The Ontology of Sun Myung Moon

(Note: This essay represents my personal beliefs and should not be viewed as an official presentation representing Sanctuary Church.)

The belief that Sun Myung Moon is the returning Messiah has been the central tenet in Unification theology. Unificationists have traditionally believed that Rev. Moon was born without original sin, embodied the same heart as Jesus Christ in loving and forgiving his enemies, and fulfilled the original ideal of creation by establishing the position of True Parents. 

However, beginning with the removal of the Eight Great Textbooks by FFWPU in 2013, and the emergence of the“Only Begotten Daughter” theology in the mid-2010s, the core doctrine taught by leaders of FFWPU (now HPHC) has been radically altered. The common base of shared beliefs and traditions which kept us connected as one family has been broken. Our raison d’etre for meeting to discuss “religious matters” is in question because we are no longer united in our understanding of Sun Myung Moon’s essential identity. What can we realistically hope to achieve by discussing the Six Marys, physical salvation, or the meaning of Cheon Il Guk ifwe hold substantially different views about the very person who gave rise to these concepts?

At the Council of Chalcedon in AD451, the church made a foundational ontological declaration known as the hypostatic union, affirming that Jesus Christ is one single person in whom two complete natures—fully divine and fully human—are inseparably united without confusion, change, division, or separation. Jesus isn't 50% God and 50% human, nor is he a blend or mixture that creates something new. He is 100% God(possessing the full divine nature eternally) and 100% human (having taken on a complete human nature in the incarnation)—all in one undivided person.

This “high Christological view”(i.e. emphasizing Jesus’ divine identity) was not a major point of confusion in the early church; initial followers confessed Jesus as Lord andMessiah (e.g. in Paul's letters). Serious debates over the ontology ofJesus—his divine and human nature—began in the 2nd century and intensified through the 5th century.

It is interesting to note that less than twenty years after Reverend Moon’s passing, we are already headlong into the debate regarding his ontological status. Reverend Moon provides the context for understanding the nature of Jesus by comparing him to the originalAdam:

“Adam, had he realized the ideal of perfection symbolized by the tree of life in theGarden of Eden, and Jesus, symbolized by the tree of life in the Book ofRevelation, would be identical in the sense of having realized the goal of creation. As such, they would have equal value.” (Exposition of DivinePrinciple p.166)

In the Exposition of DivinePrinciple, Jesus is described as a man who has completed the purpose of creation, however he is not the Creator Himself. Rev. Moon described Jesus as the first man of perfection ever to walk the earth, and that he came to restore the true relationship between God and man. But, as he clarified in his 1973speech “God’s Hope for Man”: “After Jesus' crucifixion, Christianity made him into God. This is why the gap between God and man has never been bridged. Jesus is a man in whom God is incarnate. But he is not God Himself.” Rev. Moon taught that God does not desire Jesus alone as His son; rather, God wishes for all humanity to proclaim, “I am in the Father, and the Father is in me.” He strongly encouraged us to understand that this represents the attainable destiny of every person,

In his later years, however, Rev.Moon introduced new terminology regarding the ontology of God and Christ: “God of Night “and “God of Day.” Rather than viewing his later teachings as contradictory to his earlier guidance, I believe that he continued to provide deeper clarification regarding the nature of 1^st /2^nd /3^rdAdam as time progressed.

In the diagram below, we see that the “Logos” or the Word (i.e. God’s conceptual thought) is the result of the give and take between God’s Inner Sungsang (Intellect, Emotion and Will) andHis Inner Hyungsang (Principles, Mathematics, Laws, etc.). Rev. Moon called this the “God of Night,” i.e. the invisible God who existed before creation. In the process of creation, the Logos assumed the subjective position of Outer Sungsang, and engaged in give and take with the Outer Hyungsang, also known asUniversal Prime Force.[1]The resultant being is Adam, who Rev. Moon referred to as the “God of Day.”[2]

The Logos fulfills the function of the seed (e.g. Luke 8:11, 1 Peter 1:23, James 1: 18-21). Just as a human male produces the sperm that is poised to become an entire organism, the God ofNight created the Logos (the seed), which was destined to become Adam, the body of God: "God created Adam first. He was to be the son of God and at thesame time the substantial body of God Himself" (SMM 4/17/1996). As descendants of True Adam, we would have naturally inherited his character:"People are all created to become one with God in heart. God as the Fatherand human beings as the children are connected through the heart" (SMM6/7/1972).

Because of Adam’s fall, however,God had to guide humankind through a long course of restoration in order to purify the lineage, culminating in the birth of Jesus, born from God’s sinless seed (Luke 1:34-35, John 1:1-3, 2 Corinthians 5:21). The seed was fulfilled inJesus Christ, in whom the Word of God became fully incarnate.

Classical Christian theology teaches that Jesus existed eternally as the only begotten Son in loving relationship with the Father prior to his incarnation. Through OriginalSubstance of Divine Principle, however, we learn that neither Adam, nor Jesus, nor Sun Myung Moon pre-existed with causal power or agency. Rather, the Logos pre-existed within the God of Night, then was revealed in a seminal form through Adam, who subsequently lost his original value through the Fall. Then,  through an arduous history, the Logos became fully incarnated in two people-Jesus of Nazareth and Sun Myung Moon.

