Section 1. The Existence of God

1 Through my life of constant prayer and meditation from an early age, I finally encountered God and received His absolute truth. This truth contained astounding content, which revealed the workings of the universe, of life and of history, as never seen before. If we apply this truth to society, we can resolve all social problems. If we apply it to the world, we can resolve all global problems. Furthermore, we can resolve deep religious problems and stalemates in philosophy. This is an unprecedented new worldview, new cosmology, new view of life, new view of God's providence and new view of history. Divine Principle is an integrated thought system that embraces all religious doctrines and philosophical tenets as one whole, while preserving the unique characteristics of each. (135-347, 1985.12.16)

2 The phrase “God exists” is not an empty one. It is not that we deduce the necessity of God's existence by understanding the subject-object partner relationship through the Principle. It is that God existed before we came into existence, that He existed before we could think, and that He leads our senses and our whole beings. This awareness is more important than anything else. The basic point is that awareness precedes knowledge, not the other way around. If we are cold, we feel cold before we know we are cold. Likewise, since God exists, we should be able to feel His existence in our very cells. Achieving that awareness is what matters. The issue is how we achieve that awareness, the ability to experience these things. (058-291, 1972.06.25)

3 The most serious issue in human life is to know whether or not God exists. If God really exists, the greatest of sinners is the one who denies His existence. For example, if a son denies his parents' existence when they are truly alive and well, would we call him a filial son or an unfilial son? We would call him an unfilial son. Then, what will happen to the person who denies God's existence, even though God exists? That person will come to ruin. Hence, there is no greater sin than the denial of God's existence. There are even those who say God is dead. There is no sin greater than the utterance of such words. (039-168, 1971.01.10)

4 We should not perceive the existence of God only vaguely and conceptually. It is impossible to understand the existence of God through logic alone. This is because God's existence, while within the realm of logic, also reaches beyond logic. Can a religious belief in which we know God only through logic guide our lives? Can such a belief perfect us as substantial beings of eternal life? There are many problems with that idea. With only that foundation, how can we expect to stand before God, our true Lord? Our coming to God has been the hope of humankind and also God's providential objective throughout history. (003-010, 1957.09.08)

Human beings are resultant beings

5 There is no one who was born because he or she wanted to be born. No man or woman was born out of his or her own desire. We were born because of our parents, not because we desired to be born. The same is true for our parents, their parents, and all our ancestors. It is the same all the way back to Adam and Eve. Even the first human ancestors did not come to exist out of their own desire. Their existence sprang from the desire of someone before them. When we speak of human beings, we refer to men and women. Man needs woman and woman needs man. However, no man chose to be born as a man, nor did any woman choose to be born as a woman. We discover that we are a man or a woman after we are born, and after we grow up we recognize that we need each other and desire to become husband and wife. Knowing this, it is plain to see that human beings are not the fundamental cause, and that if there were no God, neither would there be human beings. (67-267, 1973.07.22)

6 The vast human race came into existence through the process of men and women meeting each other and living together. Humanity is composed of numerous nations, the nations are composed of numerous tribes, the tribes are composed of numerous families and the families are composed of numerous individuals. Each of us is one of those individuals and a member of a family. The family and blood relationships that bind us were not forged according to our own wishes. God gives us our birth, our family and our relatives. Without God, relationships between teachers and students, or between parents and children, would not be possible. God is the cause and all of these relationships in the world are the result. (67-268, 1973.07.22)

7 In order for anything on earth to exist, there has to be a cause. The world in which we live is a resultant world; the society and country in which we live and the environment we see around us are in a resultant position. There must be a motivation behind the existence of an environment of relationships. We cannot deny that. We can see that human beings are certainly behind the development of societies, nations, and the world. However, human beings cannot be the fundamental cause of human beings. We are undeniably in the position of resultant beings, behind whose creation there must be a motivation, a purpose and a reason. (028-282, 1970.02.11)

8 We have to unite mind and body with God at the center. When mind and body unite with God completely, they form a trinity. The reason we need to become one in mind and body centered on God is because God is our cause. God and human beings relate as cause and effect. The mind and body have a reciprocal relationship; this is a basic principle of the universe. Unity between cause and effect, and between subject and object partners, is a fundamental and universal principle. Unless there is oneness between God and humankind as cause and effect, between this subject partner and object partner, there cannot be an ideal environment, nor can we become ideal beings. (89-152, 1976.11.07)

9 Human beings are by no means causal beings. We are resultant beings, brought about for some reason. There is no way for a result to come about without any relationship with its cause. No matter how tortuous its course, the result needs to relate to and fit with the cause. Human beings are the way they are because they resemble some causal being. If we say that this causal being is God, we can draw the conclusion that human beings resemble God. (77-102, 1975.04.01)

10 God is the causal being of the universe. He is the causal being behind all action, the causal being who exerts force, the causal being who gives direction, and the causal being who endows purpose. We call Him a God of personality because He always acts with a clear motive, a sense of direction, and a purpose. Therefore, everything in the world advances in the direction of the purpose that is based on the cause. This is what we mean when we say that God is the being that causes everything. (89-075, 1976.07.11)

The mysteries of the human body testify to God's existence

11 To a greater extent than we can ever fathom, human beings are the masterpiece of creation. If human beings have a subject partner, an absolute God who created them, would that God have rendered them incapable of knowing what He says, sees or feels? Let us compare God to an artist. To create a masterpiece, an artist conceives it in his or her imagination and designs it with his or her intelligence. The artist aims to create a unique work of art, the best in the world. If the masterpiece turns out perfectly, as envisioned, the artist feels infinite joy. If the work is even better than planned, no artist in the world would say, “This isn't what I intended,” and then destroy it. If a piece of art is better than originally intended, he or she will cherish it as the treasure of a lifetime, and will want to display it with pride to others. Such is the heart of an artist. If human beings have a tendency to always desire something higher and better, God must have the same tendency. If He had that mindset when He created human beings, how wonderful they must be! We can conclude that God wanted to create us as His greatest masterpiece. (053-051, 1972.02.08)

12 Consider the structure of the human body, which is truly a palace of wonders. It is amazing that while each of the numerous cells is a separate entity, each cell cooperates with the other cells, without conflict, to form each of us as freely functioning individuals. We can conclude that this vast world moves and acts to perfect each of us individually. We can conclude further that everything is in motion for the purpose of fulfilling God's Will. (211-021, 1990.12.28)

13 The most important part of a person is the face. The most important part of the face is the eyes. If we think about it, we can say that our eyes came from our parents. Then from where did our parents' eyes come? Tracing back through our ancestry, we come to our first forebears, Adam and Eve. When the very first eyes came to be, do you think they knew of the sun's existence? No matter how much we analyze it, we can only conclude they did not. The eyelids could not have known that on Earth, moisture evaporates in the sun's radiant heat. The eyelashes did not know of airborne dust, even though one purpose for which they were created was to protect the eyes from it. We can understand that the eyes by themselves are a palace of infinite mystery, in that even before they were formed, the being who brought them into existence designed them with the sun, the airborne dust, and evaporation in mind. “God” is the name by which we know this subject partner who gave us birth. (77-258, 1975.04.14)

14 Consider your ears. They face the front. What if they were positioned to face the other way, or what if they were missing? We would not be able to pick up sounds from in front of us. We would also not be able to hear voices from a distance. The ears were formed to catch the sound of voices coming from in front of us. Why? It is because people face each other when they talk. No one talks to the back of your head. The ears face forward because when we meet people, we talk face to face. The fact that they face front means that someone knew in advance that the ears were to hear the sounds that come from in front of us. (38-247, 1971.01.08)

15 Why were the ears created? It was to capture the vibrations that pass by in the air and to harmonize them. Look at the ear carefully. It has a large auricle and a small auricle, providing the ability to screen sounds appropriately. When a loud sound is caught, the large auricle cleverly reduces the volume. If a loud sound were to enter the ear straight, it would shock the eardrum. That is why the large auricle lowers the volume, buffering it to the small auricle. Without this, the ear would have a problem. The ears did not know anything about this, but the causal being, who had a purpose for them, knew it from the beginning. That is why the ears were made the way they are. Someone knew and shaped them like that. We do not know whether this is the Creator or not, but there is someone or something there. (38-248, 1971.01.08)

16 When you see the bushy eyebrows on your face, you may be displeased with them and wonder, “Why do I have these bushy things here?” Without them, wouldn't you have a cleaner, better-looking face? So why are they there? If the human face were covered with fur, would we need eyebrows? Animals, which crawl on the ground, do not need eyebrows, although they have a brow line. Yet human beings, who walk upright, absolutely need eyebrows. The eyebrow area usually protrudes slightly, like a sculpted mountain range. It is the spot most likely to indicate good fortune. Why is it made like this? Because someone knew that human beings would walk upright. (38-248, 1971.01.08)

17 If human beings crawled, they would not need eyebrows. It is truly good to have them. The hair of the eyebrow grows in one direction. Why is that so? It is to send raindrops that land on the forehead off in one direction. Since the eyebrows grow in one direction and are curved slightly sideways, when water flows, it is bound to flow to the side and down. What if we had no eyebrows? Sweat and raindrops would go into our eyes and irritate them. Wouldn't that be difficult? If you look carefully at the eyes, you will see that the Creator considered that the eyebrows alone were not enough, and so equipped the eyes with eyelids to protect them. Tears are designed to flow to the side through a carefully molded channel. Safety measures are in place. I do not know who designed all of this, but it must have taken tens of thousands of years to do the research. (38-248, 1971.01.08)

18 What if the nose were upside down? A shower would cause a big problem. Think how serious this would be. It is not a laughing matter. The nose symbolizes the unique position of human beings in all creation. Human beings have to observe the heavenly law. That is, they have to honor the order of relationship between high and low. So why does the nose become wider the lower down you go? If it did not, it would be a big problem for the mouth, because things like raindrops would flow into it. For this reason, the nose widens at the bottom. It is marvelous to think about this as we look at the human face. (38-249, 1971.01.08)

19 If you look at the lips, you will find they are amazing. The lips and teeth work well together. How far apart are they? Not more than a few millimeters. This is very dangerous; even a small mishap could create a big problem. But do we worry about this? When we are eating, we just think about eating and don't give it a second thought. Isn't the tongue awesome as well? Inside the mouth, the tongue pushes and pulls, moving in and out between the upper and lower teeth while they are working together like a thresher. Yet the tongue and the teeth work in accord, without running into conflict. They fit together like a magic box. I speak very quickly. Even though I speak so fast, and it is the first time for us to meet, I can resonate with you well and we can become very close through words. Truly the tongue is an amazing instrument of harmony. What if the tongue only worked like a finger? It would cause a serious problem. (38-250, 1971.01.08)

The original mind testifies to God's existence

20 How can we know whether God exists or not? We know air exists, even though it is invisible. How do we know? We know because we live by breathing it. Does the air have any taste? It has no taste and it is invisible; still, we know without a doubt that air exists. Similarly, we have a mind. Even though it is invisible, we know with certainty that we have it. You cannot use its invisibility as a basis to say there is no mind. Yet we do not know what the mind looks like. It is indeed a mystery. (39-158, 1971.01.10)

21 Where would God's dwelling place be? God would nestle in the most precious place of all—love. Speaking of a man and a woman, where would God be? He would be at the point that stands perpendicular to their deepest love, based on their complete and unchanging unity. Where man and woman come into oneness, that place becomes the central point. If you reach a mystical state in prayer, enter the realm of spiritual experience, and call out to God, “Heavenly Father,” you will hear the answer from deep inside, “Why are you calling me? I am right here. Here!” “Here” refers to the center of your heart. It is the central point of love where you are totally united in mind and body, the perpendicular space where God can dwell. Where is the center of the individual, family, tribe, people, nation, world and cosmos? That center, no matter how small, is the conscience. One's conscience upholds the place where the axis of universal love resides. Such is the conscience of one who has attained unity of mind and body. (224-148, 1991.11.24)

22 God is the root of love, the root of life, the root of lineage and the root of conscience. This is an undeniable fact. If there is such a God, why can we not feel Him? It is because He and we are one. He is one with love, one with lineage, one with life, and one with conscience. God is the root. If you want to manifest God, you have to spread your love in all four directions. That is, you must invest your love. If you sacrifice everything, even your life and love, and return to the zero point, then God will take ownership. At the zero point, centered on God, everything connects horizontally. As a result of the Fall, this vertical aspect was suppressed. However, once you enable the horizontal connection, God becomes the Lord of your conscience. (275-325, 1996.01.01)

23 Try as hard as you may, you will never disprove that each person has a conscience. No one can deny having one. Fallen people generally do not know whether God exists or not. However, God does exist. He is the Creator and we are His creation. If this is so, we must have some part that functions to unite us with our Creator based upon a shared purpose. There must be a certain force that urges us to align with, move toward, and achieve God's purpose of creation. Without such a force, human beings could not have come to exist. Since God is the Absolute Being, there must be a primary foundation upon which He and His creation can come into contact, an initial base upon which the two can unite. Therefore, God had to create human beings with something that functions within them to drive them toward their intended purpose and goals. Without that, there is nowhere that both God and human beings can be happy. (56-137, 1972.05.14)

24 The standard according to which God, the Absolute Being, created human beings could not be different from the standard He expected us to pursue as created beings. God and we human beings can be happy only when we share a single standard. Within us there must be a function that drives us to seek the absolute God. Without such a function, we would not be able to reach Him. There must be a force to stimulate us and push us forward. That force is the conscience, which we cannot ignore. The conscience wants to elevate us, so it urges us: “Become better! Do better!” We cannot deny this force. The conscience never urges us to be worse; it always pushes us to go higher, to be better tomorrow than today, to be better the next day than tomorrow, to be better next year than this year. The conscience is the force that urges us to become a better, more valuable individual. (56-138, 1972.05.14)

25 The human conscience is always in the position of the object partner rather than the subject partner. There is always a subject partner, even though we may not know who or what it is, that spurs us to take action according to certain principles. The subject partner and object partner work not to harm each other, but with the hope of common benefit and betterment. The conscience always works to lead us toward something better, bigger, more valuable and more universal. Therefore we can conclude that the conscience does not function on its own; it integrates the shared purposes of the subject and object partners. (56-139, 1972.05.14)

26 The subject partner and object partner interact based on the conscience. It is a heavenly law and principle that the conscience cannot work without a subject partner. When we see that our conscience is working constantly in pursuit of something higher, we can conclude that there is a subject partner on a higher dimension. We cannot deny the existence of the subject partner of our conscience, whom we call God. God absolutely exists. If you say God absolutely does not exist, you have to deny the functioning of the conscience. As long as you clearly recognize the existence of your conscience, you have to recognize the existence of God. (56-166, 1972.05.14)

27 The conscience is working every moment within every human being. If you wake up from a deep sleep, open your eyes and start to conjure up an evil scheme, your conscience, acting as your guardian, will say, “You scoundrel!” You cannot deny the working of your conscience. Humans are resultant beings, each with a conscience. When we admit this, we have to openly acknowledge that we surely have a subject partner, because all actions stem from a relationship between subject and object partners. The conscience always urges us upward toward higher things and never urges us to go downward. Why is that so? It is because of an overriding aspiration that compels it to unite with a higher subject partner and attain a higher value. (053-159, 1972.02.19)

God guides the providence in history

28 God did not just come into existence at this moment in history. He does not only relate to one's personal emotional life. God has existed from the past to the present; that is, He has existed all throughout history. But in passing down His work from generation to generation, His intention is not to remain in the background of time, traipsing after people who pursue their private purposes, immersed in themselves. God will surely continue to advance the providence and pursue His Will through those who first become aware of the providence, and who brighten history based on the foundation they build in their lives. These are people who take a position that is public, not private. (59-020, 1972.07.02)

29 By what means can we hold on to God? It is through our sincere devotion. Nowadays we enjoy freedom of religion, with no persecution. God brought about this time in which we enjoy freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press and freedom of religion. This is preparation for the Last Days. That is to say, religious freedom has been bestowed thanks to God who willed it. Thus, in this age, we can put our lives on the line and devote ourselves to God without limit and we will not be persecuted. As the time of persecution has passed, we must become people of heart. We must treasure within us the heart that God experienced throughout history. God is not the God of one particular time period; He is the God of history. He is the God who has toiled hard through countless saints and sages who represented Him throughout history. To save all of you, to this day He has allowed many people to walk a path of persecution, even to the point of martyrdom. That is why I say He is the God of history. (10-349, 1960.11.27)

26 When we look at our history, we see that the world's cultures are being absorbed into larger cultural spheres based on religion. We witness the Christian cultural sphere in the democratic world, the Far Eastern cultural sphere of Confucianism, Buddhism and Zen, the Hindu cultural sphere in India, and the Islamic cultural sphere. Over thousands of years, human cultures have been gradually absorbed by these religious spheres. This is similar to a situation where all the component parts are gathered in a repair shop to be assembled into a whole. Through this we can discern the presence of God and His work. (56-166, 1972.05.14)

The incorporeal God

27 There is no place in the universe where God is not present, and yet we live unaware of His presence or absence. Air surrounds us, but ordinarily we do not feel it; it is only when we are suffocating that we realize that air exists. Further, right inside of us, our heart beats about seventy times a minute, but we are usually unaware of it. If we were forced to match our steps or the blinking of our eyes with the rhythm of our heart, we would collapse within three days from nervous exhaustion. So, it is good that we are unaware of such things. Suppose that God, who is omnipotent, omniscient, and in total control of heaven and earth, were right here with us. With His power, He could blow away mountains and put a hole through the earth. Seeing such things, do you think we could survive in the visible presence of such a God? It is good that God is invisible. If He were visible, we would have a nervous breakdown and pass away within an hour. We should therefore be grateful that God is invisible. (053-159, 1972.02.19)

28 We live every day under the rays of the sun, but we do not feel grateful. We do not greet the sun with gratitude, saying, “Thank you, sun.” We tend to take such magnificent things for granted. What if God decided to remove all the air in the world, leaving only one gallon? If God were that mischievous, world unification would be easy. It would be done in five minutes. If God took away all the air and asked, “Will you unite or not?” all people would shout in unison, “Well unite!” God could unify the world in an instant this way. That God does not do this is something for which to be thankful, because without the air we would die. Air is absolutely necessary for life. (59-020, 1972.07.02)

29 The wise, all-knowing and almighty God thought it most convenient to reign as an incorporeal being who could move around freely in the midst of things. Since God has no form, He can pass through things at will without causing any problem. God can come to your body and pass through it without your awareness. When you doze off, God can step onto your body and walk on it as He pleases, and you will not even notice. How convenient! So it is logical to say that, after much consideration, God chose to remain invisible because He felt it would be most convenient. (10-349, 1960.11.27)

30 We know that air is circulating around us, but we do not feel it. If we are unaware even of the air circulating around us, how can we expect to be aware of God's presence? For God, it is most convenient to remain without form. At the same time, He has to be more than big enough to govern and wrap Himself around this huge universe. Although the incorporeal God can be as big as He wants, the universe is too small to contain His heart; He desires something even larger. (041-022, 1971.02.12)

31 You do not keep your most precious things in a place where people can just see and touch them. You secure them in a place where no one can steal them. If you had a most precious, prized and unique treasure, you would secure it where no one could take it. You would keep it in the deepest part of your heart, the place to which you alone had access. Your heart is the only place where you can meet God one-on-one. God too does not want to meet you in an exposed place. He seeks a unique place where He can meet you as an individual with unique character, thinking and feeling. That is the reason God made the conscience incorporeal. (38-244, 1971.01.08)

32 Let us imagine the world contained one treasure such that, if it were lost, on that very day the world would turn upside down. Would you keep that most precious treasure on the surface of your heart, or at the very center of your heart? I am sure you would keep it at the center of your heart. Still you would not feel at ease, and you would wrap it up, not only once, but many times over. You would not want just anyone to walk in and look at it, so you would cover it, layer upon layer, so that others would never set eyes on it. The human heart has this kind of desire. If God were visible, all the diamonds in heaven and on earth would pale into insignificance by comparison. Where would you house this God, the Absolute Being who is unique in the universe, who is of infinite value, who is the infinite source of life, and who is priceless beyond imagination? You would keep Him in your heart. You would hide Him where no one could find Him, even after seeking for tens of thousands of years. So it is good that God is invisible. (38-245, 1971.01.08)

33 God is a being without form, so the question arises: how can the incorporeal and the corporeal come together? How can the incorporeal world and the corporeal world become one? Logically, this is difficult to answer. A physical being cannot become the center that binds a spiritual self and a physical self. Then how can there be unity between the spiritual Parent and the earthly parents, that is, between God, who is spirit, and the unfallen human ancestors of the original standard, who have substantial form? Further, the vertical and the horizontal have to unite, but how? It is through love, the true love between them, traveling by the shortest and most direct route. (138-168, 1986.01.21)

The omnipresent God

34 God's heart exists not only in the Word but also in everything He created. God's heart is everywhere throughout heaven and earth. Thus we say there is nowhere that God does not exist; that is, God is omnipresent. Since God's heart is in all things of creation, if you want to be in His heart you should embrace everything that exists in heaven and on earth as your own. Our heart desires to go beyond our people, the world and all created things and be with God. In our heart we yearn to go to the place where we can even claim that God is ours. A person who has such a heart is with God. (138-169, 1986.01.21)

35 How can we feel Gods ubiquitous presence? We should feel the air as God's breathing, and when a storm hits, we should feel as if He were sneezing. When we see flowing water, we should perceive it as the sweat God has shed as He overcame His course of suffering for the sake of the world. When we look at the sun, it should bring to mind the life elements of the entire universe, and teach us God's love. God created nature as a textbook for us, His beloved sons and daughters, to provide us deep experiences of His heart and bring us joy. (052-260, 1972.01.02)

36 The words, “In heaven and earth, I alone am the honored one” and “I am omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent, and nothing comes into existence except by me” were spoken with love. Through love, we can be omnipresent. In love, there is nothing to hide. Everything is obvious. The moment you love, everything is open. God wants to be omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent, with love at the center. (39-157, 1971.01.10)

37 If God did not exist in the universe, the universe might as well be empty. But since God exists, the universe is completely full. It is full of love. Hence, once we come to know that God exists, we feel that the universe is full even when we are alone. God is everywhere. We come to feel that He is everywhere. In the midst of such love, God's omnipresence deeply moves us. But if we do not know God, everything is empty. (185-013, 1989.01.01)

42 If you ask whether God exists, I will answer that God definitely exists. Where is He then? He is in the place nearest to us. That is why we cannot see Him. He is so extremely close to us that we cannot see Him. Can you see your eyes? They are too close to you to allow you to see them. Likewise, we cannot see God because He is so close to us. (209-136, 1990.11.28)

43 Man and woman each represent God. God is not somewhere else; He is in our hearts. So prayer is a conversation with the heart. God is the root of the heart. As we go deeper into the heart we will find God at the deepest root of our conscience. Next, God is the root of love, the root of life, and the root of lineage. Thus we need to be grateful whether we are at home or out in public. Wherever we go, in the country or in the world, we should always be grateful. Even when we go to heaven the same principle applies; if we follow this rule, we will pass freely wherever we go. It is the same whether in the kingdom of heaven on earth or the kingdom of heaven in heaven. (254-199, 1994.02.06)

Section 2. God as the Root and Original Being

1 If the Absolute Being created us with the intention that we practice His love, it is clear that He had a motive and a purpose in creating us. In order to clarify that motive and purpose, we need to know the nature of this Absolute Being; that is, we first need a correct view of God. A correct view of God will reveal His purpose and motivation for creating us. It will also clarify why we have to practice absolute love for the sake of peace. (110-253, 1980.11.27)

God the First Cause

2 In the world there are two kinds of people, men and women. They do not change their position. We were born as one or the other not by our own desire. Even though we did not think about this or want it, and did not understand the process or the result, we were born as we are. No matter how successful a person is, no one can deny that he or she is a resultant being, not the causal being. This implies that there has to be a first causal being. Whether called God or something else, that causal being must exist. (279-104, 1996.08.01)

3 Human beings certainly are not the first being, but secondary beings. In order for a secondary or resultant being to exist, there must be a first, causal being. Ultimately, no force can separate these two beings. The first and second beings engage in a relationship. They each desire to become one, as cause and effect. If God, the causal being, becomes the center of all human beings, they, as resultant beings, need a process through which to fulfill His ideal. That is the process of life by which they mature, and from a broader perspective, the process of history. (185-148, 1989.01.08)

4 All of creation is composed of things existing in pairs. The mineral world comprises positive and negative ions that engage in give-and-receive action. Flowers have stamen and pistil, and the animal kingdom has male and female animals. Recently it has been discovered that even bacteria are male or female. If in the microscopic world, invisible to our eyes, there are male and female, what about the world that we can see with our eyes? Did all these male and female entities in this vast, limitless world come into existence by their own will? Or was it by another will? It was by another will. Hence, I repeat: no matter how great we are, we are resultant beings, not the primary causal being. Simply put, we are beings occupying the object-partner position. (232-012, 1992.07.01)

5 Human beings originated from the first cause. What is the first cause? It does not matter what name we use; that being is absolute and has an absolute ideal. We are not “primary” beings, but are resultant, “secondary” beings. For each of us, our immediate primary beings are our mothers and fathers. Our parents' primary beings are our grandmothers and grandfathers. If we keep going back we come to our first ancestors. If God is behind our first ancestors, we go all the way back to God. (196-308, 1990.01.12)

6 God is the motivation within our hearts. He is our original source, and the root of our ideals. Without a cause there can be no result. Therefore, the universe cannot exist apart from God. Dwelling on this earth, we are like orphans who have lost our parents. Imagine the joyful shout of someone who finds his or her lost parents. That joy would be incomparably greater than the joy of a general who conquers the world and gains a material fortune. The heart is what is important. No matter how praiseworthy your successes, if you do not go before your father and mother, you cannot stand as a true child. (026-227, 1969.10.02)

God the Original Being

7 History began on the individual level and has unfolded throughout the world. Where will it conclude? It will continue until we establish an eternal relationship with the Absolute Being of the highest goodness. The highest goodness is eternal and unchanging. There can be no higher level. When we look at the current world, we see that people of different nationalities are gradually coming to share the same attitudes and feelings about life. Also, many who are seeking truth based upon their own beliefs are coming together and moving in the same direction. The root is the same. History as a whole is marching toward the one point of absolute value. We can say that the worldly values people pursue are in reality only relative. (10-127, 1960.09.18)

8 God is the Original Being of heart, intellect and will. As such, what is God's sense of purpose? God must have been conscious of His purpose before He began His creation, not only afterward. Were this not so, He would never have been able to guide human history. Behind history lies a force that we cannot consciously perceive or feel. But for this, God could not lead us toward the world He intends to see. God has a purpose for the world, which He holds in the depth of His heart. Even though we have fallen, He is determined to find human beings who can be instilled with this purpose, which has nothing to do with the Fall. (9-311, 1960.06.19)

9 God created human beings because of love. Yet love cannot be experienced by one person alone. Therefore, the only thing that God absolutely needs is an object partner to whom He can give His love. In other words, God needs His beloved object partner. He can love only when He has a partner to love. God is the origin of love and heart, and His motive in creating the universe was love. As Genesis 1:27 reveals, God created human beings in His own image, as His substantial object partners. (135-010, 1985.08.20)

10 God is the ultimate being of love and the origin of heart, which is deeper than love. God's Word, deeds and philosophy are rooted in His heart. None of these can exist by itself. Each stems from God's vertical heart. We therefore need to share God's heart toward history, toward the present, and toward the future. (11-267, 1961.12.14)

11 It is said that God is the origin of truth, the origin of goodness, the origin of love and the origin of life. What do these phrases mean? They all refer to the same thing. For there to be truth, there must be love and life. To become a person who can speak the real truth, you must have the will and desire for truth pulsating within your own life. As the origin of life, love and truth, God is the Father and also the Mother of all humankind. The core is that God is the Parent. Seen in this way, it is easy to understand God. (021-184, 1968.11.20)

12 No one can change the fact that True Parents were born in this country. How precious it would be to be one with the people of the nation that will remain for all eternity the nation that gave birth to the True Parents! All resultant beings want to be united with these original beings, who are eternal and unchanging. To be in an intimate relationship with these original beings is the highest hope in the world of heart. (249-328, 1993.10.11)

