substantial World and the Visible Substantial World
It is very important for our life of faith that we correctly understand the issues concerning life after death and man's spirit self. Let us examine these questions: Does man have a spirit self? If so, what does it look like? What is the spirit world like? What is the relationship of the spirit world to the physical world? What principles govern the spirit world?
Much information is being collected these days in relation to the spirit world. However, it does not seem possible to explain systematically or to understand clearly these apparently complex phenomena. As a result, the important questions mentioned above have confused and even dismayed many people, and this has affected their religious lives. Some logical explanation is necessary for the many descriptions of a spirit world that appear in the Bible, such as the three stages of the spirit world mentioned in 2 Corinthians 12:2, the appearance of Moses and Elijah with Jesus on the mount of the Transfiguration, and the many examples concerning heaven that are recorded in the Book of Revelation.
The Creation is not composed of only the Visible Substantial World, which may be compared with the human body; it also consists of the Invisible Substantial World, which may be compared with the human mind. The Invisible Substantial World is the Sung Sang part of the cosmos and is called the spirit world; the Visible Substantial World is the Hyung Sang part of the cosmos and is called the physical world. We can understand the relationship between these two worlds by considering the relationship between mind and body. Our physical body is limited by time; it cannot transcend the present moment. Our physical body is limited by time; it cannot transcend the present moment. Our physical body is a being of the moment; it eventually becomes old and returns to the soil. Our mind is not limited by time; no barrier of time can stop it. It can freely reflect on the past and long for the future, if it wishes to do so; it is eternal.
The physical body is also limited by space. It occupies a specific place at each moment and cannot be in another place at the same time. The mind, however, is not limited by space. The mind does not leave any visible traces in the world of space and can exist in any place, if it desires to. The mind is so limitless that it can embrace the universe, if it expands its dimensions.
So, man consists of a body, which is limited and transitory, and a mind which is limitless and eternal. The sphere of action for the limited, transitory body is the Visible Substantial World, and the sphere of action for the limitless, eternal mind is the Invisible Substantial World. Just as man's mind is subject and motivator of the body, the Invisible Substantial World is subject and motivator of the Visible Substantial World (Heb 8:5).
B. The Position of Man in the Cosmos
The what is man's relationship to these two worlds? In Genesis 2:7, it says, "...the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground..." which means that God created man's physical self with the basic elements of the Visible Substantial World. That God "...breathed into his nostrils the breath of life" (Gen 2:7) means that he fashion man's spirit out of the basic elements of the spirit world to form what in The Principle is called the spirit self.
The position of man in the cosmos is as follows. First of all God planned man as the microcosm of the cosmos. God created the cosmos first, but he created it based on the pattern of the Sung Sang and the Hyung Sang of the ideal human being, whom he planned to create later. Man's spirit self is an encapsulation of the Invisible Substantial World, and his physical body is an encapsulation of the Visible Substantial World. God mad man as the microcosm of both the Invisible and the Visible Substantial Worlds. So man is called a microcosm.
Secondly, God created man to be the ruler of both realms of the cosmos (Gen 1:28, 1 Cor 6:3). To put it another way, God created man's physical self from the elements that make up the physical world and gave man dominion over the physical world through his five physical senses. Similarly, God created the spirit self from the elements that make up the spirit world and gave man dominion over the spirit world through his five spiritual senses. Man was originally created with two sets of five senses, one for the physical self and the other for the spirit self. As a result of the Fall, man's five spiritual senses became dulled and man became unable to perceive the spirit world, which can be perceived only by the spirit mind and spirit body. Those whose spiritual senses have been restored by God's grace and a religious life can experience this world, either partially or completely (the Book of Revelation, 2 Cor 12:2, the Transfiguration (Mt 17:2)).
Thirdly, God created man to be the medium of interaction and the center for the harmony of the Creation. The spirit world and physical world cannot communicate directly with each other. When man's physical self and spirit self become one through Give and Take Action, the physical world and the spirit world will communicate with one another through man.
