Christology
Christology
- Issues which fall within its scope include the Trinity, which deals with the relationship between God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
- As well as rebirth and the relationship between Jesus, the Holy Spirit and fallen people.
- Until today, the controversies surrounding these issues have never been clearly settled.
- Consequently, considerable confusion remains in Christian doctrine and ways of faith.
- The key in approaching these matters is to understand the original value of human beings.
- The relationship between God and a perfected person may be compared to that between the dual characteristics of a person, that is, between mind and body.
- Just as there is inseparable oneness between the mind and body of a true person centered on God.
- There is inseparable oneness between God and a true person who together form a four position foundation.
- In that union, the person experiences the Heart of God as his own reality.
- Having a fully mature character, such a person is a temple of God, in whom God can dwell continually.
- And comes to possess a divine nature.
- Jesus spoke of this state of perfection, saying “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48).
- Thus, we see that a person who has realized the purpose of creation assumes a divine value, comparable to God.
- Second, let us consider the value of a human being from the perspective of the purpose for which he was created.
- God created human beings for the purpose of sharing joy with them.
- Every human being possesses a unique individual character.
- No matter how many billions of people are born on the earth, no two will ever have exactly the same personality.
- Each person is God’s substantial object partner who manifests a distinctive aspect of God’s dual characteristics.
- Hence, that person is the only one in the entire universe who can stimulate that distinctive aspect of God’s nature to bring Him joy.
- Every person who has completed the purpose of creation is thus a unique existence in the cosmos.
- We can thus affirm the truth in the Buddha’s saying, “In heaven and on earth, I alone am the honored one.”.
- Third, let us consider the value of a human being based on his relationship with the universe.
- A person who has completed the purpose of creation can govern the entire universe.
- With human beings acting as mediators, the two worlds enter into a reciprocal relationship.
- A person who has completed the purpose of creation thus encapsulates all the essences of everything in the cosmos.
- This is why a human being is called a microcosm of the universe.
- For these reasons, a human being has the value of the entire cosmos.
- Human history is the history of the providence of restoration.
- Its goal is the realization of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth when, at the end of history, the tree of life which was lost in the Garden of Eden will be regained.
- Had Adam fully realized the ideal of creation, he would have become the tree of life and likewise all his descendants would have become trees of life.
- However, Adam’s fall frustrated God’s Will, and ever since, fallen humankind has hoped to be restored as trees of life.
- Since a fallen person can never fully restore himself as a tree of life by his own efforts, a man who has completed the ideal of creation must come as the tree of life and engraft all people with himself.
- Jesus is this tree of life portrayed in the Bible.
- Adam, had he realized the ideal of perfection symbolized by the tree of life in the Garden of Eden, and Jesus, symbolized by the tree of life in the Book of Revelation, would be identical in the sense of having realized the goal of creation.
- As such, they would have equal value.
- Adam, had he realized the ideal of perfection symbolized by the tree of life in the Garden of Eden.
- And Jesus, symbolized by the tree of life in the Book of Revelation, would be identical in the sense of having realized the goal of creation.
- As such, they would have equal value.
- A fully mature person is perfect as God is perfect. Having the same divine nature as God, he is infinitely precious.
- He is unique in all the cosmos.
- Furthermore, he possesses the value of the cosmos.
- There is no greater value than that of a person who has realized the ideal of creation.
- This is the value of Jesus, who surely attained the highest imaginable value.
- When Philip asked Jesus to show him God, Jesus said, “He who has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me?” (John 14:9-10).
- It is written of Jesus, “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not” (John 1:10).
- Jesus also said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58).
- Based on these biblical verses, many Christians have believed that Jesus is God, the Creator.
- Jesus may well be called God because, as a man who has realized the purpose of creation and who lives in oneness with God, he has a divine nature. Nevertheless, he is not God Himself.
- The relationship between God and Jesus may be thought of as analogous to the relationship between the mind and body.
- Because the body is the substantial object partner to the mind, resembles the mind and acts in oneness with the mind, it may be understood to be the mind’s second self; but it is not the mind itself.
- By analogy, since Jesus is one with God and the incarnation of God, he may be understood to be God’s second self; but he is not God.
- It is true that he who has seen Jesus may be said to have seen God (John 14:9-10), but Jesus did not mean by saying this that he was God Himself.
- The Bible refers to Jesus as the Word made flesh (John 1:14). This verse means that Jesus is the incarnation of the Word; that is, a man in whom the Word comes alive.
- We read that all things were made through the Word, and further, that the world was made through Jesus (John 1:3, 10). Hence, Jesus may be said to be the creator.
- A fully mature person and resonate in harmony around him. In this sense, it can be said that the universe is created through a perfect human being.
- Furthermore, God intended that human beings be the creators and lords of the natural world by endowing them with the character and powers of the Creator.
