The fundamental questions about man and the universe can not be finally resolved without understanding the nature of God, the Creator. This is so because in order to understand and solve the problems concerning any resultant being we must first understand the causal being. So in order to solve the most basic questions about all things, we must first understand the nature of God and the principles by which He created the world.

The Principle of Creation explains God's nature and these principles.

How can we know the nature of God, who is an invisible being? In Rom. 1:20, we read, "Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse." In other words, just as the work of an artist is a visible manifestation of its maker's own invisible nature, so we can perceive God's deity by carefully observing the world of His creation.

In order to know the characteristics of God's divine nature, let us examine the common factors which can be found throughout His creation. We find that all things-from man, animals and plants down to the basic components of matter, the molecules and atoms-all exist through the reciprocal relationship of its positive and negative, or subject and object parts. We observe that mankind is composed of man and woman, animals of male and female and plants contain stamen and pistil, and that molecules are made of anion and cation, and even the simplest atom of proton and electron. We can then conclude that the world of creation is made in such a way that everything exists through the reciprocal relationship of positive (subject) and negative (object).

The fact that the world of creation is so constructed means that God Himself, who is the First Cause of all things, also exists through a reciprocal relationship between the dual characteristics of positivity and negativity. As the Apostle Paul indicated in the scriptural verse, Gen. 1:27, "So God created man in his own image ... male and female he created them," we can say that God exists as the harmonized being of positivity and negativity and is the absolute subject to all created beings.

Furthermore, all things of the created world are composed of the dual characteristics of internal character, which is invisible, and external form, which is visible. We call this internal character "sung-sang" and external form, "hyung-sang."

For example, man is composed of mind, which is sung-sang, and body, which is hyung-sang. The invisible mind is the subject and exercises control over the visible body, which is the object. Likewise, the other created beings, though differing in value according to their level of existence, all have an invisible sung-sang character, which is the cause controlling the body, which is hyung-sang. For example the instinct of animals, the instinct of plants and the inherent directive nature of inorganic matter all function to cause and control their bodies or external forms to maintain their existence. Thus, we can readily understand that all things exist through the more fundamental reciprocal relationships of sung-sang (mind) and hyung-sang (body).

Accordingly, God, who is the ultimate cause must exist as the absolute subject of character (mind) and form (body) and we call God's subjective character and form His original Sung-sang and Original Hyung-sang.

When we speak of God as a holy God or God of love, we are referring to one aspect of God's original mind (sung-sang) and when we speak of God's omnipotence we are referring to an aspect of God's original body (hyung-sang). Because God is the cause of all things, the motives, order and purpose that were to be projected into the created world were determined by His Original Sung-sang and the energy which is manifest in the creation is from God's Original Hyung-sang.

Let us summarize what we have been discussing. God is the harmonized being of the dual characteristics of Original Sung-sang and Original Hyung-sang as well as positivity and negativity. Because God is the subject and cause of all created things, every created being exists through the reciprocal relationship between internal character and external form, and between positivity and negativity.

Thus, since each creation is the substantial reflection of God, each having the invisible dual essentialities of God, the subject, each substantial object is known as an "individual truth body. "

Every created being which is created by God contains the essential characteristics of internal character and external form, as well as positivity and negativity; in other words, each created being reflects God's own form of existence and contains the elements necessary to maintain its own existence. But then, can individual creations exist entirely independent of one another, without mutual inter-relationships, or do they have definite relationships with one another? From an external viewpoint all things indeed exist as separate individuals, but because they were created by God, whose own nature is harmonized, then they, by nature, are designed to exist, grow and multiply only through interdependent and harmonious relationships with God and each other.

Reciprocal relationships are fulfilled through the action of giving and receiving which is called Give and Take Action. When any subject and object in the creation enter into Give and Take Action, their ideal relationships with other beings are established, and then all the power needed to maintain life, action and multiplication is generated.

