Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: Episode 09
Pyeong Hwa Gyeong: A Selection of True Parents’ Speeches
Book 1: The Principles of True Peace
Speech 2: God’s Hope for Humanity, Pg 39-43
God’s view of good and evil
Our first step in becoming the true sons and daughters of God is to clearly comprehend God’s view of good and evil. What is goodness, and what is evil? We are not concerned with a man-made definition. God defines the eternal standard of good and evil. The sharp definition of good and evil existed at the time of His creation, long before evil ever came into being in the garden of Eden. God’s view of good and evil will never change. God is eternal, His law is eternal, and His definition is eternal and unchanging, despite the passage of time.
All of our human traits originate in God. We recognize that there is some human tendency for selfishness. This is natural because, at one time, God Himself was self-centered. This fact may surprise you, but you must understand that before God created man and the universe, He was completely alone, with no one to care for except Himself. However, the very instant that God initiated creation, His full concept of life emerged. God now lives for His counterpart, not for Himself.
What is creation? Creation means nothing more than the Creator, God, projecting Himself into a substantial form. He made Himself incarnate symbolically in the universe, and He made Himself incarnate directly in man. When the spirit takes form, this is creation. God invested Himself in the creation. God’s investment of energy is the creation.
The book of Genesis in the Bible makes creation sound simple and easy. Genesis gives us the impression that God’s creation is accomplished through the magic of His words. God simply says, “Let there be a world,” and presto! The world comes into being. Then He says, “Let there be man,” and poof! Adam and Eve come into being.
But now, it has been revealed that it was not this easy at all. God invested all of Himself in His creation. He did not reserve even one ounce of energy. Creation was His total labor, His total effort of giving all of Himself. When God put His entire heart and soul into the creation of His object, He was investing 100 percent of Himself. Only in this way could He create His second self, the visible God.
Therefore, after His creation, God no longer existed just for Himself. God began existing for His son and daughter, Adam and Eve. He exists to love; He exists to give. God is the totally unselfish existence. God cannot exist alone. “Love” and “ideal” only take on meaning when partners are in a complementary relationship. God initiated creation and made an investment He cannot lose. When God poured all of His love, life, and ideal into His second self, in a sense, He had to realize a profit. God knew that when He invested all He had one hundred percent, His object would mature and return to Him many, many times over the fruits of love, life, and His ideal. His object, humankind, is everything to God. The life of the object attracts God. God wants to go and dwell with His object, with humankind.
Let us look at an illustration. Suppose there is a great artist. If he works at random without feeling, he cannot create anything worthwhile. To create the masterpiece of his lifetime, the artist must put all of his heart and soul into his creation. That is the only way for him to come up with a great work of art. If an artist works in this way, his art becomes his life. God is the greatest of all artists. When He created His masterpieces, man and woman, He poured His heart into the process. He poured His soul into it. He poured all of His wisdom and all of His energy into it. God wished only to exist for Adam and Eve and all humankind. He saved not a single ounce of energy when He created them. In this way, humankind has become the life of God.
Goodness is total giving
God set the pattern for the universe. In the ideal existence, we live for others. The subject exists for the object, and the object exists for the subject. God’s definition of goodness is total giving, total service, and absolute unselfishness. We are to live our lives for others. You live for others, and others live for you. God lives for man, and man lives for God. The husband lives for his wife, and the wife lives for her husband. This is goodness. Here, unity, harmony, and prosperity abound.
Would you, as a man, be disturbed if I said that you were created for a woman? Perhaps some of you are proud of your masculinity and would not want to hear this. But this is the principle of God’s creation, and you must not be sorry to hear these words. Man lives his life for his partner, not for himself. Let us assume that one of you ladies is a beauty queen. No matter how beautiful you are, your beauty is not for your own gratification; it is for the delight of men. We are created to live for each other. This is the very reason for our existence; we exist for others, for an object, for a counterpart. This is the principle for all human relationships in our society. Parents exist for their children, and children exist for their parents. Then both parents and children, when they give unselfishly, become united in a circular motion.
This circling motion is the motion of unity. When you give and take, the give and take action creates a circular motion. Circular motion alone can be eternal because there, you will find no end. Therefore, all of God’s creation is based on a pattern of circular movement since He created for eternity. Even our faces are round, although there is one central vertical line. Our eyeballs are round, and there are upper and lower lips, which make up a round mouth. The sun is round, the moon, the earth, and all heavenly bodies are round. They are each rotating on their own axes and revolving around others. Everything in this universe has complementary give and take action between subject and object. Give and take action occurs between arteries and veins, and so the blood circulates through the body. Human sickness is the state where the balance of give and take action is broken, and normal circulating motion is stopped. Without having this give and take action between subject and object, without abiding by this principle, nothing endures for eternity. All existence that is based upon God’s principle is a good existence.
Then, what is evil? Evil is the emergence of selfishness into this world. God’s principle of unselfish giving was twisted into an ungodly principle of selfish taking. The ungodly position of desiring to be served rather than to serve, was thereby established. The origin of evil is Satan. He was in the position to serve God, but instead, he posed as another god and subjugated man for his own benefit. God is the absolute positive force in this universe. Then Satan posed as another positive force. Two positives naturally repel each other. Satan is a fallen archangel. He let his position as a faithful servant to God and man, and he challenged and competed with God. His motivation was selfishness. Out of his selfishness comes the origin of evil and sin.
What happened is this: Eve fell from her position as God’s first daughter, becoming the first victim of Satan and transforming herself into a creature of selfishness. Together Eve and Satan then successfully brought Adam into their selfish world. Through this tragic event, God was isolated by man in the garden of Eden. Human history started on the wrong footing, without God. The foundation for the evil history of man was laid, and Satan was established as the ruler of this world. Selfishness came into being at the beginning of history, and now our world is rampant with killing, lying, and stealing. All of these actions in the evil world are motivated by selfishness. Evil subjugated others for its own benefit, while good sacrifices itself for the benefit of others.
Since the fall of man, God’s work has been the restoration of original goodness. God wants to destroy the world of evil and recreate the world of goodness. We have lost our health. We have become sick people. The salvation of God is, therefore, the restoration of man to a healthy state once again.
God sowed the seed of goodness, but before He could gather its fruit, Satan invaded with his evil seed and harvested his evil fruit. For this reason, God must sow the seed of goodness once again. To do this job, God needs certain tools. The religions of the world have served as these tools for God.
Throughout history, good religions have taught God’s way of life, centered upon sacrificial love and duty. Thus Christianity may be considered the most advanced and progressive religion because it teaches this sacrificial love and duty in supreme form.
Jesus came as a savior, but his teaching was, “The Son of man came not to be served but to serve.” (Matt. 20:28) Jesus taught that the greatest love in this universe is to give one’s life for his enemy. The teaching of the Bible is contrary to the common rule of our worldly society. It is exactly the opposite of the way of this self-centered world. The Bible teaches complete giving and total sacrifice. “He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matt. 10:39) It seems almost foolish to think seriously about living this way in man’s evil society. However, once you know God’s principle, you discover that there is actually no wisdom greater than this.
FFWPU, USA