13 God, for whom we seek, is the origin of hope. At the same time, He is the origin of glory, encapsulating the value of the universe. Therefore, to restore God's dominion over the entire creation, we have to possess God within ourselves. We should be able to welcome and attend God. He is the Creator of all things, the one who has been toiling to exercise His dominion over all creation. When you say that you possess God, He is your God. As He is eternal, so are you. As He is the governor of all things of creation, so too can you govern them as His substantial embodiment. If you cannot be such a person, do not say that you possess God. (001-121, 1956.06.27)

14 We have to eliminate the elements of sin onto which we have held until now. We have remained in the grip of the power of death, but we should attain a standard of faith that liberates us from that. To do this, we have to find the path of life that eradicates doubt. If there were no such path in our world, God would not be able to come to us. God is an actual being. He can stimulate our conscience to make us aware of our mistakes and repent for them. This being so, we should fulfill God’s desire by attaining the highest standard of hope, of life, and of human ethics. Such a time, the historic Last Days, must come in the end. This destiny involves the whole universe, but how seriously have you thought about it? We live in an environment in which we can nurse doubts about the universe, about society, about the world, even about ourselves. God is the central being who can provide solutions to all these questions. God is also the only one who knows everything we are pondering, and the only one, the Absolute Being, who can solve our fundamental problems. (3-012, 1957.09.08)

The Lord of heaven and earth

15 God is the central being of the cosmos. He is the Parent of the universe, the Parent of all creation. God is the Creator who will surely bring His purpose to pass. The True Parents on earth are the ancestors of humankind. They are the ones who inherit the parental heart of the Creator and give birth to humankind on this earth. From this perspective, we find three sets of parents in the cosmos: the eternal Heavenly Parent, the True Parents on this earth, and the parents in our families. What do these parents pursue in their public life? Not money or material things, not knowledge or power. They live with love as their center. God, True Parents on earth, and the parents in the family are the owners whose governance is based on love. (199-231, 1990.02.21)

16 To humankind, God is the Parent and King of kings, as well as the center of all things of creation. Hence, He is to lead and guide filial sons and daughters, patriots, and saints who represent the world. When this takes place, God will reach the highest position. God can be the Parent as well as the King. These positions are not separate; God is the central being who combines them. If it were possible, a person should combine the highest qualities of filial piety, loyalty and holiness, and attend God. Surely God would like to be attended by persons with the qualities of a filial child, patriot, and saint of saints. (062-033, 1972.09.10)

17 The Creator, standing at the center of the universe, protects it with a strong sense of responsibility. He protects and nurtures the universe well. Not only that, He takes responsibility for all things, good and bad. He never runs away from that responsibility. As the great Lord of the universe, God takes responsibility, protects and nurtures it. Thus all beings desire to create unity with God at the center. (200-020, 1990.02.23)

18 God has boundless blessings to give. He is the central being of all blessings. His blessings are the most valuable benefits. You cannot purchase them and you would never exchange them for anything in the world. He is in possession of everything that you could want. What He possesses is more precious than your beloved wife, more valuable than your father and more precious than the sons and daughters whom you love with your life. Therefore, the person who can call God his or her own is the one who can claim to be the most victorious and successful person on earth. (154-060, 1964.03.23)

19 God is the Lord of heaven and earth. He possesses the highest ideal; He is the standard around which our motivation and purpose converge. Therefore, God is the motivation for and purpose of our existence. Then where do this motivation and purpose lead? God's motivation is to have a family that centers on His Will, a family that can fulfill His purpose for the world. (025-083, 1969.09.30)

20 God is absolute, omniscient and omnipotent; hence, space and time do not restrict Him; He transcends them. Circumstances do not bind Him; He is able to break through them. If such a God still has an unresolved hope that He has been pursuing until now, that hope cannot be for Himself. His hope is for nothing other than to recover humanity as His children. He cannot fulfill that hope by Himself. Human beings have to resolve this and then return to God. (047-149, 1971.08.28)

21 We are not the origin. Our life did not originate with our parents, society, people or nation, but with the one transcendent origin, namely, the Absolute Being, God. Hence, we need to connect our life to the transcendent and absolute cause. This connection should not derive from a particular time, environment or social condition. In order to make a leap and go beyond these particulars we must link our origin to that transcendent cause and transcendent purpose. We have to link our life to the transcendent motive, for life did not begin from us. It began from the absolute God. When we link our life to the transcendent motive, even if we die, it will be according to His Will, through a course that is transcendent of us. This is not a purpose swayed by the environment or based on worldly relationships. This Will moves toward a transcendent conclusion. It has a transcendent motive in transcendent relationships. The transcendent motive is God, the transcendent process is His Will, and the transcendent purpose for which He advances is the good of the world. (036-064, 1970.11.15)

22 God is the vertical Father and vertical subject partner, and human beings are the horizontal subject partners. Only when the vertical and horizontal become one is a being perfected. A three-dimensional being must unite in relationships of vertical, horizontal, and front and back. The vertical relationship is the parent-child relationship. The horizontal relationship is that between east and west, husband and wife. The relationship of front and back is that between brothers and sisters. Connecting relationships in this way establishes the spherical form of the ideal of love in each family, which is the ideal of creation. Where is God in this sphere? He is at the center. God’s ideal of creation is the father, husband, mother, wife, son and daughter, older sibling and younger sibling, each representing God, who stands as the central being. (267-224, 1995.01.08)

23 God always takes the position of subject partner to those who dedicate their lives for a public purpose with a loyal heart. Thus, when we struggle and shed tears, God, as our subject partner, struggles and sheds tears more than we do. When we walk a public path with a burning heart of love, we stimulate God, who is the subject partner and center of love, and He always comes to us as our partner. God is also the subject partner who, as the source of energy, provides us the energy to achieve these purposes. In this world, it is hard to find a partner with whom to work in order to fulfill the purpose of love. How happy we would be if God were our partner! Partnership with God would be better than with our parents, our siblings, our teachers, or anyone else who loves us. (098-013, 1978.04.02)

24 Our subject partner is God. We should be happy together with God; we should sing with God and dance with God. If we could, how wonderful that would be! Our purpose is God. What are we looking for in our journey through life? We are looking for God, the real God. (021-345, 1969.01.01)

25 God is the owner of each individual, the owner of each couple, the owner of each family, the owner of each nation, the owner of the world and the owner of the cosmos. From the very core of His being, through His own love, He wants to take the role of the owner. In the position of subject partner, He wants to establish the world of peace through His object partners. Christianity teaches that the Creator is holy while humans are sinful. Yet they say this because they do not know the value of human beings. This is what I would like to teach: God created human beings as His substantial form; that is His first purpose for creating us. (286-126, 1997.08.09)

26 God is the most public-minded of subject partners. Then, what is God's most important lesson for us? It is that we should devote ourselves at the risk of our lives for His sake. That is even better than working for a public mission for the world. The one who puts his life on the line is the superior person. Therefore the Bible says: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.” (Matt. 22:37-38) In light of this, what kind of being is God? He is the owner of the whole cosmos. Therefore, love God. The whole world will belong to the one who loves God. (033-324, 1970.08.23)

God, the subject partner of love, life and the ideal

27 God is the subject of life. Where there is life, there must be love that is maintaining it. You were born through the love of your parents, but someone with love, life and purpose is behind them. He is the subject, but not a subject partner like you. He is the root of the whole. As His counterpart you can think of yourself as a cell, and He is like the root of everything, the nucleus of all beings in the universe. He is the nucleus of all life force. If there is a love force, He is its nucleus. If there is a purpose, He is the cause and the nucleus of that purpose. (110-072, 1980.11.09)

28 When the sun rises, the buds of each tree face the sun. What is it in the sunlight to which the buds respond? It is life elements. For us human beings, love is our life element. God is the sun of love. You have to engraft to the ideal of love and harmonize with it in order to develop your love and life, and to cultivate your character in harmony with the eternal world. Otherwise you cannot assume the position of counterpart to God; you cannot live in the realm of love partnership. Human beings are that precious. God created us as His partners of love. (144-214, 1986.04.24)

29 God is the subject partner of love, subject partner of life and subject partner of the ideal. Therefore, we can conclude that human beings are the object partners of love, object partners of life and object partners of the ideal. Because God is absolute, we also seek an absolute position. Because God is unchanging, we seek to be unchanging. Because God is unique, we seek to be unique. Because God is eternal, we seek to be eternal. From this point of view, it is human destiny to have an eternal life; we inevitably arrive at this conclusion. No matter how much love God has, no matter how much life He has, and no matter how high His ideals are, if we do not also possess these it is all in vain. (069-074, 1973.10.20)

30 God is the subject partner of our life. Because He is the subject partner of our life and love, we should appreciate the force of life and the force of love within Him. However, due to the Fall, we do not live in a world where God's force of life and God's force of love are valued. Hence, we ought to again seek such a world and recover it. The world we are living in now is not the world God desires; nor is it the one we desire. (086-293, 1976.04.11)

31 God is the subject partner of all living things, of all things in which there is action. He is their subject partner, not only today but all throughout time. Thus every living thing, whatever it may be, has an original nature that desires to be with God eternally, to live with Him and even share death with Him. God has to maintain His position as the subject partner. But He is beyond doing it as a duty; He is working passionately to govern all things through relationships of love based on heart. (006-274, 1959.06.07)

32 Until now we have called upon God based only on a concept. We have referred to God as our subject partner only in a religious sense. Yet God is the subject partner of our very existence. Furthermore, He is the subject partner of our daily life and the subject partner of our philosophy of life. However, no matter how deep and wide our philosophy and view of Him as our subject partner may be, if we cannot explain and experience God in daily life, emotionally and practically, what good is it? If there are people whose philosophy of life enables them to experience the value of God as their subject partner in daily life and to be so united with God that they would not exchange Him for the world, they must be the people for whom God is seeking. (11-087, 1961.02.12)

33 God is the foundation of happiness. Among all seeds, He is the seed of life. It is because life comes from God that life is great. God is the seed of a life that manifests the ideal. What is it that enables us to connect from the base of God's happiness to God's ideal? It is true love. God is the origin of life and the origin of love. He is also the origin of man and woman. He is the origin of the mother and father, of brothers and sisters. (174-248, 1988.03.01)

34 God values life, because He is its root. God values the Word. Also, God values action and love. When a person recognizes Him as the root of his or her existence and speaks His Word, God loves seeing that Word bear fruit as He has spoken it. Once that Word is spoken, it bears fruit. Then God does not leave the fruit of that Word alone, but continues to love it. In this way, God speaks the Word, a person puts it into action, and through action that person emerges as the embodiment of the Word. Then it is for God to develop that person into the embodiment of love. (105-073, 1979.09.23)

Section 3. The God of the Word

1 God's Word is not spoken blindly. Because God's Word is based on the Principle and because it is to create beings of limitless value, no one can dispute it. Everyone absolutely will have to unite with it. God Himself has faith in the Word, which contains principles and laws, and He made it into substance, the embodiment of Himself. It is through this substance that God's children emerge with the infinite value of His object partners. Then, through an explosion of love from that point, the bond between God and human beings is formed. It is the same whether referring to God creating His children, or to those children looking at God. (68-136, 1973.07.29)

What is God's Word?

2 God existed before the creation. Out of His existence, God conceived of the Word. The Word is that through which substance is created. God did not intend simply to create something and leave it alone; He wanted an eternal relationship with His creation. God intended an ideal of total oneness, an inseparable relationship that no one could break, that even He Himself could not break. Therefore, from the time the first human beings were created, God and human beings were meant to be together, not separate. From that starting point, God and we human beings were meant to stay together for eternity. (68-127, 1973.07.29)

3 God did not create human beings without having a clear idea. In creating them, God had conviction: “It will surely be like this.” His faith contained a concrete plan. That plan was based on the Principle with its laws. God had faith in His creation according to the Principle. The moment of creation was to be when His faith united with His Principle to form the substance of His creation. The moment of creation came when His faith, the Principle and the substance were in complete accord. With faith and the Principle together, the purpose of God's Word was to create the substance. (68-135, 1973.07.29)

4 God's Word is a covenant between God and human beings. A covenant states, “If you do this, I will do this for you.” The Bible teaches us that everything is given in a covenant. If you do your part, God will do something for you. If you fulfill the covenant, God will make you prosper. If you fail to do so, God will not interfere if you go to ruin. (44-339, 1971.05.30)

5 The Word has provisions for judgment. The law is the standard of judgment, the standard that distinguishes good from evil. Thus, the truth should explain the origin of good and evil and define the standard of good and evil. That standard should be the Unification Principle. Do you accept it as absolute? If you defy or go against the Word, the Word itself will restrict you. It is a principle that the Word benefits you. If you are aligned with the Word, you ultimately will achieve the perfection of your character. However, this achievement must not be centered on yourself. Even if you do everything in your daily life in accordance with the Word, you should not hope that the result will be yours. It belongs to God. This means that you should center your life not on yourself, but on the whole. Your perspective must change. (45-225, 1971.07.01)

6 Since we can call God our Father, we should be able to speak His Word. God’s Word, wherever it is heard, leads to good results, resurrection, and the miracle of re-creation. Thus we should become people who can eradicate evil, bring about the work of resurrection and wield the power of re-creation. The place where such people reside is the kingdom of heaven. (3-034, 1957.09.15)

The Word of heart, love and law

7 The purpose of our life is to connect to God’s love. We who live on earth are the ones who can proclaim God's Word, the Word that connects us to God. Because the Word we convey on earth is God's, human beings can be created anew through that Word. You can reach the standard of perfection through giving and receiving. This is the viewpoint of the Principle. Because God is there, the one who hears His Word can resurrect. When we unite with that person as our counterpart, we can form a substantial base; on that foundation we can experience God's heart. Depending on the depth and breadth of our preparation, our capacity to experience God's heart grows. Within the Word, God's heart is beating. Therefore, once we hear the Word, even we fallen people feel God's heart beginning to bud within our heart. When our hearts thus begin to bud, we acquire the strength to love our enemy, and the power to subjugate Satan's world is activated. Thus you must never keep God's Word to yourself; you need to gain the ability to activate God's heart within you. (027-337, 1970.01.01)

8 We are not speaking of secular truth, but of God's words of love. God's truth is delivered to the earth through specific providential figures. God's truth is absolute. Absolute truth is like an all- powerful master key. By applying it, we can solve any difficult problem. (135-347, 1985.12.16)

9 When you receive God's Word, you should recognize it as the true eternal law and the truth for your own life, and be able to say, “This is the Word for my life.” Further, you should have the experience of that one point in time in the beginning when God created human beings with the Word. Unless you experience it, unless you feel God's Word touching your skin, you cannot become God's son or daughter. (003-267, 1958.01.12)

10 If you really want to find the truth, do not pay attention to just anyone's words. You have to listen only to that which is true. Then what are the words of truth? Words of truth are those that stir a feeling of repentance in your heart, that move you so deeply that you become completely immersed in them, and that remain in your mind no matter how much you try to forget them. When you discover such words, you have found the words of truth that convey the principles of heavenly relationships. (2-137, 1957.03.31)

11 God has to re-create in accordance with the Principle. What should He do with human beings, who are like lumps of clay fallen into an unprincipled realm? God's position is the same as when He created Adam and Eve from clay. He has to do the work of bringing them to unite with the Word. The Word is not ambiguous; it is given in the Principle and its laws. The Word is like a blueprint with laws and regulations, instructing that human eyes should be like this and the nose should be like that. Human beings should follow this blueprint. (68-139, 1973.07.29)

12 God's Word is the root of all truth; hence it is the absolute truth. Further, it is the internally coherent truth. Due to the Fall, we lost God; we lost absolute truth and absolute values. We lost both the internally coherent truth and the internally coherent values. An absolute view of value stems from absolute values and absolute truth. “View” refers to viewpoint, opinion and theory. The establishment of a correct view of absolute values is the step that will resolve today's worldwide confusion. (122-299, 1982.11.25)

13 Why do we need God? It is because God has the unchanging truth. God's Word never changes. The Word that He spoke one thousand years ago will still apply one hundred million years from now. Human words, no matter how eloquent and flowery they are, wither away and fade from view. But God's Word transcends all changes wrought by time. (162-262, 1987.04.17)

The Word as the truth for creation, growth and perfection

14 God created everything through the Word. Unless the Word, the truth, is perfect, its substance cannot be perfect. It is inevitable that if the truth is imperfect, the creation will be imperfect. Our life of faith is the same. Unless we stand in a place that is perfect, our life of faith cannot be perfect. Therefore the perfect truth that God and the cosmos desire must emerge. (016-252, 1966.06.19)

15 God began His creation with the eternal and unique Word. He wanted Adam and Eve to fulfill the purpose of His Word, their bodies becoming temples where He could reside substantially forever. This was His purpose in creating Adam and Eve. When God breathed life into Adam and Eve, He wanted to reside in their hearts as the subject partner of their eternal life, and create for them the resting place of the Sabbath. God created Adam and Eve for this great purpose, to form an unbreakable relationship with them. (3-259, 1958.01.12)

16 When God speaks through the Principle, He is not speaking arbitrarily. God speaks in perfect accord with the Principle. This supports unity with His object partners. That is why we need faith. As God believes in us, we have to believe in Him. We should not be vague about this. We must center on the Principle and unite with it. We should not leave the Principle on the shelf, but should keep faith in it and substantiate it. By perfecting ourselves as the substance of the Principle, we become sons and daughters whom God can love. (68-135, 1973.07.29)

17 For what purpose did Jesus Christ proclaim the Word, as he came to the earth, shed tears, and followed a path of suffering for more than thirty years? First, it was to recover the relationship between God and human beings. Next, it was to introduce the kingdom of heaven. Jesus introduced the kingdom of heaven through his words. That is, he introduced the kingdom of heaven through truth. Through Jesus Christ, God gave us the Word, to establish an eternal, unchanging relationship with us and to realize the kingdom of heaven on earth. God revealed the real truth through Jesus. Jesus Christ came to build the relationship between God and human beings, and to testify to the real truth. He introduced and proclaimed the truth in order to build the kingdom of heaven for which God, humanity and all creation had been longing. Jesus proclaimed the truth in order to recover the relationship between God and human beings, but the people of Israel, who should have believed the truth Jesus brought, distrusted him. The Word was proclaimed but its purpose was not accomplished. (002-126, 1957.03.31)

Section 4. The Attributes of God

1 God is absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal. These are His four attributes. Accordingly, every one of His creations is absolute and unique. Because each entity is absolute, God wants to place it in its own absolute position. That is why all entities are unique and do not randomly intermix. The way of love is unique and, therefore, unchanging and eternal. (279-147, 1996.08.04)

God's main attributes

2 God is absolute, unique and unchanging. Based on this, one should become the subject partner of absolute love, unique love, unchanging love and eternal love. Such a person becomes a representative of God. One who reflects God's attributes can become His representative. With what did God endow His partners when He created them? He endowed them with creativity that is absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal. He gave them absolute creativity rooted in love. God's love is absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal, and through that love we share His suffering and His joy, and participate in everything with Him. We thereby inherit everything from Him. If we have the love of the absolute God, we become the object partners of the absolute God. (303-261, 1999.09.09)

3 God is absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal. To unite with Him, we likewise have to be absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal. Then and there, eternal love can begin. We can be perfected as men and women only through a life relationship that is eternal. We become eternal true men and eternal true women only when we go through a process of growth and settle in the position that is absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal. Then we become the unchanging owners of love. This is where love is perfected, where the life of a man and a woman unite. At the same time, they come to create a new life, connecting to a new relationship of lineage. (280-192, 1997.01.01)

4 God exists centered on love. Therefore, God's absoluteness is centered on love, His uniqueness is centered on love, and His constancy is centered on love. All of them are centered on love. The attributes of love are also absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal. All people want such love, absolute love. “Absolute” means there is only one. So we know that God's nature is absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal. (224-133, 1991.11.24)

5 Love unfolds in mutual relationships. Therefore even God, who is absolute, has to be absolutely obedient in front of love. Otherwise He would not be able to teach human beings about the core principle of relationships. God wants to teach Adam and Eve, “Your conjugal love is absolute; you cannot change it for eternity” Why? It is because they are the manifestations of God's attributes. God is one, absolutely not two. Adam is the manifestation of God's attributes, and therefore he is an absolute being. Adam manifests God's male attributes; Eve manifests God's female attributes. These attributes themselves are absolute. Love brings together internal and external attributes. As such, love is absolute, and that is why even God absolutely has to obey absolute love. Hence, the couple that appears with this absolute love is one and only one, not two. It is absolute, and at the same time, unchanging and eternal. (226-170, 1992.02.04)

6 The goal set up by God, the Creator, cannot change. God is the center of each person's conscience and the objective of all people's hope. No matter how much time passes, no matter what course history takes, He can never change. Before eternity and after eternity, God cannot change. That is why God said, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” (Rev. 22:13) (010-156, 1960.09.25)

The root of true love

7 God is the root and origin of love. God is also the root of life. God is the root of lineage and the root of conscience. We know that love, life, lineage and conscience exist, even though we cannot see or touch them. Likewise, we cannot see or touch God, but we can come to know that He exists. Then where is God, who is the root of life and the root of love? He is not up in the air. He dwells in the root of our love and life. That is why we cannot feel Him. (275-013, 1995.10.30)

8 God is the root of true love. Elements from the root reach the shoots through the trunk. Then the branches stretch out in all directions, east, west, south and north. The further the branches stretch, the more the shoots, the trunk and the roots grow. This symbolizes God, the vertical Father of true love, and the human world. God, the Creator, is our Father centered on vertical true love. (203-352, 1990.06.28)

9 The root of love is God. God is the root of all roots. We have to engraft ourselves to that root of love. When we unite with it, we can connect to the root of love and new shoots can emerge and grow into a tree that eventually will flower and bear fruit. There, the Lord's hope can bloom. New shoots have to come out and grow into branches. A shoot by itself will perish. A shoot wants to grow into a branch. Multiple branches have to grow from the main trunk and then, after a proliferation of leaves, flowers will blossom. This is the order of growth. This process leads eventually to the stage of perfection. (231-274, 1992.06.07)

10 God is the Lord of love and the root of love. Among all roots, there is one central root. We need to seek the love that reaches to that main root. To do this, we have to become just like God. As God's mind and body are absolutely united, we should become sons and daughters whose minds and bodies are absolutely united. (272-260, 1995.10.06)

11 The God of goodness is a God of sacrifice and love. Love cannot exist apart from the essence of sacrifice. When we sacrifice for the one we love, we do not think of it as sacrifice. The more we sacrifice, the more we feel enriched. Love has that unusual quality. When we reflect upon our level of love, we find that we can measure it only on the scale of sacrifice. Big or small, high or low, the extent of our sacrifice is the measure of our love. Great sacrifice reflects great love; little sacrifice reflects little love. (063-025, 1972.10.01)

12 God is the being of absolute love. God created human beings as His object partners, desiring to pour His love into them. In doing so, God expected that, through man and woman, His love would return naturally. If that had occurred, God would have felt infinite joy. Adam and Eve would have become the perfect object partners of God's love only when the two achieved perfect unity in their love. But Adam and Eve had to go through a period of growth in order to become a mature couple, resemble God, receive God's love, and finally return love to Him. (201-205, 1990.04.09)

13 God created heaven and earth for love. Who are the object partners of His love? They are human beings. This shows us the value of human beings. As the King of love, God desires to possess the love of parents, the love of couples, and the love of brothers and sisters. God is the King of love. As the subject partner whose original nature encompasses east, west, north and south, and front, back, right and left, He is ready to meet any counterpart who desires true love. (219-017, 1991.08.25)

The God of emotion, intellect and will

14 What is the nature of God's relationship with human beings? To have a relationship with human beings, He has to be a personal God. And in order to be a personal God, He should be like us. Human beings have mind and body. We can deduce the concept of God's dual characteristics from the premise that God, as our Creator and original being, in order to share with us a common purpose, has to resemble us human beings. (167-244, 1987.07.21)

15 God, the Creator, would not create without purpose. Since human beings have emotion, intellect and will, it follows that God, our Creator, has to be the original being of emotion, intellect and will. (155-288, 1965.11.01)

16 God is a personal being. As a personal God, He has emotion, intellect and will. Thus, God and we can communicate with each other. For instance, when we laugh, God should be able to laugh. Then does the absolute God, who can do whatever He wants, shed tears? Yes, God also sheds tears. (203-221, 1990.06.26)

17 Today many Christians have the view that since God, the Creator, is a unique and absolute being in the position of the Most High, a being of supreme goodness, He cannot have a relationship with human beings, that is, beings that He created. In other words, they say that His creatures are profane, whereas He is absolute and divine. On the other hand, from the viewpoint of love, no matter how lofty and righteous God is, and no matter how lowly His creatures are, in order to share a love relationship they need to have the same qualities of character and heart. That is, God and human beings must be able to share the same heart. It means God naturally must have the same qualities as human beings. Hence human beings resemble Him, and we believers say, “God is our Father, and we are His children.” Saying this means that human beings resemble God. How does resemblance come about? It comes through the bloodline, the lineage. The fact that we are bound to God through lineage means that we bind to Him through love. (138-246, 1986.01.24)

18 God is a personal God, having emotion, intellect and will. Above all, this personal God desires love, so He created human beings as His object partners of love. Christian theology states that the Creator is sacred and His creatures are lowly, but this cannot be the whole story in light of the ideal of partnership, for the fulfillment of which God absolutely needs to find an ideal object partner of love. Since God is divine, the object partner of love whom this divine being is seeking also has to be divine. This is the basis for the privilege and authority of human beings. (143-151, 1986.03.17)

19 The final destination of philosophy is to find God. What God? The God who is absolute, unique and unchanging. But most of all He must be a personal God, because this is the kind of God that human beings need. In order to relate to us, God has to be a personal God who shares all our thoughts, ideals and desires, including both internal and external aspects. He has to be the One who can relate with us deeply in all dimensions—emotional, volitional and intellectual. Unless He can form a complete relationship with us, even though He exists He would really have nothing to do with us. From the perspective that God has to be a personal God, philosophers have been ignoring the most essential meaning of God. (138-142, 1986.01.21)

20 Love is what God needs, and He will love those who resemble Him. Therefore, to share love, God needs a partner with whom He can be pleased. If human beings are indeed God's partners, it follows that God must have a personality that can harmonize one hundred percent with the attributes of human beings. God must be the One who can harmonize with all the elements of the body and mind. Hence, God must have emotion, intellect and will. (162-274, 1987.04.17)

21 When we look at God, we can see He is a personal God. Since He is the subject partner of human beings, He has the character to perfectly relate to us. If God is like this, He surely has His own views about morality in human relationships and the rules of conduct by which we should live. Just as we have views about morality that are based on human relationships and the human heart, God must have views about morality that are based on our relationship with Him and on His heart. God, as the subject being, has His own love and His own rules of conduct. Accordingly, human beings should possess love and uphold rules of conduct appropriate to being His object partners. It makes no sense to believe that human rules of conduct, morals and heart exist but divine rules of conduct, morals and heart do not. (065-025, 1972.11.13)

22 The I Ching says, “The cycle of change is the law of heaven; benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom are supreme in human nature,” showing that benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom are important. The I Ching explains the constant changes in nature, the cycle of the seasons, and the cyclical path of change in the universe. But it makes no mention of a personal God. Further, the book explains the law of yin and yang in the natural world, but falls short with respect to love, lineage and perfection. It does not explain the being who, while existing as the harmonization of subject and object partners, and of internal character and external form, brings east, west, north and south into balance. (410-040, 2003.06.30)

23 The God who governs heaven and earth is a personal God. This personal God wants to become the Parent of an ideal family and, in the position of a husband and wife, lead the children to form a tribe, lead the tribe to form a nation, and then unite the world as one great family of God. Then the world will become one single people. Jesus' proclamation that he was the Son of God was amazing. He also spoke of the bride and bridegroom. He taught us the highest standard that a person is to attain. John 14 explains the essence of this. Jesus also said he would come again. He must come again to find the bride and the bridegroom, form the family, tribe and nation, and unify the world. (370-063, 2002.02.19)

24 We cannot talk about love unless God is a personal God. God needs to have the same qualities of emotion and character as human beings. Christianity, alone among religions, reveals this God. Christians call God “Father” and “Jehovah.” That we can call God “Father” was a great discovery. (139-240, 1986.01.31)

