DIVINE PRINCIPLE (The Principle of Creation) Then, let us consider the process of Gods creation. It is recorded in the first chapter of Genesis how God created all things. He commenced with the creation of light out of chaos, void and darkness and took a period of six days to come to the creation of man. But as it is said in II Peter 3:8, . . with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. From this we can understand that these days were not actual 24-hour days. The universe did not suddenly come into being without a lapse of time, but rather it was created through six gradual periods. This means that for each creation to mature, there was a period of growth necessary. If things do not need time to mature, then time would not have been necessary in the original creation of all things. If the morning mentioned in Genesis stands for perfection, then the evening must signify the beginning point of creation while the night must represent the period of growth necessary for a creation to be perfected. The fall of man as well implies that there was a period of growth necessary for man. If man had been created perfect, there would have been no possibility for man to fall, because a perfect God would not create anything perfect that was also flawed. If He did we would doubt His omnipotence. Man, just before falling, was still growing towards perfection and was in the position to choose either the way of death or the way of life. God could not have intended for man to remain in imperfection, for His ideal was to have him attain perfection (Matt. 5:48, Gen. 1:27). Therefore, it can be concluded that man fell while still in the process of growth, or in other words, while still imperfect. Had man gone through the period of growth and become perfect, he would have been dominated directly by Gods love, and such a perfected man, in turn, would have directly dominated all things through love. Therefore, the realm of the direct dominion of God, or the dominion of love, is where the ideal of creation is realized. Then, how does God guide man and all things that are still in the growth period? Because they are still in the growth period, He cannot relate to them directly. Instead, God relates to them indirectly through the Divine Principle, or the order of creation; hence, the period of growth is called the indirect dominion of God. God exists as the author of the Principle, dealing directly only with the results of the growth of the creation in accordance with the Principle. Just as God created through the stages of evening, night and morning, so the growth period of all things is divided into three orderly stages-formation, growth and perfection. All things are automatically guided through the growth stage by the power of the Principle itself, but man was created to grow spiritually by observing Gods commandment. In addition to growing physically through the autonomy of the Principle, man must accomplish his own portion of responsibility in order to grow spiritually. When in Gen. 2:17 God says, In the day that you eat of it you shall die, we can understand that man was to grow to attain perfection by observing Gods commandment not to eat of the fruit. To trust in and obey Gods commandment or to fall, depended not on God, but entirely on man, himself. Seeing the result of mans failure to fulfill his own portion of responsibility, we might well ask why God gave this portion of responsibility to man. In sum, it was to qualify man to be lord over all creation. The true right of dominion belongs only to the one who has created. Yet, God told man, who is a created being, to dominate all things (Gen. 1:28). So God had to have man inherit Gods creatorship. Though it is just a small portion of responsibility, man is not perfected by Gods Principle and power alone. Even though man is created by God, by mans fulfilling his own portion of responsibility to perfect himself, God can bestow upon man the qualification of being co-creator. This portion of responsibility is not only a duty, but a precious gift from God. By failing to accomplish his own precious portion of responsibility, man fell. In order to save such a man who could not reach perfection on his own, God had to undertake the dispensation of the re-creation of man. And just as in the course of the original creation, mans portion of responsibility is inevitably the essential factor in the dispensation of re-creation (John 3:16, Matt. 7:7, Matt. 7:21). unification.net/dp96/
Posted on: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 11:36:09 +0000