The Four Position Foundation:
The Four Position Foundation of: God, Subject-Object Partners, and resultant Union, is the realization of God’s eternal purpose of creation. For human beings it is: God, husband-wife, and child. The Four Position Foundation is the fundamental foundation for goodness and the life of all beings. It provides all the forces for their existence and enables God to abide in them.

All created beings strive to fulfill the four position foundation in order to become a perfect object partner to man and God. The multiplication and activities of all living things take place through it.

The Purpose of Creation

God created all things to His delight. He created humans after His internal likeness and external form giving him sensibility and emotions to share in His joy. He then blessed them with three great blessings to, “Be fruitful, multiply and have dominion over all things.” (Gen.1:28)

The three great blessings are fulfilled when the whole creation, including humans, realize the four position foundation with God at the center. This is the Kingdom of Heaven where ultimate goodness is realized and God feels the greatest joy.

E-Lecture #5

The Principle of Creation (Cont’d)

Joy is produced when our object partner reflects and develops our internal nature and external form. The realization of the Kingdom of Heaven based on the four position foundation becomes the good object giving joy to God. God’s first blessing is the perfection of individual character which reflects the harmony of God’s dual characteristics. Such individuals become His temples, achieve oneness with Him and acquire divine nature.

God’s second blessing is for perfected husband and wife to form loving oneness and raise children of goodness. As a result, they become "True Parents" to their children. Adam and Eve should have become the True Parents of humankind.

God’s third blessing is for human beings to perfect their dominion of love over the natural world. When human beings and creation harmonize by fulfilling the four position foundation and becoming a perfect object partner giving joy to God, then the Kingdom of Heaven can be realized.

In the Kingdom of Heaven God’s direction will be conveyed to all His children through the True Parents of humankind guiding all to live as one.

The Process of the Creation

When the first day (period) of creation was completed, the Bible states: “There was evening and there was morning, one day.” (Gen.1:5). This shows that a created being must pass through a growing period symbolized by the night before it reaches perfection in the morning (an "evening and morning" do not determine one day -24 hours). All things were designed to reach completion only after passing through a set growing period, or process.

E-Lecture #6

The Principle of Creation (Cont’d)

The Growth Stages
God is the perfect Being of the number three. Every created being reaches perfection through three stages of growth, we call these: formation, growth and completion stages. There are many examples of threes in creation and in the Bible (e.g., 3 states of matter, 3 kingdoms of mineral, plant and animal; three archangels, the trinity, etc.).

The stages of growth are governed by the autonomy of God’s Principle where God Himself does not intervene. Thus, this constitutes the realm of indirect dominion of God. In the realm of indirect dominion, human beings are required to grow (spiritually) by fulfilling their own portion of responsibility before God.

Fulfilling the three great blessings: individual perfection, marriage and family, and lordship over creation (Gen.1:28), in the realm of the indirect dominion, is man’s responsibility. Adam and Eve were meant to attain these. God’s creatorship and lordship are inherited by human beings on fulfilling their portion of responsibility.

The realm of direct dominion is the realm of perfection. Here, human beings, after fulfilling the three great blessings, attain total resonance with God’s heart. He lives in total oneness with God’s heart sharing the fullness of love and beauty. In the realm of God’s direct dominion, people will intensely experience God’s heart. They will know His will and naturally fulfill it.

The universe under dominion of man will realize goodness and also share in the love and beauty of God.

E-Lecture #7

Spirit World and Physical World—Human Beings as the Center

The universe was created after the pattern of human beings, who is in the image of God’s dual characteristics. One aspect of the universe corresponds to man’s mind, and the other aspect, to man’s body. The universe therefore, consists of the incorporeal world (spirit world) and the corporeal world (physical world). (Gen.1:1). Both are real and substantial. The spirit world can be perceived with the five spiritual senses (these are comparable to the five physical senses).

The spirit world was created to be the subject partner to the physical world as object partner. The latter is like a shadow to the former. When we shed our physical bodies after our life in the physical world, we go to live eternally in the spirit world.