God of the Principle and the law

25 God is the God of the Principle. Conversely, Satan stands in an unprincipled position. Therefore, if you are unprincipled, it puts Satan in charge; if you are principled, it puts God in charge. When we consider the positions of the beings at the time of God's creation, God came first, next were Adam and Eve, and then the archangels. This is the view based on the Principle. (55-296, 1972.05.09)

26 What is the purpose of a religious life? It is to realize one's original nature. Original nature is the core of the Principle. Since God is the owner of the Principle, He can govern by the Principle. But God can govern only what is within the original nature. Since the original nature and the absolute God are one, the original nature also strives to stand in the absolute position. Because of this, the mind can command the body absolutely, and this is principled. The Principle determines the core of everything. The more principled something is, the closer its position will be to the center. (56-303, 1972.05.18)

27 A good and upright person represents the whole. In measuring goodness, the closer a person is to the position of the Principle, the better he or she is. Our original nature inclines us to engage in actions that move toward oneness with God, because He is the center of the Principle. This inclination toward oneness with the center results from the action of the conscience. Had our ancestors not fallen, the conscience would have directed and disciplined the body. That is the Principle. But due to the Fall, the body became an unprincipled base. Thus, the Principle inevitably engages us in action to fight against that which is not of the Principle. This is the action of the conscience. (56-303, 1972.05.18)

28 All that is true is necessarily centered on God. All things become true if and when we human beings lay the fundamental foundation upon which to bring forth order and good governance. Absent such a foundation, nothing is really true. God is the source of what is true; trueness is possible because God exists. When God departs, so does trueness. In that void, the origin of evil emerges. True results can only come from truth. In other words, the fulfillment of God's desire comes from the existence of the true God. Please understand that concepts such as truth and goodness are established in relation not to human beings, but to God. (024-315, 1969.09.14)

29 What is truth? To man, the greatest truth is woman. To woman, the greatest truth is man. To God, the truth is human beings; to human beings, the truth is God. Truth is not found elsewhere. Since God is true, and is the truth, all that stems from Him is true, and is the truth. How can truth reach perfection? When man and woman become one and, as a couple, unite with God in true love, perfection is attained. There can be no perfection without true love. Seen in this way, man represents the perfection of truth and woman represents the perfection of truth. Thus, for man and woman to become one is to perfect God and the universe. (201-222, 1990.04.22)

30 God is the subject partner of the truth and the original essence of the truth. Accordingly, it is said that all things are possible through Him. This basic principle is effective because God is the truth. As the subject being and the subject partner, God is in the position to take responsibility for all things, whether under His or another's dominion. Because He takes responsibility, He has been the center of history and will remain the central being forever. (087-041, 1976.04.25)

31 If God ignored His own law, with which He created everything, He would not be able to govern His creation. Because He established the law, God takes dominion over His creation by observing that very law. Thereby, He becomes the God who makes the law His own. If he were to oppose it, He could not own it. By observing it, God becomes the God of law. Because He is one with the law, He can judge according to the law. He can forbid things and give commandments. Otherwise, He cannot judge according to the law or pass sentence by the law. (112-073, 1981.04.01)

32 Christianity describes God as the omniscient and omnipotent Father, but His omniscience and omnipotence do not function apart from a basic principle. God does not act arbitrarily. The law established by the eternal God is eternal. The fact that He is the One who established it does not justify His being arbitrary and changing it. (162-184, 1987.04.12)

33 Christian ministers may think, “The omniscient and omnipotent God, with the power of creation, can do whatever He wants, even now.” But that is far from the truth. All things existing in heaven and on earth operate by the fundamental law, the Principle. Even God cannot act in violation of His law. Even the president of a nation has to respect the constitution and the laws the legislature passes according to it. Since God is the being who is absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal, His law is also absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal. He needs a partner who conforms to this law. For Him this is the highest necessity. He needs a partner who, representing the world, abides by the law and liberates the people. (166-101, 1987.05.30)

CHAPTER 2 The God of Heart and True Love

Section 1. The God of Heart

1 God is the subject partner of heart. For this reason, God experiences the emotions of deepest sorrow and greatest joy. It is not true that God has only joyful and pleasant emotions. When He is sorrowful, His sorrow is deep and wide, beyond what any human being can fathom. (11-089, 1961.02.12)

2 God, who created us, is not only the Lord of our mind and body. He can also stand in the position of the Lord and subject partner of our thinking and of the world of our emotions. Furthermore, He is also the Lord and subject partner of our inner heart. We absolutely need God to be like this. In our consciousness and emotions we need Him absolutely, not just conceptually. The fact that we have lost this Lord, our God, is our sorrow. (7-048, 1959.07.12)

God is the Lord of our heart

3 God is the eternal Lord of our body and our heart. In the original world, if a husband and wife say that no matter how much they love each other, they love God even more, neither will feel resentful. The kingdom of heaven is the world in which we can rejoice that our spouse loves God more than us. God, who is in the position of subject partner transcending any kind of love and any circumstances, is the eternal Lord of our body. Therefore, if we are embraced in the bosom of God, who owns our body, and thus dwell in His garden, we will be happy even when we die. (7-255, 1959.09.20)

4 God stands in the vertical position based upon true internal heart. He is our Father. Then who are True Parents? Through horizontal heart, they are one man and one woman who become Father and Mother, the supporting beings whose relationship supports the perpendicular line. This perpendicular line should not be bent. There is, however, a way by which Satan can invade. To protect against this, the central line should be reinforced by the bone and flesh of love. Heavenly Father, the vertical God, is in the position of the bone of love, and True Parents are in the position of the flesh of love. The supporting beings, the True Parents, are determined centered on the core entity, God. (177-072, 1988.05.15)

5 Works based on heart are not related with the physical body but spring from the heavenly heart: They arise from Heaven's heart in their origin, in their process and in their result. Therefore, unless we become like unfallen Adam and Eve, people who can inherit God's lineage, who are created as the body of God, and who connect to God's love, we cannot attain a victorious foundation of heart. (043-187, 1971.04.30)

6 Originally, Adam and Eve should have been people who were content to be in God's embrace and grateful for everything, communicating with God in daily life and overflowing with God's hope. When God saw that they were not going this way, His inner pain far exceeded their inner misery. Our ancestors were unaware of this. (15-102, 1965.10.03)

7 Today, with what heart do we venture out? With what eyes do we observe the world? With what senses do we feel? Before you think about this, you should pray, “God, as I lead my life I am dealing with these kinds of sensations. Yet I want to lead my life understanding the heart of Adam and Eve toward You prior to the Fall, the heart they had at the time of the Fall, the heart You experienced when You had to expel Adam and Eve, the heart with which You toiled hard for humanity for 1,600 years until You called Noah, and Noah's heart as he worked for 120 years bearing ridicule and persecution, holding on to Heaven in order to build the ark on top of a mountain. I want to know Your heart throughout all the twists and turns of history, and hold on to that heart.” (5-175, 1959.01.18)

8 The question is how we empathize with God's feelings in our daily life. When you are alone, you should be able without forethought to call out to God, “Father!” Then you will feel God's reply, “Yes, I am here!” If you are one with God, that's how it will be. It seems that no one is around, but someone is leading and guiding you. If you live such a life, you never question God's existence. When you face difficulties, you know God will protect and guide you. Knowing this, you cannot desert Him. (59-321, 1972.07.30)

9 Even God has emotion, intellect and will. If human beings, whom God created, have emotion, intellect and will, God undoubtedly has these attributes as well. We earthly human beings are the descendants of fallen ancestors. However, we originate from God's lineage, as His direct children related by blood. For this reason, God's heart toward us has intensity greater than that of any parent looking for his or her lost child. God sees us weeping bitter tears for the earth, collapsing and dying in pain and lamenting in deep grief and sorrow, and all these images are etched into His heart. Any individual, family or nation that ridicules, oppresses or kills virtuous people will not last long, because God will remember their deeds. Hence, whenever we shed tears, we should know that God is also shedding tears. We also should know that whenever we feel furious and bitter towards an enemy, God is shedding tears of forgiveness. God does not take revenge upon an enemy and say, “You scoundrel, I'm glad you are dead.” God does not strike us, because He does not consider us His enemies. (10-243, 1960.10.16)

10 God is struck first and then claims what is His. You should be the same. Because of us, God has had to endure the miserable course of the providence. We need to understand God's heart in history, always wanting to say to us, “I want to talk to you; I want to work with you.” God does not forget us; He waits for us. So we have to think to ourselves, “God, when can I participate in Your providence of restoration?” We have to find the platform upon which we can live together with God. We have to find the way to think like God, speak like God, and act like God. (12-059, 1962.10.07)

11 God is the Creator of all things, but He is also our true Father. That true Father will come to find us. No matter what difficulties we face, we have to keep on going. We have to persevere as we overcome the twists and turns of destiny to grasp our true Father's hand. We have to persevere until we call out, as our last words, “My Father!” with our hearts overflowing with the hope that He maintained throughout history and we maintained throughout life. We have to march on, even if we face the path of death. In the Last Days, when a group of people appears among all humankind that runs excitedly to the Creator and absolute God, calling Him “my Father,” God's new providential work will begin. (11-089, 1961.02.12)

12 What is the ultimate purpose behind our striving for higher goodness, greater beauty and deeper love? It is to build a relationship in heart with God, our Creator. As we do, we need to examine whether agreement exists between God's heart, which moves based on relationships in accord with heavenly law, and the human heart, which moves in accord with human morality. We find that they are often in conflict and discord. Morality in today's society is going in a different direction from that taken by heavenly law, which manifests according to the path of providence. This is a result of the Fall. We must comprehend the sorrowful fact that, because of the Fall, the heart of God, the heart of heavenly law, and the heart of human morality are in conflict. When we grasp that this is the real situation besetting us, our society and our world, we have to halt on the path on which we have been walking. We need to envision a world of creation revived, envision the heart of the Creator, take a second look at the reality of our society, and review our own mind and body. Otherwise the world based on a new teaching and a new heart will not appear in human history. (5-341, 1959.03.08)

13 If you want to be a brave soldier for God, you have to know God's heart. After all, if you want to be a patriot, you have to know the king's heart. If you want to be a son or daughter of filial piety, you have to know your father and mother's heart. Naturally you have to know God's heart if you want to be a brave soldier for God. You have to know the heart of God before creation, His heart during the process of creation, and His grieving heart after the Fall. You have to understand the sorrowful heart with which He has been leading human history toward restoration, and His heart of hope for a new world after restoration is completed. (14-174, 1964.10.03)

14 God's heart, as we in the Unification Church understand, is long, wide and deep. We need to understand God's heart before creation, His heart at the time of creation, and His heart after Adam and Eve fell. We need to understand the huge nail driven into God's heart at Adam and Eve's Fall. We need to understand how deeply God has grieved since the Fall, and how plaintive His heart has been as He walked the path of restoration. We need to understand how brokenhearted our Heavenly Father has been as He sent His own children along the tragic path of death, leading them through a course requiring much endurance in order to restore the world. Guided by God's final central figure, we must ultimately clean up the sinful world and liberate God from His heartfelt pain and sorrow. Only then will God's Will be accomplished. (14-176, 1964.10.03)

15 The history of the providence of restoration shows us that God has been bringing fortune to the world. In the beginning, God created the vast universe and placed Adam and Eve at its center. When God created Adam and Eve, He made them with all the elements of His creation, and then He bestowed even more upon them. The most important gift that He gave them was heart. Heart is the center of the four-position foundation, and its core is love. Heart is the core and most important base for all beings. (19-075, 1967.12.29)

16 What is the difference between heart and love? We usually think of love as a feeling like floating in the air, and we think of heart as related to the soul. But in fact, heart extends in four directions. Therefore heart, more than love, is central to everything. Heart manifests as the result of having gone through the process of love. Heart is thus the center of the multidimensional world. That is why the Unification Church envisions and strives to create a world of heart more than a world of love. The center of everything is heart, and the family is absolutely necessary for cultivating it. We cultivate the four realms of heart in the family, and they must connect and unite centering on God. This connection and unity expands from the levels of the individual and family to the community, nation and world. Thus restoration cannot be completed without heart, because without it, no one can establish the central position. (19-075, 1967.12.29)

The God of heart

17 The God of heart has been sorrowful throughout six thousand years of history. He felt wronged by the disbelief of our ancestors. Now we should offer prayers that comfort God, who feels so wronged and sorrowful. This is why God is saddened when He faces the attitude of the people of the Second Israel, who are scattered around the world. In this time, God needs a group of people to emerge who can grab Him by the sleeve and say, “Father, is it true that You have come to be so woeful and to feel so wronged in heart?” God will grasp their hands and respond, “Yes, my sons, my daughters!” (010-350, 1960.11.27)

18 The Bible includes the epistles written with symbols and parables that refer to the bridegroom seeking the bride. Why has this symbolic message been so difficult to decipher? It is because it is from the God of heart. Not everyone can comprehend the meaning of the Bible. Only the bride and bridegroom themselves can decipher it. Only those who are ready to attend God wholeheartedly can understand. Those who are not prepared will not grasp it. What is the true meaning of this embedded message? It shows the passage to the door through which the bridegroom enters the heart. Parents' heart for their child remains the same from the time the mother nurses her baby to the time the child has grown old and gray-haired. The heart does not change. (8-305, 1960.02.14)

19 Christians say, “Oh yes! Christ must come again on the clouds.” How awesome that would be! If it were true, people like us would not have to suffer. If that were the kind of faith we were supposed to have, our faith would surpass that of any minister or church elder. As for offering devotion, we would offer more than anyone else. But if the Lord were to come on the clouds, what would he do? When we examine Christian history, we see that Christians have focused on spiritual matters, and many willingly gave up their lives for Christ. Because Christianity had no earthly foundation, Christians had to suffer tribulation and death at the hands of sovereigns in many nations. Looking at this alone, we could feel wronged and angry. Nevertheless, if the Lord were to come again spiritually, on the clouds, what would he do? Would he save only the Christians, secreting them away, while abandoning the non- Christians? God is not that kind of being. As in the biblical parable of the prodigal son, God celebrates His prodigal son more than his dutiful first son. Such is God's heart. (021-040, 1968.09.01)

20 Let us understand clearly that although God is the great Lord and King, He has been starved in heart for six thousand years. We have to comfort God. Although God really has felt like destroying this world with one stroke of judgment, He has held on to His purpose, His hope and His desire for the earth. Keeping that in His sights, He has persevered as He suffered again, again and again. This is the God we must call our Father. We must call Him our Father not as a name or title, but because we feel that way about Him in our heart. A new teaching must emerge on this earth that will move people to relate as blood kin, parents, and brothers and sisters on a global scale. As they do, they can learn loyalty to God, creating a bond with God in heart that enables them to act centering on Heaven's heart. This heart is beyond time and space, beyond peoples and nations. Without such a teaching, this world will break apart. (9-075, 1960.04.10)

21 Now human beings have nowhere to go. But we have to face a final showdown, so we cannot just wallow in despair. Now a movement of truth has to arise, inspiring us to advance into a new heaven and earth with the genuine truth. We need a standard bearer who can guide us on this one and only path of life, to clean up our deplorable environment, which we face with hopeless despair, and to pursue the true way. We have been following this or that ideology, looking for the truth. It is only when the complete truth emerges that this world can be united completely. Once we learn this truth, we can and must perfect our character and our heart. (16-253, 1966.06.19)

22 Through heart, we need to understand God throughout history. God was a God of heart when He created all things of creation. We need to understand Gods heart at the time of creation, after the Fall, and during the course of history. You believe in God, but do you understand His heart? You absolutely need to. Next, you have to understand God's hope in each age as well as His heart in each age. In this way you can come to understand God's heart for the future. (16-253, 1966.06.19)

23 We have to feel the sorrowful heart of God. He had to watch Jesus dying on the cross after striving to fulfill his mission with such intense devotion and dedication. Jesus came for the sake of humankind and the universe. He came to dissolve God's sorrow, complete God's Will, and subjugate Satan. But disbelievers hounded Jesus from one comer to another, and in the end he had to carry the cross on Golgotha. Can you imagine Jesus' heart at that time? Yet even when he understood that God's promise and desire, of which he was the center, would be shattered and his life would end on the cross, Jesus did not betray God. He remained loyal and devoted to God to the end. No one believed in Jesus, but he paid no heed to this. He kept moving forward, bonded to Heaven on the path toward his life goal. Ultimately, Jesus' historic life became the path of hope for humankind. (3-174, 1957.10.25)

24 If God feels bitter sorrow toward the fallen world, it is because there are no true parents, true couples or true children. This is God's lamentation. That is why Paul said that human redemption is as adopted children. They are only adopted. So, no matter how good you are, you still are an adopted child. This you need to understand. Then what is God's sorrow? It is that the children of His direct lineage were degraded to be merely adopted children. Thus human history has been a sorrowful course to restore fallen children to the children of God's direct lineage. You can attend God closely only when you grasp His heart. This begins with grasping God's sorrow throughout history. When you love and raise your children, as a parent, you can come to feel God's heart. Also, when you feel true love between husband and wife, you should be able to feel God's original love. Then, your children should feel it through loving you, their parents. We need a teaching of goodness, and when that standard appears on earth, we should embody that standard of goodness. Today, we live according to our relative viewpoints; but based on the true parental heart of love we will be able to stand as subject partners who can become the center of value, the center of life, the center of thought and the center of love. (4-310, 1958.10.05)

God, the True Parent, True Teacher and True Owner

25 God's perfection was to have come through Adam's family, centered on love. That is, human beings perfect God. However, God's love is what perfects human beings. This is the ideal of oneness between God and human beings. A parental heart is the heart of living for the sake of others. Where their beloved children are concerned, the parents' way of life is to invest everything and forget what they have given. There is a Korean expression that the king, the teacher and the father share the same value. We call this oneness of king, teacher and father the “three great subject partners principle” God is the owner of the three great subject partners principle. In other words, God is the Father of all fathers, Teacher of all teachers and King of all kings. (259-279, 1994.04.10)

26 God is the True Parent of parents, True Teacher of teachers and True King of kings. God is the eternal True Parent, eternal True Teacher and eternal True Owner. To become a child of God, we first have to become a true parent like God. We have to go the way of a true teacher, like God, and then the way of a true owner, like God. This is the three great subject partners principle. God is the ultimate exemplar. (299-114, 1999.02.07)

27 Who is the center of the three great subject partners principle? It is the Parent. You have to become a parent-like teacher and a parent-like king. God is the Parent of parents and King of parents. This means you have to become God-like parents and teachers. This is the three great subject partners principle, which will remain in heaven and on earth to the end. (213-046, 1991.01.13)

28 The three great subject partners principle means that fulfilling any one role leads to fulfilling all three subject partner roles. Since the three great subject partners principle implies that each of the three can be in the position of subject partner, when you are a true parent, it follows that you are also a true teacher and a true owner. Similarly, when you become a true teacher, you also become a true parent and a true owner; and when you become a true owner, you will find that you are a true teacher and a true parent as well. This is inherent in the three great subject partners principle. The three have equal value. God is our True Parent and, at the same time, our True Teacher and True Owner. What kind of teacher is He? He is one who teaches us while caring for us, over and over again. What kind of an owner is He? He does not try to possess everything and make it His. Rather, He gives us everything, even Himself. He tells us, “You will become the owner.” If we were to sum this up in one sentence, that sentence would be: “I will give birth to you, raise you and make you an owner.” In short, God gives us birth, nurtures us and establishes us as owners. So it begins with God. Having created us, God's intention was to nurture us and elevate us to a position higher than His own, as children who would love on His behalf. As the Owner of the cosmos, His intention was to make us owners. (204-222, 1990.07.11)

29 God's ideal of creation is the ideal of the family. He intended to build His family. In order to form a family, you need to give birth to children, nurture them, and help them establish themselves in life. This is what parents do. God is the same. God is in the position of the True Parent; from this the three great subject partners principle emerges. The first role is to be a true parent, the second is to be a true teacher, and the third is to be a true owner. We should take this as our creed for daily life. (204-045, 1990.06.29)

30 God is the owner of the three great subject partners principle. God is the Parent. We absolutely need our True Parents also to be our True Teachers. In this confusing world, you can find your way in life if you relate to them even as just one of the three great subject partners. They are True Mother and True Father, of course, but if you relate to them as your True Teachers you also will not fail. Even if you meet them as True Owners, you will be able to live and go to the place of eternal life. Why is that so? It is because you are taking a position to live for the sake of others, in accordance with the heavenly law. Since God is like this, I want you to embody the three great subject partners principle. Do so by being the parent, teacher and owner in your own family. Then you will complete everything. Starting from the highest level, God, you manifest everything in your family, where the three perpendicular axes intersect. Then, because unity arises from the origin, everything that belongs to God becomes yours. That is what comes about when you resemble God. This is the teaching of the three great subject partners. (204-050, 1990.06.29)

31 Look at your body and mind. Isn't your original mind to be pitied? It stands in the position of God. It represents all of your ancestors, your forebears. Your original mind represents your teachers as well as your nation's sovereigns. Yet how long have you disrespected and mistreated it? As the center of the universe, your original mind stands in the position of the subject partner of true love as your true parent, true teacher and true owner. It has sacrificed over and over to save you as one person living on this earth. Isn't this so? Though it sacrificed so much, it has not once complained. Yet we drag it around and treat it continually with contempt, presuming it to be dead. Yet whenever you harbor an evil thought, for example, going out in the early morning darkness and stealing something, it comes alive and calls you to your senses, alerting you, “Don't do that, you scoundrel!'' Haven't you constantly manipulated your mind? Despite your having done so, it is in the position of your parent, teacher and owner. (209-154, 1990.11.28)

32 In the original homeland we attend God as the King. God is the King of the universe, the nation, the tribe and the family. God is the Teacher of the universe, the nation, the tribe and the family. God is the Parent of the universe, the nation, the tribe and the family. This is the teaching of the three great subject partners. This principle includes the original essence of love, which is living for the sake of others, and giving love without expecting anything in return. Therefore the three great subject partners themselves represent Heaven. If you could embody the teaching of the three great subject partners, that would be ideal. Yet even if you are unable to embody them all, if you can stand only in the position of a true parent, the teacher will stand on your left and the owner on your right. If you fulfill just one of the three, everything will be all right. Whether you become a true parent, a true teacher or a true owner, if you stand in one of these positions, you will have no problem registering in the kingdom of heaven. Each one of them unites all three. (209-154, 1990.11.28)

33 If human beings had not fallen, within Adam's family God would have become the Parent, Teacher and Owner. He would then have gone beyond that to the tribe, becoming the Parent, Teacher and Owner of the tribe. Then He would have risen to the position of Parent, Teacher and Owner of the nation. What does this perspective teach about a nation's president? The president is the nation's parent, so you should attend your president as your parent and your teacher. The president's actions should embody a standard representing the national spirit and historical tradition. And as teacher and owner, he or she should pass on the system of governance by which to continue managing and leading the nation. That is how governance should expand to the world and to all of heaven and earth. If God governs this way, no one will resist, because God is the origin of our life, our Parent who gave us birth. He is the origin of our knowledge, our Teacher who has given us an environment of freedom throughout history, in which we can live based our own self- realization. As our Owner, He has prepared and provided everything for us and has bequeathed everything to us. This principle is eternal and unchanging in the heavenly realm. This is the teaching of the three great subject partners that we honor. In conclusion, let us be a true parent, true teacher and true owner, as God is. (205-274, 1990.10.01)

Section 2. The God of True Love

1 God is omniscient and omnipotent. He can obtain everything He desires and do everything He wishes. It seems ideal, and that there is nothing God could need. Nonetheless, there is still one thing that He needs: love. Even though He is absolute, even God cannot have love by Himself. This is because love can be had only in a mutual relationship. No matter how all-knowing and all-powerful God is, He cannot possess love on His own. Of course He has love's attributes, but love's signals and love's stimulation can come only from another person, not from within oneself. Such is love. That is the power of love. (138-246, 1986.01.24)

2 For what purpose did God create us? He created us and established the standard for our perfection based on love. Hence, love is the standard. In other words, becoming a perfect person is based on God's love, not on our ability or level of leadership. Once we become a perfect person centering on God's love, we can unite with God in love, play with Him and enjoy everything together with Him forever. The perfect person, the one who meets the highest standard of God's desire, is the person who is one with God in love. (138-246, 1986.01.24)

God governs by His love

3 True love began from God. Love started from Him, is sustained by Him, and has to return to Him in the end. God is the King of kings. Since God is absolute, His love is eternal. Therefore, if you stand in the position of object partner to that absolute love, you are bound to have eternal life. This is what God intended from the very beginning of creation. It is for this reason that we want to live eternally. It is natural that we have such hope. (224-127, 1991.11.24)

4 You can realize true love only through a mutual base with another person. But true love is not only about husband and wife. Your husband-wife relationship has to be centered on God's ideal of creation. The absolute Owner of true love is God. When you desire to unite with your partner in true love, the true love of the absolute God will abide with you. Thus a true couple moves toward the future world with one hope, cherishing God's true love. Upon this foundation true children can be born, and the family will enjoy prosperity. Our ultimate hope is to transcend the sphere of a couple's life through true love, and form a family in harmony with God's ideal of true love. (294-066, 1998.06.11)

5 If there were no God, living on earth would be no fun. What do you want to see with your eyes? You want to see good things. When you go to a movie, you want to see a good movie, not a bad one. You want it to move you and inspire you. You also want to hear good things; you do not want to hear bad things. Among all good sounds, you want to hear the best. People want to see, hear, smell and touch the best of everything. What is the best thing of all? It is love. Then who is the owner of love? Who is the King of kings of love? It is God, who created heaven and earth. (037-021, 1970.12.22)

6 The omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent God, the King of wisdom, uses His power to transform the worst things in the human world into the best things. While doing this, God inevitably finds Himself making absolute demands on people based on love, as appears most fitting to Him. But being such a boss, what should God do? In that position, it seems as if God sometimes uses His power to make things as He likes. But even if He does so, He is making these demands out of love, because He takes this position not for Himself but for others. For this reason, those who live for themselves have nothing to do with God. To have a relationship of love with God, you cannot live for yourself. If you do so, you move far away from God. But if you live for others rather than for yourself, you too may sometimes have to act like a boss. Nevertheless, if you do so for the sake of others, you absolutely will become the owner of love. That is God. Therefore, we can say that in essence, God is the One whose existence as the absolutely unique being is based on love and caring for others. (175-155, 1988.04.16)

7 God is a loving ruler. He is a loving ruler who eternally lives for the sake of others. He is such a God. Therefore, if you want to have a relationship with Him, stay together with Him and enjoy His reign in the realm of love, you too have to assert yourself through a life of loving and caring for others. Otherwise, you are neglecting your relationship with God. (175-157, 1988.04.16)

8 Even the absolute God wants to obey true love absolutely. This view is not to be found in Christian theology. In the history of Christian civilization, people seeking after power caused much bloodshed. They believed that everything could be achieved through power. They also believed that God could do whatever He pleased, but this is wrong. Even the God of absolute power is looking for a place where love can settle, a place where love can be secured. God absolutely adores love. How much does He adore it? He adores it more than He likes exercising His absolute power, more than He likes being omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent. What does this mean? For the sake of love, God absolutely obeys love, even if He has to abandon everything else. Only then does it all make sense. We say God is the Father of all humankind, don't we? If He is, could He, as the Father, tell His sons and daughters that they must absolutely obey the law of love if He did not live in obedience to it Himself? It is an indispensable root principle that God can teach His children to live in absolute obedience to love only because He Himself does so. He can affirm that they should live that way because He Himself is doing so. (207-261, 1990.11.11)

9 If you ask what is true, I would answer, “absolute love.” Even the absolute God must absolutely obey true love. When a man and a woman love each other so much that they cannot live without each other, they can each go beyond their own life. Each can sacrifice his or her life for the sake of the beloved. To become one with their beloved, they are willing to sacrifice everything, the past, the present and the future. If this is true of love even in this fallen world, how much stronger is perfect love, the love God wanted, in the original world? Life is not the issue. God can deny even His own life for true love. That is the power of true love. If God could do whatever He pleased with love, the world of peace could not come about. By the arbitrary use of His power He could bring about one unified world, but without harmonious giving and receiving between people who love and care for one another, it would not be a world of peace and unity. (289-274, 1998.02.01)

