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Acts 17
16 While Paul was waiting in Athens, he was upset to see all the idols in the city. 17 He went to the Jewish meeting place to speak to the Jews and to anyone who worshiped with them. Day after day he also spoke to everyone he met in the market. 18 Some of them were Epicureans and some were Stoics, and they started arguing with him.
Jeremiah
50 The Lord told me to say:
Announce what will happen
and don’t leave anything out.
2 Raise the signal flags;
shout so all nations can hear—
Babylon will be captured!
Marduk, Babylon’s god,
will be ashamed and terrified,
and his idols broken.
3 The attack on the Babylonians
will come from the north;
they and their animals will run,
leaving the land empty.
Exposition of the Divine Principle
3 Color Edition-The Red part
The Principle of Creation
Throughout history, people have anguished over the fundamental
questions of human life and the universe without arriving at satisfying
answers. This is because no one has understood the root principle by
which humanity and the universe were originally created. To approach
this topic properly, it is not enough to examine resultant reality. The fundamental question is that of the causal reality. Problems concerning
human life and the universe cannot be solved without first understanding
the nature of God.
THE DUAL CHARACTERISTICS OF GOD
AND THE CREATED UNIVERSE
1.1 THE DUAL CHARACTERISTICS OF GOD
How can we know the divine nature of the invisible God? One way
to fathom His deity is by observing the universe which He created.
As such, each stands in a relationship to God. Just as we can come to know the character of an artist through his works, so we can understand the
nature of God by observing the diverse things of creation.
Let us begin by pointing out the common elements which are found
universally throughout the natural world. Every entity possesses dual
characteristics of yang (masculinity) and yin (femininity) and comes into
existence only when these characteristics have formed reciprocal relationships, both within the entity and between it and other entities.
However, there is another pair of dual characteristics in reciprocal
relationship which are even more fundamental to existence than the dual
characteristics of yang and yin. Every entity possesses both an outer form
and an inner quality. The visible outer form resembles the invisible
inner quality. The inner quality, though invisible, possesses a certain
structure which is manifested visibly in the particular outer form. The
inner quality is called internal nature, and the outer form or shape is
called external form. Since internal nature and external form refer to
corresponding inner and outer aspects of the same entity, the external
form may also be understood as a second internal nature. Therefore, the
internal nature and external form together constitute dual characteristics.
Probing deeper still, we search for the Ultimate Cause which
brought this energy, with its elements of internal nature and external form, into existence. This being would be the First Cause of all
the myriad things in the universe. As the First Cause, it must also possess the dual characteristics of internal nature and external form,
which stand in the position of subject partner to the internal natures
and external forms of all beings. We call this First Cause of the universe God, and we call God’s internal nature and external form the
original internal nature and original external form.
It is only natural to surmise that God, the First Cause of all things, also exists based on the reciprocal relationship between the dual characteristics of yang and yin.
God is the Subject in whom the dual characteristics of
original internal nature and original external form are in harmony. At
the same time, God is the harmonious union of masculinity and femininity, which manifest the qualities of original internal nature and original external form, respectively. In relation to the universe, God is the
subject partner having the qualities of internal nature and masculinity.
View slides 1-25 below to see the above content with illustrations:
2007p1-CHAPT-1-Creation_revised-4-28-2014-red-part