God created man to be: 1), ruler over both worlds. The physical body consists of the elements that constitute the physical world, and his spirit body constitutes the elements of the spirit world (Gen.2:7; Zech.12:1; 1Cor. 15:44).

2), Mediator and center of harmony of both worlds. A true person, one who has accomplished God’s purpose of creation, becomes the harmonizing center to integrate both worlds, and also act as mediator between God and both worlds.

3), Human beings encapsulate the essences of both worlds. Thus, he is a microcosm of the universe (Jn.1:2; 1Cor:15:27).

The vitality elements (good or evil) provided by one’s actions in the physical self determines whether one’s spirit self becomes good or evil.

Man’s spirit is able to communicate directly with God. The spirit self matches the physical self but is of spirit elements. God dwells in the center of man’s spirit mind (his heart). The spirit self grows based on two elements: "life elements" from God and good "vitality elements" from his conduct.

The spirit grows only when it abides in the flesh. The growth towards perfection takes place through three stages: form spirit, life spirit, and divine spirit stages.

In the human mind (spirit and physical mind), the conscience directs us toward that which we think is good. The original mind is that faculty which directs us towards absolute goodness.

E-Lecture #8

The Fall of Man: The Origin of Evil

Throughout human history and in all civilizations, evil has been a constant within man. In the Judeo-Christian heritage, the Bible conveys the story of the fall of the first human ancestors, Adam and Eve. Their fall caused the separation between God and man, and became the basis for evil to exist withim man himself.

The biblical story of the fall tells of a "serpent deceiving Eve into eating of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and in turn , she convinced Adam to do likewise."(Gen.3:6). As a result, God cursed both of them and drove them from the Garden of Eden. To date, man continues to suffer tragic loss, misery and endless conflicts.

Important questions relating to the fall are: Is the story a literal or symbolic one? Is there really a talking snake? Did man fall by eating a literal fruit? Is there such a thing as a Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (Tree of k/G&E), and/or, a Tree of Life? Why did God not intervene in the fall of Adam and Eve? What is the meaning, "to eat of the Tree?" (2:17). How did the fall affect man, and how will it be resolved?

The questions on the fall of man have not been satisfactorily answered throughout history, as a result, traditional Chritianity does not have a clear understanding of the true reality of the fall. However, a general inference is reached, in that, Adam and Eve disobeyed God's will: "not to eat of the Tree of K/G&E." The Unification Principle however, offers deep insights into the reality of the fall and provides clear answers to the above questions.

The Tree of Life and Tree of K/G&E
The Tree of Life is not a literal tree but a symbolic one. It is mentioned many places in the Bible, e.g., Proverbs 3:18 (wisdom and understanding);11:30 (fruit of the righteous); 13:12 (desire fulfilled);Rev.22:2 (for restoration of the nations); 22:14 (qualification to enter holy city). Christ is called the true olive tree (Rom.11:24), Jesus said he is "the vine" (Jn.15:5), and he came to give us life...." Conclusion: The Tree of Life means "Adam (and Eve) in perfection or perfected man," one who has attained "oneness with God". In the Garden of Eden it symbolized perfected Adam.

The Tree of K/G&E is only mentioned in the Genesis narrative. By comparison, it means the imperfect or immature stage of man (i.e., in his growing stage). In the Garden of Eden, it therefore meant Adam and Eve in their immature stage (e.g., their adolescent stage of growth).

In the context of there being two trees, "standing in the midst of the Garden," the Tree of Life symbolized Adam and the Tree of K/G&E symbolized Eve (as the woman, "her love" is meant to be a strong attraction for Adam, she is the one who is able to bear good or evil children). The fruit of the Tree of K/G&E is therefore the love of Eve.

The Serpent
The serpent in the Garden of Eden is clearly identified in the Bible as the fallen archangel, Lucifer. (Rev.12:9; Is.14:12; Exk.28). It, also, was not a literal snake. The symbol of a serpent is used because of its ability to camouflage itself, to strike with poison in its fangs, and has a split tongue, symbolizing deceitfulness, etc. The fallen archangel, Lucifer became Satan.