From what has been said above, we can summarize man's position in the Creation as follow: man is the microcosm of the spirit world and the physical world; he was created to be the ruler of these two worlds; and he is the center for the harmony of these two worlds. However because of man's Fall, the Creation lost its ruler and center of harmony, Thus, ...the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God;...because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now.... (Rom 8:19-23)
C. The Relationship between the Spirit Self and the Physical Self
1. The Structure and Functioning of a Human Being
a. The physical self
The physical self consists of the physical mind and the physical body. The physical mind is the subject part of the physical self, controlling the physiological functions of existence, reproduction, and action. Thus, the physical mind is similar to an animal's instinct, manifesting such desires as the desire for nourishment and the desire for reproduction. The physical body consists of various organs, muscles, and bones. In order for man's physical self to grow in good health, it must take in air and sunlight, which are nutrients of a Positive (Yang) nature, and also take in various foods and water which are nutrients of a Negative (Um) nature. The physical self returns the Vitality Element to the spirit self.
b. The spirit self
The spirit self was created to be the subject of the physical self; it can be perceived through our spiritual senses. Even though a person may believe in the existence of the spirit self as a result of his life of faith, since fallen man has very poorly developed spiritual senses, he still has many questions about what happens to the spirit self after its separation from the physical self at death. When separated from the physical self, does the spirit dissipate like smoke? Is it just a spirit which leaves the physical self? Does it go to the spirit world with a substantial form? If it does go to the
spirit world, does it merely merge into God, or does it occupy a separate place in the spirit world? If so, what is the spirit like?
According to The Principle, just as each person has his own physical self, he also has his own spirit entity; so the spirit entity is called a spirit self. The spirit self is identical in appearance to the physical self, and it can communicate directly with God after it is perfect. After leaving the physical body at death, the spirit self lives for eternity in the spirit world. Man desires to live forever because he has a spirit self which has an eternal nature. The spirit self consists of a spirit mind and a spirit body. The spirit mind is the core of the spirit self, controlling the eternal life, love and ideals of man. The spirit mind functions so that man lives a life of value, seeking for truth beauty, and love. The spirit mind is the essence of the spirit self, is the subject of the spirit body, and is the place where God can dwell. The spirit body is the body of the spirit self, just as the physical body is the body of the physical self.
The spirit self needs nutrition for its growth and perfection. The positive (Yang) nutrient for the spirit self is the Life Element from God. The Life Element from God is the basic element that develops Heart within a person and develops him as a being of truth. On the other hand, the negative (Um) nutrient for the growth of the spirit self is the Vitality Element which comes from the physical self. When the physical self acts in accordance with God's Word, it projects good Vitality Element for the growth of the spirit self. The spirit self not only receives the Vitality Element from the physical self, but also projects in return a certain element which is called the Spirit Element. The Spirit Element is the element that gives joy and strength to the physical self.
c. The relationship between the spirit self and the physical self
As explained above, the relationship between the spirit self and the physical self is that of subject and object, with the spirit self growing and perfecting itself on the basis of its relationship with the physical self. The quality of a person's physical life is converted into Vitality Element and transferred to the spirit self. Thus, the quality of the spirit is dependent upon the quality of the physical life. Accordingly, a spirit self that receives wholesome Vitality Element from the physical self becomes a being of goodness, whereas a spirit self that receives bad Vitality Element from the physical self will become evil. In order for an evil spirit self to become a good one, that person must repent while his spirit self is still in his physical self, for a person's evil spirit self is healed by receiving good Vitality Element through his repentance and faith in God's Word.
The most important aspect of the spirit self which has to be perfected through the physical self is a person's sensitivity to the love of God. It was explained earlier that God's Purpose for the Creation is fulfilled through the family (Four Position Foundation), the basic foundation in which his ideal of love can dwell. Therefore, only a spirit person who while on earth has fully perfected his sensitivity to love as a child, as a husband or wife, and as a parent, all centered on God, can go to the Kingdom of Heaven in the spirit world. The Kingdom of Heaven is ruled and harmonized by the love of God; it is the place where all are satisfied through God's love.
All created beings reach perfection through three growth stages. Based on the physical self. man's spirit also goes through three stages of growth. A spirit self in the formation stage is called a form spirit; in the growth stage, a life spirit; and in the completion stage, a divine spirit.
The relationship between the physical self and the spirit self is like that between a tree and its fruit. A ripened fruit is harvested, whereas its vine returns to the earth. Likewise, because the spirit self was created to live for eternity, after separating from the physical body it remains and lives eternally in the spirit world, whereas the body returns to the earth. Many believe that man's physical body dies because he fell, but this is incorrect.