Let us consider a few examples. The human body maintains its life through the give and take action between arteries and veins, and inhalation and exhalation. An individual is able to achieve his purpose of existence through the give and take action between mind and body. A home or society exists through the give and take action between individuals and groups. Matter, as well, maintains its harmonious and chemically stable existence through give and take action between its subject and object parts. Both plants and animals maintain their functions through give and take action among their various organs and systems. And we find that even the solar system itself exists through the give and take action between the sun and the planets in their orbital movements.

Next, let us consider the relationship between God and man from the point of view of Give and Take Action. The fact that God gave the first human ancestors His commandment (Gen. 2:17) means that man is created to respond to God by keeping that commandment. Therefore, human beings were originally meant to maintain perfect Give and Take Action with God. Had the first ancestors of man established a vertical relationship with God through perfect Give and take Action, then their descendants as well would have been able to maintain perfect Give and Take Action with Him. With this established, all men, by being in a perfect vertical relationship with God Himself, would be able to maintain harmonious relationships with each other, living for the sake of each other, and thus realizing the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

Through the fall of the first human ancestors, this give and take relationship with God was cut off and therefore each man has been unable to maintain harmonious give and take with God and others.

Because the Messiah, as the only begotten son of God, came as the one person who maintains a perfect give and take relationship with God, when fallen man unites with the Messiah in a perfect give and take relationship, fallen man automatically recovers his lost relationship of give and take with God. Therefore, Jesus Christ is the mediator through whom fallen man can come closer to God, and, at the same time, he is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6).

As the term give and take implies, the action is first giving, then receiving, not taking, then giving. The very fact that God created means that He had to give of Himself in order to bring about the creation-in other words, He had to sacrifice Himself for His creation. Thus it is heavenly and universal law that giving precedes receiving or taking. However, fallen man fails to return or reciprocate even after he receives and it is in this way of life that problems arise. Jesus came to serve mankind with love and sacrifice: ". . the Son of man came not to be served, but to serve" (Matt. 20:28). Jesus also taught directly concerning the principle of Give and Take Action when he said, "Judge not, that you be not judged, for with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get" (Matt. 7:1-2) and whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them" (Matt. 7:12).

Just as the ideal relationship of all things is the result of Give and Take Action between subject and object, the movement of subject and object toward one another (Give and Take Action) must be the result of some other force, a vertical force. Then what is the originating force which makes Give and Take Action possible?

There must first be a causal, vertical force that enables further action before additional forces can be produced. There must be a force within all things of this created world that enables them to exist and which also enables them to initiate Give and Take Action with other beings. This force is called the Universal Prime Force and it is the fundamental force of God, our Creator. It is the basic force that enables God to exist as an eternal, self-existing and absolute being. At the same time, it is the force which God endowed to every created being to cause it to maintain its existence and fulfill its purpose of creation.

Universal Prime Force is the most fundamental trait which all things share. Therefore, no matter what the life form, methods of reproduction or types of actions which result through the various Give and Take Actions among the created things from the smallest to the largest, all ultimately have the same unifying purpose and come to exist in mutually organic relationships.

Therefore, the direction and goal of all Give and Take Action are controlled by the Universal Prime Force. Thus, Give and Take Action is meant not only for a subject and object to fulfill each individual purpose, but also for a greater purpose unifying all.

Therefore the ultimate purpose of Give and Take Action is for the subject and object to unite and develop into a greater and higher dimension. The individual being in which the subject and object become united then strives for Give and Take Action with a corresponding counterpart of still greater dimension, and by uniting with it, develops into a still higher being. Thus, all things have both the purpose of self-maintenance and the purpose of maintaining the whole; therefore the universe can be said to be one huge organic body of dual characteristics.

When the dual essentialities of God, who is the invisible subject, are projected into a substantial subject and object, and the divided subject and object pair form a reciprocal relationship through Give and Take Action, this subject and object will once again form a union which is a new object to God. Origin-Division-Union Action is the process of creation or course of development of the power or force that originates from God (the origin), divides and then unites again. The divided subject and object, their unified form, and God each become a subject having three objects and an object with three subjects, all mutually performing ideal Give and Take Action, attaining oneness, thus fulfilling what is called the triple objective purpose. The divided subject and object and united body form a triple objective standard and God is always their first object; then they adjust to the purpose of maintaining the whole and the greater order of things.

