Chapter 2 Truth and Universal Law Eternal Truth The eternal word, truth, or divine wisdom pre-existed the creation of the universe. The Word is all-pervasive; it guided the creation of the universe and continues to function in the principles of nature. It operates through physical, moral and spiritual laws. For some, truth is to be grasped by reason. For others, its essence is the Word, which is manifested completely only in Christ, the perfect man. The Word gives the universe its purpose. This touches the mystery of why God created the universe. As the Absolute Being, omnipotent and omnipresent, what did God gain by creating something apart from Him? The texts in the last group suggest that the primary theme was love. Love, which arises only in relationship, is imprinted in the cosmos by the pervasive duality of plus and minus, male and female. God, too, to experience the joy of love, would create objects apart from Himself with which to have a relationship. Here lies the purpose of creation, the root Idea in the mind of God that lies behind the blueprint of creation. 1. In the Beginning Was the Word Religious scriptures
He has created the heavens and the earth with truth. Qur’an 16.3
When Heaven creates a thing, it gives each thing a principle of truth. Chu Hsi (Confucianism)
The sun and the moon are made punctual, the stars and the trees adore, and the sky He hath uplifted; and He hath set the measure. Qur’an 55.5-7
The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens; by his knowledge the deeps broke forth, and the clouds drop down the dew. Proverbs 3.19-20
By Truth is the earth sustained, and by the sun are the heavens; By Order the gods stand and Soma is set in the sky. Rig Veda 10.85.1 (Hinduism)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1.1-5
This, [in the beginning] was the only Lord of the universe. His Word was with Him. This Word was His second. He contemplated. He said, “I will deliver this Word so that she will produce and bring into being all this world.” Tandya Maha Brahmana 20.14.2 (Hinduism) He [Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, w hether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Colossians 1.15-17
The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. When he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a little child; I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always; rejoicing in his inhabited world, and delighting in the sons of men. Proverbs 8.22-31 In human practice, when a mortal king builds a palace, he builds it not with his own skill but with the skill of an architect. The architect moreover does not build it out of his head, but employs plans and diagrams to know how to arrange the chambers and the doors. Thus God consulted the Torah and created the world. Genesis Rabbah 1.1 (Judaism)
The Tao has its reality and its signs but is without action or form. You can hand it down but you cannot receive it; you can get it but you cannot see it. It is its own source, its own root. Before heaven and earth existed it was there, firm from ancient times. It gave spirituality to the spirits and to God; it gave birth to heaven and to earth. It exists beyond the highest point, and yet you cannot call it lofty; it exists beneath the limit of the six directions, and yet you cannot call it deep. It was born before heaven and earth, and yet you cannot say it has been there for long; it is earlier than the earliest time, and yet you cannot call it old. Chuang Tzu 6 (Taoism) Teachings of Sun Myung Moon With what was the world created? In the beginning, there was God’s Will. There was God’s idea. Along with it, there was God’s plan. God’s original Will was to create humans and the human world according to His plan. Therefore, human beings… no matter how fallen, should stand within the Will and plan of God. (76:92, February 1, 1975) Even the most advanced science cannot attain or surpass what God has made. The immense universe operates in an orderly way according to its laws. Since God created and governs the immense universe, whose comprehension is beyond the reach of human thought and science, we conclude that God is the absolute Scientist. (127:10, May 1, 1983) Even the greatest scientist or scholar in the world today possesses only miniscule knowledge. The deeper you go, the more you will find principled actions based on eternal laws. Considering this, we see that these laws could not have come about by chance. In every case, they uphold a certain content of the origin. Their direction is aligned with, and never contradictory to, the whole purpose of the universe. This lawful universe is infinitely vast, and at the same time so subtle. Hence, no one can deny that God, who created this universe, is the King of wisdom and the King of knowledge. (127:11, May 1, 1983) Before God created the heavens and the earth and human beings, there was a time when He functioned centering on Himself. Because we humans resemble God, we also have times when we think only about ourselves. Then God began to create all things in heaven and on earth; this means that He spread out the universe [as the environment for human beings], His object partners. In due course, He would create His object partners. All this investment by the invisible God was for the purpose of manifesting as the visible God. (69:81-82, October 20, 1973) God created human beings as the model, expanding His creations to the four directions, East, West, South and North. (173:212, February 18, 1988) Before creating human beings, God created the natural world by expressing partial reflections of the internal nature and external form He had conceived for human beings, who were yet to be created. Hence, a human being, as the manifest image of God, contains the sum total of the essences of all things. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Creation 3.2) Even before the creation, the first thing that God thought of was true parents, and the family where true parents, true couple, and true children are united as one. (339:212, December 26, 2000) |