We are born for true love

10 Why did God create all things? It was to have object partners whom He could love. He wanted to create a realm of object partners with whom to share love. He wanted people to be able to live on earth and then return to the original world and dwell in His eternal, original homeland of love. Man was born for woman, and woman was born for man, all because of love. Why do men and women desire love? It is for the sake of God's love. This is the truth. (142-076, 1986.03.01)

11 God is absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal; these are His attributes. Therefore, His love is absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal. If you are seeking the path of love while leading a self-centered life, you will come to a dead end. When a man and a woman love each other with absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal love, God's attributes manifest as absolute love, unique love, unchanging love and eternal love. We are born resembling the eternal God so that we may attain eternal life; hence, we ought to live our lives based on eternal true love. True love is not two, but one; it is unique. But no matter how unique and absolute love is, there would be serious problems if it were changeable. Therefore love also must be eternally unchanging. (400-067, 2002.12.27)

12 The ownership of absolute love, which is one of God's main attributes, develops in an unbroken line from the individual to the family, tribe, people, nation, world and cosmos. This is how it develops. Upon achieving this, the ages of the individual, family, tribe, people, nation and world will lead to one extended world of which they will all be a part, connected to the one center, God. If we had grown up naturally as we should have, we would have reached a vertical position centered on the internal attributes of the incorporeal God, which we originally should have possessed. Our center would have been God, the original absolute Owner, whose position is that of the masculine subject partner. This is as it would have been in the world without the Fall. (404-246, 2003.02.05)

13 Adam and Eve are the body of the absolute Creator. They were made to be His body. The substantial world was meant to stimulate Him, but God, being an incorporeal existence, cannot relate to it directly. So God, who was dwelling in the minds of Adam and Eve, hoped that they would grow to maturity. However, while God was waiting for them to mature, Adam and Eve fell. If they had not fallen, their children would have been God's sons and daughters, inheriting His direct lineage. God was to have been the root of our lineage. He was to have been the root of love. But due to the Fall, the root based on God's love was not secured. (141-039, 1986.02.16)

14 After He created our first ancestors, Adam and Eve, what standard did God want to uphold for them? He absolutely did not intend to keep them in a milieu of sorrow, pain and unhappiness. God created Adam and Eve as the base of His work, the nest for His heart and the object partners of His love. God is naturally the God of goodness. Since the God of goodness created this world, He created it to be good. The environment in which Adam and Eve dwelt should also have been good. This was God's purpose and idea at the time of creation. (8-173, 1959.12.13)

15 What was God's attitude when He created Adam and Eve as His object partners of love? It was to invest everything for them and then forget how much He had done. This is the basic spirit behind the origin of the cosmos. However, when Adam and Eve fell they reversed this principle. God sacrificed Himself and invested Himself completely to create them as His second selves and His object partners. He wanted His object partners to be even better than Himself. But human beings, ever since the Fall, are inclined to sacrifice others for their own sake. That is why this fallen world promotes selfish individualism. It brings about destruction, and a hell on earth that has spread worldwide. This is our present world. (254-028, 1994.02.01)

The ideal of creation, which is fulfilled through love

16 God is incorporeal. From the origin, He divides Himself to such an extent that He becomes invisible. That is, since He divides Himself infinitely, He becomes invisible. Then, when these divisions come into union, God is born again, grows up and reaches the zenith. Then how can God perfect Himself? This may be the first time you have heard such a question, but it actually makes sense. God too has to reach perfection. I am not talking about the perfection of knowledge, for God is omniscient. The ideal of creation is not about the perfection of wealth or power, but the perfection of love. (222-316, 1991.11.06)

17 God is the Absolute Being, but He also absolutely needs love. God also exists because of love. He lives for love. Each human being was born to embody the internal quality of one of God's dual characteristics. Adam resembles half of God's character and Eve resembles the other half. Therefore, neither can reach perfection alone. A man cannot reach perfection on his own and a woman cannot reach perfection on her own. A man has to meet a woman, and a woman has to meet a man. (166-206, 1987.06.07)

18 How can human beings reach perfection? There is no way that, on their own, a man can perfect himself or a woman can perfect herself. This is because each is only half complete. They can only be perfected fully through total unity in love. Furthermore, to reach perfection Adam and Eve absolutely need God. They need a vertical relationship with Him. That is, for their perfection Adam and Eve need both vertical and horizontal relationships of love. Otherwise, they cannot engage in the circular and spherical motions of love. For this reason, Adam absolutely needs his horizontal relationship with Eve. By the same token, Eve absolutely needs Adam. (145-321, 1986.06.01)

19 For the sake of love God divided Himself into man and woman. The invisible God, as one united being, cannot experience the stimulation of love. It was to feel this stimulation that He divided Himself into man and woman, manifesting His incorporeal substance into corporeal substance. He manifested His incorporeal internal nature and external form in the substantial realm of corporeal internal nature and external form. These must become one if they are to return stimulation to the realm of incorporeal substance. Since God exists as the incorporeal substantial being, corporeal substantial beings must become one with God through the love of their incorporeal internal nature and external form. So when a man and a woman become substantial object partners by becoming one with each other, they finally become the partners of God's love. (253-255, 1994.01.30)

20 The creation of human beings, God's manifestation in substance, reflects God's own growth. God finds this process interesting and stimulating. Human beings feel the same way. An artist paints with the idea of creating a masterpiece that can express his or her inner attributes fully and substantially. In order to do this, the artist has to wrench the essence and energy from deep inside his or her bone marrow, and invest that into the work. (225-200, 1992.01.20)

Section 3. God Is Our True Parent

1 As God's substantial object partners, a man represents God's yang characteristics and a woman represents God's yin characteristics. The Principle of Creation divides God's characteristics into two genders and then brings them into union again as one body. Through union they come to resemble God's original characteristics. When they are born, a man and a woman each resemble one facet of God's dual characteristics. Accordingly, the union of one man and one woman is the union of God's yang and yin characteristics. In other words, by uniting they become a harmonious being that resembles God. Thus the two people as husband and wife form a union that resembles all facets of God. The man becomes the second self of the True Father by representing God's yang characteristics, and the woman becomes the second self of the True Mother, representing God's yin characteristics. In addition, the man and woman are each an individual representative of God. (9-083, 1960.04.16)

The parent-child relationship is the center of the universe

2 God is the Father of humanity. We are the sons and daughters of God. If God is the first generation, we are the second generation God. The first generation God is plus, and the second generation God is minus. Plus and minus automatically unite as one; that is the Principle of Creation. (275-316, 1996.01.01)

3 What is the center of heaven and earth, and what is the root of the universe? When I entered into a mystical state and prayed to God about this, He told me that it is the relationship between the Father and his sons and daughters, that is, the parent-child relationship. If you think this refers to the relationship between a physical father and mother and their sons and daughters, you do not understand it fully. I am talking about the relationship between God and human beings. (19-160, 1968.01.01)

4 God and human beings have a parent-child relationship. How do we come to this conclusion? When you enter a mystical state in your prayer and ask, “If human beings are the center of the created world, what is the center of the universe?” you will receive a simple answer: “It is the parent-child relationship.” You may think that the parent-child relationship here refers to the relationship between your physical mother and father and yourself, that is, a relationship centered on human morals and ethics, but that is not what I am talking about. The parent- child relationship between God and human beings united in heart is multidimensional. It is that point that is the center of the universe. (048-209, 1971.09.19)

5 From the viewpoint of love, we are each the fruit of a mother's love, of a father's love and of God's love. Vertically we are the fruit of God's love; horizontally we are each the fruit of a mother and a father's love. Because we want to follow this love forever and unite with it, we can never betray it. We want to stay and live in that love forever. That is why even though mothers and fathers are fallen, they still want to live with their children forever. (191-230, 1989.06.25)

6 God too has a mind and a body, which are absolutely united in a relationship of subject partner and object partner. Because they are united, God can rest there in peace. God dwells eternally at the place where mind and body are united. They are united centered on true love. God created human beings to be His object partners, united with Him in mind and body. The parent-child relationship is one of lineage. Children inherit every element from their parents. From their father and mother, children inherit their internal nature and external form, which relate as subject and object partners. Taking after their mother and father, children inherit these plus and minus elements. There is nothing else they can inherit. The oneness of God is like the oneness of all the bones that constitute one body. It is from that point that our mind and body become one. After that, we come to need a partner. Man needs woman, woman needs man, and they need their children and family. (266-222, 1995.01.01)

7 God is the Father who represents the mind, and the first ancestors centered on true love, which has nothing to do with the Fall, are the Parents who represent the body. Having uncovered this truth, which had remained hidden throughout history, the Unification Church uses the name “True Parents.” In the original view, the ideal of creation was the horizontal True Parents, God's son and daughter. These were to have been Adam and Eve. (177-338, 1988.05.22)

8 God is the God of love. Where is it that God truly loves human beings? It is in the place where people would most wish to be, and God too surely loves that place. That place, where God's heart and the human heart are bonded in unity, is the parent-child relationship. The parent-child relationship is the root of the universe. It is the relationship between the absolute God, who created heaven and earth, and unfallen, original human beings. The place of original value, where we are meant to arrive, is the place where God stands as the Father and we stand as His children. (053-286, 1972.03.04)

9 What is the root of the universe? The beginning is love; the result is a father and son. God created the universe in order to have a relationship of love between parent and child. The root of the universe, therefore, is the parent-child relationship. Since you are connected to the root of the universe, you need to become a parent and also a son or daughter. (118-290, 1982.06.20)

10 The root of the universe is the parent-child relationship. When we ask our original mind what our life's destiny is, it will no doubt reply that it is to make God our own and to win God's love. Even if parents have ten children, their love for each one is absolute. When all people, with one accord in mind and action, call God, “Father!” the long withheld love of our Father, so deserving of sympathy, will flow forth. When the parental love in the father's heart and mother's heart flows forth from their bone marrow and enters their children, they all feel the beginning point of utmost happiness. We can dwell there; it is the homeland of our heart. (023-129, 1969.05.18)

11 People like what resembles them. Thus, the ideal world should resemble God. How did God create heaven and earth in the beginning? Genesis 1:27 reads: “God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” That God created man and woman in His image means that human beings resemble God. We like what resembles us, and because we resemble Him, God also likes us. God created all things in the universe. Looking at them brings Him happiness because they resemble Him. (26-167, 1969.10.25)

12 God is the Absolute Being; He is omniscient and omnipotent. But whom does God resemble? Since we are created in God's image, God resembles us. God is a personal God and it is in that way that we say He resembles human beings. It is stated that human beings were created in God's image, and certainly the Father God resembles His own children. If God resembles human beings, whom does that mean He resembles? God resembles woman and God resembles man. (070-047, 1974.02.08)

13 Whom do we resemble? We resemble God. From God's vantage point, we resemble God; from our vantage point, God resembles us. In other words, in a father's eyes, his son resembles him; in the son's eyes, his father resembles him. God resembles us, and we resemble God. Whom do we resemble in terms of our desire? Our desire resembles God's desire. Because our desire resembles God's, we desire to own the best. God as the Absolute Being is the highest of all beings, so He does not want to settle for anything inferior. He wants the best. This is also true of our desire. (39-171, 1971.01.10)

14 God is omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent and eternal. Which point should we resemble? If we resemble Him, what does that mean for us? Since God is eternal, we should be eternal, and since God is omnipresent, we should be omnipresent. That is why we desire to live anywhere and everywhere in the world. We want to rule the entire world with almighty power. The fact that we desire such things shows that we resemble God. (26-167, 1969.10.25)

15 Consider the relationship between God and human beings, with God as the Father and we as His children. If someone were to say, “Your children are more handsome than you, God,” God would not feel bad. If He felt bad upon hearing such words, God would be no better than fallen human beings. This is why love is necessary. (40-343, 1971.02.11)

God is our True Parent

16 God is the vertical True Parent. Our Creator, God, stands in the position of the vertical True Parent based on true love. Yet if God were the owner of vertical love only, His love would touch only a single point. Thus He would ask how He could expand His love horizontally. True Parents, not God Himself, are the ones who give birth to children. True Parents are a couple standing as the parents of horizontal true love. They possess horizontal love at a 90-degree angle to the vertical love of God, the True Parent. You need love from the parents in both positions. One is the Parent who is the Creator. The other is True Parents, whom God created in the position of the body, as His object partners, in pursuit of the ideal. Thus God is the Parent in the position of the mind, and True Parents are the parents in the position of the body. (182-259, 1988.10.23)

17 God is the vertical Father. He is the Parent of vertical true love. Had Adam and Eve grown to maturity and fulfilled God's Will, they would have become the horizontal parents. They would have stood in the position of the parents of horizontal true love. These two sets of parents would meet at a 90-degree angle, the crossroads of love. (183-104, 1988.10.15)

18 God, the Creator, is the vertical Father. Adam and Eve, had they not fallen but reached perfection, would have become the horizontal Parents. If they had become one centered on love and had given birth to children, those children would have resembled their vertical Parent and horizontal Parents. They would have become the embodiments of the love of these Parents, who are true. These children would have represented both God and True Parents. (183-187, 1988.11.01)

19 God is the vertical True Parent of true love. He is the vertical axis. There is only one such position; it is eternal and unchanging. God is in the position of the vertical True Father of true love, the True Parent. Without true love, we have nothing to do with God. In relation to the True Parent of vertical true love, Adam and Eve are the horizontal Parents of true love. The True Parents' position is that of horizontal Parents of true love. (184-250, 1989.01.01)

20 From the viewpoint of love, God is the vertical Father and the True Parent of vertical love. He is the True Parent who can endow vertical life and vertical lineage. God is the vertical Father who can give us vertical true love, life and lineage. The fruit of that Father is your mind, which stands in the vertical position. That mind is your vertical self. (231-078, 1992.05.31)

21 God is the vertical Parent, and Adam and Eve are the horizontal Parents of true love. Originally, human beings should have been born as descendants of these two united sets of parents, and, without falling, should have inherited their lineage. But Eve, before she was twenty years old and while she was still immature, paired with Satan. According to the Principle, no matter how devout your faith, unless you have a chance to attend true parents on earth there is no way for you to go to the kingdom of heaven. Then who are the True Parents, who have overcome the Fall? God is the True Parent of vertical true love, and the mature Adam and Eve are the Parents of horizontal true love, the horizontal Parents. With what can the vertical Parent and the horizontal Parents be bound as one? With the explosion of love that occurs at the 90-degree angle. Through this explosion, Adam and Eve become heavenly people as they give birth to children to create a family, a tribe, a people, a nation and the world. (185-187, 1989.01.08)

God has to attain His kingship

22 Who in the world is God? People say, “God is absolute. As the Creator, He is the Holy One, while human beings are profane.” This is an incorrect understanding, however. If God is absolute and holy, then that which He created according to His ideal should also be holy. Long ago, during their course in the wilderness, the Israelites worshipped the Tabernacle, which contained the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. Yet, can you compare the Holy of Holies fashioned by human beings with the Holy of Holies and the Holy Place that God created as the original nature of unfallen Adam and Eve? What was the Tabernacle, composed of the Holy of Holies and the Holy Place? It was nothing but a transitory symbol that prefigured the substantial being— the original Temple and the original Holy of Holies. Its symbolism compounded, expanded and elevated the ideal of the one who was to come. It represented the union of Adam and Eve in their ideal restored form. The symbol in and of itself is not holy, but since people revered the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies made by fallen human beings, then how much more should we revere Adam and Eve, who were made by the absolutely Holy Being? God is at the center of the Holy of Holies, which corresponds to the minds of Adam and Eve, and in the Holy Place, which corresponds to their bodies. Adam was to have become God's body and Eve too was to have become God's body. Adam was to resemble God's masculine nature, and Eve God's feminine nature. The marriage of these two, Adam and Eve, was to have been the ceremony to set up the cosmic kingship, the kingship of love. (143-236, 1986.03.19)

23 Adam and Eve are the bodies of God. Adam becomes the king and Eve the queen of the future, with God as their center. They are one in body with God. This is referred to as origin-division-union. Division occurs from the origin for the sake of love. If you were asked, “Why did the absolute God divide them? Couldn't He just as easily have done whatever He wanted, without dividing them?” what would your answer be? He divided them because, although God created the physical world, He cannot reign over it as an incorporeal being. He therefore needs a form. God's purpose of creation is to acquire a substantial body and substantially become the Parent. Who were the substantial beings to realize this purpose? They were Adam and Eve. Had Adam and Eve reached perfection, God would have entered their minds and they would have attained God- centered kingship. (214-040, 1991.02.01)

24 Why did God create human beings? God did so in order to manage and lead the physical universe. He intended to do so through Adam and Eve, who were to become the substantial lords of the universe. Because God remains without form, even in the spirit world, He cannot reign directly over the universe. Thus, He created human beings in order to assume a physical form and, through that embodiment, become the King who could govern His descendants, His children born into the world. Then, whose face was meant to be the face of that king? It was Adam's face. Once God created a king, He needed a queen. Eve was meant to be that queen. Together they were to become the ancestors of humankind both on earth and in the spirit world. Hence, if the traditions set up during the lifetime of these Parents had extended throughout the world and been bequeathed for thousands of years, there would have been only one kingship, the kingship of the physical world as well as the spirit world. (199-144, 1990.02.16)

25 God is incorporeal. Hence, even when you go to the spirit world you will not be able to see Him. God created Adam out of love. Because the created world has form, God also needs form in order to become the Father. When He assumes physical form and becomes the Father, the incorporeal and the corporeal become one. This represents the unity of the cosmos. I am saying that God created Adam and Eve in order to dwell within their bodies. That is why Adam and Eve were to resemble God in His external form. When Adam and Eve were enthroned in heaven, God would have dwelt in their hearts as King and Queen and governed the earthly world and the incorporeal world. This is how God's kingdom, the kingdom of love, was to have been established. (143-093, 1986.03.16)

26 God is the King of kings and Parent of parents, so Adam and Eve were to be the prince and princess of God's true love. But due to the Fall, they lost their positions as prince and princess. Further, they lost the right of the eldest son, the right of parents, and the kingship. (222-139, 1991.10.28)

CHAPTER 3 God the Creator

Section 1. God's Work of Creation

1 Heaven and earth did not simply originate from matter, nor did they emerge spontaneously or by chance. God, the Creator, exists. He is the first cause of the cosmos. He is absolute, eternal, unchanging and good. He made all things in the universe according to His purpose of creation, His basic design. God is the origin of heart and emotion, and His purpose is to create joy. However, one cannot feel joy alone. In order for a subject partner to feel joy, an object partner is absolutely necessary. The greatest joy comes from the exchange of love between subject and object partners. (190-320, 1989.06.23)

2 Heaven and earth originated from the Will of the One. Because God, our Heavenly Parent, exists, the created world came into existence. God, the Parent of heaven and earth, is the central Being. That is why God is one with all beings of this world, and why God and I are one, not two. God desires, on one hand, to come down to earth from above along a vertical line, in order to stand at the center. On the other hand, He desires to connect everything on the horizontal plane with that center. (166-202, 1987.06.07)

3 In the beginning, when God created heaven and earth, He had a design for the cosmos, an ideal and a purpose for it. Through it, He wanted His creation to correspond to His own internal standard so that He could relate to it forever. The center of it all was God's heart of love. The origin of the cosmos was God Himself, and it was God's heart that provided the original impulse that set in motion the phenomena of creation. From that heart of love springs the ideal realm where all things come into oneness. (15-045, 1965.02.07)

God's plan for creation

4 Adam and Eve are God's body. They are God's visible body and they are in the position of the visible God. God is the originator of energy; He cannot be seen even in the spirit world. He has no form. Hence, in order to guide and govern the physical world, He has to assume an external, physical form. If, instead of falling, Adam and Eve had reached perfection while living on earth then gone on to the heavenly world, they would have become the visible form of God. The invisible God and visible Adam and Eve would have been one. Then, since Adam and Eve's laughter would have been God's laughter, it would have been the laughter of heaven and earth. God created this world so that He, who is incorporeal, could emerge on earth in substance. In other words, this world was created so that the incorporeal God could emerge as the substantial God. (105-193, 1979.10.21)

5 God is the womb of human beings and the nucleus of all things in the universe. Then why did God, the nucleus of all things, have to create the heavens and the earth? It is because if a nucleus exists alone, it will perish or disintegrate. Consider electricity. No matter how perfect a positive charge is, without a negative charge it will disappear. There are no exceptions to this. If a plus wants to survive, it has to align with the principle that sustains its life. Therefore, through the plan of creation, there will emerge a perfect minus. It is because existence depends upon the interaction between the two. (035-055, 1970.10.03)

6 God, who made all things of creation in heaven and on earth, established His perfect substantial object partners in the external world to reflect His feelings, the inner world of His mind. He did this so that He could fully interact with them. He created human beings as object partners who would take responsibility for this, endowing them with a foundation that would allow them to engage in perfect giving and receiving. That is why, of all His creation, God loves human beings the most, and why they appreciate God the most. They respect God. Therefore, they go in search of God and God comes in search of them. (151-212, 1962.12.15)

7 When we say, “God is the Lord, the Creator who made heaven and earth,” we mean that He is the origin and subject partner of all things. Hence, all things of creation are His object partners. An artist who wants to create a masterpiece will first plan it in his or her mind. The artist expects the work to unfold according to plan and that the result will be pleasing. What does it mean to be pleasing? It means that the work of art should be pleasing to the eyes, the ears, the mouth and every cell in the body in a harmonious way. Then it will be pleasing to the mind, which represents the body. Seen in this way, the original standard is unity of the mind and body. Our spirit selves have five spiritual senses; our physical selves have five physical senses. These two should be in perfect harmony. This doesn't happen simply by enjoying a meal. Harmony between the mind and the body begins with true love. (185-153, 1989.01.08)

8 God is the subject partner who created the universe. Even though God is the subject partner of human beings, and we are His sons and daughters, He follows the principle: “I exist for human beings.” Because of this, we can be happy people. There is nothing more we would want. Originally we should have had this status, but we failed to attain it. That is why we hunger to possess the very best thing. The very best thing is God's love. (062-219, 1972.09.25)

9 God created for the sake of those with whom He intended to form a relationship. He invested tremendous energy at the outset, but not for Himself, not for His own pleasure. He invested everything to create partners with whom He could build a relationship. In the pursuit of ideal partners, God invested Himself totally, creating everything in heaven and on earth. (086-116, 1976.03.14)

10 What comes first, existence or life? Philosophy places the question of existence first. It does not deal with life. Then from where does life come? Life does not come from itself; it comes from parents' love. God governs the world of life and the world of love. In fact, life precedes existence, but philosophy deals only with questions that come after existence. It is life that moves all existing things. Then what is the cause that moves life? Love moves life. Because life comes from love, the natural way of life is to seek relationships of love and to attain the outcomes of love. This is the heart that lies behind the creation of heaven and earth. (050-279, 1971.11.08)

11 No matter how great God is, He is lonely if He cannot feel love. He would want to hug even a cat and say, “I did such a good job making this cat. When I made its ears, I felt good. I made its paws like this so it could easily catch mice. It gives me such a good feeling.” This good feeling toward everything He made is related to God's inner heart and motivation. (141-026, 1986.02.16)

12 God is still striving to use His power of creation to build a new environment for us. He has that power. However, as long as we are in the fallen realm, it is not possible. It cannot be done unless we meet certain conditions. It is not because God lacks power that He has not done this. When the conditions are ripe, when the arrangements are in place for God to move, then a new history and a new environment can emerge, no matter the time, no matter the age. God has the same power and authority today that He had in the beginning when He created all things. He has possessed that power throughout the course of history; He possesses it today and He will possess it in the future. He is the eternal Lord of Creation. (147-172, 1986.09.21)

13 When God began the creation, He had His Will, He had an idea, and He had a master plan. Thus, God's original Will went along with a plan to create human beings, and based on that plan He built a world correlative to us. That is why, despite the human Fall, we who live in the realm of God's providence of salvation in this day and age have to stand at the center of His Will, that is, within the realm of His Will and plan. The time has come. That is why God is preparing the conditions by which we can enter the realm of His Will and plan. Over the course of history, numerous religions have emerged with the purpose of pioneering the environment, setting the conditions so that we can enter the realm of His plan. (076-092, 1975.02.01)

God's total investment in the creation

14 When God created heaven and earth, why did He create human beings? As long as God was without a partner, He had no stimulation. He made human beings as His partners, who would allow Him to feel love, life and hope. God did not create human beings as the Bible seems to imply, simply by saying, “Let there be you!” In reality, God put all His life, love and hope on the line to create human beings. We can say in short that God invested everything into the relationship between Himself and human beings. His was an unconditional, total investment. This reveals to us that God's intention is to realize true love. For love, He invested in His counterparts one hundred percent. The process of God investing Himself requires Him to deplete His energy, but because He invests everything totally, the outcome is not depletion. When He invests one hundred percent and completes His work, the counterparts into whom He invested one hundred percent, after they perfect themselves one hundred percent, return to God and infuse their love into Him. They emerge with everything God invested in them coalesced together with their own power of love, their value, and their honor as His partners. Possessing all of this, they stimulate God, and God can finally feel joy. (69-061, 1973.09.10)

15 Parents instinctively invest everything for their children. God is the same. God does not invest Himself for His own sake. He exists not for Himself but for His counterparts. If God were to exist only for Himself, He would not be the God of true love. Love, life and hope are realized when parents sacrifice themselves completely for their children with the desire to be together with them. Accordingly, the true God of true love, true life and true hope wishes to give His true love, true life and true hope to human beings. He gives these things not to please Himself, but to please those who receive them. (69-062, 1973.09.10)

16 In creating His partners, the true God completely invested Himself to fashion them into the most valuable, ideal and perfect form. This means that once He created Adam and Eve, God lived for their sake, not His own. God moved from the time of living for His own sake to the time of living for the sake of His partners. An ideal being does not live for his or her own sake. An ideal being lives for the sake of others, for the sake of the object partner. This is the core principle of the universe. (69-083, 1973.10.20)

17 The Bible gives the impression that since God is omniscient and omnipotent, He brought everything into being by merely saying, “Let there be heaven” and “Let there be earth.” But this is not the case. God invested everything, all the energy He had. By investing the full power of His love, He created all things as offerings and gifts for His beloved sons and daughters who were to come, His beloved future family. (112-307, 1981.04.25)

18 Creation entails the investment of energy. Every artist in the world desires to create the greatest of masterpieces. He or she invests everything, spirit, heart and soul, with the utmost devotion. It is not partial investment, but total investment that gives birth to the perfect masterpiece. Perfection finally comes when the created object needs nothing more. Can you fully love an object of hope that you made while withholding something of yourself, withholding your flesh and blood? It is only when you have given everything, your bones, your flesh, your ideas and everything you possess, that you can bond with what you have created as the object of your hope. That is why I am saying that the beginning of the process of creation itself could have been possible only through investment. There has to be the investment of energy. Nothing can be made without the investment of energy. Committed to the principle that a perfect object partner is created from an infusion of all one's energy, God invested everything He had as the subject partner in order to create His object partner. God's work of creation was the beginning of His movement toward the state of existing not for Himself, but for His object partner. (078-111, 1975.05.06)

19 In order to create all things, God had to pour out His very essence. That is, He invested a great deal of energy. This could have depleted His energy and resulted in God suffering a loss. Yet He created the world with love, to be His object partner, and He devoted Himself to fulfilling this purpose. His investment was not to bear fruit in Himself but rather in His partner. Since God created with love, even though He fully invested Himself, He did not feel diminished. Rather, He felt satisfied. This became a principle, and this essence of parental love became the tradition. God's total self-investment meant that He was not conscious of Himself as He worked. He was so immersed in pursuing the purpose of His partner that He completely forgot Himself. In the end, God wants to live for the sake of the human beings whom He created. This is the basic principle of creation. (60-086, 1972.08.06)

20 In the world of physics, the input is greater than the output. But in the world of love, the input is less than the output. Because this principle applies on the horizontal plane, the universe exists forever. Consumption depletes everything. But because of its constant motion, the energy of love that is invested without limit is not consumed or depleted; rather it is expanded. Thus, God's existence is perpetuated based on love. The universe maintains its existence eternally through this continuous circular motion. Therefore, from the family to the tribe, from the tribe to the nation, and from the nation to the world, everything expands on the same basis and with the same value. Thus all people in the universe will be in agreement, like unto a single human brain, and we will be able to build the ideal world, the realm of total oneness in unity and peace. (289-098, 1997.12.30)