When the divided subject and object and united body, after dividing from God, fulfill their triple objective purpose, uniting with God and each other, they become an unchangeable foundation of power called the Four Position Foundation. Since the Four Position Foundation is formed when all subjects, objects and united bodies in each stage become one through ideal Give and Take Action centering around God, the Four Position Foundation is the basic foundation upon which God can operate and also the foundation of goodness which accomplishes the purpose of God's creation.

When the mind and body of a man perform ideal Give and Take Action centering around God, forming the ideal man and perfect object of God, an individual four position foundation is realized.

When husband and wife, centering around God, perform ideal Give and Take Action, they become a family which is a perfect object to God, forming a four position foundation of the family. When man and the creation enter into ideal Give and Take Action centering around God, each creation becomes God's perfect object and a foundation of four positions for dominion is realized.

Each creation has its own purpose of existence. If a creation were to lose its purpose of existence, it would have to be discarded. Then if the purpose of existence is So vital, what is man's purpose of existence?

The purpose of existence is not determined by the created being itself; the true purpose is determined by its creator. Therefore by finding out what God's purpose of creation is, we can then understand the true purpose of man and the universe.

God is eternal, unchanging and unique; therefore His will (or purpose of creation) is also eternal, unchanging and unique. Before creating the universe, God first had an ideal within Him and then He began to create. Then what was His purpose of creation?

We can see in Genesis I that whenever God made a new species of creation He said it was good to behold. Thus, we can say God created the world in order to feel happiness or joy.

How is joy produced? Joy is not created by the individual alone. Joy comes when we have an object, whether invisible or visible, in which we see our own nature reflected and feel the stimulation derived from the object. Therefore, God created man and the universe as His substantial objects so that he could feel His own original nature through His substantial objects.

Out of God's deep concern for man's life He commanded Adam and Eve, ". . 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). In this commandment, God expressed His will and heart of love for man. Therefore, we can see that man is created as an object of love to respond the most directly to God's will and heart.

Thus, since man was created as God's direct object and His child, God gave man dominion over the world. Gen. 1:28 states the essence of the purpose of God's creation of man, the three great blessings: " and God blessed them and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply; and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion'. . ." Since the fundamental base upon which God can operate is the Four Position Foundation, the purpose of His creation-God's source of joy is realized when man completes the four positions, fulfilling the three blessings centering around God's ideal of love.

God's first blessing is that of individual perfection. By performing proper Give and Take Action between his mind and body centering around God, uniting them into one, man forms an individual foundation of four positions and becomes the temple of God (I Cor. 3:16). When such perfected individuals become completely one with God in heart (John 14:20), they constantly think and live centering around God, thus achieving deity and becoming the fruit of God's vertical love.

When man achieves God's first blessing, they will naturally share all God's feeling as their own. It would be absolutely impossible for such men to commit a crime for they would indeed feel the grief they would cause God by doing so; rather, such men would only want to be perfect objects of God's joy.

God's second blessing for Adam and Eve was that after attaining individual perfection, they become eternal husband and wife, perfecting the heavenly family, multiplying children of goodness, thus completing the family foundation of four positions centering around God. For Adam and Eve to become eternal husband and wife under God's vertical love means that God's love is perfected in the horizontal plane. In addition, God's giving them the right and ability to multiply God's children means that God is permitting man to experience with his children the same joy that God experiences in His vertical love for us. If Adam and Eve had attained perfection, forming the first family and giving birth to children of goodness, they would have become the true father and mother of all mankind, centering around God, thus becoming the eternal true parents and ancestors of mankind. From 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.

The third blessing God gave to man signified man's qualification to have dominion over the whole creation. God made man as a microcosm of the structures, functions and essential qualities of all things which He had previously created.