The Meaning of the Commandment given by God
To understand the commandment given by God, we must first understand that God created Adam and Eve to grow both spiritually and physically through the three stages of growth, previously mentioned: formation, growth and completion (perfection). God's greatest concern for Adam and Eve would therefore be their potential immature sexual interaction. This would devastate God's plan to create the ideal world (kingdom of Heaven) of true love and happiness for humanity and all things of creation. God's commandment to Adam was therefore to warn him of partaking of Eve's love prematurely, before they attained oneness with Him (i.e.. perfection). A premature sexual relationship would be unprincipled, and would ruin God's purpose of creation.

How does the evidence of the Bible show this to be true? There are several clear points:
1), the Bible draws special attention to their sexual purity and innocence (2:25).
2), They violated their sexual purity and tried to conceal it (3:7).
3),They felt much fear after their act when they realized that they were actually naked (exposure of their sexual organs).
4),"Their eyes were opened..." (3:7a); their literal eyes were already opened. This quote is actually referring to their "sexual awareness".
5),"To eat of the tree" is a metaphor used in the wisdom literature of the Bible to mean; "having sexual relationship with one's beloved." (see Song Sol.4:16; 5:1; 7:7; 8:4).
6), Prob.30:20 uses the expression: "to eat and wipe her mouth", to mean committing a sexual act.
7), In Gen.39:6-9, says: "Potiphar has no concern except about 'the food that he ate.'" This is made clear in vs.9 that this concern was about "his wife".
8), The Genesis narrative also uses the word "to know," rooted in the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, example, "Adam knew his wife..." (4:1) to mean: "Adam had sexual intercourse with his wife, Eve."

The above biblical verses are but a few of the many clear points that inform us that the fall of Adam and Eve was "premature and illicit sexual relationship." They acted contrary to God's direction and commandment for them to maintain sexual purity until maturity when He would bless them to consummate their relationship.

The Spiritual Fall and Physical Fall
The first stage of the fall took place between Eve and Lucifer, the archangel. The Principle calls this the spiritual fall, because it involved the spiritual union of the angel and Eve (who also has a spirit)(Gen.3:1,13). Eve's union with Lucifer caused her to receive much fear and other fallen elements from the angel. She in fact became stained with Satan's blood lineage. All these elements which constituted the "fallen nature" were conveyed to Adam in her sexual intercourse with him. This is called the physical fall.

More on the Fall:

The Nature Inherited from the Fall
The elements of the fall resulted in the creation of fallen nature in Adam and Eve, and was multiplied to all ensuing generation of humankind. The following are the results of fallen nature:
1. Failure to see from God's viewpoint. A self-centered viewpoint often predominates.
2. Leaving one's proper position. Lucifer left his position (as a servant angel) to interfere with the love relationship between God, Adam and Eve (God's children). The problems inherent in the infamous "love triangle" are emerging from the fallen nature.
3. Reversal of dominion. The angel who was supposed to be under the domiion of humans beings (God's son and daughter) came to have dominion over them instead. In this way, dominion was reversed. The nature of this particular problem plays itself out often in human history.
4. Multiplication of evil. Had Eve limited the fall to herself, without involving Adam, it would have been very easy for God to restore her. However, she multiplied her fallen state by seducing Adam, thus, he became also corrupted by fallen nature. The common tendency to involve others in criminal acts, and to multiply deviances are emerging from this aspect of fallen nature.

Why did God not Intervene in the Fall?
God is absolute in His standard. His Principle of Creation is also absolute. God's original desire is for Adam and Eve to fulfill their portion of responsibilty of realizing the three great blessings. God did not intervene in the fall because the responsibility was in the domain of man - to obey His commandment, and establish himself worthy of inheriting all that God had for him. Had God intervened, He would be violating His own Principle and disqualifying man from attaining perfection and becoming lord of creation, and ruler over the angelic world.

E-Lecture #1, 2, 3

E-lecture #9, 10

Homepage