Cheon Seong Gyeong Ⅱ - 248. Human beings are the center of creation
8 God created the beautiful and intricate natural world of creation to provide a safe environment for Adam and Eve and to serve as a foundation for their external biological development. Within this safe environment, human beings were to grow and develop. God's deepest interest, however, is that human beings develop their inner nature and loving character. Human beings are meant to resemble Gods true love and become fully spiritually mature through experiencing true love. Therefore, God created the power of love as the strongest among all inner, intangible forms of energy.( 279-206,19960820)
9 The Korean expression, "In all creation, human beings are the most precious," is indeed correct. Like us, God also needs an object partner of His love. That is why He created human beings. Because of His ideal of love, which places human beings at the center, God created all things in the universe to resemble us so that they could harmonize and be absorbed by us. When we look at the created world, we can see that everything exists in pairs. The mineral, plant, animal and human worlds all exist in pairs. In the mineral world, positive and negative ions interact. Among the elements there are none that combine randomly. If the reciprocal conditions do not match, even if God Himself commands it, they will not unite. Conversely, if the reciprocal conditions are right, even God cannot stop them from coming together. On a minute level, even in the mineral kingdom everything is designed to correspond to God's model of ideal love, combining and functioning within this model.( 201-146,19900330)
10 The fundamental order of the universe is based on the principle of existing for the sake of the other. The creations ideal, as well as the hope of human beings, is a world of true ideals, true love and true peace. Therefore, the principle of living for the sake of others is the starting point of Gods ideal, and for all happiness and love. When looking at the universe, we can see that nothing exists for its own sake. The animal world exists for the plant world; the mineral world and plant world exist for the animal world; and all of these together exist for human beings. Then for whom do human beings exist? We exist for God. Yet God too exists for all things, since He made them and is the source of their growth and development.( 135-234,19851211)
11 Human beings are the most advanced beings and contain within themselves all the building blocks of the mineral, plant and animal worlds. Thus human beings are the fruit, microcosm and model for everything in the existing world. Nevertheless, since humans are resultant beings, we can deduce that we came to exist because of a first causal being, and that we resemble that being. This means there must be an absolute subject being who created human beings as His object partners. If we are beings of character, then the subject being must also be a being of character. The field of philosophy defines this subject partner as the First Cause and Absolute Being. Religion refers to this absolute being as God.( 089-226,19761127)
12 All things in creation have dual purposes, an individual purpose and a higher purpose that serves the greater whole. Therefore the universe is like one massive organic entity with dual purposes. Within the universe, an entity that has completed its individual purpose by uniting with a subject or object partner cannot exist in isolation or in a fixed state. Every individual entity assumes either a subject or object position in relation to a partner and moves toward a higher direction and purpose. The universe is an entity that unites everything within itself as subject-object partners, with shared interests and a common purpose, and contains within itself an energy and universal power that serves the common purpose of the whole. Then what is the nature of the strongest, most perfect mutual relationship that creates eternal harmony and unity between a subject partner and an object partner? It is the relationship of giving and receiving grounded in love. The motivation of love, however, does not originate from human beings. The fundamental origin of love is the absolute, unchanging, causal subject being. In religion, this first causal being is called God.( 102-057,19781125)
13 When we examine the process of God's creation, we see that first God made all things of creation as the foundation upon which to create human beings. We were God's final masterpiece. Everything began from God. Culminating with the creation of human beings, God wanted to experience unity and equilibrium with human beings and all things of the natural world. Human beings' mission is to stand as mediators, connecting God, the spirit world and the physical world.( 501-280,20050723)
14 God made all things as a foundation upon which to create His sons and daughters. On this foundation everything is related and connected. This is true from the animal kingdom to the mineral kingdom. Plus and minus exist in the mineral world, just as stamen and pistil are found in the plant kingdom, and male and female in the animal kingdom. The greatest masterpiece of all, created by amalgamating all things of creation, is human beings, with internal nature and external form. All entities appear in symbol, image and substance so they can connect and relate with all of creation.( 144-237,19860425)
15 The world functions harmoniously through various systems and relationships. In this complicated and diverse world, we need an ideology that can teach us how to become true owners. This ideology should apply not only to human relationships but also to our relationship with all things of creation. What kind of person is a true owner? A true owner is one who considers the welfare of others before his or her own, practicing a life of service and devotion to others. He or she leads a life of true love. A true person is a true owner who loves, protects and nurtures all things with true love.( 567-258,20070704)
16 Things that are woven together through love become one. This is the phenomenon of connection. A single strand of my hair and I resemble each other. When you look at a strand of your hair, it looks like nothing special. You may think it has no relationship with you, but it does. All things of creation are like that strand of hair. Love functions in mysterious ways. All things of creation have their own capacity to respond to emotions, such as love. If you raise flowers in a caring environment with music, they will grow well. The buds will not fade before they bloom; they will blossom fully. If you let chickens listen to music, they too will grow well. Everything grows well when in harmony with its surroundings, but if there is discord, it wilts.( 185-035,19890101)
17 Why did God create the environment? He created the environment as a place for plants and all things of creation to grow so they could provide nutrition for human beings. The fish in the ocean, the plants in the fields and mountains, the grass and trees, all provide us with nutrition. For example, many things can be used as medicine when we are sick. There is nothing that is not useful. In fact, the most distasteful thing could prove to be highly medicinal. In some instances, the poison of venomous snakes is considered to be the best medicine.( 406-133,20030309) |