Thus, the world of creation was to be the substantial object of man and man was to feel joy when he felt his own nature reflected through the created things which resemble him.

The world where the three blessings are realized is the ideal world in which God and man, as well as man and the creation, are in complete harmony. Such a world is the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. As will be described later, man was meant in the beginning to live on earth a life of total oneness with God, the true being of life and goodness. After such a life on earth, upon his physical death he would then pass into the spiritual world where he would automatically be in the spiritual Kingdom of Heaven. There he would live eternally under the perfect dominion of God's love.

The Kingdom of Heaven is the world resembling an individual who has attained perfection. In man, the mind's command is transmitted to the whole body through the central nervous system, thus causing the body to act toward one purpose. Thus, in the Kingdom of Heaven, God's will is conveyed to all His children through the true ancestors of mankind, and under the ideal of God, causing all to work toward one purpose. Just as no part of the body would ever rebel against a nerve's command, perfect man would feel no antagonism or rebellion against God's dominion of love. Such a world would have not one iota of contradiction or crime.

Next, let us consider the process of God's creation. The process of creation of all things is recorded in Gen. 1. God's creation began with His creating light out of chaos, void and darkness and took a period expressed as six "days" before culminating in the creation of man. But as it is said in II Peter 2:8 that "… with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as one day,: these days were not actual 24-hour days. This means that the universe did not suddenly come into being without a lapse of time, but rather it was created through six gradual periods.

The fact that it took so much time for the perfected world to be created implies that for each creation to mature there was a period of growth necessary for it to perfect itself. If there was no need of time for an individual being to be created, there is also no reason why time would have been necessary for the universe to be created. If the "morning" mentioned in Gen. I is the initial point of a creation's maturity, then the "evening" can be viewed as the beginning point of creation and the time in between, the night, must then be the period of growth.

The fall of man also implies that there was a period of growth. If man was created perfect, there could have been no possibility of man's falling because 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 if God is really omnipotent.

Man, before falling, was still in the imperfect position, growing towards perfection, and could choose either the way of death or the way of life. God's ideal of creation is perfection. Therefore, God could never have created anything with an innate inclination to failure or imperfection. However before the fall, man was imperfect; therefore, man fell while still in the stage of imperfection on the way toward perfection.

God's entire work of creation took place through three periods: the evening, night and morning. Also, there is the principle of the establishment of the Four Position Foundation in the three stages of origin-division-union. Similarly, the period of growth is also comprised of the three orderly stages of formation, growth and perfection. In the natural world there are three states of matter, gas, liquid and solid, and the three kingdoms, mineral, plant and animal. Also, in the Bible, God manifests the number "three" in many instances, such as the three archangels, the three decks of Noah's ark, Abraham's three offerings, the 30 years of Jesus' private life, his three years of public ministry, the three wise men from the East, his three major disciples, the three temptations, and many more.

A man who has reached perfection by going through the growth period will then dwell in God's direct dominion of love as a substantial object of the perfect God. Perfected man, in turn, would have direct dominion over all perfected things. Therefore the realm of direct dominion is where the ideal of creation is realized and it is the realm of God's love.

Then how does God relate to man and the creation while they are still in the growth period-in other words, while they are still imperfect? Because they are still in the growth period, God cannot relate to them directly because they are not yet perfect. Instead, God relates to them indirectly, and this period is called the period of indirect dominion. God exists as the author of the Principle and deals directly only with the results of growth in accordance with the Principle.

All things grow through the simple autonomy of the Principle itself, but man does not perfect himself only through the autonomy and dominion of the Principle, but by observing the commandment which God gave to man alone, as his portion of responsibility.

God says in Gen. 2:17, "… in the day that you eat of it you shall die." This indicates that it is up to man not to perfect himself and eat of the fruit. Disobeying God's Word and failing would be determined entirely by man, not God.

Seeing the result of man's failure to fulfill his portion of responsibility-man's fall-why did God give this portion of responsibility to man? In sum, it was to qualify man as lord over all creation.