God created through principle and law

21 God gave Adam and Eve the commandment as a condition of faith, when they were in the position of His object partners. However, from now on, God will seek something more substantial. Therefore, we must unite our minds and bodies in order to embody God. We must become more than someone whom God can relate to as only His object partner. By adhering to the laws of creation, we must become His substantial self. (002-331, 1957.07.28)

22 The Bible describes God's creation of heaven and earth in simple terms, saying that God created heaven and earth through the Word. The impression is that when He spoke the words, “Let there be...,” that entity appeared with a snappy “Here I am!” When God said, “Let there be light,” the stars appeared. When God said, “Let dry ground appear,” the earth simply formed itself. However, please be aware that in this process God maintained the principle of progression, starting with the lowest and simplest things and going on to create higher and more complex things according to an all-encompassing order and law. (65-021, 1972.11.13)

23 In people's lives, true love for the sake of others is the foundation for mutual relationships. We experience this first in the true love of parents. Parents' true love, rooted in God's true love, can perfect individuals. Perfected individuals, who then become husband and wife and build an ideal family, can bestow true love upon their children. That is the order of creation. The ideal world on earth expands from the perfect individual to a family, society, nation and world of true love. Our present world, however, emerged from a beginning very different from this ideal and expanded according to the results of the Fall. This world is separated from the proper order of true love, the essential dynamic of God's creation. The world today, which ignores the order of God's creation and follows man-made structures, social forms and laws, cannot give rise to ideal individuals, families or nations. (219-009, 1991.08.24)

24 When God created the heavens and the earth, He first made all things and then He created human beings as His object partners. The dynamic of giving and receiving is a basic law, so until you give everything, nothing will return. This is a principle. A husband has to love his wife completely before she will say, “I completely love my husband.” Only when she has received his complete love will she begin to give back completely. This is a principle of heaven and earth. Thus, only when you receive completely from your subject partner do you reciprocate completely. If you were to reciprocate before you received completely, what you returned would not be perfect and complete. This is give-and-receive action based on love; it is a law of the universe based on the Principle. (60-232, 1972.08.17)

25 We can see that the process of God's creation follows a principle of three stages. First God has an idea, then He completes that idea in His mind, and finally He manifests that idea. He formed all things of creation through these three stages. Of course, God cannot substantiate His Word in His mind alone. For this, He too had to unite His mind and body. That is how He could finally bring about His creation when He spoke, “Let it be! Let it be created like this!” (60-261, 1972.08.18)

26 God's process of creation began from the concept of creating His counterparts and the motivation to do so. He began with extremely tiny entities. When they were complete, He added a higher motivation and purpose and advanced to larger entities. He continued this process to achieve stages ever more complex, adding new design elements and higher purposes until He came to create human beings. (66-243, 1973.05.15)

27 Based on the principle, God the Creator substantially developed all things from the beginning of creation, throughout history and until now, through a process of growth. He created Adam and Eve to go through the same process. Where did this begin for them? In the same way that tiny cells combine together to form bigger things, a baby is formed through ten months in the womb to emerge as a male or female child. If this were not the case, we would have no way to explain the logic of the inheritance of life. In other words, the realm of the object partner must correspond to the realm of the subject partner. In Divine Principle terms, there has to be an external form that corresponds to the internal nature. (225-199, 1992.01.20)

28 The internal nature has the innate capacity to unite and communicate with the external form in every fundamental respect. As a result, the birth and growth process of human beings allows the invisible, incorporeal God to see Himself in their substantial forms. Because His every intrinsic aspect is expressed and manifested through them, God cannot help but love them. That is so for each of us. We are God's embodiments, His substance. To transpose invisible substance into visible substance, God has to invest everything. (225-200, 1992.01.20)

God's dwelling and manifestation

29 Where does God want to dwell? If Adam and Eve had not fallen but had grown to perfection, and true love had united them in total oneness, that oneness is where God would have dwelt. On their wedding day, God wanted to meet them at the center of their first love. Where else would God plant His blood, His love and His life? In that love, internal and external, plus and minus would have united in harmony. For that reason, we treasure first love the most. God is the owner of vertical eternal love and the husband is the owner of horizontal eternal love. (347-166, 2001.07.04)

30 God's intention and purpose went beyond perfecting the vertical subject- object relationship with human beings in love. After perfecting vertical love, He wanted Adam and Eve to bear the fruit of their horizontal love. That moment was to be the very moment when the internal Parent, God, and the external parents, Adam and Eve, would achieve the ideal of love in complete union. Then the incorporeal Parent, through the form of Adam and Eve, would have become the eternal Parent in this corporeal world. At that moment Adam and Eve would have become the True Parents and true ancestors of humankind. (135-012, 1985.08.20)

31 When God created heaven and earth, there was no need for restoration. His hope when He created the original world, with human beings at its center, differed fundamentally from the hope He has for the world of today, which is in need of restoration. His genuine hope in creating Adam and Eve, surpassing everything else, was to manifest Himself. In other words, through Adam and Eve, God aspired for the day when His internal attributes would become external substance. God's hope for restoration is to bring human beings into alignment with this majestic hope He had at the time of creation. (029-292, 1970.03.12)

32 God's purpose in creating the world was to live together with His creation, but today there is no realm in which people, the things of creation, and God can live together. God lost His dwelling place as a result of the Fall. From the day He lost Adam and Eve until today, God has been roaming about looking for His people. Why is this? It is because when we become God's temple and God's body, united with Him as substantial beings representing heaven and earth, our joy will become God's joy, and God will connect His joy to all things through us. It is because we will become the mediators connecting God with all things of creation. (5-140, 1959.01.11)

Section 2. The World God Created

1 In the Bible, Genesis 1:27 states, “God created humankind in His image; in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them” Therefore, we can deduce that male and female exist within God. God is the one subject partner who manifests these two beings as one. Adam and Eve are the ones who were to resemble His dual characteristics. (054-091, 1972.03.20)

God is a harmonious being of dual characteristics

2 God exists as the subject partner with dual characteristics. He manifested His internal masculinity to become substantially visible through Adam as His counterpart, and He manifested His internal femininity substantially through Eve. In other words, human beings represent the investment and substantial embodiment of all that is within God's internal nature. (143-081, 1986.03.16)

3 The Unification Principle defines God as the incorporeal, absolute subject partner, the subject partner with dual characteristics in harmony. As a being with dual characteristics, God created Adam and Eve as His substantial second selves to reflect His characteristics individually. He intended to become the center in the vertical position when they fully matured and became one flesh with each other horizontally through love. What this means is that when Adam and Eve reached full maturity, God's masculinity was to reside in Adam's heart and mind, and His femininity in Eve's heart and mind. This, however, does not mean that God is divided. He is the subject partner of these dual characteristics. He can dwell in the heart and mind of both Adam and Eve. (138-247, 1986.01.24)

4 From where do subject partner and object partner arise? There must be a base for their existence. In the Unification Church we call this base the “dual characteristics.” Human beings themselves do not create the subject and object partners. Energy is always in motion. Yet in order for energy to be in motion, there must be a circuit through which it can flow. Energy cannot continue without a circuit of giving and receiving. For instance, the heart operates within the circulatory system, made up of veins and arteries. All action requires a reciprocal relationship between a subject partner and an object partner. Before energy can exist, there must be a subject partner and an object partner. All subject and object partners must have a base for their existence. (033-036, 1970.08.02)

5 When we look at the cosmos, we see that all beings exist in order to participate in relationships of love. In the mineral world there are plus and minus; in the plant world there are stamen and pistil; in the animal world there are male and female; in the human world there are man and woman, and there are heaven and earth. All of this is because God is a being of dual characteristics, who exists as the harmonious unity of plus and minus within Himself. When God relates to His creation, this harmonious being of dual characteristics takes the masculine position. (400-065, 2002.12.27)

6 Adam and Eve are the fruit, the visible substantial image, of God's internal nature. When they form a union, it becomes the base on which God's internal character and external form are united in substance for the first time. This is where the realm of heart begins. Based on this family realm of heart, the realm of heart opens and expands to the tribal level. Hence, Adam and Eve were to become the representatives of the individual realm of heart, family realm of heart and national realm of heart. The model for all these roles was to have been established in Adam's generation. (316-248, 2000.02.15)

7 Why did God create human beings? In order to answer this, we need to answer the fundamental question of why we were born. God is the subject partner of love. The Divine Principle refers to Him as a harmonious being of dual characteristics, but it does not explain that He is a unified being of love. It should add that He is a unified being of love. (223-268, 1991.11.12)

8 The Unification Principle sets forth that God exists as our subject partner, with dual characteristics in harmony. We base this on undeniable facts drawn from scientific analysis. When subject and object partners are totally united, God's power will be with them eternally. A place where subject partner and object partner do not exist is void of power. Then how does God exist? He exists forever by the power that is generated by the giving and receiving between the subject partner and object partner positions within Himself. This is how we can explain God's existence logically. (039-168, 1971.01.10)

9 Consider God's dual characteristics. All the ideal elements of His first characteristic, everything that God imagined and planned, are substantiated in each man. When each man reaches maturity according to the ideal of love, then the male realm of the universe reaches maturity. So who can bring this male realm to maturity? It is Adam, who should have become the True Father of humanity. This is something that Adam could have made possible. Likewise, through Eve, the female realm could have come to maturity. Then these two should have become one. For this reason, a man has to relate with a woman, and a woman has to relate with a man. The two have to make a relationship and become one. On this foundation, they should bear children. Only then can God finally dwell on the horizontal plane. (140-316, 1986.02.14)

Adam and Eve as the body of God

10 What was God's-purpose in creating all things? First, since God does not have a physical body, it was to assume a substantial form. Before the Fall, God intended that Adam and Eve become perfect in love and manifest His inner image. That was His ideal for the perfection of Adam and Eve. God needed their forms in order to govern the physical world. Second, God needed a body as a base for multiplication. Once we go to the spirit world, which is the vertical realm, we cannot multiply. In the spirit world we can only connect to a point oriented at ninety degrees based on vertical love, and multiplication is not possible on the perpendicular vertical axis. In order to multiply, a horizontal plane—a substantial space—is required. With the horizontal plane expanding in all directions, love can form a sphere, which creates the vastness of space. Within this sphere, entities can multiply without limit. This includes human beings, who are to multiply while on earth and then transition into the spirit world. In summary, in order to multiply and raise heavenly people, God created the physical Adam and Eve. Third, God wanted His partners of love to propagate forever. Do you think it would be sufficient for God to create Adam and Eve and love only them? His love relationship should not end just with the people of one generation. God needed their forms in order to propagate the object partners of His love through their lineage. (223-024, 1991.11.07)

11 God's purpose in creating human beings was to exercise the dominion of love over both the incorporeal and corporeal worlds, through Adam and Eve. Accordingly, to express Himself as a personal God, He had to have a relationship with substantial persons, Adam and Eve. Through the perfection of Adam and Eve, God's image, namely His external form, was to have been perfected. Standing at the center of the incorporeal world when He created Adam and Eve, God envisioned that their form, appearance, character, and other attributes would resemble His own. Without possessing an external form within the world, He cannot have a dominion of love. (035-157, 1970.10.13)

12 The incorporeal God does not have a body. Without a body, God cannot govern the spirit world and physical world. In order to manifest Himself, He has to dwell in a body. The ones in whose bodies He would dwell, His representatives, were to have been Adam and Eve. If they had not fallen, God would have manifested Himself in them. Therefore, Adam and Eve were to have been the first good ancestors of humankind and were, at the same time, to have become God, who reigns over heaven and earth. They were to have been God in substance. That is, they had the responsibility to govern the world in the position of the Parents by assuming the image of God who dwells in the eternal incorporeal world. God intended to integrate the spirit world and the physical world according to the form of Adam and Eve. (133-091, 1984.07.10)

13 God has no form. Even when you go to the spirit world, you cannot see God. He has no form, but He needs one. He created all things with form, and therefore to become the Lord and Ruler of all things, He should have a form. That is why God must incarnate in True Parents. Only then can God be the center of both the visible world and the eternal world, and be the Parent, the King and the Owner of Peace. (395-069, 2002.10.16)

14 God is incorporeal and has no visible form. In order to manifest Himself, He needs to assume a form. That is why, in order to govern humankind and all things that have form, God needs to manifest Himself in the form of Adam and Eve. Adam, Eve and God were to be one in the flesh, and God was to be the mind of Adam and Eve. Had God and Adam become one, and had God and Eve become one, then once Adam and Eve became husband and wife their marriage would have been one with God internally and externally. When, by loving each other, Adam and Eve gave birth to children, those children would have been connected to God's direct lineage. Love would have bound them together. The reason God created this world is because He wanted to experience such love. God created in order to love. (090-195, 1977.01.01)

15 Adam and Eve are God's body as well as God's object partners of love. You cannot love by yourself. Even the Absolute Being cannot experience love alone. Therefore God's purpose in creating the world was to prepare the realm of His beloved object partners. The world of creation is the museum of love and the garden of love. (138-133, 1986.01.19)

16 What good would it be for the incorporeal God to remain apart from His creation? For God to remain invisible is of no use to Him. To be the Parent of human beings, God should be able to feel with a body as human beings do. For the purpose of assuming a body, it was necessary for God to create Adam and Eve as beings of dual structure, of mind and body. Why was this? In order to be the same as the incorporeal God, they had to be able to achieve mind and body unity during the course of their life on earth, before departing for the other world. Without having done so, when they appeared in the spirit world, they would not be able to unite with God as His image. God created Adam and Eve with dual structures so that they could attain parenthood and substantial kingship in the physical world, and then become one with God, the incorporeal Parent, and manifest substantial kingship in the eternal heavenly world. In short, God created Adam and Eve so that through them He could take physical form. (133-092, 1984.07.10)

Human beings were created as the temples of God

17 Even though God is God, He has no way of relating to the world other than through Adam and Eve. God's relationship with Adam and Eve serves as a base for Him to relate to their sons and daughters. This relationship forms naturally. God's purpose in creating human beings was to assume a form, and also to place them in a position where they could stand together with Him, as the Parents. Therefore, Adam and Eve were to be the external God. God made Adam and Eve male and female to represent His dual characteristics of masculinity and femininity Thereby they would become His temples, and he would enter and dwell within them. Adam and Eve can act in an ideal way only when God comes, dwells within them and guides their actions. If God does not act within them, they know nothing of His Will. And without them, God has no foundation on which to form a relationship with human beings. (133-093, 1984.07.10)

18 Since God is incorporeal, He can go anywhere, through anything. There is no place He does not go. He penetrates everything. Where does God live? God's home is in the core of our hearts. God's masculine nature dwells in a man's heart and God's feminine nature dwells in a woman's heart. Thus Adam and Eve, the original human ancestors, were to be the visible God. That is why whatever Adam called each creature became its name. Whatever Adam wanted to do, all things cooperated with him. (128-326, 1983.10.02)

19 Had Adam and Eve not fallen, God would have dwelt in their hearts. Adam and Eve would have been a couple externally and God in Adam and God in Eve would have been a couple internally. When children were born through their bodies, bodies united completely with God inside and out, whose children would they be? They would have been the children of the external God and at the same time the children of the internal God. First Corinthians 3:16 says, “Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?” We human beings are God's temples; it means that God's Holy Spirit dwells in us. When we are in this position, God is our direct Father. The fact that we are not like this is a result of the Fall. (41-032, 1971.02.12)

20 The human body is God's holy temple. It is Gods dwelling place. You will know this when you enter a mystical state, call out, “God!” and He replies, “Here I am” from within you. When you ask in this way, the answer comes not from the sky but from your heart. Originally, had Adam and Eve not fallen, God would have dwelt deep in the core of their hearts and guided them. That is why the Bible says, “Whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.” (Gen. 2:19) (211-147, 1990.12.30)

21 Adam is the substantial body of God. God said our bodies are His holy temples. God is the invisible Father dwelling in Adam's heart. These two fathers become one; they are united into one. Adam's original nature was to have been the meeting point of the incorporeal world and the corporeal world. That standard of original nature has nothing to do with money or greed. As he entered into manhood, all of Adam's cells would have mobilized and his senses would have intensified and served as an antenna. Then God would have settled and dwelt in that place. God would have entered Adam's heart as the internal Father, and with Adam as the external father, the incorporeal and corporeal worlds would have entered into a harmonious union based on that one individual. Then, when such a man met a woman who was likewise God's substantial body, and entered into union with her in the horizontal world, the spherical motion of love would have occurred. (120-090, 1982.10.03)

The relationship between the Creator and His creation

22 Human beings resemble God. Since God is the absolute subject partner, He can become one with His absolute object partners through love. That is why God, the subject partner of harmony between subject and object partners, created human beings, Adam and Eve. Nothing is forbidden within the power of absolute omnipotent love. God also gave human beings the power of creation that He exercised when He created Adam and Eve. Since we receive the power of creation from God, we too are in the position to create our own sons and daughters. When all is said and done, just like God, human beings can stand in the position of creating human beings. (057-113, 1972.05.29)

23 God is omnipresent, and we aspire to imitate His omnipresence. God is omniscient and omnipotent, and we also want to be omniscient and omnipotent. God is unique, and we also desire to be unique. This is our resemblance to Him. Then, what is the point of resemblance over which God rejoices the most? More than omnipresence, omnipotence or uniqueness, He is most joyful when we resemble Him in love. Love is where we most resemble God. Thus, although we may lose everything, if we resemble His love, everything will follow us wherever we go. (26-168, 1969.10.25)

24 We did not know that everything that exists around us, in heaven and on earth, exists as one body in God's love. If you enter into a mystical state, you will recognize that the principle of the universe is contained within a single grain of sand. You will see even within a single atom the endless and inexhaustible harmonies of the universe. Although we may not understand it well, we can never deny that all existence results from a complex of forces. Within molecules there are atoms, and within atoms there are elementary particles. Yet even these entities are not without consciousness. Each exists with a specific consciousness and purpose. We thus can state that all existing beings have come about through God's loving hand and are surely tied to God's heart. (9-168, 1960.05.08)

25 All things in heaven and on earth resemble God. All the things of creation symbolize God, whereas human beings are made in the image of God. God is the reality. Based on this reality, human beings should resemble Him in image while all things of creation should resemble Him in symbol. Since God is the Creator of all things, that is how it should be. Based on His law, God is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent, and exists in eternal love. (26-167, 1969.10.25)

Section 3. God Created with Love

1 What is the foundation of God's existence? Is it His omniscience? Is it His omnipotence, or His absolute authority? If He were alone, what would be the point of absolute authority? The important question is, what is God's essence? It is love. It is not love that seeks to be served, but love that seeks to serve. (218-264, 1991.08.19)

2 As an omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent being, there is nothing God wants to keep for Himself. He lacks nothing and has everything, but if there were one thing He valued most and took the most pride in, what would it be? It would be love. God does not need anything except love. Love is the only thing He needs. (108-225, 1980.10.16)

What God needs absolutely

3 What is it that God likes the most? What do human beings like the most? The answer is true love. No one can dispute that. It is written in the Bible: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that everyone who believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) So what does God like the most? It is love. God's wish was and is to bind together all humanity as brothers and sisters and have them become sons and daughters of filial piety, who are fully devoted to Him. That is why in the Bible, the first commandment that we as human beings should follow is “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matt. 22:37) Again, what does God like the most? It is not money, knowledge or power. It is love. The first commandment is to love God with all your heart and soul and mind, and with all your strength. The second commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. (143-065, 1986.03.15)

4 Even God the Creator, who is the Lord and Ruler of all things in heaven and on earth, absolutely needs love. He absolutely needs true love, and when He has it, He will not give it up for the whole universe. But where can He find this love? God cannot find it in Himself. Even if He possesses it in His heart, as long as He is a solitary being He cannot find it. Then, where does love come from? It does not come from oneself, but from one's partner. If we have no partner we cannot find love. In order to find love, we need to live for the sake of our partner. Without living for the sake of others there is no way to find the path of love. (141-251, 1986.02.26)

5 To find the greatest joy, what does God need to do? He does not want money, knowledge or power. He never lacks for these because He is omnipotent and has the power of creation. Nonetheless, even He needs one thing; but one thing only. That is love. He needs love, but He cannot have love by Himself. To have love, He needs a partner. On this basis, we can conclude that God created the universe because of love. (229-269, 1992.04.13)

The reason God created the world

6 Why did God create? Even God needs love; that is why He created. God created the heavens and the earth because of love. He needed partners of love, so He created in order to have partners of love. That is also why He does not demand that others serve Him absolutely, and why He does not seek love for His own sake. God wants His partners to surpass Him. If He has one thousand percent, He fully invests that one thousand percent in His partners. Love's original nature and quality is to want one's partner to exceed oneself. (201-115, 1990.03.27)

7 God created human beings because He needed others to love as His object partners. You cannot love by yourself. Love cannot come into existence without the realm of the object partner. Even God absolutely needs love. That is the reason He created all things of creation, and then created human beings as their lords who represent them. Because God absolutely needs human beings, He attributed to them the value of His object partners with the absolute rights of love. He created human beings as His object partners in order to share love with them. Hence, human beings are the very bodies of God. (138-212, 1986.01.21)

8 Why did God create Adam and Eve? God is an incorporeal being, so unless He becomes the Parent in substantial form, He cannot directly love His children. Hence, He created them so He could have a form. Thus, the incorporeal God's purpose in creating Adam and Eve was, first, to assume a form. Second, by assuming a form, He could experience jolts and vibrations. For instance, lyrics alone are not sufficient to make music. Along with lyrics, there should be melody and there should also be rhythm. God wanted to enjoy the stimulation of such sensations. Third, since God is the vertical Father on the central axis, He occupies no space. If God looks at Himself, He sees that He occupies just one point, on an axis. He needs space for multiplication. So, why does He need a body? It is because for reproduction to occur He needs space; He needs to see extension in all directions, through 360 degrees. (232-210, 1992.07.06)

9 God exists as the origin of true love. But in order to experience love, even God needs a partner. Love is an experience and a joy that is possible only through the relationship between subject partner and object partner, that is, through a partnership. No one can ever feel love by himself or herself in isolation. God's motive for creating was to realize true love through object partners of true love. God created human beings as object partners who can have love relationships freely with Him. He created us as His partners for total love. Hence, we human beings are God's sons and daughters and God, the Creator, is our True Parent. God hoped that Adam and Eve would remain pure and grow up to become true persons based on true love. (279-205, 1996.08.20)

10 God is the Absolute Being. Then, what did He lack that led Him to create human beings? He is the all-knowing, almighty God. He does not lack for gold or knowledge; in fact, there is nothing that He does not possess. Nevertheless, He created human beings, and for what? What was His fundamental motivation for creating them? God had power, knowledge and money, but He did not have a partner for love. Even God cannot realize love alone. Thus, the fundamental motivation behind the creation of the heavens and the earth was love. (149-150, 1986.11.21)

11 Why did God create heaven and earth? What did the almighty Absolute Being lack, such that He needed to create human beings? He created them because of love. Love cannot arise without a partner. Love activated without a partner only suffers loss. Everything is made to protect itself; nothing moves if all that can be expected is loss. Nevertheless, once a partner of love appears, a previously hidden love springs forth. Love is the primary essence within God. Nonetheless, if God, who is in a masculine position, is alone, His love cannot manifest. Human beings are the partners who enable God to manifest His love. (60-076, 1972.08.06)

12 God created human beings in order to realize love. However, God cannot realize love by Himself; He can do it only with partners. Without a partner, love is not to be found. Therefore, in order for God to attain the most precious thing, He needs a partner. Accordingly, God seeks partners in order to realize absolute love through them. Therefore, we can say that God exists for love. That is the reason love is so amazing. God exists for human beings, and human beings exist for God. That is why true love begins from the point where one lives for the sake of others. (143-310, 1986.03.21)

13 From what were human beings born? We began from God's love; we were born because of love. Love is the origin. Human beings inherited life, but life is not precious in and of itself. We treasure life because it arose from God's ideal of love. Therefore, love precedes life. That is, our life has its root in love. That is why we are meant to be born in love, grow up in love and find our partner of love. (143-310, 1986.03.21)

Creation for the purpose of joy and love

14 God is an absolute and unique being. But no matter how high He is, as long as He is alone, He can have no joy and no fun. Living alone can never be joyful or fun. Consider, for example, a legal scholar without parallel in the entire world, or a man who possesses the power and authority to control the world with his every word. Even in such positions, people are not happy if they are by themselves. They have nothing to feel joyful about. (039-224, 1971.01.15)

15 Why did God create heaven and earth? “I want a man like me and a woman like me, with substantial forms, so I can watch them running about. It is fun to watch them, and that is why I created them.” Do you like Him saying this? Or, “Watching the two run about is good, but more than that, I want to see them embrace each other and frolic together.” Which one do you prefer? After all is said and done, God wanted to see men and women loving each other. Do you think that God would rather see men and women competing against each other or loving each other? He wants to see them love each other. From the beginning, love was the original motivation behind the creation of the universe. Therefore, it is perfectly logical to conclude that God will show Himself to this created world as the original being of love. (086-082, 1976.03.07)

16 God is absolute and unique in Himself, so why did He create the universe? Even though He is the being of absolute love, life and ideal, He cannot fulfill any of these by Himself. No matter how great, God cannot realize His love and ideal by Himself. Hence, He created the universe to realize that love and ideal. Again, why did God create human beings? It was to experience joy and happiness. He cannot experience joy and happiness on His own. If He were alone, He would not find joy or happiness in anything. He created so that He could have a relationship with His object partners. (070-069, 1974.02.08)

17 Why did God create heaven and earth? Why did He create Adam and Eve? It was to experience joy. It was for Him to be happy. He wanted to enter into Adam and become the incorporeal Father, and to make Adam the corporeal father. Therefore, Adam had to become God with a substantial form. It was the same for Eve. Why does God need a substantial form? God needs it because without a form He cannot directly govern the substantial world that He created. That is why, as God, He needs to assume a substantial, form. Thus, God created Adam and Eve to become His substantial forms. So Adam and Eve must become one in body with God. (19-159, 1968.01.01)

18 Just because the things of creation were made by the Absolute Being, they are not automatically endowed with absolute value. They only attain that by becoming God's inseparable partners. As human beings, we must recover the absolute position of His partners by centering on the Absolute Being. The fact that the one and only Absolute Being created us human beings as His partners means that our position too should be absolute. The Absolute Being cannot experience joy alone. This is because joy cannot be realized on one's own. (038-152, 1971.01.03)

19 In order to create human beings, God first created all other things along the way. From the first day through the fifth day of creation, when God looked at all the things He had created, He felt boundless excitement, hope and immeasurable joy. Then He created Adam and Eve, our first ancestors, as the lords of all creation. He blessed them with a heart of infinite joy, saying, “Be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth” (Gen. 1:28) These words of blessing, to be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth, mean that God created human beings for the purpose of joy. Furthermore, God blessed human beings to fulfill this purpose. (5-090, 1959.01.03)

CHAPTER 4 The God Who Needs Liberation

Section 1. God's Sorrow and the Providence of Restoration

1 God, who created all things, poured His utmost love into the creation of human beings. God invested his sincere heart into the creation of human beings, more than anything else He had created in the preceding five days, so that they would manifest His glory and His hope. He wanted human beings to grow up and fulfill His hope, to sing with joy and establish a peaceful family with whom He could dwell. Prior to the Fall, God was delighted with the original Adam and Eve, His creations. God watched them grow with a heart of sincere anticipation, waiting for the time when His great hope would come to glorious fruition in them. As He surveyed His creation, God thought, “I am pleased with all the things I made for you, Adam and Eve. Yet, I am even more pleased to look at you, who will govern all these things.” Such were the heart and mind of their Heavenly Parent for Adam and Eve. They were indeed the central beings. God placed His cherished hope in them, for they were to be the foundation of His happiness. Moreover, they were essential to the whole created world. They should never have experienced the Fall; they should not have known even one day of sorrow. Yet one day Adam and Eve made a tragic mistake and the word “Fall” appeared. At that moment the word “sorrow” also came to exist, and a dark force invaded the world for which God had had such hope. This is truly something to lament and regret. (154-253, 1964.10.03)

2 Since it was our first ancestors who committed the Fall, it was natural that they would suffer sorrow. But the Fall brought sorrow even to God, who had created them with such great hope. That is, when human beings fell into sorrow, they wronged God and brought Him to a miserable and painful state. This should never have happened on the earth; it should never have occurred under the sun. Nevertheless, the mistake of our first ancestors led to the unimaginable incident that we call the Fall. (154-254, 1964.10.03)

Why is God the God of sorrow?