In God’s original plan, only one person was supposed to originate from the God of Night. In all of eternity,Adam was to have been the only person whose actual father was the Creator God.True Adam (with a united Eve)[3] would exist as the substantial body of God, the True Parents of Heaven, Earth, andHumankind. The full lineage of humanity from Adam and Eve would have flow edexclusively from Adam’s seed.

The difference, then, betweenChrist and other human beings is that Christ comes directly from the seed ofHeavenly Father. True Adam is uniquely begotten of God, originating from theFather’s own divine nature. Satan corrupted the first Adam’s seed, resulting in Adam’s descendants bearing his impure image. Therefore, to return to God we need to be reborn through Christ’s lineage. In this way, the line of our descendants can stem from the image of Christ.

Until there is a new Adam, born from a new seed, there can never be full restoration. Although Christians spiritually engraft onto Christ through faith in Christ, Holy Communion and baptism, they are still adopted children who do not have the same blood lineage as God the Father (see Romans 8:15, Ephesians 1:5, Galatians 4:5). Christ had to return once more to provide mankind the means to also physically engraft into God’s lineage: 

"The returning Lord descends to earth to completely fulfill God's providence of restoration, in so far as it remained unfulfilled by Jesus. In other words, he comes as the true original seed that will perfect the ideal of creation, and the ideal of True Parents who are the origin of God's true love, true life, and true lineage." (CheonSeong Gyeong p. 1433)

Rev. Moon taught that the God ofNight wished that after the completion of the first man and woman, He would manifest Himself as the corporeal God of Day in Adam and Eve. By using the completed body of Adam and uniting with Eve (as God’s wife),[4] God strove to become the “horizontal” God who could reproduce Himself in the physical world. The hope of the God of Night is fulfilled when Adam and Eve are completed and become the God of Day.

From a Unificationist perspective, Rev. Moon’s introduction of the God of Night and God of Day teachings can be understood as the completion of the hypostatic union postulate. He reframes the hypostatic union not merely as a metaphysical joining of two natures, but as the full embodiment of the invisible God in the visible created world. In that sense, we can understand that we are not talking about our Creator in a ditheistic manner. A suitable analogy would be to envision God the Creator as the invisible roots of a tree. Adam and a unitedEve are the trunk; they are the first expression of the origin which is hidden underground. All the rest of humankind emerges as infinite subsequent outgrowths: the branches, flowers, and fruit. The branches do not exist separately from the trunk or root; they draw from the same source for sustenance. Because the first “trunk” died through the Fall, we must been grafted into the “trunk” of the Tree of Life and the perfected Tree ofKnowledge of Good and Evil, i.e. the True Parents of Humankind. 

Rev. Moon spoke with candor and transparency regarding his nature:

“When you go to the spirit world, I will be governing everything. It will not be me, however, but God. I am God’s body.” (Cheon Seong Gyeong, p. 937)

“My spirit self can discuss matters with the God ofNight, which is why, through the absolute universe and absolute love, I can know the secret, heavenly world of today and the liberated kingdom of heaven for humankind.” (Excerpt from World Tour speech addition in Incheon, S. Korea, 4/24/2011)

“I am fundamentally different from all of you. Only the God of Night teaches me.” Hoon Dook Hae 6/21/2011

“Where I came from is different than where you come from. I am fundamentally different from you. After I found the secrets of heaven and earth, I have lived accordingly.” “GoingBeyond 13 Summits” 7/9/2012

“The God of Night sleeps, holding me in His chest.When His chest becomes warm holding me, He falls asleep.” “Going Beyond 13 Summits” 7/9/2012

Just as Jesus of Nazareth stands as the ontological fulfillment of the True Adam—the direct representative and descendant manifesting the original divine intent—so too doI affirm that Sun Myung Moon, as the Third Adam and the returning Christ, embodies that same essential reality in substantial form.[5]

Through Rev.Moon’s concluding teachings on the God of Night and the God of Day, it becomes unmistakably clear that he perceived and presented himself as ontologically distinct from the rest of humanity—an existence fundamentally governed by andin direct, substantial union with the God of Night, in a manner unique to his providential role.

Sun Myung Moon, however, was able to complete the mission of Christ by fulfilling the Three Blessings and provide the path for all humankind to receive the Change of Blood Lineage. As the Messiah,Rev. Moon’s mission was to restore what was lost in the Fall. From this perspective, all his relationships were not driven by personal desire, but were part of a larger redemptive pattern that fallen humanity cannot easily perceive.

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[1]Original Substance of the Divine Principle, p. 45. This presentation was given byRev. Jeong Ok Yu, under the guidance and authorization of Rev.Moon.

[2]Adam, the “New Being,” was the apex of God’s creation.

[3]Although the topic of Eve becoming part of the God of Day is vitally important, it is beyond the scope of this short essay. It should be noted that Sun Myung Moon always taught that men and women are absolutely equal in value.

[4] “Eve was born as a princess and also as God’s future object partner. God wanted to make her His partner in love, that is, His wife.” SMM, Blessing and the Ideal Family, Volume I, p.437.

[5]Although Jesus of Nazareth and Sun Myung Moon are two individuals who lived two thousand years apart, they are one in that they share the same Logos.