"Me true right of dominion belongs only to one who has created. But God allows man to participate in the work of creation and have dominion over all things as God Himself, even though originally he too is part of His creation. Thus man is to inherit God's creatorship. In short, man is not perfected by God's principle and power alone; man's own portion of responsibility, however small compared with God's, is necessary. Although man is part of the creation, in perfecting himself he has to fulfill his own portion of responsibility with which God cannot interfere. By perfecting himself man can fulfill the condition of participating in the work of creation, thus inheriting God's creatorship.

God gave man the precious blessing of his own portion of responsibility, but man did not fulfill it and fell. God's providence to save man, who failed his responsibility, is one of re-creation. Then man's portion of responsibility that had existed in the original creation of man also needs to be fulfilled in the salvation providence.

The fact that God's providence of salvation has been prolonged for so long is because the central figures in His providence of restoration have repeatedly failed to accomplish their portion of responsibility, with which even God cannot interfere. As is expressed in John 3:18, no matter how much blessing and love God may grant, to those who have no faith, salvation cannot come. Matt. 7:21 says, "Not every one 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 man's doing what his Heavenly Father desires is entirely up to man's 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 and knock to enter? It is because it is man's own responsibility to seek and knock and God cannot interfere with it.

Let us consider the matter of the existence of a world after death and the question of man's spirit, according to the Principle of Creation. Does man have a spirit? If so, what does it look like and what is the spiritual world like in which the spirit lives? What is the relationship of the spiritual world to the physical world? And what principles govern the spiritual world?

Today, much research is going on related to the spiritual world. However, these apparently complex phenomena can not seem to be systematically explained or clearly understood. As a result, many people have been confused and some even dismayed by these important questions and this has affected their religious life. Can we dismiss the many descriptions of a heavenly world that appear in the Bible, such as the three stages of heaven in II Cor. 12:2, the appearance of Moses and Elijah with Jesus at the Mount of Transfiguration and other examples?

In the world of creation, there is not only the visible world, which resembles the human body, but also the invisible world, which resembles the human mind. The visible world is where the physical body acts within the limitations of time and space. But the invisible world is limitless and eternal beyond the physical world. It is where man's spirit will live for eternity. As Heb. 8:5 expresses, "They serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary." The invisible substantial world is a greater reality than this visible world. The invisible substantial world, like man's mind, is subject to the visible substantial world, which like man's body, is object.

Then what is man's relationship to these two worlds? In Gen. 2:7, it is written, "the Lord God formed man of the dust from the ground," which means that God created man's physical body with the basic elements of the visible substantial world, such as earth, water, air and sunlight. "… And breathed into his nostrils the breath of life" (Gen. 2:7), means that God fashioned man's spirit from the elements of the spiritual world to form what in Divine Principle is called the spirit man.

Man's spirit is an encapsulation of the invisible substantial world and his physical body is an encapsulation of the visible substantial world. Thus, we can clearly understand that God made man as the substantial microcosm of both the invisible and visible substantial worlds. This is why man is called a microcosm. God created man and told him to have dominion over the world (Gen. 1:28). To put it differently, God created man's physical body from the same ingredients that make up the natural world and let man have dominion over it through his five physical senses. Similarly, the spiritual body is created from the same ingredients that make up the spiritual world and God let man have dominion over it through his five spiritual senses. Therefore, man was originally created with two sets of five senses, one for the physical body, the other for the spiritual body, As a result of the fall, fallen man's spiritual senses became dulled and he became unable to sense the spiritual world, which can be perceived only by the spiritual mind and body. Only those religious people whose spiritual senses have been restored out of God's grace can experience this world.

The spiritual world and physical world cannot communicate directly with each other. Thus, man is created as the mediator and center of harmony of these two worlds. When man's physical body and spirit become one through perfect Give and Take Action, these two worlds, visible and invisible, come into oneness through man as the mediator.