3 God's ideal of creation should have brought Him boundless joy and delight in the garden of love, based on His love and truth. But God's joy was frustrated as a result of the Fall of Adam and Eve, and He has had to toil in history for thousands of years. You need to experience the sorrowful heart of God, who suffers to this day even as He fights Satan in order to fulfill the ideal of creation, which Adam and Eve did not fulfill due to the Fall. You must also experience God's intense grief at the loss of Adam and Eve, when they betrayed Him and fell. Unless you first understand what God's love is all about and experience how much God loves human beings, you can never fathom the depth of His sorrow upon losing them. (003-168, 1957.10.25)

4 God was supposed to have emerged as a glorious being. Our joy should have been God's joy, and God's joy should have been our joy; this would have been the ideal of creation. But due to the Fall that ideal was lost, and God ended up miserable. The God who appears to us is not the God of glory. He is incomparably more wretched and deserving of pity than anyone in all of history. God originally should have been the God of glory, but since the day of the Fall His situation has been the opposite. God should have been able to entrust everything to human beings, and we should have been able to entrust everything to God; but this sort of open relationship with God became impossible. How deeply painful it is for parents if their children see them in deep misery. Accordingly, God does not want to reveal His painful heart and situation to His children. Though He is toiling endlessly, He does not want to show His sad face. (11-281, 1962.01.03)

5 To this day, we human beings have thought of God as the God of glory, not the God of suffering or pain. Many religions in history have taught this, and believers have led their lives of faith with this idea. But the truth is that God is in the situation where He has lost His family, His children, His property, His nation and His world. Our Father is in that kind of situation. We have thought that once we meet our Father, all our pain and suffering will be dissolved and all our wishes fulfilled. However, when I came to meet our Heavenly Parent after seeking Him for so long, I discovered that everything He owns—His children, His property, even the whole world—was in the hands of the enemy. (030-011, 1970.03.14)

6 You must become filial sons and daughters who can attend the God who has suffered in sorrow throughout history, who can comfort Him, and offer Him joy and glory. Even now, God laments in disappointment. Hence, you must reach the point where you can welcome the day of God's victory; and not only you but all humankind with you. To comfort God's heart of bitter sorrow, you must attend Him, beyond your own people and beyond the world, to advance with the full authority of the cosmos. You need to devote yourselves to becoming children of God whom God wants to bless rather than judge. You have to become a group of people who can endure. No matter what cruel situations or adverse circumstances you suffer, you should be able to say, “Even if no one else remains, I will survive.” Only with this kind of heart can you connect your life to God. If you have this kind of relationship with God, even though strong winds and mighty storms may come against you, nothing can destroy that bond of heart, which holds the power of life. (16-256, 1966.06.19)

7 God is not seated upon a throne, receiving praise and glory. Instead, God is weeping bitterly every day as He works to save fallen human beings. This has long been God's situation, even as He guides humankind God is in such pain as He tries to save people from the pit of misery into which they have fallen, to awaken them, shouting, “Come! Come to Me!” But even though God does all that, He cannot force people to come to Him. We must fulfill our portion of responsibility. God cannot do our part for us, though He may want to. How difficult this is for God! (20-222, 1968.06.09)

8 God is the Lord of sorrow and the Lord of pain. Our Father, whom we are supposed to attend, wants to experience joy and glory, yet He has never had the chance. God is in bitter sorrow due to the Fall, yet He carries still more grief and suffering. We think that heaven is a garden of happiness, but in reality that is not the case. I have thoroughly searched in every corner, looking for anything to rejoice over, but I could not find anything. God is supposed to have the power and authority to rule the world; He is supposed to experience glory and honor, and to sing in happiness. Yet the elements of joy, glory and goodness are all gone, while all that remains are sorrow and pain. This is God's lament. In heaven and on earth, there is no greater suffering than this. (007-118, 1959.07.26)

9 God is the most sorrowful being. He is more sorrowful than a son who weeps in front of his dying mother. He has been treated more unjustly than a person wrongfully sentenced to death as a traitor to his people when they should have recognized him as a champion of goodness. God is the Lord who holds the title as the most wronged and most miserable. Religions should be teaching this to the point that people's hearts are deeply moved. God does not wear a robe of glory; His robe is soaked in blood and sweat. That robe was made by the bloody hands of sons and daughters who desperately tried to hold onto Him but could not. God's feet are scarred from walking the thorny paths of His children's struggles throughout history. When individuals sought Him and fell down on the way, God took the blows on their behalf. He chose one people even as other peoples fell away, but when even that people betrayed Him, He allowed Himself to be struck on their behalf in order to continue the fight. The God in whom we have believed is, in fact, a being deserving of sympathy. (151-126, 1962.10.28)

The God who deserves sympathy

10 God exists in a state of confinement. He has been living with a painful heart as the Parent who long ago lost His only children, His son and daughter Adam and Eve. He is the God of bitter sorrow. He has been endlessly shedding tears, beating His chest. God, while following after human beings, has experienced countless deaths. He has endured this over and over again, even to this day. There are so many nails driven into His heart that they could cover the whole world. Nowhere in the world can there be found a sorrow as profound as His. (297-017, 1998.11.15)

11 God is the Lord of the world, but He has never been able to wield His authority as the Lord. He is the subject partner of love, but He has never been able say to us, “I love you.” Even though He is in the position to own everything, He cannot say to us, “You are mine,” and hold us as He wishes. Among the countless human beings on earth, God never had His own son or daughter, not even one brave soldier who could totally defeat Satan. Even though there are countless Christians on earth who believe in Jesus, among them God has not had even one commander- in-chief who could order a total offensive against Satan. God tried to relate to the earth by having Jesus give orders to the angelic world, but this did not succeed. God also gave a vision for the ideal of the bride to the people on earth and searched everywhere for her. Yet He never met even one such woman whom He could proudly present before Satan. Indeed, as a group of people, we ought to feel deeply repentant before God. (7-068, 1959.07.12)

12 God is a being who truly deserves sympathy. God is in the difficult position of having to embrace sinful human beings and call them His beloved ones. God comes to the world where His sinful children are living, only to be mistreated—torn, wounded and cornered. He weeps bitterly; His heart is scarred and broken in pieces. His heart was in pain and desperation each time He raised up a people only to have them fall away. (8-283, 1960.02.07)

13 God carries bitter sorrow in His heart because of the Fall. The twists and turns in God's story of relating with human beings are beyond description. He is out of breath, running after people and trying to save them. How miserable God is! Even a beggar on earth is better off. For God, this is what it has come to. If God could simply sit on a throne and order everyone in heaven and on earth to do as He wished, why then has He struggled to deal with sinful humankind for the past six thousand years? Truly, God is the being most deserving of sympathy. He is the Lord of all, and our Father, yet He could never assume those roles. Nothing could be more frustrating. Although God created everything, He could not do as He pleased with His creation. He could never call us His sons and daughters even though we were created as such. God has led His providence for six thousand years in order to break down these walls. (10-134, 1960.09.18)

14 Of the beings in this world, none is more deserving of sympathy than God. God has labored harder than anyone; He is the King of hard work. From the moment God created human beings He had to relate with them, even if He did not want to face them. God could not avoid this destiny, because He is their Father. Throughout history God has struggled to relate with human beings. For six thousand years He has been unable to separate from them, even for one second. At the same time, God has to relate to people who believe that He destined them to a life of screaming and moaning. How miserable does that make God? (43-334, 1971.05.02)

15 God has been the God of sorrow throughout history, in every age. God was sorrowful in the past and remains so in the present. Those who do not recognize and respond to our grieving God will face judgment. If you truly love God, how can you ask Him to take away your pain and sorrow? God has taken responsibility for all the pain and sorrow throughout history, and we should feel indebted and grateful that He has done so. Yet without recognizing this fact, we bring our own pain and sadness to God. For this, we are bound to face judgment. God will recognize the person who weeps alone over his or her own sorrow, unable to pray to God about such personal pain, knowing that God has already endured so much pain and sorrow through all the ages of history. We must be the sons and daughters who can say, “God, Your pain is so great compared to mine! I will manage my own situation. Please let me do Your work, even if I have to face death.” If you constantly ask God for blessings, you will not be able to raise your head before God. You should recognize how sinful that attitude is. The more deeply you go into the realm of God's love, which is full of grace, the more you will realize that you are a sinner who cannot lift your head in front of God. (7-281, 1959.09.27)

16 God, the eternal being, sheds tears for us. His tears are to eliminate the way of death, the way of pain and the way of sorrow. God sheds tears to eliminate all of these paths. We need to understand that God is shedding blood, sweat and tears for us to eliminate the ways of sorrow, pain and death. Then, it is only right that we take His Will upon our shoulders so that He does not have to keep going to the point of death on our behalf. Thus far, God has placed our ancestors in positions where they had to shed tears, shed their blood and sweat, and confront death. It was not because God had no love that He did this; He did so in order to ultimately eliminate such situations. Yet God Himself experienced much greater suffering than they. How painful it is for a father and mother to see the death of their beloved child! How their heart is grieved to watch their child suffer! It is more painful than if they were to die themselves. With such a painful heart, God has been suffering throughout human history. We may have to endure pain, but it is just within our one generation; then we are done with our responsibility. But God had to endure that kind of indescribable pain every time our ancestors went the way of death, the way of tears, the way of blood and sweat, and the way of sorrow and suffering. (14-244, 1965.01.01)

The Parent whose position was usurped

17 God's original position was as our True Parent. Yet something occurred that had nothing to do with the original ideal of creation, and His position as the True Parent was usurped. Although God is the Creator, He was unable to intervene and prevent this from happening. Nevertheless, He has been taking responsibility to deal with it ever since. (240-164, 1992.12.13)

18 God's enemy deprived Him of His throne. Unable to become the God of glory, He was left to preside over a history of sorrow Although God most certainly is the King of His kingdom and King of the universe, He has been treated with contempt, as if He were dead. Meanwhile, all His beloved children were violated and the planet Earth became the enemy's playground. (105-199, 1979.10.21)

19 As a result of the Fall, God became the Parent who lost His children. Is there any father or mother who delights in his or her own glory while their children are in prison? It is the same for God; it fills Him with endless pain. Further, God created everything in the universe for human beings, but as a result of the Fall, God had to hand his children over to Satan's authority. From the moment He lost His beloved object partners, God, the Lord of true love, became infinitely lonely. Moreover, God could not exercise His authority as the Lord of all things, not even once. Even fallen people can boast, but God has never had the chance to demonstrate His full authority and stature as the Creator. Even though He is the Lord of all living things, God could not assume His majesty in front of them, not even once. (343-197, 2001.01.29)

20 What was lost as a result of the Fall? First, the ideal world of true love was lost. Second, the ideal family of true love was lost; in particular, the husband and wife of true love were lost. Third, their sons and daughters of true love, the first grandchildren of God, were lost. These are God's three kinds of sorrow. (349-013, 2001.07.13)

21 God's era, in which He hoped to complete His Will, disappeared without a trace because of the Fall. The Fall brought fundamental destruction to the place where He had created all things in hope. Everything that He had planned, the realm of His ideal object partners of eternal love, was violated and destroyed at the root. How sorrowful God must have been when Adam and Eve committed the Fall and disappeared from His presence. They were to have been God's ideal partners, embodying God's pure original love. How bitter God's grief must have been over losing them. (127-019, 1983.05.01)

22 Christians say that God is the glorious judge who consigns people to hell or to the kingdom of heaven. Yet in fact God is the most miserable being in the world. When the Fall turned the brilliance of heaven and earth into the darkness of hell, God went through the most unimaginable and bitter pain. It was as though God Himself plummeted into hell. Yet when He opened His eyes, came back to consciousness and regained His composure, He became intent on recovering His children who had died. (232-114, 1992.07.03)

23 God and human beings should be together for eternity. Can we imagine God's pain and indignation when the first human beings separated from Him? Can we comprehend His bitterness and sorrow? They should have grown to maturity while building a foundation of love for God that they would not have exchanged even for the entire universe. This would have established a single axis, so that vertical and horizontal could meet on a level plane. Had the first human beings done this, they would have become the standard of love for all existing beings and for all things of creation in heaven and on earth. Then, any being that connected to their love would have been able to reach that standard. (149-240, 1986.11.23)

24 God wants His partners of love to be better than Himself. His beloved partners are none other than us, human beings. Nonetheless, we lost that privileged value and instead came to struggle throughout our lives. How miserable God must feel when He looks at us! He thinks, “They were meant to be My direct children, inheriting My love, My life and My lineage. But now they are struggling as victims who moan and lament in pain and wander in despair until the end of their lives.” How miserable God must feel, looking down at this. He is such a sorrowful God. (211-209, 1990.12.30)

25 When you are comforted by someone who has more reason to be upset than you, you can find some consolation in that. However, God has no one to comfort Him, because He has more grievances than anyone in the world. God is the alpha and the omega. A knot of bitterness remains in the depths of His heart. How can He resolve it? This has been God's deep, inner anguish. Under these circumstances God has carried out the providence of restoration to this day. The spirit world transcends time and space; hence, even the sorrow of six thousand years ago can persist forever throughout the realms formed by the ages of history. If you have ever experienced the joy of devoting yourself as a true offering, you will never forget that experience for the rest of your life. With the passage of time, more and more people will recognize and respect you for your offering. The breadth and depth of your offering will increase, and you will be ever more deeply connected with the infinite Origin. When you have such mystical experiences, you will recognize that God's sorrow has not been merely momentary, but has continued up to the present day. (29-294, 1970.03.12)

26 We should not thoughtlessly insist on our own desires, putting ourselves first. How can we simply assert our own views if we understand even a little about the heart of God? God is immersed in bitter sorrow as He labors behind the scenes of history to lead the providence of restoration, trying to find His lost children who can express their true selves. Day and night, we have to live to build the ideal family. If only we can build the ideal family that God has awaited for six thousand years, that is precisely where the original peaceful world will begin. The ideal family is the starting point of the kingdom of heaven on earth. It is from that point that God's bitter sorrow will begin to dissolve. (356-302, 2001.10.21)

God's unchanging Will

27 God is the Absolute Being. Therefore, He must accomplish what He has purposed, and He must bring His Will to pass. In order to rectify the situation that arose after the Fall, God must put Adam and Eve into a repair shop, remake them into people who can receive God's original love, and place them in the ideal positions they had prior to the Fall. Then, having restored them as the Parents, God must connect all His children to them. Because God is in the situation where He must do all this, He had to begin the providence of salvation. (114-014, 1981.05.14)

28 God's Will cannot change. Although there are countless people in the world, there is only one way to advance toward the accomplishment of God's Will. There is only one way because God is absolute. There cannot be two ways. You cannot just go this way and that as you please. God's way is one straight line. (71-271, 1974.05.05)

29 The absolute God must have His own view of history, and His view of history is revealed in His providence. As He pursues the course of His providence, there are some people who follow the providence and others who do not. In short, there are two kinds of people: those who lead a life of faith and those who do not. The Will of God is seen in His striving to bring all the cultural spheres, east, west, north and south, into one world. His ideal is definitely one. God's Will, and His purpose in having us pursue it, is not to lead us on the path to destruction but to guide us on the way to liberation and peace. Therefore, He must be directing human history toward the final destination of peace, the world of unity. (173-079, 1988.02.07)

30 What if you and I loved each other based on God's love and in alignment with God's Will? How beautiful it would be! It is our cherished hope to constitute such a family, such a clan, people and nation. What if we belonged to such groups, where we were welcomed, where we could breathe, and where we could interact, giving and receiving with the heart of subject partners? Would it not be exciting? Suppose you, in the position of a subject partner, could expand yourself to the infinite world, shrink yourself to the minutest of worlds, and bring these two worlds together in harmony? Suppose by doing that, you could make God's heart beat with excitement—would that not be marvelous? If you were like that, God would follow you wherever you go. If you were to hide out somewhere, God would be in trouble. At such a height of awareness, unity becomes possible. (51-083, 1971.11.01)

31 Even if the external providence is completed, unless we also complete the internal providence that goes along with it, the whole purpose cannot be fulfilled- This is the viewpoint of the Principle. Then, which is more important: the internal or the external? Between the two, the internal is more important. This is because the internal issues are for God, while the external issues are for human beings. From this point of view, we cannot help but regard God's Will as of paramount importance. God's Will is to raise up one person who is internally united with Him, and through that person to form an internally united family, through that family an internally united tribe, and through that tribe an internally united people and nation. This is God's plan. (52-226, 1972.01.01)

32 Salvation is the process of changing the sinful world into a sinless world. We need to understand that this is what salvation means; it is restoration. Originally, God's Will was not salvation. Therefore, we have to return to God's original Will. The purpose of the Messiah's coming is to fulfill God's Will. Then what is God's Will for the Messiah? It is to save humankind from Satan, the devil, and then eventually to cast him out. Satan is on this earth today, ready to accuse you whenever you commit sin. He must be expelled. Satan has violated and devastated humankind. God intends to save all people by eliminating him from the planet Earth forever. (70-314, 1974.03.10)

33 If anything is important to God, surely it is to fulfill the Will. And to fulfill the Will, nothing is more important than fulfilling God's ideal of creation. But God cannot fulfill the Will and the ideal of creation by Himself. The fulfillment of the Will is not only up to Him; its success or failure depends ultimately on His counterparts. These counterparts were Adam and Eve. Before God created them, He made all things of creation. After He created Adam and Eve He made them the center of the creation. God desired that these central beings become the fruits of victory. However, whether those human beings would fulfill this could not be determined by God, but only by each person. (65-169, 1972.11.19)

34 Since human beings were born from fallen, that is, false, parents, they cannot relate directly with God, no matter how great their effort. That is to say, they have no base upon which to build an internal relationship with the Creator of heaven and earth. However, we human beings have a bond with God, who created us not to fall but to attain perfection according to the standard of the Principle of Creation. Based on this bond, God had us fulfill our responsibility again through a second course, the providence of restoration. Its purpose is to raise us up to the position we had prior to the Fall. As a result of the Fall, human beings had plummeted into a realm devoid of the Principle. In other words, we fell into a world outside of the Principle where God, even though He wanted to, could not intervene. (42-276, 1971.03.27)

35 Human beings are trapped in a pit of bitter sorrow that has nothing to do with God. It stands to reason that they cannot escape from it unless they make God their subject partner and the driving force of their life. God knows that originally, according to the Principle of Creation, He and human beings should be joined in a parent-child relationship. Therefore He tries to bring them back to the position of His children. But it is not an easy task. Compared to the process of creation, the course of restoration is far more difficult. God has had to walk a path of tribulation many times more difficult. God has been working through history to provide a ladder for human beings, who fell into the realm devoid of the Principle, and pull them up. (42-277, 1971.03.27)

36 After the Fall of Adam's family, God started His providence centered on Abel. Because the parents made a mistake, God began the providence with the children. The purpose of His providence is to fulfill the Will. What, then, is the purpose of the Will? It is to complete the ideal of creation, the purpose of creation. Completing the purpose of creation means to realize the ideal of unity in love. This ideal of unity in love was not realized in Adam's family. This is what we call the Fall. Thus, the Fall was not only the Fall of the Will but also the Fall of heart. In order to restore, that is, to recreate this, God called Abel and began His work. Abel's will was not to have remained separate from God's Will; they were to have become the same. But was Abel's viewpoint the same as God's? Of course, Abel's position as an individual was different from that of God, who deals with the Will in its entirety. Nevertheless, as he proceeded for the Will, he should have moved in the same direction as God with respect to the Will. In this regard, Abel was supposed to unite with Cain to complete the providence of salvation. The challenge for him was to become one with Cain. (109-013, 1980.10.26)

37 To this day, fallen human beings have not attained eternal value. Their value is nothing that the world can approve of, either on earth or in heaven. Therefore, fallen human beings still have the mission to restore the value of their life on the individual level, and going beyond that to the world level, and finally to recover eternal life in heaven. In this way God established His providential Will, and to this day He has been seeking to fulfill His purpose to have all human beings realize their life to the fullest value. Where is the conclusion in this? It will not end with you as an individual, or even with the world. We must recover life of such value that God can rejoice in it through the unity of heaven and earth, life in which the entire world can rejoice and in which every individual can rejoice. Only then will God's providence of salvation finally come to an end and Satan's world come to an end, and relative concepts of morality would come to an end. All fallen human beings have the responsibility to pioneer this course, to recover the original value of life. (2-009, 1957.01.06)

38 The struggle to eliminate the original sin started in Adam's family. Providential history began with the separation of Cain and Abel in Adam's family. God loved Abel and had him offer a sacrifice. In making that offering, he had to be absolutely obedient to God's Word. If Satan came against him, he would have to overcome Satan's opposition as well. Abel prevailed over all the challenges in his environment and properly made his offering with the utmost devotion in accordance with God's desire. In doing so, Abel surpassed fallen Adam by being absolutely obedient to God's word. Next, Abel was supposed to become a substantial being that would have nothing to do with Satan for eternity and be permanently one with God. Then he would have attained the position to receive God's love totally. He would have been liberated from the evil sovereignty and would have entered the sovereignty of goodness. (53-041, 1972.02.06)

39 When will the day come when a special human being emerges who will substantially manifest as the Lord and realize God's Will? Unlike any other created being in heaven and on earth, the Lord will fully manifest anew on a higher plane all of God's hidden internal character. It has been God's objective to welcome this one astonishing and exciting day. Having determined it, God has toiled endlessly throughout history to accomplish it through the providence of restoration. (1-228, 1956.11.11)

40 In order to save human beings, God has suffered through a history of unceasing indemnity, filled with incredible hardships. Although God has the power to reclaim human beings by destroying the devil, He will not do that. It is God's original Will to raise human beings in true love and have them build families, tribes, peoples, nations and the world with love. Therefore He has to keep forever the heart that He had prior to the Fall. Even though, through their fall, Adam and Eve left God's heart, God cannot force them to return to Him. It is because they already had formed a love relationship with the devil. A love relationship, once engaged, determines ownership; it determines the right of inheritance. It determines the right to live together, the right to share the same position, and the right to participate in each other's work. With respect to all these rights, Adam and Eve came totally under Satan's ownership. (211-300, 1991.01.01)

41 As a consequence of the Fall, God was unable to have a day of joy, the ancestors of humankind were unable to have a day of joy, and all things that God created for Himself and for human beings were unable to have a day of joy. It is only natural that if their owners are sad and suffering, those who follow them cannot experience joy either. Because God and human beings fell into a place of sorrow, the things of creation could not avoid the same fate. In the Bible, Romans 8 says that the whole creation is groaning. Not only is the creation groaning; all people are also groaning. God, who is the subject partner of humankind and of the creation, is also groaning. Human history started not in joy but in sorrow. God's providence is His effort to restore this sorrowful history to a joyful history. That is salvation. (58-207, 1972.06.11)

The providence of restoration leading toward the original world

42 God has been toiling throughout the providence for the sole purpose of realizing His Will. What is the final destination of God's Will? It is where God and human beings live together, sharing joy and sorrow. When we fulfill God's long-cherished hope and Will, and when we come to have a relationship with Him such that He and we can eternally share each other's joys and sorrows, then God will become our true Father and we will become His true children. When this happens, we will desire what God desires and we will live in harmony with all creation, offering glory to God and forever singing hymns in praise of His wisdom, benevolence and grace. God, humankind and all creation are waiting for the coming of this day. The Will is the ideal of God's creation, and it is also the everlasting ideal for fallen human beings. Hence, once the Will is fulfilled, God and human beings will become one body. Then, we will rejoice when God rejoices, and God will rejoice when we rejoice. God's desire will be our desire and our desire will be God's desire—the two will be one, in harmony. We will give God the joy of the eternal ideal, and we too will experience eternal joy. (2-315, 1957.07.07)

43 God should have become the owner of this world. If human beings had established a relationship of love with God and formed the family of His children, they would have gone on to form a tribe, a nation and world. Needless to say, that would have been the world governed by God and the nation governed by God, families governed by God and individuals governed by God. However, due to the Fall, everything, from the individual to the family, the tribe, the people, the nation and the world, is opposing God. This is the fallen world that has resulted from fallen history. If God were to leave the world as it is, He would not be able to establish the world of eternal love that He desires, in accordance with the ideal of creation. Furthermore, for God to restore His authority as the Absolute Being, He must consummate the ideal of creation that He originally intended. He keeps this standard, even as He has been rectifying the world's evils and leading this world toward the ideal world He originally planned. This is God's providence for the fallen world. (63-152, 1972.10.14)

44 To this day, God's hope is that human beings will connect with all things of creation and with Him. That is why God has been working to raise up fallen people from the servant's position to the adopted child's position, the direct child's position and the parent's position. This is in order to sever our painful connection with the Fall and enable all things, human beings, and God to form relationships of total oneness. Then God's joy becomes our joy, and our joy becomes the joy of all things. God wants to proudly present His sons and daughters to the natural world and even to the world of angels, and to live for their sake. We human beings are not in the original state in which God created us to live. Yet we still have an emotional nature, experiencing emotions such as sadness and joy. In particular, we can feel joy and sorrow by relating with our counterparts. It is human nature to be proud of our joy. When our counterpart's joy becomes our own, we want to show it off. The same is true of God. God feels delight when He sees us filled with joy, and we human beings are happy when we experience God rejoicing with us over our joy. That is the joy of giving and receiving. (11-280, 1962.01.03)

45 It is not possible to return to the original world by human effort alone. Therefore God is working to raise us up—this is the providence of restoration. The providence of restoration would be easy if we human beings cooperated, but up till now we have not cooperated with God's providence. Despite this situation, God managed to expand His providence from the individual to the family, tribe, people, nation and world. The internal and external difficulties God has encountered in the course of this are beyond description. From an external perspective nations and peoples may have suffered, but in front of God they cannot speak of it. This is even more so for individuals. Except for a handful of human beings, there has been no one, either on earth or among those who lived and then went to the spirit world, who can declare in front of God that they suffered in order to cooperate with Him. This is an undeniable fact. Given that people are like this, God Himself took responsibility to lead them. He personally took up the fight, and He labors hard to this day. (11-280, 1962.01.03)

46 For six thousand years God has been working hard for the sake of the multitudes of humankind. After six thousand years of toil, we hear that we are now in the Last Days. What, then, are the Last Days? In this world, there are people who live in the position of a true servant, people who live in the position of a true adopted child, and people who live in the position of a true child. Upon the foundation of the birth of a group of people who are in the position of true children, the True Parents will come. This is the concept of the Second Coming. That is why the Bible speaks of the day when the bride has made herself ready for Jesus. One Father and one Mother must appear on earth. The Marriage of the Lamb is the moment when we can finally start building on earth our lost original home. In order to build that home, we must have the Parents and we must have brothers and sisters. Upon this foundation we can propagate children, and from them will unfold the original tribe, people, nation and world. Then, finally, the existing evil world will be vanquished. This is how the providence of restoration progresses toward the world of goodness. (156-037, 1965.12.07)

47 Due to the Fall, human beings fell into the realm devoid of the Principle. Angels are God's servants; in comparison to them, how far did human beings plummet? They plummeted into a realm lower than that of angels, lower than servants. They were to be princes and princesses, and as such, the lords of the angels, but they fell to a position lower than servants. Hence they have to climb back up. From the position of a servant of servants, they must climb to the positions of a servant, an adopted child, a stepchild, and a child of direct lineage; and then through the mother to reach the position of the father. This is restoration. The providence of salvation is to bring human beings back to the standard of health they enjoyed before they became sick. That is why the providence of salvation is the providence of restoration. The providence of restoration is not carried out at random. (222-145, 1991.11.03)

48 In order to recover the world defiled by the Fall, God has been leading the providence of salvation by building relationships with human beings through the angels that remained on His side. God has been pursuing the providence of salvation in order to once again relate to human beings, even though they betrayed the glorious God through the Fall and fell to such a miserable state, lower than the things of creation. Human beings are under Satan's dominion and subject to his accusation, yet God has worked to bridge the gap between Himself and us so that He might govern us. He has continued this work through the Old Testament Age and the New Testament Age, even to this day. (1-282, 1956.12.16)