- These are to be realized once they reach perfection through the fulfillment of their responsibility.
- Seen from this perspective, these verses are in agreement with our understanding of Jesus as the man who has completed the purpose of creation; they do not signify that Jesus is the Creator Himself.
- Because Jesus came with the full value of a true person who has completed the purpose of creation.
- Jesus, having no original sin, had no condition in himself for Satan to invade him.
- Jesus thoroughly understood the Will and Heart of God thoroughly.
- He also experienced God’s Heart as his own reality in his daily life.
- A fallen person has nothing of the value of a true person who has completed the purpose of creation.
- Rather, he has fallen to such a lowly status that he looks up to the angels, who were created to be his subordinates.
- A fallen person with original sin is stained with the condition through which Satan can attack him.
- A fallen person cannot fathom the Will and Heart of God. At most, he can catch only a glimpse of them.
- A fallen person has virtually none of his original value as long as he remains in the fallen state.
- If, however, he were to be reborn spiritually and physically through Jesus, the True Parent.
- And become his good child cleansed of the original sin.
- He would be restored as a true person who has perfected the purpose of creation, like Jesus Christ himself.
- Jesus said, “... unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).
- Rebirth means to be born a second time. Why must fallen people be born anew?
- Had Adam and Eve realized the ideal of creation and become the True Parents of humanity, they would have borne good children without original sin and formed the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
- However, Adam and Eve fell and became evil parents, multiplying evil children who created this hell on earth.
- Hence, fallen people must be born anew – as children without original sin.
- We cannot be born without parents.
- Parents who have original sin cannot give birth to good children who do not have original sin. Certainly, it is impossible to find sinless parents among fallen humankind.
- These parents must descend from Heaven. Jesus was the Parent who came from Heaven.
- He came as the True Father in order to give rebirth to fallen people, transforming them into good children, thoroughly cleansed of original sin and fit to build the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
- However, a father alone cannot give birth to children.
- There must be a True Mother, as well as a True Father, for fallen children to be reborn as good children.
- The Holy Spirit came as the True Mother.
- This is why Jesus told Nicodemus that no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless he is born anew through the Holy Spirit (John 3:5).
- Logos is Greek for “rational principle” or “the Word.”.
- The Bible indicates that the Logos is an object partner to God (John 1:1), engaged in a reciprocal relationship with Him.
- Since God, the subject partner of the Logos, exists with dual characteristics, the Logos as His object partner should also be composed of dual characteristics.
- Adam and Eve, the embodied object partners of God in image, were created separately out of the dual characteristics of the Logos.
- Had Adam as a man realized the ideal of creation and become the tree of life.
- And had Eve as a woman realized the ideal of creation and fulfilled the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
- They would have stood together as the True Parents of humankind.
- They would have fulfilled God’s three great blessings and established the Kingdom of God on earth.
- Instead, because they fell, this world became an earthly hell.
- Therefore, to give rebirth to fallen people, Jesus came as the second Adam, the True Father of humankind, with the mission symbolized by the tree of life.
- This being the case, should not there also have come the True Mother of humankind, the second Eve with the mission symbolized by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?
- The one who has come as the True Mother to give rebirth to fallen people is the Holy Spirit.
- When we believe in Jesus as the Savior.
- Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
- We receive the love of the spiritual True Parents, which is generated through the give and take between Jesus, the spiritual True Father, and the Holy Spirit, the spiritual True Mother.
- Through this love, new life is infused into us.
- And our spirits are reborn as new selves.
- This is spiritual rebirth.
- To fulfill the purpose of creation, Jesus and the Holy Spirit stand before God as object partners who separately manifest the dual characteristics of God.
- They unite through give and take with each other with God as the center and form the four position foundation.
- God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit thus become one, and this oneness constitutes the Trinity.
- If Adam and Eve had not fallen, but had formed this trinity with God and become the True Parents who could multiply good children.
- Instead, when Adam and Eve fell, they formed a four position foundation with Satan as their center.
- In other words, they formed a fallen trinity with Satan.
- Their descendants likewise have continued to form trinities with Satan, and so built a corrupt and immoral society.
- Jesus and the Holy Spirit in oneness with God could form only a spiritual trinity. They could fulfill only the mission of spiritual True Parents.
- Thus, Jesus and the Holy Spirit have been giving spiritual rebirth to people of faith as their spiritual children, restoring them to spiritual trinities.
- Christ must return in the flesh and find his Bride.
- They will form on the earth a perfect trinity with God and become True Parents both spiritually and physically.
- They will give fallen people rebirth both spiritually and physically, removing their original sin and enabling them to build trinities on earth with God as the center.
- When fallen people are restored to the point where they can establish true four position foundations centered on God.
- They will finally be able to build the Kingdom of Heaven on earth where God’s three great blessings are fulfilled.