To summarize the position of man from what has just been said, man is the substantial being who is an encapsulation of the spiritual and physical worlds. He was also created as the lord and center of harmony of both worlds.

One more point to be explained is the spirit man itself. Even religious people, who may realize they possess a spirit, have many questions regarding what will happen to their spirit after it separates from their physical body. Does man's spirit dissipate like fog or smoke after death or does it have a substantial body that goes on into the spiritual world? Will man's spirit merely merge into God Himself or will it come to maintain a certain position and continue its individual existence? If so, what is the spirit man like?

According to the Divine Principle, each man has his own physical man and also his own spirit. That is why we call his spirit a spirit man.

The spiritual man is subject to the physical man, which is object. The spiritual body is identical in appearance to the physical man, has five spiritual senses and lives for eternity.

The relationship between the spirit man and the physical man is like that between fruit and tree. The spirit man grows while attached to the tree. In other words, the spirit man, which lives eternally, grows to perfection by receiving vitality elements from the physical body, as well as by receiving life elements coming from God. Therefore the spirit man can grow only on the soil of the physical man. All the vitality elements of the physical man are blended with the life elements from God and given to the spirit man. Therefore, the quality of a spirit man depends on the quality of the vitality elements supplied by the physical man. Accordingly a spirit man which receives wholesome vitality elements from his physical man becomes a being of goodness. On the other hand, a spirit man that receives bad vitality elements from his physical man will become evil. In order for an evil spirit man to become a good one, he must repent while in his physical body in order that his spirit man can receive the wholesome vitality element resulting from the repentance he has made.

The most important aspect of the spirit man which needs to be perfected through the physical man is his sensitivity toward the love of God. It has already been explained that God's purpose of creation is the basic Four Position Foundation upon which God's ideal of love can rest. Therefore only those spirit men who have already experienced the true love of parents, the love of husband and wife and the love of children centering around God, or in other words, who have already experienced this sense of love on earth-these alone-can then go to the Kingdom of Heaven in the spiritual world and lead the way of life of heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven is the world ruled and harmonized by the love of God, where all are satisfied through God's love.

Since all creations are perfected through the three orderly stages of growth, man's spirit also goes through three stages of growth based on the physical man before it attains perfection. Thus, a spirit man which is in the formation stage is called a "form spirit," in the growth stage, a "life spirit," and in the perfection stage, a "divine spirit."

Just as a ripened fruit is harvested while its vine returns to the earth, because it was created to live for eternity, after separating from the physical body the spirit man remains and lives eternally in the spiritual world, while the body returns to the earth. Many believe that man's physical body returns to the earth because he fell, but this is false. Ecc. 12:7 says, "And the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it." Thus, it is according to the order of creation that the physical body returns to the earth. It is not due to the fall that the body dies; this is merely what it is meant to do. Rather the death that afflicted man because of the fall is the degradation of his spirit man. A more detailed explanation of this matter will be given later in the chapter on "Resurrection."

When man lives according to God's ideal of creation in his physical body, he will be living in the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, and the world where his perfected good spirit man would go after his life on earth would be the Kingdom of Heaven in the spiritual world.

It is on earth that God's purpose of creation must be completed. This is why God's objective of salvation must also be this earth. Thus, God has over and over again sent to this faithless world His prophets and even the Messiah himself. This is why the Bible teaches "… whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matt. 18:18), and "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" (Matt. 6:10. The Lord's Prayer).

God does not determine whether a spirit man goes to the Kingdom of Heaven or to hell. It is man himself, who determines this through his daily life on earth in the physical body, and he goes to the place in the spiritual world based on the stage of development that his spirit attained on earth. God, the Messiah and religion can only teach people how to avoid hell and show the way to the Kingdom of Heaven.

In the world where the purpose of creation is realized, there is no Satan, no sin, no hell possible. In God's ideal of creation only heaven was to exist. But instead, because of sin, a result of man's failure to fulfill his purpose of creation, man lost his original value and became like trash. The place where this trash is kept is what we call hell.

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