49 Why has God endured a path of suffering through the many millennia of the providence of restoration? Is it simply because He has a kind heart? Why has God continued His providence of salvation for the tens of thousands of years of human history without becoming exhausted? It is not because He is all-knowing and almighty. It is because He is on the path of love, seeking His beloved sons and daughters. Love has the great power to triumph over all the tribulations in its way. With love, we feel as if a thousand years are but one day. (109-282, 1980.11.02)

50 God's true love is such that He gives and forgets what He has given, and gives and forgets again. Because of this, God has been able to continue the providence of salvation until now. Centering on true love, God continues to lead history by repeatedly investing and forgetting how much He invested. Even in the world today, God keeps on giving. He continues investing, through individuals and through organizations. God created the universe based on His essential love. In recovering the universe after it fell, God has to unceasingly maintain that original standard of investment in order to realize the ideal of true love. Otherwise, He cannot regain His authority as the Absolute Being. (210-230, 1990.12.23)

51 Even though people commit sin, God does not just say, “Hey, you! Why did you sin?” He knows well the situation of people who sin. He cares for them more than for Himself. To sorrowful people He comes with a heart of sorrow; to suffering people He comes with a heart of suffering; and to people feeling wronged He comes with a heart of indignation. Yet, how much have you empathized with the heart and circumstances of God? He comes into our life empathizing with our situation. Moreover, He comes to us with a heart that affirms, “Although you betrayed me, I am still your Father.” Because He has such a heart, He has been reaching out to us for six thousand years. (9-232, 1960.05.29)

52 Children inherit their parents' flesh and blood. That is why when their mother sheds tears, they should be able to connect with her and weep with her. When their father sheds tears in sorrow, they should naturally be able to sympathize with him. And yet, how difficult it has been for God to raise and nurture His children to feel that way toward Him! No matter how much God weeps, human beings ignore His tears. No matter how sorrowful He is, human beings do not feel His sorrow. This is because human beings were born from the flesh and blood of Satan. Satan rejoices to see God in sorrow and exults when he sees His ruin. With human beings linked to such a being, God has to go through so much trouble to guide them and teach them the direction of the path they must forge! God could not have led the providence if He did not have a heart to live for the sake of others and a heart that is caring and compassionate, whether for a single individual or for a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand or more. (42-257, 1971.03.21)

53 A dismal history of pain and sorrow began on the earth from the day of the human Fall. This was not God's original plan or purpose. God did not want a world like this, nor did we want to be born in such a world. Therefore, God wants to eradicate this miserable, sorrowful and painful history. He is taking steps to deal with this fallen world, with the purpose of restoring the world that He originally hoped to create, a world of peace, happiness, freedom and goodness. This is the way of restoration and the way of salvation. (14-047, 1964.05.03)

Why God established religions

54 God has been seeking to recover His relationship with fallen human beings and the lost ideal garden. Through the course of restoration, He is striving to rebuild the garden where once, prior to the Fall, He joyfully related to Adam and Eve. From that state of joy, He wants to create and build a world through which He can realize His ideal. This is the history of the providence of salvation that God has been leading, and this is the history of restoration we must pass through. Therefore, as you go through the course of restoration, surrender yourself to the ways of Heaven. Examine yourself objectively from that standpoint and then reflect seriously about where you stand and the situations in which you struggle. God established religions out of His love. It is through religions that God has been trying to teach human beings their proper position and give them direction. Throughout history God has been looking for us, seeking, through the path of religion and based on our faith, to bring us back to Him. (4-069, 1958.03.09)

55 If Adam and Eve had not eaten the fruit of good and evil and had not fallen, they would have married within God's realm, inherited His love, life and lineage, and become His children. Such people would have had no need for the Savior. They would have had no need for spiritual nurturing. As God's children in the original world of creation, they would naturally have connected to God, totally one with Him in mind and body. The problem arises from the struggle between mind and body. If your mind and body are not united on earth, you will have to make them one in the spirit world even if it takes millions of years. They need to be united based on true love. Without true love it is impossible to make oneness. True Parents are the representatives of true love, who teach the way of true love. The teaching that they bring can uproot all the sins of history. When we practice it, we can finally achieve liberation. (232-089, 1992.07.03)

56 Religion does not exist to fulfill people's desires; it exists to fulfill the Will of God. Once we have fulfilled God's Will, then it becomes possible to fulfill our human desires. This is the Principle of Creation, the purpose for which God created human beings. The fallen world has not seen an age when God's Will was fulfilled; hence it has not seen an age when human desires were fulfilled. Therefore, to this day human history has been focused toward the ideal world, the original world of a higher dimension of life. The goal of this pursuit is not to fulfill any one purpose based on human desire; it is to fulfill God's Will. From that point, pursuits for the fulfillment of human desire can begin. This is God's providential view of history. God's Will is, first of all, the perfection of Adam and Eve. Then it is the perfection of the spirit world, the perfection of the angelic world. God is the center, and it is He who has been leading the providence of salvation toward the fulfillment of His Will. (115-237, 1981.11.22)

57 The fulfillment of God's Will is not what the people of this world are pursuing. God's Will has nothing to do with material conditions. It has nothing to do with worldly knowledge or power. What is the condition that God is seeking? It is the standard of perfection based on love. The world's various religions, although from different historical backgrounds and different ages, have been pursuing this purpose. That is why every religion teaches a concept of benevolence or love. What kind of love meets the standard for perfection? The love of God for Adam is not only for Adam, and the love of God for Eve is not only for Eve. The love of God for Adam and Eve is to flow through the family, tribe, people and nation, and through all their future descendants. From one ideal husband and wife centered on this love, the ideal family of love, the ideal tribe, people, nation and world of love can arise. (115-238, 1981.11.22)

58 Religions were established by God; among them are the mainstream religions of His mainstream people. To advance the providence to realize God's ideal, God wants to connect a mainstream religion with a central people and a mainstream thought. God's plan is to set up a mainstream religion as the foundation for the realization of His ideal, and then on that foundation to establish a people and a nation through which to bring His ideal into reality. Without these two, a mainstream religion and a central people, there is no way for the human race to inherit God's ideal of creation. Therefore, in history, God sets up a people who can inherit His ideal, based on the religion that is closest to Him. That religion connects individuals, families, tribes, peoples and nations to the world that can inherit God's ideal. This is the way of God's Will and the path by which humankind is to inherit God's ideal. (172-263, 1988.01.24)

59 The path of religion is to enable people to start living centered on God's Will. Therefore, religions exist for people to follow the way of God's Will. Because God's Will is absolute, it is eternally one. It cannot be two. Therefore, the person who lives centered on God's absolute Will is living the life of the kingdom of heaven on the individual level. A family that lives that way is living the life of the kingdom of heaven on the family level, together with God. If all people throughout the world live in unity, focusing on God's Will for the world—beyond the levels of one people or one nation—the world will become the kingdom of heaven on earth. (182-050, 1988.10.14)

The providential person who moves heavenly fortune

60 The way of the Will is one. The Will moves in one direction, not two. There is only one place where the Will can settle. Look at the people living on earth today: they each take a direction in life based on their own will as they determine it to be. Everyone chooses differently and goes in a different direction. Following their own volition, they pursue various avenues to success and places to settle. (186-054, 1989.01.29)

61 God's original Will at the time of creation was for God and human beings to live in harmony, in one love and centered on the one Will. All of heaven and earth were to live in the joyous reality of His love, and with His love at the center of their lives, they were to live as one. Yet due to the Fall of Adam and Eve, God's love remained as only His love. That is, God's love was supposed to create relationships with and among human beings, but being unable to forge those relationships, it departed from them and from the entire world of creation. Hence, the ideal that God envisioned in the beginning remains unfulfilled. The love that He hoped for remains unrealized as well. Nevertheless, God will fulfill the Will by all means. That is the reason God has led the providence for six thousand years and continues leading it to this day. (1-088, 1956.06.06)

62 We are now in the process of fulfilling God's hope, which is our ultimate purpose. As you move forward in that process, you should be able to fulfill the promises you make in faith. If you fulfill them and even go beyond that limit, then you will begin paying back the Lord, whose flesh and blood we received in these Last Days. In this context, what should you do? You should be able to stand boldly for Jesus, in front of him and behind him, at his right side and at his left side, above him and below him, acting on his behalf. You should stand boldly for the Holy Spirit, in front of her and behind her, at her right side and at her left side, above her and below her, acting on her behalf. You should stand boldly even for God, in front of Him and behind Him, at His right side and at His left side, above Him and below Him, acting on His behalf. We must bring God's Will for human beings in heaven and on earth to a conclusion, for only in this way can Jesus' will be fulfilled and Gods Will be fulfilled. It may seem as though we are insignificant individuals, but in submitting to God's Will our value is tremendous. (1-156, 1956.07.08)

63 You are the ones who have to carry out the final remaining adventurous mission on the level of the universe at the conclusion of six thousand years of history. Since this is a universe-level mission, in order to meet it you must also be on the level of the universe. You must be courageous and filled with inner determination to carry out this mission. If your life of faith falls short of what is needed for God's Will, what will happen? Up to the present, God's history progressed when individuals took a bold course that transcended ordinary reality. Hence, you too must go through the gate of an adventurous universe- level course. Only then can you uphold the flag of final victory, sing “Hosanna” in front of God, and stand in the position of His brides before the entire universe. If you are to become God's princes and princesses, you must overcome all conditions without stumbling, and weather any circumstances, even persecution or ridicule. You must set a standard of boldness that transcends ordinary reality. (1-274, 1956.12.02)

64 You must attend the Lord in the manner that gives Him the maximum freedom, the greatest glory and the greatest joy. In order to do this, you must make every effort to free the Lord from all the conditions throughout history that permit Satan to accuse Him. If you become this kind of person, then when you call “Father!” God will come to you. He will come even before you call Him. This is the standard you need to set in your daily life. God is looking for one person whose character reflects His universal love, a person whose character has such value that he can stand in the position of Jesus and stand in the position to represent history. Jesus wants him to then gather people of like nature and recover the nation, the world and all of heaven and earth. This is God's desire. (2-055, 1957.02.17)

65 The reason God continues to lead providential history, even repeating it, is to inspire people to respond to His providence. Only in this way can He stand in front of humankind as the God of the ideal. Yet to human beings who live in the realm of Satan, God appears as the fearful God of judgment. To attend God as the God of the ideal, we must be able to experience the grief that was caused Him by the human Fall. We must be able to establish a relationship in which we can abide with Him in His grief. Otherwise, God cannot appear to us as the God of the ideal and cannot appear to us as the Lord of the ideal of creation. On the way to attend the God of the ideal, our path requires that we fight the evil forces that constantly try to block us. This is the path of restoration through indemnity that is required of fallen human beings. (2-097, 1957.03.06)

The providence of salvation according to the Principle

66 We know that God's providence is the providence of restoration. What is the providence of restoration? It is taking actions to recover and reinstate what has been lost. In other words, it is the work of re-creating human beings through the Word. Because the human beings, whom God created, completely lost the Word, they need to be created again. We fallen people lost the Word by which we can align our mind and body and experience constant joy in our heart. Hence, we must find the Word, namely, the truth. The Word is also called the truth. The truth is the principle that governs any system. At the same time it is the root of Heaven's principles. That is why the world seeks for the truth to this day. However, the true Word in all its fullness has not yet appeared. Since there has been no true Word, there has been no one who could embody true life. Since no one has embodied true life, there has been no one who could embody true love. Since no one has embodied true love, the true cosmos, the true heaven and earth, have not emerged. (7-085, 1959.07.19)

67 God's providence of restoration is not guesswork. Since the providence of restoration is the work of re-creation, and it is the work of recovering what was lost, God must do it based on certain principles. God is carrying it out according to the principles of creation. Because God lost human beings as a result of the Fall, even though God created them, they are standing in the position as if God did not finish creating them. So God has to bring them back to the conditional position of having created them again. (48-086, 1971.09.05)

68 The providence of salvation is the providence of restoration. The providence of restoration is the providence of re-creation. How is the providence of re-creation carried out? During the creation, what did God create first? He created the world of angels first. Then He made all things. Then He created Adam and Eve. These were the three stages of His creation. History likewise has developed to this day through this three- stage principle. That is because all of history has been within the realm of the work of re-creation. In order to save fallen human beings, God has had to pursue a course based on the work of re-creation. (84-069, 1976.02.22)

69 Through the providence of salvation, God seeks to restore the form of the original ideal. Hence the providence of salvation is the providence of restoration. Then, by what sort of providence does God carry out the providence of restoration? It is by the providence of re-creation. For the providence of recreation, we must reinvest on God's behalf the same kind of love that He has invested repeatedly to form relationships of love with human beings. That is the only way we can become His ideal creations. For this reason the Bible says: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. This is the greatest and first commandment. And the second is, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matt 22:37) There is also a third commandment: You shall love all things of creation as you love your mother and father, your spouse and your children. These are the first, second and third commandments. Practice these, and you will achieve everything. You will enter the realm of God's ideal that combines vertical love with horizontal love. This leads to the actualization of that ideal. (180-185, 1988.08.22)

70 Even as Satan strives to subvert and destroy God's Will, God strives to advance the process of re-creation with each victory He wins over him. This cannot be done randomly. Paying indemnity cannot be done in a haphazard way. God has to go back to the point where the process of creation started. This is what you learn when you study the entire providence of salvation, namely that God has been conducting the providence of salvation by the providence of restoration through indemnity. Evaluating the whole of history, we find that first it is the providence of salvation, second it is the providence of restoration through indemnity, and third it is the providence of re-creation. Accordingly, we can say that the providence of salvation is the providence of restoration. It is the providence to bring human beings back to their original position. If a patient who is hospitalized and on the verge of death is revived, he says, “I am saved!” In the same way, salvation means to return to the original position or state. Furthermore, the providence of salvation is the providence of restoration through indemnity. You cannot go back to the original point without investing; you have to pay indemnity. (264-271, 1994.11.20)

71 God's providence of salvation is the providence of restoration, and the providence of restoration is carried out through indemnity. The providence of restoration cannot be done for free. Sins that were committed must necessarily be indemnified. Paying indemnity means to separate from Satan. When you commit sin, you fall into the realm of Satan's possession. When you pay indemnity you can separate yourself from Satan and return to your original position. How much sin have fallen people committed throughout the long course of history to this day? How can we indemnify all the sins committed by all evil people? Although most people do not know it, good people have been paying that indemnity by being sacrificed. It is the same for national sins. The sins that nations committed in the past are being paid for by the sacrifice of some of its good people. Unless they make sacrifices, no indemnity is paid. Looking further, this is the path along which humankind has developed, all the way up to the world level. In the process, numerous good people sacrificially offered themselves. They paid indemnity for all the sins committed by humankind so that the world could return to its proper state. (242-229, 1993.01.02)

72 Throughout human history, it was by paying indemnity that a separation was made between good and evil, a separation was made between happiness and sadness, and a separation was made between the way that brings blessings and the way that brings punishment. It is the same throughout the world. Therefore, God's providence of restoration must also proceed by indemnity. There are no exceptions. Indemnity became necessary as a result of the Fall. Those who live their lives without realizing that they are fallen people are living as though they are on the path of the Fall every day. Because of the Fall, God became the God of sorrow, even as He leads the course of the providence of restoration. And God became the God of pain. Yet sorrow and pain were not the end of it; He lost every precious thing that He cherished. To restore that which He lost, God must go the way of pain; to recover them He must again suffer in sorrow. This is what God must endure as He strives to reclaim what He has lost. (288-291, 1998.01.01)

73 The Fall caused God to lose what was most precious to Him. It is not the case that the Fall only affected human beings, with God having nothing to do with it. God and human beings are in a parent-child relationship. That relationship is in order to realize the ideal of love—the ideal of oneness between them based on love. However, because human beings separated from God, that ideal of unity in love cannot be found. That is what God lost, and that is what He needs to recover. However, just following the course of indemnity is not enough to recover the ideal of oneness in love that God is seeking. To recover this ideal, there needs to be a program for re-creation. Human beings need to be remade based on a blueprint, just as a blueprint is needed for manufacturing a product in a factory. (288-292, 1998.01.01)

The role and mission of the Messiah

74 God's purpose in calling the Israelites to the land of Canaan was to have them complete a victorious foundation as one people. Upon that foundation, they were to build a kingdom in Canaan under Heaven's sovereignty and prepare the foundation for the coming of the Messiah. The people of Israel were to attend the Messiah as the central person who would rule over their country. Then they were to defeat Satan's world and complete God's providence of restoration together with the Messiah. Although that was their mission, the people of Israel and their religious leaders did not know it. In those days, there were those among them who thought that when the Savior came, they would automatically become the nation that could rule the world. They did not grasp that they had to complete the history of restoration by first gaining victory on the level of a people and then on the level of the nation before they could achieve a victorious worldwide foundation. (13-181, 1964.03.15)

75 Unless individuals attain perfection, they cannot form families with a new and higher awareness. And without such new families, a new people and a new nation cannot emerge. Therefore the Unification Church has come forth with a focus on bringing about the perfection of individuals through True Parents. God longs to complete the restoration of the individual. It has taken six thousand years, until today, to substantiate one perfect man. God has been toiling with the goal to bring forth that one perfect man; this has been the whole purpose of His providence of restoration, transcending time. Then, by centering on the one perfect man, God's intention is to recover one woman and form the model for the perfection of the family. This is the messianic teaching. God desires to conclude the providence of restoration by setting up the bridegroom and the bride according to this messianic teaching. By doing so, God plans to lay the foundation for all of human life. The way of life and the teaching that the Messiah brings are the eternal standards that all human beings need to follow. (21-301, 1968.12.08)

76 Another formula in God's providence of restoration is that before sending the Messiah, He works to set up one central religion and one central nation. God called the Israelites and Judaism. God planned to send Jesus upon that foundation and then expand that realm of goodness by having all humankind unite with him. In this way He would restore the world and realize the ideal of the kingdom of heaven. If the Israelites and Judaism, which God had prepared over four thousand years, had received Jesus, united with him and upheld the one Will in a sacrificial way, then Jesus would have united the Arab world and Asia, connected them to the Western world, and spread the Will quickly to the ends of the earth. In that way, Jesus could have established the kingdom of heaven on earth under God's sovereignty. (88-209, 1976.09.18)

77 Adam possessed the seed of true love and true life. After God lost Adam, He had to recover the Son, a man having the new seed. This Son has to be a man having no condition for Satan to accuse. Just as God made Adam first at the time of creation, in the providence of restoration, which is the providence of re-creation, God has to first set up a Son who has nothing to do with the Fall. This is the root of the messianic teaching. The Messiah is the true man with the new seed of life. He guides people of the fallen lineage to deny their life and then engrafts his new seed onto them. Even though the Messiah is rooted in God, as the second Adam he must clean up what Adam did. This is the reason God cannot send the Messiah as a superman having God's almighty power. (277-204, 1996.04.16)

78 The Savior is God's representative who can dissolve the bitter sorrow in God's heart, the sorrow that was brought by the first human beings' failure to fulfill God's love in accordance with His Will. Because they never realized God's love, all people are in despair and filled with bitter sorrow. The Savior is the one who dissolves this bitter sorrow and brings God's love to fulfillment. He comes to help people attain this original love. The Savior does not come to feed those who are hungry physically. He comes to liberate God. A man is liberated when he has a wife of true love. When a man has a wife who loves him and remains with him eternally, there is no imprisonment. He is free. Does God, the original central being, enjoy that kind of freedom? He is a sorrowful God, who, while searching for love and investing His love, had to forget how much He invested, only to invest again. (209-096, 1990.11.27)

79 God, by all means, has to restore the ideal of true love and peace that He has held onto since the beginning. God's providence of salvation is the providence to restore that original state; in other words, it is the providence of restoration. For the providence of restoration, God set up religions and expanded the realm of goodness. The Messiah whom God sends is responsible to complete the providence of restoration. Therefore the Messiah must come as the True Parents and quickly recover everything, starting from the root. Jesus, who came as the Messiah, had the mission of the True Parents. He came with true love to give rebirth to all humankind and to restore them as true individuals and as true husbands and wives, so that they too could become true parents. Unfortunately he could not complete this mission due to the disbelief of those on earth, and he departed with the promise to return. He must come again as True Parents in order to restore completely God's ideal of creation. (279-208, 1996.08.20)

Section 2. The God of Re-Creation

1 Due to the Fall, God lost everything that He had created in six days, from the first to the sixth day. Because of human beings, He lost everything. To restore this, God has led providential history for six thousand years. Now this history is moving on to the seventh millennium. Christianity speaks of a kingdom that will last a thousand years, but that thousand years could be understood as one day. The thousand-year kingdom actually refers to the realm of resurrection on the world level. (20-330, 1968.07.14)

God's course in the providential history of restoration

2 You have to build a foundation in your daily life that connects your life in this world to your eternal life. Otherwise that connection will not be made. Adam and Eve should have fulfilled the full potential for their lives on a universal level, but they fell, and God has been toiling for six thousand years to restore this. That is why the history of the providence of restoration is called the history of God's toil. (2-010, 1957.01.06)

3 If human beings had reached perfection centered on God, their joy would have been God's joy and their glory would have been God's glory. But because they were unable to attain that state, instead of featuring joy and glory as God had hoped, they ended up living in sorrow. Having sinned, they fell far from the garden of the ideal. Ever since then, God has endeavored to restore fallen human beings. This has been the history of the providence of restoration. (3-103, 1957.10.06)

4 To this day, no one knew that human history was the history of the providence of restoration. Explaining the course of history by the concept of restoration is the Unification Church's great contribution to the study of history. God is the root of history; thus He took responsibility for it, led it and developed it. Along the way there were numerous individuals, families, tribes, peoples and nations who were responsible for the mission of restoration, and whose efforts made it possible for history to advance step by step. (22-181, 1969.02.02)

5 Looking at things from God's viewpoint, from the beginning of history to the present time God has not yet seen the day of total victory, the day when He could celebrate. Instead, God has been toiling for thousands of years to achieve His ideal of creation, from the day Adam and Eve fell, through the history of the providence of restoration. Still He has not yet reached the stage at which He can claim victory and glory. We have not yet reached that stage; we are still on the way. What God ultimately desires is true victory, when the truth has absolute authority and exercises its power. This power is not to be exercised only once, but should operate continuously throughout history—past, present and future. On the basis of God's victory, the truth should pervade everything. Nevertheless, God has not yet welcomed such a day. At certain points in the course of the providence of restoration, God attained a partial victory, only to have the next stage in the historical process end in failure. (58-129, 1972.05.22)

6 The history of the providence of restoration since Adam and Eve has been carried out through vertical relationships. People need to pray, “God! God! Please help us reach the standard of perfection.” They have to climb up through the positions of servant of servants, servant, adopted child, direct child and parent. They have to go back to the Old Testament Age before Jacob and become as servants of servants. Then they must climb up through the positions to become adopted children, and to become direct children. Only in this way can they finally meet the True Parents, the Messiah who with his bride stands in the position of the Parents of humankind. In this way the era when human beings were servants of servants, the era when they were servants, and the eras when they became adopted children, direct children and parents, can all be liberated. (65-192, 1972.11.19)

7 We are the people who must recover the kingdom of heaven, the garden of victory that people throughout history have been seeking with hope and faith. To do so, we ourselves must become individuals that God can be happy with and form families that God can be happy with. However, in order to form such families, we must restore ourselves as true brothers and sisters, true couples, and true parents. It is to restore all of these that God has been conducting His providence in history. The Old Testament Age was the age that symbolized hope, and the New Testament Age was the age that symbolized faith. But in the future, the age that symbolizes love will come. We call it the Completed Testament Age. This destiny is now unfolding, from the heavenly world to the earthly world. (5-111, 1959.01.04)

8 The ideal world of creation was to be built based on the one Will, but due to the Fall it was not fulfilled. Nevertheless, God has absolute authority. Even though the entire external world may change, God will never change. Even though He lost Adam and Eve and all things to the devil, Satan, since God is still God, the Absolute Being, He must bring Satan, who was originally an archangel, to voluntarily surrender. He has to establish His authority as the absolute God, but in a natural way that does not insist upon His authority. God is good. Therefore, He cannot strike the evil Satan first. In the realm of God, who is good and whose essence is love, there can be no cause or motive for striking first. God must live even for that enemy. God invests and invests Himself for all created things and lives for their sake. This is the dignity and absolute authority of God. Hence, even though the devil came into existence and no matter how much he opposes God, he can never cause God to compromise His dignity and authority. Since God continues living for others even in that position, His providence of salvation inevitably has taken thousands of years. Yet through this course He is bringing the devil ever closer to natural submission. (210-340, 1990.12.27)

9 Human history is the struggle between good and evil. God originally intended to govern true parents, true children, true families, true nations, a true world and a true universe according to the ideal of true love. However, Satan has been governing false parents, false children, false families, false nations, a false world and a false universe through false love. To restore this, human history has entailed repeated struggles between good and evil. That is to say, from individuals up to the global level, Satan has mimicked God's way of developing history through the Principle, imitating the principled world before the true one could emerge. He seized the initiative, with the pretense that his was the true world, and tried to destroy the world of the Principle. Hence, struggles between good and evil were inevitable. In leading the providence of re-creation, God takes an altruistic stance. He acts for the sake of others again and again and follows the strategy of being struck first and then taking back what is His. On the other hand, Satan takes a self-centered stance and strikes first; but later he must pay compensation for the damage. God's strategy is to be struck first and later to claim damages; Satan always strikes first but comes to ruin later. In this way, the good side advances by being struck first, receiving persecution and making sacrifices, while Satan's side does the opposite. (204-140, 1990.07.06)

The meaning of the Old Testament Age, New Testament Age and Completed Testament Age

10 When we look at the overall course of restoration in history, we see that God leads the providence through the three stages of formation, growth and completion. The course of the providence advances from the Old Testament Age, the era of servants, to the New Testament Age, the era of adopted children, to the Completed Testament Age, the era of true children, and finally to the era of true parents. (15-049, 1965.02.07)

11 Human history can be categorized into three ages: the Old Testament Age, the New Testament Age and the Completed Testament Age. The Old Testament Age was the age when children were redeemed by sacrificial offerings. It was a time to make preparations for the coming of God's Son. In the New Testament Age, Jesus became the offering. Based on this, we received the Parents. During that time, God made preparations for the coming of the bride and bridegroom, so that we could receive the Parents at the time of the Second Coming. The reason why I, bearing the name True Parent, have suffered for forty years as the central person of the Completed Testament Age is to welcome God on earth and achieve oneness between God and human beings. (227-094, 1992.02.10)

12 How is it that God has continued in bitter sorrow through the six thousand years of history? He had to lead human beings, who were positioned between God and Satan, to make certain conditions. These conditions are the mountains of offering sacrifices. Looking back at the six thousand years of providential history, in the Old Testament Age God led human beings to climb the mountain of offering by sacrificing the things of creation; and in the New Testament Age they climbed the mountain through the offering of Jesus Christ, who gave his actual body. What, then, are you to offer as a sacrifice in the Completed Testament Age? You faithful believers have to climb the mountain by offering yourselves as sacrifices. Thus it is that providential history has advanced overall based on the offering of sacrifices. In the Old Testament Age people climbed the mountain by offering the things of creation. In the New Testament Age, the offering of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, surmounted the mountain of sacrifice. Now, in the Completed Testament Age, you, representing the bridegroom and the bride, have to climb over the mountain of sacrifice by offering yourselves. You will not see the world of true peace, freedom and the ideal until you have climbed over the mountain of sacrifice. (2-111, 1957.03.10)

13 In the Old Testament Age, the things of creation were sacrificed as offerings to God; in the New Testament Age the offering was made by the sacrifice of His Son; and in the Completed Testament Age it is the Parents who sacrifice themselves. God's purpose in having human beings sacrifice material things and in denying their right of ownership was to restore them as His sons and daughters. His purpose in sacrificing His Son, Jesus, was to recover the Parents, and the purpose of the Parents carrying the cross is to attend God. Therefore the Old Testament Age is the age of righteousness by works, the New Testament Age is the age of righteousness by faith, and the Completed Testament Age is the age of righteousness by attendance. (232-320, 1992.07.10)