God warned in Genesis 2:17 the "'...in the day that you eat of it you shall die.'" Adam and Eve "died" as a result of eating the Fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Nevertheless, after Adam and Eve fell, they lived for several hundred years on earth and bore children. This means that the death caused by the Fall is not the death by which the physical body returns to the earth. As soon as the first ancestors fell by disobeying God's Word, their eternal spirit "died"--that is, their spirit selves, which could communicate with God, ceased to function. Ecclesiastes 12:7 says, "...the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it." This indicates that the physical self's returning to the earth is in accordance with the natural order of the Creation. A more detailed explanation of this matter will be given later, in the chapter "Resurrection."
When a person lives in his physical body according to God's Ideal for the Creation, he will be living in the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, and the world where his perfected spirit self will go after his life on earth will be the Kingdom of Heaven in the spirit world.
However, since God's Purpose for the Creation is to be realized on earth, his first objective in the work of salvation must also be man on earth. Thus, God has over and over again sent his prophets to this faithless world and even sent the Messiah himself to earth. This crucial role of the physical life (and self) is why the Bible teaches that "...whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (emphases added) (Mt 18:18), and why it teaches us to pray that God's Ideal for the Creation should be realized on earth (Mt 6:10).
It is not God who determines whether a spirit person goes to the Kingdom of Heaven or to hell. It is each person himself who determines this through his daily life while in his physical body on earth. Each person goes to the place in the spirit world corresponding to the stage of development that his spirit self attained while he was on earth. God, the Messiah, and religion can only teach people how to avoid hell and show the way to the Kingdom of Heaven. Whether or not one receives the teachings of God and church is the responsibility of each individual.
In the world where the Purpose for the Creation is realized, Satan, sin, and hell cannot possibly exist. In God's Ideal for the Creation, only heaven was to exist. But because of sin, man lost his original value and became like refuse. The place where this refuse is kept is what we call hell.
2. The Human Mind in terms of the Relationship between the Spirit Mind and Physical Mind
The relationship between the spirit mind and the physical mind is that of Sung Sang (internal character) and Hyung Sang (external form). When the spirit mind, which is subject, and physical mind, which is object, become one through Give and Take Action, a human mind is formed. In a perfect person the spirit mind and the physical mind perform perfect Give and Take Action centered on God and unite, forming what is call the original mind. Man's original mind always directs him toward the Will and Purpose of God. When the physical body returns to the earth, the physical mind ceases to exist, but the original mind, which is formed through the interaction of the spirit mind and the physical mind, remains within the spirit self.
The spirit mind and the physical mind engage in Give and Take Action and unite centering on what man thinks is true. We call this union the conscience of man. A perfect human being always stands on the perfect truth. Therefore, the original mind and conscience should not diverge in two directions, but should be united.
That is, the original mind and the conscience should relate as inner and outer aspects and always direct man toward God's Purpose and Will of goodness. Fallen man still has within him the original mind, which directs him toward goodness. However, fallen people have lost the absolute standard of goodness, and therefore their standards of conscience differ from one another according to their opinion of what is true. Wherever a different view or theology is held, a different direction of conscience will exist.
Also, because man came under Satan's influence as a result of the Fall, his spirit mind cannot properly receive the Life Element from God and remains immature. Such a spirit mind is incapable if being in the subject position to the physical mind and is instead dominated by the physical mind. And when this immature spirit mind performs Give and Take Action with the physical mind which is under Satan's dominion, another mind is produce, one directed toward evil. We call this mind the evil mind. The original mind and conscience of man fight against this evil mind, which is against God's Will and direction, and direct man toward goodness.
1 Positivity and Negativity, or Positive and Negative, are used with the meaning of yang-yin (yang-um, in Korean) as in yin-yang philosophy. They in no way connote good and evil, good and bad, or constructive and destructive.
2 Heart (Shimjung, in Korean) is the essence of God's personality--The essence of his Sung Sang. Heart is the most vital part of his nature, such that all other attributes in him are what they are and do what they do solely because of the attribute. Heart is the impulse to love and to be united in love with the object of its love. For this reason, Heart is said to be the source of love, and at the same time is the chief motive behind love. God's Heart has within itself its own purpose; so it is through God's love, through his Heart, that The Principle (Logos) is expressed
3 When printed in italics, 'The Principle' refers to the basic active universal law that originates in God and pervades the Creation. The term 'non-Principle' refers to a violation of The Principle.
4 When a person reaches perfection, God dwells in that person (1 Cor 3:16); so it can be said that God actually relates to the things of the Creation directly.
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