DIVINE PRINCIPLE (The Principle of Creation) Now, let us turn to the matter of the existence of a world of life after death and the question of the existence of mans spirit, according to the Principle of Creation. Does a substantial spirit for man actually exist? If so, what does it look like, and what is the spiritual world like in which the spirit lives? What is the relationship of the spiritual world to the physical world? And what are the principles that govern the spiritual world? Today, all around the world, much research is going on related to the spiritual world. But the vast and complicated realm of spiritual phenomena has never been presented in a systematic and clear way. As a result many people have been confused, and some even dismayed by these important questions and this has affected their religious life. In the Bible, there are references to the spiritual world, such as the three stages of heaven in II Cor. 12, the record of the appearance of Moses and Elijah with Jesus at the Mount of Transfiguration and many other consistent descriptions of a heavenly world. Just as man has mind and body, in the world of Gods creation there is not only the visible substantial world, or physical world, but also the invisible substantial world, or spiritual world. The visible world is where the physical body acts within the limitations of time and space; on the other hand, the invisible world is where the spirit man lives, and it is limitless and eternal. As is implied in Heb. 8:5, (They serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary) the invisible world is the subject to the visible world, which is object. The invisible world is a greater reality than the visible world. Then, how does man relate to these two worlds? In Genesis, it is written that God created man from the earth (Gen. 2:7). This means that mans physical body is made up of such basic elements as the earth, water, air and sunlight of the physical world. When God breathed into man the breath of life, this is when He created mans spirit. In Divine Principle, this is called the spirit man. Thus mans spirit man and physical man are together an encapsulation of the entire cosmos, and man is the mediator and center of harmony of these two different worlds. These two worlds, the spiritual world and physical world, relate to one another through man. The Reciprocal Relationship between the Physical Man and the Spirit Man The relationship of the spirit man to the physical man is like that of fruit and tree: the spirit man grows only on the foundation of the physical man. In other words, the degree of goodness of the spirit man depends upon the quality of life lived on earth in the physical body. Just as a ripened fruit is harvested while the vine returns to the earth, the spirit man, because it was created to live for eternity, remains and lives eternally in the spiritual world, while the body returns to the earth (Ecc. 12:7). The death that afflicted man due to the fall is not physical death but the deterioration of mans spirit. When a man lives his life according to Gods ideal of creation in his physical body, he is living in the veritable Kingdom of Heaven on earth, and the world where this spirit man would go after physical death is the Kingdom of Heaven in the spiritual world. Therefore, Gods primary goal of creation is to realize the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and then in the spiritual world. So the purpose of creation should be fulfilled on earth first. This is why Gods objective is salvation on the earth. And to achieve this, He sent His prophets and the Messiah to this world, in order to make people on earth believe in Him. Thus, the Bible says, . . whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven (Matt. 18:18). God does not determine whether a spirit man goes to the Kingdom of Heaven or to hell. It is man, himself, who determines this through his daily life on earth, and he goes to the place in the spiritual world based on the stage of development that his spirit attained on earth. God, the Messiah, and religion can only teach people how to avoid hell and show how to go on to reach the Kingdom of Heaven. unification.net/dp96/
Posted on: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 12:01:52 +0000
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