14 In order to attend God, the things of creation were sacrificed in the Old Testament Age, the Son was sacrificed in the New Testament Age, and the Parents were sacrificed in the Completed Testament Age. Then, what needs to be done from now on? You must stand in the position representing the Parents, Mother and Father. All the things of creation represent the Old Testament Age, and God's sons and daughters represent the New Testament Age, and the Parents represent the Completed Testament Age. (208-345, 1990.11.21)

15 On the path of restoration, we should go up from the era of servant of servants through the era of servants and the era of adopted children to the era of direct children. But how can we complete the course from the era of servant of servants to the era of servants to the era of adopted children, and be connected to the era of the direct lineage? Connecting to the era of the direct lineage cannot be done just like that. Following the Principle, we are required to go through the foundation of faith and the foundation of substance, which are necessary for the foundation to receive the Messiah. That is, we need to welcome the Messiah. The Messiah is the true Son of God, but the lineage of a true son is different from that of an adopted child. This is why we need the change of lineage. (55-192, 1972.05.09)

16 What is the fundamental issue as we go the path of restoration through indemnity? We have to fulfill the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Completed Testament. Fulfilling the Completed Testament means the whole world will come under God's sovereignty. This is what is required to fulfill the Completed Testament Age. The Old Testament Age was the era for restoring all things of creation, the New Testament Age was the era for restoring the people of God's kingdom, and the Completed Testament Age is the era for restoring God's sovereignty. This means we have to restore God's sovereignty over the world. Jesus' mission was to restore the people of the world. In other words, the mission of Christianity is to restore all the people of the world as one people, and the mission of the Lord of the Second Advent is to restore the world to the sovereignty of the One. (55-247, 1972.05.09)

The providence of restoration in the Old Testament Age

17 The Old Testament Age was the age of the servant. It was the era when people in the position of servant of servants were restored to the position of servant. Even Abraham was God's servant, not His son. God established the way of loyalty by setting up servants of servants and then servants. This was the way God advanced His providence in history, a providence that will ultimately bring together all the people in the world and bring the world stage, hitherto under the dominion of evil, to God's side. Even Jacob triumphed as God's servant rather than as God's son. God has been working this way, restoring people from the position of a servant of servants to that of a servant, and from the position of a servant to that of an adopted son. (15-325, 1965.12.07)

18 In the Old Testament Age, the providence of salvation for all humanity was to bring them to the position of God's servants. Yet restoring them to the position of servant required that the central figures of that age attain victory from the beginning to the end. That is why God had to make incredible sacrifices through four thousand years of history just to set up central figures such as Noah and Abraham. (15-050, 1965.02.07)

19 Human history began with religion, and throughout history religion has flowed together with humanity. It exists to show us the way of hope. From the day of the Fall, God took responsibility for having created human beings. He has been toiling throughout the course of history in order to save fallen people. As a result of the Fall, Satan took dominion over human beings and drove them into unimaginable situations. Yet because they were not supposed to love centered on Satan, God had to push people to positions so low that even Satan would lose his grip on them. That is why God began the providence of salvation for human beings by taking them to the position of servant of servants. This is the reason God conducted His providence through the religions that teach the way of a servant of servants. They teach that we must serve for the sake of humanity. As long as we are in the position of a servant of servants, we are not qualified to have anyone serve us. Therefore, we have no other way but to surrender and obey unconditionally. In the position of a servant of servants, your master is another servant, not a rightful master. (42-281, 1971.03.27)

20 Before the Old Testament Age, people were in the position of servant of servants. After the Old Testament Age began, they could reach the position of servant, and hence they could relate with the Lord. People in the position of servant of servants cannot, on their own, pioneer the way to become a servant, so God pioneered the way for them. God had to educate people who were far more evil than servants of servants. But since people cannot see the invisible God even if He stands right in front of them, He chose prophets to educate them. God chose prophets to represent Him on earth, and the people had to obey them in order to follow God's orders. (42-282, 1971.03.27)

21 What did the prophets have to teach the people? They had to teach the people that in order to follow God's desired providence they had to go against the stream of fallen history and establish the way of obedience to Him. God needed them to be more loyal to Him than they were to Satan. In short, God, through the prophets, had to teach them their duty as servants. After they completed that duty, they had to set up a system to form individuals, families, tribes and a people who would prepare the environment in relation to the providential Will. But they were unable to set up this environment while in the position of servants. God therefore led the providence by presenting them with the messianic ideal and promising that He would send them the Savior someday. This was the providence that centered on the Israelites. (42-282, 1971.03.27)

22 In the Old Testament Age, God found those whom He could use as His servants by having them make sacrificial offerings. Such was Old Testament history. Human beings had fallen to a position lower than the things of creation. Since the things of creation were closer to God than the people were, God worked through the things of creation. He ordered the Israelites to cut them in half, and separate what belonged to Him from what belonged to Satan. Why did God tell them to divide and sacrifice these things? It was not because of God or Satan; it was because of human beings, who were unable to fulfill their responsibility. The inheritance of Satan's lineage was the point at which they failed to fulfill their responsibility. (136-229, 1985.12.29)

23 Although human beings fell, they could not entirely leave God. In striving to come back to Him, they had to start from the position of servant of servants. What does “servant of servants'' mean? It means that they do not have their originally intended master. Thus fallen people have to be loyal to God and serve Him from the position of servant of servants. Satan was an archangel, God's servant. Human beings were pressed into the service of this servant. Therefore, in order to return to God they had to demonstrate their loyalty to God from the position of a servant of servants. (17-073, 1966.11.12)

24 The Old Testament states that God called Noah and Abraham to serve as His messengers and deliver His word to the people. The people of the world had fallen into darkness. In order to lift them up to a position where the Heavenly Father could relate with them as His children, He called Abraham and established the people known as the Israelites. Through this people, God pioneered the way for humankind to gradually return to Him. God toiled during that era of four thousand years, utilizing the angels to help achieve the standard in His work. That standard was the preparation for the coming of Jesus, who would establish the victorious foundation upon which the people of Israel could relate directly to the Father. It was also the foundation for Jesus to fulfill God's Will for Adam and Eve. (1-283, 1956.12.16)

The providence of restoration in the New Testament Age

25 Jesus Christ came to the earth to fulfill God's covenant with the Israelites, by having them uphold God's Will. He came to fulfill God's covenant with the people who at an earlier point in history had been in the position of servants, and restore them to the position of adopted children and then true children. One who has faithfully fulfilled his or her duty as a loyal servant can then stand in the position of adopted child. That is why in the providential history of restoration God tried to lead the Israelites to fulfill the duty of loyal servants, and upon that foundation He wanted to relate to them as His adopted children. (42-283, 1971.03.27)

26 How can one become an adopted child? Until the Son of God came to this earth, it was not possible. After the Son of God came to the earth, those who listened to the Son's commands and obeyed them could finally become adopted children. This is how God worked to connect the Old Testament Age to the New Testament Age. Believers in the Old Testament Age were servants who wished to receive the inheritance, which is a benefit of becoming adopted children. That is why they waited for the coming of the Messiah. In other words, their desire was to surmount the sorrowful circumstances of a servant and advance, through the Messiah, to the position of adopted children. In the absence of a son or daughter of direct lineage, an adopted child is entitled to receive the inheritance from his or her parents. God, in directing the servant-level Old Testament Age, therefore guided the people so that they would maintain their desire to transcend the servant's position and thus benefit from attending His Will. God desired them to do so. This is why the Israelites continued to long for the privilege of leaving behind the position of servant and receiving God's inheritance, and why they maintained the concept of being the chosen people. (42-283, 1971.03.27)

27 Jesus went one step higher and introduced God's love. In the Old Testament Age, Moses introduced only the God of authority, the God of power and the God of judgment, but he was not able to introduce the God of love. It was Jesus who introduced His love. Yet although he introduced the God of love and was himself a man of love, the people of his time did not accept him. (35-277, 1970.10.25)

28 Two thousand years ago, Jesus was sent to the earth. On the foundation of Judaism, he was to establish the realm of a world religion in his lifetime. He was to stand as the axis of a religious movement on God's side that would assimilate Rome, even though it might face Rome's opposition. That is, in Jesus, God sent the very Messiah that Judaism had been waiting for. Who was Jesus? He came as the Messiah of Judaism and died while pioneering the way of the Messiah of the world. Then, what happened to Judaism? Up to that time they had been attending God as the God of Judaism, but that was no longer sufficient. What did Jesus come to earth to teach? He did not come to teach about God according to the teachings of the Old Testament. He came to teach about the God of the New Testament Age. (105-214, 1979.10.26)

29 As a first step, God raised up Israel as a servant nation and raised a people who would serve. Then, when Jesus, the Son of God, came to them, had they believed in him and believed his words, then by their faith in him they would have been elevated from the position of servants to that of adopted children. Then, when Jesus had gone a step higher, his believers would have become his children. What do I mean when I talk about Jesus going a step higher? After the Fall on earth, there were no original ancestors. Therefore, if Jesus had been elevated to the ancestor's position, the people of Israel could have gone from the position of adopted children, been engrafted into him as God's children, and received their right of inheritance. However, this did not happen. That is why Romans Chapter 8 says, “But we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies,” and also, “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.'” This shows that they could only become adopted children. Christians today are adopted children, from a different lineage. (154-337, 1964.10.05)

30 What must you do to become adopted children? That is the question. Adopted children should be better than servants. Adopted children should be better than the servants on God's side and better than Satan, who is the king of the evil world. Satan was originally an archangel, a servant; to be an adopted child you have to be better than a servant. This is logical from the viewpoint of the Principle. Therefore, you must have the conviction that you will conquer Satan's world with your own hands; otherwise you cannot become adopted children. In order for God to move forward, today He needs one representative who can live for His sake more than anyone else has in history. Only when that person appears can we enter the era of adopted children. God has toiled throughout the long ages of history, through a vertical history age after age, to mobilize one people and create the realm of adopted children. We too need to emerge as adopted children in order to earn our right of inheritance from God, our Parent. (89-203, 1976.11.22)

31 If God had His own children, He would have no need to adopt children. It is because He has no children of His own that He needs adopted children. God's purpose in adopting children is eventually to restore true children. Therefore, an adopted child should have the heart that the inheritance he or she receives from God is not really theirs to keep; it is meant for God's direct sons and daughters. This is how adopted children should be. Adopted children should be willing to offer their lives for the sons and daughters who are to come. They should hope to see the birth of the sons and daughters of direct lineage whom God desires, although it may require sacrificing everything they have. They must always prepare such a heart to receive them. Unless they uphold this standard as adopted children, they will have no relationship with the direct children of God. (89-204, 1976.11.22)

The providence of restoration in the Completed Testament Age

32 What does the Completed Testament refer to? It refers to the fulfillment of God's covenant to establish the ideal of creation. Then what does the Completed Testament Age refer to? Adam and Eve were supposed to be God's children and complete the ideal of creation, but they were expelled from the Garden of Eden. The Completed Testament Age occurs when they return as the son and daughter on God's side, the ones who can finally represent God's kingship on the world level. On this foundation, we will be able to return to a world that has nothing to do with the Fall, where God will welcome individuals, families, tribes, peoples, nations and the world. (266-325, 1995.01.01)

33 What is the Completed Testament Age? The Completed Testament Age is the time when humankind advances toward God's ideal, which is based on families on earth that center on the Parents' love, a new world free from Satan's accusation. The Completed Testament Age, from the point of view of the Principle, is the realm of the Parents who have completed their portion of responsibility. A covenant entails responsibility. The Fall was the failure to fulfill the human portion of responsibility. The Old Testament refers to the old covenant, the New Testament refers to the new covenant, and the Completed Testament that we are now talking about refers to the time of completing the covenant. Completing the covenant means that all the people of the world complete their portion of responsibility. Because of the prior failure to fulfill human responsibility, our responsibilities as individuals, families, tribes, peoples, nations, the world and cosmos still remain before us. What is more, Satan's world came into existence. Since Satan came into existence because of our failure, we now need to fulfill our responsibility in order to eliminate him. (131-098, 1984.04.16)

34 Looking at God's providence, we can see that it consists of three stages. They are the Old Testament Age, the New Testament Age and the Completed Testament Age. Christians believe that everything was finished with the Old and New Testaments, but that is not the case. They do not know that the Completed Testament Age lies in front of them. Jesus must return to complete the Will; we call this the Completed Testament. We have the Old Testament and the New Testament; those covenants should be completed, should they not? The Lord of the Second Advent comes to this earth to complete the Will. (243-100, 1993.01.03)

35 The Completed Testament Age is the age of fulfillment. We should fulfill its covenant on the levels of the individual, family, tribe, people, nation and world. All these levels should be linked, centered on God's love, God's life and God's lineage. In this way, we will establish one lineage, one love and one life as the tradition. When this happens, Satan will have to leave. This is done by the work of engrafting, which will naturally remove our connection to Satan's lineage. (226-276, 1992.02.09)

36 In the Old Testament Age, the things of creation were sacrificed to pave the way for the Son and, in the New Testament Age, the Son offered himself as a sacrifice to pave the way for the Lord of the Second Advent, the True Parents. In the Completed Testament Age, True Parents sacrifice themselves in order to bring God's vertical love to the earth. In relation to humankind, God is the vertical Parent of true love. True Parents are the horizontal Parents, whose true love is aligned at a ninety-degree angle with the vertical Parent. On the foundation of this vertical and horizontal love, God's love and life will be able to burst forth for the first time. With the virtuous union of husband and wife with God, new blood ties between them will expand, based on the love of True Parents. In this way, the seed of life that began in God's love based on the standard of the original Principle will appear on earth for the first time in human history. (208-340, 1990.11.21)

37 The Old Testament Age was the age when the things of creation were sacrificed to find sons and daughters. In the New Testament Age, sons and daughters were martyred to pave the way for the coming of the Parents. When the Parents come to the earth, they will pave the way for God to come. The mission of the True Parents is to build a horizontal base for the vertical Father, encompassing all the peoples of the world. As the True Father's horizontal realm of heart unfolds, the Heavenly Father's vertical realm of heart will naturally unfold and settle there. When God reaches the point where He can embrace both vertical and horizontal love, for the first time He will make the transition to the age when He can go beyond the fallen- world, attain the core position, and reestablish His original, ideal authority. Then He will say, “Everything is accomplished.” (177-346, 1988.05.22)

38 We look at God as the Lord of our hope and the Lord of our faith. He is also the Lord of our love. God, the Lord of hope, faith and love, guided human history through the Old Testament Age, which represents hope, and the New Testament Age, which represents faith. Therefore, henceforth we need to go through the Completed Testament Age, which represents love. What is the one main element of the Completed Testament Age, that is, the age of the Lord of the Second Advent, which will remain unchanging forever? It is God's love. God's love is the central element overall; it is also the ideal element overall. For the sake of this love, people have walked their providential courses with hope and faith. Nevertheless, if you do not now walk the providential course of love, the foothold of unity on earth will crumble. God needs to set this up, centering on love. (1-090, 1956.06.06)

Section 3. We Must Liberate God

1 To complete the providence of restoration, we must restore all levels that were not completed. This includes the level Adam could not attain after the Fall and the level Jesus Christ was unable to reach. All of these we have to explain, indemnify and restore in the context of our present time. This is the mission of the Unification Church. I have to fulfill them myself, and I have to lead all the Unification Church members worldwide who follow me to do the same. This is my mission. (22-181, 1969.02.02)

The completion of the providence of restoration

2 We must awaken to an understanding of God's plan for the world—the environment and the ideal that He bestowed upon Adam and Eve prior to their Fall. We have to have a clear ideological standard and conviction so that we can overcome any harsh environment, no matter how much our enemy, the devil, may oppose and struggle against us. With this we should be strong enough to overcome all the evils that influence society and affect our daily life. If we are pulled down and fall away, it will be impossible to complete the providence of restoration. That is why each of us who is alive on earth and who knows the Will must resolve, “I am the one who will solve the problems of this world. I will do it, even if I am the only one left on earth.” Without having such conviction, we cannot stand as representatives of the world in front of God, the subject partner. Thinking of this, unless our basic attitude is that we are free from attachments to this world, unless we uphold the ideal that God had for Adam and Eve before the Fall, unless we have the mindset that we are the embodiments of the subject partner, and unless we are resolved to transcend this world of death, we will surely fail repeatedly on the way of the Will. (65-179, 1972.11.19)

3 Up to now there has never been a true family, a family whose lineage is based on God's true love. Our ancestors are fallen, and our ties with them are based on false love, false life and false lineage; that is the reason our mind and body struggle against each other. Adam and Eve became enemies, and killing occurred among their children. God's providence of salvation is the providence to restore all this. In order to complete the providence of salvation, we have to build the true family that was lost. That is, we have to be sons and daughters who unite our mind and body, and then we have to become couples that absolutely unite in true love and live with God eternally. (275-057, 1995.10.31)

4 When the Messiah comes again, what will be his purpose? It will be to shatter Satan's sovereignty, bring humankind back to God, expel Satan from this world, and work with Christianity to finish God's providence of salvation. These are the purposes that the Messiah comes to fulfill. In other words, the mission of the Messiah is to complete the providence of restoration for the sake of returning to the original world of God's Will. (74-177, 1974.12.09)

5 The Lord of the Second Advent comes to complete the foundation of God's providence of restoration that Jesus left. Specifically, he comes to perfect the ideal of True Parents, who are the origin of God's true love, true life and true lineage. Thus, he is the original seed for completing the ideal of creation. He comes upon the victorious foundation of the fundamental providence on God's side that had been completed up to the time of Jesus. This means that he comes directly upon the foundation of the victories that Jesus established in his life up through the time of his maturity as an individual. Then he fulfills the tasks that Jesus left to be accomplished later. These are to find his bride, to become the True Parents, and to save all of humankind. (277-211, 1996.04.16)

6 Jesus was to be the Parent of all human beings. He was sent by God to be the second Parent. For the victorious third Parent to appear, he must build on what Jesus accomplished as he strove to become the second Parent. This is logical. For Jesus to become the second Parent, he had to restore the position of Adam and Eve, who should have been the first Parents. Yet he was unable to restore the position of the first Parents, which would have been his victorious foundation to be the second Parent. Because Jesus died before he could lay this foundation, the providence was prolonged to a third attempt. Therefore, the returning Lord, who comes for this third attempt, must establish a victorious foundation by indemnifying, both spiritually and physically, the failure of Adam and Eve, the first Parents, and the work of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, who came in the position of the second Parents. If he does not do so, he cannot emerge on earth with his bride as the victorious True Parents. (55-153, 1972.05.07)

7 Adam failed, and Jesus died before he could conclude his mission as the second Adam. Hence, it is the Lord of the Second Advent, coming as the third Adam, who must complete their missions both spiritually and physically and eliminate Satan's domain and sovereignty. He must finish the providence of salvation and guide the world to return to God's original perfect ideal. One of the last tasks in God's providence of salvation is to connect the kingdom of heaven on earth and the kingdom of heaven in heaven, so that they may freely interact. (74-192, 1974.12.09)

8 The people who are in the spirit world and the people who live on earth come from different time periods. Nevertheless when they live according to True Parents' principled path, all the barriers between them will be broken down. They will establish structures based on the original standard, so that all may advance to the kingdom in heaven. When all people do this, True Parents' mission will be conclusively completed. Considering this, we should not forget that the era of completion, the era for the fulfillment of God's Will, is unfolding before our very eyes! (215-140, 1991.02.06)

God needs to be liberated

9 We must liberate God by centering on His love. God has been confined because of fallen love. It is as if He is in prison. He has never been set free. Although the God who created the universe is all-knowing and all-powerful, it has always been His intention to establish the ideal world based on love. Yet due to human beings, the universe was snatched away by Satan. As long as God does not separate Satan from this world, He cannot be liberated in heart. That is, as long as Satan is not cut off, the foundation to liberate God in heart has not come about in the universe; consequently God remains confined. Can His heart and mind be at rest when His beloved children are no better than dead? (138-262, 1986.01.24)

10 The Fall took away God's freedom. I am saying that the Fall put God in shackles and chains. The Fall also put the first ancestors of the human race in shackles, and the realm of angels as well. Not only that, countless religious people in history lived a fettered existence, struggling against these shackles. Such is the case for all of humankind. (079-026, 1975.06.16)

11 Unless all people are freed from the realm of lamentation, God our Parent cannot be free from the realm of lamentation. No parents can be comfortable while their beloved children live amid worries and fears. Since God is in such a situation, we should liberate Him. How can we liberate God? God is in a prison where He is unable to freely love all people. He must be released into the realm of freedom where He can freely love all of humankind. This is something that we are responsible to do. This problem was caused by the human Fall; therefore we ourselves must liberate God by becoming sons and daughters who are victorious over the Fall. (65-100, 1972.11.13)

12 Who can stop the fighting between God and Satan? Will that fight just come to an end? How can it, when almost no one has been a devoted son or daughter showing the way of filial piety to God, and no one could fulfill the duties of loyal patriots, saints, and divine sons and daughters of God's kingdom? God has had no place to stand, having lost the mainstream of love through which people would uphold God's kingdom. That is why God has been incarcerated and confined to this day. The spirit world includes hell, the middle realms and paradise. Jesus is in paradise, although he should be in the kingdom of heaven. How can there be such places as paradise, the middle realms and hell in the world that God created? It is because of the Fall that God suffers this anguish. (302-226, 1999.06.14)

13 Have you ever met the ideal grandfather or grandmother whom God has been searching for? Have you ever met a grandfather or grandmother whom God wanted to become like? Have you met that person, or not? Because of the Fall, you never could meet such a person. Have you met the ideal mother or father whom God has been searching for? No, you have not. Have you ever met the ideal wife or husband whom God has been searching for? No, you have not. Have you ever met the ideal son or daughter whom God has been searching for? No, you have not. God has not found such people, so how can His bitter sorrow ever be dissolved? What can sever the chains and bonds around God's heart? It can only be done by love, by God's love. Nothing except God's essential love can do it. (209-108, 1990.11.27)

14 We need to liberate God; it is our destiny. We should have faith that thirsts to liberate God and hope that hungers to liberate God. We should be burning with love. We should be the people whom God has sought for six thousand years, who can say, “It is on account of humankind that God is in shackles; not only that, it is my fault that God is in shackles. It is my fault that Satan is accusing God. It is my fault that Jesus died on the cross. It is my fault that the Holy Spirit has been going through a bloody history of struggle. Oh, God, please give me strength! I will bring You to the place of Sabbath and liberation. Father, I will also bring Jesus and the Holy Spirit to the place of liberation.” (007-162, 1959.08.30)

15 We call God “Father.” Do you think God would say, “Good; you are doing well,” when He sees people on earth, the good and the bad alike, dancing to Satan's tune and under his dominion? Because God has ties with us as a Parent with His children, He cannot help but toil and struggle to free our hearts from their prison-like confinement and to alleviate the sad and miserable conditions that afflict heaven and earth and everything under the sun. Therefore, we have to understand God's inner situation and liberate Him from that situation. (019-100, 1967.12.29)

The liberation of God is the completion of the providence of restoration

16 We have to liberate God. This involves the number four. After the Old, New, and Completed Testament Ages, there will come the era of liberation from sorrow. When the era of liberation from sorrow comes, we must offer everything. It does not mean that God will receive everything and keep it all for Himself. Rather, He will hand it over to Adam. After Adam receives it, he will give it back to God, and then God will hand it back to Adam—to True Parents. From that point they will begin to distribute the right of ownership back to us. When we receive it and take ownership, we will be able to enter the era of the kingdom of unity. These are necessary steps for realizing the kingdom of heaven on earth. (298-064, 1999.01.01)

17 We need to save the nation and the world. Yet in order to save the world, we first must liberate God. Only after God is liberated can the world be liberated. What I am saying is that we have to liberate God first and then liberate the world. For this, we Unification Church members have to reach out to the ends of the earth. The bonds of heart we establish with people should be like stakes of love sunk deep into the earth. In this way we will melt the world with love. (162-222, 1987.04.12)

18 When parents have lost a child, to whom can they appeal about their miserable situation? Unless that child comes back to life and assuages his or her parents' grief, the bitter sorrow embedded in their hearts cannot be dissolved. Nor can they remove the nail that pierced their heart. Who will take out that nail from God's bitter heart and liberate it with tears of love? Who can pull that nail out of the flesh and blood of God's heart and heal it with restored flesh? Who can give God release from His sorrow? It is we who must liberate God, and we should do so before tending to our own liberation. You should know that this is the path to the ultimate liberation that religious people are seeking. (187-273, 1989.02.11)

19 Christianity teaches the idea of the returning Christ. But when Jesus returns, what will he do? God has not been able to evade Satan's incessant demands. Only the Messiah can cut off Satan; only he can stop Satan from making demands on God and making claims for his unrighteous cause. That is why the Lord of the Second Advent has to come to earth and liberate God. The Lord of the Second Advent must carry out the central role, to stand for public righteousness and take responsibility for liberating God. (162-186, 1987.04.12)

20 "Tears are flowing from God's eyes; red blood is surging in His heart. Yet the blood vessels through which His blood should be flowing are clogged, and He is brought low as if at the point of death. I am resolved to liberate this suffering God by following the way of a filial son, patriot, world saint and divine son. And after I have done all that, and God comes and embraces me and says with tears, ""You have worked hard,” still I will have to say, “I have done nothing.” I turn away to shed my own tears only after I have dried God's tears. I am going such a way according to Heaven's law. It is the path that I must go as the True Father. (350-321, 2001.08.19)"

21 I am trying to liberate God by my own efforts. God is not free; He is in confinement. He is the Parent who has lost His sons and daughters. When a filial child dies, even if another child is ten times more devoted than the deceased child and does everything to ease his or her parents' hearts, still that child cannot liberate them to the point of restoring their hearts to their original state. I am like that second devoted child, trying nevertheless to liberate God who is in that situation. Meanwhile, Christians today mistakenly believe that God is omnipotent and therefore can do anything He pleases. (135-283, 1985.12.15)

22 Just to look at me, you may think that I am no different from other people. Yet, my way of thinking is different; I have a different philosophy. It is not my face or my body that makes me great, but my philosophy. My spirit is such that when I move, God Himself wants to move with me; He wants to follow me. This is my strength. God has been unable to fulfill the purpose of love. Yet I am asserting that with love I will liberate Him. Through my encounters with God, I have come to know His bitter sorrow over His unfulfilled purpose of love. I am trying to liberate God from this bitter sorrow. What I am saying is logical. I assert it based on systematic logic and scientific proof. (165-186, 1987.05.20)

23 In order to attain God's original ideal, what is the work that sons and daughters of God must do, for which God will praise them with a liberated heart? My teaching, and the teaching of the Unification Church, is that husbands and wives have to be sons and daughters born from God's lineage, and attend Him as their eternal Parent for a thousand, even ten thousand years. That is how we can become God's own, qualified to receive God's eternal praise. We have to reach that position if we are to heal the wounds that remain in God's heart as a result of the Fall. (232-139, 1992.07.03)

24 Some people pray, “O God of glory! Please give me blessings.” But God is not in that position. On the contrary, He is in misery, suffering in confinement. God is in such a sorrowful situation because He has no true sons and daughters, and only through their birth can He be liberated. That is why we must become true sons and daughters—in order to liberate God. Unless we do so, the way of Heaven cannot be properly secured and the ideal world cannot be established on earth. This has been the mission of the Unification Church during the course of its history. That mission is to correct what went wrong. (22-151, 1969.02.02)

25 God is in the process of restoration. He is not in His original state as God. Rather, He is a God of sorrows, a God who deserves to be consoled. He is not the God of joy, but of despair. For God to return to His original state, we must liberate Him. We cannot do it with money or power. Human capacity falls short. It is possible only by true love. (174-250, 1988.03.01)

26 Unification Church members are working as a unit for God's liberation. We are not talking about liberating the world. Liberating the world is rather easy. Liberating the world merely requires bringing peoples and nations together, but liberating God requires unity of heart. For this we need the Principle, which is a system of thought that can unite the realm of love. We have to untangle the entangled relationships in the spirit world and build bridges of heart on earth. It is a revolution more fearsome and difficult than any other. This is why I say that liberating humanity is easy compared to liberating God. It simply amazes me that I have become the standard-bearer for tackling a task unprecedented in this world. It is remarkable that I have been able to provide answers to the fundamental issues of providential history. (136-285, 1985.12.29)